Indian Wells

[GameSetAndMath]

Sock begins the opening act in the exodus of US players.

Donald Young follows suit.

Well...All phour are United States of Americans. So, two had to lose.

Actually, there are three all american match-ups today.

The funny things is only folks who cannot win the second round are winning
the first round (at least in these two match-ups).

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Memo to Rafa. Stepanek is playing decent tennis. He took a set off Roger in Dubai. He is fit and crafty and annoying to play against. Do not look at h2h and take it seriously from game 1.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Memo to Rafa. Stepanek is playing decent tennis. He took a set off Roger in Dubai. He is fit and crafty and annoying to play against. Do not look at h2h and take it seriously from game 1.

I think Radek will take a set off Rafa. Only thing that I can say is that it will not
be the third set.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

IW is beginning tomorrow. No pundits have indulged in bracketology.

Are Peter Bodo, Steve Tignor, Kamakshi Tandon, Greg Garber etc have been laid off?

or are they hibernating in the extended winter?

Don't know about the others, but Tignor seems to have hopped on a bandwagon, which is surprising...

I agree with Tignors pick by and large.

But, I think third quarter will be won by the winner of the match between
Gulbis and Dimitrov, if that match materializes and if not, by Berdych.

 

[Front242]

^ Agree about Stepanek. Always cool to watch too. Amazing how good he still is considering he has a steel plate in his neck!

 

[Front242]

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Vk68hpALTmI[/video]

 

[Moxie]

IW is beginning tomorrow. No pundits have indulged in bracketology.

Are Peter Bodo, Steve Tignor, Kamakshi Tandon, Greg Garber etc have been laid off?

or are they hibernating in the extended winter?

Don't know about the others, but Tignor seems to have hopped on a bandwagon, which is surprising...

I agree with Tignors pick by and large.

But, I think third quarter will be won by the winner of the match between
Gulbis and Dimitrov, if that match materializes and if not, by Berdych.

Personally, I thought Tignor worked a little hard to undersell Rafa. First, he said there's no 'clear favorite.' Perhaps not, but Rafa is considered the favorite…defending champ, holder of two titles this year, and #1, after all. He mentions 'potentially significant wins' by Federer and Dimitrov in 500s at the end of Feb., but not Rafa's win at one. (OK, it was on clay.) The back could still be a question mark, but he mentions the potential of a psychological hangover from the loss in Oz. I don't mind that he tapped Roger for the final, but I think that was a cheap out of defending his choice of Federer over Nadal, which he didn't do. A bit too much of a back-bend over an obvious question, IMO. But I know I'm a partizan.

 

[Luxilon Borg]

IW is beginning tomorrow. No pundits have indulged in bracketology.

Are Peter Bodo, Steve Tignor, Kamakshi Tandon, Greg Garber etc have been laid off?

or are they hibernating in the extended winter?

Don't know about the others, but Tignor seems to have hopped on a bandwagon, which is surprising...

I agree with Tignors pick by and large.

But, I think third quarter will be won by the winner of the match between
Gulbis and Dimitrov, if that match materializes and if not, by Berdych.

Personally, I thought Tignor worked a little hard to undersell Rafa. First, he said there's no 'clear favorite.' Perhaps not, but Rafa is considered the favorite…defending champ, holder of two titles this year, and #1, after all. He mentions 'potentially significant wins' by Federer and Dimitrov in 500s at the end of Feb., but not Rafa's win at one. (OK, it was on clay.) The back could still be a question mark, but he mentions the potential of a psychological hangover from the loss in Oz. I don't mind that he tapped Roger for the final, but I think that was a cheap out of defending his choice of Federer over Nadal, which he didn't do. A bit too much of a back-bend over an obvious question, IMO. But I know I'm a partizan.

Uhggggh..Carillo is back. 10 days...don't know if I can take it.

 

[Front242]

Hopefully Robbie Koenig returns for coverage of the upcoming many masters tournaments before RG. Imo one of the best commentators out there.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

IW is beginning tomorrow. No pundits have indulged in bracketology.

Are Peter Bodo, Steve Tignor, Kamakshi Tandon, Greg Garber etc have been laid off?

or are they hibernating in the extended winter?

Don't know about the others, but Tignor seems to have hopped on a bandwagon, which is surprising...

I agree with Tignors pick by and large.

But, I think third quarter will be won by the winner of the match between
Gulbis and Dimitrov, if that match materializes and if not, by Berdych.

Personally, I thought Tignor worked a little hard to undersell Rafa. First, he said there's no 'clear favorite.' Perhaps not, but Rafa is considered the favorite…defending champ, holder of two titles this year, and #1, after all. He mentions 'potentially significant wins' by Federer and Dimitrov in 500s at the end of Feb., but not Rafa's win at one. (OK, it was on clay.) The back could still be a question mark, but he mentions the potential of a psychological hangover from the loss in Oz. I don't mind that he tapped Roger for the final, but I think that was a cheap out of defending his choice of Federer over Nadal, which he didn't do. A bit too much of a back-bend over an obvious question, IMO. But I know I'm a partizan.

Yes, indeed Rafa won Rio a 500 event. However, the reason that it did not get the
mention is not so much due to it being on clay, but because it was by no means an
emphatic win by Rafa. That tournament only raised more questions about Rafa than
providing answers despite the fact that Rafa won it.

Fed and Rafa have played exactly at two times in IW and both in the recent
past. Both were straight setters. In 2012, Fed straight setted Rafa and in 2013,
Rafa straight settled Fed. Now, it is Fed's turn, so to speak. Before, people
jump on me, I do realize that matches do not get decided by statistical
patterns, but over the course of an year, the back ache seems to have
moved from Fed's back to Rafa's back. So, Fed is favorite this time.

I do regret watching that match between Rog and Rafa in last year's IW,
not just becuase Rog lost. It was a no-contest match. Roger later gave the
"excuse" of back-ache (not for losing, but for not fighting). I don't remember
what excuse Rafa had for his 2012 loss (may be StantheMan can inform me).

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Andy get Lukas Rosol in R2.

 

[Front242]

^ That could be good if Rosol plays properly. He was pretty awful against Roger last week.

 

[Riotbeard]

Hopefully Robbie Koenig returns for coverage of the upcoming many masters tournaments before RG. Imo one of the best commentators out there.

Koenig is great although he references diamond cutting too often when talking about angles.

 

[Luxilon Borg]

Hopefully Robbie Koenig returns for coverage of the upcoming many masters tournaments before RG. Imo one of the best commentators out there.

Robbie is one of the best in the business.

 

[Front242]

Hopefully Robbie Koenig returns for coverage of the upcoming many masters tournaments before RG. Imo one of the best commentators out there.

Koenig is great although he references diamond cutting too often when talking about angles.

Really ? Nooooooooooooooo waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy! That's outrageous!

 

[Luxilon Borg]

Hopefully Robbie Koenig returns for coverage of the upcoming many masters tournaments before RG. Imo one of the best commentators out there.

Koenig is great although he references diamond cutting too often when talking about angles.

Really ? Nooooooooooooooo waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy! That's outrageous!

Haha, well done.:clap!

 

[herios]

Good win today by Vesely against Sijsling. One of the two 20 years old in the aging field..

 

[TsarMatt]

Stepanek gets all the women on the tour. Therefore, he is a legend.

Hewitt won his first round encounter. Pretty tight match. R2 of IW now - this is where it gets interesting. I just wish my university would suspend work for one week.

 

[TsarMatt]

Memo to Rafa. Stepanek is playing decent tennis. He took a set off Roger in Dubai. He is fit and crafty and annoying to play against. Do not look at h2h and take it seriously from game 1.

Agreed. He can really mix it up and trouble Nadal. Not saying he'll win, but he could snatch a set.

 

[Moxie]

IW is beginning tomorrow. No pundits have indulged in bracketology.

Are Peter Bodo, Steve Tignor, Kamakshi Tandon, Greg Garber etc have been laid off?

or are they hibernating in the extended winter?

Don't know about the others, but Tignor seems to have hopped on a bandwagon, which is surprising...

I agree with Tignors pick by and large.

But, I think third quarter will be won by the winner of the match between
Gulbis and Dimitrov, if that match materializes and if not, by Berdych.

Personally, I thought Tignor worked a little hard to undersell Rafa. First, he said there's no 'clear favorite.' Perhaps not, but Rafa is considered the favorite…defending champ, holder of two titles this year, and #1, after all. He mentions 'potentially significant wins' by Federer and Dimitrov in 500s at the end of Feb., but not Rafa's win at one. (OK, it was on clay.) The back could still be a question mark, but he mentions the potential of a psychological hangover from the loss in Oz. I don't mind that he tapped Roger for the final, but I think that was a cheap out of defending his choice of Federer over Nadal, which he didn't do. A bit too much of a back-bend over an obvious question, IMO. But I know I'm a partizan.

Yes, indeed Rafa won Rio a 500 event. However, the reason that it did not get the
mention is not so much due to it being on clay, but because it was by no means an
emphatic win by Rafa. That tournament only raised more questions about Rafa than
providing answers despite the fact that Rafa won it.

Fed and Rafa have played exactly at two times in IW and both in the recent
past. Both were straight setters. In 2012, Fed straight setted Rafa and in 2013,
Rafa straight settled Fed. Now, it is Fed's turn, so to speak. Before, people
jump on me, I do realize that matches do not get decided by statistical
patterns, but over the course of an year, the back ache seems to have
moved from Fed's back to Rafa's back. So, Fed is favorite this time.

I do regret watching that match between Rog and Rafa in last year's IW,
not just becuase Rog lost. It was a no-contest match. Roger later gave the
"excuse" of back-ache (not for losing, but for not fighting). I don't remember
what excuse Rafa had for his 2012 loss (may be StantheMan can inform me).

I don't agree that Rafa's win in Rio raised more questions than answers. One tight match, whereas Federer had a surprise win, and so did Dimitrov. And both were good wins, I'll give you that. But it doesn't shove Nadal down in terms of who should be considered tops to win at IW. However, I will give you that if it come to Nadal v. Federer in the SF, it's not a given.