2023 Tennis Thread

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by dash_pinched

Both Felix and Shapo are playing Madrid, Felix likely to face Lajovic who beat Bweh to take the Banja Luka tourney earlier today.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1650208567310315520

That's a bad draw for Felix. Lajovic was full marks for winning Banja Luka beating Novak and Rublev who was on a run himself. It will be interesting to see if he has much gas left in the tank as he played a lot of tennis last week and will have to beat Kubler.

[dash_pinched]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Yeah SST was clearly hurt. Genie wins 61 41 ret.

Genie gets Hana Mandlikova's daughter Elizabeth Mandlik in round 2 qualifying.

[dash_pinched]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

That's a bad draw for Felix. Lajovic was full marks for winning Banja Luka beating Novak and Rublev who was on a run himself. It will be interesting to see if he has much gas left in the tank as he played a lot of tennis last week and will have to beat Kubler.

Yeah, Felix needs to have a good tourney not just for his confidence, but he's slipped to #10 in the live rankings (Rune, Sinner, and Fritz have passed by him in recent weeks).

[dash_pinched]

Kyrgios is a different guy in the team format...I don't mind this news.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1650535174222782464

[dash_pinched]

That said, I obviously don't like the fact that Kyrgios essentially pled guilty to abusing his former girlfriend and the Aussie judge let him off with a slap on the wrist. The ATP also needs to totally revamp their investigations into these situations. It just appears to be a "well we took a look and couldn't find anything".

[GirlySports]

two more spots? Imagine De Minaur gets a spot, that's leaves one more for the rest. Shapo should get it since it's in Canada but will his form hold up?

[dash_pinched]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

two more spots? Imagine De Minaur gets a spot, that's leaves one more for the rest. Shapo should get it since it's in Canada but will his form hold up?

Denis really needs to turn things around quickly to have a chance, in my opinion. I would go with Tommy Paul, he's having a pretty good 2023 and plays well on indoor hard courts.

[dash_pinched]

Hugh Clarke with his usual excellent breakdown of the Charlie - Oikos Barcelona final. This excerpt from the piece sums things up quite well:

It also highlights how simple Alcaraz can keep his tactics when playing Tsitsipas, especially on clay. Whenever Alcaraz needs some breathing room, he can often reset the point in his favor by hitting high and heavy into the Tsitsipas backhand, knowing there is little threat of attack down-the-line with the extra bounce getting the ball high above the Greek’s strike zone. The backhand wing has continually let down Tsitsipas in many big matches (clay or otherwise). The top players expose it nearly every time.¹ In that first service game, Alcaraz served all four times to the Tsitsipas backhand, often with heavy kick. This earned him two free points via missed returns. On the other two points, Alcaraz was able to find a forehand after the serve and take control of the point, using 2-1 patterns with his forehand into Tsitsipas’ backhand.

https://open.substack.com/pub/hughcl...m_medium=email

[Erick Estrada]

Players use the same tactic with Musetti. It's the weakness of the one OBH.

[Inglewood Jack]

Charlie v Yogurt is already a terrible matchup for the latter to begin with, shades of Fed v Rafa. but those clips of Charlie being able to read his opponent's split step and immediately rush, drop, or wrong foot them is something else entirely. for all his physical gifts he might have the biggest tennis brain we've ever seen.

[Erick Estrada]

If his body can hold up I think he's going to be the next great player especially if he can add a bit to his serve as he matures. He's kind of like Djokovic with a devastating drop shot.

[dash_pinched]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

If his body can hold up I think he's going to be the next great player especially if he can add a bit to his serve as he matures. He's kind of like Djokovic with a devastating drop shot.

On the point of the body holding up, that seems to be the biggest issue that Sinner needs to overcome (he's out of the Madrid tourney). Rune also had to take a MTO yesterday for a shoulder and he also rolled his ankle, but hung in there long enough for the victory over BVDZ. I think that has been one of the biggest transformations in tennis over the past 15-20 years, it is a very physical game now and takes a big toll on the body.

[dash_pinched]

Genie is into the main draw in Madrid following a 6-3 6-2 win over Elizabeth Mandlik.

[dash_pinched]

Rebecca Marino takes the opening set in a tie-break over Zhu Lin. Keep it going Rebecca.

Edit: Rebecca wins the match 7-6 6-4 and avenges a loss to Zhu Lin at the Aussie Open. Very nice.

[dash_pinched]

Good add to Team Europe...

https://twitter.com/user/status/1650907905455996928

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by dash_pinched

On the point of the body holding up, that seems to be the biggest issue that Sinner needs to overcome (he's out of the Madrid tourney). Rune also had to take a MTO yesterday for a shoulder and he also rolled his ankle, but hung in there long enough for the victory over BVDZ. I think that has been one of the biggest transformations in tennis over the past 15-20 years, it is a very physical game now and takes a big toll on the body.

It doesn't help that many players are using full beds of poly and arm-killing Babolat racquets. I just cut some strings out of my racquet and maybe I never noticed before but it kind of hit me how hard poly strings are as they permanently retain the bending shape around the grommet as there's barely any elasticity. Alcaraz and Novak for example both have had recent bouts with tennis elbow.

[dash_pinched]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

It doesn't help that many players are using full beds of poly and arm-killing Babolat racquets. I just cut some strings out of my racquet and maybe I never noticed before but it kind of hit me how hard poly strings are as they permanently retain the bending shape around the grommet as there's barely any elasticity. Alcaraz and Novak for example both have had recent bouts with tennis elbow.

Yeah, I think we are seeing more and more guys going to a hybrid set-up of gut and poly these days in order to save their arms. Also, lower tensions (below 50 lbs.) are getting increasingly popular amongst recreational players and some pros (I think I've read Mannarino strings his racquet around 25 lbs.). For people with sensitive arms, Technifibre's X-One Biphase multifilament string is very good and the tension maintenance is excellent. It's a little pricey though.

A lesser known poly string that I really like is Ytex Quadro Twist, soft on the arm and good tension maintenance combined with good performance.

[Inglewood Jack]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

If his body can hold up I think he's going to be the next great player especially if he can add a bit to his serve as he matures. He's kind of like Djokovic with a devastating drop shot.

I find Charlie's game much more entertaining to watch. Djokovic has an extremely reliable methodical way of squeezing his opponent off the court shot by shot. if that fails, he'll just keep hitting it back until the other guy can't anymore.

Alcaraz looks to end points considerably faster, whether that's blasting a 100mph winner into the corner, running up to the net for an unexpected put-away, or of course the cheat code drop shot. I think his game is more Fed's aggression with Rafa's intensity. the perfect player for fans of those guys to bandwagon jump on.

[dash_pinched]

Now of course we wait to see if Casper Ruud will be added to Team Europe just to see how spicy things might get.

[dash_pinched]

Just saw that Genie will face Dayana Yastremska in her opening round match in Madrid. That's a pretty good draw in my opinion as Yastremska can be hold and cold, she has a lot of power in her game, but if Genie can get a lead, Yastemska has a history of getting frustrated on court.