Also, at the year end, players are tired and drained anyway. Rarely is the WTF exciting as prestigious as it may be; this year the race to no.1 has created some interest in it. The heavy balls and medium paced courts don't help.
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Also, at the year end, players are tired and drained anyway. Rarely is the WTF exciting as prestigious as it may be; this year the race to no.1 has created some interest in it. The heavy balls and medium paced courts don't help.
Looks like all players are not "tired and drained" this year end! ;-)Quote:
Originally Posted by crimson king
Humble Bull surely is.........
Djoko thrashes Berdych and, with it, clinches the no.1 spot for the year. Made no mistake. Only he and Fed seem to be in form in this tournament. Without Nadal and with Murray joining the rest of the pack, ATP is banking heavily on Fed-Djoko. Hope the new kids like Coric step up soon. If there was no prospect of a Fed-Djoko final (and that could still be spoiled depending on the outcome of the semis), this would be as bad as the WTA finals.
He surely is... "Humble Bull" still has not perfected the art of doing the right "stuff" before certain matches and/or during bathroom breaks when he is just about to lose the match! :)Quote:
Originally Posted by omega
Djokovic Clinches No. 1
-By ATP News; November 14, 2014
"Being No. 1 in the world is probably one of the most difficult and biggest challenges that a tennis player can have, so it's incredibly fulfilling and I'm very happy with this achievement,” Djokovic said.
http://www.barclaysatpworldtourfinal...hes-number-one
Exactly. Just for this quality alone the King of MTO, Emperor of Time Violation etc has been awarded the "Best Sportsman award" voted by his peers year after year.....Quote:
Originally Posted by raagadevan
What a role model for the future generation. Hail the Fake Bull!!
Hopefully the semis will be a little more exciting. Wawrinka-Fed should be close but depends on which Wawrinka and which Fed turn up. Nishikori did beat Djoko at The Open but he has been very erratic in this tournament. Looks like a third straight WTF title in the offing for Djoko.
In spite of all those "titles", "Humble Bull" wouldn't even come close to some of the other "greatest of all time" ("goat") players... He has so many disadvantages! For example, he is not the "legend" around whom his fanatic fans, ATP and Nike want to build their fairy tales, fantasies and business interests! Unlike at least one of the other "goat"s, "Humble Bull"'s father and mother never worked for any big multinational pharmaceutical & research company that could develop undetectable performance enhancing drugs! He has taken bathroom breaks, but those breaks did not reward him like the bathroom breaks (and whatever happens during those breaks) that some other "goat"s took in the last few years!Quote:
Originally Posted by omega
For example (to quote just a few); [ஒன்றா இரண்டா எடுத்து சொல்ல...! :)]
US Open 2014:
"Today against [Gael] Monfils on the fifth set once again Roger Federer left the court with something (not a make-up bag for sure), 3 or 4 minutes later comes back and oddly enough gets to his chair and proceeds to change his shirt! Woaw! 4 minutes in the bathroom and did not have time to change his shirt?…and then trashes Monfils 6/2 in the fifth!
Anyone with a very smart explanation to that please do!"
http://www.tenniscruz.com/us-open-ro...#axzz3GW9N0rit
2014 Cincinnati Open Finals:
"Ferrer’s level and intensity was not likely to drop thus Federer had to re-charge and so he did. After a quick bathroom break between the final two sets, Federer came out a new man. He served first in the 3rd set, opening with an ace and continued this fine serving till the end of the match, dropping only 3 points on serve in the set."
http://www.ubitennis.com/english/201...are-6th-title/
2013 French Open Round of 16:
"At that point of time [end of third set], Federer was looking down & out & clearly, [Gilles] Simon looked a different player in the 2nd & 3rd set from what we saw in the first set & the match in Rome which Federer won comfortably in straight sets. Roger Federer took a quick bathroom break and started to look a bit more charged-up and motivated from the very first game (of the fourth set), his come-ons both in English, Swiss Germans were audible to everyone."
http://www.rogerfedererfans.com/foru...d-garros-2013/
2012 Wimbledon 4th round:
"[Julien] Benneteau raced to 6-2 in the tiebreak, and took a two-set lead as Federer dumped a backhand into the net, his 19th error.
After a bathroom break, Federer won the next two sets as he regained the initiative, hitting 30 winners, 11 more than his opponent, and reducing his error count to eight."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...wimbledon.html
2011 Wimbledon Quarterfinals:
"After winning the first two sets, Federer, who had never lost a grand slam match, was feeling pressure because Tsonga had won the third and fourth sets. He reverted to a tactic many players use when they are about to lose. He went to the bathroom to disrupt Tsonga’s momentum and to stall for time."
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/7...uing-with-umps
2010 Australian Open Quarterfinals:
"Federer made 11 unforced errors in the opening three games. The first went to five deuces before Federer prevailed. He was 4-1 down in 20 minutes. It could have been five had [Nikolay] Davydenko converted the break points in the opening game. Federer opted for the bathroom break after the first set. Judging by the prolonged time it took to go through his ablutions the principal motive for the hiatus was not the need to spend a penny."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ten...mi-finals.html
__________________________________________________ _____________
I know that many tennis enthusiasts would find my comments blasphemous... The "goat" is the 11th avathar and/or the second coming of the Messiah! I hope I did not offend or upset any of my net friends! :)
I would not be surprised if Fed does a Lance on everyone but I find it strange that you would willfully ignore the dramatic increase in er musculature of The Bull between 2003 and 2004. The somewhat skinny teenager of Wimbledon 2003 was suddenly all biceps in Miami 2004. Rather dramatic, eh! I am not going to accuse him of doing drugs because I have no evidence to do so. But of the two, it's Rafa's career that raises many more red flags, including his increasingly frequent injury hiatuses. Everybody sympathises with injuries surely but if Fed's longevity is too good to be true, what does one make of Rafa's countless 'miraculous' comebacks from injuries as if nothing had changed? Disadvantage my ass! If Fed has done the dirty stuff, then as sure as eggs is eggs, Rafa would have too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by raagadevan
Excellent "stuff" ......OMG this is all you could find about the "Swiss Lance" in a career spanning over 15 years..... I pitty you.
Humble Bull will blow off this easily in one season!! Whats about all those frequent breaks this year.... Introduction of BP must be driving Humble Bull & his uncle crazy for sure!!
In any case, I highly doubt either Rafa or Fed would use bathroom breaks to administer drugs. That would be too late, by the time they take effect the match would be over. Come on, we know why the players do it. Just to buy themselves time, recover some energy and disrupt the other guy's momentum. It's gamesmanship. The point is well taken that Fed is not above that himself. However, that is one of the very few such aspects where he's culpable. The difference in time taken between serves of Fed and Rafa is very visible and not something that even the diehard Rafa apologists are going to be able to account for.
Er, meanwhile, Nishi did take a set off Djoko but completely fell apart in the deciding set and got bagel-ed. Lacks consistency and goes for high risk patterns of play too often.
The silence here is deafening!
waiting for the bull to roar back... :) when will it happen....
:)Quote:
Originally Posted by leosimha
http://www.thehindu.com/sport/tennis...?homepage=trueQuote:
Originally Posted by leosimha
Was busy man, don't know about the others. Some mouth watering developments in the last two days :D, wonder if Wawrinka chopped Federer in the back in the locker room. ;) So will Federer be 'fit' for the DC finals or not? Golden opportunity to win it against a so-so French team and he has a tiff with Wawrinka! Wow! I would not ordinarily attach much importance to the rumour mills but it seems even McEnroe has mentioned a long argument between the two after the match. I sympathise with the spectators who must have been excited about the Fed-Djoko final that wasn't. Bad advertisment for ATP, I am afraid.Quote:
Originally Posted by raagadevan
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ten...-Wawrinka.htmlQuote:
Originally Posted by crimson king
Looks like it would depend on whether or not he thinks he could win!Quote:
Originally Posted by crimson king
“I'm sorry I'm not fit to play. I hope you understand. I wanted to come out personally and explain. I did everything I could. I took pain-killers, had rest until the very end, but I just cannot compete at this level with Novak.” – Roger Federer, November 16, 2014.
“Here's the really damning bit: ‘I just cannot compete at this level with Novak.’ Federer went on to say he was not ‘match fit’ - unable to play to the standard he wanted. This at the year's most prestigious non-Grand Slam event, from which he will take over a million dollars back to Switzerland for reaching this year's final. He pulled out not because he was too injured to play, but because (he thought) he was too injured to win.” –Alex Chick; Eurosport, November 17, 2014.
lol, farcical and sad at the same time. Made a bloody joke out of the finals. WTF indeed.
Federer Fit To Play
Roger Federer is fit to play for Switzerland in the Davis Cup final and will play Gael Monfils on Friday.
-ATP News; November 20, 2014
http://www.atpworldtour.com/
"Things have been going well out there this morning. I was really happy with the way I felt." -Roger Federer, November 20, 2014.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/s...w/45218673.cms
A lot of things have transpired over the past week huh.... While it would have been great for him to get the number one ranking albeit without the slam, I always had the small thought of as to whether Federer was guilty of overplaying...He should have skipped either Basel or Paris. Opting to go for the YE No.1's come to bite him back. it Hope it doesnt have a big repercussion going into 2015.
Drubbed by Monfils in his singles rubber, though Wawrinka beat Tsonga. Suddenly, the final has become a tricky affair.
As for no.1, well, if he had given up Paris, he would have fallen even further behind in the race. But it was a red herring chase banking on the hope that Djoko's form would flag, which it didn't. If Fed had won either of Wimb or USO, he would have probably BECOME no.1 anyway. He should have given up the pursuit then and there. There's no great honour in getting to no.1 without a slam for the year. In a way, it's good because his feat might have got equated to the slamless no.1s of WTA like Wozniacki, Jankovic, Safina, etc. It seems, however, that it was Edberg who convinced him to just keep playing on because after a certain age, not playing, and the resulting rustiness, is more likely to cause injuries than fatigue from playing too much.
Switzerland win the DC. Tsonga got injured and Gasquet filling in was easily put away by Fed in the reverse singles. So that's a tick against one column that was blank: a DC title. Olympic gold quest remains, but, barring mass bunking by the rest of the big four, is probably out of reach. Good job, Swiss are not going to get another DC title in a hurry, unless Fed-Wawrinka pull off a repeat in the remainder of their careers.
Guess the bait of facing the opener against Monfils payed off. Though he lost badly, it gave him the much needed match practice and time to test his battle-worn back. He looked all imposing over Gasquet. Gasquet would have got the call for his two clay wins over Federer one as recent as the 2011 Rome masters. Wonder how good an opponent Julien Benneteau would have been. He's given Federer some headaches in the past.
Congratulations to the Swiss team for winning a a strategically played Davis Cup Finals! The last minute switch in the doubles team and Tsonga's reported injury also helped. Federer reportedly didn't feel he had to "tick against one column that was blank". As tweeted by Barry Flatman of Sunday Times,
Barry Flatman @Barry_FlatmanST
Federer: I've won enough in my career, I didn't need to tick any empty boxes. This was for the boys.
9:12 AM - 23 Nov 2014
Roger Federer arrives in India to play in IPTL
Tennis "legend" Roger Federer arrived in the capital to play his first match in Indian soil when he turns up for Indian Aces during the third leg of [Mahesh Bhupathi's] International Premier Tennis League (IPTL).
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/s...w/45401313.cms
This whole ITPL is an unwanted nuisance matter. These guys complain the whole year that they need breaks but right at the year end they are ready to play this. What happens if one sustains injuries in the process?. Not to mention this whole team/franchise model which has corrupted every sport in the planet now has come to Tennis also. Really pathetic.
I said this when this tournament was announced ...tennis will be ruined ...
I kinda like it, guys. They are not going to spend time playing more than a set or two a day and injury concerns will be less i believe.
One set of tennis really isn't very taxing, especially so in doubles. Believe me, I am a non athlete and I play a set and sometimes two, time permitting, everyday and I haven't got injured at all in the last several months.
And the rules kind of force players to attack and take the net. I'd really like the 20 second timer to be implemented in ATP also. It's not just about serving within a certain point of time. Players will expend less energy on long rallies if they know they won't be given too much time to catch their breath thereafter.
At the moment, tennis is too wealthy and too strong a sport to be really affected by a league at the end of the season. The 'fun' will start when say Fed retires and Djoko and Nadal cross 30, Serena retires, etc. Unless new players become stars and keep interest alive, the official tour will start to struggle. And then, IPTL will actually become competition. At the moment, it's just a fun tournament that brings tennis to non traditional centers. This tournament also shows that people will actually come to watch doubles and enjoy it very much...IF the big singles stars also play in it.
2014 ends on happy note for Sania Mirza
Sania Mirza grabbed her third mixed doubles Grand Slam title and wrapped up her dream season with the year-end finale trophy even as India’s established male tennis players found the going tough in 2014.
http://www.thehindu.com/sport/tennis...?homepage=true
Watched an ITF match for the first time. It was at a posh club just 10 minutes away from my place and entry was free so I thought why not.
Must say I was astounded by the level of play even in an ITF match. It was women's singles. One was a Russian ranked almost 290 and the other a Serb ranked 500 -odd. There was no let up in intensity throughout the match and both struck groundstrokes with awesome power. I can only imagine how good top 10 players would be to watch live in the stadium. TV simply doesn't do justice to the pace at which tennis is actually played. All I can say is, just try net rushing like a lamb to slaughter to the baseline game of today.
On the other hand, in my previous experience of watching cricket in the stadium, I felt TV was better because it allows you to switch off, mentally or even physically (I mean the TV set) and wade back into the match when you want. Things happen too slowly in cricket and compared to the match I saw yesterday, the intensity level was pretty low in the cricket matches I watched. Granted, those were IPL matches but yesterday's was ITF too, not WTA/ATP.
Nadal loses to Berrer in his first ATP match of 2015 (Doha) 6-1, 3-6, 4-6.
Nadal has kept his amazing streak of "never defending a non-clay title" intact..
Djokovic loses to Karlovic at Qatar Open (Doha) 6-7 (2/7), 7-6 (8/6), 6-4.
Nadal & Monaco reach the doubles finals beating Djokovic & Krajnovic 7-6, 6-1.
Give him an audience. Watch him perform.
-On the eve of starting his 25th season on the ATP World Tour, at the Aircel Chennai Open, Indian writer Deepti Patwardhan pays tribute to Leander Paes.
Hold them. Wow them. With a backhand drop volley; with a ferocious, lunging forehand volley. Poacher’s move. Squeeze the ball in the little space that neither men across the net can reach. The joy for his art. The joy his art can bring people.
“Magic”. That’s what Leander Paes plays for now. To create such moments, to add to his legacy. Now, that he has ticked most boxes. Now, that he starts in 25th year on the ATP World Tour.
Paes, the showman; Paes, the strategist.
“My own sense of competitiveness makes me put the hours in and then when the magic happens, in a big tournament or in a shot, it is very clear to recognise it,” he says. Dressed in a neon orange tee-shirt, he’s just finished yet another practice session in yet another off-season grind.
“We talk about athletes having an ego. But it is probably not ego. It is the pride of performance. The years of perseverance. I know every inch of that court. The difference between winning and losing lies in whether, when the pressure is on, you can hit a bottle cap on a tennis court.”
Eye of the tiger. Thrill of the chase. That’s what’s kept him in the hunt so long.
Andre Agassi, in his autobiography ‘Open’ describes Paes, whom he faced in the semi-final of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, as: “…a flying jumping bean, a bundle of hyperkinetic energy, with the tour’s quickest hands. Still, he’s never learned to hit a tennis ball. He hits off-speed, hacks, chips, lobs…Then, behind all his junk, he flies to the net and covers so well that it all seems to work.”
Paes makes it work. He wills it to work. “You cannot waver on the hunger.”
Son of an Olympic medal winning hockey player, Vece Paes, and basketball player, Jennifer, he is a natural athlete. Blessed with fast-twitch fibres. Blessed with a great hand-eye co-ordination. But the passion and the smarts it takes to stay in the game for so long were relentlessly developed and nurtured.
Paes, Bruguera, AgassiHe won the Wimbledon boys’ title in 1990. Became the No 1 junior in the world in 1990. Changed the way India looked at its athletes in 1996, by winning bronze at the Atlanta Games while ranked 126 in the world. For 44 years India had waited for an individual to win an Olympic medal.
“My god! I had worked my butt off for that one.
“The number of seven kilometre beach runs on the sand that I used to hate. But eventually when I stood on that podium I knew they were well worth it. I played the bronze medal match with a broken wrist, but the power, strength and speed in the legs got me through. It is probably the most important trophy I have. At that point no individual athletes from India were winning medals. So that was special. To move the whole country (into thinking) that we could be world beaters.”
At every Olympic Game event since, India has returned with at least one individual medal.
He went toe-to-toe with the Agassis of the world. He beat Pete Sampras on one occasion. In Davis Cup, he beat Goran Ivanisevic and Henri Leconte. The ‘flying, jumping bean’ was indefatigable when playing for the flag. He constantly punched above his weight in singles. He tirelessly played all three days on the Cup weekend. A record of 89-32 puts him fourth in the list of most successful Davis Cup players. First in the list of active players.
He has won 14 doubles Grand Slams with seven partners. Competed in 30 Grand Slam finals. “That number speaks of my longevity more than anything else.” He has won 54 doubles titles and one singles title on the ATP World Tour.
A serial overachiever - The legend of Leander.
For me, and many of my generation, he has been like the north-star in the Indian sporting galaxy. Always there. Seasons have come and gone. Good, bad and ugly. But once the clouds disperse, he’s found the vigor to shine on.
“I come from a country where you’ve got to be hungry. I come from a space where you have to be very, very hungry. Where I grew up, in Calcutta, you don’t get a free ride; you don’t get a free lunch. I’ve slept in enough locker rooms to know that feeling that you never want back. That taste in the mouth is so relevant, that even now when I don’t have to worry about it. I use it as a motivation”
So he keeps his body battle-ready and mind ticking.
He has no vices. “I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I don’t do drugs.” The reflexes haven’t dulled. Neither has the zeal. “Lots of athletes have lost their careers to alcohol.” Not him. “Not me.”
“The showcase has got more trophies than I ever thought I’d have, it’s got more Wimbledon trophies and Grand Slams than I’d ever thought I’d have. The Olympic medal, which was the one trophy I really wanted, is already there. At this stage in my career I am playing for pure passion. It is actually quite a refreshing feeling.”
Despite that, 2014 was not a good year. “Probably the hardest I had as a professional athlete.”
There were problems on the personal front. And there were problems on the professional front. Not enough matches – win-loss record of 26-16. His ranking dropped to 35 before he made up some ground. Brought it to 29. Still the lowest he has been ranked in the year-end list in more than a decade. At the age of 41, with Raven Klaasen of South Africa, he will start the long climb back. He’s looking forward to the long climb back.
When will he take the eye off the ball? When will he give up the chase?
Not yet. “Not till Rio.” His seventh Olympics, in 2016. Not many believed him when he said it after 2012 London. After one of the most trying times in his life, one of the most trying times in Indian tennis. When the power struggle between India’s top three doubles players — Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna — meant Paes had to play with Vishnu Vardhan, ranked beyond 300 in doubles then. When his historic sixth Olympics began without hope and ended in tears in the second round.
Not till Rio. They may start believing him now.
He looks the fittest he has in five years. No more one-hour sessions. “They are not enough.” He puts in a minimum of three to four hours a day. “Playing, training, stretching, recovering.” Midnight runs, midnight swims, midnight football sessions. And he needs to find a mental space to enjoy that pain. “I drive myself very hard, physically because I still have many goals to achieve. No point turning up at Rio for the sake of it.” He wants to go there to win.
“My mantra has been to find a way. I am not the most talented cat on the planet, I am not the tallest, I am not the strongest; I don’t have the best technique. Some people think I don’t even have technique on my backhand. But I only have to be better than the guys across the net. Life goes through a journey. Deal with adversity. This is another journey, I have to re-invent myself.”
Dance with the demons. Dance with the angels. “How you play the game of life is well within your control.” For years he’s been doing it. And with nothing more left to prove, he’s really starting to enjoy it.
Posted with thanks to ATP News: http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Ten...-25-Years.aspx
Roger Federer tells next generation the Big Four aren't finished yet
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/s...w/45824098.cms
Aircel Chennai Semifinals:
Wawrinka -vs- Goffin
Bautista Agut -vs- Bedene
Quatar ExxonMobil (Doha) Semifinals:
Ferrer -vs- Karlovic
Berdych -vs- Seppi
Brisbane International Semifinals:
Federer -vs- Dimitrov
Nishikori -vs- Raonic
Rafa Nadal wins the Doha Doubles Crown (with Monaco)
http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Ten...nal-Nadal.aspx
Karlovic bombed Djoko out of Qatar. Lost in three sets to Ferrer.
Fed beat Raonic for his 1000th win but it was mighty close. Raonic has improved phenomenally over the off season.