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Jun-02-12
 | | achieve: <shivasuri4: Oh dear, Federer has dropped the second set against Mahut. One break point, which was also a set point, and the set suddenly got over!> Federer sometimes likes to play cat and mouse ;) I saw a telling smile after a certain point yesterday, when he failed to pull the trigger, and played too cute, hehe, not clever if you prepare for THE NADAL. <Seppi has stunned Verdasco!> I hope Seppi will go on now to maybe reach a quarter, really... Nice to read your reporting, shiva! It almost took me there ;) |
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Jun-02-12
 | | shivasuri4: Thanks, <achieve>, and you're welcome, <KKDEREK>. Djokovic dropped just 5 games against Devilder, and needed only 104 minutes on court. Ominous signs for Nadal. Do watch Haas-Gasquet at around 1700 France time. Bound to be a good, hopefully great, match, especially for your eyes! Without looking, can anyone guess the relative doubles ranking of the top four singles players? You might be surprised at the truth. Then again, activity varies... |
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Jun-02-12
| | achieve: Of the 2 big courts I only look forward to Gasquet-Haas, and in form Youzhny is about to start in a few minutes (11:00 am) against Ferrer, that one looks promising as well, great long rallies. Nadal vs who? Schwank? Never heard of the guy. Prediction: Nadal wins 2, 0 and 1. 4 games max for Schwank, and I hope my prediction will turn out false. |
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| Jun-02-12 | | Jim Bartle: Schwank is one of the wave of Argentinean baseliners, like Monaco, though not as good. |
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Jun-02-12
| | achieve: Does anyone here know or care to guess how many top 20 players (men) have a single-handed BH?? I'll "help a bit" by disclosing that both #21 and #22 of the ranking, coincidentally have a SH BH .... |
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Jun-02-12
| | achieve: You'll have a hard time getting to three ;) |
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| Jun-02-12 | | Blunderdome: Do you count Almagro? Uses both hands for the backswing but usually comes forward with only one. |
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Jun-02-12
| | achieve: yes - Almagro is sort of the surprise package.
Then the only one left is Lopez.
Remarkable. |
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Jun-02-12
| | shivasuri4: Stanislas Wawrinka, Federer. Who else? Any answers to my 'singles' question? |
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Jun-02-12
| | shivasuri4: Raonic takes Monaco to five sets! Can he pull it off eventually? Disappointing that Haas won just 3 games out of the final 21. Does anybody know what happened? Looks like Paul-Henri Mathieu will take Granollers to 5 sets too. Long evening ahead! Ferrer dropped just 4 games, while Murray dropped 11. Murray meets Gasquet next, while Tipsarevic takes on Almagro. Nadal meets the winner of Raonic- Monaco. |
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Jun-02-12
| | shivasuri4: <achieve>, even Gasquet has a single-handed backhand. |
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Jun-02-12
| | shivasuri4: Among others, Mikhail Youzhny, Tommy Haas and Philipp Kohlschreiber have single handed backhands. <achieve>, Raonic is no. 22, and he doesn't have a single- handed backhand. Perhaps you meant no. 20 and no. 21. |
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Jun-02-12
| | shivasuri4: Trivia: Lopez has played in the most 5 set matches that have gone beyond 6–6, his longest fifth set being 16–14 at the 2009 Australian Open against Gilles Müller. From Wikipedia. |
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| Jun-02-12 | | Jim Bartle: I think Feliciano Lopez is the only player among the top 30 or 40 today who uses a sliced backhand much more than driving it. I don't know how many male players did this in the past--Ken Rosewall is the #1 example, but he hit it with little underspin and fairly hard. |
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| Jun-02-12 | | Jim Bartle: I think Youzhny used a two-hander here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi-C... |
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Jun-02-12
| | shivasuri4: <Jim Bartle>, it's a rather difficult call, isn't it? He seems to release the second hand at the last moment. I got my information from Wikipedia, admittedly not a very reliable source. |
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Jun-02-12
| | shivasuri4: Granollers beat Mathieu, and Monaco scraped past Raonic. |
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| Jun-02-12 | | Jim Bartle: Matthieu losing in this round was a pretty sure bet, after the exertion and emotion of the Isner match. |
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Jun-02-12
 | | HeMateMe: At the slams, you have to be familiar with "Aussie Speak": Hops--Harry Hopmen, former Czar of Australian mens tennis. If Harry didn't like your game, you had to move to another country, to play. Tasties--Beers, usually Fosters, beer from Oz.
Shouts--rounds, at a pub or a club. As in shout out for a barman to bring another round. Short Arms Long Pockets--a guy who won't pay for his share of the "Shouts". Sheilas--single, elegible woman.
"I need another tastie. Whose shout is it? Hops won't know. Where are the sheilas?" |
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| Jun-02-12 | | Jim Bartle: Unfortunately Australia is desperately short on top players these days, not like in Hopman's time when they formed a long line. They do have one strong (though terribly inconsistent) female player, Samatha Stosur, the current US Open champion. I think John McEnroe also learned to play largely from Harry Hopman, at an academy on Long Island. Gerulaitis, too. |
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Jun-02-12
| | achieve: <shivasuri4: <achieve>, even Gasquet has a single-handed backhand.> Yes, and he is #20 0r #21, and he is the reason I looked it up, because I was watching his wonderfully executed BH in the match vs Haas, who has always been one of my fav technicians. <Jun-02-12 shivasuri4: Among others, Mikhail Youzhny, Tommy Haas and Philipp Kohlschreiber have single handed backhands.> <Raonic is no. 22, and he doesn't have a single- handed backhand. Perhaps you meant no. 20 and no. 21.> Yes - I was about to follow up with predicting that Raonic essentially carries the torch for the Classical Backhand, in that he is pretty sure to enter the top 16, and then the Top 10, to Join Federer who now is the <only one left> among the top players. The classical backhand is threatened with extinction, Berdych, Tsonga, you name it, they all have DH BH drives. |
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| Jun-02-12 | | Jim Bartle: How many players have or had two-handed forehands? Monica Seles of course, plus Gene Mayer. Early in his career Mayer had a one-handed backhand and a two-handed forehand, surely the only player ever to play that way. Maybe Santorum, too? |
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Jun-02-12
| | achieve: heh - that's a nice freudian slip! Ah - the relentless info stream... Petit Fabrice, you mean, Fabrice Santoro, a true magician, indeed with two hands on the shaft at all times, including volleys when they were "in reach", except serves and overheads. |
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| Jun-03-12 | | Jim Bartle: Oops, right, Santoro.
Reminds me of another guy who played with both hands all the time, Frew McMillan. Not a great singles player, but one of the best doubles players ever, just uncanny in his anticipation and touch. McMillan would move to seemingly ridiculous spots on the court, leaving huge areas open, and then the other team (often made up of big-time singles players) would hit the ball right to him. |
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| Jun-03-12 | | Blunderdome: Almagro's backhand is beautiful, though. |
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