2014 Australian Open Championship...Melbourne, Austalia

[tennis_chiro]

Del Potro Interview

I read the Del Potro post match interview after his loss yesterday on the Aussie Open website. No complaints, no excuses. He basically just said his opponent played really well. I really like the attitude he has and the approach he takes. I'm still convinced he will be third in the rankings by the end of March although this loss will set him back a little bit.

don

[klacr]

Just watched Berdych match against Bosnian qualifier Dzumhur. Berdych's draw has been perfect so far. Just crushed a qualifier in the 3rd round. He's now waiting on winner of Vasselin or Anderson. Anderson dropped first two sets to Vasselin so uphill battle. Berdych would have to play Ferrer in quarters and that is a winnable quarterfinal for him. Would then potentially play Djokovic or Wawrinka. Both of those players he's had some success against them in the past. I may be delirious but Berdych has as good of a chance as any to take this. Top half of the draw still has Nadal, Murray, Federer. Truthfully, I'm not sold on any of them yet. Knowing the weapons Berdych possesses, and his red line level if he can reach it, is as high as anyone else's, why can't he do it? 2014 is the year of Berdych.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[don_budge]

Let the games begin...get 'em an expresso!

I may be delirious...
Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

You may be. If you are...join the club. As a very young boy when I used to get a temperature I would become quite delirious. My parents would often find me wandering in the house frightened out of my little wits. I remember what frightened me...I was dreaming that I was as small as the point of a pin and the weight of the world was precariously perched and balanced on me. A strange sensation...later in life I came to realize that it was probably some sort of genetic memory of being perhaps a zygote. Talk about pressure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a01QQZyl-_I

Hmmmm...but anyways, back to the Australian Open as you like to say. I digress.

Kevin Anderson managed to squeak it out in five sets. This is going to get very interesting.

Nadal mentioned that courts are faster than last year.
The corresponding interview

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/13/sports/tennis/13iht-speed13.html?ref=sports&_r=0

Federer complained as well as expected

julian1...one of your best posts ever! You gave us a heads up regarding the story within the story. I remember the article from last year that gave us a clue that the winds of change were blowing. Mats Wilander proclaimed much the same with Annabelle "what's her name" Croft a couple of years ago at a French Open. In every match the theme of this article is running like a red thread throughout the tournament. The implications of the contents of this article may have some profound effects on the game of tennis for years to come.

On the other hand, it seems like the speed of the courts has the players moving to the net a little more than last year. Anyone else notice this?

don

Well if they haven’t noticed at this point...get ‘em an expresso. As John McEnroe said to a bored Jiminy Glick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW0gQ2dP2aI

The speed of the courts!!!

The speed of the courts are having such a profound effect on the play at the 2014 Australian Open, that to me it is as profound and fascinatingly deep as the ocean. Now every single tennis player and tennis coach is going to have to rethink their current paradigm of tennis as the effects of a slick surface dramatically alter the two most important T’s in TENNIS. Technique and Tactics. Question to Rick Macci et al...how do you manage an underspin half volley approach with a western grip under pressure? Answer...you don't.

Of course the two T's of technique and tactics are intertwined and you cannot have one without the other. The way the current paradigm has defined tennis it has been an all backcourt proposition for some years now. Slick up the courts just a bit and a lot of these sharks of the high bounding, slow bouncing era are quickly going to find themselves as fish out of water. Players that are forced to realize that trying to win matches strictly from the backcourt are going to find themselves slipping down the order in the food chain.

No wonder Djokovic has hired Boris Becker. No wonder Roger Federer has hired Stefan “Sleepy Bear” Edberg to rekindle his ancient knowledge of the game that was. These guys see the writing on the wall...they have some inside dope. Who will Juan Martin Del Potro hire? Stan Smith? Will Murray be forced to rethink Ivan Lendl? Switch to John McEnroe a possibility? Gregor Dimitrov? If anybody cares...I'm available. If the money is right. My stock just went up...I'm not so cheap as yesterday. Just like McEnroe's. The powers that be are going to make a U-turn here and once again muck things up with their monkeying around. Now all of you coaches that have been teaching ATP forehands and solely two hand backhands are going to have to reevaluate the equation or risk being caught with your shorts down. Has the USPTA provided you with the necessary resources? The necessary accreditations?

Overly strong gripped ATP forehands are not equipped to play balls particularly closer to the net that are skidding under the radar compared to the high bound that was the rule for the past decade or so. This type of play has limits to how effective it can be on faster and lower bouncing surfaces. The game used to be played on many different speeds and heights of bounce. It used to be grass, clay, asphalt and even wood. If the powers that be decide to make that U-turn...things are going to get a bit dicey if you have not held your theories about technique to be Fundamentally Correct (FC).

Now when players find themselves at the net in pressure situations they are going to wish that they have spent a lot more time of their training hitting underspin shots and volleying. Under pressure we are going to see some rather lame attempts to finish points and some rather bad misses. I saw Kevin Anderson's opponent miss a very key volley long when he was serving for the match on the first point of his service game. It was something of a bunny to but he muffed it. Now he has a return ticket back home...if he had made that volley it may have been different.

The play has been interesting. Very interesting. Watching these professionally trained athletes struggle to come to grips with this wonderful piece of engineering that has been sprung upon them. The “Greatest Of All Time”...Fafa Nadal will be shit out of luck if things get any faster. That rodeo swing of a forehand will be relegated back to where it came...the clay courts.

But the most interesting aspect that this engineering of the game is going to be in the tactics. Players will not only have to retool their games technique-wise, they are going to have to go back to school and learn how to play the game of tennis. The approach game has been a neglected facet of the game for years. The current service paradigm will quickly be obsolete as well and every single player, except possibly Roger Federer is going to have to be schooled in the Stan Smith School of Serving Intelligently and not with just brute force in mind. Now the service motion will have to be reengineered as well.

So it is the round of sixteen that I am waiting for with baited breath. This has all been foreplay. Once we get to see the premium prime time players coping with the whole enchilada up against each other will we observe what tennis_chiro astutely noticed right from the very get go. Net play will be a factor. So if net play becomes a factor, guess what? The approach game becomes a factor. On slicker courts it will pay to be able to make the ball “lay down” and to do that you must spin the ball with something other than overspin. Intelligent serving can once again be the deal breaker. Flat hard serves are more returnable than the big spinning delivery.

One other thing that a fast court favors is the underspin or sliced backhand. Now this little blast from the past becomes an indispensable piece of the puzzle and a guy like Roger Federer used to have a feast on the tour two handed backhands with this shot. It also is very effective hit effectively short and crosscourt to help dissect big top spinning left handed forehands...if you know what I mean. If you think about it one step further...the slice down the line is also much more difficult for the left hander to run around to hit a rodeo inside out crosscourt if the ball is not setting up but instead it is skidding behind like a heat seeking projectile.

That is just the beginning. We could be witnessing a very compelling story here. The biggest problem is going to be...when I have the great pleasure of saying...I told you so. Let the games continue...may the best player win! The permutations and the combinations that evolve when you begin to tinker with nature or the natural evolution of things are often unpredictable...well at least unpredictable to those that have lost the art of discernible thought due to the paradigm of modern living with the combination of computers, smart phones and political correctness. For some who remember...it is mere child's play and intuition.

[don_budge]

I like Fed...what else is new?

Coming up for Roger Federer...Teymuraz "Tasmanian Devil" Gabashvili. Roger prevailed in straight sets in their only meeting in 2007 at Wimbledon. Straight sets.

Perfect draw leading up to a possible confrontation versus Andy Murray. More foreplay. The possibility of a Murray confrontation is just plain compelling. With the new racquet and slick courts anything is possible in a winner take all situation and that is precisely how Roger needs to approach every match here on out. He hopefully puts the pedal to the metal against the fellow from Russia and just plain keeps it there.

Roger is in really good form. He won't look past Gabashvili until the match point is in the bag...and then he will begin to deal with Murray. If Murray is anything less than 100 percent it is going to show if Roger can turn up the heat. Getting interesting anyone? I think so.

[stotty]

Enjoy...before the slump.

Coming up for Roger Federer...Teymuraz "Tasmanian Devil" Gabashvili. Roger prevailed in straight sets in their only meeting in 2007 at Wimbledon. Straight sets.

Perfect draw leading up to a possible confrontation versus Andy Murray. More foreplay. The possibility of a Murray confrontation is just plain compelling. With the new racquet and slick courts anything is possible in a winner take all situation and that is precisely how Roger needs to approach every match here on out. He hopefully puts the pedal to the metal against the fellow from Russia and just plain keeps it there.

Roger is in really good form. He won't look past Gabashvili until the match point is in the bag...and then he will begin to deal with Murray. If Murray is anything less than 100 percent it is going to show if Roger can turn up the heat. Getting interesting anyone? I think so.

I watched Gasquet and Robredo for two sets...the game looked the same as ever to me. Gasquet hundreds of feet behind the baseline doing that silly backhand of his which everyone loves except me. No tactical changes in their game, just the same old, same old. It's going to take an oil slick on the court to change their style of play.

Federer versus Murray would be a mouth watering prospect. Let's hope neither slips up to dash our hopes.

On the ground level clips they are showing here and there on Eurosport, the bounce looks high and not low enough to cause Fafa problems. Fafa (or Rafa Dafa as my son calls him) shouldn't complain, I think the courts aren't so bad for him. So long as the bounce isn't low it should suit him fine.

Don't lament at today's tennis, don_budge. The top four are into the final quarter of their career. When they bow out we are in for an almighty slump. No one looks ready or remotely fit to take their place, Jerzy and Dimitrov are going to disappoint, for sure. So enjoy the fab four...while they last...then you can cry...and me with you.

Let's hope Federer can still cut the mustard out there...

[stotty]

Foreplay...if only.

To get on don_budge's wavelength for a moment. He calls the early rounds foreplay. If only they were that good! I'd call the rounds child's play for the fab four...or how about "pottering about". Murray "pottered about" and won at a cantor without even playing well.

I just watched Djokovic dismantle Istomin. That man is going to take some stopping...he looks bullet proof.

[don_budge]

Grigor Dimitrov aka "Kid Gallivant"

gallivant...go around from one place to another in the pursuit of pleasure or entertainment: she quit her job to go gallivanting around the globe...or he got fired from Ford Motor Company after 25 years of loyal service and went gallivanting around the globe.

What a great thread klacr created back around the time of the Stockholm Open.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/bulletin/showthread.php?t=2455&highlight=grigor+dimitrov

So here we are in the round of 32 and you are faced with the prospect of playing Milos Raonic. What are you going to do...Kid?

Well it will be perhaps the match of his career if he wins. If he wins it puts him in position to be the favorite in his next round and should he win these two potentially winnable matches that puts him into the quarterfinals of the 2014 Australian Open.

Of course there are some question marks. How much energy is SharaSchreecha sucking out of him? Or is she a source of inspiration? But besides the questions regarding his being a Bulgarian Playboy or a potential top tenner...here he is. He is in position to go deep into this illustrious Grand Slam event. I will bet he is wishing he had taken some serving lessons from don_budge though because he is sure going to need to serve well...and now.

This is potentially a huge moment for "The Kid" and I sure hope that he capitalizes on it. His "Baby Fed" status may be old news in his book but we are looking for a heir apparent. Someone to fill the shoes of Roger when he rides off into the sunset. I will say one thing to Dimitrov...if he is serious about being taken seriously he had better make a move of it. If I could say another thing to him...I would see if there is anything up at the net in terms of reward for his efforts early on.

The weather took a turn for the cooler which should help the big lug Raonic. Lugging that big body around in 100 plus degrees would be a huge effort. Hopefully for Dimitrov the cooler weather may just cool down the serve a bit.

[don_budge]

And-which is more-you'll be a Man, my son!

Grigor may just have come of age today (or is it yesterday) in Australia. I must admit that the time has got me all screwed up but I think that I have finally figured it out. It is a 14 hour time difference from there to here in Sweden. I am sitting up top here and they are down below. I guess that is why that they call it "Down Under". They are 14 hours earlier than I am. Talk about a head start on the day.

But Grigor Dimitrov came through in flying colors against the big serving and big forehanding Milos Raonic. It's a new game Down Under...the court conditions and the ball are both subtly doing their respective roles to change the paradigm of modern tennis. You can bet that on television it is ever so subtle when down on the court the reality of the conditions are hitting home.

But subtlety is what it is always about when you are in the process of slipping something by the unsuspecting masses. It wouldn't do to let everyone in on the surprise. I would bet that many of the players are even taken by surprise and many of them don't quite understand the full implications on the game as most of them are not really what you call "students of the game". More realistically they are more robotic than critical thinkers. I doubt if they were really doing their homework. Perhaps their teachers weren't either.

If only they had stuck to the paradigm of "The book is Tilden. The model is Gonzalez with the Budge backhand. The coach is Hopman and Federer is living proof". If only they had been schooled in the classic school of fundamentals then made the entry into the modern game. Like Roger did. Roger is quite ready to revert back in time now...but does he have the legs to do it?

On the ground level clips they are showing here and there on Eurosport, the bounce looks high and not low enough to cause Fafa problems. Fafa (or Rafa Dafa as my son calls him) shouldn't complain, I think the courts aren't so bad for him. So long as the bounce isn't low it should suit him fine.

Looking through the lens of the camera is not going to reveal the change in the bounce. All of the players are hitting topspin still, so the ball will still bound...maybe not quite so high. The question is, I think, is the ball sliding along the surface of the court any differently and how is the spin of the ball interacting with the surface. What makes a court "quicker"...is it that the ball actually sides along a bit further on the court during the bounce? It looks to me as if the slice serve out wide to the forehand is somehow getting further away from the ATP forehand which renders it somewhat less effective. Fascinating stuff. Somehow it seems that the ball is getting up on the players much more frequently...somehow they seem to be late more often with the big winding up of the ATP forehand that they swing in unison. They seem to be mishitting more often. Or maybe I am delirious?

It's a game of millimeters now at the speed that it is being played. Witness the advent of "Hawkeye" to be the final say so in the line calls. The human eye can no longer be trusted so it seems. Oooh...another bad sign of the times. It's only a matter of time until we hand over the more important decisions to our "cyber brotherhood". But none of that stuff concerns our "Kid Gallivant"...he is just concentrating on pounding that serve into the court and dominating his service game.

I tuned into the match early on in the third set...5 AM here in Sweden. Originally I had planned on waking even earlier to catch some of Roger Federer but it seems that he was in a hurry and dispatched the Tasmanian Devil back to where he came from. He must have had the pedal to the metal and kept it there. Dimitrov and Raonic were on serve and the match was fully on.

At 4-5 with Raonic serving...double fault 0-15, botched volley 0-30, a pass by Dimitrov with Raonic at the net 0-40, Raonic lets a floater bounce instead of volleying then he misses with a forehand...game and third set to Dimitrov. All subtly influenced by the speed of court and balls...which managed to change the basic flow of the play somehow...subtly. Tactically.

This kind of play happened throughout the match and it appeared that Dimitrov's game, so meticulously patterned after Federer's, was much more adaptable to the game that needed to be played than Raonic's. Even though Raonic went to the net some 50 plus times he only was able to convert on less than 50 percent, whereas "The Kid" only went in 15 times but he converted on 12. It's very interesting...it isn't just the number of net plays...it is how successful you are at it. It isn't just the net play that is changed.

Raonic was actually approaching the net because he was uncomfortable with playing the usual backcourt game. He wasn't going in to attack so much as he was going in to avoid rallying because the quicker Dimitrov and his flatter forehand and his ability to slice the backhand had him pressing from the backcourt. Raonic looked as if he couldn't run around his forehand like he wanted to. When he did get over there the ball was on him just a touch quicker and perhaps not as high as he would like it in his "wheelhouse". A lot of tactics going on. Cat and mouse.

Consider now that running around the backhand becomes just so much incrementally more difficult. Any idea how that little fun fact will contribute to a win or a loss at the Australian Open? There is so much going on under the radar it is going to subtly escape the scrutiny of the masses as the elite will endeavor to tinker and monkey around until the feeling is that the television audience will buy into it...and watch it. If the audience buys it, they can sell commercials...so on and so forth. At any rate...Dimitrov is into the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time.

The interviewer after the match botched it too of course...one of his first questions to Dimitrov was about a possible encounter with Fafa Nadal. Grigor didn't fall for that...instead corrected the moron and pointed out that he had a date with R. Bautista Agut first. The same guy who bounced Juan "The Jolly Argentine Giant" Del Potro out of the tournament. If he wins that match then he may have a meeting with Nadal...that is if Nadal gets by Gail Monfils. Never count your chickens before they hatch when playing tournament tennis. Accidents can happen and they will happen if you don't keep your eye on the ball and your head in the game. Letting your mind wander and getting ahead of things is a common mistake and one that makes the great players even greater. The truly great players treat 'em all alike...they try to make their opponents feel like their mommies never should have had them. It's a cruel game...much like life. In reality.


If...by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

I love that poem. Rupert is a Rudyard wannabe.

[tennis_chiro]

Murray looking very comfortable

Got to see just a few games of Murray/Lopez. Andy could not have looked more relaxed and comfortable. So far the old big 4 are looking awfully good. T-berd is also cruising along. Tsonga has a big test right now in Simon.

don

[don_budge]

Roger Federer vs. Jo Tsonga

Got to see just a few games of Murray/Lopez. Andy could not have looked more relaxed and comfortable. So far the old big 4 are looking awfully good. T-berd is also cruising along. Tsonga has a big test right now in Simon.

don

Andy Murray looked comfortable. Lopez was no test and his next opponent may not be either...which just might add up to a bad draw for Murray. He may have needed some tougher competition to prepare for his quarterfinal match. Gilles Simon surprisingly didn't prove to be any test for Tsonga at all. But Gilles is not Roger.

Which will be either Roger Federer or Jo Tsonga. Can Federer get the quick drop on Tsonga? It is going to be a heavy weight slug fest...and I am betting on Federer. But I always bet with my heart...which makes me a loser many times. But I believe that the conditions will favor Federer. I believe that his game is more adaptable. The real question is...does he have the legs to carry it off.

[stotty]

Tsonga v Federer...that one will be interesting. A real test for Federer who has dominated Tsonga until the last couple of years. I am still not convinced the courts are as fast as folk think. Slice seems to be checking rather skidding on a few of those ground-level clips they show on Eurosport.

I have to say I am rooting for Federer badly to get past Tsonga. I wouldn't even mind if he were to get through and beat Murray (which I don't think he will...beat Murray that is) because he is a joy to watch at the moment. I caught Rusedski saying the new racket is giving Federer slightly more pace than the "dead" (Rusedski's word no mine) racket he was using before. Rusedski thinks the new racket will offer more and more as Federer gets increasingly familiar with it. Let's hope he's right.

Murray is looking well within himself right now in the bits and bobs that I have seen. I will be tuning in more next week as that's when the real show begins. It's all about the big games for me...and looking for new kids on the block...the big showdowns, though, are what make the game great. Roll on next week...

[gzhpcu]

Nadal played great hardcourt tennis today against Monfils. While not admiring his strokes (too specific for him), I admire his attitude and fighting spirit.

[don_budge]

Roger and his Racquet...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/17/sports/tennis/is-change-good-federer-with-new-racket-to-find-out.html?WT.mc_id=AD-D-E-OTB-HPGLOB-0114&WT.mc_ev=click&WT.mc_c=__CAMP_UID__&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1388552400000&bicmet=1420088400000&_r=0

See if you can read between the lines of this NYTimes piece of propaganda.

[stotty]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/17/sp...088400000&_r=0

See if you can read between the lines of this NYTimes piece of propaganda.

If you mean propaganda in terms of a change of racket will make all the difference to Federer...and so too to "Joe Public's" game if they switch too, then, yes, great propaganda.

Can't see any other motive, can anyone else?

[klacr]

That Dimitrov/Raonic match was an enormous breakthrough for the Bulgarian. Great quality match. Very happy for him. Let's see how much confidence this win gives him moving on. Awesome stuff.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton