Just What Fed Needed? From Anand. Thanks.

 
 

Anand_101 |

Just What Fed Needed
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TP thinks Fed needs matches to get momentum. But at this stage, I believe rest is what Fed needs and the default by Haas was a Godsend. He is still building up after mono, mind is fresh but how ready is the body must be throwing doubts into that mind.

Three nice matches, a good rest, another ‘tomato can’ as TP puts it (good job by Fish, putting Nalby out of his misery), and he is ready for Sunday. Djoker and Nadal duke (or puke?) it out, the winner gets a special spank from a cool Fed and all is well with the world again .

Picture perfect. Result? Never mind!!!

 

Nalbandian gets fried by Fish. Is taken out of his misery finally.

 
 

Nalbandian has been barely hanging by a thread in three of the four matches he has played here. The players who extended him were surprised themselves to be so close to defeating him: Gulbis, Stepanek and even Fish.

Fish now has taken out three top class players back to back to back: Davydenko, Hewitt and Nalbandian. He should be feeling pretty close to what Nadal is feeling if not better.

Reward? Federer, who has defeated him five straight time. Fish has been able to win just one set in five encounters while eating one bagel.

Nice shot.

 

Can you get any more girly? Is there any mystery what angles the legs are making underneath?

 

Haas out due to sinus infection. Federer moves into semis. Is that good or bad?

 
 

Are you freaking kidding me!!!!!!!!!!! Definitely not good. Haas was a perfect player on paper for Federer to get some vital match play before playing the big dogs. Haas was playing decent tennis, having eliminated Roddick and Murray back to back, but still had no chance against the in-form Federer.

 

Translation: A perfect tomato can at this level of the tournament before the giants take over and battle it out for the big prize.

So Federer has just three matches against over-matched opponents going into a war zone. He has barely scratched the one hour mark at any one of them. This rest could prove costly to Federer. The answer to that could come in the very first set he plays next.

It could also take a mental toll subsequently deflating some confidence he had built up so far. The momentum break at this point of the tournament, considering where Federer is coming from this season could be devastating.

Roddick refuses to back down against Djokovic as a comedian. From Schop. Thanks.

Schop | 

Yeah, most of freaking tennis fans in this blog don’t like Djokers behaving!

It’s just too bad.

He isn’t funny either.

Watch this (TP: the following could be a new thread):

Funniness: Roddick vs Djoker

And the winner is:

Go Andy go!

Besides, Andy is nicer too!

A sportsman!

Go Andy go!

Larry Scott criticizes Richard Williams’ statements. From cragger. Thanks.

 cragger | 

Larry Scott criticizes Richard Williams’ statements

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (AP) -WTA head Larry Scott said Thursday that he strongly disagrees with comments made by Richard Williams, father of Serena and Venus, regarding racism on the women’s tour.

Saying he was disappointed by Williams’ recent remarks during an interview in India, Scott said in a statement: “The Tour has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to racism, and I have previously let Mr. Williams know that he should let me know if he ever had evidence of racist comments or acts in women’s professional tennis.”

While his daughters were playing earlier this month in Bangladore, India, where Venus reached the quarterfinals and Serena won the title, Williams told the Deccan Herald, “Well, I’m black and I’m prejudiced, very prejudiced. People are prejudiced in tennis. I don’t think Venus or Serena was ever accepted by tennis. They never will be.”

He said the media treated his daughters unfairly, that it was “the worst media job that they have done on any human being in the world,” and that if he were Serena and Venus, he would have quit playing.

“But if you get some little white no-good trasher in America like Tracy Austin or Chris Evert, who cannot hit the ball, they (the media) will claim this is great,” he said.

Scott said, “Champions like Chris Evert and Tracy Austin have done so much to help build women’s tennis to where it is today, and it is regrettable that anyone would criticize them in this manner.”

The Williams sisters haven’t played at Indian Wells since 2001. They were booed after Venus pulled out of a semifinal match against her sister, citing knee tendinitis. Serena went on to win the title, but was booed during and after the championship match.
http://www.tennis.com/news/news.aspx?id=122830

Is this the most polite way to challenge a call? Or the right finger is still in the process?

Likelihood of a Serb winning both men’s and women’s title here pretty high.

  

On the women’s side, Ivanovic is more likely to win it if she can beat Jankovic and reach the final against a surefire Sharapova.

 

Djokovic on the other hand has to beat the top two players back to back to win it. Any leeway he might have had due to Federer’s ‘not 100 percent’ preparation, may have been wiped out by the raging bull charging at him in full flight.

Djokovic is pretty close to where he was at Montreal and this scenario is not likely to change anytime soon. Federer, of course has the easier route, considering Nalbandian has not produced his best tennis so far consistently.

If these top three jokers keep up this form, every freaking event from now is bound to end up with this equation. That equates to at least two juicy matches for tennis fans.

It now appears the landscape is pretty much identical on the women’s side, with Justine fading. Sharapova is the only real hurdle left.

Sooner or later, Serbs are going to be holding both trophies and it may go on for sometime before it lets up.

Nadal turns into a riddler crusher and defeats Blake for the first time in his career.

  

These two back to back wins from Nadal – Tsonga and Blake – are monumental and can resurrect his sputtering hard court career in a hurry.

He has proven to himself that he can adapt and adjust his game to execute the plan discussed at the drawing board. But more importantly he has been able to fine tune the strategy on the fly during the match.

 

These two matches are direct result of the 350 points differential he started this tournament with for the No. 1 rank. Human nature does not resort to dire measures until the water starts rising beyond the nose. You think he could have won these two matches by a hair’s margin if that carrot was not dangling in front? No way!!!!

 

Like I have barked many times before we humans are motivated more by pain than by pleasure. Nadal’s quest to reach the top spot has turned into a painful trauma from pleasure few months ago. The insult of even losing the No. 2 spot to Djokovic is adding to the injury. The combination is resulting in Nadal removing all stops to go for the kill.

Although Nadal has had to expend ton of energy at these two matches, the adrenaline that these victories have generated is more than enough to last him for the next two matches. Remember Agassi’s last match against Becker at the US Open, where he showed no signs of his back pain, but the moment the match was over, he could barely stand straight. Can you put two and two together here, for crying out loud, or do I have to run with a spoon after you everywhere? Geeeeeeeeeezzzzzzz!!!!

So far it was difficult to imagine Nadal beating Djokovic despite the 6-2 H2H advantage Nadal has. But these two wins have propelled him into a player obsessed with some strange spirit that refuses to give in.

 

Djokovic has to be squirming whereever he is right about now. Although Djokovic hasn’t dropped a set so far, he was extended twice by Wawrinka and Seppi to tie-breaks. He knows Nadal’s never die attitude on the court can frustrate even the best of players.

If Nalbandian takes care of Fish today, next two days will be tennis heaven and a sumptuous feast for tennis fans worldwide.

Federer tipping his hat to Rafa? From Anand. Thanks.

 

Anand_101 |

Tipping his hat to Rafa?
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The way Rafa and Djoker are playing doesn’t look too good for Fed, who’s still looking unsure, working and feeling his way into form. He might make the finals here and maybe again in Miami, but he is still not red hot in confidence.

He gains points here but my guess is, this year he is bound to rest ahead of RG, instead of defending Hamburg. Which means Rafa has a chance of taking #1 just before RG. Fed would have tipped his hat to his great and dear rival.

That sacrifice will give Fed a better chance at RG, following which he will sweep the rest of the big tourneys this year.

Rafa would have had the perpetual #2 monkey off his back, Fed would have ended #1 for 5 years, locked up the GOAT title, probably taking the non-calendar Slam at AO 09 to dispel all doubts.

Nice fairy tale, isn’t it?