Aussie Open 2014: Ball and Courts faster...

[Kieran]

Pete didn't play the Australian open in 1999. They must have mixed the names up...

 

[Kieran]

I believed Nadal would never win the US Open. I remember saying as much in summer of 2010, about 3 weeks before he actually did. I actually don't see it as a huge deal that most thought Nadal wouldn't win Wimbledon. If you watched him play in 2006, before actually reaching the final there, you wouldn't have guessed he ever would.

But yeah, the US Open thing to me, is almost as impressive. If you watched him play there until 2010, it was painful. He really was struggling to impose his game. Then one year, he alters his serve, steps closer to the baseline, and suddenly his forehand is looking world class again. He's won it twice and reached the final once since, in 3 appearances. Not too shabby.

There's people who didn't think Rafa would get back to #1, too!

I always felt he'd win the US Open but I imagined it would be against Federer. He has two now, and counting. It is an incredible achievement and he's won his two by playing immense HC tennis. He's lost his serve a total of NINE times over the course of the 2010 and 2013 tournaments. That's something not even Pete could boast about...

 

[Kieran]

One tourney I think Rafa might need a "2009" to win is the WTF. He's gone through everyone at some point but he still falls short against another. So he beat Nole and Murray in 2010 and couldn't get past Roger, but after beating Roger last year he couldn't beat Nole. Maybe this year the stars will align, but that's a tourney which my gut tells me he'll never win...

 

[the AntiPusher]

One tourney I think Rafa might need a "2009" to win is the WTF. He's gone through everyone at some point but he still falls short against another. So he beat Nole and Murray in 2010 and couldn't get past Roger, but after beating Roger last year he couldn't beat Nole. Maybe this year the stars will align, but that's a tourney which my gut tells me he'll never win...

All due respect, Ten years from now will we "Ever" care who won WTF.. Just the slams , at this point for Rafa is all abouit the slams

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

One tourney I think Rafa might need a "2009" to win is the WTF. He's gone through everyone at some point but he still falls short against another. So he beat Nole and Murray in 2010 and couldn't get past Roger, but after beating Roger last year he couldn't beat Nole. Maybe this year the stars will align, but that's a tourney which my gut tells me he'll never win...

All due respect, Ten years from now will we "Ever" care who won WTF.. Just the slams , at this point for Rafa is all abouit the slams

Time does weird things though...20 year from now, someone who never saw today's guys play live, will say" Yeah, but look at Nadal, 10 of his slams were on clay..."belittling his achievements without ever knowing his epic final against Roger or how great he played in the Us Open final. Look at what we are doing to old timers...We say things like " Oh , those were the club tennis days, he had to play only 4 matches, it was all on grass, nobody traveled there at the time, etc, etc, etc....."

People have an issue with judging players at their own time, in my opinion.

 

[Luxilon Borg]

http://tinyurl.com/mcr9q5f

So Craig Tiley says the speed is the same as last year. If true, much ado about nothing.

Opening the Pandora box again. It seems there is some truth to the claim that
the courts are playing faster than last year. Apparently, it was not intentionally
done. The theory is that it is because the surface was laid couple of weeks earlier
than normal. However, I am not sure whether the predicted increase in speed will
be perceptible to players and/or viewers; probably not. It is generally accepted
fact that plexicushion surface (and most other hard court surfaces) pick up some
pace after a few weeks of playing and being out in the sun. This is in contrast
to Wimbledon which is usually slower in the second week than in the first week
as the grass gets worn out.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/tennis/federer-delighted-by-opens-quick-courts/story-fnbe6xeb-1226795395217

If you click on the link that I provided, it takes you to Australian newspaper site,
but you won't be able to read the full article without subscription. If you want to
read the full article, type in the title of the article (that you see after clicking my
link) in google and then click on the first result.

It is important to note here that the Tournament Director explicitly says
that there is zero difference in the composition of the surface between last
year and this year. All of this projected speed up is attributed to a combination of three
factors 1) The time at which the surface was laid. It is apparently earlier than normal
2) The weather conditions. It is apparently very hot and surface is baking on it
and 3) the new livelier balls.

p.s. The only thing I found counterintuitive in this article is that it says, Pete Sampras
complained against a fast AO court in 1999. Why would he do so? May be they got
the names mixed up?

Uhh...yeh..and Federer is not a serve and volleyer...

Per Sampras, I don't if they were referring specifically to 1999...they meant he may
have complained in general..Rafter was identified as complaining in 99.

Does ANYONE actually know what ball they are using??? Has it not been the same Wilson
heavy duty ball used at the US Open since 1985?

 

[Kieran]

Time does weird things though...20 year from now, someone who never saw today's guys play live, will say" Yeah, but look at Nadal, 10 of his slams were on clay..."belittling his achievements without ever knowing his epic final against Roger or how great he played in the Us Open final. Look at what we are doing to old timers...We say things like " Oh , those were the club tennis days, he had to play only 4 matches, it was all on grass, nobody traveled there at the time, etc, etc, etc....."

People have an issue with judging players at their own time, in my opinion.

This is true. People are generally impressed by what's new, what's happening now, they forget how great players were in the past - in fact, just like now, these players of the past were the best players on earth!

 

[brokenshoelace]

One tourney I think Rafa might need a "2009" to win is the WTF. He's gone through everyone at some point but he still falls short against another. So he beat Nole and Murray in 2010 and couldn't get past Roger, but after beating Roger last year he couldn't beat Nole. Maybe this year the stars will align, but that's a tourney which my gut tells me he'll never win...

All due respect, Ten years from now will we "Ever" care who won WTF.. Just the slams , at this point for Rafa is all abouit the slams

Pete Sampras has been retired for over 10 years and people mention how many WTF he won. Do you also think nobody will care about all the Masters 1000 Nadal won?

 

[brokenshoelace]

I believed Nadal would never win the US Open. I remember saying as much in summer of 2010, about 3 weeks before he actually did. I actually don't see it as a huge deal that most thought Nadal wouldn't win Wimbledon. If you watched him play in 2006, before actually reaching the final there, you wouldn't have guessed he ever would.

But yeah, the US Open thing to me, is almost as impressive. If you watched him play there until 2010, it was painful. He really was struggling to impose his game. Then one year, he alters his serve, steps closer to the baseline, and suddenly his forehand is looking world class again. He's won it twice and reached the final once since, in 3 appearances. Not too shabby.

There's people who didn't think Rafa would get back to #1, too!

I always felt he'd win the US Open but I imagined it would be against Federer. He has two now, and counting. It is an incredible achievement and he's won his two by playing immense HC tennis. He's lost his serve a total of NINE times over the course of the 2010 and 2013 tournaments. That's something not even Pete could boast about...

Yeah, the two US Open wins to me, are some of the most impressive tennis he's ever played, from a pure "tennis level" perspective. They're also two tournaments in which, from his very first match, you could see the confidence. It's different than say, many of his Roland Garros wins, where he plays himself into form early on or his 2010 Wimbledon win where he went to 5 sets in back-to-back matches.

It was somewhat expected last year because he was riding his hard court winning streak, and had just won Montreal and Cinci, so we all expected him to play very well and he did. However, in 2010, he had lost in Montreal and Cinci to Murray and Baghdatis, and his level seemed to have dropped after Wimbledon. Yet, in his very first match (I remember it was against Gabashvili), you could see him serving huge (by his standards), flattening out the backhand, and adopting a more offensive position on the court. It's difficult to explain, but watching him, you could sense that something was different.

The first Wimbledon win was terrific, but the signs were there (the previous two finals). His 2010 US Open win came somewhat "out of the blue" (probably not the right term), in that despite having made two semis already, he never looked confident there and his game struggled. That's what made it so special. The sudden adaptation was terrific to see.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

To make it easy for people to read the article, that I cited few posts ago on
anticipated court speed of AO in 2014, I am cutting and pasting it below.


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THE Australian Open courts will be the fastest in 15 years. That is music to the ears of Roger Federer.

A combination of a predicted spell of hot, dry conditions for Melbourne, plus the fact the Plexicushion resurfacing was done a little earlier than normal and the brand of Wilson ball has been further finetuned will make the 2014 Open faster than 2013 or 2012.

But it was not the intention of Tennis Australia or tournament director Craig Tiley to make the courts faster. For those players who have battered themselves under a burning 35C sun in Brisbane for the past few days, it will feel slower as Queensland has had temperatures far in access of Melbourne.

For Federer, the quicker the better for him as a serve-volleyer and for spectators to see more aggressive tennis. He is a statesman and spokesman for the game, not just because of his 17 slam wins from 15 years on tour, but because he held the No 1 ranking on and off for 302 weeks -- an ATP record.

"If that's what people want to see, just rallies, rallies, rallies all the time, then it's good to have a slow court. If you want a bit more even ground for everybody, even the lower-ranked guys and more danger for the top guys, you go with a faster court," Federer said in Brisbane, where he lost the final to Lleyton Hewitt and reached the semi-finals in doubles.

"Maybe we'll get more serve and volley back into the game or more of the unknown, which I think is nice. I think it's quite incredible how things have slowed down over the years."

Federer wasn't making an appeal to TA to quicken up the courts, but his word counts immeasurably among players. He was joined in his assessment by women's fourth seed and a former world No 1 Jelena Jankovic.

"In Brisbane I thought the surface was very fast, the play was fast without a lot of long rallies. The balls were kind of flying.

"Whoever struck the ball first had the big advantage," she said yesterday as she prepared for the Sydney International.

World No 5 and the top seed in Sydney Juan Martin del Potro, who did not play in Brisbane, said the courts were quicker than he could remember down under. "I'm feeling like these are really fast, these courts. I like them when they're faster, when they bounce low. I will try to take advantage of the conditions. I hit this morning and it definitely feels faster than when I was here two years ago."

Roger Rasheed, former coach of Hewitt, Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who is now in charge of top-25 player Grigor Dimitrov, tweeted: "The courts are the quickest since the old Rebound Ace days." He's referring to the famous 2000 Australian Open on Rebound Ace's FastTop surface. Plexicushion replaced Rebound Ace in 2008.

But in 1999, Pat Rafter had led player complaints about the courts being too slow. TA wanted to turn up the dial but made it a little too fast, quicker than the US Open.

The players complained again, especially Pete Sampras.

They all received word it would never happen again. It's been slower ever since.

Yet Tiley is not trying to turn up the dial again.

"We've actually done nothing different in the resurfacing to last year. The materials that make up that surface are exactly the same," he said.

"What we have done is resurface them sooner -- not by much, but sooner.

"Sometimes they reach their tempo of speed earlier."

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[GameSetAndMath]

Pete didn't play the Australian open in 1999. They must have mixed the names up...

Yes, Pete did not play in the Australian open in 1999. I made a mistake in
saying Pete complained about the courts in 1999. The article does not say so.

The article says that Pete Rafter complained about courts being slow in 1999
and then the tournament organizers ramped up the speed so much that it became
faster than AO and then Pete Sampras complained about courts being too fast.

I cannot imagine Pete Sampras complaining that courts are fast.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Does anyone whether the newspaper "The Australian" is a reliable source of information
or is it a tabloid (hope not). The article that I cited on court speeds was from that news
paper.

If you are from Australia or currently in Australia, I would appreciate if you could
chime in.

 

[Kieran]

Pete didn't play the Australian open in 1999. They must have mixed the names up...

Yes, Pete did not play in the Australian open in 1999. I made a mistake in
saying Pete complained about the courts in 1999. The article does not say so.

The article says that Pete Rafter complained about courts being slow in 1999
and then the tournament organizers ramped up the speed so much that it became
faster than AO and then Pete Sampras complained about courts being too fast.

I cannot imagine Pete Sampras complaining that courts are fast.

Exactly. If the courts were "faster than the US Open" he wouldn't have bothered to practice before it...

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Talking of Pete Sampras, it was announced today that Pete will be the one handing out
the trophy to the Winner at AO this year. This is to celebrate the 20th anniversary of
Pete winning his first AO in 1994. Normally, Pete does not like to travel these days
(he made so much fuss to come to Wimby 2009 when Fed surpassed him)
and so this is a prize catch by the organizers.

 

[Kieran]

It'll be great to see Pete and Rafa together again, holding the trophy! :clap

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Well, considering lots of his trophies were stolen, he might not actually give the
trophy to winner and simply take it home with him.

 

[brokenshoelace]

A combination of a predicted spell of hot, dry conditions for Melbourne

That works for Nadal too. Surface eats up his spin more.

 

[britbox]

Does anyone whether the newspaper "The Australian" is a reliable source of information
or is it a tabloid (hope not). The article that I cited on court speeds was from that news
paper.

If you are from Australia or currently in Australia, I would appreciate if you could
chime in.

It's a broadsheet. I'd say it was a reliable source.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Does anyone whether the newspaper "The Australian" is a reliable source of information
or is it a tabloid (hope not). The article that I cited on court speeds was from that news
paper.

If you are from Australia or currently in Australia, I would appreciate if you could
chime in.

It's a broadsheet. I'd say it was a reliable source.

Thanks BB; I guess "was" is the key word.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

A combination of a predicted spell of hot, dry conditions for Melbourne

That works for Nadal too. Surface eats up his spin more.

I agree with you. In 2012 FO also, ND was able to win his set in slushy,
muddy and rainy conditions only. Once they returned on the following bright
and sunny day, Rafa was able to reassert himself. Especially against Djokovic,
hot and sunny conditions will favor Rafa (although not recently, Novak used
to have health issues (primarily in his Gluten-full days) in such conditions).

Having said all that, Hot, Dry and Slow favors RN whereas Hot, Dry and
Fast favors RF (may be not so much the current RF).