MONTE CARLO ROLEX MASTERS - Apr. 12-20 - 2014.

[GameSetAndMath]

Everybody is keeping quiet when there is an elephant in the room.

Rafa and Stan are one win away from a much anticipated rematch.

Let the mudslinging (pun intended, as this is a clay tournament) begin folks.

 

[Front242]

Well, if winning matches this easily is how it goes with a wrist injury, Novak would be best off to have sore wrist all year long.

 

[Front242]

Terrible photo of Rafa posted by tennis.com. Looks very bald here. They go out of their way to always post terrible photos of everyone looking bad, especially the women roaring with their mouths wide open and looking completely unfeminine.

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Everybody is keeping quiet when there is an elephant in the room.

Rafa and Stan are one win away from a much anticipated rematch.

Let the mudslinging (pun intended, as this is a clay tournament) begin folks.

I 'll start:

It was hot surface might be fast and was not clay was hurt playing medical time out was not proper backhand down the line serve speed was slow and payback is a bitch was not really hurt never loses when healthy Stan anytime anywhere with Mirka pregnant!

( I have no idea how Mirka got in there, sorry):snigger

 

[Kieran]

Everybody is keeping quiet when there is an elephant in the room.

Rafa and Stan are one win away from a much anticipated rematch.

Let the mudslinging (pun intended, as this is a clay tournament) begin folks.

Good. Bring it on... :clap :clap

 

[Front242]

Huh? :laydownlaughing

 

[brokenshoelace]

Everybody is keeping quiet when there is an elephant in the room.

Rafa and Stan are one win away from a much anticipated rematch.

Let the mudslinging (pun intended, as this is a clay tournament) begin folks.

Nadal in straights. I've been trying, for months, to explain what a difficult match-up this is for Wawrinka on clay and people are blinded by one result on a different surface (let's ignore all the hoopla surrounding that match too). Hopefully, in about two days' time, people will realize why there is only one man who's a real threat to Nadal on clay, and this Wawrinka nonsense will stop.

 

[brokenshoelace]

As far as "keeping quiet" goes, I'll speak for myself:

A) I was not aware that Nadal and Stan will play as I hadn't checked the draw.
B) I really don't think it's a big deal that they're playing. Under any other circumstances, Nadal vs. Wawrinka on clay would be looked at as just another day at the office for Nadal on his way to another final. I get why this one is a little more special in light of what happened at the AO, but realistically, it really isn't.

 

[the AntiPusher]

Today's weather was perfect, dry warmer conditions, slow surface.. However , it appears that things could change this weekend.. maybe 60% chance of rain on Sunday:nono

 

[Moxie]

I almost forgot…today's win gives Rafa 300 wins on clay.

Congrats to Rafa for making the 300 Mark. However, the number of matches won on
Clay is some record that Rafa cannot hope to beat even if he plays for ten more years.
Guillermo Vilas has won 644 matches on clay which is more than twice that of current number of
wins by Rafa. Before the Nadalites jump on me, let me add a disclaimer that it does not necessarily
imply that GV is a better clay player than Rafa.

However, I cannot stop wondering whether GV was appreciated for his clay prowess
during is career. I was not around when he was playing. If there is someone on the
board who used to watch tennis when GV was playing, I would appreciate their
take of both GV's prowess on clay and also the extent to which he got recognized
during his career.

Guillermo Vilas was my favorite player when I was a kid. Unlike everyone else in the tennis world at that time, I was not a fan of Bjorn Borg.

Probably the "knock" against his supremacy on clay is that he was 2-11 against the Swede. So, Vilas was the most dominant clay courter of his era - whenever Borg wasn't playing.

Rafa is the most dominant player I've ever seen on clay... ever.

I was a fan of both Borg and Vilas when I was a girl. Back in the day, there were more clay tournaments to play, and folks say that Vilas sought them all out, no matter how small, so his record of wins is probably insurmountable. But Rafa is close to catching him in number of clay titles won…3 or 4 to go, I think.

 

[Moxie]

Today's weather was perfect, dry warmer conditions, slow surface.. However , it appears that things could change this weekend.. maybe 60% chance of rain on Sunday:nono

Oh, were is that "dislike" button when you need it??

 

[pavlik89]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4jGOOfZNvk[/video]

 

[pavlik89]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvaQsWkPuYs[/video]

 

[nehmeth]

Today's weather was perfect, dry warmer conditions, slow surface.. However , it appears that things could change this weekend.. maybe 60% chance of rain on Sunday:nono

Oh, were is that "dislike" button when you need it??

Ah Moxie... :hug

You have other options:

this - lease:

or this - :emperor:

 

[Moxie]

Today's weather was perfect, dry warmer conditions, slow surface.. However , it appears that things could change this weekend.. maybe 60% chance of rain on Sunday:nono

Oh, were is that "dislike" button when you need it??

Ah Moxie... :hug

You have other options:

this - lease:

or this - :emperor:

I'll take 'em all! :lolz:

 

[the AntiPusher]

Friday's schedule of play:

Court Central -- Start 10:30 A.M.

[3] Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) v [8] Milos Raonic (CAN)

[1] Rafael Nadal (ESP) v [6] David Ferrer (ESP)

[WC/4] Roger Federer (SUI) v [9] Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA)

[2] Novak Djokovic (SRB) v Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP)

JowillieTs looks pretty fit these days, he looks like he has that ole spring in his steps . I wouldnt be surprised if he really pushed Fed

 

[Moxie]

Watching the replay of Tsonga-Fognini. While I do think Fognini can be a fun player to watch, including the antics, I'm getting a little tired of his bratty behavior…and he doesn't do himself any favors with it. Also, he swears in Italian, knowing that the umps don't always catch it, though Bernardes is too good a linguist for him.

 

[herios]

^^^
GGL was playing well today, frustrating Berdych. Then Tomas seemed to tweak something in his back....

GGL will be a test for Novak. Lots of depth, good pace and he moves the ball around the court.

So, after an old dirt baller and a new dirt baller, Novak gets a reasonably good dirt baller.
This is all nice for him, as he gets enough practice against dirt ballers, before meeting the
supreme dirt baller.

When I look at GG Lopez career, he does not strike me as your typical dirt ballers from Spain, who's results on clay are significantly better than on the other surfaces.
He has 2 titles on clay, 1 on hard (when he scored that win against Nadal in Bangkok), then a runner up once on each surface: Bucharest, Eastbourne, St. Petersburg.
His best result in a master until this week was in Shanghai, a QF in 2010.
So he is a well balanced mid pack player on all surfaces, who happens to be in a good form right now.

 

[Moxie]

^^^
GGL was playing well today, frustrating Berdych. Then Tomas seemed to tweak something in his back....

GGL will be a test for Novak. Lots of depth, good pace and he moves the ball around the court.

So, after an old dirt baller and a new dirt baller, Novak gets a reasonably good dirt baller.
This is all nice for him, as he gets enough practice against dirt ballers, before meeting the
supreme dirt baller.

When I look at GG Lopez career, he does not strike me as your typical dirt ballers from Spain, who's results on clay are significantly better than on the other surfaces.
He has 2 titles on clay, 1 on hard (when he scored that win against Nadal in Bangkok), then a runner up once on each surface: Bucharest, Eastbourne, St. Petersburg.
His best result in a master until this week was in Shanghai, a QF in 2010.
So he is a well balanced mid pack player on all surfaces, who happens to be in a good form right now.

This is well-spotted, herios. In fact, I think a lot of the Spaniards in the current generation prove themselves to be decent all-around players, if not some better off dirt. (Lopez, for example.) GG Lopez is one of several Spaniards that I didn't expect to make much of an impression, and yet have risen to decent levels. Granollers was another, and Andujar.

That said, I hope that Garcia Lopez can challenge Djokovic, but I think his best chance is a creditable 2 sets lose. He can hardly go down more ignominiously than Nole's last 2 opponents.

 

[Riotbeard]

Today's weather was perfect, dry warmer conditions, slow surface.. However , it appears that things could change this weekend.. maybe 60% chance of rain on Sunday:nono

Oh, were is that "dislike" button when you need it??

Ah Moxie... :hug

You have other options:

this - lease:

or this - :emperor:

Weather Smether. Novak eats spaniards for breakfast (a little bravado on my part).

Seriously though, I have seen few thrashings as effortless and wonderful as what Novak did today.