Was this the long-awaited singles breakout by Sock?

[scoop]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

kafelnikov never won a masters either.

 

[Front242]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

kafelnikov never won a masters either.

He won 2 singles slams and was world number 1. That trumps anything Sock will likely ever do in singles.

 

[scoop]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

Front 242, it's way too early to write off Sock who has continued his unusual career track of monumental historic wins spaced by periods of mediocrity. If and when Sock galvanizes all his attributes with experience and inspiration from his new love, I fully expect his best results to be ahead. If you want to write off Sock as a lucky clown with a few fluke wins in majors and Olympics, that's your call. I'm sticking with mine, more confident than ever that Sock will continue to achieve great successes in the ATP.

 

[scoop]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

Chung has a ton more experience than Denis and with these 3-3 tiebreakers anything can happen. I think if they shorten the set to 3-3 they should extend the tiebreaker to 10. Tomic won vs Berankis in Bratislav and Fritz beat Double Mac in Knoxville and I just got a great interview with Leif Shiras about his 1988 Detroit win vs 17 yr old Pete Sampras. For Facing Sampras to be published in early 2018.

 

[Federberg]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

Front 242, it's way too early to write off Sock who has continued his unusual career track of monumental historic wins spaced by periods of mediocrity. If and when Sock galvanizes all his attributes with experience and inspiration from his new love, I fully expect his best results to be ahead. If you want to write off Sock as a lucky clown with a few fluke wins in majors and Olympics, that's your call. I'm sticking with mine, more confident than ever that Sock will continue to achieve great successes in the ATP.

do you think that Sock has greater upside than Dimitrov for example?

 

[scoop]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

Yes I do think Sock has the bigger upside. He's won two Grand Slam doubles titles, dubs at Wimbledon and mixed at US Open and also two medals in doubles at the Olympics, silver and gold and a Masters Series. Dimitrov has only won smaller singles titles. Not saying Dimitrov can't get hot and win a major, because he can. But I think Sock is the better player and more likely to win a major singles title despite the fact that Dimitrov, so far, has gone deeper into the second week than Sock has in majors. Do you think Dimitrov is the more likely to win a GS singles, Federerberger?

 

[Federberg]

Lol! Not that it's my name... but Federberg is you please. Yes I most certainly think that Dimitrov has greater upside in singles than Sock. There is simply no evidence that Sock can go deep in a fully populated tournament, forget about slams there's simply no comparison there. I actually like Sock, I just don't see what you're seeing. In terms of raw talent Dimitrov beats him hands down, Sock has virtually no backhand, he doesn't have the footwork or court speed that Grigor has. In terms of mentality I don't see much of a different between the two for now to be honest. I'll give you doubles, but in singles? There's really no comparison at the moment. I hope one day that both step up. But if I had to bet on one or the other? I'll go with Grigor

 

[scoop]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

Okay I will try to remember your name accurately but Federerbergermeister would have been a cooler name Sock leads Dimitrov 3-1, with three straight wins at French Open, two Masters and Super G won in Stockholm the first time they played 2014. Looks like Sock has proven his superiority over Dimitrov but Dimitrov could settle the score next week at WTF.

 

[Federberg]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

Okay I will try to remember your name accurately but Federerbergermeister would have been a cooler name Sock leads Dimitrov 3-1, with three straight wins at French Open, two Masters and Super G won in Stockholm the first time they played 2014. Looks like Sock has proven his superiority over Dimitrov but Dimitrov could settle the score next week at WTF.

Haha! Maybe I'll use that name next time! The H2H is interesting to know, but as I've argued several times on this forum, H2H is a flawed way of assessing the capabilities of players. They need to be assessed against the field, which normalises for any match up issues. I'll admit I'm surprised by the H2H, but when their careers are done, no one's going to care a hoot about how they fared against each other. It's always going to be about their career achievements. I'm not surprised about the Sock wins on clay though. I do think his game is designed for clay, while Grigor's is designed for faster courts. Now that you've raised the whole Sock issue, I find myself hoping their in the same group! It's not a match I would have cared about before, but if they do play I"ll give it special attention

 

[Front242]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

Front 242, it's way too early to write off Sock who has continued his unusual career track of monumental historic wins spaced by periods of mediocrity. If and when Sock galvanizes all his attributes with experience and inspiration from his new love, I fully expect his best results to be ahead. If you want to write off Sock as a lucky clown with a few fluke wins in majors and Olympics, that's your call. I'm sticking with mine, more confident than ever that Sock will continue to achieve great successes in the ATP.

When did I ever say anything about fluke wins in majors, scoop? He's clearly a very good doubles player but you're claiming he'll win 2 slams next year? in singles! I mean, no offense but that's beyond insane. I doubt he'll ever win a slam in singles but you're free to dream. No harm done there. One last time, he had no Federer, no Nadal, no Djokovic and no Murray to contend with at the Paris masters and beat a qualifier in the final who had played a TON of consecutive matches. A little bit of realistic perspective wouldn't go astray...

 

[scoop]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

I think Sock gets one, the second one was a jab of humor because it seems to irk some people about saluting Sock and praising his achievements which some like to discredit or downplay.

 

[Busted]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

He could win London for sure. Nobody seems to be as inspired as Sock right now who is mightily motivated to keep impressing and exciting his new love. I would guess most of the other eight players are not as inspired right now as Sock.

Sock's got about as much chance of winning the WTF as I do. Actually, let me correct myself - .his chances are slightly better than mine due to the fact that he's actually entered in the tourney. I would put him as the 8th favorite. If Nadal drops out and Carreno Busta plays I'll bump him up to #7.

 

[Busted]

Bandwagon much? With Murray and Djokovic back shortly and the others also improving the only major I see for him next year is major disappointment. If Sock wins 2 majors or even 1 (neither of which will happen) next year, I'll gladly quit my job, sell my house, car and everything else I own. But it won't happen. He got lucky this week with no Federer, no Nadal, no Djokovic and no Murray and that's all there is to it. He seized the opportunity and good for him.

I'll join you - in quitting YOUR JOB and selling YOUR HOUSE and other belongings. If Sock ever wins a major in his entire career it'll be because nobody else showed up. - or it's another US Open 2017 glorified 250 event. As you noted - Sock won Paris for the very same reason Dimitrov won Cincy - the big kahunas were all MIA because of injury or losing early. Let's see if either of those guys repeats next year.

 

[Busted]

Off the top of my head, here are a list of players that I see as more likely to win a Slam next year:

Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, Wawrinka, Zverev, Cilic, Thiem, Del Potro, Kyrgios, Raonic, Nishikori, Dimitrov, Tsonga

I suppose the last three or four are similar, but that's 9-14 players that I think have at least as good a chance as Sock.

I'd put Sock in a group with Goffin, Carreno Busta, Pouille, maybe Tsonga at this point, as super long shots to win a Slam. In truth, the only way any of these guys win--aside from if Tsonga has the tournament of his life--is if they face a similar player across the net, and both had some luck avoiding top players through walkover or some such.

Huh? I see 4 guys who can win a major next year - Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray. Actually - I see 2 who can win a Slam and 2 who can win one if they're not injured. Flip a coin as to which 2 guys are which. I saw highlights of the Murray\Federer charity match from today. Murray doesn't look like a guy who'll be ready for a Slam in 3 months time. He was still visibly favoring one side. Roger took it easy on him since it was his event.

Zverev has yet to prove he can even make it to the 2nd week. Kid'll break through sooner or later, but who's to say it'll be next year.

DelPo's a mystery. Can he win 7 5-set matches if he has 3 tough matches back-to-back-to-back?

Kyrgios is an even bigger mystery. Will he be motivated enough to care when he's playing someone not named Federer, Nadal or Djokovic? Better yet - will he ever grow the hell up? Not holding my breath on the latter...

Cilic? I expect him to take a steep nosedive next year.

Ditto on the nosedive for Stan, too. He was a headcase before Magnus Norman, a headcase with Norman and will be an even bigger headcase without Norman.

Thiem's only shot is the FO...and I don't see that happening unless Nadal and Djokovic are injured and don't play.

Nishikori, Tsonga, Raonic, Dimitrov - and I'll grow in Berdych - all co-captaining the Titanic. The Slam ship hit an iceberg for those 4 long ago. The ships's slowly been sinking to the bottom of the ocean for years now. The only reason Dimitrov is Top 10 this year is because of all the injuries. I don't see him in the Top 10 at the end of 2018.

 

[Moxie]

Lol! Not that it's my name... but Federberg is you please. Yes I most certainly think that Dimitrov has greater upside in singles than Sock. There is simply no evidence that Sock can go deep in a fully populated tournament, forget about slams there's simply no comparison there. I actually like Sock, I just don't see what you're seeing. In terms of raw talent Dimitrov beats him hands down, Sock has virtually no backhand, he doesn't have the footwork or court speed that Grigor has. In terms of mentality I don't see much of a different between the two for now to be honest. I'll give you doubles, but in singles? There's really no comparison at the moment. I hope one day that both step up. But if I had to bet on one or the other? I'll go with Grigor

Federerbergmeister...I love that! While I won't jump on the Sock bandwagon, I will argue, for the sake of it, the relative gifts of Dimitrov v. Sock. Let's face it: Grigor and Jack both won a MS because of an attrition of the field. What I don't like about Dimitrov is that he's had so many chances that he should have done better with. He's got a lot of talent, but a 50 cent head. Sock may not have all of the gifts, but I think he's mentally tougher. Or maybe works harder because he doesn't feel like he can coast on the talent, which I really think Dimitrov does. If I were betting the mortgage, I'd still have to go with Dimitrov. But as a fan, I'm inclined to pull for Sock. I'm fully done investing any emotion into Grigor. He's a reasonably talented slacker.

 

[scoop]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

All you Sock skeptics should start a club, SockSkeptics. Try saying that eight times in a row I think you have to look at the progression of Sock's career, a slow steady climb up to the elite echelon, with several drops and slumps along the way, but still a steady rise to now a prestigious slot in the WTF. There's no reason to think Sock's rise will suddenly stop and nosedive. I see it continuing to ascend. for the next 5-8 years.

 

[El Dude]

Huh?

I think your "huh" is based upon missing that I listed players that I see as being more likely to win a major than Sock, not players that I think have a good chance at winning a major.

 

[scoop]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

I have a sense that Kygios is going to go all in next year and try to fulfill his potential. The joking allegations against Mirka is basically drawing the battles lines with Roger. It shows that Nick is willing to poke Roger though he said he was joking I think he was serious, and all humor is based on truth, that's why it's funny. Poking Roger is just about blasphemy. I like that Nick is being assertive and aggressive and showing that he is ready to challenge the top dogs, physically and psychologically. I also see Nick, Sock and Zverev making a BIG push to topple the ruling elite in 2018.

 

[scoop]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

If Serena feels the need to try to intimidate the other players could be a sign of weakness. The frightened dog barks the loudest

 

[scoop]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

Losing Fed and Rafa has to be a major concern by the ATP and ITF and the apparent rush to build Shapovalov into a superstar is understandable. He is the most exciting of all the young players. I think tennis will be in good shape post Fedal. Sock is about to emerge into a superstar. Kyrgios is on the cusp too. Chung will be the Asian kingpin though he can be a legit top five and major champion too. Zverev is also on the cusp, with the other young Russians not far behind. I expect to see one or more of these young players to shockingly upset Fed and or Nadal in majors in 2018.