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

[maxply]

Le Monf survives a brutally long set point in the tenth game. Then on the next point, he does his best yannick impression with a successful S&V play. Other than that, it is a monotonous brand of tennis.
I appreciate the physicality, but inow at just 5-5 in the first set, I am tired just watching these freaks.

[stotty]

Time to walk the dog...

7-5 Nadal. don_budge, are you awake? Pancho needs a walk. It's a sunny day here...I'm off.

[don_budge]

The Modern Era…Moronathon

7-5 Nadal. don_budge, are you awake? Pancho needs a walk. It's a sunny day here...I'm off.

Awake…totally lucid. Good idea…Puntzie and I are out the door. I've been out walking the prize mare off and on…she seems to have a bit of colic. She's probably what…450 kilos? It's like walking a wagon of dynamite. She is one powerful girl…sweeps the table and Swedish National Arabian Horse shows. Chaquira.

Then on the next point, he does his best yannick impression with a successful S&V play. Other than that, it is a monotonous brand of tennis.
I appreciate the physicality, but inow at just 5-5 in the first set, I am tired just watching these freaks.

Physicality. It's a word invented to promote the idea of modern tennis. I'm tired too…maxply. Love the user name. It's monotonous. The modern era of tennis is now officially a moronathon. My word…I'm coining it.

Watching a Nadal victory down the home stretch is worse than water boarding…after being boiled in oil and tarred and feathered.

[don_budge]

The Amazing Mr. Monfils...

…is up 6-5 serving for the second set. If he serves it out…it appears that Nadal is the one that is tiring.

[gzhpcu]

Well, I enjoyed the match. Monfils put up a great fight until he ran out of gas. This win will help Rafa's self confidence. Glad to see him back. Like him or not, he is a fighter.

[klacr]

Nadal has the confidence, but the measure of any player nowadays is how he will do against Djokovic. That may be up ahead in Rome, Madrid, and quite possibly...Paris.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[stotty]

Nadal has the confidence, but the measure of any player nowadays is how he will do against Djokovic. That may be up ahead in Rome, Madrid, and quite possibly...Paris.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

Nadal is looking better. Still not back to where he was, but he is closer. Back at his best against Djokovic at Roland Garros will be interesting. It's his last bastion of Djokovic invasion. I still think Nadal at his best edges it if it goes to five on the slow clay.

I thought Monfils played a fine first set today. I'd like to have seen him play closer to the baseline and make at least a few forays to the net...didn't happen but it might have made a difference. As don_budge rightly points out, Nadal stands so far back and plops backhand returns in high the air. Someone needs to take that safety margin away from Nadal, at least sometimes.

[klacr]

Nadal is looking better. Still not back to where he was, but he is closer. Back at his best against Djokovic at Roland Garros will be interesting. It's his last bastion of Djokovic invasion. I still think Nadal at his best edges it if it goes to five on the slow clay.

I thought Monfils played a fine first set today. I'd like to have seen him play closer to the baseline and make at least a few forays to the net...didn't happen but it might have made a difference. As don_budge rightly points out, Nadal stands so far back and plops backhand returns in high the air. Someone needs to take that safety margin away from Nadal, at least sometimes.

It says a lot when he played a fine first set...and he still lost. Nadal wanted this title. The implications and confidence boost will make things interesting when we get to Paris.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[don_budge]

Tactics…what tactics?

Peter Fleming at the beginning of the match was discussing the poor record of Gael Monfils against Rafael Nadal and he said something to the effect that Monfils must come up with a game plan…a set of tactics. I sort of laughed to myself and I asked my self what are the tactics of modern players. Sure they develop points…they must have some sort of internal analysis regarding the play. Weaknesses…strength?

Afterall there isn't a multi level chess match going on anymore. Forecourt and net play have been effectively engineered out of the equation. Yet Monfils towards the end of the second set had Nadal on a string…it was the only point in the match where he had him on a string and he was effectively wearing down Nadal. Instead of vice versa.

Whereas Novak Djokovic beats and pounds relentlessly on the Nadal forehand to open up the backhand side Monfils took another tact. He was hitting the ball short and wide to the Nadal backhand. It was tremendously effective. I didn't watch much of the third set because it looked to me right from the beginning that Monfils had chucked in the proverbial towel and it wasn't going to be much of a contest. It was Tilden that wrote…"never change a winning game and always change a losing game". Monfils simply didn't have anything left with which to pursue his successful tactic. Perhaps he even forgot what was working.

Overall it was a "great" match. Great in the sense that there really hasn't been much to watch lately. Much is made of Gael Monfils showmanship but it is the sheer nature of his athleticism that can make him so compelling on the tennis court. He has that sort of absorbing power that Djokovic has and it seems he has another dimension of explosiveness as well. The most incredible aspect of his game is the one that isn't developed. It's his potential…room for improvement.

At some point in the match Stotty and I were thinking the very same thing…surely he will go to the net and finish off some of these points. Sure enough he traipses in and makes a superb serve and volley. Just like that, out of nowhere he comes to the net behind a serve to the Nadal backhand and routinely makes a simple volley to win the point. He did it again later…on a second serve. But the fact of the matter is that Monfils is a pretty ineffective volleyer in general and he basically lacks an overall concept of approaching the net. Not unlike a lot of modern day tennis players which turn their matches into "moronathons".

Monfils actually played very respectably in the first set and he hadn't seemed to arrive at his "winning" tactic of hitting short and wide to the Nadal backhand. He broke Nadal three times in the first set but he managed to lose his serve right back each and every time. It was the second set where he started to make a dent in Nadal's game. For some reason he made a real determined effort to keep the ball on his backhand side and when ever he got a forehand he mixed in quite a few balls that were short and wide…much as bottle's experimental forehand with the Djokovic short angled roll. When Nadal would reply down the line to the Monfils backhand Monfils would back him up with something deeper. Nadal was effectively on a yo-yo going up and back and it was wearing him down.

It would have been interesting to see if Monfils could have sent Nadal chasing down balls deep into the left-handers forehand corner after these short backhands. There is where Monfils may have found a real goldmine…in this sort of combination. The short backhands were leaving Nadal in a bit of a quandary. I remember advising Federer to use balls to draw Nadal in on the backhand side.

For Nadal's part it looks to me as if he has gone to work on that backhand side and he doesn't run around his forehand so extremely all of the time now. Djokovic has him thinking and rethinking. He knows that he is being exposed on that backhand side now. Several players have exploited him in this regard. If Nadal is making somewhat of a resurgence from his slump…both aspects may be pointing towards this sort of adjustment. The slump may have been partly due to his making the adjustment and the resurgence may be that he is getting a bit of a handle on the adjustment. At any rate…he captured Monte Carlo once again. For the the billionth time.

It's a one dimensional game. The nuance has been engineered out of it. But once in a blue moon there is something of entertainment. Something to note. In this case it was the use of the short ball to draw in these "freaks" out of their comfort zone on the baseline. Monfils had taken Nadal out of his comfort zone and he beat him in the second set as a result of it.