Murray may finally win a slam? Maybe....
Murray may finally win a slam? Maybe....
Originally Posted by rickastley
I really hope so. I've been routing him on for years. I'm sick of Joker and Fed winning all the slams, and Nadal with the french. Murray is kinda like Roddick imo, except English. Although Roddick has I think the 2003 US Open, but he is always that #3 guy who makes finals here and there. They just can't put them away.
Hopefully the Olympics gave him that extra mental edge to take it down.
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I think this will be as good a chance as any but he's still a big dog to win the title. Like JH said, the confidence after winning the olympics should help him. Murray will eventually get a slam or two buth e will have to go through Fed in the Semi than Joker in the finals assuming those two make it through which is highly likely. Murray is a hell of a lot better player than Roddick ever was, he just has to contend with 3 of the all time greats. Pretty brutal for anyone to sneak through and win a slam other than the top 3.
Andy Roddick just announced this will be his last tournament, retiring after the open.
tough life...
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yeah, poor fella, swimsuit model wife and apparently he's worth in the 40 million range which I think could be on the low side. He's playing that fucking loser Bernard Tomic tomorrow night, hope he gets through that. It would be nice to see him make some kind of push into the second week and play a few night matches. Im not a huge Roddick fan but it would still be entertaining to see the fans get behind him. Any of you remember Connors late career US Open run, it was good shit.
tough life...
Time for Fed to retire after his shock defeat last night. Murray now to face Berdych in the semis after the Scot survives an early onslaught by Cilic in the QF. Djko v Murray final is on the cards at this stage.
Time for Fed to retire? That was obviously a joke. I don't really care about the Open now that he's gone, but I said Murray was gonna win the tournament from the beginning and I'm sticking with that. He's about to break through, finally.
yeah Fed has quite a few good years ahead of him still, even though roddick is calling it quits, 30 is no longer a death sentence for tennis players. if federer wants to cement his legacy as greatest ever and survive the threat nadal will pose to his major record and title of GOAT, he needs to keep playing as long as he is capable of winning majors. if nadal ever matches/surpasses his slam totals its not even a discussion anymore as nadal has routinely owned him on the biggest stages in their most important matches.Time for Fed to retire? That was obviously a joke. I don't really care about the Open now that he's gone, but I said Murray was gonna win the tournament from the beginning and I'm sticking with that. He's about to break through, finally.
on another note, i'm glad to see roddick hanging it up, it marks the end of an era of US tennis that has been pretty forgettable. his early success really changed the landscape of tennis in the US where the focus was placed on serving big and hitting big forehands and we forgot about things like footwork, fitness, shot development and strategy.
The year he regains number 1, taking it over from 2 prime all time greats, breaks the all time wimbledon record and leads the money won list he should retire? Fed is gonna lose more and more often earlier in slams but he is the best player on tour this year, no reason he should retire.
Fed has cemented his legacy as the GOAT, there is no argument that can be made for anyone else ahead of him. Nadal could have been a threat to his total slams number if he could have been more durable but he's not, he won't threaten that number. No human can play the gruelling style Nadal does and have a long, healthy career.yeah Fed has quite a few good years ahead of him still, even though roddick is calling it quits, 30 is no longer a death sentence for tennis players. if federer wants to cement his legacy as greatest ever and survive the threat nadal will pose to his major record and title of GOAT, he needs to keep playing as long as he is capable of winning majors. if nadal ever matches/surpasses his slam totals its not even a discussion anymore as nadal has routinely owned him on the biggest stages in their most important matches.
on another note, i'm glad to see roddick hanging it up, it marks the end of an era of US tennis that has been pretty forgettable. his early success really changed the landscape of tennis in the US where the focus was placed on serving big and hitting big forehands and we forgot about things like footwork, fitness, shot development and strategy.
I really disagree on your assessement that Roddick is to blame for the current state of US mens tennis. Roddick would have a lot of slams to his name if his era did not match Fed's and then later Nadals. When he won his US Open things looked wide open for him, just bad timing and he still had a terrific career. Roddick also had terrific footwork and fitness, in fact his fitness is one of his best attributes. His weaknesses were his transition/net game and obviously his backhand. He never had a huge game off the ground, he occassionally would hit big forehands but since he was a kid he's essentially a grinder with a heater. I did a lot of coaching in the US from the years 1994-2003 and at the time most of the USTA coaching was pretty emulated around Rogers game. Obvioulsy big serve and big forehand are a focus of any decent program that is developing mens tennis but Fed's movement efficiency, his use of the chip backhand and his forehand strok technique had the biggest impact on USTA coaching programs. Roddicks game always had too many obvious holes in it for the USTA to focus it's development on.
Really hoping Murray can win this slam but Djokovic obviously is the favorite. Joker will probably take apart either Ferrer or Tipsarevic. Murray is the favorite against Berdych but Berdych is so ridiculously dangerous with his huge game that it's not a given. Not that any of you americans will care but it looks like Canada (where I'm from) will finally have a player who will make it inside the top 100 in Raonic. He has a huge upside to his game and his prime will be right around the time that Fed is long gone from the game and Djokovic/Nadal/Murray will be over 30.
Last edited by peter mcneil; 09-06-2012 at 11:23 AM.
a lot of these points are debatable and subjective, and i happen to agree with a lot of what you wrote...The year he regains number 1, taking it over from 2 prime all time greats, breaks the all time wimbledon record and leads the money won list he should retire? Fed is gonna lose more and more often earlier in slams but he is the best player on tour this year, no reason he should retire.
Fed has cemented his legacy as the GOAT, there is no argument that can be made for anyone else ahead of him. Nadal could have been a threat to his total slams number if he could have been more durable but he's not, he won't threaten that number. No human can play the gruelling style Nadal does and have a long, healthy career. btw - 30 now more than ever in tennis is long in the tooth, that's just how special Federer is. There are very very few players inside the worlds top 100 who are over 30, I'm guessing less than 10? In the past guys regularly would stay on tour past their 30's and sometimes push it to 35 or so.yeah Fed has quite a few good years ahead of him still, even though roddick is calling it quits, 30 is no longer a death sentence for tennis players. if federer wants to cement his legacy as greatest ever and survive the threat nadal will pose to his major record and title of GOAT, he needs to keep playing as long as he is capable of winning majors. if nadal ever matches/surpasses his slam totals its not even a discussion anymore as nadal has routinely owned him on the biggest stages in their most important matches.
on another note, i'm glad to see roddick hanging it up, it marks the end of an era of US tennis that has been pretty forgettable. his early success really changed the landscape of tennis in the US where the focus was placed on serving big and hitting big forehands and we forgot about things like footwork, fitness, shot development and strategy.
I really disagree on your assessement that Roddick is to blame for the current state of US mens tennis. Roddick would have a lot of slams to his name if his era did not match Fed's and then later Nadals. When he won his US Open things looked wide open for him, just bad timing and he still had a terrific career. Roddick also had terrific footwork and fitness, in fact his fitness is one of his best attributes. His weaknesses were his transition/net game and obviously his backhand. He never had a huge game off the ground, he occassionally would hit big forehands but since he was a kid he's essentially a grinder with a heater. I did a lot of coaching in the US from the years 1994-2003 and at the time most of the USTA coaching was pretty emulated around Rogers game. Obvioulsy big serve and big forehand are a focus of any decent program that is developing mens tennis but Fed's movement efficiency, his use of the chip backhand and his forehand strok technique had the biggest impact on USTA coaching programs. Roddicks game always had too many obvious holes in it for the USTA to focus it's development on.
however to say roddick had terrific footwork is flat out LOL at best. at no point in his career would roddick have ever been thought of as a player with elite footwork. you mention his struggles in transition...huge part of that is his footwork. its not even his fault, he's a big, strong, sturdy guy, he just has always had clunky footwork. i will say he definitely made the most of what he had, but he was just never gonna be that graceful mover that we see with federer and he didnt have the top end speed that a nadal or monfils has to just flat out run down balls.
im not saying it was roddicks fault that US tennis deteriorated to the point that it has, but he is the superstar that was handed the torch by the likes of sampras/agassi/courrier/chang. whether he wanted to or not he became the focal point of US tennis and kids looked up to him and wanted to play like him and tried to emulate him...and we are where we are now.
i think the USTAs biggest failing is that they try to shoehorn everyone into a restrictive set of parameters...they try to fit everyone into one mold that they think will lead to success instead of assessing player's individual talents and going from there. they dont want anyone to use anything but a semi-western forehand, and really discourage the one handed backhand...i know these are both good things for the majority of players but not everyone is the same and i feel like a lot of potential gets left behind...again this is just my personal perspective on things, i'm sure many would disagree with me, thats fine.
i mean if you want to talk about development why are we at least a decade behind the rest of the world in embracing the quickstart format for 10 and unders?
a lot of these points are debatable and subjective, and i happen to agree with a lot of what you wrote...The year he regains number 1, taking it over from 2 prime all time greats, breaks the all time wimbledon record and leads the money won list he should retire? Fed is gonna lose more and more often earlier in slams but he is the best player on tour this year, no reason he should retire.
Fed has cemented his legacy as the GOAT, there is no argument that can be made for anyone else ahead of him. Nadal could have been a threat to his total slams number if he could have been more durable but he's not, he won't threaten that number. No human can play the gruelling style Nadal does and have a long, healthy career. btw - 30 now more than ever in tennis is long in the tooth, that's just how special Federer is. There are very very few players inside the worlds top 100 who are over 30, I'm guessing less than 10? In the past guys regularly would stay on tour past their 30's and sometimes push it to 35 or so.
I really disagree on your assessement that Roddick is to blame for the current state of US mens tennis. Roddick would have a lot of slams to his name if his era did not match Fed's and then later Nadals. When he won his US Open things looked wide open for him, just bad timing and he still had a terrific career. Roddick also had terrific footwork and fitness, in fact his fitness is one of his best attributes. His weaknesses were his transition/net game and obviously his backhand. He never had a huge game off the ground, he occassionally would hit big forehands but since he was a kid he's essentially a grinder with a heater. I did a lot of coaching in the US from the years 1994-2003 and at the time most of the USTA coaching was pretty emulated around Rogers game. Obvioulsy big serve and big forehand are a focus of any decent program that is developing mens tennis but Fed's movement efficiency, his use of the chip backhand and his forehand strok technique had the biggest impact on USTA coaching programs. Roddicks game always had too many obvious holes in it for the USTA to focus it's development on.
however to say roddick had terrific footwork is flat out LOL at best. at no point in his career would roddick have ever been thought of as a player with elite footwork. you mention his struggles in transition...huge part of that is his footwork. its not even his fault, he's a big, strong, sturdy guy, he just has always had clunky footwork. i will say he definitely made the most of what he had, but he was just never gonna be that graceful mover that we see with federer and he didnt have the top end speed that a nadal or monfils has to just flat out run down balls.
im not saying it was roddicks fault that US tennis deteriorated to the point that it has, but he is the superstar that was handed the torch by the likes of sampras/agassi/courrier/chang. whether he wanted to or not he became the focal point of US tennis and kids looked up to him and wanted to play like him and tried to emulate him...and we are where we are now.
i think the USTAs biggest failing is that they try to shoehorn everyone into a restrictive set of parameters...they try to fit everyone into one mold that they think will lead to success instead of assessing player's individual talents and going from there. they dont want anyone to use anything but a semi-western forehand, and really discourage the one handed backhand...i know these are both good things for the majority of players but not everyone is the same and i feel like a lot of potential gets left behind...again this is just my personal perspective on things, i'm sure many would disagree with me, thats fine.
i mean if you want to talk about development why are we at least a decade behind the rest of the world in embracing the quickstart format for 10 and unders?
I pretty much agree with everything you said. Roddick had ok tour level footwork, not great not awful. I think his transition game problems were less to do with footwork and more to do with a passive baseline mentality. It sounds like you've played or competed in tennis? I am a few years older than Roddick but saw him at a whole lot of events while he was growing up, he sprouted quite late and was a huge grinder as a junior. Even after he grew and developed his huge serve that mentality always stayed with him. I think his forehand was always very overrated in terms of how big it was, he just had a massive serve and it plated up a lot of easy forehands for him. His forehand was never the dominant shot from the baseline that people thought, in neutral rallies he was pretty steady and passive with it for the most part. I think that was a big part of the frustration for his coaches and the davis cup coaches, they knew he needed to have a bigger game to compete with guys like Fed but I just simply don't think he had the talent to do it.
I totally agree that the USTA finds a playing style and teaches their coaches to work on that and not actually working around the individuals talents. Not enough one handed backhands as well, totally agree. I do think most coaches are not good enough to really recognize what a kid at 10 years old does so they just rely on what the USTA wants them to teach. I don't know a thing about the quickstart format, what is it? I played the tour from '94-2003 and would coach at various academies in the states to make ends meet. The only players I worked with were usually u14 juniors and up, basically just a hitting partner for them.
Time for Fed to retire? That was obviously a joke.
ferrer wins epic 5 setter earlier, del potro v novak on now.
my bad, thought you were serious. You hear the odd retarded sports talk show guy suggest this anytime Fed doesnt make the finals of a slam.
ferrer wins epic 5 setter earlier, del potro v novak on now.
The Ferrer match was a fucking beauty, two guys going balls out from the first point to the last. Joker is a horrid match up for Del Potro, he just defends so insanely well.
yeah was pretty sick...tough to watch, i love tipsarevic...total badassmy bad, thought you were serious. You hear the odd retarded sports talk show guy suggest this anytime Fed doesnt make the finals of a slam.
ferrer wins epic 5 setter earlier, del potro v novak on now.
The Ferrer match was a fucking beauty, two guys going balls out from the first point to the last. Joker is a horrid match up for Del Potro, he just defends so insanely well.
ferrer is just sick though with his fitness and movement...never looks tired, and for a smaller guy he can crank it up when he wants to...will definitely be pulling for ferrer from here on out
I absolutely love David Ferrer. He's so consistently good on every surface. Such a shame that he may never win a slam. He's for sure one of the best players ever who hasn't won one.
murray just about makes it through to the final in windy new york.
2nd semi postponed til tomorrow (as well as women's final) due to storms on the way.
novak looks like he could start the day a set down so perhaps the murray v djoko final isn't guaranteed just yet.
men's final will be played on monday (install a roof ffs!).
Going into his semifinal, Djokovich had won 53% of his return games. That is absolutely sick. The final figures to be epic (assuming Djokovich wins his semi, which I still assume is fair).
Murrays semi final was the windiest conditions I'v ever seen a professional tennis match played in. For those of you who don't play the sport it's difficult to put into words just how tough it is to play in that and Murray put together a master piece. Djokovic vs Murray final, Novak obviously the favorite but I'll be cheering for Murray hard.
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