Week 31 - ATP 250 - BB&T Atlanta Open, Atlanta, GA (hard)

Hoppy · Junior player

Week 31 - ATP 250 - BB&T Atlanta Open, Atlanta, GA (hard)

philwrig · Hall of fame

A nice run in the doubles would be good.

RJA · Hall of fame

TMH wrote:
He seems to regularly get broken when serving for sets/matches.

He has been broken when serving for a set at least 7 times in his last 12 matches, 4 times when serving for the match.

RJA · Hall of fame

Hoppy wrote:
So easy when you're watching in a nice cool room. Still should provide ammo for the depressingly predictable twitter abuse. He'll pick it up again

I doubt that anybody one this site thinks that players deserve abuse on twitter for losing matches or that any of us don't recognise that things are a bit more difficult on a tennis court than they are sitting in front of a computer. However, Dan is a professional tennis player and as such reasonable criticism of him if perfectly justifiable.

I also think that most of us acknowledge that he has had an incredibly good year and is now playing at a level way outside of his comfort zone and that he is going to have some tough defeats. I don't however think it is unreasonable to point to a repeatedly failure to serve out matches as a serious failing. Also while Nishioka produced some incredible defence today I lost track of the number of points Dan threw away from a position of total dominance because he failed to put away the final ball. Furthermore some of his play today was utterly brainless, I completely get that he is an aggressive player who has to take chances and so will hit unforced errors but today he hit well over half a dozen forehands long when he was just looking to belt the ball down the centre of the court as hard as possible.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

One could look at it from a different perspective in that in the past it generally takes Dan a couple of tournaments to settle down when on a North American swing last year he started slowly at Aptos, we know the guy is definitely not a machine and uses up a significant amount of emotional energy dealing with the things around him day to day.

Stepping up a level carries its own pressures and maintaining that level is dependent on the capacity to win ugly when not playing at ones peak against lesser ranked player, he was very close to doing that yesterday. I agree tomorrow's another day.

Spectator · All-time great

Both Jonny Marray and Ken Skupski/Dan Evans play today - though unfortunately (from our perspective - probably fortunately from theirs) quite late in the day.

SMC1809 · All-time great

RJA wrote:
Hoppy wrote:
So easy when you're watching in a nice cool room. Still should provide ammo for the depressingly predictable twitter abuse. He'll pick it up again
I doubt that anybody one this site thinks that players deserve abuse on twitter for losing matches or that any of us don't recognise that things are a bit more difficult on a tennis court than they are sitting in front of a computer. However, Dan is a professional tennis player and as such reasonable criticism of him if perfectly justifiable.
I also think that most of us acknowledge that he has had an incredibly good year and is now playing at a level way outside of his comfort zone and that he is going to have some tough defeats. I don't however think it is unreasonable to point to a repeatedly failure to serve out matches as a serious failing. Also while Nishioka produced some incredible defence today I lost track of the number of points Dan threw away from a position of total dominance because he failed to put away the final ball. Furthermore some of his play today was utterly brainless, I completely get that he is an aggressive player who has to take chances and so will hit unforced errors but today he hit well over half a dozen forehands long when he was just looking to belt the ball down the centre of the court as hard as possible.

I'm not sure if I can see your logic here. Because he gets paid, criticism from people who don't know him is okay? Does anybody you don't know criticise you for doing your job?

Spectator · All-time great

I don't think RJA meant that personal criticism directed at Mr Evans was warranted - indeed, that's implicit in his first sentence. I think he was simply saying that an objective critique of the performance of a professional athlete - who has chosen to perform in public - is reasonable to put on a board discussing tennis.

indiana · Tennis legend

Comparing expressing open criticism of aspects of aspects of the performance of a professional sportsman in a forum with expressing open criticism of performance of a person in an 'ordinary' job is a piece of nonsence. Let everyone just support footballers and not discuss their performances, eh ?!

In general this forum quite naturally has a wide range of opinions and tendencies to be more or less critical, but keeping out of OTT personal stuff to be found elsewhere, and to my mind is the richer for that. This is a discussion forum, not an unadulterated appreciation forum, as most folk come to realise ( and it is still filled with lovers if British tennis, who want our olayers to do well ). It may at times annoy some folk when their favourite player, indeed a player they may personally know, is subject to criticism, but sorry that will happen and fair positive and negative criticism is part of what we are and hopefully will long continue to be.

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 3rd of August 2016 08:01:48 PM

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

I think there are probably times when we as avid supporters, particularly when we know a particular player personally, find the criticism harder to take than th players themselves. Most that I have spoken to seem to take constructive criticism in their stride. It goes with the territory.

JonH · All-time great

I think the thing with Dan Evans is that he is probably always going to be a "flair" player who will play shots on a whim and , as a result , be streaky - probably a few bad results and then some top results alongside them. And that is fine, infuriating perhaps but entertaining. Just need to sigh at the ones that get away and cheer at the big ones that come along in due course. Getting to 70-80 in the World this year shows he has had an excellent 12 months and I am sure he will have some good results again before the season is out. Hopefully something will come along on the US hardcourts.

thejester · Satellite level

I think the criticism (and likewise the praise) is to be expected when somebody is in the public eye, which Dan is increasingly so.
I'm always disappointed when he loses a match, regardless of the opponent. However, when I look at the fact that exactly a year ago he was ranked 413 in the world, and a month before that at 763, it's hard to sweat a tight loss in a 250 he got into directly on ranking all that much. Progress has been fantastic. If he were 18, we'd be saying it was a meteoric rise. And I think JonH maybe hit the nail on the head above. The type of player Dan is he could easily follow a SF at tour level with a couple of R1 challenger losses, and you have to take the rough and enjoy the smooth.

indiana · Tennis legend

Points taken, but not sure you have to say accept belting a number of forehands long down the centre of the court or at least it's open to comment. And great though Dan's progress has been ( outdoing what I for one ever expected ) and much commented on, one can still wonder if he could do even better.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

R1: Jonny Marray & Adil Shamasdin (CAN) CR 150 (84+66) defeated (1) Ivan Dodig & Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (CRO/PAK) CR 58 (10+48) by 3 & 1

*****

QF: Jonny Marray & Adil Shamasdin (CAN) CR 150 (84+66) vs Marcelo Demoliner & Guillermo García (BRA/ESP) CR 506 (72+434)

indiana · Tennis legend

Ha biggrin

Dodig came here from winning the Montreal Masters in partnership with Marcelo Melo, beating Jamie & Bruno in the final.