French Open Day 4 - Will Elgin lose his marbles, or is it grand Larsson-y? And how should we Treat Huey?

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Schedule - http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/scores/schedule/

Nore Staat wrote:Lets have a word of praise for Jack Sock.  Having pulled out a win from the Haase in the first round he has just come through the Brown in the second.  Who knows what awaits him in the turd third round.

With Sock, the game is afoot.

JuliusHMarx wrote:

Nore Staat wrote:Lets have a word of praise for Jack Sock.  Having pulled out a win from the Haase in the first round he has just come through the Brown in the second.  Who knows what awaits him in the turd third round.

With Sock, the game is afoot.

Hopefully it will be a shoo-in for the fourth.

Nore Staat wrote:

JuliusHMarx wrote:

Nore Staat wrote:Lets have a word of praise for Jack Sock.  Having pulled out a win from the Haase in the first round he has just come through the Brown in the second.  Who knows what awaits him in the turd third round.

With Sock, the game is afoot.

Hopefully it will be a shoo-in for the fourth.

His next opponent has never met him. When asked about Sock he said "I don't know Jack".

It has been reported that during the course of a match, when Sock had been beaten by a superior passing shot from his opponent, he was heard to yell
"Well Ill be darned" !!!!!!

well Murray seems to be providing plenty of entertainment. I'm still not worried about his long matches. A lot of the sets have been short ish , judging by the scores, 6-2 etc. Plenty of time to recover. He does need to have a straight setter done in a single day though, or it really will catch up with him.

Maybe Murray has a bet on him winning in 5 in these matches, you could get good odds for that.

I think, with Karlovic and Isner (probably) as his next two opponents he has a chance to recover. Obviously, he also needs to play a lot better!

Jack Sock was delayed getting into Paris when one of his fans spotted him on the aeroplane and shouted out Hi Jack!

Born Slippy wrote:I think, with Karlovic and Isner (probably) as his next two opponents he has a chance to recover. Obviously, he also needs to play a lot better!

To me, if you're choosing the two 'easiest' 3rd and 4th matches at RG,  they would be in the top 2

I agree, there are going to be a lot of short points. You would not expect a gruelling match physically. Those matches are mentally tough though.

Last FO champ to go five in first two rounds is Gaudio in 04. So it can be done but The initial signs have been troubling can't really watch the matches with work right now but it's taken him 10 sets to beat some rather ordinary opposition. Usually, you can see the eventual champion  having an early scare, but back to back in this tournament can leave you empty. As others have noted he should have less physical matches coming up with big servers.

Yeah, Murray isn't winning this. For some inexplicable reason he looks totally bereft of confidence. Hopefully he can make the QF at least and sort himself out for Wimbledon.

Born Slippy wrote:Yeah, Murray isn't winning this. For some inexplicable reason he looks totally bereft of confidence. Hopefully he can make the QF at least and  sort himself out for Wimbledon.

Maybe more down to an accumulation of things I'd say.

Nerves. This is probably the first time he has headed to RG with real hope of winning the title considering his recent clay form. Also the draw was good to him so this heightens the nerves.

Tricky opponents. It is common knowledge that heavy, flat hitters have a history of troubling Murray and that is what Stepanek is and has taken sets off Murray before. Bourgue was an unknown - Murray knew nothing about him and he is always  player who likes to have game plans in place and know an opponent's weaknesses/strengths but never had that here. So there you have two opponents with elements to trouble Murray.

Complacency. Today (at least) he got to 6-2 2-0 up and switched off. He had been workmanlike at best and he probably thought Bourgue was finished. His levels dropped and Bourgue rose and belief flowed through him. The motivation and survival instinct only kicked in for the fourth set and suddenly he found the gears and the shots to turn the match.

On his form so far he will exit against players such as Kei or Stan so he must rediscover his Rome form and quickly.

I am not convinced that the concept of form in tennis works in the way we often think of it. I'd argue that if Murray gets to the QF or SF his poor performances in R1 and R2 wouldn't change his odds of winning that much compared to what we would have thought after Rome.

It's so common to see someone change from a poor to a great performance (or vice versa) from one match to the next.

Henman Bill wrote:I am not convinced that the concept of form in tennis works in the way we often think of it. I'd argue that if Murray gets to the QF or SF his poor performances in R1 and R2 wouldn't change his odds of winning that much compared to what we would have thought after Rome.

It's so common to see someone change from a poor to a great performance (or vice versa) from one match to the next.

Well ten sets in the legs already I'd say that alone lessens chances than how things stood after Rome in my opinion.

Just watched some of the Murray match - good drama I suppose, but not as entertaining as the final set of the Stepanek match. Not sure what to make of Murray's level sets 2 & 3 - could have been nerves with the pressure of high expectations, could just be a hangover from playing the 3rd straight day (yesterday was not quite the same as BO3 on consecutive days at regular tournaments due to the need for a fast start), could have been nauseous or something like that. Didn't seem like a panic attack to me, nor did it seem similar to Nadal's woes last year.

If anything, it seemed similar to the US Open last year where he played 2 straight weeks beforehand, seemed to have momentum and then just played poorly, got embroiled in long matches, and had an early exit. In fact, so much was similar - tough draw with flashy player R1, 5 sets with what should have been easy French opponent R2. I really wouldn't be worrying about Murray's chances to win this now unless he gets through to next week - I mean, he should beat Karlovic, 6-0 H2H I believe, but then his chances against Anderson at the USO should have been good too, and we know what happened there ....

CaledonianCraig wrote:

Henman Bill wrote:I am not convinced that the concept of form in tennis works in the way we often think of it. I'd argue that if Murray gets to the QF or SF his poor performances in R1 and R2 wouldn't change his odds of winning that much compared to what we would have thought after Rome.

It's so common to see someone change from a poor to a great performance (or vice versa) from one match to the next.

Well ten sets in the legs already I'd say that alone lessens chances than how things stood after Rome in my opinion.

 +1

socal1976 wrote:

CaledonianCraig wrote:

Henman Bill wrote:I am not convinced that the concept of form in tennis works in the way we often think of it. I'd argue that if Murray gets to the QF or SF his poor performances in R1 and R2 wouldn't change his odds of winning that much compared to what we would have thought after Rome.

It's so common to see someone change from a poor to a great performance (or vice versa) from one match to the next.

Well ten sets in the legs already I'd say that alone lessens chances than how things stood after Rome in my opinion.

 +1

I agree with HB.  If Andy manages a couple of easy matches the next two rounds, he will be back to where he needs to be.  The main thing that these two matches mean is that he now really cannot afford long battles in R3 and R4, as that would indeed catch up with him.  But as long as he can win those two matches easily; he will be fine for the second week.

I have not seen any FO yet this year, and specifically have not seen Andy play, but those scorelines are extremely bizarre.  I cannot even fathom what is going on.  One 5-setter, especially against a quirky player like Stepanek, maybe yes.  But you would think that would give him a jolt and he would make sure to have a clean match in R2.

Anyway, other than him, all the other big guys have so far survived ok-ish (Stan with first round trouble, but perhaps explainable by having played last week).  Third round will start bringing up some interesting match-ups.

I am looking forward to Kyrgios vs Gasquet.  Kyrgios's game should not suit clay very well, but he seems to be doing ok, and even pushed Rafa a little bit, so let's see how far he can go here (though I agree he should be a much bigger threat at Wimbledon).