2019 U. S. Open Championships...ATP 2000...New York, New York USA

[nytennisaddict]

Nick Kyrgios through to the second round apparently on a collision course the Andrey Rublev. The bad news is that Steve Johnson, a consummate tennis professional's professional could barely bring himself to shake hands with "The Jerk". He was obviously not amused with the "entertaining" of Nick during the course of the match. This is going to make it that much rougher on the fragile ego of "Dysfunction Boy" when he is shunned in the locker room. He referred to Johnson in his post match interview as a "locker room mate" but Johnson didn't appear to me to be having any of it.

I love a good train wreck as much as the next guy but even in this match where the dum-dums in the booth were referring to his performance as relative well behaved he obviously ticked off a guy on the tour who nobody could say a bad word about.

nk going to the semis! he has the game to beat everyone in his section of the draw... for a nadal-nk rematch...

[nytennisaddict]

So true. Nick is a clueless jerk and it appears he will never get it. And the commentators enabling take on his antics are so predictable and unbelievably annoying. Who could ever forget most of the media take on Serena last year. Hey, I got an idea, let's take the umpire who was in the chair for that match where Serena was mistreated and tell him he can never umpire a Serena or Venus match again. I am surprised he was not fired altogether.

regarding the ump... whatever... "everyone" "coaches" from the sidelines (hand signals, short verbal cues, etc...)... ramos just wanted to make it about himself... i hope he never umps again.

[nytennisaddict]

Deadspin: Good Husband Alexis Ohanian Trolls Maria Sharapova With D.A.R.E. Shirt After Serena Williams's 6-1, 6-1 Win.
https://deadspin.com/good-husband-al...ith-1837615800


Class act

hehe, saw him wearing it... but didn't make the connection... subtle/genius troll...

[don_budge]

nk going to the semis! he has the game to beat everyone in his section of the draw... for a nadal-nk rematch...

If this guy has any redeeming qualities that would be it. He has the nerve to beat Nadal. The arrogance. But it is too much to hope for. Just look at the distance he is going to have traverse to get there. Do you really think he can maintain the mental mindset in three out of five to survive three more matches?

But when you look at the possible opponents you would think that if he wanted to. If he had in his heart to scrape it out of the pavement with whoever is on the other side. He could do it. I'm pulling him. Actually the only thing Americans like more than a good train wreck is redemption. So yeah...you go man/child. Post up.

[stroke]

If this guy has any redeeming qualities that would be it. He has the nerve to beat Nadal. The arrogance. But it is too much to hope for. Just look at the distance he is going to have traverse to get there. Do you really think he can maintain the mental mindset in three out of five to survive three more matches?

But when you look at the possible opponents you would think that if he wanted to. If he had in his heart to scrape it out of the pavement with whoever is on the other side. He could do it. I'm pulling him. Actually the only thing Americans like more than a good train wreck is redemption. So yeah...you go man/child. Post up.

I also think it more likely than not that Nick will not get to the semi's, but if he does, I would like his chances on hard courts vs Nadal. In fact, if he gets to that point, he certainly has the game to beat Novak. To me though, him winning the US Open is more likely than redemption.

[don_budge]

hehe, saw him wearing it... but didn't make the connection... subtle/genius troll...

Now of all the things that don't add up with Ms. Williams this guy as hubby would top the list in anyone else's bio. But it is just par for the course with Williams. The Jehovah Witness. Among other things.

It's so in vogue to pile on the Russians these days. Sharapova is at the bottom for me...for different reasons. It's the screaming. The wailing. Is she like that in bed? The neighbours would be horrified.

There are lots of rumours about Williams and it is just pure malarky to have hubby there making some sort of statement with his shirt. I mean...who could be so small in their heart. Who would publicly reveal how petty they are in their own heart. Well...someone that could marry or pretend to marry Serena Williams. That's who. Any energy generated by these two woeful idiots is lost on me. Don't care. Not interested. Just want to read about her confessions in the end. Tell the truth Serena. All of it. Do it for Jehovah's sake.

I loved it when last year when she got herself defaulted out of the tournament with behaviour that has never been witnessed in the "Ladies" draw before. She was shouting "other men" have said worse. What? If I am talking about women and their behaviour I would never say "other women" because that would imply that I am a woman. Not in my vocabulary. I might say "the women" get away with worse. But somehow it found it's way into Serena's vocabulary. Even in the interview room she repeated her Freudian slip..."other men".

She may be a lot of things, but a person of class she is not. She would have been better off marrying one of the ghetto rap stars she was dating. Thugs. Bullies. Much like herself. Please don't start talking identity politics either. The only responsibility lies with the individual. Void of any and all identifiers and qualifiers...she stands and falls on her own. A real jerk.

[don_budge]

Match of the Day, Second Round Play at the 2019 U. S. Open...Roger Federer vs. Damir Dzumhur

Stefanos versus RublevI see Roger got through after dropping the first set. His scorelines have been a little less efficient the last six months. Sometimes just following the scores on an iPhone can tell you enough. Roger is dropping the odd set and more games than he used to.

I wonder if Roger gifted that set to the young man playing in his first Grand Slam. What a thing to be able to tell the grand kids. Federer is like that I think. He could be capable of such a magnanimous gesture. But all gestures aside now. It begins in earnest with a match against Damir Dzumhur. "Double D" is nobodies easy walkover these days. Roger would relish a straight set match tonight and fortunately it is on at seven-thirty this even ing here in Sweden so I get to watch the Swiss Maestro punch the clock once more and go to work. These matches are not to be taken for granted because as of now you can begin saying "for a limited time only". It is winding down.

I like the Brit Daniel Evans who is the only player that I have seen recently to use any kind of different tactics against Rafael Nadal. He was serving and volleying and chipping and charging. Why not? Everyone has tried to beat him from the backcourt. How about putting some pressure on HIM? Evans plays Lucas Poille who is another tough customer from the baseline. This might be a big moment in the career of Grigor Dimitrov who claims to have reset his compass and going the straight and narrow. The skinny route. But Borna "Born Again" Coric has been maturing over the course of the last several years...ever since he made the fundamental mistake of trying to intimidate Federer at the coin toss at the beginning of their match. Coric had just beaten Andy Murray and was doing a Mohammad Ali shuffle in front of Fed. Federer sleepily took it all in before he mopped the court with Borna.

But Roger is really the only match of the day. The rest of it is window dressing. Sure Novak Djokovic is playing late in the evening. But he still and always will be the most boring best player in the world...ever.

[stroke]

I can certainly see how one would say Novak's game is boring. I prefer clinical, but I like Novak. And I really admire how he has been able to hard hat a positive won lost record vs the Maestro, particularly with the fans clearly, overwhelmingly, pulling for Roger.

[arturohernandez]

This addresses exactly what I am pointing out about the lack of tactics in both the Tsitsipas and Shapovalov games. The Federer slice has been instrumental, along with some other enhanced strokes, in his resurgence in the game. But the slice is his go to game changer. He might start out the match matching his opponents in drive for drive but invariably when push comes to shove he falls back on old faithful. The slice backhand, varying in depth and amount of spin is the stroke that allows him to dictate the pace of the play. When he wants to slow it down he does and he patiently waits for the ball in his wheelhouse that he can pound.

But the short knifing slice that you refer to is perhaps the trump card in his tactics. It seems that drawing the two-handed players into no mans land is a place where they are not so comfortable. The ball is not high enough for them to pound nor are they so eager to come to the net so a majority of the time they move in and then retreat for they reluctantly follow it to the net where he can test them where there are more uncertain. I have not seen this sort of resolute commitment of patience and tactics from either of Tsitsipas or Shapovalov.

Federer can of course generate the brute power when he wants to but better to do it when he chooses to. Instead of always relying on this sort of muscle headed approach to the game he challenges his opponent to a game of "cat and mouse". It's a game of patience and it has been paying him big dividends over the past few years particularly since he evened up things with the change of equipment.

Interesting, back to my daughter and the backhand. She loves to slice and uses it a lot. She is learning to hit topspin but she can and will always fall back on slice when it's an emergency. It's like a safety net with all kinds of contraptions attached to it. She can drop shot or just shove it deep. She can knife it short. She can volley or just hit in the air from no mans land. She fundamentally understands the one handed backhand as a slice first. The topspin is an additional shot that is added after the slice.

According to Lundgren, Fed sliced exclusively as a junior and only learned to hit topspin after a lot of work. So it was slice first and topspin second.

I think that the new generation of one handers are trying to be like two handers. What they are losing is the art of the slice and the ability to change pace.

They want to outhit the two handed player rather than outmaneuver him or her. And this is because they have no models. I mean even Fed can sometimes hit too much topspin.

I think it goes down to what their safety net is. What shot is really the one they love to hit and comes naturally.

For Fed it is the slice. In fact, I would argue that Ash Barty and Andy Murray love to slice as well. They can use it very nicely.

Lately, I have seen Thiem and Shapovalov start to use more slice. I hope they keep doing it.

As for Tsitsipas, I feel he is a bit too tall to be dominant. Rublev is listed at 6'2". My sense is that if the skill is equal, the player closer to 6'1" will win. It's just too hard to move around. Same problem with Sharapova and Pliskova. For women they should be as close to 5'9" as possible.

Not a criticism, just an observation.

[arturohernandez]

true... the slicer/dicers and junk ballers can be effective on serena's game when it's a little off (vinci first comes to mind)... but when serena is on... it's really hard to slice consistently against someone hitting deep heavy bombs...

Have you seen Monica Niculescu? She gave Serena fits with her slice forehand mixed together with loopy backhands.

https://youtu.be/0s2nIJRtkUs

[don_budge]

Interesting, back to my daughter and the backhand. She loves to slice and uses it a lot. She is learning to hit topspin but she can and will always fall back on slice when it's an emergency. It's like a safety net with all kinds of contraptions attached to it. She can drop shot or just shove it deep. She can knife it short. She can volley or just hit in the air from no mans land. She fundamentally understands the one handed backhand as a slice first. The topspin is an additional shot that is added after the slice.

According to Lundgren, Fed sliced exclusively as a junior and only learned to hit topspin after a lot of work. So it was slice first and topspin second.

This fundamentally a very sound approach to the game and the thing is it provides a lot of room for growth after the junior game. It will be a game for a lifetime. The forehand is the weapon of choice and the backhand is initially played tactically with impeccable defence and subtle offence as you relate. So begin to introduce the drive...specific point by specific point. Over the period of a year you will see a lot of growth.

The question is how old is she at this point? The reason that I ask is that at a certain point the service motion must be emphasized or over emphasized. It is integral to the one handed backhand game.

One thing I really liked about the article is that it sort of referred to time frames. This stuff is not accomplished in an hour or two. You have to set out a plan and accomplish things over time. A year is an excellent span of time to think about. A trip around the sun. Excellent article...excellent thread.

[stroke]

Fed is such a beautiful player, the most beautiful ever, on full display here vs DD. If is hard to believe that watching him here that Novak and Rafa could have winning records vs him, as they do. Just simply 3 historically great players.

[nytennisaddict]

Have you seen Monica Niculescu? She gave Serena fits with her slice forehand mixed together with loopy backhands.

https://youtu.be/0s2nIJRtkUs

love niculescu's game! yeah, i can see that giving serena fits if serena is not 100%...

[stroke]

love niculescu's game! yeah, i can see that giving serena fits if serena is not 100%...

Have not, but I never watch Serena matches

[nytennisaddict]

Now of all the things that don't add up with Ms. Williams this guy as hubby would top the list in anyone else's bio. But it is just par for the course with Williams. The Jehovah Witness. Among other things.

It's so in vogue to pile on the Russians these days. Sharapova is at the bottom for me...for different reasons. It's the screaming. The wailing. Is she like that in bed? The neighbours would be horrified.

There are lots of rumours about Williams and it is just pure malarky to have hubby there making some sort of statement with his shirt. I mean...who could be so small in their heart. Who would publicly reveal how petty they are in their own heart. Well...someone that could marry or pretend to marry Serena Williams. That's who. Any energy generated by these two woeful idiots is lost on me. Don't care. Not interested. Just want to read about her confessions in the end. Tell the truth Serena. All of it. Do it for Jehovah's sake.

I loved it when last year when she got herself defaulted out of the tournament with behaviour that has never been witnessed in the "Ladies" draw before. She was shouting "other men" have said worse. What? If I am talking about women and their behaviour I would never say "other women" because that would imply that I am a woman. Not in my vocabulary. I might say "the women" get away with worse. But somehow it found it's way into Serena's vocabulary. Even in the interview room she repeated her Freudian slip..."other men".

She may be a lot of things, but a person of class she is not. She would have been better off marrying one of the ghetto rap stars she was dating. Thugs. Bullies. Much like herself. Please don't start talking identity politics either. The only responsibility lies with the individual. Void of any and all identifiers and qualifiers...she stands and falls on her own. A real jerk.

i was reading about the dare troll on reddit a bit... my personal opionion is that it was just random... someone pointed out a connection, and that opinion went viral...

what does sharapova and shrieking have to do with anything? guys grunt too... it's just deeper, and arguably less annoying depending on who you ask.

"other men"... point is that the ATP folks have said worse things with no repercussions, but she gets penalized...

i appreciate serena for being a champ, not sure why you have to bring in class or no class, ghetto thugs, etc...