Week 35 - US Open (men's main draw - Dan) - hard

RJA · Hall of fame

RE: Week 35 - US Open (men's main draw ex-AM) - hard

BeefyDeedz · Pro player

What a match to watch, and what a great result for Dan! I do think that Robredo may be a step too far (what with the emotional toll, the unprecedented (for him) media coverage and whatnot), but that in no way retracts from his achievements. Proof that if you knuckle down you can achieve good things.

RJA · Hall of fame

Madeline wrote:
Oh, Dan. I wonder where you would have been now if you had worked harder from the start? Never mind, just keep it up from now on. Please.

I guess it is natural to ask this question but I think the man himself answered it well in an interview after qualifying when he said "I'm not sure I was ready" and something like "perhaps I needed to go through a stage of messing things up'.

While there is no doubt he has underachieved for 3-4 years there was no way he could have been playing like this two years ago. Physically, mentally, emotionally he simply wasn't the person he is now. At 23 he is still young and there is plenty of time for him to have a great career, the gutter press will dwell on his past but there really is no need for serious tennis fans to do so.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Special talent Evo, and as I've said before he can be a 'legend' in the game. Great interview afterwards on Sky, he must have had to walk about a mile to their studios with a cameraman following his every step.
He's now surpassing what I thought he was capable of, I knew he had dead cert top 100 potential but you now have to say he has dead cert top 50 potential if he continues on this path.
This match had everything from nipplegate to 2 players playing at fast forward speed, I think Evo must have also broken the record for the number of times he asked for his towel, but most of all we saw a GB player other than Andy playing world class tennis, it was a sight to behold.

cpmax · Improver

I suppose that challenger he could have attended will now be missed. Where next for his immediate plans though with this result? Take a week or two off then try for ATP 250 qualifying?? or keep to the top challengers for now until solidly in the top 100 (80-90)?

RJA · Hall of fame

cpmax wrote:
I suppose that challenger he could have attended will now be missed. Where next for his immediate plans though with this result? Take a week or two off then try for ATP 250 qualifying?? or keep to the top challengers for now until solidly in the top 100 (80-90)?

He was down for St Remy next week but has now withdrawn. After that it will be Davis Cup. Beyond that who knows. At the moment everything is fluid and he has many options. He could play indoor challengers in Europe, he could play the three hard court challengers in California which start in late September or he could play ATP qualifying. At the moment I doubt he is giving that too much though.

RJA · Hall of fame

Highlights of yesterday's match is now been shown again on Sky Sports 3.

-- Edited by RJA on Friday 30th of August 2013 11:04:41 AM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

RJA wrote:
Madeline wrote:
Oh, Dan. I wonder where you would have been now if you had worked harder from the start? Never mind, just keep it up from now on. Please.
I guess it is natural to ask this question but I think the man himself answered it well in an interview after qualifying when he said "I'm not sure I was ready" and something like "perhaps I needed to go through a stage of messing things up'.
While there is no doubt he has underachieved for 3-4 years there was no way he could have been playing like this two years ago. Physically, mentally, emotionally he simply wasn't the person he is now. At 23 he is still young and there is plenty of time for him to have a great career, the gutter press will dwell on his past but there really is no need for serious tennis fans to do so.

Along with Steven, I also agree.

Dan seems to know himself well and when he says he wasn't ready, it's exactly that. And he's not the first, nor the last. There are plenty of others who took their time, 'messing around' a bit first.

I also agree about body shape and strength - it's very difficult to play the men's circuit at age 20, however mature you are - for the slighter players it's even harder.

Some players do the college route, Dan just did his own version of college.

I may well be wrong but I'm absolutely sure there will be some set backs - it's not all going to be plain sailing. It's not a criticism (and it hasn't happened yet so, as I say, I may be wrong!) but I rather feel that it's the honeymoon period at the moment and there's going to be some bumpy times ahead (and some glorious moments) - it's just the nature of the man, the attraction indeed.

But he is certainly young, nowhere near his prime nor the peak age, it's all ahead of him. This year has been a blast - from Davis Cup glory, to Wimbly WC mess-up, great games, awful games, good boy/bad boy - as Phil says, it's all part of the Dan 'legend' - someone's writing the biography as we sit here this morning !

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Something tells me that the press are loving Evo as much as he is loving his tennis right now. He is a breath of fresh air in the way he handles is interviews.

Just had to love the quote "my nipples were going the same colour as your shirt". Classic Evo.

RJA · Hall of fame

Here is his post match interview with the Sky Sports team

http://www1.skysports.com/tennis/us-open/story/29393/8896310

Shhh · Challenger level

Coup Droit wrote:

Dan seems to know himself well and when he says he wasn't ready, it's exactly that. And he's not the first, nor the last. There are plenty of others who took their time, 'messing around' a bit first.

I also agree about body shape and strength - it's very difficult to play the men's circuit at age 20, however mature you are - for the slighter players it's even harder.
Some players do the college route, Dan just did his own version of college.
I may well be wrong but I'm absolutely sure there will be some set backs - it's not all going to be plain sailing. It's not a criticism (and it hasn't happened yet so, as I say, I may be wrong!) but I rather feel that it's the honeymoon period at the moment and there's going to be some bumpy times ahead (and some glorious moments) - it's just the nature of the man, the attraction indeed.
But he is certainly young, nowhere near his prime nor the peak age, it's all ahead of him. This year has been a blast - from Davis Cup glory, to Wimbly WC mess-up, great games, awful games, good boy/bad boy - as Phil says, it's all part of the Dan 'legend' - someone's writing the biography as we sit here this morning !

I agree with every word Coup, I think that assessment may prove to be spot on. I'm also interested in whether there is any knock on effect to other Brits? James (Dave) Ward's form has not been too shabby, will he continue to kick on, determined not to be overshadowed? Dan is obviously well known to many of the British Futures regulars, will another emerge from the pack in Dans wake? A rising tide raises all ships and all that.................I can hope can't I?

korriban · Challenger level

Wow! What a performance!

Watched the first set (which didn't take long cry ), then had a dinner with friends for the rest of the match and felt I couldn't check livescores without being rude!!! So it was a very pleasant surprise to see the result......and I love the press conferences, as well as his interview with Sky (which is posted on the Sky Sports website for those who haven't seen it).

The fact Bernie's dad openly refused to let Dan hit with his son in Miami 2012, and told Dan to his face that he wasn't good enough to play with his son, even though the paperwork had been organised and Dan had turned up on time for the practice.............well it's disgusting...........what an appalling person Tomic Senior appears to be.......I suspect much of Bernard's issues are a reaction to having a monster of a Dad like this.

I personally think Dan will really struggle against the ultra-consistent, uber-experienced and hyper-fit Robredo.....but then we thought he'd be unlikely to win against Nishikori and Tomic. The fact is that Nishikori clearly didn't know what to do against Dan's style (the Japanese is still young and maybe lacks experience himself - he seemed completely tactically unprepared for the Dan match) and Bernard often takes his foot off the gas in matches, or indeed runs out of gas. Tommy Robredo is the one player who has seen it all before, knows how to win playing pretty or ugly tennis, and will never let up until the very last point. And he hits hard, so it may be tricky to be as aggressive. But if, and only if, Dan's serves like he's never served before then he may have a sporting chance.....which is a testiment to his amazing improvement.

Still not a bad string of results for Dan.....13 wins out of 15 (with match points in both losses)!!!!!

It could still go pear-shaped for Dan if (or rather when) he has 2 or 3 first round losses in a row at some point over the next year - this happens to all good players - but if he keeps close to his support team when this happens, I'd hope he'll continue to be the "new" Dan, rather than revisiting "old" Dan.

Roll on Saturday! biggrin

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Don't his interviews just make you smile ? Can't quite decide if it's the slightly goofy smile or the turn of phrase or the fidgety twitches but you just love the guy . . .

Also, thought Dan was very astute in his analysis - so many players just talk about their own match, seemingly oblivious to how their opponent played (maybe that's just in the interviews but, at a lower level, I've noticed it very markedly amongst most pre-national and even futures players too).

Dan really zoomed in on how Tomic played way too conservatively in the TB, the style of Tomic etc. etc. And how he, Dan, changed and capitalised.

NB Tomic's dad's reaction is, unfortunately, rather common - I've seen it a lot in junior tennis - 'won't let my princess hit with a lower ranked player' . . .

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

With regard to CDs assessment on Dan and how he "wasn't ready" to be a tennis player a couple of years ago, it was interesting to see this interview today where Andy Roddick is talking to Roger Federer.

www.youtube.com/watch

Starting at 2:50 mins, Roger talks about how he got all that "stuff" out of the way between 16 and 22 years old before his career started to kick on. It just seems to mirror what is happening to Dan right now.

Thanks to Soto Tennis for the tweet with the link.

Spectator · All-time great

The US Open's Day 4 recap lists Mr Evans as "Player of the Day," noting (with a reasonable amount of hyperbole, I think even his most ardent fans would agree) "Suddenly, aside from Rafael Nadal, he just might be the hottest player in the mens draw." www.usopen.org/en_US/news/articles/2013-08-29/201308301377836423008.html

It will indeed be interesting to see how he copes post-USO. My sense is that many players who "explode onto the scene" and then fizzle dramatically are people who haven't had a huge amount of experience. He has been playing for years and doesn't just have the USO results; he's also got the Davis Cup successes strung out over time. And (which I suspect may be less true of some) the issue in the past hasn't been that he couldn't play well, but that he didn't. So while I'd agree that there will doubtless be bumpy times ahead - (and like others, I think they may start with Robredo) - it feels as if a trajectory that goes via the bumps into the top 100 doesn't seem unreasonable.