Anyone watching Federer/Djokovic in Dubai right now? Good match, going into 3rd set.
Anyone watching Federer/Djokovic in Dubai right now? Good match, going into 3rd set.
Grape works as a soda. Sort of as a gum. I wonder why it doesn't work as a pie. Grape pie? There's no grape pie. - Larry David
Federer pretty much dominated the 3rd set. I didn't see the first 2 sets, but it looked like 2009 Roger in the 3rd. He was hitting shots all over the place, moving like he was 25 again. He may be the 2nd best player in the world right now.
He won 10 of the last 13 games against Nole today. That's not an easy feat.
Last edited by MWM; 02-28-2014 at 12:40 PM.
Grape works as a soda. Sort of as a gum. I wonder why it doesn't work as a pie. Grape pie? There's no grape pie. - Larry David
Great 4 weeks of tennis coming up. Indian Wells has become one of the biggest non-slam events in the world. That's followed up with the Miami masters event, which is pretty close to the same.
Grape works as a soda. Sort of as a gum. I wonder why it doesn't work as a pie. Grape pie? There's no grape pie. - Larry David
Anyone watch Dolgopolov beat Nadal tonight? Amazing match. This guy Dolgopolov is fun to watch. He gave Rafa everything he could handle a couple of weeks ago in the Rio finals. He's one of those go for broke guys. Nadal wasn't his normal self and I still think he's not completely healthy. He's not as mobile as he usually is, but still almost pulled it off. I hope he gets some rest before May the French and Wimbledon.
Grape works as a soda. Sort of as a gum. I wonder why it doesn't work as a pie. Grape pie? There's no grape pie. - Larry David
Nadal was badly hurt. Great effort by Nadal. He did almost pulled it off. But, with his injury he wouldn't have gotten much farther, anyway. He really needs to take some time off. But, he won't as he commits himself to these tournaments.
"One problem with people who have no vices is that they're pretty sure to have some annoying virtues."
Rafa is claiming he's not hurt, but I don't believe it. His ground strokes look to be about 80% of his usual power. He normally hits forehands past guys easily, but it's lacking something and he's not hitting that many winners. Could be he's just in a rut, but I think there's something ailing him. He hasn't looked that powerful all year really.... at least not like he did the second half of last year.
He's also at that age where most players start to regress just a bit. It's possible he's just now beginning to lose a step, or a couple MPH off his fastball, so to speak. Whatever the reason, he's not where he was last year. It's a testament to his overall skill that he's still winning. I don't think he gets the credit he deserves for how smart he is as a player. Dolgopolov was playing great last night. Rafa figured out in the 2nd set that the guy was prone to errors with his backhand when he went for winners on high balls, so he started hitting these very high topspin shots to his backhand and he started making the errors. Normally, he'd just overpower a guy like that, but that wasn't working so he changed it up. Were it not for some very uncharacteristic errors of his own, he would have still won. But if the guy we've seen the last 2 events is the guy we're going to see all year, I don't see him winning anything other than the French.
Grape works as a soda. Sort of as a gum. I wonder why it doesn't work as a pie. Grape pie? There's no grape pie. - Larry David
The Federer - Dolgopolov semi is going to be fun to watch. And it looks Djokovic could be playing Isner in the semi. Most likely going to have a Federer - Djokovic final.
Grape works as a soda. Sort of as a gum. I wonder why it doesn't work as a pie. Grape pie? There's no grape pie. - Larry David
Kingspoint (03-14-2014)
Because of NCAA basketball, it's on ESPNNews.Originally Posted by MWM
"One problem with people who have no vices is that they're pretty sure to have some annoying virtues."
I watch all of my tennis on WatchESPN on my Roku. You can watch pretty much every match on replay as well. It's awesome.
Grape works as a soda. Sort of as a gum. I wonder why it doesn't work as a pie. Grape pie? There's no grape pie. - Larry David
Except for the current Federer Doubles match. Couldn't find it streamed anywhere.
(Been using Toshiba WiDi)
Last edited by Kingspoint; 03-14-2014 at 04:27 PM.
"One problem with people who have no vices is that they're pretty sure to have some annoying virtues."
Interesting week of tennis last week. Nadal lost to David Ferrer and on clay to boot. Ferrer was 5-21 in his career vs Nadal and the only time he'd beaten him on clay was their very first meeting in 2004 when Nadal was only 17. Rafa was 50-2 in this event before this year with 8 titles. Rafa has not looked himself much this year at all.
Djokovic lost to Federer in the semi, and was obviously hampered by an injury that turns out to be a wrist (uh oh!). Djokovic has been great this year so far, but wrist injuries for tennis players is bad news. I hope rest is all he'll need.
Federer made another great showing in a big event and looked like he was in line to win, but came up short and looked tired in the 3rd set. Will be interesting to see if the wear of a full season at 32 will impact him once we get into slam season this summer. But he looks thinner than he's looked in a while and is moving great.
Wawrinka has now added a Masters 1000 win to his resume pretty much dominating Ferrer in the semi and overpowering Federer in the final. No one wants to play him right now and outside of Nadal, he has to be the favorite at Roland Garros and at the US Open later in the year. If he can avoid those mental lapse games against lesser opponents, he could win a lot of events this year. I think his story is not getting the attention it warrants. He just turned 29 and has been a career journeyman who is now one of the top players in the world, and it could be argued that outside of Nadal is the best player. Has anything like this ever happened before? It's impressive. I'm a big fan.
Grape works as a soda. Sort of as a gum. I wonder why it doesn't work as a pie. Grape pie? There's no grape pie. - Larry David
Kingspoint (04-21-2014)
Wawrinka really is interesting. He could have an interesting 2-3 years here if he can keep his conditioning up. The big 4 seem to be fading a bit as a group - they will still be major factors for another few years at least, obviously, but I'm excited to see what is going to come next.
How's your tennis coming along MWM? I'm about to finish up my first year at 4.0. I'm 9-13, my lofty goal was .500, so I'm pretty happy, and I think I've figured out some things in the past few weeks. I've changed my serve a little bit and it's winning me more points. Amazing how much easier things get when you can take some pressure off yourself with a decent serve.
I played the guy who is going to win the league a few weeks back, and he played d-2 college tennis. Only time I've gotten blanked this winter. His forehand was unreal, capable of unloading on anything I gave him that was weak. The craziest thing, to me anyway, is that he also plays in the 4.5 league and is in last place, I think like 1-20 there.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
My game is progressing, but it kind of took a step back for a while. Something just clicked for a couple of months ago and I took a big leap forward. For about a month, I was playing the best tennis I'd played and had started to consistently beat guys who had always beaten me before. The guy I play with the most was like 7-1 against me. I beat him 4 straight times and the last couple weren't even that close. I felt confident and was playing great.
Then out of nowhere I started to lose my forehand. I have no explanation for it. It got to a point where it felt like a foreign movement to me. It was weird as everything just felt off and I couldn't figure out what I was doing or how to fix it. I had some idea it had to do with my footwork and balance, but I was at a loss to diagnose and then fix. I felt like I was a beginner again and was losing matches again.
I finally went to see the teacher I have gone to a few times and he had me diagnosed in about 5 minutes. By the end of the hour I was grooving the ball and knew what I needed to focus on. Since then I've only played once where I played sets and played great for a while before reverting back. Other than that, I've spent several hours just hitting with a partner and practicing. Last night I hit with a really good player for a couple of hours and it was probably the best I've ever hit. I'm going to do that a couple of times before I get back into my matches. It was the first time since I started playing that I took a big step backwards.
That's a pretty solid transition into 4.0. I'd like to move up to that group by the end of the summer. I think I could be competitive now (assuming my game comes back completely). As an aside, I may be starting to make regular trips to Atl. We'll have to hit one of these times, that is assuming you're still there.
Last edited by MWM; 04-23-2014 at 01:34 PM.
Grape works as a soda. Sort of as a gum. I wonder why it doesn't work as a pie. Grape pie? There's no grape pie. - Larry David
Kei Nishikori is quickly becoming one of my favorite players. First time I watched him was his 4th round match against Nadal at the Australian this year. Nadal won in 3 sets, but 2 of them went to tie breaker, and Nishikori outplayed him much of the time I thought (a tribute to the greatness of Nadal that he didn't drop a set).
I saw him again in Miami beat Ferrer, then come back from a set down to beat Federer in the quarterfinal, before having to pull out of the semi with an injury. He won Barcelona 2 weeks ago dominating his semi against Ernests Glubis (a really good player who's also been hot), and dominated the final even more. He's now in the final in Madrid playing Nadal. He beat Raonic in straight sets after being down a break in both and winning both tie breakers. He then beat Ferrer again in the semi in an epic match that went 3 sets.
He's only 24 and is fun to watch. He has some powerful ground strokes and is a very smart player. I wouldn't be surprised if he breaks through in a slam in the next year.
Grape works as a soda. Sort of as a gum. I wonder why it doesn't work as a pie. Grape pie? There's no grape pie. - Larry David
I'm actually not, I'm back in Columbus (Bexley.)
I think in hindsight I should have moved up sooner, so if I have advice it would be to move up as aggressively as you can. I still think I'm kind of in between 3.5 and 4.0, but it only helps your game to see the higher level guys up close. I could have probably won a league this winter if I'd stayed down, but I'd rather take my lumps and try to improve.
I ended up 10-16, which I'm ok with. Glad I was able to get to double digit wins, and hoping next year I can get to .500. Going to try to go hard on fitness this summer and play 1-2x a week and then see where I'm at in September.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
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