Topic: Tennis League All Thread - page 285. (Read 202198 times)

I would agree with you if he was playing someone in the top 50 and that he would struggle probobly,but he is playing against Mmoh that is not even in top 200 this is the reason why we might see Kyrgios destroy Mmoh in this duel. I would go maybe for Kyrgios to win in straight sets.

You guys that play on Kyrgios realize that this tournament is played on clay?? I mean he already has 2 wins this season and that is exactly the same as in last 4 seasons all together. I would not put a penny on Nick while playing on clay. Not saying he is not gonna win but those odds on clay scream handicap against him. At least for me.

^^ A moneyline bet on Nick doesn't make sense, odds is 1.10.
So I'm going with the -4.5 @1.71, if he is on a roll then definitely Nick is going hard to be stop as we have seen him before. No doubt about his mental issues, but if he has conquered or at least controlled it, maybe he will have a good chance to bag his first tournament win this season.

  good one!

Yea Nadal isnt finished yet as regards skill, fitness and mentality but injuries are
an unknown and when he is back again it will be hard to bet against him especially at RG.

I find it difficult to fathom Rafa ^{Roger or Novak} not being involved in Tennis when
they retire as players.


We have discussed Nick's "Style" to death already and it is of course his mentality which
enables him to be so brilliant and yet be so abrasive in a way. I checked the odds on Rollbit
for this match and they are Mmoh 7.0 - 1.09 Kyrgios, massive favourite which opens
up a different discussion, do you bet against him here with a good chance of a win if he breaks down?

^^ So far though, Nick has performed better or at least on what we expect of him. But I do agree that the same questions we have right now, is he on the right track and has the power inside him to advance or at least win one tournament this year? He has a open chance right now, it's an opportunity and hopefully he will not waste it and lost to an relatively unknown player.

Kyrgios definitely has a great chance. The draw has really opened up on his side with Ruud's withdrawal, and now he plays a lucky loser instead of the #1 seed in the quarter-finals. The big question as always is his mentality, and can he hold everything together and progress? He really should have been a top 10 player, but I suppose the mentality is a part of what makes him good, so if he didn't have the bad side, he might not have so much of the good side either.

Ok, so it's already the QF now, I think Kyrgios might have an easy path because as you have said, we haven't heard about his opponent Mmoh, so chances are high for him.

The battle between Tiafoe v Isner and Garin v Fritz might be difficult to predict though, I will try to look at the odds later and see if there is some interesting odds to bet in those match.

I don't know anything of their relationship or of what Nadal wants after he stops playing, so not sure, but it would be nice if he remained in tennis and with his personality, skills and knowledge he'd probably be a great coach.

But it's too soon to talk of his retirement, he can be a contender in the French Open at least for the next couple of decades!

The Quarter Finals of Houston are set and playing later today are:

Opelka v Brouwer
Mmoh v Kyrgios
Garin v Fritz
Tiafoe v Isner

As I mentioned earlier Kyrgios has a great chance to get to the final, if he wins
his match against Mmoh ^{who I've never heard of} he will play either Opelka or
Brouwer. what do you think?

Personally I would like to see him win it, it would give him confirmation that he can
still win a tournament as a singles player and maybe it would change his mindset?

Possible, I think we have seen throughout tennis history that a former player becomes a coach or mentor to someone and that someone become the top seed or at least reaches the pinnacle of his career at the number 1 spot.

So hopefully this can be true in the case of Alcaraz, having the Nadals on his back, it will be a good combination and a win-win situation.

^
As he progresses higher the spotlight intensifies along with the pressure and
expectations from other people. Managing that is important and having
the right people around is key.

Would Nadal eventually after retiring from playing become a sort of mentor to the
likes of Alcaraz or become part of his team fulltime?

He certainly does. And whilst I made the point about Sinner also being a good young player, it's true that they don't really compare... Alcaraz really does seem to have that something special that could take him to the very top, rather than just near the top.



He's unfortunate in a way to be from Spain, as all he needs to do is play a few good matches and everyone will assume he's going to be just as successful as Nadal - and the pressure intensifies as Nadal is obviously nearing the end of his career, and the fans are looking for a ready-made replacement.
But yes obviously there are positives to it as well, as you say Nadal can give him valuable advice on how to deal with it all.

But if they just send him to counselling, you also don't give the right signal in my eyes. Because it seems then that the ITF agrees with giving slaps to other people as there is no punishment for it.
They probably need to do both: ban him for a couple of weeks and give him counselling.

I don’t think that punishing him is the right thing to do, because they should consider his age and instead of punishment they should provide him counselling to make sure that he understands what he did was wrong. Also if the same thing had happened with adult player’s then yea they would be banned, but I feel that he should escape major punishment as he’s young and mistakes can happen at this age.

Is this the Will Smith effect that we are witnessing right now? 

And right after the slapping there is a brawl between the two sides. This shouldn't happen at any tournaments, not even in this level. And I agree that sanctions should be served here to teach Michael Kouame a lesson, maybe because he lost the match against Ankrah and it was an upset because he is supposedly the number 1 seed in this tournament.

Damn, I watched the video so it's not clear as to what really happen in the game that might have tempted Kouame to slap his opponent. I haven't seen this kind of disrespect to an opponent physically. There is verbal abuse and that is very common. But for the customary handshake and then you gave your opponent a slap? he should be punished by all cost by ITF here.

15-year-old tennis player Michael Kouame slaps opponent at the net after losing in ITF Juniors tournament in Accra. This is very rare to happen in tennis. There is no clear information on what reason the player slapped the opponent. This should not happen and should be heavily punished. Doing such act at this young age is really a bad approach towards the game.

15-year-old tennis player slaps opponent

The commentators during the final at the weekend were saying that he really doesnt
need that much Tennis coaching, he has all the shots and is able to know which to play
and at what time. They also said that it seems they ^{His team} are focussing on
the psychological side of his game, which I think was very evident in his service game
for the match, he seemed super calm and knew what had to be done.

---

On the subject of probably the opposite of Alcaraz, Nick Kyrgios in terms of mentality
and demeanor. Nick is playing on the Houston tournament and faces Paul today. I'm
looking at who else is playing and to my knowledge there are no "Top 10" players present.
Where am I going with this? well eventhough I am not betting on him, this is a tournament
I actually think he could win this, it will be interesting to see what antics he gets up to or
will he take it seriously and actually try to win it.....

^It is not really possible to compare Chung or Sinner to Alcaraz. Chung had a brief time in his career when results went his way and got hyped up mainly because of his origins and not talent. Not many top tennis players from Asia and they need new Nishikori as soon as possible. Sinner is a good player but he is mainly counter puncher, something like Simon, never gonna bring in the crowd like big hitters and will look utterly ridiculous when he has a bad day..

Alcaraz is just that, big hitter without a week spot in his game. If he continues to develop as he should, he has future no.1 written all over him. Does not look like he needs mental coaching but if he finds a need for it in the future I am sure Nadal can give him some advice.

I am actually quite strict when judging players and not prone to hype but I see only good stuff for Alcaraz in future. For instance I am always saying that Medvedev does not have what it takes to be no.1 simply because of his mental state. It does not show often since he is such a good player but that is not body talk and mental state of the champion no matter what he achieves. Also when Raducanu and Fernandez played that final I immediately said they are one tournament wonder for the moment and that they will need a lot of work before results like that became their norm. Alcaraz on the other hand looks like he is already ready to attack top 10 or even top 5.

I agree, if she can get her mind right and deal again with the spotlight of being
a top 10 or even #1 or #2 player she could be a serious challenger. I saw from
her runner up speech at Miami I think she felt awkward to be there.


I would like to visit this again at the end of the year when we count how many
titles he collects and maybe if he collects a Grand Slam  also.....