Topic: Tennis League All Thread - page 274. (Read 202181 times)

We can expect probobly Alcaraz and Djokovic at the French Open final . They are currently the best in the world and i think no one can stop them. Djokovic is finally picking up form and looks really good on the field and is winning now really easy against some solid opponents

I think it will be, the French Open is shaping up to be really interesting, with Alcaraz a genuine contender for the title along with Djokovic and as always Nadal. And let's not forget that Medvedev is aiming to be back as well, although of course he's not so great on clay, but he's still a huge name and one of the best players in tennis right now (I think he's taken a wildcard entry to the Geneva tournament which starts in a couple of days, so we should be able to see what sort of shape he's in, and whether he has rushed back too early).

As an Italian fan of tennis I do not hide... that I would have really liked to see him play here in Rome. obviously I am aware it is not the best tournament where he can play and after the last two successes he has to prepare for tournaments with a better ranking.
I Hope the wait is worth it

But hopefully it means he'll be fully refreshed and ready to go for the French Open, which would be great. I'd rather he skip a tournament now and be fit for Roland Garros rather than play at say 80% there.

Meanwhile, with Alcaraz out of the way, I suppose the big potential match-up in this tournament is Nadal vs Djokovic. If this happens, I'd probably favour Nadal... I think the way the draw is, they'd meet up in the semi.


BTW I've never understood tournaments where the semis are 1 vs 3 and 2 vs 4. Shouldn't it always be 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3?

What are you talking about? Cilic won that one quite easy after loosing first set. I think it was 6:1 for him in the third.

I am happy to see Wawrinka progressing trough, it was about time we see him bac on tour. There can never be too many one handed backhands if you ask me 

In the women's side, we will see Swiatek duke it out against Azarenka. This could be a good match in the first set and then probably Swiatek winning it easy in the second, -5.5 for Iga.

Sabalenka vs Pegula, I like the chances of Pegula and since she is the underdog, I will put a medium bet on him ML 2.2.

That's a good decision, you can't win them all, so it's better for him to rest and then focus on RG, one of the biggest event.

Tough match for Tsitsi though, he needed 3 sets to win.

Nadal has an easy time against Isner.

Cilic vs Norrie just concluded, and it was Norrie in 3.

Next up is Zverev vs De Minaur, this might be a 2 sets win for Zverev.

good performance by Jannik Sinner even if he risked uselessly during the second and third set.
he could have closed at 4-2 this derby but suffered a break point.
IMHO Fognini is a good tennis player but he is not able to compete against him.

Its a bit sad Alcaraz Is not playing in this tournament

yeah, he is withdrawn from Rome, not sure is it because of foot injury that was mentioned in Spain, or just want to be fresh for RG, maybe a combo of those two

regarding matches, Wawrinka will play Djokovic tomorrow, and those were always good matches, happy to see it
Nadal running smoothly with Isner, Tsitsi's fight was already mentioned, but he also secured next round in the end, stability was always an issue for him

No I didnt see it and I actually havent tuned in properly yet to Rome, I did see the last set
of Fokina v FAA.

Tsitsipas though, there is something about him over the last year ans especially this
year, he is unpredictable, is picking up penalties, arguing with chair umpires, its just
not right. Sounds like it was an entertaining match if you didnt have a bet on!

Anybody watched that roller coaster between Tsitsipas and Dimitrov? It looked like a smooth sailing for Tsitsi and then he serves for the match and looses and next 4 games and set in a blink of an eye. Then Tsitsi barely holds for dear life in third set and saves a match point on his serve in two different games. Than starts tie break and Tsitsi get to 5:0 and almost manages to loose it all once again.

I was watching with one eye while sitting in a bar with buddy and we were laughing half of the time. you don't see matches like this often in men's side of competition.

And that's how we appreciate how previous champions, specially the big 3 has dominated the game for the last decade because it is really different with so many factors to consider and I guess the argument for who is the best or GOAT is an open-ended discussions.

As for Alcaraz, yeah, I do agree that he possesses this strength and we have seen it already. It's just a question on how he will developed it and hopefully one aspect that we need to consider as well, he needs to be healthy or at least his body is not going to give in from injuries as to what happened to Andy Murray.

That boy Alcaraz could well become the new global world champion. Winning against Djokovic, Nadal and Zverev is no longer a coincidence. And he just played really good. At his age, that's really unique. I am curious if he can continue his advance and how he will fare in Roland Garros. He can become the champion there, but because of his little experience he can also lose in the first round. I would love to see Nadal against Alcaraz at Roland Garros.

And experience! gaining experience as well as honing skills and staying fit will
result a very rounded player, Alcaraz has it all in front of him.


@Trofo - apologies it was an open question, I should have worded it differently, everyones
opinion is welcome of course but I think you have touched  on a lot of other considerations,
thank you.

5. - Form
6. - Surface Prowess

are indeed other factors, major factors actually and the one who matches these the
best so far is Alcaraz IMO.

Its actually interesting when we consider everything mentioned above how complex
the sport is and how so many factors play their part in a players performance.

For future reference, if you are asking for my opinion, quote me or mention me by name, that way bot notifies me immediately and I answer very quickly. If this was plural you, than you did it perfectly. English is way too simplified language sometimes

I can't quantify grand slam traits the way you do it. For me it is simply the case of "absolute qoulity" having more time to show itself over BO5 matches. Absolute qoulity defined as combination of all those traits you mentioned plus several more, to name 2 important ones you forgot: form and surface prowess.

Every tournament is new thing and I like watching players play and upping my stakes as we progress to the final and I actually see how they perform on that particular tournament. There is so many "small" things that can totally skew the results and I don't have enough information before the tournament starts.

For instance just finished Masters in Madrid is played on high altitude which results in ball behaving in a such way that Nadal looses a lot of his game while Zverev gains. Even though it is clay tournament, check the winners and you'll probably be a little surprised.

RG is totally quite different conditions depending on general weather so I can't give any proper predictions at this stage. I just picked 4 by far best overall players at this moment on clay and I believe they will do well.

Alcaraz is in a state of grace after winning the last two tournaments played and a series of matches against highly respected opponents (Nadal Djokovic Zverev...)
His young age is certainly a big plus. Now what is missing is continuity in performance... only time will be right or wrong in this aspect.

^
I argue that the 5 set grand slams require these traits in order of importance but all 4
are very closely inter-connected.....in order to WIN: ^{possibly no's 1 and 2 could be swapped}

1. - Mental strength
2. - Experience
3. - Skill
4. - Fitness

This is how I see it currently...

Who has^{or will have for RG} all 4 traits? Nadal and Djokovic

Who has 3 of the traits? Tsitsipas^{2, 3 & 4} and Alcaraz^{1, 3 & 4} but I think
Alcaraz' mental strength outweighs Tsitsipas' experience.

What do you think?

That is very interesting point. You would think that young players should be better suited to play those longer matches then 35+ years old guys right? And then comes grand slam and Nadal or Djoković wipe the floor with all these new lions. I am thinking that one day of rest between matches does wonders for recovery of the older guys and offsets age advantage and then it comes to experience and mental aspect where they are without match.

That being said, I can't find a fault from mental point in Alcaraz so maybe we have a proper contender after all. Medvedev always looks like loosing it when score isn't in his favor, Zverev starts trowing unforced errors and double faults under pressure, Rublev was always in problems when put under pressure maybe only Tsistsipas has a chance of something big in RG. I feel like other players simply don't have the quality or form for even reaching semi finals.

If the draw allows it, IMHO semi final spots are reserved for:
Djoković, Nadal, Alcaraz and Tsitsipas

With the note that Djoković looks more vulnerable than ever in last couple of years and Nadal is just getting back from injury but I just know they will bring their shit together and be on their best when RG starts.

What a huge year for alcaraz already winning four big tournaments he is amazing i agree with you that he is in an amazing form and zverev needed to be in his top form to beat him he surely has the potential to be the next nadal but in my opinion its still too soon to judge we will have to see he does on a grand slam.

I agree on both points, the schedule seemed a bit skewed leaving Zverev short on
recovery time but I would imagine he would have had ample time in between matches
to be fit enough, I mean he was in the final there is very little to be done in terms of practice.

The manner in which Alcaraz won is to be noted and his matches with Nadal and
Djokovic were not exactly easy 3 setters.

It will be very difficult to bet against him in the next few tournaments but as someone
above pointed out RG is a 5 setter so it will be different ^interesting