Arena Federer/Nadal/Djokovic Era - Essentially Over

I actually like Almagro but I know most people dislike him.

I also prefer variety in the game. The top guys are great but other players have something to offer as well as far as style of play and personality. I respect guys who can make it even to the top 200 because I understand how hard a sport tennis is and I've made the case before that it's the hardest sport to be a consistent successful pro at.

For me the most exciting moment of the first round is Dreddy Brown easily winning his first round match. This is a guy who lived out of his van traveling Europe for tournaments. He is German now but he used to play for Jamaica. Very interesting guy.

 

what about a guy like Marcelo Rios who is the only guy to be ranked #1 without winning a slam.

 

Personally I couldn't stand Rios because he was an arrogant jack a$$ (who unkindly made fun of my Monica Seles), but I think he was an excellent player who would have had a great career if not for the fame going to his head.

 

I was never a fan of Pete (probably one of his worst critics), but even I was disappointed when Rios took #1 from him. I agree with Rafter - I loved watching him play and wish his body could have held up better.

 

A somewhat disturbing trend the last few days at Wimbledon, injuries. We have already seen several slips and falls. Azarenka, Ferrer among the top players. Guido Pella had to be carted off the court on a stretcher today in the 5th set, in qualifying a talented young Taiwanese player suffered a horror injury thanks to the grass. This is because the grass season is so short now and because the French is so close to Wimbledon many players skip the warmup events to rest so the first time they play on grass all year is in Wimbledon. More grass tennis is needed.

 

Agreed, and I think Queens is too soon after the French Open to appeal to many players.

Nice to see Laura Robson advance, and beat the 10th seed too. Her serve was very good.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/tenni...ael-nadal-best-ever-even-first-164644632.html

Blurb with Jonny Mac suggesting Nadal might be the best ever.

 

Based on what I've read, Nadal looked injured yesterday to numerous observers. I feel like his best days off clay are behind him, unless he manages to come through with a hard court title at some point in the next six months or something. The Australian Open final in 2012 may have been his last real shot at a non-clay major, if his knees are in chronically bad shape with no real hope of recovery.

 

His knees will probably bother him for the rest of his career. But even having his best days of clay behind him doesn't necessarily mean he still can't beat everybody else on clay most of the time. Playing a 6 month clay season would not be bad for him or for the sport of tennis if it makes him a viable Roland-Garros champion for an extra year or two.

 

i don't entirely agree. nadal doesn't like to make excuses or talk about his knees very much but he has said that his left knee hurts all the time and he imagines it always will. there will be moments in every match where he looks injured. how long he'll be able or want to play through the pain is obviously a big question mark, but for now i think he can do it. he won at indian wells this year, a tournament played on hard courts with a stacked field. his problem at wimbledon was that he hadn't played on grass yet this year and he probably needed a couple matches to find his rhythm. unfortunately darcis played the match of his life and nadal was never able to find a groove. i think if he could have gotten through the first couple rounds he would have had a great chance to make a deep run.

yes, the clay is slightly easier on his knees but so is grass. in either case it's not like they're playing on a feather mattress. i do think he might have overdid it and played too many tournaments in the clay court season this year.

 

I made a good amount of money by putting a lot on Leonardo Mayer beating Bedene. For some reason Leo was an underdog in that one, blew my mind. So that's my successful bet of the tournament haha.


I'm looking forward to spending all day tomorrow watching. The first match is going to be my boy Dreddy vs Hewitt.

 

Isner gets badly injured at 1-1 in the first and pulls out. Steve Darcis pulls out even before his match starts. Wimbledon claims two more victims.

 

Dreddy Brown takes the first two sets over Hewiit playing beautiful grass tennis.

 

Seems like Lleyton overdid it the other day with his win, he's not been as good today. Of course Brown has played some great srokes and his serve has been impressive, but I expected Hewitt to do better than he did.

That alongside the Darcis thing seems to be a typical problem with doing very well at the start, you often end up going out next round anyway.


EDIT: Hewitt did just win the 3rd set though, could be game on again. Though not sure he can win the next 2 sets.

 

Injuries claim Azarenka, Tsonga, and Cilic. This is getting absurd.

 

I have high hopes for Sloan's career. I hope she pulls it out.

 

I was hoping Ivanovic would make it to the fourth round.

 

Surprised so many people are getting injured on the grass, isn't it the softest of all the Grand Slam surfaces?

 

It can be slippy. Also, the show courts don't get much use prior to the tournament. The outside courts are used for practice and preparation - so the surface beds in - but not the show courts. So their surfaces remain untouched. Thus if the grass retains a little more moisture than usual I suppose they could become a little dangerous. Later in the tournament, when the show courts have bedded in, I expect they'll be fine.