Davis Cup 2015 - World Group Final - 27th-29th November

TMH · Futures qualifying

RE: Davis Cup 2015 - World Group Final - 27th-29th November

malincanada · Improver

WHAT. A. HOLD! Surely that's the one that will break the back of the waffle-eaters?!?!

TMH · Futures qualifying

GB finally hold after 0-40 and a total of 7 break points. Mighty.

Went 0-40, Deuce, Ad Belgium, Deuce - repeated another 3-4 times before GB finally got their first game point and hold. Every Goffin return ended in a break point, every Darcis return was saved.

It's evident to see who the weak links are today.

TMH · Futures qualifying

Castle and Lloyd think Darcis has been the better player of the Belgians.

Am I watching the same match? He's been awful.

TMH · Futures qualifying

GB break again, with another Darcis implosion. He hasn't held serve since the second set!

Cmon boys, one more game.

TMH · Futures qualifying

Game, set and match to GB - 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. I don't know what happened at 1-2* in the third, but Andy seems to have come to life and the Belgians (particularly Darcis) have fallen apart.

Huge win!

-- Edited by TMH on Saturday 28th of November 2015 05:00:17 PM

Spectator · All-time great

Phew. Well done, Murrays.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

TMH wrote:
Castle and Lloyd think Darcis has been the better player of the Belgians.

Am I watching the same match? He's been awful.

I beg to differ: one or other of them (I forget which & I carry a torch for neither) actually said that the Belgian captain, Johan van Herck, had been justified in substituting Goffin for Coppejans, which to me implies that he thought Goffin was proving to be the better of the two.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

And another thing... I was surprised when Bouncy turned up in the commentary box for the doubles after what he wrote in the Metro earlier in the week about the potential danger of having to go over to Belgium to do any commentary work despite the momentousness of the occasion! He was also getting my goat by referring to the Belgians as (unless my ears were playing tricks on me) "Belgiums"! furious

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

P.S. Chapeau, Andy & Jamie! biggrin Great match!

TMH · Futures qualifying

Stircrazy wrote:
TMH wrote:
Castle and Lloyd think Darcis has been the better player of the Belgians.

Am I watching the same match? He's been awful.
I beg to differ: one or other of them (I forget which & I carry a torch for neither) actually said that the Belgian captain, Johan van Herck, had been justified in substituting Goffin for Coppejans, which to me implies that he thought Goffin was proving to be the better of the two.

They literally said that Darcis had been the better player. This was around midway through the fourth set.

Sim · County player

GB have to be massive favorites now especially with Goffin having played and lost in the doubles so he won't have the advantage of being fresh tomorrow.

79 years done, 1 more day to go........

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

TMH wrote:
Gary Denton wrote:
it's funny though,because as soon as Bouncy makes a prediction, the commentators' curse strikes EVERY time :D
That's not a commentator's curse, that's just a moron making awful predictions.

You never said a truer word.

Helen, Bouncy wasn't there yesterday, but unfortunately he is back today and tomorrow.

I had to dash out shortly after the match ended. It was a bit nerve-wracking at times! I was starting to dread Jamie's service games, but they pulled through. I am absolutely delighted they decided to play Goffin - now he won't be any fresher than Andy, except that Andy has played many more matches this year, and had to play on hard last week (61 to Andy's 83, I think).

indiana · Tennis legend

Must admit I didn't see that much awfulness out there today

With essentially three non specialist doubles players it was for much of the match an atypical doubles match, which as I heard commented on actually would have needed some adapting to by Jamie. Indeed it was clear from the brothers' comments afterwards Jamie had had to adapt quite a bit during the match and be prepared to play further back.

In such a doubles match the simply better tennis players were likely to come more to the fore and these are clearly Andy and Goffin compared to Jamie and Darcis.

Jamie very early on, probably rightly, tried to impose himself and make a point with interceptions that didn't come off, and was I think knocked back a stride or two, but overall in an unfamiliar match was not too bad at all.

As for Darcis he played quite a lot of splendid shots and points, but was to me not surprisingly inconsistent. He is what he is, a good but far from great player.

So quite agree that Andy and Goffin were certainly the best players on the day, but not really that the other two were that bad.

-- Edited by indiana on Saturday 28th of November 2015 08:18:32 PM

philwrig · Hall of fame

Going into tomorrow, latest odds. Andy to win 86% chance and Kyle if he were to play Bemelmans quite surprisingly a 66 % chance. So anything other than an inspired Goffin, should be enough.