Young Guns - Wimbledon Edition

[El Dude]

Watching the Querrey-Tomic match I thought it might be a good idea to have a thread dedicated to the "young guns" for each Slam.

I don't know who the commentators are but one of them said "No doubt, Tomic can do everything; the question is, why doesn't he more often?"

What do you think? Can Tomic "do everything"? And if so, why doesn't he more often? Yet another "Gen Text" head-case?

Watching Tomic I can't but be reminded of Novak Djokovic - his grace and movement. Although unlike Novak, Bernard seems to give up or freeze, where Novak just seems to know where to go and goes for almost everything.

Other young guns playing today:

Ryan Harrison vs Jeremy Chardy, Harrison lost the first set.

Brandon Duckworth vs. Denis Kudla, both young players. Kudla is on the verge of winning a five-setter.

Later today we have Milos Raonic vs. Carlos Berlocq and Grigor Dimitrov vs. Simone Bolelli.

Yesterday Jerzy Janowicz defeated 18-year old British wildcard Kyle Edmund, who is another player to keep an eye on. And David Goffin lost to Tsonga.

---

Kudla just won, Harrison won the 2nd set, and Tomic is now up 2-0.

 

[Front242]

Tomic's rope-a-dope style of play is actually good for grass to an extent but it irritates me on other surfaces and it's probably the main reason he doesn't do better than he does. Besides Wimbledon he's done pretty much nothing. His first ever Wimbledon was a great performance but since then I've seen nothing memorable from him. By utilizing this cat and mouse style of play with tons of slices he's not gonna win on hardcourts. It'll work to an extent on grass but he needs to mix it up a lot more. There are periods of play of nothing but slice after slice. Painful to watch and won't be winning him titles anytime soon. Sliced approach to get into the net and then take it from there is a good option but mindless slicing from the baseline is just clueless imo. He's a tall guy and has a decent serve when it's on and surely has the ability to hit with a bit more power but again this rope-a-dope style of play won't cut it. He needs a better coach.

 

[El Dude]

Tomic defeated Sam Querrey in five sets, looking brilliant and foolish at various points.

Dimitrov demolished Simone Bolelli in straights, taking only 1 hour, 22 minutes to do so.

Chardy beat Harrison in four sets.

 

[herios]

Another american young player on the rise plays right now, Steve Johnson.
He is playing fellow american Bobby Reynolds and he is 1-2 sets down and on serve in the 4th, heading to a TB it seems.

 

[Johnsteinbeck]

oh Bernie... horrible, horrible quotes:

“From my side, they’re not doing the right thing,” Tomic said of the ATP. “I’m an upcoming player that’s doing well and they have to be supporting me and to see what they’re doing towards me is not good. He is my coach and I’ve lost a coach now that should be traveling with me on the tournaments and going to my matches and it’s difficult, the feeling is not the same. I’m on my dad’s side and always will be.”

first off, being on the side of the abusive parent is not unheard of, but it's no good sign. not understanding the ATP side on this matter, the concern for safety of other players, the integrity of the sport and a positive environment? worse. however, claiming that he's "an upcoming player that’s doing well and they have to be supporting me and to see what they’re doing towards me"? yuck. horrible. the whole entitlement attitude again.

i really felt for him after the whole incident... but now? meh.

 

[nehmeth]

oh Bernie... horrible, horrible quotes:

“From my side, they’re not doing the right thing,” Tomic said of the ATP. “I’m an upcoming player that’s doing well and they have to be supporting me and to see what they’re doing towards me is not good. He is my coach and I’ve lost a coach now that should be traveling with me on the tournaments and going to my matches and it’s difficult, the feeling is not the same. I’m on my dad’s side and always will be.”

first off, being on the side of the abusive parent is not unheard of, but it's no good sign. not understanding the ATP side on this matter, the concern for safety of other players, the integrity of the sport and a positive environment? worse. however, claiming that he's "an upcoming player that’s doing well and they have to be supporting me and to see what they’re doing towards me"? yuck. horrible. the whole entitlement attitude again.

I know the measured comments from the top players become trite, even tiresome after time. Then one reads this from Tomic and immediately appreciates the wisdom of those boring responses.

Cannot imagine what it's like living in Tomic world and what he has had to endure growing up. These comments do not change the feelings of concern. I hope he is able to use the ATP's actions to successfully break away from the dominion of his father. One day, I think he'll thank them.

 

[tented]

Another american young player on the rise plays right now, Steve Johnson.
He is playing fellow american Bobby Reynolds and he is 1-2 sets down and on serve in the 4th, heading to a TB it seems.

And the young gun loses to the nearly 31-year-old Bobby Reynolds, who's ranked 156.

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

oh Bernie... horrible, horrible quotes:

“From my side, they’re not doing the right thing,” Tomic said of the ATP. “I’m an upcoming player that’s doing well and they have to be supporting me and to see what they’re doing towards me is not good. He is my coach and I’ve lost a coach now that should be traveling with me on the tournaments and going to my matches and it’s difficult, the feeling is not the same. I’m on my dad’s side and always will be.”

first off, being on the side of the abusive parent is not unheard of, but it's no good sign. not understanding the ATP side on this matter, the concern for safety of other players, the integrity of the sport and a positive environment? worse. however, claiming that he's "an upcoming player that’s doing well and they have to be supporting me and to see what they’re doing towards me"? yuck. horrible. the whole entitlement attitude again.

i really felt for him after the whole incident... but now? meh.

tomic has the people skills of a recently detonated low kiloton nuclear weapon.

 

[El Dude]

Janowicz through to 3R after Radek Stepanek withdraws.

Andrey Kuznetsov is out, losing to Victor Troicki.

 

[herios]

Today on display: Raonic, Dimitorv, Tomic and Kudla.

While the first 3 have been talked a lot for years now, Kudla is a new addition to the club. I just want to mention that with his run, because he got into the main draw through qualifications, so he won already 4 matches, he entered into the top 100 for the first time and actually he will pass Harrison in rankings making him the leader of the young americans. I am curious how he will play and handle the pressure if the media will start talking about him.

 

[El Dude]

Tomic beats Blake and goes on to 3R.

Raonic loses to Sijsling. He's had a bit of a disappointing year - after making it to the 4R at both the 2012 US Open and 2013 Australian Open, he has dropped a round in each of the last two Slams.

Dimitrov is holding on by a thread - rain delay vs. Zemjla, down 9-8 in 5th set.

---

Kudla is out as well.

 

[El Dude]

Ah, I woke up to find that the disappoitment of Grigor Dimitrov continues. I know he's "only" 22 but he's yet to make it past the 3R at a Grand Slam. That doesn't bode well for a supposedly future elite player.

 

[Kieran]

Ah, I woke up to find that the disappoitment of Grigor Dimitrov continues. I know he's "only" 22 but he's yet to make it past the 3R at a Grand Slam. That doesn't bode well for a supposedly future elite player.

Believe me, this guy Dimitrov doesn't have it. He hasn't got what it takes to challenge for a single slam, let alone sustain a career in the top echelons. He has no big shots and no great brain. Since I discovered he was the "future of tennis" I've stared closely and nah, he's not all that. I'm not saying that to be wise after the event, or to be sarcastic, no, but great players have something in them that you notice even before they're fully formed, and this guy hasn't got the mental character or the technical attributes to make it...

 

[nehmeth]

Ah, I woke up to find that the disappoitment of Grigor Dimitrov continues. I know he's "only" 22 but he's yet to make it past the 3R at a Grand Slam. That doesn't bode well for a supposedly future elite player.

Believe me, this guy Dimitrov doesn't have it. He hasn't got what it takes to challenge for a single slam, let alone sustain a career in the top echelons. He has no big shots and no great brain. Since I discovered he was the "future of tennis" I've stared closely and nah, he's not all that. I'm not saying that to be wise after the event, or to be sarcastic, no, but great players have something in them that you notice even before they're fully formed, and this guy hasn't got the mental character or the technical attributes to make it...

Agreed. A top echelon player is able to win consistently. Grigor seems to play well against a top player on the big stage, only to be beaten by a journeyman later.

 

[Kieran]

^^ Exactly.

I'm surprised that anyone's surprised he lost...

 

[El Dude]

Watching him play a few times over the last couple months I'm struck by three things:

1) His game looks smooth and flowing, thus the "Baby Federer" appellation.
2) He's got no standout weapons. He does a couple things very well - his serve CAN be very good and his single-handed backhand LOOKS nice, but nothing is really high caliber.
3) He's very casual and without that killer instinct.

The first factor had made it easy to overlook 2 and 3, or at least think or hope that they'll come along. But I don't see it. Actually, he reminds me a bit of Marin Cilic for some reason and I think that's his realistic upside at this point.

 

[Kieran]

Cilic is a good comparison but there's something more fluid and potent in Cilic's game. It's just a pity he drinks too much camomile tea and not enough black coffee. Or so it seems. Cilic could do with a bee-sting on his arse to get him motivated...

 

[El Dude]

I'm not "surprised" he lost, just disappointed. He's young enough and with enough improvement over the last year to hope that he's ready to take it up a notch and at least be a true top 20 player, and eventually threaten for the top 10, but he's also old enough that if he were going to be an elite player (top 5 and perennial Slam contender) then we would have seen more by now. As I've said, perhaps to the point of annoyance, we haven't seen that from ANY player in the age 21-24 range, and we should have by now.

I see Dimitrov in the same general category as Tomic, Raonic, perhaps Paire and Nishikori - players that will never be true elites, but will be the near-elites that tide us over from the current greats to the next crop. The wildcard in the mix, in my opinion, is Jerzy Janowicz, who seems to have the fire and weapons to upset elite players. Of all players age 20-24 I think he's got the biggest game and perhaps the best chance of winning a Slam in the next few years.

Of course I still hold out hope that Tomic and Dimitrov will get serious, and that Raonic will cast off his "Gentle Giant' quality and develop some fire. But that remains a hope...

 

[Riotbeard]

Janowicz is the only guy with right mentality so far in my opinion and proving it against almagro right now.

 

[El Dude]

Jerzy just beat Almagro in straight sets after being down 4-1 in the first set. Nice commanding performance.