Black Rock Masters

Count Zero · Tennis legend

Black Rock Masters

VSandhi20 · Futures qualifying

even worse he's coming back on the ATP tour to play in a tournament in his country! Cant he make his mind up!

Count Zero · Tennis legend

if he deos that he should be dropped from the master tour as you have to be retired from the atp tour.

when asked about mac's complaints against him he said:

"Maybe he (mac) is too old for it," he said.

"They start saying this because I'm doing good. Maybe I'm too good for them."

what an idiot, of course hes old thats why its the seniors tour.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Have a great time tonight Count!

Give Bates Hell!

Hope you get to see Pionline. THat dude may have always been french, and suffed Tiger up too many times for my liking, but he was always a class act as well, both as a tennis player and a gentleman

Count Zero · Tennis legend

unfortunately Pio is on at lunch time, the matches for me will be:

Goran IVANISEVIC v Jeremy BATES

Eltingh & Steeb v Jarryd & Wilander

Sergi BRUGUERA v Paul HAARHUIS

depeding on how late they run might not stay fior them all.

my GF might also get bored, she was quite excieted when i said does she want to go to the royal albert hall on friday - then she remeber what was on

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

Enjoy yourself Count,

I agree that Rios is too young, I mean by that logic Tim and Greg should both be in the Masters tour. I understand lowering the age to allow Goran in as he was obviously injured and had been retired for a while, also he was over 35 (I think, correct me if I'm wrong). But 30 is silly. Mac is right and I hope he dishes out a defeat to Rios today...although a loss would prove the point!

steven · Tennis legend

Count Zero wrote:

but i will get to see bates vs goran - are you allowed to boo? everytime Bates misses i will cheer and shout come on boggo :)

That's bad! You can't boo the Brit, especially not Bates who did actually give Boggo a chance. Now Lloydy, that might be a different matter. Still, the thought of you shouting "come on Boggo" every time he misses did make me laugh.

anyway, why the hell in Rios on the senoirs tour?? he's only 30 ffs, thats an absolutle joke, what if fed decides to retire. would he be allowed on at 26?? thasts just stupid imo. there should be a min age limit like 35, but even thats pushing it.

I'm not surprised McEnroe's angry about it, it's completely ridiculous. I think the old limit was 35, which makes a lot more sense.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

true lloyd is worse (although of course he could change that) but bates is still bad (for mnay reasons - not all public...) unfortunatly i cant boo anyway i have been given complimetary tickets so if i act badly the person who got them (a friend who works at the RAH) wouldnt be given anymore. best behaviour it is then.

john · Top national player

imoen wrote:

Enjoy yourself Count,

I agree that Rios is too young, I mean by that logic Tim and Greg should both be in the Masters tour. I understand lowering the age to allow Goran in as he was obviously injured and had been retired for a while, also he was over 35 (I think, correct me if I'm wrong). But 30 is silly. Mac is right and I hope he dishes out a defeat to Rios today...although a loss would prove the point!

I may be mistaken but I believe in order to play on the Seniors Tour you have to either reach world no. 1, reach the final of a grand slam or be in a davis cup winning team. Tim has done everything but lol and unbelievably would actually be ineligible to play.

Edit: Just noticed this has been discussed in other thread lol.

-- Edited by john at 20:12, 2006-12-08

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

john wrote:

imoen wrote:

I agree that Rios is too young, I mean by that logic Tim and Greg should both be in the Masters tour.

I may be mistaken but I believe in order to play on the Seniors Tour you have to either reach world no. 1, reach the final of a grand slam or be in a davis cup winning team. Tim has done everything but lol and unbelievably would actually be ineligible to play.

Edit: Just noticed this has been discussed in other thread lol.

I confess to not knowing about the entry rules until reading it on the other thread but my point was that Rios is two and three years younger than two players who are both still active and doing reasonably well (OK, Tim more than Greg) on the main ATP Tour so he (Rios) should not have been allowed to enter the masters in the first place.

Sheddie · administrator

johnnylad wrote:

Have a great time tonight Count!

Hope you get to see Pionline. THat dude may have always been french, and stuffed Tiger up too many times for my liking, but he was always a class act as well, both as a tennis player and a gentleman

Incidentally, Tim had a winning 4-2 head-to-head record against Pioline

Tim also won the one which really mattered...beating the Frenchman 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 in the Wimbledon 1999 quarters.

They first played in rd1 of ATP Indianapolis 1995 and Tiger won 6-7, 6-3, 7-6. Pioline got revenge in the semis of ATP Copenhagen a year later 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 and then Tim won the above mentioned match at Wimbledon in 1999. They next met in the 2000 ATP Rotterdam final, Tim won the first set on a tiebreak but lost concentration and was broken in the 1st game of the 2nd and Pioline went on to win 6-7[3], 6-4, 7-6[4]. Tim won their last two matches very comfortable: 6-3, 6-3 in rd2 of TMS Indian Wells 2001 and 6-1, 6-4 in rd1 of ATP Basel 2002.

Pioline proved to be Rusedski's bogeyman - winning in 4 sets in the Wimbledon 1997 quarters on the way to the final. Greg won 7-6, 3-6, 7-6 in the quarters of ATP Rotterdam 1999 but Pioline beat him again on grass that same year in the semis of ATP Nottingham, on the way to winning the title. Pioline won their final match in a dramatic clash at the 2000 US Open, coming back from 2 sets to love down to win 6-7[4], 3-6, 6-4, 7-6[6], 6-3

Sheddie · administrator

VSandhi20 wrote:

even worse he's coming back on the ATP tour to play in a tournament in his country! Cant he make his mind up!

Is that true ? Where did you read that ? After his match today he said that he'd love to play the ATP tour all year round but his body won't allow him.

He's only lost 1 seniors tour match this year, that was to Ivanisevic a few weeks ago on indoor carpet. However, Jim Courier's absence from the tour this year has been a big shame, he's set up his own US version of the seniors tour and has been so busy with that, he didn't play enough European events to qualify for London. I reckon he could have beaten Rios at least once, on a fast surface I'd said that Courier would be favourite if serving well.

Rios beat McEnroe 6-3, 6-2 this afternoon, Mac lost his temper throughout the match and didn't really play particularly well. His serve wasn't firing and he missed some really easy volleys but still produced 1 or two touches of brilliance. I can't believe how ultra-casual Rios is about the court, he was just strolling to shots and looking as if he couldn't care less most of the time but whenever Mac started to threaten he just upped his level a bit.

Jeremy Bates reckons that Rios could still be top 50 maybe top 30 on the tour. I'm not at all sure about that to be honest; probably top 100 but from what I've seen this week, I think that the likes of Boggo, Tipsarevic, Sluiter etc would beat him indoors. Maybe on hard courts and clay he'd be able to trouble top 50 guys.

Pioline beat Leconte 6-4, 7-6: This wasn't really a competitive match, both players were messing around for most of it, lol. Pioline was hitting serves half-pace etc but there were some really funny moments. I can't quite believe how on earth Thomas Muster lost to Leconte in the round robin stage !!!

Pioline-Rios will be a fairly close semi, but I think that Rios will win in straights something like 7-6, 6-4. I'm looking forward to watching Ivanisevic's semi, I think that Goran will beat Rios in the final as the court is so fast. McEnroe at his best could have given Rios real problems and Goran is a similar style except he serves at 130mph+ and is 15 years younger !

Sheddie · administrator

Count Zero wrote:

unfortunately Pio is on at lunch time, the matches for me will be:

Goran IVANISEVIC v Jeremy BATES

Eltingh & Steeb v Jarryd & Wilander

Sergi BRUGUERA v Paul HAARHUIS

depeding on how late they run might not stay fior them all.

my GF might also get bored, she was quite excieted when i said does she want to go to the royal albert hall on friday - then she remeber what was on

What did you make of the Ivanisevic-Bates match, Jac ? From the scoreline, it seems like it was pretty close for quite a while: 7-6, 6-3.

Who won Bruguera-Haarhuis ?

Count Zero · Tennis legend

i had to leave at the end of the doubles.

The bates match was close, in the 1st set it looked at some points that he might have edged it. very serve dominated, but in the end i think it came down to bates tiring more to be honest. but i guess he could be happy with how he played. at one point he picked up 2 racquets, 1 in each hand to try and stopthe aces, but apart from that there wasnt much messign around. goran amde a lot of UE's he seemed to just try and smash the ball as hard as he could every shot, with a fair few finding the net.

the view from above gives a good shot of bates' bald spot to

Sheddie · administrator

I guess in the semis and final it will come down to whether Goran's opponent can find way past the serve. The problem Goran now has is that once you get beyond the serve, there isn't much else.

Did you have any dried peas ? If so it must have been very tempting with Bates' bald spot within firing range just below

Just found out that Haarhuis beat Bruguera 6-0, 6-4 in the quarters. I made a mistake earlier, it will actually be Ivanisevic v Pioline and Rios v Haarhuis in the semis. I reckon that Goran will beat Pioline, Pioline has been quite erratic from the baseline this week so Goran will probably be able to nick it in the breakers.

Haarhuis has the serve and weapons to beat Rios. Rios will really have to up his level a lot to make the final.