Wimby Rd 1 Beck defeats Baker 76 63 64

Count Zero · Tennis legend

Wimby Rd 1 Beck defeats Baker 76 63 64

indiana · Tennis legend

No, didnt see any of this. Re the result, pity, though not really unexpected.

Re excuses I am sure Jamie himself seeks no excuses, the guy to me generally seems to give of his best. But I do see about WR 150 as the best he will reach and he will do well to get there with the weapons at his disposal.

If folk give of their best, pepare well, but just aren't overall good enough then sadly to a large extent so be it.

-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 22nd of June 2010 04:30:27 PM

Count Zero · Tennis legend

it was JL mainly to be honest so i guess it was to be expected, would be interesting to listen to JL comment if that had been Boggo swapped with baker :)

indiana · Tennis legend

Hmm, yes guessed that was in your thoughts re what folk would say re Boggo . Can't disagree, particularly with respect to JL.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

i guess i was just hoping for a bit more from Baker here, his comments before the match were out to down play his chances, which probably inst a good sign that he is feeling like he can do it. .

i wonder if he maybe be better served dropping down to futures again, he'll be a top seed, and he is the type of player than seems to work by building up momentum through a series of events, his ranking should get him into the USOQ and i think if he's built up his form he has a chance to qualify.

it's funny i guess i see him and Goodall as types that need to get consistent runs going, where as Boggo, Evo and probably Ward are more likely to throw in a good week in out of nowhere amid barren spells.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

A decent enough performance but never had the feel of a match where Baker was going to win, and if he was going to, he was going to have to get a set up and hope that Beck didn't want to fight back.

Baker just doesn't have the weapons to go a lot further up the rankings than he currently is. He does everything reasonably well, but nothing well enough to trouble top players especially on a faster surface like this.

If you look at the players Baker has beaten in the last 12 months, only three of them have been in the top 300 at the time and the majority of his points come from the Asian futures he played last Autumn where he did well, but the quality of those fields were not that great.

Maybe dropping down to futures will be good in the short term just to get some wins and confidence back, but isn't going to solve the problem of him struggling to win matches at ATP level, or even challenger level (his career record is 29-48, which suggests he has always struggled at that level).

Count Zero · Tennis legend

so how does he develop the missing weapons? can it be done? we've heard that comment often enough, but cna you suddenly up your forehand etc? obviously its not easy.

maybe he needs to force himself to be more aggressively, more of a risk taker? when he's playing in the futures and winning much easier maybe he almost needs to try and turn them into training sessions?

the fact that he has only beaten 3 top 300 players in 12 months is not good tho.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Count Zero wrote:

so how does he develop the missing weapons? can it be done? we've heard that comment often enough, but cna you suddenly up your forehand etc? obviously its not easy.

maybe he needs to force himself to be more aggressively, more of a risk taker? when he's playing in the futures and winning much easier maybe he almost needs to try and turn them into training sessions?

the fact that he has only beaten 3 top 300 players in 12 months is not good tho.

And one of those three wins was against Guido Pella, who is a out and out clay courter (he has a negative record on hard courts at futures level).

He can try and hit the ball harder but in doing so may make too many errors, and could go for more on the serve, but in taking more risks may reduce his effectiveness.

Nalbandian, when he had that great run, changed his game, especially on serve, as he took more risks with it and hit it harder, and thus had a lot more success with it, but he had the rest of the game to back it up and a lot more natural talent to deal with in the first place.

I imagine these points have been put to Jamie in the past, given that we have been saying it for a long time, but it's whether he can implement a more agressive game.

goldfish · Futures qualifying

I watched the first set of this match. One comment JL did make was that Jamie has been working on improving his first serve - making it faster - and for that reason, he's lost matches recently whilst he's been making this change. Jamie certainly served well in set 1 although his second serve wasn't great and was easy for his opponent to attack. The basic difference between the 2 players was the weight of shot - much stronger from Beck. Jamie played an excellent game at 4-5 down in set 1, with Beck serving for the set. He won 4 points brilliantly to take the game to love and get back on level terms. Couldn't quite match Beck in the tie-break though.

Have to agree with comments above, that it is hard to see Jamie getting much higher up the rankings as he doesn't seem powerful enough. He is currently getting help from Annacone. Good luck to him though - he certainly has the right attitude to progress and if hard work counts, then he may prove us wrong.

spud · Challenger qualifying

Just got back, watched all of the 1st set of Baker. It looked to me as if he was hitting the ball just as hard as Beck. He has a very strong forehand, which hit quite a lot of very good winners in the 1st set, his backhand looked strong, he sliced very well when on defence.

He hit a couple of 1st serves around the 130 mark so i wouldnt say thats a weakness as he used it effectively from what i saw.

I really think, that, end of the day, grass just isn't and will probably never be his best surface and if he wants to improve on that, he needs come into the net much more and just keep pushing for very quick points.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

i thought baker worked with bates? or have i got mixed up. i guess he could be working with paul whilst he sees his contract out.

the serve seemed better on TV, and it is a vital aspect of the mens game now, so if he is able to beef it up then he will see rewards, i also get the feeling if you are serving well you will generally be more positive and play better as a result, even if you miss as shot you'll have the belief your serve will get you out of trouble etc.