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

No, not Sampras.

I know the answer now after a bit of research and I have to say I would never have got it.

ryan86 wrote:I know the answer now after a bit of research and I have to say I would never have got it.

I am not going to pretend I knew it. It is just that I got interested in the question seeing how Rafa has been steamrolling through the field so I looked it up.

kingraf wrote:TSJ - In short, no. He is probably good enough to come in closer, but I dont know if that suits his patterns of play, which is Submission by attrition.

Fair enough. I suppose it gives him time to get the ball on his forehand but I reckon if he stood closer in he could whack a lot of return winners off a second serve.

I too now know the answer. Would never have guessed it. Though

Agassi?

Not long now before Cincitnatti becomes the next overnight victim of homogenisation

No not Agassi, but let's start with more generous hints now.  He was also an American.

Pat Rafter's wife?

kingraf wrote:Not long now before Cincitnatti becomes the next overnight victim of homogenisation

Hehe.  That is not totally fair though; the conditions have homogenized across the tour over the years; it is not just all made up.

Starlight wrote:Pat Rafter's wife?

It is a very good guess, but not quite correct either.

Roddick?

Funny I only saw the answer on twitter, while not looking for it, having researched Rogers 2004-07 seasons, and then Sampras 1993-1999, I looked up Hewitt's 2001 in desperation, and get the answer while looking up the first set statistics. Go figure

My second guess, which was going to be Pat Rafter, did in 1998 I see,

The Special Juan wrote:Roddick?

We have a winner ladies and gentlemen.  Please do not attempt to claim your prize.

Who would have thought...

I vaguely remembered Roger never did it so was wondering who did and was quite surprised by the answer.

ryan86 wrote:My second guess, which was going to be Pat Rafter, did in 1998 I see,

Interesting pair of people. Neither Rafter nor Roddick would have been my natural guesses.

I can't believe he won more than 1 Masters title

I often find when someone asks you a question like that, it's because it happened a long time ago or because the person who did it was unguessable.

Well of course, it cannot be too easy.  I would not ask who won Wimby this year.

This is a poor game by Rafa so far...

Took all of one match:
Jeff D.
@jdsquaredd 21s
This match sucks. Also there's no way
Berdych should have *so* much trouble
with Nadal on a fast-ish hard court.

Gwan Berdy!!

That was poor from Rafa. Berdych in with a outside shot

Oh kingraf, of course you will find some of that; you just need to ignore that stuff.  Fans will always get emotional so you will find all kinds of statements if you are searching for them.

How predictable.

Summer - the thing is I didnt even search it. It just hit my time line.

sickening, what is it that puts Berdych in a shell against Novak and Rafa that doesn't against Roger and Andy?

CAS wrote:sickening, what is it that puts Berdych in a shell against Novak and Rafa that doesn't against Roger and Andy?

Too many defeats in the past against Nadal. It has to be a mental thing. Conversely, he has a much better record against the other two.

Berdych simply cant beat Rafa, if he serves well he can keep it close, but Rafa is simply better at too many aspects.

That was the worst lob I can ever remember.

Wow, Rafa's form has fallen off a cliff here, what's going on...

I'm being attacked by spiders. Two have been caught and there's a third one scuttling about in the sofa *shivers*.

Nadal's serve has been really good today. I always thought he had a pretty ordinary serve which benefited a lot from it's lefthandidness but he's proving me wrong today.

CaledonianCraig wrote:

CAS wrote:sickening, what is it that puts Berdych in a shell against Novak and Rafa that doesn't against Roger and Andy?

Too many defeats in the past against Nadal. It has to be a mental thing. Conversely, he has a much better record against the other two.

Yes but why? He used to have a winning record over Rafa way back when!

Its like Tsonga, I always feel he has more chance against Rafa and Novak than he does Andy

Wawrinka, likes playing Murray but not Novak and Rafa also

Never seen Rafa serve as many doubles in a match, complete loss of 2nd serve timing.

The Special Juan wrote:I'm being attacked by spiders.  Two have been caught and there's a third one scuttling about in the sofa *shivers*.  

Don't watch Arachnophobia TSJ.  

I'm with CAS; what does Berdych have which gets to Murray (and Federer) but not to Djokovic and Nadal? Maybe it's because he is in Murray's head instead of Murray being in his?

The Special Juan wrote:I'm with CAS; what does Berdych have which gets to Murray (and Federer) but not to Djokovic and Nadal?  Maybe it's because he is in Murray's head instead of Murray being in his?

Some players match-up better to his style of play plus mental belief plays a part and he has suffered just too many painful losses to Rafa. Does he really believe he can beat Rafa today? I doubt it.

CaledonianCraig wrote:

The Special Juan wrote:I'm being attacked by spiders.  Two have been caught and there's a third one scuttling about in the sofa *shivers*.  

Don't watch Arachnophobia TSJ.  

Thanks for the advice. I'm never going to Australia!

in terms of game plan, I dont think its much different for Berdych when he plays them, maybe he likes time which he gets with Andy andRogers slicing

CaledonianCraig wrote:

The Special Juan wrote:I'm with CAS; what does Berdych have which gets to Murray (and Federer) but not to Djokovic and Nadal?  Maybe it's because he is in Murray's head instead of Murray being in his?

Some players match-up better to his style of play plus mental belief plays a part and he has suffered just too many painful losses to Rafa. Does he really believe he can beat Rafa today? I doubt it.

Plus he's not beaten him since 2006. I guess it all adds up in the end.

If youre coming to the net vs Nadal, you better a) have an easy put away, or b) be dextrous at the net. Nadal likes his ducks sitting....

Tiebreak time. Go on Berdy, give me something to cheer about...

Nadal cant afford three sets. Nine sets in three days is pushing it

He won't do much running tomorrow if he wins today.

Rafa seals the win in straight sets and is now one win away from returning to world No.2. Berdych was good but just came up short. Rafa will now be red hot for the final tomorrow against John Isner.

Geez that's ferocious hitting. He's a good fast court player when he plays aggressively so I suppose it's better late than never he's change his approach. A very good win there against an opponent who did not play poorly at all.

What a wierd match. Despite the closeness of the scoreline, I never felt Nadal was in any real danger of losing a set. Just seemed in control (with the exception of the Double fault fest in the second set, which I expect to be put down to spasms, or an unbalanced string tension.

Nadal hit 20 winners in the second set.

The final's going to be an interesting match. I said a while ago I thought it would take something special to stop JIsner this week and although I think Nadal's got more than enough to win, JIsner looks a different player this week. Still, I reckon Nadal in 2 tiebreaks tomorrow.

Lets be honest here, Nadal looks unstoppable at the minute. For me, only Novak and Andy have a hope in hell of beating him in New York. And it looks like they would have to play extremely well to do so.

He looks as good as 2010.