The Tennis Thread - Part 2

[Sakuraba]

Federer is in trouble here. Set apiece, he is having zero success returning against Stakhovsky's serve, first or second.

 

[Sakuraba]

Stakhovsky has amazing hands at net.

 

[Sakuraba]

Stakhovsky is up two sets to one. He's kicking Federer's ass with serve and volley!

 

[Sakuraba]

Stakhovsky erases a set point and forces the tiebreak in about 45 seconds with three sublime volleys

 

[Sakuraba]

Stakhovsky up 4-2 in the breaker, and he doesn't look tight at all

 

[Sakuraba]

STAKHOVSKY WINS

You know it was about ten days ago that Federer double-bageled a serve and volleyer in Halle and said the practice was dead.

Well, Roge, you just got serve and volleyed right off Centre Court. Quarterfinal streak over.

 

[CK17]

Federer's 36 QF streak is done, hard to believe.

 

[Musty002]

Murray is loving this A LOT! lol The most shocking day in williby history

 

[chamber-music]

The big guns are dropping all over the place.

Looks like it may be Novak Djokovic title for the taking but with the way things have been going who knows.

 

[Bim]

The big guns are dropping all over the place.

Looks like it may be Novak Djokovic title for the taking but with the way things have been going who knows.

Novak and Andy have the doors wide open to get to the final at least. Let's see if there's no more surprises.

Still haven't seen the match yet, but I'm headed home now.

I guess it kinda goes back to what Bim was saying about Nadal on grass. We've kind of lost sight of the fact that his phenomenal comeback results have take place entirely on clay and Indian Wells, which has some of the slowest hardcourts around. Nadal is a frighteningly bad 2-3 the past two years on grass. The temptation is to say that Nadal just ran into someone with a hot hand two years in a row. These lowly players can be hot for minute but then the Champion makes an adjustment or two, digs in, and wins.

I'm not prepared to say Nadal is injured or limited, but there's been this notion that he can play as much as he likes on clay and it doesn't hurt his knees. It's true that clay is an easier surface on your joints than asphault, but Nadal plays more matches than anyone during the clay season, and a million long rallies.

The thing that I'll be watching for is Nadal, in his efforts to fend off Djokovic to remain the dominant force in clay court tennis, hasn't fallen back into some clay court specialist mentalities, habits that he's having a difficult time breaking in the turnaround on grass. He's still playing like he has time to make up space and run around his backhand consistently, and the grass takes that time away. The points are dynamic and short, and Nadal doesn't seem fit for that type of game playing well beyond the baseline. He's got spacing issues.

Also, what happened to his big first serve? He was consistently serving in the 120s and over 130 against Rosol last year, today he was serving in the 110 range.

I honestly just think that obviously clay is more natural for him, but the transition into grass after being out for so long just wasnt gonna be as easy. We're so used to seeing come back and make it look effortless, it's not difficult getting spoiled lol. I didnt expect him to go out in round 1 though, but i never expected him to get too far. Call it intuition or whatever, i just had that feeling.

I was in shock seeing Roger lose though. I wasnt expecting that one at all, specially in Wimbledon. Could this be the start of Roger bowing out?

 

[Frico]

STAKHOVSKY WINS

You know it was about ten days ago that Federer double-bageled a serve and volleyer in Halle and said the practice was dead.

Well, Roge, you just got serve and volleyed right off Centre Court. Quarterfinal streak over.

So true.

I've been away these last few days and haven't had the greatest source of internet but obviously managed to keep up to speed with all the Wimby results. Wednesday was officially dubbed "black Wednesday" and it was. Tough with all the withdraws/injuries and of course Fed going out. Someone is going to have a good run.

Really happy to see Janowicz into the round of 16 after a dominant match against Almagro. The majority of tennis fans who've been keeping a close eye on him already figured he'd be a danger on grass and it showed today.

Dimtrov losing to Zemlja? Clearly disappointed by that...I didn't see the match and I know Zemlja took out Tipseravic once when he was in the top 10 but I feel like Grigor shouldn't be losing matches against guys like Zemlja who pretty much hasn't done anything impressive.

Looking forward to Gasquet vs Tomic tomorrow. Tomic is finding his form again which is nice to see and I hope he keeps it up for the young guns. The men's side needs more of that as the women are having a lot of promising young talent making their names known. Robson looked great today despite the double faults.




the match but I know Zemlja took out Tipseravic

 

[Sakuraba]

Well, this is probably Gasquet's best chance to make a championship run. He's worked hard and put together good results to be back in the top 10, and now is his time to win some matches that he can win, then hope Djokovic is upset along the way, and Berdych is a guy he can beat, especially on grass.

I hope Dolgopolov can pull off his biggest win ever and send Ferrer packing, not a great match up for him, but it's an opportunity.

Tough draw for Djokovic, Chardy is crafty and then maybe Tommy Haas again? This isn't exactly the ideal first four rounds for a 1 seed.

I thought Almagro would be fired up for the second set after Janowicz sent a ball at his head, but it didn't really matter how mad Almagro got, wasn't going to save him today.

I'd really love to see ERNESTS make quarters, just so he can bludgeon the ball and scare the crap out of Andy Murray for a set or two.

Dimitrov has officially played his way off the players to watch list. I have to ask, again, why does Maria Sharapova dress like a bag lady off the court? She looked like John Rambo up on Dimitrov's box.

 

[Frico]

Incredibly close match between Tomic/Gasquet with Tomic going over. His forehand and serve is money on grass and it's where he's had his best result. He'll play Berdych next who's one of the hardest/purest ball striker's today, so another challenge for him. Regardless a good run for Tomic which I'm happy to see considering all he's been through.

Didn't see Paire losing so quickly and easily.

Robson looked to be on the brink of loss but glad she managed to turn the entire match around and head into the second week. Love her personality. And legs.

Surprise of the day is Gulbis going out to Verdasco. Verdasco is obviously a former top 10er so we know what he can be capable of and looks to be finding his form again after some really poor losses which caused his ranking to dip. Just wanted to see Gulbis do well though...

 

[Hamill-Joker]

Robson looked to be on the brink of loss but glad she managed to turn the entire match around and head into the second week. Love her personality. And legs.

at the British crowd cheering her opponent's double faults.

 

[Frico]

I'll be biased and say I didn't mind it as much as I really wanted to see Robson move on. Sides, on home turf that's more than likely always going to happen. But Erakovic really was the better player up until she couldn't close it out in the second.

Ferrer up 5-2 quickly against Dolgopolov. Would love to see Dolgopolov win here but you have to figure The Beast will beat The Dog.

 

[Frico]

Wow, 5 all now.

Also Lopez and Haas a set a piece.

 

[Frico]

First set to the Dog! Lovely comeback.

 

[Kaleb]

So true.

I've been away these last few days and haven't had the greatest source of internet but obviously managed to keep up to speed with all the Wimby results. Wednesday was officially dubbed "black Wednesday" and it was. Tough with all the withdraws/injuries and of course Fed going out. Someone is going to have a good run.

Really happy to see Janowicz into the round of 16 after a dominant match against Almagro. The majority of tennis fans who've been keeping a close eye on him already figured he'd be a danger on grass and it showed today.

Dimtrov losing to Zemlja? Clearly disappointed by that...I didn't see the match and I know Zemlja took out Tipseravic once when he was in the top 10 but I feel like Grigor shouldn't be losing matches against guys like Zemlja who pretty much hasn't done anything impressive.

Looking forward to Gasquet vs Tomic tomorrow. Tomic is finding his form again which is nice to see and I hope he keeps it up for the young guns. The men's side needs more of that as the women are having a lot of promising young talent making their names known. Robson looked great today despite the double faults.




the match but I know Zemlja took out Tipseravic

I came here to get your opinion on him, Im really liking what Ive been seeing from him lately ,I got to say he is dark horse pick to make it to the final.

 

[Sakuraba]

Chris Evert is a fantastic analyst. Serena Williams lost today because she was nervous. It had nothing to do with Sabine Lisicki.

 

[Frico]

I came here to get your opinion on him, Im really liking what Ive been seeing from him lately ,I got to say he is dark horse pick to make it to the final.

He's definitely my dark horse choice as well. At first I was giving the edge a little bit to Melzer in their match as he's a solid returner, gets a lot of balls back and is a good finisher up at net. Much like Ferrer when he beat Jerzy last year in Paris during his run to the final in the 1000 event and that was on a hard court. Those kind of players can really drive Janowicz nuts as he likes the flat shots and doesn't want to see the ball coming back.

But I'm thrilled he didn't implode and stayed focused in the fifth to pull out the win. When the draw first came out many picked Janowicz to do some serious damage on the grass. His game on this surface is like a perfect match. I love his booming serve, use of the dropshot and his ground game when his timing isn't off.

Chris Evert is a fantastic analyst. Serena Williams lost today because she was nervous. It had nothing to do with Sabine Lisicki.

Yeah I heard that. So stupid. A champion the caliber of Serena would be nervous of Lisicki? Really? She showed no signs of nerves. Lisicki is a good grass court player, served brilliantly and fought hard. She's beaten champions before. I love how she smiles whether losing or winning. Keeping that positive vibe flowing at all times is a good sign in a player.

This is exciting though. A new champion is going to be crowned.

 

[Frico]

Serena just said it best. This isn't a shock loss. She knew going into it that Lisicki had a good record on grass. She knew it wouldn't be easy as Lisicki's serve is a huge weapon as well.

 

[Sakuraba]

I guess it's that time for me to say Serena hasn't won 3 Slams in a calendar year since 2002, the only time she did it, and she's been playing against historically weak competition the past six seasons. It's no wonder her career resurgence occurred right around the time when several good to great players retired, got knocked up, got washed up, got injured, or forgot how to do a ball toss. And I love Serena. She's the only intriguing character left amongst top players. But she isn't the best player ever. She's had a major opportunity to put together an amazing portfolio the past five years, but it hasn't materialized. She's lost 3 matches this year, two of them at Slams. In today's world, it's the Slams that count. The W/L record, the titles, all of the other stuff is just garnish on the plate of Slams, and she doesn't have the tournament to tournament consistency of the women she's being compared to.

This has been awesome to see all of the upsets. As good as seeing Djokovic-Federer-Nadal-Murray play each other in five-setters, that Big Four incest was all beginning to get a little stale. The first week of Slams was terribly uninteresting except for a few novelty matches. The only thing is that I wish Murray would have the opportunity to face Nadal again at SW19. I think he's owed a rererematch now that he doesn't push his forehand and roll his first serve in.

 

[Sakuraba]

Serena just said it best. This isn't a shock loss. She knew going into it that Lisicki had a good record on grass. She knew it wouldn't be easy as Lisicki's serve is a huge weapon as well.

She's the only press conference that I won't get upset about having in a little box on the screen while a fairly decent match is on.

 

[Sakuraba]

Murray's celebration there at the end of the 2nd set tiebreak were Lleyton Hewitt levels of a-holeism. I know he fought back there in both the set and tiebreak, but dude, come on. Calm down and show some respect to Youzhny.

 

[Sakuraba]

I felt bad for Youzi and Haas today. Murray and Djokovic were at their defensive best. How many times were they on the ropes, getting impossible gets, then Youzhny or Haas hits a shot at a seemingly unreachable angle only to find out time and again that Muzz and Djoker are at their finest when hitting angles, especially Murray. As much as Murray has improved at generating his own offense, he's still sublime off the corners.