2016 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters…ATP 1000…Monte Carlo, Monaco

[don_budge]

No show…Tsonga

Jo-Wilfred Tsonga was a no show. The crowd is actually booing him. The Amazing Mr. Monfils straight sets over Tsonga.

"A quick ending to the second semifinal. Tomorrow two charismatic players…perhaps the greatest athletes in the game ever." …Peter Fleming (officially a commentatoe now)

[gzhpcu]

Monfils dismantles Tsonga! Rafa vs Gail!

[klacr]

Jo-Wilfred Tsonga was a no show. The crowd is actually booing him. The Amazing Mr. Monfils straight sets over Tsonga.

"A quick ending to the second semifinal. Tomorrow two charismatic players…perhaps the greatest athletes in the game ever." …Peter Fleming (officially a commentatoe now)

The unwarranted Superlatives are almost sickening. We have The Tennis Channel over hear, its not much better.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[klacr]

The Loser's Edge

https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...e_losers_edge/

Federer upbeat despite quarterfinal loss

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/...loss-to-tsonga




Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[don_budge]

The Stradivarius…Roger's body and his racquet

https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...e_losers_edge/

Federer upbeat despite quarterfinal loss

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/...loss-to-tsonga

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUw9CmZlm5M

After watching Jo-Wilfred's performance in the next round you have to wonder if Jo was so elated about beating Federer if he didn't go out and over do it on one of the "Monte Carlo Binge" nights.

I can imagine if I was thirty years old and had just beaten Roger in the quarters…I go to my room and turn on the television. Relax a bit…take a shower. Hit the hay but cannot go to sleep. What the heck…down to the hotel bar which is now a disco on Friday night. The babes are lining up for a chance at the conqueror of the best player in the tournament. The result…lucky for a night but no legs for the next day's match with "The Amazing Mr. Monfils". Oh well…the price of being famous.

But Roger of course has nothing to lose. He enters the tournament to get a couple two, three matches under his belt. He draws "Baby Bull" in the quarters and hammers him around the court for a couple of hours. He loses…so what? Mission accomplished.

So the question is…why was he gone in the first place? Nadal has made these curious time outs from time to time. Speculation as to why circles around a couple of possibilities. Conspiracy theorists theorize it has some thing to do with recycling his PED's. Afterall…he comes back better than new most of the time.

Federer looked awfully good in this highlight video. He is being aggressive and finds himself at the net mopping up on Tsonga more often than not. Roger plays a couple of "soft" games and it's Elvis leaving the stadium. Who needs a full throttle Gael Monfils on Saturday when he can have a nice hit and spend the day with the kids. The life of the rich and famous. Monte Carlo.

If Roger has bolstered himself and some aching knees with supplements unknown and he is feeling like the "Bionic Man" he may just give it a shot at the French…Roland Garros. Why not? If the draw is right and the stars are lined up. But realistically he is gunning for Wimbledon and he will use all of the remaining time between now and then to get just the right amount of play, practice and rest in order to peak performance on the grass.

He's retooled his game over the past two years. Everything designed and calibrated to make a run at Wimbledon. Read the article that klacr posted…all indications are that Roger used this tournament as he would a thermometer if he had the flu. He is taking the temperature of his body and revving the engine just a tad. All systems go? Proceed and prepare. The mantra of a tennis player being…preparation, preparation, preparation.

From the horse's mouth…see what I mean. He's taking his temperature and checking the oil. Revving the engine.

“I hope my knee and my body are going to be okay the next couple of days. If I'm good, I might go practise tomorrow as well just to get the body into a rhythm of playing four days straight at a very intense level. If I feel like I need a break, the team tells me to rest, I'll do that tomorrow."

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/federer-upbeat-despite-monte-carlo-loss-to-tsonga

This guy knows his body. He is like a fine tuned Stradivarius. When he is satisfied that he is fit as a fiddle…it's time to go the distance.

[klacr]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUw9CmZlm5M

After watching Jo-Wilfred's performance in the next round you have to wonder if Jo was so elated about beating Federer if he didn't go out and over do it on one of the "Monte Carlo Binge" nights.

I can imagine if I was thirty years old and had just beaten Roger in the quarters…I go to my room and turn on the television. Relax a bit…take a shower. Hit the hay but cannot go to sleep. What the heck…down to the hotel bar which is now a disco on Friday night. The babes are lining up for a chance at the conqueror of the best player in the tournament. The result…lucky for a night but no legs for the next day's match with "The Amazing Mr. Monfils". Oh well…the price of being famous.

But Roger of course has nothing to lose. He enters the tournament to get a couple two, three matches under his belt. He draws "Baby Bull" in the quarters and hammers him around the court for a couple of hours. He loses…so what? Mission accomplished.

So the question is…why was he gone in the first place? Nadal has made these curious time outs from time to time. Speculation as to why circles around a couple of possibilities. Conspiracy theorists theorize it has some thing to do with recycling his PED's. Afterall…he comes back better than new most of the time.

Federer looked awfully good in this highlight video. He is being aggressive and finds himself at the net mopping up on Tsonga more often than not. Roger plays a couple of "soft" games and it's Elvis leaving the stadium. Who needs a full throttle Gael Monfils on Saturday when he can have a nice hit and spend the day with the kids. The life of the rich and famous. Monte Carlo.

If Roger has bolstered himself and some aching knees with supplements unknown and he is feeling like the "Bionic Man" he may just give it a shot at the French…Roland Garros. Why not? If the draw is right and the stars are lined up. But realistically he is gunning for Wimbledon and he will use all of the remaining time between now and then to get just the right amount of play, practice and rest in order to peak performance on the grass.

He's retooled his game over the past two years. Everything designed and calibrated to make a run at Wimbledon. Read the article that klacr posted…all indications are that Roger used this tournament as he would a thermometer if he had the flu. He is taking the temperature of his body and revving the engine just a tad. All systems go? Proceed and prepare. The mantra of a tennis player being…preparation, preparation, preparation.

From the horse's mouth…see what I mean. He's taking his temperature and checking the oil. Revving the engine.

“I hope my knee and my body are going to be okay the next couple of days. If I'm good, I might go practise tomorrow as well just to get the body into a rhythm of playing four days straight at a very intense level. If I feel like I need a break, the team tells me to rest, I'll do that tomorrow."

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/federer-upbeat-despite-monte-carlo-loss-to-tsonga

This guy knows his body. He is like a fine tuned Stradivarius. When he is satisfied that he is fit as a fiddle…it's time to go the distance.

Monte Carlo is a good place to have some fun. Especially if you have some cash on hand and recognizable by an adoring public.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[don_budge]

2016 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters…Men's Finals: Rafael Nadal versus Gael Monfils

With any luck "The Amazing Mr. Monfils" takes down Rafael Nadal. It's too bad Andy Murray couldn't have pinched up his butt cheeks a bit and finished the job that he left half undone. He had Nadal on a string but let him off of the hook. There was some gamesmanship involved but Andy let it get to him and spent the better part of his interview complaining about it.

Gael Monfils is a bit of a question mark. He isn't a proven entity but he has had some real near misses. His quarterfinal match with Roger Federer at the U. S. Open comes to mind somehow. He had Roger on the hook as well but somehow Roger wiggled out of that one and lived to play another day. Unfortunately the monumental effort of landing Monfils left him on shaky ground and he never got his legs under him in his loss to Marin Cilic.

This is a golden opportunity for Monfils. Yesterday Jo-Wilfred Tsonga rolled over for him and he saved "The Amazing One" a lot of strength and energy in the process. Meanwhile the commentatoes were exalting the "superhuman epic" match between Murray and Nadal that took close to three hours to wrap up. The third set went without much of a tussle and Murray sort of threw in the towel while breaking out his never tiring "clutch and grab" in the very last game of the match. At the same time Nadal was laughably charged with a time warning as he went through his ugly preserve ritual. Man…that is one ugly self absorbing ritual. Thank God he doesn't go through the whole thing when he misses a first serve. We get the abbreviated version.

Nadal has won this tournament something like a million times or so. But the audience didn't give me the impression that he was their hero or that they were his adoring throngs. I think that they just like me want to see some good tennis. Some tennis even. Nadal's version of tennis is a dumbed down version of the real thing. I was virtually stunned when the commentatoes were commenting that Nadal has such an efficient net game. Such nonsensical drivel is enough to make any knowledgable tennis person shut down the volume. But then you risk falling asleep as you watch the monotonous action in silence…it's more effective than counting sheep.

Yesterday I managed to stay conscious for the entire moronathon. The combination of watching Nadal and his quirks, Murray and his whining and spineless play and the weirdness of the commentatoes made it difficult for me to tell the difference between the match and the movie version of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World". No kidding…with the commentatoes straining with all of their might and intellect to make the match between Murray and Nadal into some that it clearly was not could have been construed as a stretch of the truth. Certainly it was another sign in a string of signs as to just how much tennis has been engineered beyond recognition. There was a day when real tennis players went to the net on the red stuff and they went there often and with a lot of style. It wasn't an accidental foray that is virtually all of the time initiated by a drop shot.

Remember these guys? Adriano Panatta and Bjorn Borg?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ6BuRtiaxA

Sure you do…I just reminded you of them yesterday. I'm going to watch this instead of "Brave New World" simultaneously with the Fafa Nadal and Gael Monfils final in Monte Carlo. Just to be safe…and awake. Just in case.

[maxply]

^great post.

You are talking about tennis....
But you're also nailing the music industry, hollywood, wall street and madison avenue.

Engineered, manufactured, contrived, dumbed down, uninteresting, and strangely effective.

Back to tennis for a second...
so glad you mentioned adriano panatta. I feel this way about ilie Nastase, yannick noah, guga Kuerten, and anyone else willing to blend smart, interesting, beautiful attacking and defensive tennis on a clay court.
Who could forget an emotional noah surging over the rock solid Wilander in the 1983 RG final, or Mac's excellent performance in the first few sets of the 1984 RG final? Remember Guga in his wins over ferrero/kafelnikov/sergi/corretja/norman? Stan over Djoković last year was great, too.

[don_budge]

Commentatoes…drones by any other name: Mark Petchey and Peter Fleming

Another day at the office for these guys. Peter Fleming in the past has impressed my with his knowledge and his nonpartisan approach. But yesterday he flubbed a bit and joined in the gushing about some pretty mediocre play and tennis.

[don_budge]

13 bounces…tugs and pulls

Adriano Panatta in the crowd. Panatta…two or three bounces in his preserve routine. Zero tics.

I'm not going to make it through this one…Nadal thirteen bounces and a bunch of tics in his preserve routine. It's nauseating stuff and it sucks. 1-0 Nadal.

[don_budge]

One more thing...

The sound effects that Nadal hits with every single ball. All self serving antics…gamesmanship. Now "The Amazing One" has added some equal sound effects to his game against Nadal. What a great tactic…equalize the sound effects. It's like a conversation now…one grunt and long exhale against the other. Which will make the most dramatic noise.

Sickening.

[don_budge]

Commentatoe Update...

Mark Petchey is the worst of the worst. Total ignoramus. A real and total shill.

[stotty]

Mark Petchey is the worst of the worst. Total ignoramus. A real and total shill.

Glad you think so. I had to suffer losing to that ignoramus twice...not funny. His father is even worse.

[stotty]

Pummelling

Nadal is relentlessly grinding Monfils down. Monfils has pulled off some corkers here and there but I doubt it will be enough. There are times when he has Nadal reduced to retrieving and simply fishing the ball back but Nadal has then managed to turn the rally back round. Really, if Monfils were to sneak in he would have a gimme to put a way at times, yet he won't do it.

5-4 to Nadal

[don_budge]

A serve and volley...

Really, if Monfils were to sneak in he would have a gimme to put a way at times, yet he won't do it.

5-4 to Nadal

I've been wondering the same thing…specifically if he were to come in occasionally on his serve even. He just did it and won an easy point. Nadal is standing so far back…he is inviting a serve and volley.