Week 8 - ATP 500 Dubai, UAE - Hard

brendan · Strong Club Player

RE: Week 8 - ATP 500 Dubai, UAE - Hard

paulisi · Tennis legend

brendan wrote:
a 28 year old with a CH of 147 should not be beating a 21 year old in the top 100 whatever nationality they happen to be

That terrible logic. If that was the case tennis would be boring and bookies would be out of business

brendan · Strong Club Player

I said 'should' - doesn't mean it can't happen but based on form it should have been somewhere near a certainty that Kyle 'should' win

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

paulisi wrote:
brendan wrote:
a 28 year old with a CH of 147 should not be beating a 21 year old in the top 100 whatever nationality they happen to be
That terrible logic. If that was the case tennis would be boring and bookies would be out of business

Completely agree. There's no 'should' there at all.

Priesty · Challenger level

For me it just seems bizarre for him to lose, especially that comprehensively, to someone whose CH was 147 nearly five years ago without there being something strange going on in the background. But I could be wrong. It's been known many times. And scorelines can be misleading.

theemptyvessel · Club Coach

Something about brits in Dubai maybe, Andy played one of the worst matches of his life here against Coric last year, bad enough that Agassi decided he had to be deliberately tanking.

indiana · Tennis legend

Gee, Kyle still has his off days. Pity, but I suspect nothing more, nothing less and probably combined with his opponent having a real on day.

Not to say there won't prove to be something amiss. If it keeps being brought up just about whenever a Brit loses very unexpectedly, it will occasionally be so.

But I really do suspect that Skugor just played better tennis on the day and Kyle is fine other than maybe rather annoyed.

-- Edited by indiana on Sunday 21st of February 2016 02:40:12 PM

wolf · Tennis legend

QR1: Hyeon Chung & Jiri Vesely (KOR/CZE) beat (q1) Rameez Junaid (AUS) & Jonathan Marray 6-4 3-6 [10-7]

R1: Dominic Inglot & Robert Lindstedt (SWE) v Feliciano Lopez & Marc Lopez (ESP/ESP)
R1: Jamie Murray & Tommy Robredo (ESP) v (4) Henri Kontinen & John Peers (FIN/AUS)

indiana · Tennis legend

Nobody can say Murray / Soares didn't click big time, Grand Slam championees

But I rather hoped ( well assumed ) they'ed play more often together outside Slams than they have lately, rather than be on different continents with Jamie seemingly back to rent a partner and Bruno this past week been helping Melo to strengthen his WR 1 position.

-- Edited by indiana on Sunday 21st of February 2016 04:45:49 PM

LordBrownof · Futures level

Yes, what is going on with those two?

BeefyDeedz · Pro player

This seemed to be planned prior to the AO itself, anyhow, as Jamie mentioned his appearance with Nestor in some interview or other. They're good friends and I seem to remember them indicating that their future is certainly together in the championship interview. It maybe isn't such a bad thing, with the next 5 Masters and 2 GS' taking place within 3-4 months of eachother, for a new pairing to take some time apart closer to their homes.

TMH · Futures qualifying

A131 wrote:
Priesty wrote:
Kedders goes down 4 and 2.

In the words of Jamie Lawson......I wasn't expecting that
Surely there must be some underlying issue?
Edit - that very song is now playing on my local radio station. How apt....

-- Edited by Priesty on Sunday 21st of February 2016 10:01:17 AM
Here we go again - someone looking for excuses. Well that's how it comes across again. If the nationalities were reversed there would be people on here hailing what a great win it was for Skugor and whatever condition Edmund was in would be largely ignored.
I realise this a British messageboard so I can accept an element of bias up to a point - just not this notion that the other way player can't possibly have played better and only won because our favoured one didn't.

I couldn't disagree more. If one of our beat a much higher ranked (and arguably under-ranked) player so comfortably, I'd definitely be questioning if the other player was fully fit. That doesn't take away from the win for Skugor at all, but it's a bit ignorant to refuse to even question if there were any issues.

TMH · Futures qualifying

theemptyvessel wrote:
Something about brits in Dubai maybe, Andy played one of the worst matches of his life here against Coric last year, bad enough that Agassi decided he had to be deliberately tanking.

In the year previous (or possibly two) he beat Djokovic fairly routinely. Not the greatest comparison because of a match he quite clearly did tank.

indiana · Tennis legend

But "Surely there must be some underlying issue?" ?!

Well not surely at all, as the poster themselves conceded to a limited extent.

As I said, Kyle does have off days and maybe he did have one today and Skugor a very on day ?

Maybe aye, maybe nae, but no surelies ..

This wasn't questioning the possibilties. This was saying "surely".

As A131 suggests, there is the possibility that Skugor just played better. A131 didn't refuse to question if there were any issues, they basically questioned jumping to assumptions. Hardly "ignorant", the kind of comment that is generally resisted anyway on this forum even with rather greater cause and having read comments properly.

-- Edited by indiana on Sunday 21st of February 2016 08:28:57 PM

theemptyvessel · Club Coach

TMH wrote:
theemptyvessel wrote:
Something about brits in Dubai maybe, Andy played one of the worst matches of his life here against Coric last year, bad enough that Agassi decided he had to be deliberately tanking.
In the year previous (or possibly two) he beat Djokovic fairly routinely. Not the greatest comparison because of a match he quite clearly did tank.

I should clarify the point i was making. We all assumed something was wrong with that performance, so much so that there was an assumption that he tanked it just to get home for the Davis Cup tie with America, but Andy was quite adamant that he did no such thing and just had a bad day at the office. Is it so hard to accept that Kyle just had a bad day, the last 12 months would certainly indicate that Kyle is prone to throwing in the occasional poor performance and if his opponent was up for it I don't find it alarming or mysterious that he lost this match.