Rogers Cup and Cincinatti

First topic message reminder :

Stats definitely not my forte but I have just been looking at how many points the big names have to defend in the the next couple of weeks.

Djokovic Canada W  Cincinnati F 1600
Murray Canada R16 Cincinnati R16 180
Ferrer Canada - Cincinnati R32 10
Nadal Canada - Cincinnati - 0
Federer Canada - Cincinnati W 1000

Very unlikely to be any shuffling at the top (would take a great fortnight by Murray (possible) combined with an epic fail by Djokovic (not going to happen)).

Murray, Ferrer and Nadal both have a great opportunity to strengthen their positions though.  This is the polite way of saying that two of them really should have done better last year! (Edit: Born Slippy has since pointed out that Murray withdrew from Canada last year (knee injury))

Really hope Federer does play Canada this year.  He has a lot of points to defend at Cinci and it could take the pressure off a bit.

Should be a fun fortnight.  Can't wait to see the big names out in force again

ryan86 wrote:

The Special Juan wrote:Baghdatis won the first set 6-1 v Fognini before going on to lose the last two sets 6-1 6-1  Peliwo's through after Nieminen retired.  There's nothing else of real interest about at the moment until Granollers plays Dimitrov shortly.

Spare a thought for poor old Svetlana Kuznetsova though.  In qualifying she won the first set against Lauren Davis 7-5 before losing the next two 6-4 6-4.  However, she entered the main draw as a lucky loser and was drawn against....  Lauren Davis!  Kuznetsova won the first set 6-3 before losing the next two 7-5 7-5.

There seems to be have been a very large number of withdrawals in the womans tournament this week.

Some of the big names too which must be annoying for the tournament director. I'll go through a couple of them:

Azarenka - She wasn't herself on Sunday when she was beaten handily by Stosur in the final of Washington. Something was definitely up so this is no surprise.
Sharapova - Still injured from Wimbledon I think.
Robson - No idea. How does a lefty injure the right wrist?
Peng - Visa. I shouldn't laugh but I did.
Lisicki - Probably still trying to cope with that Wimbledon final.

At least they've got two of their wildcards gruelling out on court. I think if Mahut/Isner had played at the same game rate these two have been going, their match would have lasted 24 hours.

Is that Fichman/Dubois? What a name Fichman is!

Yep. I thought I put money on Fichman to win the 1st, when the tide started to turn towards Dubois, I decided to cut my losses and put money on Dubois to win the 1st set. Dubois did win the first set, but it turns out I had actually put my oney on Fichman to win the match and so it's turned out win-win.

Currently watching the Hingis doubles match. You forget how young she is because her success was that long ago.

According to the match stats, Novak played 16 net points in his 6-2 6-1 win against Mayer last night. Reports suggest some of these were genuine serve volley!

He's not a natural at the net by any stretch but I do like the fact he's trying to develop that part of his game.

If he does it v Rafa or Andy though, he's going to get passed!

Novak is very single minded in that sense Murdoch, trying to improve areas of his game that are not as strong as others. He has done the same with his slice, which although still not as effective as a few other guys is nowhere near the weakness that it was a couple of years ago.

It's good to see...

Maybe the smash is next on his hit list.

Reports of the match sound like Djokovic came out very strongly - hope he can shake off the defeats at RG and Wimbledon and continue that way.

Looking forward to the semi if all goes the way it should in the lead up to.

I've lamented for some time that Novak frequently makes hard work of serving out sets and matches.

Last night v Mayer, serving for the match at 5-1 in the 2nd, having dominated all match, he fell to 0-40!

It must be a concentration problem, there's no way he was nervous.

Overall though, sounds like a good performance against an opponent who played quite poorly.

I'm hoping for a SF v Rafa, it will be good to see these two on hard court.

I think it probably is a concentration problem. The amazing thing about Djokovic and Nadal is that they have been able to maintain such an intense level of concentration through so many marathon matches.....I do think it can take its toll as much as the physical exertion sometimes.

In fact their encounters have been so bruising that you don't necessarily feel that the winner takes a huge mental advantage into their next encounter.

time please wrote:In fact their encounters have been so bruising that you don't necessarily feel that the winner takes a huge mental advantage into their next encounter.

Yes, I'd agree with this. AO2012 was a good example. Rafa lost but took massive encouragement from pushing Novak so close on his best court. Novak won but seemed a bit scarred by how deep he had to dig to get over the line!

Similar to RG this year. Rafa got the win but there must be a part of his mind that is thinking "if he can run me this close on clay, how hard will it be when we are on his favourite surface?".

Yes, I think that AO 2012 win actually cost Djokovic scooping more majors last year.  It's not that he wasn't brilliantly consistent, but in the final push he just didn't seem able to summon up the iron will at the finishing line.

Rafa has traditionally always relished the mental fight and the endurance, but I do wonder how long you can keep bringing that to the table.  People always talk about physical burnout but I think the top players burn out mentally at the end too - the desire to win is still as fierce maybe, but it is the intensity of every single point that is harder.

Granollers must be feeling tired after winning in Austria last week and then having to fly out to Canada. Still, it's like Murray's never been away. He's hit some ferocious forehands in this match!! As I say that one flies into the net

He's still got a bit of doublefaultitis though

"He adds a bit of zip to the forehand and suddenly Granollers is floundering like a beached whale on the baseline."

Murray takes the first set but the court is looking woefully slow.

There's a match away to take place between Paire and Wawrinka who have a nice little "bromance".  I think they entered the doubles as a team this week too.

Granollers serves for the 2nd set at *5-3 and gets a set point but plays it so negatively and pushes his shots right down the middle of the court. Murray saves it and then proceeds to break back. That was a really, really poor set point. No matter how many UEs Murray's made today, he's never going to pass up a chance like that when it really matters.

There it is, he takes the 2nd 7-6 with an especially delicious cross-court pass to bring up match point. He'll play The Importance of Being Ernests in the next round.

Patchy performance but when in danger he upped his levels and came through in straight sets. Hopefully, a few cobwebs have been blown away.

I find players like Granollers and Simon baffling.

They must be massively talented to even make it as a professional, let alone be in the top 40 in the world.

So why do they play such drab, uninspiring tennis? Would they have played like this as youth players? In possession of their levels of talent, they must have won so many matches. They must have had their opponents on a string.

I'd love to understand how that talent matured into such a dull, unimaginative style.

Good to see Rafa back and looking sharp. He is looking like he is cruising now through to the Third Round.

Tommy Haas has withdrawn after losing the first 5 games against Matosevic. I hope whatever's wrong with him can be sorted for the US Open.

Did you notice the use of the word "withdrawn" than "retired"?

The Special Juan wrote:Tommy Haas has withdrawn after losing the first 5 games against Matosevic.  I hope whatever's wrong with him can be sorted for the US Open.

Did you notice the use of the word "withdrawn" than "retired"?

I may be wrong but losing the first five games hints he came into the match with the injury.

HM Murdoch wrote:I find players like Granollers and Simon baffling.

They must be massively talented to even make it as a professional, let alone be in the top 40 in the world.

So why do they play such drab, uninspiring tennis? Would they have played like this as youth players? In possession of their levels of talent, they must have won so many matches. They must have had their opponents on a string.

I'd love to understand how that talent matured into such a dull, unimaginative style.

The way I see it is that they got to their current rankings by playing low error rate percentage tennis removing any risky shots or variety from it. You see a lot of players ranked 50+ that have possibly more talent and better shots but are more error prone, cannot build a point in 4/5 rallies and end up losing against the likes of Simon and Granollers. Am sure they could hit some wild flat forehands but they probably keep that for their training sessions.

CaledonianCraig wrote:

The Special Juan wrote:Tommy Haas has withdrawn after losing the first 5 games against Matosevic.  I hope whatever's wrong with him can be sorted for the US Open.

Did you notice the use of the word "withdrawn" than "retired"?

I may be wrong but losing the first five games hints he came into the match with the injury.

Aye that's what I thought too. I shall keep looking for what type of injury/illness he has.

Shoulder problem I think.

Not looking good for Murray / Fleming in dubs. 5-1 down 1st set.

Lets hope it is nothing too serious and that it will clear up with a few days rest.

carrieg4 wrote:Not looking good for Murray / Fleming in dubs.  5-1 down 1st set.

Drat. Fleming's fault entirely, of course

Yeah, go team Flurray! 2nd set won 6-4, into a 3rd set tiebreak. Come on Murray v Paes!

Flurray!  

Fleming and Murray win their doubles match and progress to the next round.

Yes!!! Murray v Paes! I hope it's on TV...

Sir Andrew Murray and Colin "So much better than Peter" Fleming for the title!

He's definitely my favourite number 1 ever, until Murray overhauls him .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/23611660

The Special Juan wrote:He's definitely my favourite number 1 ever, until Murray overhauls him .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/23611660

Pulling a golf club out of his bag at Wimbledon is the thing that tickled me the most. Although I did like the Vader mask in Paris too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4nkFM-L7mg

Funnily enough, I watched that video last weekend. There's definitely a career in showbiz when he retires, if he wants it.

Rafa v Jerzy could be bloody interesting today. First match on which is good for me as I have a stinking hangover and want to decompose on the sofa this evening.

First real opportunity to assess what kind of form and fitness Rafa is in. Will be keeping a close eye on his movement.

Danny_1982 wrote:Rafa v Jerzy could be bloody interesting today. First match on which is good for me as I have a stinking hangover and want to decompose on the sofa this evening.

Midweek drinking, Danny? Villa's season hasn't even started yet!

Typical dangerous maverick behaviour.

Work do Murdoch. Didn't want to go but was bullied into it. Didn't want to drink but was bullied into it. Before I knew it I was downing shots at midnight.

Basically, I'm a pushover!

I hardy ever drink nowadays either, which makes the hangovers worse! Sigh.....

Poor wee Daveed was bundled out in a very convincing fashion by Bogo Jr last night. I had forgotten to mention that.

Lightweight Danny You'd better get practicing for the new season though!!

Rafa squanders set points vs big Jerzy, it's tight at 5-5 in the first .......

The Special Juan wrote:Poor wee Daveed was bundled out in a very convincing fashion by Bogo Jr last night.  I had forgotten to mention that.

Lightweight Danny  You'd better get practicing for the new season though!!

I'm a total lightweight Juan.

Interesting match this. Nice contrast of styles. Jerzy looks an absolute world beater one minute and a park player the next. Fascinating to watch.

Jerzy's fallen to pieces twice in this set now. I'm not watching it but he served for the first set and in the tiebreak he had two service points to win it.

Rafa squeezes his way through the 1st set, and I'm not about to put any money on Jerzy taking the next two .......

I'll call it. Janowicz in 3.

Shut up.

Oh that's a really good game from Gulbis. Very little chance of beating Murray of course but it's set the match up.

We know Gulbis can cause any player problems but can he complete the job he has started? That is the big question.

Gulbis is being controversial for the sake of being controversial again. People aren't laughing with you Ernie.

"Give me the ball otherwise I'll get a warning"

I like that Gulbis trying to annoy Murray. Complaining to the umpire about how Murrays body language is influencing calls, making him wait to serve... Then Murray getting a time violation to add to it.

Unusually, and disappointingly, Murray looks a bit disinterested by it all. In fact he looks disinterested generally. This has the makings of a Murray defeat.