2018 Tennis Thread

[Inglewood Jack]

Originally Posted by Nadal Fan

It didn't even last 42 minutes.......it was a blood bath out there

yeah I actually caught a bit of it...not very competitive, so they resorted to circus shots in the 2nd set (running lobs, tweeners, over the shoulder, etc.) to keep the crowd entertained. sadly they will not be raising a banner for Bemelmans this week.

the match had me thinking though, what is that experience really like for a journeyman player? on one hand you can tell your grandchildren that you got to be stomped by a living legend. on the other hand, you paid a significant chunk of money (from your shallow sub-100 ranked pockets) to fly to Rotterdam, only to find out a few days beforehand that a guy who wasn't even planning on being there is now suddenly about to guarantee your early exit.

not like Bemelmans would be favored to win any of his matches anyways, but drawing a wild card matchup like that means your wages are getting capped hard, and there's nothing you can do about it.

[Nadal Fan]

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

yeah I actually caught a bit of it...not very competitive, so they resorted to circus shots in the 2nd set (running lobs, tweeners, over the shoulder, etc.) to keep the crowd entertained. sadly they will not be raising a banner for Bemelmans this week.

the match had me thinking though, what is that experience really like for a journeyman player? on one hand you can tell your grandchildren that you got to be stomped by a living legend. on the other hand, you paid a significant chunk of money (from your shallow sub-100 ranked pockets) to fly to Rotterdam, only to find out a few days beforehand that a guy who wasn't even planning on being there is now suddenly about to guarantee your early exit.

not like Bemelmans would be favored to win any of his matches anyways, but drawing a wild card matchup like that means your wages are getting capped hard, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Tennis is a weird sport in a way that if your the 5th best player in the NHL (someone like Karlsson or Ovie) your considered amazing and every team would want you, and your probably making the HHOF. Every fan knows your great and they watch in awe at your play. In tennis the 5th ranked man is Dimitrov who is considered a choker who has never won anything of value. No one considers him great in any sense. Yet he is the 5th best tennis player in the world! Only 4 other human beings are better than him on the planet yet the tennis world largely dismisses him.

[Inglewood Jack]

you can't feel too bad for Dimitrov with his 15 million in prize money plus endorsements, but they really are different worlds when comparing tennis globally to just North America's top hockey league (never mind the comparison with a really big money league like NFL or MLB). the #5 NHL player will exceed Dimitrov's career earnings in less than 2 seasons. in fact the #300 NHL player still probably makes more than poor Grigor on a yearly basis. and they'd still have the same access to the best coaches/trainers, facilities, nutrition, travel and accommodations as the top guys.

what is the #300 tennis player doing? likely sharing a coach with like 5 of their competitors, scrounging for change to check in their equipment on economy flights, sleeping in 3 star motels and fueling up for their matches off the McDonalds value menu.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

yeah I actually caught a bit of it...not very competitive, so they resorted to circus shots in the 2nd set (running lobs, tweeners, over the shoulder, etc.) to keep the crowd entertained. sadly they will not be raising a banner for Bemelmans this week.

the match had me thinking though, what is that experience really like for a journeyman player? on one hand you can tell your grandchildren that you got to be stomped by a living legend. on the other hand, you paid a significant chunk of money (from your shallow sub-100 ranked pockets) to fly to Rotterdam, only to find out a few days beforehand that a guy who wasn't even planning on being there is now suddenly about to guarantee your early exit.

not like Bemelmans would be favored to win any of his matches anyways, but drawing a wild card matchup like that means your wages are getting capped hard, and there's nothing you can do about it.

i think players just like playing as a career and hey maybe maybe one day in a thousand they'll cause an upset.

There are many players who slog the entire lives on the futures tour, maybe getting a wildcard in a challenger and winning a match.

Some players dream of just getting ONE ATP point in their lives.
1 ATP point = 1 futures win.
A guy could win 3 qualifying matches to get to the futures event, lose that 1st round match and get 0 points. Maybe make a couple hundred bucks.

[Nadal Fan]

Looks like I have to cheer for Robin Haase tomorrow to stop Le Rog from being #1.....I had more faith in the cow from Jurassic Park taking down the dinosaurs. Lousy Haase

[dash_pinched]

Originally Posted by Nadal Fan

Looks like I have to cheer for Robin Haase tomorrow to stop Le Rog from being #1.....I had more faith in the cow from Jurassic Park taking down the dinosaurs. Lousy Haase

lol - I think Fed gave the home fans in Rotterdam a Dutch treat by dropping the first set to Hasse and then decided enough of that crap, time to steamroll him.

[dash_pinched]

Now official, Fed is the oldest player ever to be ranked #1 on the ATP tour.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

That was ludicrous. It's like he treated the first set as warm ups and then just said, "alright, next gear, bye bye Robin."

[Nadal Fan]

Congrats it's impressive he's world #1 good for him.

[Senator Clay Davis]

I think it's fair to wonder if this isn't his greatest accomplishment of all. Not just doing it at the age he's done it, but doing so while essentially forgoing almost 40% of the available points to get to #1. Monte Carlo, Madrid, Rome, Roland Garros, Cincinnati, Paris....that's a lot of events to skip that have a lot of points available. So the margin of error to get to #1, especially with how Nadal played last year on clay, was exceptionally small. And yet he did it anyway. Really all that's left now is the Olympic singles gold, and why exactly can't he take a run at it again in 2020? If he manages the schedule right, it would be the perfect swan song to his career.

[Nadal Fan]

I may be wrong but if Roger doesn't win the tournament Rafa will have a chance to regain #1 with a win at Acapulco.

[Mango]

The ladies doing their things:

https://twitter.com/user/status/964884400293859329

https://twitter.com/user/status/964840462912839680

[dash_pinched]

Pfft, Rebecca dropped a set

/Keep it going ladies!!

[Inglewood Jack]

Originally Posted by Nadal Fan

I may be wrong but if Roger doesn't win the tournament Rafa will have a chance to regain #1 with a win at Acapulco.

I'm reasonably confident that Rafa will do better at IW and temporarily regain top spot. They're so close it's likely going to flip flop 2 or 3 more times by November.

Anyone see Goffin take a ball in the eye during the earlier semi? Surprised that doesn't happen more often given the pace of balls coming at you at the net. Luckily sounds like no permanent damage.

[Nadal Fan]

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

I'm reasonably confident that Rafa will do better at IW and temporarily regain top spot. They're so close it's likely going to flip flop 2 or 3 more times by November.

Anyone see Goffin take a ball in the eye during the earlier semi? Surprised that doesn't happen more often given the pace of balls coming at you at the net. Luckily sounds like no permanent damage.

Glad to see he's alright, I think Goffin was injured on court last year as well I think.

[dash_pinched]

Originally Posted by Nadal Fan

Glad to see he's alright, I think Goffin was injured on court last year as well I think.

Yes, at the French Open last year, he hurt his ankle when it got caught under a tarp at the back of the court.

[Nadal Fan]

Wow the ump just accused Dimitrov of tanking the match and Dimitrov was just heard saying I'm not tanking.

[Senator Clay Davis]

He might not have been tanking, but that was a pretty tame effort. Roger only lost seven points on serve all match. And so Roger is apparently going to do both Murican events, or at least he says he will. Would be some effort to keep all those points, and if he does he really looks good to finish the year at #1.

[Nadal Fan]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

He might not have been tanking, but that was a pretty tame effort. Roger only lost seven points on serve all match. And so Roger is apparently going to do both Murican events, or at least he says he will. Would be some effort to keep all those points, and if he does he really looks good to finish the year at #1.

What would really help his case would be playing the clay court season. I see him as the third best clay player behind Rafa and Thiem. You have to figure Nadal will get at least 4,000 points this clay court season to even the gap.

[dash_pinched]

Ho hum, another singles win for Rebecca and another doubles win for Gaby.

https://twitter.com/user/status/965221748617678848

https://twitter.com/user/status/965250773348245504