Indian Wells ATP 1000

[stroke]

Ah, didn't know that. The serve that "aced" Vera was, as I remember it, a normal serve that got blown back. Thanks.

Meant shanked, as you probably knew

[jimlosaltos]

Korda was swatting the ball away as if it was a pesky fly in set 2 and much of set 3...until it came to the moment of truth. He's a wonderful shotmaker but his forehand just fell away right when he need it most. By contrast, Rafa's forehand sprung into action right when he needed most...coupled with his trusty resolve. Amazing match. Really enjoyed it from both players.

Korda shoots from the hip, just like his father used to..

Great, entertaining match. The impression I got was that Korda was freewheeling, then when he served for the match (twice) he dialed it back just a bit. Hit approach shots more safely and got passed. Still took great passes by Rafa, but he wasn't getting those looks earlier.

My guess is that Korda did not get tight, simply thought that with a two break lead, he should dial it back. Probably would work against most anyone other than the Big 3.

[jimlosaltos]

Meant shanked, as you probably knew

Yup. Appreciate the correction. Never touched the strings <g>. Here's vid for anyone interested.

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/cres...ian-wells-2022

[jimlosaltos]

Sad to see Anisimova's meltdown after failing to convert match points vs Fernandez.
Some are questioning her nerves, but how do we know? Could have been food poisoning.
More positively, Fernandez at 19 yo has some knack for coming from behind. Did it repeatedly at USO. Has kept doing it since.
A couple of times and it might be just luck, but she just keeps digging in and pulling them out.
Awesome.

[jimlosaltos]

As a Tsitsipas fan, I'm not sure what to make of his win over Sock.

On one hand, great, gutty stand against an on fire player.

On the other, Sock exposed Stef's achilles heel IMHO -- his return of serve.

Sock was bombing them, 130 mphs with huge kick. But at that level I would think Stef has to get more in play. Big swings.

[stroke]

Jim, Sock was really hitting great forehands. Did you see any spin rates for the match with those 2? Would be very interesting.

[stroke]

Eurosport COM: ‘Got in his head’ – Nick Kyrgios sets up clash with old foe Casper Ruud after easing past Federico Delbonis.

https://www.eurosport.com/tennis/atp-indian-wells/2022/got-in-his-head-nick-kyrgios-sets-up-clash-with-old-foe-casper-ruud-after-easing-past-federico-delbo_sto8842235/story.shtml

I agree with Ruud that Kyrgios is an idiot.

[jimlosaltos]

Naomi Osaka was disturbed and perhaps lost because a presumably drunk woman from the club boxes shouted "You stink" at her while she lost at love in the first set. I hope Naomi develops a shell that helps her deal with these idiots.

But, it reminds me of "heckling" tennis players have endured. Searched for this one I remember only from the image of the littered, red clay in Rome.

Bjorn Borg won Rome while fans threw coins & trash that made the court look like “Trevi Fountain”, taunted him, ref 'changed' line calls 2 aid Panetta. Borg won anyways. Didn't return 4 years.

https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/29/archives/tennis-borg-victor-in-italy-crowd-asked-to-behave-borg-off-to-slow.html?smid=url-share

Then, there is the famous/infamous video of Maria Sharapova shouting at the French Open crowd after winning a point, "Allez-vous up your XXXXX".

Seriously, Indian Wells crowd is among the most respectful in tennis (outside of Wimbledon). Known to loudly spread a "shush" throwout the stands aimed nut jobs that hassle players.

[jimlosaltos]

Jim, Sock was really hitting great forehands. Did you see any spin rates for the match with those 2? Would be very interesting.

OH, man was he smacking the ball? Reminds me of ~2015 when the three biggest "spinners" on ATP were Sock, Kokkinakis and Rafa.

Didn't see any numbers shown during the match (sadly). But let me do a quick check.

There is no summary data, or top numbers at least that I can find. But individually searching shots, what do we find?

This presentation of the data does NOT distinguish forehands vs backhands vs serves. But selecting for "Winners" that are outside of the service box, presumably we get groundstrokes <g>.

I see a Sock winner at 204 Km/h and 3,243 RPM. Another at 194 Km/H and 3,819 RPMs. A third is "only" 171 Km/H but at 3,948 RPMs.

Ah, here is one, presumably an inside-out forehand, at 216 Km/H (134.2 MPH) and fairly "flat" (kidding) at 3,243 RPMs.

For perspective, we're unlikely to have found either the shot with the highest spin, nor the greatest speed because 1) They don't show all shots. I've selected "Winners" and I didn't go through every one of those 2) I had to search for this then click on each ball to get that shots data. It takes forever to go through every winner by each player for every match. Data is here:
https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/st...ab=CourtVision

But, let's be thankful they are even sharing this, I suppose <g>.

Here is one screen cap of an individual data point and how the data is displayed.

P.S. I clicked on only one promising "winner" by Tsitsipas and got one at 129 MPH, 1978 RPMs.

filedata/fetch?id=96866&d=1647197937&type=thumb

[jimlosaltos]

I can't believe I found this. Searching my email I actually was able to retrieve this from 2015.

{Note how Rafa was trying that take back then. I think Uncle Toni wanted him to experiment. I believe he no longer does that. My composite image, as I vaguely recall. But WSJ article by Tom Perrotta, who is much missed.}

filedata/fetch?id=96868&d=1647198337&type=thumb


Three Top Spinners

Per www.wsj.com the current Hawkeye averages are:

1) Rafael Nadal 3,413 RPMs

2) Thanasi Kokkinakis, 3,369 RPMs

3) Jack Sock 3,336 RPMs

[stotty]

Bjorn Borg won Rome while fans threw coins & trash that made the court look like “Trevi Fountain”, taunted him, ref 'changed' line calls 2 aid Panetta. Borg won anyways. Didn't return 4 years.
https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/29/a...smid=url-share

I remember that well. But the crowd and tournament shot themselves in the foot in the long run. Around that time the Aussie Open was still in demise with very few top players making the trip. The Italian Open was being considered as the event that might replace the Aussie Open if things didn't pick up. Luckily someone had the brainwave to move the AO to a better venue and to place it at the start of the calendar year rather than the end of it, which was a clever move if top players wanted to win the grand slam. Formally top players skipped the AO if they hadn't won the other three slams leading up to it.

After the debacle with Pannatta and Borg in the final, the idea of promoting the Italian Open to a slam was shelved.

[stroke]

OH, man was he smacking the ball? Reminds me of ~2015 when the three biggest "spinners" on ATP were Sock, Kokkinakis and Rafa.

Didn't see any numbers shown during the match (sadly). But let me do a quick check.

There is no summary data, or top numbers at least that I can find. But individually searching shots, what do we find?

This presentation of the data does NOT distinguish forehands vs backhands vs serves. But selecting for "Winners" that are outside of the service box, presumably we get groundstrokes <g>.

I see a Sock winner at 204 Km/h and 3,243 RPM. Another at 194 Km/H and 3,819 RPMs. A third is "only" 171 Km/H but at 3,948 RPMs.

Ah, here is one, presumably an inside-out forehand, at 216 Km/H (134.2 MPH) and fairly "flat" (kidding) at 3,243 RPMs.

For perspective, we're unlikely to have found either the shot with the highest spin, nor the greatest speed because 1) They don't show all shots. I've selected "Winners" and I didn't go through every one of those 2) I had to search for this then click on each ball to get that shots data. It takes forever to go through every winner by each player for every match. Data is here:
https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/st...ab=CourtVision

But, let's be thankful they are even sharing this, I suppose <g>.

Here is one screen cap of an individual data point and how the data is displayed.

P.S. I clicked on only one promising "winner" by Tsitsipas and got one at 129 MPH, 1978 RPMs.

filedata/fetch?id=96866&d=1647197937&type=thumb

Yes, a lot of these tournaments used to supply set statistics rpm wise on the players. I miss that. I found that much more interesting than the mph.

[stroke]

Jack Sock Doubles Magic In Electric Indian Wells …: https://youtu.be/Z-1gP8nLbus

And Nick thinks he is the clever one. Once again, the Sock forehand was clearly the biggest shot on the court.

[jimlosaltos]

Had to double check this one: Tommy Paul beat Zverev? I guess after the calls for his suspension Zverev self-suspended.

Paul attributes serving and volleying ( shock ! on those slow courts?).

I did not see the match, but here is an intriguing, short highlight reel vid on Twitter of Paul just victimizing Zverve's second serve.

https://twitter.com/TennisTV/status/1503227248282906625?s=20&t=jLZlZw0lDBwCvaSFbhqx3A

[stroke]

Had to double check this one: Tommy Paul beat Zverev? I guess after the calls for his suspension Zverev self-suspended.

Paul attributes serving and volleying ( shock ! on those slow courts?).

I did not see the match, but here is an intriguing, short highlight reel vid on Twitter of Paul just victimizing Zverve's second serve.
https://twitter.com/TennisTV/status/...DBwCvaSFbhqx3A

Zverev double faulted 4 times in a row late in the business end of the match.