GameSetAndMath said:
Kieran said:
Going back on point here, how did the players look? Rusty? Sharp? Does anyone see this as good prep for Oz? Maybe it's the best because it re-awakens the competitive urges, albeit in an exo tourney.
What's Novak's rationale for skipping the rest of the events before Oz? I know he always does it, but has he explained why? He does the same before Wimbledon. Has he some particular training regime he prefers?
Novak's strategy seems to be to not waste time, energy and concentration in lowly
ATP 250 events. He has not played in an ATP 250 event for a long time.
He is keeping his schedule short (he plays in only 16 events which is 2 short of
full schedule) yet maximizing the number of ranking points that he can possibly
obtain by playing in events that pay off more (such as Monte Carlo non-mandatory
ATP 1000).
Non-mandatory due to it being 2 of 9 Masters that a top players can skip? I have a faint recollection there is a minimum of events they can get away with playing besides excuse of injury! Nadal owned Monte Carlo until this year! Nole only has to win Cincinnati one of these days to have at least one of every 1000 event! Nole's had a stanglehold on Asian swing in the fall, so it's going to be difficult for Rafa to match him since he tends to fade later in the year! If memory serves, he's only played in 2 or 3 WTF finals and in one of them, he actually lost all 3 round robin matches! That's called working too hard all year! Nole's like Roger and plans his schedule well! He had a great year, but he missed out on a number of tournament wins where he was in final after final, but couldn't close the deal!
Nole'll have nightmares over that FO semi for the rest of his life! I still haven't been able to watch it! He would have had a nice easy final against Ferrer and clamined his last prize! I've seen that happen so often; player unable to win a title he really wanted! Lendl is haunted by "no Wimbledon" on his resume! He trained well, but it's not about being a workhorse! You need luck, sometimes an upset of someone in their path, and so far only Federer has had his prayers answered by Soderling taking Rafa out at '09 FO! This is why I have so little respect for the ATP tour pros! They've allowed the top 4 players to own just about every major event with only Del Po breaking off 1 USO over Roger! That's so lame! The top 4 are great players no doubt, but the best of the rest are jokes masquerading as professionals! When Murray was down 2 sets to 0 against Verdasco, I told people to relax; will choke it away! I've seen him do it enough times! Sure enough, he gave it all back and the rest is history!
"Congrats Andy!" 
