Tennis Thread

[barmyarmy]

Well at least he won a set.

 

[SaiSrini]

Great win by Federer! Too bad he didn't have the opponent to make it a tight final, but still this is a fine performance from him back again!

 

[AbhishekS]

Roger that! Hell yeah.

 

[barmyarmy]

@Sai - it was tighter before the roof went on.

 

[Paki007]

Federer Another title for him.But i really feel bad for Murray,was supporting him

 

[puddleduck]

Anyone watch the post match interviews (the ones done on court straight after play)? Seemed a fairly defiant Federer by his standards. The comment about having had twins and this year refocussing on the tennis was particularly interesting. Seemed to be suggesting that he's been taking the last couple a little bit easier, but without a Slam for a couple of years and the Olympics this year he has put the work back in to be the best.

He was really bad in the first set, his unforced errors count was abnormally high, but from then onwards he just got better and better and Murray's serve rather criminally fell apart with the roof closed.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

yeah, fed was hitting the ball cleaner once the roof closed but murray's serve dipping to below 50% was really without excuse. it should be easier to serve without the sun in your eyes and no wind. meant federer was able to take the initiative in a huge number of points.

still not sure if it was a change in conditions or simply federer went and got his head right and murray began to wobble under the pressure.

I hope that's the disappointments over for murray, I do feel things are ever likely to reach this fever pitch again so hopefully if he does make another final it's relatively easy going by then.

 

[puddleduck]

I still think he'll win a major at some point, but the issue is that the younger generation of superstars must be coming through in the next few years, so it may only get harder once Federer starts to dissapear.

That said, I'm convinced Nadal has a limited shelf life with the way he's so on the edge of physical perfection as a player. As anyone knows in sport, that edge can very easily end up being walked off and never reached again.

Djoko should be all good for a while, but even then, he reached a new level when he started taking on the winners earlier and the confidence began to grow to match that. So if he enters a slump at any point, it may be tough to get out of.

Always felt the Australian or US are Murray's best chances of winning a major.

 

[Sulaiman7]

Roger federer

Another title , what a golden moment for Federer .

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

I still think he'll win a major at some point, but the issue is that the younger generation of superstars must be coming through in the next few years, so it may only get harder once Federer starts to dissapear.

I would have agreed maybe 3-4 years ago, that if he hadn't won by the age of 24-25 he'll struggle, he's only got the US and AO before he hits 26. the thing is though, there isn't a new generation. It's actually something slightly worrying for mens tennis as in another 4 years the quality could have dipped dramatically.

right now the young players on the scene are raonic, del potro, tomic, cilic, dolgopov, nishikori and dimitrov.

all these guys are 21-23 and would be expecting to make up the new gen but most of them haven't even cracked the top 20 yet (murray and djoko were top 10, i think, by the age of 19, nadal about 17 or 18)

del potro looks the closest to a dominant force, purely based on his earlier form though, tomic maaaaybe, but those two and most of the others are all just huge monsters that slug hard. only dolgopov and dimitrov look like traditional tennis players but they're certainly old enough that they should have been making inroads in big tournaments. what happened to donald young and ryan harrison?

add to this the major threat to big three beyond murray seems to be from players peaking late in their career like tsonga, ferrer and soderling. so in short, either there is a massive talent vacum behind nadal, djokovic and murray or modern fitness regimes and training are meaning it's taking longer to hit your best form.

I don't know, but murray certainly doesn't need to be looking over his shoulder for another couple of years because there's just no one there.

 

[puddleduck]

Yeah I agree that Murray has longer than I would have thought a few years back.

However, I'm referring to the next batch of players that none of us have heard of yet. The next Nadal/Djoko/Murray will appear out of nowhere at some point, and Murray better hope he's won one by then. Del Potro could be awesome, but injuries keep getting in the way.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

yeah, but it will take those guys 3 or 4 years to appear given they must be absolute nobodies right now. I'd heard of federer, djokovic, murray and nadal all way before they became slam champions. (well, nadal less so, he seemed to go from no one to slam champ in a year so fair point) but overall I think there's no one in the ATP I think looks that good enough right now. the new junior champ was vesely, another 6'6 giant I don't hold out real hope for.

certainly if murray is a slamless 29 year old he'll remain slamless beyond a fairytale swansong.

 

[puddleduck]

I'd quite like Tsonga to really slot into the top 4/5 as one of the men's elite players. Really good to watch for a big hitter.

 

[Auwais]

Yeah, Tsonga's a very extravagant player to watch, although his decision making is often very infuriating.

Seems to be a common trait of the current French tennis players, like Monfils and Gasquet, clearly very talented technically but don't have the mental resolve to challenge for the Grand Slams.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

US open under way so here's bump.

it's pretty much the same deal as all the slams for the past 3 or 4 years in that there are the same contenders.

no nadal this year so he's out. djokovic isn't looking the player he was but did win a masters in the run up so perhaps he's on the up and this is one of his favourite tournaments. federer is in flying form but the schedule of the US could see him struggle, semi finals and finals in two days, that's a big effort to recover from. murray is also in flying form but he has a horror draw, he'd have to beat tsonga then federer and then djokovic (probably) to win the thing, that's a big ask over a crammed final few days.