Barclays ATP World Tour Finals 2012...London, England

[GeoffWilliams]

The difference is not in their game, it's in the mind. Murray has no control over his emotional outbursts, and Joker does, and that is always the difference when they play. Each shot has an emotional quotient. A smattering of confidence divided by fear/anger. The higher our confidence, and the lower our fear quotient, the better our chances of allowing a smooth and powerful physical flow.

[julian1]

Winning US Open and confidence

The difference is not in their game, it's in the mind. Murray has no control over his emotional outbursts, and Joker does, and that is always the difference when they play. Each shot has an emotional quotient. A smattering of confidence divided by fear/anger. The higher our confidence, and the lower our fear quotient, the better our chances of allowing a smooth and powerful physical flow.

I am NOT disagreeing with you but ...
Do you think that winning US Open should help with confidence?
No smart comments from Lendl on this subject?

[stotty]

The difference is not in their game, it's in the mind. Murray has no control over his emotional outbursts, and Joker does, and that is always the difference when they play.

I agree 100% on this one, Geoff. It's what separates the two players. When matches are as tight as theirs, emotional outbursts are costly.

Mac soon shut up when he played Borg....the whinging and brat side of him quickly disappeared in their matches. Mac was bright enough (subconsciously) to realise emotional outbursts would be expensive.... and would define the outcome if he didn't put a lid on it.

Murray needs to wake up to this...get control of himself. He's no fool. He should have cottoned on to this by now.

[julian1]

3 of 4 picks good so far

Well, since they already won their first matches those are certainly good picks. But that's why they play the matches. Let's see what happens with the next two rounds. Let's hope it's not as easy or straightforward as we all assume it will be.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

3 of 4 picks good so far
4th to get clarified today

[tennis_chiro]

Round robin Rules

The ATP should at least more broadly publicize the rules for breaking the ties in group standings at the ATP World Championships. Interesting that if Ferrer wins today against Tipsarevic, it would force them to go to sets won to break the tie between the three 2-1 records for Fed, Delpo and Ferrer and Fed at 5-2 would be the winner of the group; and Delpo would be ahead of Ferrer with a 5-3 record as opposed to Ferrer's 4-3 or 4-4 record. Delpo's head to head victory over Federer would not matter. But if Ferrer loses than it is just Fed and Delpo at 2-1 and the head to head makes Delpo the winner. In one case the set count takes precedence and in the other the head-to-head; needs to be laid out a little more clearly for the regular fan to understand. Just think: if Ferrer had been able to convert on more than the one out of 10 break points he had on Federer, they might have all had 5-3 records(if Ferrer were to win in straights today) and they would be looking at percentage of games won. Messy. It seems to me that head to head should take precedence as much as possible. That is, use the match record, set record and then game record, necessarily in that order, to break off the top guy in a three way tie and the next two should be determined by head-to-head. Or alternatively, you could use the mathematical comparisons to break the tie and eliminate the bottom player, then head-to-head could determine the standings between those last two standing. Another novel twist would be a bonus involving dollars per set won minus dollars per set lost. That would get the fans tweeting! Better yet, get a three year sponsor to average out the lopsided years and let that bonus accrue to the favorite charity of each player and run the numbers up. They need something else to add some excitement here.

In any case, the rules should be laid out very clearly and made easily available for the viewing public to follow along. More so than is now the case.

don

[stotty]

The ATP should at least more broadly publicize the rules for breaking the ties in group standings at the ATP World Championships. Interesting that if Ferrer wins today against Tipsarevic, it would force them to go to sets won to break the tie between the three 2-1 records for Fed, Delpo and Ferrer and Fed at 5-2 would be the winner of the group; and Delpo would be ahead of Ferrer with a 5-3 record as opposed to Ferrer's 4-3 or 4-4 record. Delpo's head to head victory over Federer would not matter. But if Ferrer loses than it is just Fed and Delpo at 2-1 and the head to head makes Delpo the winner. In one case the set count takes precedence and in the other the head-to-head; needs to be laid out a little more clearly for the regular fan to understand. Just think: if Ferrer had been able to convert on more than the one out of 10 break points he had on Federer, they might have all had 5-3 records(if Ferrer were to win in straights today) and they would be looking at percentage of games won. Messy. It seems to me that head to head should take precedence as much as possible. That is, use the match record, set record and then game record, necessarily in that order, to break off the top guy in a three way tie and the next two should be determined by head-to-head. Or alternatively, you could use the mathematical comparisons to break the tie and eliminate the bottom player, then head-to-head could determine the standings between those last two standing. Another novel twist would be a bonus involving dollars per set won minus dollars per set lost. That would get the fans tweeting! Better yet, get a three year sponsor to average out the lopsided years and let that bonus accrue to the favorite charity of each player and run the numbers up. They need something else to add some excitement here.

In any case, the rules should be laid out very clearly and made easily available for the viewing public to follow along. More so than is now the case.

don

I agree. I run quite a lot of round robin tournaments and always use the head-to-head to determine the outcome as much as possible. For no other reason than its so much simpler! The permutations using ATP system are a nightmare to calculate.

[stotty]

Semis

Federer v Murray

Djokovic v Del Po


I say Murray defeats Federer and Djokovic defeats Del Po.

Final: Murray v Djokovic

Despite Federer's overwhelming indoor record, I still think Murray will be too good for Federer. Murray is better than he has ever been and is but a centimetre off the top spot. He's serving so much better (he's trying to time it rather than slam it according to Henman and a few other notable TV pundits, I agree) and his movement and backhand are a sight to behold. The scary thing is....he can still get quite a bit better.

Djokovic should beat Del Potro. Is it me or is Djokovic's return of serve just out of this world? It must have been soul destroying for Berdych to have his big first serves returned with interest and with such outrageous placement. Has anyone ever returned serve as well as Djokovic?

[klacr]

Is it me or is Djokovic's return of serve just out of this world? It must have been soul destroying for Berdych to have his big first serves returned with interest and with such outrageous placement. Has anyone ever returned serve as well as Djokovic?

I agree.
Djokovic is a ridiculous returner. Berdych was shaking his head at the returns Novak was making. Berdych has the ability to take the racquet out of an opponents hands and dictate everything. Djokovic was seeing the ball well and returning with a purpose. Never seen a guy get so many returns back in play that were that high of a quality.

So yeah, TBerd is out. But the good news is I still get to watch the Fed for at least one more match. Always a blessing watching him.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[tennis_chiro]

Djokovic is almost too good!

No question. Novak is deservedly number one right now. His peak may not be as high as Roger's and probably not even as high as Murray's, but it is awfully high; and his 90 to 95 percent of the time level is well above anybody else's. He doesn't let anything bother him; up, down, even...he's just there all the time. And if you give him an inch, he pounds the door down and makes it a mile.

Up until a couple of years ago, I really didn't like his routine very much. No question he was good, but the braggadoccio kind of turned me off. Something about having all of the members of his team showing up at his matches wearing the same shirt. There seemed to be a sense of entitlement he hadn't earned yet. The first time I saw him hit forehands as a 19 year-old at the US Open (I don't think it was in person), I knew he was something special. And a lot of his comments praising his opponents, etc just came off to me as canned and prepped. I'm the sort of coach who tells his students that when you get to the endzone, you need to act like you've been there before. And the bouncing the ball; oh my gawd!

But over the last couple of years, he has really improved his act and I prefer to think he has really grown up a bit. There is much more of a ring of sincerety to his podium speeches and interviews than I detected in the past. You have to give him credit. He went out and did everything he could to make himself better drawing expertise from the fields of nutrition, training, complementary health; bringing in additional coaching to shore up his weaknesses; and yet, he has stayed loyal to the original people who helped him become the number one player in the world. He's even significantly reduced the number of times he bounces the ball before he serves. And he got the humanitarian award from the ATP this year, so his foundation must be doing some good work.

But he's so good at what he does, it is almost anticlimatic. You almost know someone like Berdych won't be able to maintain the level it takes to knock him off; and that fall from grace feels almost inevitable when you are watching the match. We have to rely on Roger or Andy having a great day to knock him off; and they are going to have to do it for the entire match. Maybe Del Potro can steal an early break and hold for a set; but I can't see him beating Novak when the Serb is healthy and motivated. And he seems to be both this week. Andy and Roger are going to wear one another out getting to the final, whichever one of them comes out of that semi. Roger would be playing his third match in three days if he got to the final and judging by his unforced errors against Delpo today, he's already fraying at the edges. The difference in demeanor in the Murray/Djokovic round robin match was massive. As much as Andy may have improved his mental and emotional skills under Lendl, he is still in a different league from Djokovic.

Given what I have just said about how great Nole is playing and how the only interesting matches that could be played against him are from Murray or Federer (especially with Nadal out of the mix, but while he may fight a little harder, his tools may be a little duller than either Roger's or Andy's), I am finding the whole thing a little dull. I went to watch one of my student's play a 16s Sectional doubles quarters in SoCal today. Obviously way too much emotion on those courts, but it was still so much more exciting for me, even watching kids I wasn't coaching. Paris was exciting to watch because of the different style of Llodra and especially the emergence of Janowicz. Jerzy kept it together really well until the final (I think he was a little worn out and how can you blame him: the only way you could beat that number of top 20 and top 10 players the last few years was to win the last 5 rounds of a major, and that would be in 2 weeks instead of 1, or sweep the ATP World championships). And while Jerzy kept it together, he showed his emotions and showed both that he cared and that he was having a good time. You couldn't help but want to go on that ride with him.

That whole dynamic is completely missing. We root for Federer the underdog, but even he is almost "too cool" now as he tries to reserve all of his energy for the task at hand. I detest and deplore the distasteful histrionics of McEnroe, Connors and Nastase. Love the way they played, but hated the bull*%#! It may have sold a lot of seats for entrepreneurs and extended Nastase's earning power, but it definitely cost both Ilie and John a lot of matches.

So although I am a Federer fan, I think the perch at the top belongs to Novak and he is not going to let it go lightly for a couple of years, including in the final against Murray. Hopefully, we will see some great matches, but Djokovic just seems like an irresistible force to me. I hope he and Vajda can bring in an old school guy who understands volleying so we don't have to watch him trying so hard to execute shots up at the net with so much deliberate effort when, if fact, those shots should be hit with instinctual reflexive reactions that must be deeply ingrained to look comfortable. Give the guy credit for trying, but please ...

Anybody else getting tired of the MurderInc mentality of Djoker/Fed/Murray/Nadal? Something is missing!!!

don

[don_budge]

hmmm....

Something is missing!!!

don

Oh...really?

[don_budge]

Federer...

What a match...!

[stotty]

Federer

Woeful display from Murray. Worst he's played for a long time. Nothing worked...bad day at the office...it happens.

Federer turned around a bad start and started to play better the longer the match wore on. Great display from Federer...took away Murray's rhythm very skilfully...but Murray's poor form made Federer look even better.

Hate these banal post match interviews/speeches from the players. Federer's are the worst...banal...preprepared...might as well be a mannequin with a tape recorder stuck inside him. I wish he'd say something honest and worthwhile for a change...boring.

I miss Nadal, miss his fizz, miss the buzz surrounding his matches. The game needs Nadal. It's so bland without him.

[stotty]

Djokovic in three...

Ok...voting with your head and not your heart, who's your money on in the final? I'm going with Djokovic in three sets.

[julian1]

replacement for the coach Lendl

Woeful display from Murray. Worst he's played for a long time. Nothing worked...bad day at the office...it happens.

Federer turned around a bad start and started to play better the longer the match wore on. Great display from Federer...took away Murray's rhythm very skilfully...but Murray's poor form made Federer look even better.

Hate these banal post match interviews/speeches from the players. Federer's are the worst...banal...preprepared...might as well be a mannequin with a tape recorder stuck inside him. I wish he'd say something honest and worthwhile for a change...boring.

I miss Nadal, miss his fizz, miss the buzz surrounding his matches. The game needs Nadal. It's so bland without him.

Say that the coach Lendl got fired and you are one of candidates
for his replacement.
During a job interview you are asked the question:
"Mr Licensedcoach,
assume that you are the coach of Andy Murray.
How would you prepare Murray better for 2013 ATP Masters
playing in a semifinal against the GOAT Federer?" (please note 2013)
Please specify technical and tactical aspects.
PS
The question is serious and I will provide some INDIRECT feedback from Jimmy
Arias ( see his commentary of the Tennis Channel yesterday)
You may inspect

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Reliability-Zone/Reliability-Zone-Landing.aspx

regards,
Julian

[stotty]

Murray

I have to say I think I would be out of my depth coaching Murray, especially at the expense of Lendl.

But yes, getting control of his emotions would be key for me. He is still a petulant child and not a patch on Federer and Djokovic (as I sit in from of my watch the final; Djokovic just clinched the first set) in the temperament department. He needs to stop whining...

Oh...and I would get him to come to the net more, too...volleys well, never uses it.