Remarkable non-GB performances

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

RE: Remarkable non-GB performances

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Well, poor Milos won one TB, lost the other, won one set, lost the other (not in that order0 - but unfortunately lost the final set that mattered. Happy for young Kei, though

Just a little mention, in passing, for Martina Hingis - still quite 'young' (nearly 34) - and out of tennis for ages and unranked (which is a misleading ranking if ever there was one) - who is into the Women's Doubles SF with Penetta. Nice to see her :)

In fact, when you look at some of the other semi-finalists:

Cara Black, age 35,
Venus, age 34
Peschke, age 39
Srebotnik, age 33
Penetta and Serena, age 32
and last but not least, Date-Krumm, a few days off age 44,

it makes you think that Joss and Anna could be around for some time :::)))

Spectator · All-time great

Really do not think that these night sessions are fair: would you want to have finished at 2:26 am and know - even with a day of rest - that you were then going to face Wawrinka, who's had a nice, normal few days?

Love that the average age of the women's SFs is above the age that qualifies you for the "champions" tour ... or would, if women, like men, were seen as being of interest later in their careers and had a "champions tour."

-- Edited by Spectator on Tuesday 2nd of September 2014 07:22:43 AM

indiana · Tennis legend

Last night was a bit exceptional. I presume that there must have been some significant delay, because I noticed that it was already very late quite early in that match.

Anyway, I still don't think its too bad ( although I admit that I personally like night sessions ).

Wimbledon not having final set TBs can be much more of an issue, as used to be the men's SF and final nonsense here ( with one SF following the other on the Saturday and the final on Sunday ).

Very late in night session, and next day off, OK I reckon.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

On a Frenchie note, congrats to Gilles Simon.

Yes, I know he lost last night in five sets but . . .

Gilles has also been coaching Monfils all this week.

Monfils has been playing for the last 18 months without any sort of coach - and Gael has just managed to make the quarters, out-foxing Dimitrov who really got rings run round him at times - and a lot of that was supposedly due to Gilles' help.

In fact, Gilles (who's a smart man) says if he coached Monfils full-time, Gael would win a Grand Slam, no problem. And the reason he's helping him as a friend is because it upsets him to see so much potential go to waste.

Only thing is, now Gilles has lost, he's off back home to wife and kiddie. But he says he's fully briefed Gael already for his next match :)

Spectator · All-time great

Really interesting. Thanks for this, CD. Well believe that the combination of Simon's tennis intellect and Monfils' own intellect and ability would be Slam-worthy.

steven · Tennis legend

Yes, that's very interesting - current world no. 31 coaching world no. 24! Still, if he can do the business with Monfils, he'd be in high demand as a coach once he retires from playing, given the number of players with potential going to waste.

BeefyDeedz · Pro player

Easily believe that Simon would be a successful coach. By all accounts he has a real tennis brain and if he had the athletic and skill potential of somebody like Monfils then he would definitely expect to be challenging for slams. People often criticize his tennis as boring but I also think that most people accept that if Monfils could focus himself and accept a more patient, counterpunching style, there's no reason why he couldn't win a slam.

korriban · Challenger level

BeefyDeedz wrote:
Easily believe that Simon would be a successful coach. By all accounts he has a real tennis brain and if he had the athletic and skill potential of somebody like Monfils then he would definitely expect to be challenging for slams. People often criticize his tennis as boring but I also think that most people accept that if Monfils could focus himself and accept a more patient, counterpunching style, there's no reason why he couldn't win a slam.

Forgive me, I thought that much of Monfils' problem to date was that he was over-patient and defensive, relying on outstanding athleticism to retrieve almost anything and playing the occasional hollywood winner or aggressive shot.......sort of uber-passive plus shot of the week! I always thought he should play with more controlled aggressive, not be more patient.

BeefyDeedz · Pro player

korriban wrote:
BeefyDeedz wrote:
Easily believe that Simon would be a successful coach. By all accounts he has a real tennis brain and if he had the athletic and skill potential of somebody like Monfils then he would definitely expect to be challenging for slams. People often criticize his tennis as boring but I also think that most people accept that if Monfils could focus himself and accept a more patient, counterpunching style, there's no reason why he couldn't win a slam.
Forgive me, I thought that much of Monfils' problem to date was that he was over-patient and defensive, relying on outstanding athleticism to retrieve almost anything and playing the occasional hollywood winner or aggressive shot.......sort of uber-passive plus shot of the week! I always thought he should play with more controlled aggressive, not be more patient.

Indeed, my point didn't quite come out well. Moreso, I mean that if Monfils could get it into his head to stick to a philosophy like most other players.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, I'd say some of the more "boring" to some, controlled aggressive style that Andy adapted to could serve Gael really well.

Both these players can still use their great skills, particularly defensive skills, to help them out at times when other players would be at a loss, but their games should not be defined by a "show" of these skills if they wish ultimate success.

RJA · Hall of fame

BeefyDeedz wrote:
Easily believe that Simon would be a successful coach. By all accounts he has a real tennis brain and if he had the athletic and skill potential of somebody like Monfils then he would definitely expect to be challenging for slams. People often criticize his tennis as boring but I also think that most people accept that if Monfils could focus himself and accept a more patient, counterpunching style, there's no reason why he couldn't win a slam.

Only those whose appreciation of tennis is so appalling limited that they regard playing with variety and constructing a point to be "pushing". Those people who consider the only measure of tennis ability is how many flashy winners someone hits. Basically people who aren't really tennis fans.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Huge congrats to unseeded Aussie, Omar Jasika, who won the US Boys Junior Open in both singles and doubles - the first boy in 28 years to complete the double in New York.

A 'little lefty', and in the same 'batch' as Nick and Thanasi, it remains to be seen if this is really the new golden era of Aussie tennis . ..

... but with Saville, Duckworth, Tomic, Kubler, Bolt, Thomson and Mitchell all as Top 300 players and under 23 (indeed, under 21 for several), it's really exciting times for them.

And good to see. And Nishikori too - it would be nice if men's tennis was little less European-dominated.

Go, Oz - it feels that something good is happening down under :)

philwrig · Hall of fame

They are a real force now, unlike the Americans who just can't find an elite young player. The Americans have dozens of top women prospects but no men, strange how it works.

I'm split on tonights final, I feel Cilic is playing the best tennis, but kind of think Nishikori is not likely to freeze on the night and has the better H2H.

Spectator · All-time great

There's a fine interview with Cilic here: www.bloomberg.com/video/2014-u-s-open-champion-charlie-rose-09-10-6g2h2EZOQ1qYPcRT3liHaQ.html. Very open, very articulate (and in a second or third or fourth language, yet).