2018 ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament...ATP 500...Rotterdam, Netherlands

[klacr]

I have always thought that clay court tennis was far less damaging on the body than hard courts.

yes. At the recreational level perhaps.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[don_budge]

I just hope Roger skips the clay season, like he did last year. Wise move, much too grinding. We want to see him for as long as possible.

I have always thought that clay court tennis was far less damaging on the body than hard courts.

[gzhpcu]

I just hope Roger skips the clay season, like he did last year. Wise move, much too grinding. We want to see him for as long as possible.

[don_budge]

Roger routs in Rotterdam. As if that surprises anyone. He has 97 titles. Anyone think he can break the Connors record of 109?

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

He really manhandled Grigor Dimitrov. Just completely dominated him. Grigor came out of the box with guns blazing. They had a couple of exchanges in the first two games that were scary. But they Roger just settled in. He took what he had to take and then he just started sending it back with interest when he got the opportunity and he doesn't miss out on very many of those. It was really an awe inspiring match and he felt just a tad guilty afterwards as he delivered his speech he said something to Grigor that after he got done feeling terrible about the match he would realize that he had a great week. Well...it wasn't all that great. Goffin had to retire in the semis.

But onward and upward. Can Roger catch Jimmy Connors at 109 titles? Answer: Yes, if he wants to. Let's face it...Roger can win these ATP 250's and ATP 500's in his sleep. I swear he looked as if he was in exhibition mode until he got to the finals and then he stepped on the afterburners. He gave a set to Robin Hasse in front of the Dutch man's home crowd and then just proceeded to mow him down. Just like that. Like flipping a switch.

If he wants to break this mark he can. I think he should. I think that Connors played much tougher fields than Federer...but this is just so impressive in terms of longevity. There won't be another like him. Not for a long, long while. Make that ever. It is such a pleasure to watch. I said "Federer in February" and it left nothing to be desired. Many of the matches in the draw become that more interesting when he is in the draw. Without him what have you got? Not much. Look at this week...three more tournaments but no Roger.

[klacr]

Let's not think about Roger just for 3 minutes and 26 seconds. He's only a tennis player after all. Instead take a brief look at the life of this Ethiopian chap. Dedication or what...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-a...-test-of-faith

This is awesome. Not gonna complain about South Florida traffic ever again.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[stotty]

Let's not think about Roger just for 3 minutes and 26 seconds. He's only a tennis player after all. Instead take a brief look at the life of this Ethiopian chap. Dedication or what...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-africa-43079345/ethiopian-cliff-church-gives-priest-daily-test-of-faith

[klacr]

Roger routs in Rotterdam. As if that surprises anyone. He has 97 titles. Anyone think he can break the Connors record of 109?

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[bottle]

Not sure we Brits are all that worldly or literate. Apparently the Scandinavian countries are the most literate in the world. America and Britain are so far down the list it's embarrassing. The Brits win when it comes to the top schools and universities in the world, as do America. Sadly we put all our resources at the top end and worry much less about those in the gutter or even in the middle. We don't want to educate them to well lest they end up with the skills to take the place of those at the top...heaven forbid. Not sure how it is your side of the pond.

Interesting. And just to add to your doubt (though I'm looking back almost 170 years) there were many other reasons that not more Americans wanted to read Harriet Beecher Stowe's book in the beginning. Later, of course, it took off here, too. And resistance to the book would grow along with support. Without it, would there even have been The Emancipation Proclamation and The Civil War? I said as much in a coffee house here where the guy I was speaking with immediately decided I was nuts. But the idea of any book being socially powerful may have been alien to him.

Eventually there would be a whole bunch of new novels classified by Wake Forest University researcher the late Professor Thomas F. Gossett (whom I knew a bit) as anti-Uncle Tom literature, with titles such as THE MASTER'S HOUSE, WOODCRAFT, LIBERIA, THE HIRELING AND THE SLAVE, AUNT PHILLIS'S CABIN and many others. So actually the Felix the Cat title UNCLE TOM'S CRABBIN falls in existing tradition. I present all this as curiosity, not attack although I'm sure a lot of anti-Uncle Tom literature is stupid. But maybe 10splayer would point out that I shouldn't say so unless I read it. And would be right. I just guess that it is stupid.

As for the separation, say, between The Ivy League and other universities, I always tell my high school students there is much less difference than what they may think, that the greatest and most revered faculty at the University of Rhode Island such as the Shakespeare scholar Warren Smith were every much as big in stature as anyone at Brown where I was an undergraduate.

It's just that position for position there were more great names at Brown. But the great ones at URI were just as great. So one needs to be aggressive and pro-active in finding the great teachers anywhere who will speak best to your personal experience. And never be discouraged. Also, that President Ruth Simmons, the first black president of an Ivy League university, told my class of alumni at a reunion we attended that we probably wouldn't be able to get in today. The competition, almost unbelievably fierce, comes from all over the world. The place changes all the time. It SHOULD NOT be the only alternative in anyone's mind. Here in Michigan, University of Michigan, Michigan State, Kalamazoo and many others are great schools. Including Grand Valley State though I sometimes wonder about its inception through the Amway fortune. Grand Valley State is closely linked with its huge contributor the De Vos family, with Betsy DeVos Trump's minister of education for the country and the creator as much as any other single person of all the charter schools in which I am now doing teaching time.

It sounds to me like there is a bigger snob separation between Oxford and Cambridge and other universities in Great Britain, but you know more, even though as you yourself have so interestingly explained, you have followed more of a self-education route. The tennis teaching pro who helped me the most and whom I therefore must respect the most, Jim Kacian, was captain of the Bates College Maine tennis team and Maine state doubles champ (like President George Herbert Walker Bush) and later played on the tour without ever having received in his life a tennis lesson from anyone. Many (most?) of our great writers were self-made.

Thanks for listening.

--Bot

[stotty]

I've read all the speculation on this, e.g,, the Brits were thirsty because their main knowledge of American blacks before that came from minstrel shows. Maybe, but does it make me too much of an Anglophile to think as I have always thunk that Brits are more worldly and literate?

Not sure we Brits are all that worldly or literate. Apparently the Scandinavian countries are the most literate in the world. America and Britain are so far down the list it's embarrassing. The Brits win when it comes to the top schools and universities in the world, as do America. Sadly we put all our resources at the top end and worry much less about those in the gutter or even in the middle. We don't want to educate them to well lest they end up with the skills to take the place of those at the top...heaven forbid. Not sure how it is your side of the pond.

[bottle]

I grew up on Felix the Cat. It was a very popular show here in Britain back in the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amGbBFsiuzc

I recant my accusation if mein Steve was first to bring up Felix the cat here, which shows beaucoups imagination. I watched the first linked cartoon and then the second, the just slightly retrograde "Uncle Tom's Crabbin."

Did you know, reader, that in the first year after UNCLE TOM'S CABIN was published, 300 thousand copies of it sold in the United States and 1 million in Great Britain?

I've read all the speculation on this, e.g,, the Brits were thirsty because their main knowledge of American blacks before that came from minstrel shows. Maybe, but does it make me too much of an Anglophile to think as I have always thunk that Brits are more worldly and literate?

[stotty]

Welcome back by the way. I trust that you got some proper rest and were able to somewhat rejuvenate yourself. Somewhat difficult to do after a certain age. Sometimes it seems it is better not to take a break...it's tough to get going again. I read recently after a certain age it probably better to workout and exercise every day. Forget the reasoning. Maybe had to do with creating a habit.

Getting going again ain't easy. I feel like a creaking hinge. Next time I will go jogging every day to keep everything ticking over. It's amazing, when one gets older, how quickly physical fitness and suppleness disappear.

I resisted the urge to help the kid at the hotel. I was glad I did. I am not sure I liked the family in the end. It's uncanny when spending 10 days in a hotel how the lives of others unfold before your eyes. By the end of the ten days you have a good picture of who are the best parents, which marriages are rotten and which one's aren't, and who are the good folk and who are the bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SekRwmb_pw8

But take a look at "Little Felix". "Felix the Cat" that is. There used to be a cartoon in America by that name. Wait a second. Here it is on youtube of all places.

I grew up on Felix the Cat. It was a very popular show here in Britain back in the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amGbBFsiuzc

Not really crazy about the backswing in the service motion. Amazing how these guys are not concerned with such a fundamental element of the serve. Ten years into their careers they are scratching their heads wondering why the serve is limited.

Watching Felix is like watching a Djokovic with slightly more flair. I find Felix and Krajinovic very similar to watch. All the players have the same swing shapes and virtually all have imitated Djokovic's style of play...even the same patterns. They are good these guys but not in the same hemisphere as Djokovic when it comes to that game style. Djokovic is bearable because he is so damn good at what he does.

I think Felix serves okay but there is certainly room for improvement. His best quality is his movement, which is smooth, especially going forwards.

It's tough to ascertain whether he will develop into a great player or not. All these guys look terrific until they bump into Roger. I guess that's the acid test: how players look once they are in the cauldron duelling with Roger....whether their games can survive being manipulated around.

[don_budge]

Talk about foregone conclusions...Roger Federer wins 6-2, 6-2 against Grigor Dimitrov. Roger not only defeated Grigor...he beat him. Dimitrov was beaten. The second set he just threw up his hands and there was absolutely nothing that he could do with the onslaught he faced from the other side of the net. Federer made him wish his mother never had him. Another amazing performance by the Swiss Maestro. Amazing in the sense...how does he keep up the level? Sort of like tennisplayer.net.

Roger absolutely controlled his service game right from the get go. Dimitrov never got a whiff. This gave Federer the liberty to play it fast and loose on the Dimitrov serve which seemed to get shakier and shakier under the withering pressure. It will be interesting to see what Federer does with his schedule as the year progresses. If he plays at least part of the clay court season he just pads his lead. Super interesting will be the Indian Wells and Miami tournaments.

Very professional of Roger the way he conducted himself all week. He played these guys like it was exhibition tennis giving the audience their money's worth. But in the end he is just head and shoulders over the rest of the field and it's amazing that nobody has been able to elevate their game to stay with him. The last matches against Nadal are a real indication how much better he is playing than the rest.

On to Indian Wells next month. Will Anybody step up?

[don_budge]

Roger Federer versus Grigor Dimitrov...ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament Final

How very, very appropriate that Roger Federer after reattaining his number one status plays his "clone" in the final of the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament. Federer has been in exhibition form all week as he has more or less cruised through the draw as if it was a foregone conclusion. Dimitrov makes his appearance courtesy of David Goffin getting hit in the eye and having to withdraw.

Grigor Dimitrov used to be known as "Baby Fed" and he has been trying with all of his might to shed that nickname the past couple of years. I wonder if he might have embraced it a bit more and enjoyed the comparison hoping some of the other stuff rubbed off. But he was dead set on making a name for himself under his real name. It has gotten him hear.

Here is a wonderful testimony to the don_budge paradigm of coaching tennis. Two of the best one handed backhands in the business. The difference...we shall see. It is about time this week for Roger to turn on the afterburners. He has given the crowd their moneys worth as he has dispatched the competition barely breaking a sweat. Without getting his feathers ruffled. He stands 6-0 against Dimitrov in their head to head and Grigor has been showing some signs of maturity but he still has a difficult time with the inevitable comparison between himself as the clone and the original in Roger.

Too bad about Goffin. The guy is a really good competitor. He has dragged himself by the boot laces and ranks as one of the top players in the world and he does it without fancy strokes. He is pretty one dimensional which limits his potential.

[stroke]

Federer is phenomenal. All his younger competitors fall to the wayside with injuries, not surprising considering their style of play. The so called next generation the ATP is hyping about, is not ready yet. Federer looks good for a while yet. When he decides to retire, it does not seem as if a dominating player is around.

I certainly agree we will not see another Fed. His technique and footwork are the best of all time. His mental aspect of the game is textbook perfect. The next gen has some very good players, just no Roger or Nadal. I admire what Nadal has done just as much. He is not nearly as talented as Roger, and has put together a great career. Still find it hard to believe, 10 FO's.

[don_budge]

Welcome back by the way. I trust that you got some proper rest and were able to somewhat rejuvenate yourself. Somewhat difficult to do after a certain age. Sometimes it seems it is better not to take a break...it's tough to get going again. I read recently after a certain age it probably better to workout and exercise every day. Forget the reasoning. Maybe had to do with creating a habit.

But at any rate...before making any prognostications about who's who in the future of tennis you should take a look at Felix Auger-Aliassime. I was impressed by his legs as much as with any particular or specific part of his game. He surely motors around the court pretty good. It looks to me as if he defaults to open stance forehands too often. He was a bit wild and inconsistent against Krajinovic. I like Krajinovic's forehand a little better from a technique point of view but there is something to be said about the physical energy of Auger-Aliassime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SekRwmb_pw8

I didn't watch it all that closely. In the end it is predominantly backcourt play which is becoming dreadfully boring. Seriously...I don't know that I can hang on past the Federer Era. But Federer is postponing my departure it appears with some rejuvenation of his own. Nadal is a big variable in a sense. Does he stick around or does he go the route of Djokovic and Murray? The two-handed backhand retriever style tennis is perhaps not as interesting to play as well. Players get bored and lose motivation. There are no creative options. Just incessant grinding. Moreover that is tough on the body. These guys would be better off with one hand backhands, smaller racquets and quicker courts. Of course Roger might prolong his career by a couple of years if things were to go this route. He has one foot in the classic era given his incredible longevity.

But take a look at "Little Felix". "Felix the Cat" that is. There used to be a cartoon in America by that name. Wait a second. Here it is on youtube of all places.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amGbBFsiuzc

Not really crazy about the backswing in the service motion. Amazing how these guys are not concerned with such a fundamental element of the serve. Ten years into their careers they are scratching their heads wondering why the serve is limited.