Winston-Salem 2012

[Elias]

Elias (Gasquet) def. Aziz Ismail (Berdych) 6-3 6-4

A good fast paced match, with a good bunch of strong & clean winners from Ismail Berdych as expected, i think he played a pretty solid game and decent level, though he overall made a bit too much positionning errors wich costed him some points, and Gasquet is a pretty solid all-around char with good wings. I also have this feeling that Gasquet wings anims have a pretty large swing and provide a higher reach than several other char anims, and thus he feels very effective to defend.

Speaking about drop & net rushing, Ismail did a good bunch of those (from mermory i would say like 10), he won a good part of this points, but after some time as i got more used to and waiting for those, i could start running earlyer and hit some lobs or passing

Good game Ismail & wish you good luck @ US Open !





[edit]
After watching the replay, only 10 drops out of 115 points, and 2 from them were errors in the net, and only 2 or 3 followed to the net. so i have
to say one really has to watch his replay to make sure about his feelings about drops, because i think we have some tendencies to focus a lot on those points; leading to this felling there was a lot, when in fact there was not that much. After reviewing this replay i just felt this match was clean tennis, no problem at all. i was just like "where did those drops go ?"
[/edit]

[inseedious]

Elio i was talking about just drops, not drop+volley

I met a 1950 ELO ranked player who faced all my 2 match points with dropshots + net rushing, and then won thanks of a break won with dropshots and unnecessary lobs.

Inseedious these are your words, you are talking about this, no?

Sorry elio, I thought that you were talking about my post in the tournament rules thread. However yes, I mentioned drop+volley, but my focus was on drops, cause there are also other ways to surely win a point after dropping. We're talking about the same thing, because my opponent can hit just 2 drops in every match, but doing it just on break/match points just makes him unbeatable (of course only if he knows how to win all dropping points).

[VMoe86]

Today I had my second match against RODRIGUES16: VMoe86 (Verdasco) defeats RODRIGUES16 (Federer) 6-2 6-2.

Compared to the last time, he improved his level. In addition he used Federer instead of Nadal and he served incredibly well. Second serves averaging at 112mph, that's not something you experience every day.

My baseline game was superior, so on serve I wasn't in trouble. I had to return very well, though, because he could hit a good one-two punch and take advantage of bad returns.

In addition he has already good horizontal positioning, defends well (we had two rallies with over 20 shots, in which he showed a good level). Only vertically, he has to adjust better: Going backwards on deeper shots (he made errors) or stepping into the court on shorter balls from, taking them earlier. If he works on that, he'll be a good competitor on the tour.

By the way, the last game was funny: Match point, ace, mach point, ace, match point, ace, match point, ace (or so, don't remember how many times it happened)

Here are the stats:

[VMoe86]

And the next match: Robbin92 (Djokovic) defeats VMoe86 (Verdasco) 6-4 6-4.

I was aware of him using Djokovic and playing on a high level, so I knew it was more of an uphill battle. I accepted the battle and did well in both sets, until I had to serve to stay in the respective sets. In the first set, two faults on rather easy shots. And in the second set he took advantage of my second serves (I double faulted on game point, if I remember it correctly).

I had only two break points, both in the opening game of the first set. From then on I couldn't touch him really on serve. I remember one 15-30 I got, but it was such a weird rallye and point I had to win to get there, truly an uphill battle.

But compared to Berdych vs. del Potro, this time I could dictate rallies, take balls earlier. It also shows, that our Tier 2 characters are really good now, but in the tough situations, their lower consistencies can (or will) haunt you. And if you are lucky as me, they definitely haunt you.

Congrats Robbin: As I told you in our first match, you have all the ingredients for a top player, now you are one! Good luck in your remaining tournaments, in particular the US Open!

Here are the stats:

[djarvik]

You won most of the long rallies with Verdasco aganst Djoker Impressive.

[polca456321]

Polca456321 (Gasquet) vs Elias (Gasquet) : 5/7 6/2 6/3

WHAT DID I DO ? Seriously I still don't understand how I did it, but I did. The first thing I told him after the match was : "It can't be"

But indeed we played a pretty good match, probably the best I played, because there was a high level from both of us, it was intense, it was hard mentally, so yes, a very interesting match to see I guess (Elias will post the replay later).

In the first I could have broken several times, but he had a great mental and held his serve, in fact I was the first to let my serve game, at 5/5, then 7/5 on his serve.

But in the second I managed to break two times, I don't know how regarding the number of aces he did, but probably I get lucky on some points and then he didn't broke back, so I concluded 6/2 the second set on my serve.

And on the third set, it was quite the same story, I broke two times and won 6/3.

What a victory I did today, especially regarding we had the same player, but I guess he was on a bad day, because I still consider Elias is far better than me Anyway congrats to him, because to play such a tennis match we had to be two, and my victory seems epic (on my eyes at least) only because he played a great tennis. So thanks for having played this match Elias

Here are the stats :

[djarvik]

Looking at the stats, the standouts are:

- Break point conversion
You converted on all but one break.

- Short rallies won
You won a total of 8 more point in short rallies. In such a close match - that's a big difference.

[o Sinna o]

This is what I mean, it would be a pleasure to watch such a Match polca is talking about.

Djarvik:

And you may not forget the 4 of 5 Breakpoints he made. ^^

[Elias]

Polca456321 (Gasquet) vs Elias (Gasquet) : 5/7 6/2 6/3

WHAT DID I DO ? Seriously I still don't understand how I did it, but I did. The first thing I told him after the match was : "It can't be"

But indeed we played a pretty good match, probably the best I played, because there was a high level from both of us, it was intense, it was hard mentally, so yes, a very interesting match to see I guess (Elias will post the replay later).

In the first I could have broken several times, but he had a great mental and held his serve, in fact I was the first to let my serve game, at 5/5, then 7/5 on his serve.

But in the second I managed to break two times, I don't know how regarding the number of aces he did, but probably I get lucky on some points and then he didn't broke back, so I concluded 6/2 the second set on my serve.

And on the third set, it was quite the same story, I broke two times and won 6/3.

What a victory I did today, especially regarding we had the same player, but I guess he was on a bad day, because I still consider Elias is far better than me Anyway congrats to him, because to play such a tennis match we had to be two, and my victory seems epic (on my eyes at least) only because he played a great tennis. So thanks for having played this match Elias

Ok, well i have to congrats Polca for this win. We played with the same character so that says everything about our respective levels in this match. It's confirming Polca progress, but it's also true that i'm not in my best form at this time, my usual sparring partner (Vmoe) can confirm this, i'm actually losing all our match-ups when we're doing tests , since a bit more than a week, all this started after the Olympics Final.
That doesn't mean i played bad really, i had good momentums and shots, but overall not enough consistency and Polca was playing more forward & inside the court than i did.

If there was a Marat Safin in the roster, i should definitely be him, being used more or less to those consistency swings during some periods, just hoping i'll manage to put my game together back for the US Open.

Overall Polca had to play a good level with regularity to take this victory, and this shows he's reaching a very nice level, i could see more good short crosses coming from him than i saw in our past meetings, happy to see the level increasing around

I was about to wish Polca good luck but just saw that Robbin won the SF, what a huge victory streak Robbin today !

[Robbin92]

And also in this thread I am going to comment about two matches. But no worries, I'll keep it shorter this time

Robbin92 (Djokovic) 6-4 6-4 Vmoe (Verdasco)

In this match I really felt the advantage of having a tier 1 against a tier 2. Vmoe did play better then me, shown by the long rallies won %, but he had to work really hard to finish his points off.

Vmoe played with a really high tempo, which he wasn't able to do with Del Potro, and I had a lot of trouble with that. Although I could hold serve pretty easy with Verdasco being a less good defender. I broke two times at 5-4 to win this match Thanks for all the compliment Vmoe and I'm defenitely looking forward to play you again!

Robbin92 (Djokovic) 6-3 7-6 (3) Polca456321 (Gasquet)

My gameplan was to avoid his backhand and thus I played a lot of balls to his forehand. He was the first to break in the first set, but it was like he was dazzled that he broke, so I could make an easy rebreak. After that I improved my level and I was able to break again.

In the second Polca also rose his level and it was a very intense set. I served the best I ever did with Djokovic hitting 18 aces and Polca was able to let his backhand shine more often in the second set. We got to the tiebreak where I played some good points before winning it by a dull lag point. I'm sorry about that. Thanks for the very intense match Polca and I wish you all the best in the coming tournaments!

[polca456321]

Thanks Elias foryour words

Robbin and I played a great match, especially the second set. I don't know if I have ever played a set with such a level game. I really advice to anyone to watch it, and to figure the awesome player Robbin already became. Congrats to him, and good luck to the final, if you play you played in the second, I can't see you lose

[C4iLL]

@Polca Hey I'm quite sure you haven't played at the level you played against me recently in exhibitions to beat him like that

Anyway, with Nadal, I've just lost 7-6 6-4 against Dimitrov (Federer).
Pretty close game, but we didn't play at our best I think (we both got 2 breaks in first set), surely because of a lack of training.

In tie-break I was about to serve for the set but I missed a service because of a suddent lag ; in second set, he was leading 5-4, I had a break point occasion to come back but he played well and managed to conclude the match.

Also to notice : he played really bad at the net (he lost maybe 10 points there, it's dramatic ), and I had like 84% of first serve with like 13-14 aces.

[Ugadalou]

Ugadalou (Fish) vs G.Dimitrov (Federer) 7-6/6-7/7-6

I think it was a good offensive match from both sides.Many clean winners,volley winners and aces.Too many aces!.Very few break points produced and all of them wiped out by serves.

This is an area of the game I want to express my thoughts.
I think with the current stats,the game is still too serve-oriented.Too many aces,too much precision.We need risk on serves and the ball to be in play more.
It's not reasonable to have a total of 70 aces in a best of 3 match!
Ok,me and G.Dimitrov might not be the best returners of the tour but still numbers like that just don't make sense..
It was like I was facing freaking Isner,not Federer!Especially last set it was all lines with 200km/h.

Also one more thing that I noticed the other time I faced Dimitrov but thought it could be a one-time only is his behaviour after losing.
What annoyed me is that there is no sportmanship at all.He just walks away from the session instantly and doesn't bother to congratulate or exchange a word with me.Still, I would understand it after a tough loss if you would leave to cool down and send a pm after a while-that'd be fine.

But you need to know,you see a man's true character after a loss.After a win,everything is great and easy.One last piece of advice,if you want to win,you first need to learn how to lose.Wish you luck in your future matches.

Stats:

[Elias]

Also one more thing that I noticed the other time I faced Dimitrov but thought it could be a one-time only is his behaviour after losing.
What annoyed me is that there is no sportmanship at all.He just walks away from the session instantly and doesn't bother to congratulate or exchange a word with me.Still, I would understand it after a tough loss if you would leave to cool down and send a pm after a while-that'd be fine.

But you need to know,you see a man's true character after a loss.After a win,everything is great and easy.One last piece of advice,if you want to win,you first need to learn how to lose.Wish you luck in your future matches.

Indeed.. sportsmanship matters, this is not a nice attitude :/

[13:14] <dimitrov> :@::@:@:@:
[13:14] <dimitrov> @::@:@:@:
[13:14] <dimitrov> :@:@::@:@:@:@
[13:14] <dimitrov> @::@::@
[13:15] <Kono>
[13:15] <dimitrov> I lost from Uga 7/6 6/7 7/6 :@:@:@:
[13:19] <dimitrov> maybe now I'm the most nervous man on the world!
[13:21] <dimitrov> I have to work on my mental!

From the chat i guess it's a nerve issue
chillout Dimitrov !

About the serves we hear you for sure. It's a bit difficult when we can see at the same time matches with 40 aces and other long ones with only 12.. meaning if we reduce serve efficiency more then those better returners will never been aced anymore ? just a guess but it's worrying in either ways. Though we may go further with the precision stat lowering it a step further again.

[Ugadalou]

About the serves we hear you for sure. It's a bit difficult when we can see at the same time matches with 40 aces and other long ones with only 12.. meaning if we reduce serve efficiency more then those better returners will never been aced anymore ? just a guess but it's worrying in either ways. Though we may go further with the precision stat lowering it a step further again.

If you check the match stats you'll see that I had 12% more return points won, 57%Short,50%medium and 71% long rallies won too.Also I made 26 less unforced errors.Then how is it possible to have only 2 break points in a best of 3 with 3 full sets???!!! .Drives me crazy.Of course Dimitrov deserves congrats for that, but it doesn't make much sense,does it?