2015 Miami Open…ATP 1000…Miami, Florida USA

[don_budge]

Social Media…Novak and damage control

Credit to Djokovic for recognizing his mistake as he yelled out and scared a ball boy. He posted a video message as well to apologize.

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1.../p2p-83228290/

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

No credit…sorry. He let it slip. He showed his true colors. He immediately goes to social media for a propaganda blitz. Damage control. Image is everything. Agassi was right in the end.

These days it's all about the image. Djokovic's team probably includes a promoter…of course he does. The agent immediately calculated what that little slip of the tongue was going to cost him in dollars and cents…they all put their heads together and came up with a tweet. The twits. He doesn't give a shit otherwise he wouldn't have done it in the first place. Shouting something like that at the crowd. It's all so phoney. Holden Caulfield was right in the end. Of course he was. He just saw it all coming. The Catcher in the Rye. J. D. Salinger.

“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.”

[don_budge]

Novak Djokovic's place in history...

What is amazing about Djokovic is the things he can't do. His overhead and volley are less than world-class and his court sense at the net is almost amateur. His touch game is pretty average too. He makes far less drop shots than he pulls off. And his sliced backhand is also average (by world-class standards). To add to all this his lapses in decision making can be downright bizarre. Yet...

...despite all this he is the best player in the world...by a long way on his best day....maybe the best ever. He makes you reevaluate tennis in terms of what to focus on in tennis and what a player can get by just fine without. Federer is the most complete player ever in tennis yet even he cannot dent Djokovic on a slow or medium hard court. He made no dent at Wimbledon either...although he came close.

He's the reigning top gun. That's all. Stotty points out the deficiencies in the Djokovic game and they are quite vast when taken into consideration.

The fact is that Novak Djokovic dominates in the current game due only to the conditions. If you speed up the courts only incrementally then he is fair game. But who is there to exploit his weaknesses? Nobody. Everybody plays the same game…or else they do not play the alternative game effectively enough. Except for Roger…who is six years older and has been around the world so many more times. In this case…it is the miles. Not necessarily the terrain.

Some of the commentatoes are starting to hawk Djokovic as the greatest of all time…just as they were with Nadal. Both are impostors and have serious limitations if the game was to be played under the conditions that they were in the past. Take away those huge monstrous racquets and you will get down to the bottom of the deceptiveness. For anybody to even dare to compare these million dollar babies with the past is a thought crime. These guys would be severely exploited under any conditions other than these totally manufactured ones.

For a champions such as Novak Djokovic to be so mediocre in some really fundamental aspects of the game of tennis should tell you a thing or two. Whether you want to believe it or not is entirely up to you.

[stotty]

No credit…sorry. He let it slip. He showed his true colors. He immediately goes to social media for a propaganda blitz. Damage control. Image is everything. Agassi was right in the end.

These days it's all about the image. Djokovic's team probably includes a promoter…of course he does. The agent immediately calculated what that little slip of the tongue was going to cost him in dollars and cents…they all put their heads together and came up with a tweet. The twits. He doesn't give a shit otherwise he wouldn't have done it in the first place. Shouting something like that at the crowd. It's all so phoney. Holden Caulfield was right in the end. Of course he was. He just saw it all coming. The Catcher in the Rye. J. D. Salinger.

“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.”

A truly great post. I wasn't falling for that Djokovic propaganda stunt either...cringeworthy. It's the way things have gone, isn't it? Political correctness. Must be seen to be doing the right thing...make amends darned quick if you don't. Just an apology would have been better than an outpouring.

As for Murray, there is no excusing the way he treats others. I mean what is the physio supposed to do if Murray's leg gives out under extreme duress (if it truly gave out at all)? Why is it the physio's fault? Ridiculous in my view. I'd rather starve than work for a bloke like that...the gutter would be preferable.

Once again....great post.

[klacr]

When Ivan Lendl was Andy Murray's coach Andy was a different kind of player. He was almost stomachable. Not quite…but almost. If only because he had Lendl in his corner.

Ivan Lendl may well be one of the most underestimated champions in the history of the game. This guy dominated the game as it was being reinvented. Do you have any idea what that means? It means that his roots were entirely in the old classic game yet his fundamentals were so good that he immediately adapted on the run to the "new" game in town.

Ivan did it in full stride to without missing a beat. Hell…he didn't even bother to switch racquets. What a incredible stud he was. Tough as nails. He wasn't very popular…he didn't give a shit about image or Andre Agassi for that matter. He just kicked everybody's ass that happened to be on the same court as him. That goes for the two bad American actors…Jimmy Connors and Johnny McEnroe. Lendl was one bad ass…but he didn't play the image game so he will be short changed in the history books. But not in mine.

He managed to rub off just enough badass on Andy Murray when he was in Murray's corner to gain a little respect for Murray. But it was only a matter of time. Ivan is top drawer and Murray has no class. Berating his team in public is disgraceful. What a baby. I was wondering what the hell was coming out of his pie hole when he is screaming at the top of his lungs.

His game is ugly too for that matter. An all around jerk. Not very smart I would imagine. It just goes to show what an overall mess the game is in these days where he is one of the "Big Four" who are slowly losing their stranglehold on the goings on in professional tennis. I won't get into any personal observations because it isn't personal. I just see through all of this nonsense and what a sham it has become.

Roger Federer is the only player that has any semblance of class. They are all human of course and nobody is expected to be perfect. It isn't really their fault either. As stroke say…everybody surrounds themselves with enablers. The team…of enablers.

If Tomas Berdych has any sense at all he would immediately hire his fellow Czech Ivan Lendl and try to get a bit of badass in his giddy-up. What Lendl did for Murray he could do in spades for klacr's Mr. Nice Guy. But instead what does Berdych do…he hires Murray's reject. What does he expect to change?

http://www.tennisplayer.net/bulletin/showthread.php?t=1926&highlight=McEnroe+Lendl

http://www.tennisplayer.net/bulletin/showthread.php?t=1910&highlight=McEnroe+Lendl

Berdych and Lendl met last year after the Shanghai masters in fall of 2014. Berdych wanted him. Lendl did not want to get back on tour from his couch and do the grind. He admittedly is too lazy and doesn't have the desire to travel and put up with the practices and match regime, at least not yet. So he did not commit to Berdych but he did recommend Dani Vallverdu who was in Murray's corner.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton