Week 43 - ATP - St. Petersburg

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Week 43 - ATP - St. Petersburg

The Hoose · Satellite level

Top seed. I like this new ranking.

steven · Tennis legend

Andy gets Troicki in R1, then probably Gulbis followed by no. 7 seed Ancic.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

I'm wondering just how bothered he will be about defending his title here, when he has won/been runner-up in Madrid and has Paris next week. I'd like him to win but won't cry if he doesn't.

steven · Tennis legend

Not very bothered at all, I think. I imagine he'd pull out now if he wasn't under threat of another zero-pointer.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Just for the record, Andy is also playing doubles here with Delgo. They've drawn the fourth seeds, Booty & Frantisek Cermak, in the first round...!

Not exactly unwinnable, I'd have thought!

Drew · Oct 18, 2008

Doubles Draw :

Top half...

BUTORAC, Eric USA / CERMAK, Frantisek CZE v DELGADO, Jamie GBR / MURRAY, Andy GBR

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Until I saw that Andy was playing doubles here, I was expecting him to withdraw due to fatigue on Monday (I don't think he can withdraw from this event while he is playing in Madrid), but the fact he's playing doubles maybe suggests he is actually going to play the event.

Wouldn't surprise me at all if he lost early though, either being outplayed by Troicki/Gulbis/Ancic, or tanked a match to save energy for Paris and Shanghai

Happycynic · Pro player

Yeah, I think he'll be dog tired, and perhaps make it through R1, but be done by Gulbis, who standardly takes sets off serious players (e.g. Nadal-and Andy at Queens). I just can't see him going deep after this week's efforts.

christian · Intermediate Club Player

I was only saying a couple of days ago that there seems to be so much strength in depth in the top 50 at the moment that you just don't seem to get many easy draws. I think this just highlights it. In a week where there is 3 ATP events on to get a draw like this is pretty tough going.

I suppose one funny aspect is that 6 months ago we'd have all been worriedly updating spreadsheets with Murray defending 250 points hoping he didn't drop too far. Now it's not a case of not caring but my main thought is hope he does ok but mainly is fresh for Paris. I mean whats a measly 250 points to Andy?

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

That's true, and oh what a relief it is!

After years of defending Andy against the haters on the old BBC boards and MTF, how nice to just sit back smugly and think

to them. (At least to the few remaining on MTF, many have changed their minds, and I very rarely go to the new 606 boards as I don't like the format)

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, as recently as his Indianapolis zero penalty it being discussied in some depth the effects that having to count "0" as his 5th optional might have on his rankings.

Well, more by luck than judgement it initially never even cost him a single ranking place, and now, huh who cares about optionals, Andy deals in the big stuff smile

I remember Steven ( I think it was ) preparing a table earlier in the year showing amongst the top 30 what a low % of points total Andy had made up of complulsories, and how % wise he was reliant more on optionals.

That was before the last 5 :
Wimbledon - Quarters
Canada Masters - Semis
Cincinnati Masters - Winner
US Open - Finalsit
Madrid Masters - Winner / Finalist

How that will now have changed. In fact if he gets knocked out early of St.Petersburg and Doha ( or wherever he plays before the Aussie Open ) and then does well at the Aussie Open, it will really have totally switched round even more than it has already.

steven · Tennis legend

Points in mandatories since Wimbledon (i.e. Canada, Cincy, USO, Madrid):

1775 Muzza (even if he loses today)
1400 Rafa
1305 Fed (despite the US Open win)
1050 Nole
< 500 The rest (there may be someone else who has scored more than 500 points in these events, but all the possibilities I could think of, e.g. Duck, Simon, JMDP, turned out not to have)

As someone who made the point about how much Andy was relying on points from optionals compared to the other top players just a few months ago (which at the time was a very valid point), I find this an amazing transformation! biggrin

If you add in the Olympics, the other event all of the big four played at, the table becomes:

1800 Rafa
1780 Muzza (but 1930 if he wins today)
1405 Fed (despite the US Open win)
1255 Nole

steven · Tennis legend

And now it doesn't matter how you count it

1925 Muzza (1930 including the Olympics so Andy is now top even taking into account that disaster!)
1400 Rafa (1800 including the Olympics)
1305 Fed (1405 including the Olympics)
1050 Nole (1255 including the Olympics)

indiana · Tennis legend

Madeline wrote:

That's true, and oh what a relief it is!

After years of defending Andy against the haters on the old BBC boards and MTF, how nice to just sit back smugly and think to them. (At least to the few remaining on MTF, many have changed their minds, and I very rarely go to the new 606 boards as I don't like the format)

I agree about the BBC 606 boards ( although to be fair I gave up in total frustration a while ago ). The old BBC format was so much better even allowing for the trolls, which I understand the new format was partly to get rid of. No, they just got rid of thousands of decent posters. It appears to be more a few managers' fantasies about how it should operate and look like as against the wishes of true sports fans.

When I was still around there, new managers seemed to take it in turns to post, saying they would consider and answer queries about the format, then would dissappear after a few weeks after being totally unable to reassure folk regarding decent points and queries. Apart from it's a new format, just give it a chance.

I believe I saw somewhere that the people in charge of the 606 fiasco are related to the folk in charge of Ceefax interactivity for sport. i.e. don't take any texts or emails any more, just take snailmail and seem to have one new letter about every 2 weeks ( seriously, look at page 359, it's pathetic ! ). ITV teletext seems to be managing to live with various pages of folk's texts and emails.

Sorry, I'd kind of forgotten about the 606 boards, haven't had a rant about them for ages smile

-- Edited by indiana at 18:25, 2008-10-19