The Tennis Thread 2014

[Senator Clay Davis]

Ugly end to the year as Serena romps Genie 6-1, 6-1. Clearly a tale of two half years for Genie, everything up to Wimbledon was great, everything after was a nightmare. I can't imagine she'll be playing many matches between now and Australia either so it'll be very interesting to see how she starts next year.

[Mango]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Ugly end to the year as Serena romps Genie 6-1, 6-1. Clearly a tale of two half years for Genie, everything up to Wimbledon was great, everything after was a nightmare.

Yikes. I just had a chance to see her all of scorelines from the WTA Finals and they aren't pretty.

Any word if she's injured? I haven't seen anything myself, but perhaps it got lost in the shuffle somewhere.

[St. Pats]

Originally Posted by Mango

Yikes. I just had a chance to see her all of scorelines from the WTA Finals and they aren't pretty.

Any word if she's injured? I haven't seen anything myself, but perhaps it got lost in the shuffle somewhere.

Even when she was playing well there are some deficits in her game. She was making up for them with incredible effort. Plus there was the surprise factor. That's gone now. Whether she is still recovering from injury or not she needs to add to her game to compete with the top echelon players.

Not like this is a revelation but more games against the top competitors just exposing it more.

[dash_pinched]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Ugly end to the year as Serena romps Genie 6-1, 6-1. Clearly a tale of two half years for Genie, everything up to Wimbledon was great, everything after was a nightmare. I can't imagine she'll be playing many matches between now and Australia either so it'll be very interesting to see how she starts next year.

Yeah, that loss to Kvitova in the finals at Wimbledon really started Genie on a downward spiral and things got only worse with her losing to Shelby Rogers at the Rogers Cup. Not a bad run at the US Open, but let's be honest, she wasn't in very good form. It will be interesting to see how she starts the 2015 season.

[dash_pinched]

Milos survived a scare to Donald Young and advances at the tourney in Basel.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Milos needs probably a Final and maybe a win to get into the ATP World Tour Finals. Andy Murray about 100 points ahead and they are at different tournaments. If Murray wins the one he's in, Milos is gonna need a serious run next week in Paris to get in.

[GirlySports]

Friday:

Valencia: Murray vs Anderson 5am MT
Basel: Raonic vs Goffin 6am MT

[Senator Clay Davis]

Goffin continues his hot play and wins 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-4. With that Milos chances of getting to the ATP Finals are all but gone, any chance he has probably starts with winning next week in Paris. Goffin is sizzling though, 42-2 since Wimbledon.

[dash_pinched]

If it is the end of the season (and it definitely looks like it is), it was still a fine year for Milos. The ground strokes are improving and getting more consistent and his footwork is much better than it used to be.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Well the backdoor is now wide open for Milos as Nadal is going to have the appendectomy and is done for the year. Ferrer is now ahead of him but it's a slim lead so if Milos can finish ahead of Ferrer in Paris he will likely make the Finals (unless Dimitrov wins the event)

[dash_pinched]

Vasek partnered up with Nestor's former doubles partner Nenad Zimonjic to take the doubles title in Basel.

/I say former 'cause I'm reading Nestor and Nenad have gone their separate ways again.

[Fire]

Nestor must be thinking retirement or he might be a robot, not sure.

[dash_pinched]

Vasek faces Robredo in his first round match in Paris while Milos takes on Jack Sock. If Vasek can take out Robredo (no easy feat), he would face Nishikori in the next round (talk about a tough draw).

[dash_pinched]

Tough one for Vasek, lost in three sets (7-5 in a 3rd set tiebreaker) to Robredo.

[dash_pinched]

Milos advances over Jack Sock in three sets, but Ferrer also advanced beating Goffin in three sets. Next up for Milos is Bautista-Agut.

[GirlySports]

wow, how did Milos save that 2nd set tiebreak down 5-2? Milos wins in straight sets.
Ferrer won too.

[dash_pinched]

Milos will likely face Feds next and I fear his chances of qualifying for London will end with another loss to Roger. I would sure love Milos to prove me wrong though.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Federer indoors against Milos? Goodness he's gonna probably need a record serving day to get it done.

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Federer indoors against Milos? Goodness he's gonna probably need a record serving day to get it done.

It's fitting that Raonic's year will likely come to an end against the guy that's pretty much single handily prevented 2014 from being out of this world instead of just very good.

The one big positive here is that if Milos pulled it off, he would know he beat Roger at his best.

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by dash_pinched

Tough one for Vasek, lost in three sets (7-5 in a 3rd set tiebreaker) to Robredo.

I really want to know what direction the Pospisil camp is intending to take in 2015 and beyond. It's not sustainable to have much success at singles while playing so many doubles matches, especially when you haven't fully established yourself as a singles player to begin with.

If it was me, I'd be limiting or all but removing the doubles appearances during the dog days of the season in order to focus and clean up that singles game.