2021 Gonet Geneva Open...ATP 250...Geneva Switzerland

[glacierguy]

Ha Ha , you're right. I'll video at my outdoor club where no permission is required. Standby...end of this week looks good weatherwise.

[arturohernandez]

Roger "The Living Proof" Federer being long gone but not forgotten. This is the huge difference between him and his biggest rivals. Roger will live on in memory. As an idea. The other two will just slip down the memory hole. A collective sigh of relief. Thank God it will be the end of the bouncy, bouncy stuff. It cannot end soon enough. Both of them. Especially Nadal. He should be going down the rabbit hole this year at Roland Garros. Down the memory hole. Good bye...see ya never.

But Denis "The Menace" Shapovalov has been given temporary relief from the demons of expectations unrealised. Denis has handled everything thrown at him this week although not without some turbulence. Even in his only straight set victory he was fussing at his opponent, accusing him of sideline coaching. No matter...he played some really big tennis against a real bonafide clay court specialist. Whatever that means these days. It is all clay all the way. Even the grass at Wimbledon is the same on the "stempmeter" as the clay at Roland Garros. But here Denis runs into a figurative wall. Casper Ruud...a Scandinavian of all things. Where does that come from? Casper is being touted as a clay court specialist these days. Essentially this means you have no net game at all. The difference in any court being miniscule. ONE DIMENSIONAL. Jeez...the world is in 3D, why not tennis? Tennis is not metaphoring life in this case and is proving itself to be a dreadful bore. Try and watch this match for start to finish if you don't believe me. Watch, as Denis bounces the ball backwards between his legs on every serve. This move really makes no sense and he looks like an idiot doing it. But he thinks it is cute. So he persists. Somehow he has lost the stupid cap on backwards look which is a step in the right direction. Cap backwards, ball between the legs backwards. Denis...pay attention. Go forwards. Progress. Stop thinking like an teenager. Arrested development.

But here he has a chance. His flash in the pan style vs. "The Norwegian Wall". Denis hit an unbelievable backhand on the run to pass Cuevas coming to the net yesterday. A truly remarkable shot. Good thing he stayed on the ground and didn't attempt his nonsensical airborne style. This guy is preoccupied with looking "cute" and meanwhile time is a wasting. Ruud is having nothing of the cutey pie stuff. No frills. No thrills. Just bring home the bacon. Scandinavians tend to be such people. Remember a guy by the name of Björn Borg? If there is anything redeemable in this matchup...it will be the contrast.

It was a great final. Robapolov is finally learning to slice. And he is learning to hit the ball with more margin. But he is still inpatient. His defense is okay but not great. His offense is spectacular but too slim on margins.

He has to learn some variety otherwise he will stay where he is. You cannot win with pure offense anymore. You need defense and more importantly defense to offense.

If you cannot stay in a neutral rally and just wait for your chance, you will eventually lose.

And Shapovalov did. He just could not stay steady during the most important points.

He might get there someday but I am starting to think that he is not ready to make the next leap yet.

And the serve goes off during the crucial points of the match. He has to be able to hit the solid well placed serve that gets him a forehand that eventually he can attack with. Right now he goes for broke on his serve under pressure.

Even Sampras never went for broke really. He just hit with tremendous spin which gave him the chance to attack on the very next shot.