T1B

Indian Guardian Wells (ATP 1000 level tourney) kicked off this week in California, some consider this the Spring Western version of the US Open.

FYI, this is a tennis thread not a fucking golf thread or some fucking superpansy ass pickleball thread.

On the men’s side, it was looking like a really interesting draw with Djoker joining up with the rest of the tour (he typically plays the Slams and very little else) and Rafa Nadal coming back from injury after being competitive with Alcaraz in a Vegas exhibition.

Well, Nadal’s a scratch, pulled out before his first match with Milos Raonic and replaced by Nagal.

Kinduva bummer but nonetheless a strong draw, with Djoker, Alcaraz, Sinner (fresh off his Aussie Open win) and Medvedev rounding out the top four seeds. Of the American men, I’d say 12-seeded Taylor Fritz has the best chance to make a run. He’s won this tournament before (beat Rafa in the finals a few years back), is from Southern California and tends to play well in his backyard. Also won a few weeks ago at Delray Beach, FL torching fellow American Tommy Paul in the finals.

Not a clue what’s going on, on the WTA side of the house but in case you were wondering the women do play here at the same time (not typical in non Grand Slams). I thought I heard Venus Williams was in the draw but can’t confirm if she withdrew like Rafa did. If Sabalenka made the trip, her excessive grunts shall surely echo in an endless rally between the San Jacinto and Little San Bernardino mountain ranges.

Andy Murray won his first round match, and will now face Andrey Rublev (5th seed) in the 2nd round.
I only note this because, as L45B is no doubt aware, Rublev was *booted* from his semifinal match in Dubai last week.

It is HIGHLY unusual for a player to be defaulted from a match.
As you can understand, such a situation is highly disappointing for a crowd that paid $$$ to come see the pros play.

Rublev's default was controversial, but he has been a bit of a bad actor in the past.
Andrey verbally abused/threatened a linesperson, and he was -----> run.
Shocking turn of events.

I notice in the Indian Wells draw that Ben Shelton (USA) could potentially meet up with Aussie champ J. SInner if they both get to the round of 16.
Would be interesting.

L45B wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2024 3:12 am Indian Guardian Wells

Well played. Rack it.

and fuck Cleveland.

Softball Bat wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2024 3:42 am
Rublev's default was controversial, but he has been a bit of a bad actor in the past.
Andrey verbally abused/threatened a linesperson, and he was -----> run.
Shocking turn of events.

Great blast, Bat. I suppose Rublev prefers cursing in Russian at the electronic line judges more so than the human (and Russian) ones.

Hilarious and yes, he was rightfully ——-> run.

Thread title: A+

RACKET.

Softball Bat wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2024 3:42 am I notice in the Indian Wells draw that Ben Shelton (USA) could potentially meet up with Aussie champ J. SInner if they both get to the round of 16.
Would be interesting.

You teed it up, Bat. Now it’s gonna happen. You probably remember me labeling Sinner as still-a-pretender last year and I’m convinced his trajectory would be similar now had he not hired Cahill. Now he’s a top 3 player with serious weapons and dangerous in every tournament he plays.

Despite my appreciation for Ben Shelton’s game and rise to top 20 status, I predict he will run into a buzzsaw and lose in straights to Sinner. I think Sinner will at least make the finals, if not hoist the trophy on Sunday.

A hard court is probably Sinner's best surface.
And a slow hard court is even better for him.

He cay play on clay, but over time, we might see that grass is his 2nd best surface.
Sinner has some really good coaching now. He is young, eager, and is gaining confidence. He has good size and can't be easily pushed around the court.
He will be a factor at all of the majors over the next couple/few years.

Shelton has some upside, and with that serve, he can be a factor.
But I see that his feet are somewhat slow. He doesn't have great balance, and his game is not refined... yet.
His career will be interesting to watch.

I agree with you. I can't see him taking Sinner down right now.

I’m with you there, Shelton has a pretty good coach too (his pops, a great player in his day).

Shelton could be the next great American hope. That serve and forehand will definitely help him. Agree with you on those other points.

In addition… Djoker ousted by 20-yr old unseeded Italian Luca Nardi

NoVax suffered a pretty bad loss to Luca Nardi, ranked just 106 in the world.

T. Fritz v. Holger Rune will be an interesting round of 16 match.

I watched the highlights of J. Lehecka v. S. Tsitsipas, and Lehecka was really impressive.
Very sturdy and competitive.
He will face Sinner in the quarters, and that will be an interesting match.

Sinner, as expected, got by B. Shelton.
Straight sets, but the first set was a battle.

Great thread. Maybe I shouldn't interject politics and money and the like but here goes. So Saudi Arabia is apparently trying to take over or buy tennis . . .

https://sports.yahoo.com/saudi-arabia-l ... 38447.html

"Saudi Arabia has made its move for tennis, Telegraph Sport can reveal, with a $2 billion take-it-or-leave-it offer to merge the men’s and women’s tours."

First golf now tennis, will this fuk up the competitions? $$$$$

Fore

poptart wrote:T. Fritz v. Holger Rune will be an interesting round of 16 match.

Fritz had Rune on the ropes, but faded in the 3rd set.

The quarterfinals are all set...

T. Paul (17)
C. Ruud (9)

D. Medvedev (4)
H. Rune (7)

J. Lehecka (31)
J. Sinner (3)

A. Zverev (6)
C. Alcaraz (2)

Medvedev's draw looks pretty favorable, and I see him getting to the finals.
The bottom half of the draw looks more compelling.
Zverev is certainly capable of giving Alcaraz fits.
Sinner should (on paper) advance to the semis, but I was pretty impressed with what I saw of Lehecka. That might be a battle.

Roach wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2024 2:55 pm Great thread. Maybe I shouldn't interject politics and money and the like but here goes. So Saudi Arabia is apparently trying to take over or buy tennis . . .

https://sports.yahoo.com/saudi-arabia-l ... 38447.html

"Saudi Arabia has made its move for tennis, Telegraph Sport can reveal, with a $2 billion take-it-or-leave-it offer to merge the men’s and women’s tours."

First golf now tennis, will this fuk up the competitions? $$$$$

Fore

Pimps and whores.

Alcaraz v. Zverev -- play suspended early in the 1st set.

Bee invasion!

poptart wrote:Sinner should (on paper) advance to the semis, but I was pretty impressed with what I saw of Lehecka. That might be a battle.

No battle.

Sinner was in top form.

Cruised 6-3, 6-3.

Softball Bat wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2024 11:30 pm

poptart wrote:Sinner should (on paper) advance to the semis, but I was pretty impressed with what I saw of Lehecka. That might be a battle.

No battle.

Sinner was in top form.

Cruised 6-3, 6-3.

Hey what's your strategy to deal with the sun when you have one of those matches where the sun is right in your face? Had one of those at 3:30 today on a N-S court where the sun was right in our faces. Made that side of the court unplayable. Perhaps this was a unique event with how earth rotates the sun because it's mid March as opposed to say July but, man, the sun really fucked with us today. Never had that happen as bad as today.

Alcaraz SMOKED Zverev, and that sets up a very compelling semifinal match between he and Jannik Sinner.

Nice to see American Tommy Paul take Casper Ruud (not The Ghost) out in 3 sets.
He will face the winner of A. Medvedev v. H. Rune.


It's a good question, SM.

Normally, the biggest problem area with the sun is when you are serving.
Hat or sunglasses is the answer for most folks.

I was never a hat guy, or a sunglasses guy. So...
In practice, I tried to train myself well to have the same ball toss on my serve every time.
Doing that can help you a lot with serving into the sun, because if you are confident in the location of your ball toss, you can actually squint pretty hard, or nearly close your eyes after you've tossed the ball up, if indeed the sun is in a real bad spot.

Softball Bat wrote: ↑Fri Mar 15, 2024 1:41 am In practice, I tried to train myself well to have the same ball toss on my serve every time.
Doing that can help you a lot with serving into the sun, because if you are confident in the location of your ball toss, you can actually squint pretty hard, or nearly close your eyes after you've tossed the ball up, if indeed the sun is in a real bad spot.

Fantastic. Thanks for the tip.

Alcaraz and Sinner went at it in a highly anticipated semifinal.

Carlitos got curb-stomped in the 1st set, but totally turned it around to win the 2nd and 3rd sets comfortably.

Nobody on tour covers the court as well as Alcaraz, and his strokes are rock solid.
Very compact, especially on the backhand side, but he generates some serious heat on his forehand, which he hits flatter than most of the top pros.
The one area of his game that could still be improved on a bunch is his serve.
Not much of a flat serve, to this point in his career.

I assume Medvedev will beat Paul in the semis.
Then I would look for Alcaraz to beat Medvedev in a tough battle in the finals.

Tommy up a set on Medvedev. Crazy tournament!

poptart wrote:I assume Medvedev will beat Paul in the semis.
Then I would look for Alcaraz to beat Medvedev in a tough battle in the finals.

Well, Medvedev made it very sticky for Carlos in the 1st set, but wilted a bit in set #2.
Alcaraz in straight sets.
Props to him.
Beating Sinner and Medvedev back-to-back doesn't suck.

Men's tennis has a clear divide between the top four and... the rest.

Djokovic
Alcaraz
Sinner
Medvedev

Everyone else, starting with Rublev, is pretty far behind these four, imo.

That’s about right. If there’s a #5 who can occasionally clip one of the four, it’s Zverev.

But otherwise it’s a big drop.

Miami Open now in progress.

NoVax is notably -----> absent.


Alcaraz (1)
Zverev (4)

Mevedev (3)
Sinner (2)

That's how it will shape up if the top seeds make it to the semis.

B. Shelton (16) will face Alcaraz in the round of 16, if they both make it.

H. Rune (7) will meet J. Lehecka (23) in the round of 32.
Interesting match.
Rune is one of my favorite players to watch.
If he can harness his talent, he has enough game to get to a major final, imo.
But to date, he is still a bit too erratic, and he sometimes has weak moments, mentally.
He is a bit of a pop-off, which can provide some entertainment.

poptart wrote:H. Rune (7) will meet J. Lehecka (23) in the round of 32.
Interesting match.
Rune is one of my favorite players to watch.
If he can harness his talent, he has enough game to get to a major final, imo.
But to date, he is still a bit too erratic, and he sometimes has weak moments, mentally.
He is a bit of a pop-off, which can provide some entertainment.

Rune stunk the place up and got rolled (6-1, 6-1) by #57 in the world, Fabian Marozsan, who has a lifetime record of 19-17.
lol

Awful loss for the #7 player in the world.

B. Shelton (16) will face Alcaraz in the round of 16, if they both make it.

Shelton falls to Lorenzo Musetti.

Musetti came up with a few epic shots in this match.
Check out the forehead winner in the point beginning at 2:36.
And the backhand winner in the point beginning at 2:46.



Good stuff!







Musetti will now face Alcaraz in the quarters.

That was incredible. If I could do 10% of shots that Musetti made in that video, that would be a huge improvement in my game. His backhanded slice is killer and I loved him shooting around Shelton's serve and volley (thought of course I loved that serve and volley). Very impressive player.

Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgarian, ranked 12th in the world) *SPANKED* Caritos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals of Miami.
6-2, 6-4

Talk about being ON your game.
Dude looked like Roger Federer out there.





I mentioned earlier in this thread that the main area where Alcaraz could still improve a lot is his serve.
You can see a few instances in these highlights that Dimitrov took advantage of relatively weak Alcaraz 2nd serves.
Grigor stood in front of the baseline and pounced on 2nd serves from Carlos.


Semifinals are set.

Dimitrov (11)
Zverev (4)

Medvedev (3)
Sinner (2)

Much like Dimitrov, I like to punish opposing players' weak second serves. I also do that by creeping up on the service line and depositing the return for a point. What about being close to the service line gives the returning player such an advantage on the point? Does the ball bounce into the strike zone for a perfect return? That's what I think.

Standing closer in on the service return has two benefits.

1. You are able to generate more angles, hence allowing for you to get your opponent out of position, and run more.



Notice how a person at the net (position B) is able to generate far greater angles than a person at the baseline (position A).

So, the same principle applies for the serve returner. Of course he cannot stand at the net, but the closer the returner stands in, the greater the angle possibilities are for him.

Of course, if a returner is going up against a big server, he can't stand in close. He will get blown away. This is why I noted earlier that Alcaraz still needs to improve his serve. Some returners can stand in close against him, robbing him of time, and putting him on the defensive, and generating angles on their returns that they otherwise would not be able to generate.


2. When you stand in close as the returner, you rob the server of time. He serves the ball, and your return quickly gets to his side of the court. The server, who should be on the offensive, is instead put on the defensive right from the start of the point.

Wow, good analysis. Thanks!

poptart wrote:Semifinals are set.

Dimitrov (11)
Zverev (4)

Medvedev (3)
Sinner (2)

Sinner throttles Medvedev 6-1, 6-2
Dimitrov gets by Zverev in 3 tough sets.


It'll be Sinner v. Dimitrov in the finals.

poptart wrote:It'll be Sinner v. Dimitrov in the finals.

Sinner crushed Dimitrov in the finals.
6-3, 6-1

I thought it would be more competitive.

Props to Sinner!

Softball Bat wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 8:35 pm

poptart wrote:It'll be Sinner v. Dimitrov in the finals.

Sinner crushed Dimitrov in the finals.
6-3, 6-1

I thought it would be more competitive.

Props to Sinner!

Kind of strange that a Sinner would win so easily on Easter Sunday.

Maybe Jesus H Christ is trying to tell us something?

They've been playing the Houston clay court event this week.
Relatively weak field, but it is still nice to see two Americans reach the final.

B. Shelton v. F. Tiafoe

poptart wrote:B. Shelton v. F. Tiafoe

Shelton wins it in 3 sets.
His first career clay court title.

It is a nice win for Ben, and as said, good to see two Yanks reach the finals of a clay court event.
However, I'll be very surprised if either of these cats get past the 3rd round at Roland Garros.