2018 Australian Open, Melbourne - ATP GRAND SLAM

[Denis]

Lol! Why after Rafa retires?

He’s won enough tournaments. More clay will make it even easier for him.

They need to redo the whole schedule anyways 3 slams in the summer and then 9 months of drought more or less....

 

[the AntiPusher]

Rafa was told it should take 3 weeks for the injury to his upper thigh muscle to heal.. I think he should skip IW and Miami and regroup for the clay

 

[britbox]

^ That would make sense. At the very least, skipping Acapulco should be a no-brainer.

 

[the AntiPusher]

^ That would make sense. At the very least, skipping Acapulco should be a no-brainer.

BB.. Rafa was playing tenative the entire tournament, he NEVER looked comfortable even against the lower ranked players.. Give Fed the 1st quarter HC season and return for the clay but skip Madrid and Rome

 

[Denis]

BB.. Rafa was playing tenative the entire tournament, he NEVER looked comfortable even against the lower ranked players.. Give Fed the 1st quarter HC season and return for the clay but skip Madrid and Rome

Skip Rome? Why would he do that? It’s the most prestigious clay tourney after Paris.

 

[Fiero425]

Skip Rome? Why would he do that? It’s the most prestigious clay tourney after Paris.

No one's going to care about one Rome title a decade or century down the line when it comes to GOAT's; majors will still be the decider! Let the next gen'rs have it like last season! :whistle:

 

[Moxie]

Skip Rome? Why would he do that? It’s the most prestigious clay tourney after Paris.

I agree with skipping Madrid, but not Rome. Not because it's prestigious, but because it's a good tune-up for RG.

 

[Moxie]

Rafa was told it should take 3 weeks for the injury to his upper thigh muscle to heal.. I think he should skip IW and Miami and regroup for the clay

I hope he makes the best decisions about being healthy and preparing to defend RG. He really loves IW, though. His buddy owns the tournament. He gets to play golf. And if he wants to play IW, he'll want to play Acapulco. Do the right thing, Rafa!

 

[the AntiPusher]

I hope he makes the best decisions about being healthy and preparing to defend RG. He really loves IW, though. His buddy owns the tournament. He gets to play golf. And if he wants to play IW, he'll want to play Acapulco. Do the right thing, Rafa!

You know he is gonna show up at IW because of his buddy Larry Ellison .. I dont think he needs more tune ups..than MC and Barcelona.. Rome if he only gonna go a few rounds but not for The entirety.. Novak will be back to full strength by then and will try to destroy Rafa’s legs with another non slam battle..

 

[the AntiPusher]

Skip Rome? Why would he do that? It’s the most prestigious clay tourney after Paris.

No.. MC is the most prestigious and the most scenic.. I am tryIn to go there this year ,, if my sale commission check kick in by then,,

 

[GameSetAndMath]

People are forgetting high appearance fees at lesser tourneys! Rafa's a money HO and isn't going to pass up a big check! :whistle:

Do the Mexicans have money? They are not even paying for the wall.

 

[Moxie]

You know he is show up at IW because of his buddy Larry Ellison .. I dont think he needs more tune ups..than MC and Barcelona.. Rome if he only gonna go a few rounds but not for The entirety.. Novak will be back to full strength by then and will try to destroy Rafa’s legs with another non slam battle..

Rafa managed his Rome very well last year. I think he can do it again.

 

[imjimmy]

Nadal's been ripping into the tour organisers for the hardcourt injury epidemic.

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[/parsehtml]Link: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/tennis/...m-australian-open-chance-20180123-h0n9ag.html

Couple of things...

a) Perhaps Nadal should actually start taking better care of his own schedule in Federer-type style. I mean why the hell is he scheduled to play a hard court event in Acapulco? He doesn't have to play all these hard court events - he chooses to play a ton of them.

b) A lot of the injuries are happening to older players... this is father time. It's life.

In addition to this perhaps Rafa should up the ante on shot-making and rely less on his wheels .

I mean he's getting older - his speed and defense are going down. Why not take more risks? Again in the Cillic match, he was leading and then suddenly became so defensive and ended up running so much.

I'm not saying his injury was caused just by being defensive .But had he thrown caution to the wind, he might have won the match in straights and maybe not be injured at all .

He can clearly play aggressively, but for some reason reverts back to defense and cannot maintain aggression throughout. The solution going forward is to play selective events and play offensively. He can't continue in the same vein and keep running - he's getting to old for that .

 

[El Dude]

To be fair to Rafa, Cilic was just pounding the ball. It is hard not to be on the defensive vs. that kind of offense.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

In addition to this perhaps Rafa should up the ante on shot-making and rely less on his wheels .

I mean he's getting older - his speed and defense are going down. Why not take more risks? Again in the Cillic match, he was leading and then suddenly became so defensive and ended up running so much.

I'm not saying his injury was caused just by being defensive .But had he thrown caution to the wind, he might have won the match in straights and maybe not be injured at all .

He can clearly play aggressively, but for some reason reverts back to defense and cannot maintain aggression throughout. The solution going forward is to play selective events and play offensively. He can't continue in the same vein and keep running - he's getting to old for that .

Easy to say, but difficult to change years of habits and natural tendencies.

 

[isabelle]

will Marin finally win AO ? I wish him good luck sunday

 

[Denis]

No.. MC is the most prestigious and the most scenic.. I am tryIn to go there this year ,, if my sale commission check kick in by then,,

I guess you are saying that because Rafa won more MC titles. Yes, MC looks nice. But Rome has always been a bigger event. Not least because it features a women's draw and the Italian Open has been seen as the sister to the French Open. MC is just a private event.

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

Who's talking about Federer-chung?

Chung has loads of energy, loads of defense. And, wow, he can hit shots too. As the Slice guy said, this is going to be a very different match for Chung. Fed's not going to sit at the baseline and push over. Nah. He's gonna be aggressive and it will be interesting to see how Chung would react to that. Yes, he's got passes but how about Roger thrashing outright winners and approaching the net properly? How about Roger having a good serving day. He dominates on such days on serve, simple. The drop shots, the angles, he can bring in variety. Haha, I slowly realised as I typed as to how cut out the task is for him and how easily things could go wrong. Damn. Not easy.

This is a tougher match than most think. Roger will need to be on top of his game. He needs to bring that distinct SF/F performance of his. Fast, flat tennis.

I find this funny. We (I for one talk about Shapovalov) keep talking about Zverev. About how is going to be the next big thing. And we say Novak's gonna surge, Thiem's gonna arrive, Tiafoe, Rublev etc. Really, who spoke about Chung? Who thought we would have Chung and Edmund in semis? Are we sleeping on some and overselling some others?

I feel excited about tomorrow; in a good way. Not that I am afraid about Roger's match much. Not feeling bad about it. And that's because Roger's given me the belief that he can face big challenges now. Chung's good, probably very good but I hope Roger will take it. So, really stoked for it. Can't wait.

 

[Denis]

Who's talking about Federer-chung?

Chung has loads of energy, loads of defense. And, wow, he can hit shots too. As the Slice guy said, this is going to be a very different match for Chung. Fed's not going to sit at the baseline and push over. Nah. He's gonna be aggressive and it will be interesting to see how Chung would react to that. Yes, he's got passes but how about Roger thrashing outright winners and approaching the net properly? How about Roger having a good serving day. He dominates on such days on serve, simple. The drop shots, the angles, he can bring in variety. Haha, I slowly realised as I typed as to how cut out the task is for him and how easily things could go wrong. Damn. Not easy.

This is a tougher match than most think. Roger will need to be on top of his game. He needs to bring that distinct SF/F performance of his. Fast, flat tennis.

I find this funny. We (I for one talk about Shapovalov) keep talking about Zverev. About how is going to be the next big thing. And we say Novak's gonna surge, Thiem's gonna arrive, Tiafoe, Rublev etc. Really, who spoke about Chung? Who thought we would have Chung and Edmund in semis? Are we sleeping on some and overselling some others?

I feel excited about tomorrow; in a good way. Not that I am afraid about Roger's match much. Not feeling bad about it. And that's because Roger's given me the belief that he can face big challenges now. Chung's good, probably very good but I hope Roger will take it. So, really stoked for it. Can't wait.

You ask who spoke about Chung? Perhaps you don't frequent these boards that often. We were already discussing him in 2015 in one of the next gen threads:

https://www.tennis-prose.com/tennisforum/threads/favourite-juniors.286/#post-5868

Moxie and I among others have been following him for a while now.

 

[Fiero425]

will Marin finally win AO ? I wish him good luck sunday

Maybe he can pull a "DelPo" and take out both Fedal like was done back in '09 at the USO! It would be nice; back up his USO from '14! :whistle: