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

[arturohernandez]

too bad sharapova couldn't give serena more of a challenge. would have been great to see a 3-set "final" in the first round.

Sharapova is a one trick pony. She hits harder and harder. It worked in the past but I would love to see her face Barty. I think Barty would carve her up in a minute. Just move her around and make her come in but dip the ball so that her swinging volley doesn't work anymore.

In fact, she may do that to Serena and any of the other big bashers she faces. Women's tennis has become about just hitting as hard as you can.

Ironic, that men are stronger but in the men's game brute strength won't get you there. Since Women are not as strong, strength and power can take you a long way.

But guile can get you to the top and Barty has plenty of it.

Assuming that she can avoid the dips that have come after her FO win.

[nytennisaddict]

Why does he have to play for four years? He can give up the money, play for a year, and then test the waters off and on during the year. If he can make a living at tennis and has a shot at the top 100, I would say he should take it.

If he loses and does not play as well, then he might need a little more time.

He might win a couple of rounds at the US Open. The real question going forward is if he can keeping doing it and can he improve quickly enough to win consistently.

my understanding is that he to maintain amateur status (and play tennis in ncaa college), can't take any money... else you are considered a "pro"
so yeah, he can take the money and still to college at some point, but he won't be able to play for the team.
i'm also making a presumption that he's going the college route as a spring board to the pro ranks (ala query, johnson, sock, etc...)

[nytennisaddict]

Sharapova is a one trick pony. She hits harder and harder. It worked in the past but I would love to see her face Barty. I think Barty would carve her up in a minute. Just move her around and make her come in but dip the ball so that her swinging volley doesn't work anymore.

In fact, she may do that to Serena and any of the other big bashers she faces. Women's tennis has become about just hitting as hard as you can.

Ironic, that men are stronger but in the men's game brute strength won't get you there. Since Women are not as strong, strength and power can take you a long way.

But guile can get you to the top and Barty has plenty of it.

Assuming that she can avoid the dips that have come after her FO win.

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...

[stroke]

Rublev wins 1at set 6-4 vs Tsitsipas. He is really getting the best of him slightly in an absolute slugfest. Rublev just broke to go up 2-1 in the 2nd.

[don_budge]

Rublev wins 1at set 6-4 vs Tsitsipas. He is really getting the best of him slightly in an absolute slugfest. Rublev just broke to go up 2-1 in the 2nd.

They've split sets. Stefanos won his serve at 1-2 after nine and a half minutes. Now here is more stupid. The commentator says that can actually help you down the line in the match. Tsitsipas fought off six break points and the fellow says that if you can accomplish that you feel you can do anything. Duh? In no way is a service hole like that going to help you down the line. The opponent has maintained pressure on you for almost ten minutes in one game alone. Roger Federer is the gold standard as stroke likes to say in taking of his serve efficiently and quickly and thereby putting enormous pressure on the opponent to hold his. What are these guys getting paid for? I've got the sound off and am listening to this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oag1Dfa1e_E

No more dumbshit tonight.

[don_budge]

They've split sets. Stefanos won his serve at 1-2 after nine and a half minutes. Now here is more stupid. The commentator says that can actually help you down the line in the match. Tsitsipas fought off six break points and the fellow says that if you can accomplish that you feel you can do anything. Duh? In no way is a service hole like that going to help you down the line. The opponent has maintained pressure on you for almost ten minutes in one game alone. Roger Federer is the gold standard as stroke likes to say in taking of his serve efficiently and quickly and thereby putting enormous pressure on the opponent to hold his. What are these guys getting paid for? I've got the sound off and am listening to this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oag1Dfa1e_E

No more dumbshit tonight.

Case in point...Rublev held quickly and then breaks Stefanos on the very first break point in the Tsitsipas service game. What actually happened that the nitwit didn't understand is that Rublev is really getting the feel for the Tsitsipas serve. Now he has reversed the tables and is putting more pressure on the serve than the server. Tsitsipas is starting to remind me of Denis Shapovalov in that he is very disorganised in his approach to match play. He almost looked as if he was approaching methodical earlier in the year. He even was talking like it. I would like to here his interview now. He will be complaining he doesn't understand what the hell is going on. Too much success too quickly. He's been reading his own press clippings. The Kiss of Death to the up and comer.

[stroke]

Rublev takes the 3rd aided by a very bad volley error by Stefanos' at 7 all in the tiebreaker. Very small margains here, between 2 similar players. A toss up match here as I kind of suspected. And now even if Stefanos can somehow pull this out, as DB would say, it does not bode well as he moves on in the tournament.

[don_budge]

Rublev takes the 3rd aided by a very bad volley error by Stefanos' at 7 all in the tiebreaker. Very small margains here, between 2 similar players. A toss up match here as I kind of suspected. And now even if Stefanos can somehow pull this out, as DB would say, it does not bode well as he moves on in the tournament.

I think the edge goes to Rublev in this match and he looks like the stronger player going forwards judging by his recent play as well. Tsitsipas looks to be in the Zverev Funk.

[stroke]

Stef needs to regularly employ the Fed tactic of the short knifing backhand to force Rublev into the net and then of course test his volley skills. I am not a huge fan of Stef's volley skills, but they are way better than Rublev's, which are simply poor. The problem is Stef does not have the knifing slice bh of Fed's.

[stotty]

Stefanos versus Rublev

I came back from Italy today to a disappointing mess in round one. Once upon a time the more creative player would seldom lose to a robot. He would toy with lesser talented players like a cat enjoys flipping mouse around before gobbling him up for a light snack. These days it's the other way around. The robot stifles the more creative, talented type and seldom allows him to make his creativity count. That, my friends, is not how it should be. Something has gone horribly wrong.

Driving in Italy was an experience. I drove up mountain roads where only one car can fit but yet two cars somehow have to. I have never had to improve my driving skills so much in so short a time. Anyone on the forum who has had to this will know exactly what I mean. I had to squeeze past oncoming cars with sometimes only an inch to spare. Frightening.

I 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.

Good to see Stan and Medvedev got through. I am looking forward to that side of the draw. Novak has a tricky route if everyone does what they are supposed to.

Zverev is two sets all as I write. He really ought to be beating players like Albot by now. He needs to learn to play with more margin. I watched him at Wimbledon. People compare him to Novak but he is nothing like that in reality. Novak uses more net clearance in neutral and defensive situations.

And, yes, switching off the commentary and relying on ones own judgement is the best idea. Most commentary is bloody awful. I seldom watch with the sound up these days.

[stotty]

Zverez squeezes through in five. The boy's got problems, though. He needs to cut out needless errors and learn to tough points out at the crucial moments. He won but he looked lost out there. He was devoid of any tactics or any overview of the match he was in. Sometimes you have to lift your head out of the match and assess what's going on and what's needed. Zverez can't seem to do that.

If the Big 3 have one thing in common, it's that they very stingy with points. They positively hate giving points away for nothing, absolutely hate it.

[don_budge]

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.

[don_budge]

Stef needs to regularly employ the Fed tactic of the short knifing backhand to force Rublev into the net and then of course test his volley skills. I am not a huge fan of Stef's volley skills, but they are way better than Rublev's, which are simply poor. The problem is Stef does not have the knifing slice bh of Fed's.

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.

[stroke]

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.

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.

[stroke]

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