USO QF - Andy v Del Potro

christian · Intermediate Club Player

RE: USO QF - Andy v Del Potro

Count Zero · Tennis legend

i thought andy played ok, relaised that a lot of them time wouldnt be able to out hit DP so just get the rallies going foricng DP to generate his own pace on the ball, which some led to tame shots into the net.
also whenever andy dropped his serve he alwsy looked to bounce back, this 1st TB for instance.

of course it will be very tough for rafa, and the same tactics wont work, but he will at lteast have had 2 days off.

eblunt · Club Coach

Being 4 in the world is a real advantage draw wise - guaranteed avoiding Rafa / Fed / Nole until semi finals. And since Andy IMO is well capable of beating anyone outside those top 3 he could really take advantage of that and keep harvesting the points in masters and GS.

Also I believe it makes winning a GS much more possible - especially with a bit of luck such as the big seed in Andy's half going out in an early round, which would then open it up for him right to a final.

He's certainly made good use of his good fortune in being in a quarter away from the big 3 this time, and it's great he'll be guaranteed this in future draws for the immediate future.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Only saw the first 2 sets of the match, but watching them you never got the feeling that Murray was going to lose the match, despite trying so hard to blow both the sets, before playing excellent tiebreaks.

He did seem very passive on the court at times, but Del Potro kept making the errors to make his tactic work, but Murray made a lot more errors than he should be if he is playing like that.

Seems like he made hard work of it in the next 2 sets, but credit to Del Potro for fighting as hard as he did and at the end of the 2nd set he looked completely out of it and had nothing left, so I don't know where he found the energy to almost take it into a 5th set.

It does sound like Murray didn't play great, but he did enough to win, as I think he felt that if he just kept Del Potro out there, he'd eventually grind him down and wear him out, only for it to take a lot longer than he expected that it would.

If he plays like this against Nadal, he'll lose, but anyone who goes on court to play passively against Nadal isn't going to beat him anyway, so I'd be shocked if he does play like that.

And Nadal is really not playing well at all; he's playing like he did at the Aussie Open with the serve 10mph slower than it was at Wimbledon, the groundstrokes getting shorter and shorter and him looking short on energy.

Nadal looks beatable at the moment, and Fish played well for a set last night before he just couldn't get the ball in the court anymore and made a ridiculous number of errors, meaning Nadal didn't have to do anything to win the match.

This is Murray's best chance to beat Nadal (unless they meet on a lightening fast indoor court) as it's on Nadal's least favourite surface, Nadal isn't playing at all well, and Nadal looks tired - if he plays aggressively and manages to keep the errors down, he could well win the match as the court is quick enough to be able to hit through Nadal like Djokovic did in Cinciantti (or Tsonga at the Aussie Open)

I'd say Nadal is the favourite, but Murray won't get many better chances to beat Nadal than this.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

^^ What he said.

Big snag is - I assume Muzza v Rafa will be the first semi on Saturday, as their half of the draw has been first all along? So 11am start? Not the best time for Andy. I hope the prospect of just possibly beating Nadal will have him awake bright and early.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

well if it fed v roddick that will get the late start i assume although rafa is the world no1, but thsi is america

RJA · Hall of fame

Madeline wrote:

^^ What he said.

Big snag is - I assume Muzza v Rafa will be the first semi on Saturday, as their half of the draw has been first all along? So 11am start? Not the best time for Andy. I hope the prospect of just possibly beating Nadal will have him awake bright and early.

I think it will be a noon start. Not great but better than 11:00.

He knows how to beat Nadal and this time he should have a decent shot at it. At Wimbledon he was far from 100% after the Gasquet match but this time round he has two days to recover and hasn't been through such a tough match from a mental or emotional point of view. With nadal having dipped since Wimbledon Murray can win this if he plays aggresive enough.

The Hoose · Satellite level

Interesting to see Del Potro making such complimentary comments about Andy's performance. I'm trying to work out whether we were overreacting in the heat of the moment by saying how poor Andy was playing. But then I think of all those double faults.

Perhaps sometimes we're a bit too critical of passive Andy - he does use it as a deliberate tactic at times and it does actually win him a lot of games. I'm not sure how he'd have performed last night if he'd tried to go toe to toe with Del Potro for the whole match. The passivity also provides him with the element of surprise when he does choose to play a drop shot, go for a big down-the-line shot or approach the net.

Seems to me like he knows what he's doing with his tactics, and he has been winning a lot of matches with quite different styles of play, so I'm happy to back him. I definitely expect more intensity against Nadal, as the Spaniard is much more comfortable with the pace being taken off balls, as it gives him the chance to step in and finish the point.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Just one thought re that third set. When did he break the string in his racquet, was that in the third? I notice he says in his press conference that when he had to change racquets he served a few double faults and lost the rhythm on his serve.

I notice Andy doesn't change his racquets often during matches like most of the other players, so having to use a different racquet may be more difficult for him than for the others. I know they have a selection all strung to the same tension, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are still slight differences that can cause problems to a player who relies on touch rather than ball-bashing.

Ratty · County player

Some of you guys are on the jest.

Murray is the cleverest player on the tour in terms of putting the ball where his opponent does not want it. Del Potro likes big banging baseline rallies, so Murray slices low with no pace.

You seem to expect him to play like he did against Wawrinka every match. That is ludicrous. You get to the top by grinding it out when you are not playing brilliantly - which is most of the time. Nadal, Federer and Djokovic have all been pretty unimpressive throughout this tournament, but hey guess what, they are all in the final stages. Querrey and Phau looked fantastic against Nadal - but guess who won the matches.

Del Potro came off his 23 match winning streak to someone who was not really playing that well. Sounds promising for Murray, one would have thought? But you wouldn't think so from reading this board.

The Hoose · Satellite level

Ratty wrote:

Some of you guys are on the jest.

Murray is the cleverest player on the tour in terms of putting the ball where his opponent does not want it. Del Potro likes big banging baseline rallies, so Murray slices low with no pace.

You seem to expect him to play like he did against Wawrinka every match. That is ludicrous. You get to the top by grinding it out when you are not playing brilliantly - which is most of the time. Nadal, Federer and Djokovic have all been pretty unimpressive throughout this tournament, but hey guess what, they are all in the final stages. Querrey and Phau looked fantastic against Nadal - but guess who won the matches.

Del Potro came off his 23 match winning streak to someone who was not really playing that well. Sounds promising for Murray, one would have thought? But you wouldn't think so from reading this board.

I thought the tactics were right but there were worrying signs last night. Dropping serve twice every set - on three occasions on a double-fault - is poor. There were signs for the first time in a while (setting aside when he served for the Masters title v Djokovic) that Murray wasn't 100% switched on mentally. This is worrying as his new-found mental fortitude has been one of the main drivers of his success recently and it wasn't good to see old habits resurfacing. He was admittedly strong in recovering from adversity but another opponent would have served it out and not given him that chance.

indiana · Tennis legend

I just saw this match on TV, well from the second set on.

Andy quite definitely did not play as well as he did against Wawrinka, when I thought his level was really high.

However, he didn't play badly and kept in reasonable control of a player who had been on a fantastic run.

Yes, Del Potro looked very tired at the end, but as some of the TV comentators said, this was maybe more an emotional tiredness than physical.

What I will say, and I realise this is entering an old debate re how attcking Andy should be, in the second set ( and I understand the first as well ), I thought Andy played it just right, in that he was quite attacking at times, but mixed up his pace well and sliced and played slower balls. He kept Del Potro guessing and took advantage of the fact he basically has more in his armour.

However, after Andy broke in the third set, for a while through maybe over-excitement, I thought he lost the plot a bit and started trading too much with Del Potro. The way to win this particular match was the mixture as earlier, not I can hit harder than you can. He belatedly discovered the correct method again in the fourth set.

In essence, for most of the match I thought Andy played it well tactically, just was a pity his execution wasn't up to the extremely high standards of the Wawrinka match.

However, overall, well played Andy, and bring on Rafa ! .