Rogers Cup (Men) - Montreal

[Kirijax]

Friday's Results!

Quarterfinals
(1) N Djokovic (SRB) bt E Gulbis (LAT) 5-7, 7-6(7), 6-1
(2) A Murray (GRB) bt (10) J Tsonga (FRA) 6-4, 6-4
(4) K Nishikori (JPN) bt (7) R Nadal (ESP) 6-2, 6-4
J Chardy (FRA) bt (9) J Isner (USA) (16) 6-7, 7-6(13), 7-6(4)

Men's semifinals are set!

 

[GameSetAndMath]

SFs are set.

Novak vs. Chardy 9-0 H2H
Murray vs. Kei 4-1 H2H

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Rafa & co wins the second set. Now, it is STB.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

With the huge loss of points, Tsonga is now out of top 16. He is at #19 now as per live rankings.

 

[Kirijax]

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

 

[Kirijax]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJgwxUS7v2I[/video]

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Rafa had double loss today. Lost in doubles to BB in STB 10-8

 

[Kieran]

Just woke up to see the scores. Rafa is obviously still a million miles off the pace, serving like a patsy and unable to compete at the highest level. It's a long slow road back for him, so far, and it's been uphill all the way. :Nono

Good win for Novak, I can imagine the kind of match that was, with a struggle to get even, then Gulbis fell away while Novak found his range.

Andy v Kei will be a great semi, I reckon...

 

[Puppet Master]

Yeah, just as I suspected. You can look good against a guy like Youzhny, but even there he was shaky...
"The Bull" needs to completely change the way he hits the ball. Hitting high balls that fall in the middle of the court, like a bi$ch and hoping for errors against the #4 ranked player in the world is insane to say the least. And the serve? Any decent returner can crank his first serves whenever and wherever he wants to. He played his forehand flat, or flatter, when he was about 17 years old, where is that gone now?

 

[Fiero425]

Yeah, just as I suspected. You can look good against a guy like Youzhny, but even there he was shaky...
"The Bull" needs to completely change the way he hits the ball. Hitting high balls that fall in the middle of the court, like a bi$ch and hoping for errors against the #4 ranked player in the world is insane to say the least. And the serve? Any decent returner can crank his first serves whenever and wherever he wants to. He played his forehand flat, or flatter, when he was about 17 years old, where is that gone now?

I've been saying for years Rafa's game is a joke and he allows average players to extend him! Now he's not having any success against the elite in the last year, but Roger's been able to avoid him for a while! Supposedly they're on course to meet next week in Cinn., but I think 1 or both might not make it to quarters; esp. Rafa! We'll see; will be watching it all! :eyepop :angel: :dodgy:

 

[Puppet Master]

Yeah, just as I suspected. You can look good against a guy like Youzhny, but even there he was shaky...
"The Bull" needs to completely change the way he hits the ball. Hitting high balls that fall in the middle of the court, like a bi$ch and hoping for errors against the #4 ranked player in the world is insane to say the least. And the serve? Any decent returner can crank his first serves whenever and wherever he wants to. He played his forehand flat, or flatter, when he was about 17 years old, where is that gone now?

I've been saying for years Rafa's game is a joke and he allows average players to extend him! Now he's not having any success against the elite in the last year, but Roger's been able to avoid him for a while! Supposedly they're on course to meet next week in Cinn., but I think 1 or both might not make it to quarters; esp. Rafa! We'll see; will be watching it all! :eyepop :angel: :dodgy:

I really couldn't care less about a Fedal match, they both make me sick right now. I guarantee you that Nadal won't make the quarters in Cinncy, and even if Roger were to beat him, what would that solve?? They are both going to wet the bed at the USO, especially Nadal.

 

[Mile]

I was wondering if Djoker was tanking last night and solely going for Cinci ?


I think, Nole is close to Laureus for this year, 1 or 2 more titles and he owns it for sure. I don't see any other athlete for this year.

 

[Kieran]

That's the second time in this thread I've read somebody suggesting that Novak was maybe tanking. Why? Because he was losing? Herios said it too, and I took it they were kidding. Novak can lose, you know? Players can beat him. He's playing doubles and Nehmeth has said several times that he looks rusty, which is understandable, so he can lose without chucking it in the bin.

I hope he's not prioritising Cinci. I imagine that if he's playing doubles here too, he recognised that last year was a poor return for his hard courts season and he's trying to crank it up faster this year, and the priority is the U.S. Open...

 

[nehmeth]

Last night in the second set, I heard Novak after he had missed a backhand saying, "So slow,, so slow" and it seems he was talking to his feet. A couple points later, he said something else and was looking a them in wonder. Not sure what the problem was, but I doubt that his top priority was to go back out and play doubles.

The way he played last night, he will have a difficult time with either Murray or Nishikori.

 

[Kirijax]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7zYnpKRr70[/video]

 

[herios]

With the huge loss of points, Tsonga is now out of top 16. He is at #19 now as per live rankings.

Tsonga is currently ranked only 24, because the Rogers Cup points came off a week earlier.
He actually climbs back into the top 20 comes Monday, with his SF run here.

 

[herios]

Rooting for a Djokovic - Nishikori final

 

[Johnsteinbeck]

That's the second time in this thread I've read somebody suggesting that Novak was maybe tanking. Why? Because he was losing? Herios said it too, and I took it they were kidding. Novak can lose, you know? Players can beat him. He's playing doubles and Nehmeth has said several times that he looks rusty, which is understandable, so he can lose without chucking it in the bin.

I hope he's not prioritising Cinci. I imagine that if he's playing doubles here too, he recognised that last year was a poor return for his hard courts season and he's trying to crank it up faster this year, and the priority is the U.S. Open...

wait - people are actually contemplating whether or not Djokovic is so bad that he's actually incapable of losing match points despite wanting to lose? or that he's so mentally unstable that he'll plan to throw away the match because of scheduling but then just throw that plan away and go on to win in three long sets? i just don't really get the story here...

 

[Kieran]

It gets complicated, and that's a fact!

 

[Front242]

The 3rd set wasn't long. Gulbis gave up after he lost that 2nd set TB.