Thiem held a press conference today and it didn't have a great tone. He is changing coaches and planning on playing more challengers going forward. He also said he finished around #100 the last two years and if he finishes the year around the same ranking he is going to ask himself if it's worth it to even continue
Nice. That's a pretty good service day for anyone over two sets. Hopefully it's a sign that he's moving in the right direction.
Yeah, I think it you can keep it to a maximum of two double faults per set, most guys would be okay with that. The more encouraging thing is that he was willing to rally today and it was controlled aggression, hitting the ball well and to big targets to keep the unforced errors down. This is the way he needs to play to be successful.
Shapo will next face Bublik (that won't be easy) on Wednesday while Felix sees his first action on Thursday versus young French guy Arthur Cazaux who was quite impressive at the Aussie Open (he defeated Djere, Rune, and Griekspoor before losing to Hubi Hurkacz).
lol - Bublik whips out back-to-back underhand serves on set point, first one was successful, second one was not. Denis takes the opening set 6-1 in 26 minutes.
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This second set tie-break has been a roller-coaster. Bublik serving at 9-9
Edit: Shapo has saved 6 set points and is serving at 12-12
Edit 2: Bublik takes the tie-break 14-12. Denis has seen three match points come and go. Here's hoping he doesn't dwell on that too much because he's actually played quite well today, that tie-break was excellent tennis from both guys.
Last edited by dash_pinched; 01-31-2024 at 02:48 PM.
Ugh, Shapo's game has fallen off the rails, he might get bageled in this 3rd set.
Edit: Bublik takes the match winning set 3 6-3. That one hurts, Shapo's serve abandoned him in set 2 and yet he still had three match points in that set and couldn't cash any of them in.
Last edited by dash_pinched; 01-31-2024 at 03:27 PM.
Little cross post but I picked up a pretty sweet movie at WINS today, a 2003 DVD of the Masters Cup featuring Federer, Agassi, Roddick, Moya. I wish ATP still released DVDs, I remember Wimbledon used to, I'd kill for a 2008 or 2010 release.
Ugh, Shapo's game has fallen off the rails, he might get bageled in this 3rd set.
Edit: Bublik takes the match winning set 3 6-3. That one hurts, Shapo's serve abandoned him in set 2 and yet he still had three match points in that set and couldn't cash any of them in.
It's a bummer that he couldn't put Bublik away when he had the chance but there were some encouraging signs in this tournament over his first three sets. Hopefully he can continue to build on that and find more consistency in his serve.
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It's a bummer that he couldn't put Bublik away when he had the chance but there were some encouraging signs in this tournament over his first three sets. Hopefully he can continue to build on that and find more consistency in his serve.
Overall, I was quite pleased with the level that Shapo displayed this week and lest we forget that Bublik is currently ranked in the top 30, he's no scrub. There's still some rust that needs to be scraped off and likely some match conditioning (both physical and mental) that needs to be addressed, that will come with more matches. He did take a MTO in the 3rd set to have a trainer look at his left knee, hopefully it was just precautionary as he did finish the match yesterday.
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As mentioned above, Cazaux had an excellent Aussie Open and is going to provide a stern test for FAA. Felix likes playing indoors, this should be a fun match.
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