ATP MASTERS 1000 Indian Wells: Let The Party Commence!

First topic message reminder :

At last!

Tennis is back in town. And sleepless nights, and bags under the eyes in the mornings.

For a fortnight or so, we'll forget about fast courts and GOATs and watch some good tennis for a change.

Indian Wells first 1000 Masters event of the year, first "big" tournament after AO.

All players are there, fit and raring to go, the "come-backers": Davydenko, Querrey, Simon, the "newcomers": Tomic (I think he's already out), Raonic, Dolgopolov, and last , but not the least the "big" 4.

I'm sure you'll forgive me for focusing on the top 4 players, because at the moment, they all seem be pretty keen to win this tournament (which is not always the case when it comes to non-slam tournaments).

Nole, who loves slow hard-courts of IW, will want to continue where he stopped in Melbourne, and should he bump into Murray in the semis, show him who's the boss.

Nadal, match-free for nearly 6 weeks, must've worked on his game or serve in the meantime, 2012 is his make or break season in many ways, and it's usually this time of the year he gets going as a warm-up for clay season.

Federer, on a good winning streak since last autumn (lost only two matches, one to Nadal one to Djokovic), will want to get a good result and possibly close the points gap between him and Nadal, or at least keep Murray at bay.

Murray, with, I believe Lendl again by his side, must be hoping that this 2012 is his slam-break-through year: he has been working very hard for several years and generally improving his game and shots. His win over Novak in Dubai must have boosted his confidence immensely, still, he failed to capitalise on it and win Dubai, failing to Federer.
He has few points to defend in IW and Miami, and a great opportunity to move up the rankings.

The players have had a party last night, and all seem to be happy to be there and play.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv8T10SOE

Indian Wells has apparently continued to improve their facilities and make life nicer both for players and fans :

( http://blogs.tennis.com/thewrap/2012/03/nice-work-if-i-can-get-it.html )

In today's order of play, we have some interesting matches, and Novak and Murray out on central court.

Order of play for Friday, 16th of March:

http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2012/404/op.pdf



So, let's enjoy the return of tennis and may the Best win

Finally, last but not the least:

GO NOLEEEEE

Josiah Maiestas wrote:Looking forward to Simon Wawrinka match the most. I hope Ebden takes advantage of the poor form Mardy Fish is in he could potentially be a more solid player for Australia than the police dodger Tomic. Knowing the immoral bad karma of tennis these days it would not surprise me if Ebden and Wawrinka have caught the bug.

me too, should be a good one.

noleisthebest wrote:ORDER OF PLAY FOR TODAY

http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2012/404/op.pdf

No macth are appealing to me today though.

It's going to be a cake walk to the final for Djoko. After Murray loss....there is absolutely no-one who can give him a run for his money.

I have to agree. All the best matches are in the lower half.

Is it me only who gets that big large empty header on the 606v2 pages?

I think its the barrington ads messing up.

Nole time!

GO NOLEEEEEEEE

Nole not enjoying the cooking conditions....

utterly depressing to see so many ball kids having massive fat gut

Simon serves for the match and gets broken! Lov him when he's upset

Nole nails the first set 6:0
over to Stan Simon to see if Simon can serve it out THIS time

And Gigou does it 6:4 6:4

noleisthebest wrote:utterly depressing to see so many ball kids having massive fat gut

As PC as ever!

Novak v Anderson 2 all in second set - well it is probably 3-2 as I type because can't get near TV atm

It's either very slow or Djoko is crazy fast. Nole can retrieve anything Anderson sends at him.

It must be so depressing.

Djoko Nadal on those courts without wind...62 61 Djoko.

Just in case I haven't said this recently:

I LOVE watching Nole move, he's a pure cat on the prowl! The sheer focus in those eyes...

And NOle gets the job done 6:2 6:3. Nole

Andujar next.

Nole

I was impressed, if not depressed, by Nole's clinical performance.

Tenez wrote:I was impressed, if not depressed, by Nole's clinical performance.

Me, too.
Much as I'd love to see Bird trounce Roddick and Roddick chuck a few cry-baby tantrums, I'm a bit tired so good night all and "see" you tomorrow

I am relieved to hear you say that it was clinical Tenez - ESPN did not find it a convincing performance:

http://www.espn.co.uk/tennis/sport/story/140694.html

His returning, moving and consistency was really impressive. He is playing like a number one.

Johnny Isner plays like a warrior these days when he's got the legs flowing. Now a good opportunity to make quarters when he beats Ebden!

Byebyebyebyebyebye Fishanker

Almagro is a highly ranked choker who will never again be on my betting accumulator. Makes me steam.

Those courts are pretty slow. Harrison a relatively agressive player won the key game v G-Lopez by turning into a defender and waiting for his opponent to go for too much.

No-one was watching ..over 1am there. Absurd.

These are ITF2 Plexipave courts, no-one should be surprised they're slower. They're a grade down from the AO courts.
They are literally designed to be slower than other HCs types and add to the variety of HCs at least although I'd rather just see a longer clay season, or have these before the AO as build up but speed ITF4. The sad news is that other events this year have signed up to becoming ITF2 courts.....great, just what the game needs, even more slow courts.

Yep - It does look quicker during the day but as said when Anderson's serve is no weapon, then we know there is something wrong with the pace.

I guess that's why Murray lost as he coudl not adapt from the huge change. Though it's easier to adapt from fast to slow than the other way around...well fro me anyway...but I suggest for most.

Agree with Murray, think the move to slow for him sometimes exposes some of his technical flaws on FH and serve, and that eats at his confidence. Don't think he put enough hours on court in practice in transitioning to slow prior to IW.
Guess we just have to accept that IW in its present guise is never going to be servers paradise, unfortunately for him Anderson was born 15 years too late!

Good for young Harrison to beat GGL again - through to meet Simon.

thanks for the update on Novak, Tenez - very frustrating when unable to watch!

time please wrote:Good for young Harrison to beat GGL again - through to meet Simon.

thanks for the update on Novak, Tenez - very frustrating when unable to watch!

Your welcome. Though on that occasion it was frustrating to watch too.

We coudl have had a closer match but without his weapon Anderson was easy meat.

Yes everyone's descriptions of the very slow conditions sound as if it is very frustrating (that word again - brain not v active yet, more coffee needed!) for some players.

time please wrote:I am relieved to hear you say that it was clinical Tenez - ESPN did not find it a convincing performance:

http://www.espn.co.uk/tennis/sport/story/140694.html

Yank propaganda. Nothing new.

lydian wrote:These are ITF2 Plexipave courts, no-one should be surprised they're slower. They're a grade down from the AO courts.
They are literally designed to be slower than other HCs types and add to the variety of HCs at least although I'd rather just see a longer clay season, or have these before the AO as build up but speed ITF4. The sad news is that other events this year have signed up to becoming ITF2 courts.....great, just what the game needs, even more slow courts.

I must say I'm a bit disappointed with the moan about slow courts and comparing them to clay.

I'll refrain this time from expressing my exact thoughts ( ) but to compare IW courts to clay is nothing short of staggering.

Those courts are the same as they were 10 years ago and nobody was moaning then. The fact that there is a fast new player on the scene, exceptionally athletically talented who can cover it better than anyone shows that people are still living in the cuckooland of Fedal era refusing to wake up and smell the coffee....

I can't complain, though, enjoying every minute

On a more positive note, for those who will bother to watch tennis on those deplorable slow courts of IW in 2012, here's today's order of play, packed with great matches:

http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2012/404/op.pdf

For those who prefer to live in the past :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBKBCoRLTnQ

Tenez wrote:

time please wrote:Good for young Harrison to beat GGL again - through to meet Simon.

thanks for the update on Novak, Tenez - very frustrating when unable to watch!

Your welcome. Though on that occasion it was frustrating to watch too.

We coudl have had a closer match but without his weapon Anderson was easy meat.

So no hope for Raonic then today...

Certainly this is going to help Federer.

NITB - who is moaning as such? The IW court is what the court is...slow. And we dont want many more really slow HCs for sure - not good for the game or the players.
IW has always been slow, and its Plexipave is a surface that's developed over the years into 2 variants now...one type at AO, and one type at IW which is slower - classed as ITF-2 "medium-slow".

Not only is the surface slow but it also has a very gritty texture which tends to chew the ball up quickly making clean winners off the ground more difficult. The plexipave ITF-2 surface was put at IW on purpose as a very slow surface to compensate for the lower humidity and high altitude of the surrounding area - the gritty surface makes the ball stick a lot too, and they use Penn balls. Guys with good kick serves and slices can use that to their advantage at IW. Infact guys like Nadal, Agassi, Hewitt and now Djokovic have excellent records here so it suits baseliners obviously. Andy Roddick said of IW "The court is almost comparable to a piece of sandpaper, so the balls check up".

As a relative measure of speed, IW was ranked way down in 40th place for service points won in 2009 [62.8%]. Commentator and ex-player Leif Shiras said in 2009 - "Indian Wells is the slowest court I've ever seen, it's slower than the French Open". So even ex-pros are comparing it to clay....not just forum members. It doesnt make it a bad tournament, its just a fair bit slower than some other surfaces - but its a surface all the guys can have a go at for sure...at the end of the day it doesnt play like clay even if its as slow as FO, speed and playability are completely different things.

I am pretty sure that teh French with Babolat balls is faster. If you have fast balls it makes a huge difference to the pace of the court. Clay or not clay is irrelevant.

There's always an element of uncertainty, whether big or small, about any match where the opponents have never previously met.

I doubt there's much that Raonic + coach don't know about Roger Federer (er....other than what it feels like to actually face him across the net ) but Fed will know little of Raonic, even though he obviously does his homework, just like any pro.

All the basics point to a comfortable Federer win. 72 career titles versus 3 says it all. Just one solitary defeat in 35 tour matches over the past six months, and it took Rafa to stop him.

But Raonic is on a roll of his own. Having beaten two top tenners already this year, the next step on the climb is to claim a really big scalp. Over the years, talented young rookies have caused upsets many times, that's precisely how they move up. I defy anyone to claim they predicted an unseeded Johnny Mac would make the Wimbledon semis.

Fed's impressive run will be interrupted again at some point - and IMO most likely here in IW, given the depth of the field. But it could also come sooner rather than later - not necessarily at the hands of someone as prestigious as Rafa.

With the huge gulf in ability and experience Raonic knows as well as anyone who the favourite is in this match. But the odds can be upset.

It could happen tonight...... (cue the scary music ....... )

It could lags72, just not sure this is the surface for Raonic to break through on against the top 4...if he does then its even more power to his elbow given this surface should really suit Fed more than Raonic given his baseline prowess.

I guess you're probably right lydian.

I'm not predicting a Raonic win, but looking at tonight's schedule this is the match that intrigues me, the one I'd most like to see if I were fortunate enough to be out in sunny California right now : a first-ever clash between a rising player (my fingers very nearly typed 'star' there, but just a tad premature, methinks....!) and a tour veteran with zero to prove records-wise, but keen to show he can still cut it against all the young guns

And if Raonic does make it ......well you heard it here first .....

It is a great match to wacth no doubt, I think Milos is the leading young player at the moment and will be a test for Federer no doubt, but he's still developing and his movement/footwork, BH and core strength still needs to improve. And Fed is on a great run of form too...
That said, alot will depend on the wind too as Fed hates playing in wind and IW is well known for being windy at times. Great match in prospect agreed, and you can have all the kudos if Raonic pulls this one out of the bag!

I think Delpo - Vedasco is going to be spectacular today, great battle of the forehands.

Fed - Raonic: difficult to see a surprise there, I don't see how Raonic can challenge the Fed's serve and his only real chance is to grab a win at the tie-break.

lydian wrote:NITB - who is moaning as such? The IW court is what the court is...slow. And we dont want many more really slow HCs for sure - not good for the game or the players.
IW has always been slow, and its Plexipave is a surface that's developed over the years into 2 variants now...one type at AO, and one type at IW which is slower - classed as ITF-2 "medium-slow".

Not only is the surface slow but it also has a very gritty texture which tends to chew the ball up quickly making clean winners off the ground more difficult. The plexipave ITF-2 surface was put at IW on purpose as a very slow surface to compensate for the lower humidity and high altitude of the surrounding area - the gritty surface makes the ball stick a lot too, and they use Penn balls. Guys with good kick serves and slices can use that to their advantage at IW. Infact guys like Nadal, Agassi, Hewitt and now Djokovic have excellent records here so it suits baseliners obviously. Andy Roddick said of IW "The court is almost comparable to a piece of sandpaper, so the balls check up".

As a relative measure of speed, IW was ranked way down in 40th place for service points won in 2009 [62.8%]. Commentator and ex-player Leif Shiras said in 2009 - "Indian Wells is the slowest court I've ever seen, it's slower than the French Open". So even ex-pros are comparing it to clay....not just forum members. It doesnt make it a bad tournament, its just a fair bit slower than some other surfaces - but its a surface all the guys can have a go at for sure...at the end of the day it doesnt play like clay even if its as slow as FO, speed and playability are completely different things.

It has been like that for years, so why complain now? I can only think of one reason.

Yes I know!!!!
Just who is complaining here?

lydian wrote:Yes I know!!!!
Just who is complaining here?

I'm not

I'm not complaining about IW per se either, it adds an interesting mix to the tour, but I wouldnt like to see a tour full of these PP ITF2 courts...

Just want to add myself to the list of people who are not complaining (whatever the alleged cause for complaint might be ...... )

lags72 wrote:Just want to add myself to the list of people who are not complaining (whatever the alleged cause for complaint might be ...... )

lol lags72, the petition of not complaining starts here!

lags72
NITB
lydian
...

lydian wrote:lol lags72, the petition of not complaining starts here!

lags72
NITB
lydian
...

I know Tenez is on the list with us in spirit

I like to have a good moan now and then, what is it about? Ken Bates? The RFU? why they dont sell strawberry cheesecake anymore at tesco? that one particularly rankles