Shanghai Masters

May as well get a topic started. Things have started with a bang, with Roger going down to Ramos Vinolas in three sets.

The curse of a lefty Spaniard

I did not get a chance to watch it. It looks like a bad day at the office.

Haddie-nuff wrote:The curse of a lefty Spaniard

At least there's one in decent form

I wouldn't know I was only looking at his backside.. However I did see he played better than the world #2

It's the back!

or the mono...


or he's getting old...



but probably the back...

Thought it was Mono? Or age? or the surface?
Of course it could be that rarest of mono strains that only comes out under certain weather conditions that pertain to slower courts
You know... some joke like that

Sky just showed the highlights... actualy looked a great match! Credit to Vinolas he looked like he took it on

laverfan wrote:I did not get a chance to watch it. It looks like a bad day at the office.

I saw the whole match.. not a bad day at the office at all...he was simply outplayed by a better player on the day.

Fishing in an empty pool I'm afraid, I already caught the only fish.

That is because you use poison as bait

Cumbayah my lord!

How do you lose when you only drop 18 points on your own serve in 3 sets, win 41 on return, and win 52% of the points?

(answer - waste a lot of chances and lose the ones that mattered the most)

Haddie-nuff wrote:That is because you use poison as bait

It's ok, I always catch & release.

You two together get boring real fast you know...
Tsonga also goes through as does Simon and Gasquet.
Nasty Nick is back in action tomoz too against the ninja

Speaking of Nick.. hes just got himself a 1500 dollar ban... 3500 more in about 5 months and hes banned...

Fed looked okay. Serve was decent- didn't face a break point until midway 3rd set. Backhand was a little off. Vinolas played extremely well and confident. Maybe a little rust from Federer, but it seems to me his opponent just had one of those days...      

Only real damage to Fed is in the points race. I'm sure he'd like the #2 seeding for the AO, but now has an uphill battle to get back #2 before end of the year.

[quote="Haddie-nuff"]I saw the whole match.. not a bad day at the office at all...he was simply outplayed by a better player on the day..
Like Brown and Fognini outplayed the moonballer.

Federer is probably nursing mono still  

That WAS what happened. In all cases. I can see where this is going... Let's just not bother this time eh?

It's all fun and games...

Least BB has a decent sustainable policy

He's more consistent than Jeremy corbyn that's for sure

Decent performance from Roger. Little bit rusty but game looked in good shape. He was the better player (see the stats BB posted) but sometimes the better player does lose. Ramos played great - the game to grab the break was inspired. Hopefully he can build on this win.

From a Murray perspective, hopefully he will be sharp this week. He can go a long way to wrapping up the number 2 ranking for Oz with a big week here.

temporary21 wrote:He's more consistent than Jeremy corbyn that's for sure

Corbyn is consistent. Imbeciles generally are.

Today is PMQ's, so time to read out a question to the PM from Doris in Sunderland...............

not bad from Murray today. First set sharp, second set a little less so, but found the good return game to break at the best time. Serve and return of serve looked pretty good, always a good sign.

I like klizan. Should be ranked higher than he is. Could do with a hard coach.  Not much he could do today, got mangled by the surgical laser

Yeah agree re Klizan. I always think he should be top twenty.

Karlovic served for first set against Rafa, ended up losing four games in a row and losing it 7-5.

Rafa gets through Dr Ivo Robotnik, in a final set breaker, to the surprise of few.

temporary21 wrote: to the surprise of few.

Yep absolutely nothing surprising about 2015 Rafa winning a close match by playing the big points well

temporary21 wrote:Rafa gets through Dr Ivo Robotnik, in a final set breaker, to the surprise of few.

 Now who would that be I wonder

Has anyone got better than 63 against Novak in the last couple of weeks? It looks like he is mangling everyone.

Nowhere close post us open

Would it be a stretch to say hitting three straight first serve return winners against the best serve of all time is pretty close to Nadal's best achievement of the year?

Isner's serve on this type of fast court really is ridiculous. Looks like he will take Murray out here. Frustrating for the tournament as Murray looks in great form.

Murray through in three sets. Very good quality match that and Andy comes out on top. Next up he awaits the winner of the Simon/Berdych match in the QF.

caught the third set. Murray looks like he's playing pretty well. Isner's serving, as BS says, was ridiculous. He was averaging nearly 190 km/h on his SECOND serve, and didn't hit a double fault until midway through the third set (after which he hit quite a few...), Murray will be very pleased to come through that.

kingraf wrote:Would it be a stretch to say hitting three straight first serve return winners against the best serve of all time is pretty close to Nadal's best achievement of the year?

No you are quite right.. Ill answer you if no one else will

Haddie-nuff wrote:

kingraf wrote:Would it be a stretch to say hitting three straight first serve return winners against the best serve of all time is pretty close to Nadal's best achievement of the year?

No you are quite right.. Ill answer you if no one else will

No one's answered me for about two months here. Feels good to be wanted...

Rafa playing well vs Raonic

Anderson has taken out Nishikori in two TBs, he really is having a great year. Probably too far back in the race to make it to London, but a strong run here (he's on the right side of the draw to make a run to the final maybe?) could just give him a shot.

He will still be 600 points off 8th even if he makes the final. I don't really understand how Ferrer has got a 1,000 point cushion in 8th. Feels like he hasn't won a match of note all year!

Lovely match !

Born Slippy wrote:He will still be 600 points off 8th even if he makes the final. I don't really understand how Ferrer has got a 1,000 point cushion in 8th. Feels like he hasn't won a match of note all year!

if Murray decides not to go, that gap might be smaller.

kingraf wrote:

Haddie-nuff wrote:

kingraf wrote:Would it be a stretch to say hitting three straight first serve return winners against the best serve of all time is pretty close to Nadal's best achievement of the year?

No you are quite right.. Ill answer you if no one else will

No one's answered me for about two months here. Feels good to be wanted...

Rafa playing well vs Raonic

Shall we talk amongst ourselves lol Yesterday's match wasn't a fluke then?.. how to handle the big servers Rafa

Haddie-nuff wrote:

kingraf wrote:

Haddie-nuff wrote:

kingraf wrote:Would it be a stretch to say hitting three straight first serve return winners against the best serve of all time is pretty close to Nadal's best achievement of the year?

No you are quite right.. Ill answer you if no one else will

No one's answered me for about two months here. Feels good to be wanted...

Rafa playing well vs Raonic

Shall we talk amongst ourselves lol Yesterday's match wasn't a fluke then?.. how to handle the big servers Rafa

Sorry to butt in

I watched a bit of Nadal today, and he seemed to be standing significantly closer to the baseline to return serve. Was this something he was doing yesterday too?

Also seemed to be going after his BH a bit more, which is a good sign, and something he'll need going forward.

Nadal looked as good as he has since his last peak today. It could be, that as some have suggested and like Murray, he's needed time to get to his peak both mentally and physically

Frankly we need him. No-one else other than him and his other multi-slam peers are going to be able to lay a feather on Novak for the next couple of weeks. Raonic manages the impossible and that is to be even more disappointing than Dimitrov, probably because his game is so terrible watch even when he's playing well

Best we have is Nishikori, who merely reminds us of what the problem is with the 22 to 26 year olds

I OK with this, I'd be quite happy with the next 20 slam SF's been played any of the four of the big five (provided Murray made each one )

Goodness knows what Bogbrush makes of it all, though

I just want to see some young guns breaking through. I don't care who it is, even somewhat who's utterly boring like Coric, just want someone new to DO something. Agree re Raonic, his BH is absolutely shocking, surely he could work on that (instead of just trying to hit as many FHs as possible...)?

Haddie-nuff wrote:

kingraf wrote:

Haddie-nuff wrote:

kingraf wrote:Would it be a stretch to say hitting three straight first serve return winners against the best serve of all time is pretty close to Nadal's best achievement of the year?

No you are quite right.. Ill answer you if no one else will

No one's answered me for about two months here. Feels good to be wanted...

Rafa playing well vs Raonic

Shall we talk amongst ourselves lol Yesterday's match wasn't a fluke then?.. how to handle the big servers Rafa

No. Well played to Rafa, especially given the players he beat

Mad for Chelsea wrote:I just want to see some young guns breaking through. I don't care who it is, even somewhat who's utterly boring like Coric, just want someone new to DO something. Agree re Raonic, his BH is absolutely shocking, surely he could work on that (instead of just trying to hit as many FHs as possible...)?

Tend to agree with you actually. I like the look of one of the young Japanese or he might be Chinese players. It's fair to say, that there are far too many play-a-likes amongst the youngsters

banbrotam wrote:Nadal looked as good as he has since his last peak today. It could be, that as some have suggested and like Murray, he's needed time to get to his peak both mentally and physically

Frankly we need him. No-one else other than him and his other multi-slam peers are going to be able to lay a feather on Novak for the next couple of weeks. Raonic manages the impossible and that is to be even more disappointing than Dimitrov, probably because his game is so terrible watch even when he's playing well

Best we have is Nishikori, who merely reminds us of what the problem is with the 22 to 26 year olds

I OK with this, I'd be quite happy with the next 20 slam SF's been played any of the four of the big five (provided Murray made each one )

Goodness knows what Bogbrush makes of it all, though

He looked good today albeit it doesn't take much to make Raonic look pathetic.
whose  sulky behaviour and petulance does nothing to help his game

But Rafa was finding some of his old form and he was looking so much more confident than of recent months
Whatever his demons I hope they are now laid to rest. The forehand winners down the line were vintage Rafa

 erm he did make some winners didn't he ??? or was  I was too busy looking at is backside again

I'm fascinated by Raonic's hair - would it move even in a hurricane?