CAMELOT FANTASIES

The quarter finals have come and gone with one major upset and two survivals.

The upset was not expected, but not surprising to me, and left me disappointed. 

Ferrer beat Nadal in straight sets on the clay at Monte Carlo.  Nadal had been as unbeatable there as at Roland Garros, winning 8 of the last 9 years.  Ferrer hadn't beaten Rafa on clay in ten years.  How did it happen?  Well, obviously something is missing or lacking in Nadal's game at the moment.  The most disturbing thing from a mental point of view, is that he looked flat, he looked like he didn't care a whole lot, or was distracted.

Tennis wise, Rafa wasn't hitting balls deep, especially from the backhand wing.  He was lucky if they were landing further than the service line.  Ferrer is not a bad clay court player and took full advantage, and was blasting balls left and right.  Nadal looks like he is playing with little confidence at the moment.  Or it could be that he is protecting his back more than he wants to let on, who knows? 

He said in his press conference that he was physically fine, but that he was low on confidence.  So why wasn't this surprising to me?  I think he has let himself go a bit since winning all those titles last year. And what of it?  He is only one man.  He cannot just keep going out there and playing the brutal style he plays, especially on the joint jarring unnatural and especially slower hard courts, without something happening. 

Look, most physically demanding sports were obviously meant to be played on dirt and grass.  Look at sports like football, baseball, soccer, where players are jumping, falling, sliding, as well as running.  Can you imagine those professional sports being played on hard pavement? Of course not.  Look in history, at what happened when some playing fields went to artificial turf in the name of saving money on upkeep.  Injuries increased, and players complained at the unnatural feel and balls bouncing like super balls.  I've played all these sports, some at a higher level, and I can tell you that they are meant to be played on a natural surface. 

Hard courts may offer a truer bounce in tennis, and provide solid footing for those not adept at good footwork, but running a lot on the hard courts takes its toll, not to mention what happens when you have to stretch for a shot, or jump,  and fall.  Now of course, in cold climates or winter, one has to go indoors for tennis.  Indoor courts were played on wood for a long time, then soft carpet, often over a wood base.  Typically, the indoor courts played fast.  So there wasn't that much wear and tear on the players from these courts.  But the acrylic hard courts came along, and have gradually replaced all those indoor courts.  The problem is that indoor and outdoor hard courts have gradually been made slower, usually medium to slow, with a couple faster, but not fast, decoturf courts like Cincinnati and the US Open.   We saw Djokovic and Nadal play for close to 6 hours on the medium-slow Plexicushion courts on Rod Laver.  That takes it's toll in the long run.  And Rafa is not exempt. I wouldn't have a problem with playing on the harder surface if they varied between medium to fast conditions. It is a more neutral surface, and generally more competitive, as it doesn't require the more specialized technical and physical skills that clay and grass require.

We saw what happened last year when he started on the clay instead of Australia and tourneys like Rotterdam.  He ended up with one of the best seasons of his career.  He was so confident once he hit the hard courts in the summer, that he won the masters and US Open, and ended up with 10 titles.  But that kind of success also comes at a price. 

After a so-so fall, where he failed to win a title, which is not unusual, he spent his off time playing exhibitions on hard court.  He didn't give himself time to get to the practice courts and work on his game and fitness.  This cost him at the Australian Open.  He just wasn't fit enough in my opinion and the hard courts at Rod Laver didn't help him.  He had to play a hard match against Federer, and then followed it up with Wawrinka. Stan played very well, stretched Rafa to his limits, and Rafa's back injury cost him any chance of winning.  This also had to hurt Nadal's confidence some, though some of his fans might deny that.  After this, we could see how close he came to losing matches where he should not have had trouble.  Again, he was unable to train properly once his back was hurt.   Now what did he do after Miami? Did he jump right on the clay courts and start practicing many hours/day to get his clay game and fitness going?  I don't know, but he seemed to be everywhere.   So did it surprise me that he lost to Ferrer so badly, committing some 44 unforced errors in 2 sets at a tournament and surface he has dominated?  Hmmm. 

The good news is that he still has time to get his clay game in shape, but he's going to have to put in the hard yards.  He only got in 3 matches in Monte Carlo.  He needs at least 16-18 by Roland Garros, which means he has to go deep in these other clay tournaments.  To do this, he has to be healthy, he has to be fit, and he has to be confident.

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In the other matches,  Wawrinka won in 2 sets over Raonic after a tight 1st set and tiebreak, which could have gone either way.  But once he won that, he was off to the races, and Raonic looked increasingly frustrated.  Wawrinka served well and played solid.  He should be tough nut for Ferrer to crack.

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In the bottom half of the draw, Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga contended for a place in the semifinal.  Tsonga has upped his game recently after a dismal start to the year.  He has returned to using his old racquet, and it seems to have restored his confidence in his game.  For over a set against Federer he was the better player, playing very strong on his normally weaker backhand wing. 

But in the second set, Federer upped his level and constantly had Tsonga in trouble on his serve, had many break points, but he couldn't seem to take the break, and Tsonga saved many of them with spectacular play himself.  It was a very hard fought and well played second set by both men, winners flying off their racquets, and solid play all around.  It was decided in the tiebreak, where Federer finally could take advantage of his edge on Tsonga's service, which had to have been tiring as the match progressed.  At one point late in the second set, Jo had served close to twice as many serves as Federer after so many deuce games. 

After Federer won the 2nd set tiebreak 8-6, he never looked back, had all the momentum, and Tsonga looked the beaten man and Federer mercifully finished it off fairly quickly with a breadstick.

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In the final match of the day, #2 in the world Novak Djokovic had to contend with the unseeded, but very in-form Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, known as GGL for short.  Garcia-Lopez was coming off winning his first title in 4 years at Casablanca, and showed a lot of confidence beating an in-form Alex Dogopolov and strong Tomas Berdych.  Djokovic had convincingly steamrolled his two previous opponents, but as they were a qualifier and lucky loser, he obviously wasn't tested.  Well that changed.  GGL gave Novak all he could handle, winning the first set in a convincing 6-4.  He actually had a two break lead in the set, but squandered one, before buckling down and taking the set.  Novak looked a bit undercooked in his play, and made too many errors as he struggled with his level of play.

In the second set, GGL also played quite well, and had Djokovic in trouble in his service games to 3-3 and even beyond.  But Djokovic had finally upped his game, and was playing some amazing tennis to hold his serves, as GGL was not missing much, defending extremely well.  And finally, it seemed like all the matches GGL has played the last couple of weeks began to take its toll.  He wasn't quite getting to everything as he did earlier in the match, and Novak was playing extremely well and his backhand down the line was starting to do damage.  He ended up breaking GGL, and won the second set.

The third set was more of the same, Djokovic playing at a high level, and GGL just couldn't stay with him.  The play was closer than the final set breadstick would indicate as many games went to deuce, but it didn't matter.  Djokovic won going away as they say.   I think Djokovic needed this match, prior to playing Federer as it turns out. 

I'm looking for a good battle between them on the morrow, but who knows?  I think recovery from today's matches will be the key.  It's only best of 3, but on clay, even that can feel like a marathon at times, depending on the play.
I think whoever can get off to a faster start will have the advantage, but if it goes 3, I think I'll have to give the edge to Djokovic.

That's how I see and saw it. Over and out...

Respectfully,
masterclass

Wawrinka has just blasted off Ferrer in straight sets. He's now beaten Cilic, Raonic and Ferrer in straight sets to make the final here. That's pretty good and a well earned position.

Ferrer though might have been somewhat overwhelmed after beating Nadal in straight.

Judging by Wawrinka's form here, I wonder how the match would have panned out against Nadal had Ferrer not beaten him, especially when Nadal recently admitted the AO loss being on his mind quite a bit and affecting his performance of late. In other words, he's not feeling as confident. I can't forget how a lot of fans said both during AO and Miami how brilliant Nadal looked, but the same tone changed after he got beaten in both events and by worthy opponents.

I don't think Nadal's opponents who tend to beat him from time to time will ever get any credit from Nadal fans any time soon or perhaps never.

Anyway, I believe Wawrinka had 33 winners and 40 errors. These aggressive players including Federer (especially these days) strike me as mostly ball bashers. I don't remember Sampras having so many errors in a 2 sets match while being super aggressive. That's the unfortunate part of today's game.

that is earliest exit from the event that he has won 8 times.

and when was the last time he lost to ferru at monte carlo?

he had 44 unforced errors in that match.

the guy has almost no rhythm off the ground. he is also lacking his usual fitness.

I think he showed up unprepared. clay has always saved him and it has done that for 10 years.

one day it had to catch up with him. I just never thought he would let his fitness and his game drop so much from 2013 levels.

it is pretty clear emma that he has been **** around and it is costing him.


now I know he has back issues but there still things you can do to get more fit. you can swim more for example. and there are endless other exercises you can do.

you can also get on the red clay and stay on the bloody red clay.


he had no business wasting 15 days after his early loss in indian wells. if he can play that event on the hard courts then he can also practice on the red clay.

he is just paying for the hard yards that are missing from his training on the fitness front and also on the practice courts.

this was the single most important clay season of his life very simply because he has 2 years left at best at the top.

it is still very salvageable. he just has to get to work.

I got one right and one wrong.

ferru lost and Federer was able to get by in straights today.

congrats to the swiss players and their fans.

good win for stan general masterclass.

masters title on clay is not that easy to get your hands on with the big sharks like nadal and nole around.

congrats to stan and his fans at Camelot.

this was a huge opportunity for roger to finally snatch this elusive title but evidently it was not meant to be.

it was just not in the stars for roger. he most assuredly had the inside track after snatching the first set but proceeded to let his advantage slip away from him.

good win for stan general masterclass.

masters title on clay is not that easy to get your hands on with the big sharks like nadal and nole around.

congrats to stan and his fans at Camelot.

this was a huge opportunity for roger to finally snatch this elusive title but evidently it was not meant to be.

it was just not in the stars for roger. he most assuredly had the inside track after snatching the first set but proceeded to let his advantage slip away from him.

After seeing the score I did watch a few highlights on YouTube. Fed looked to be playing well. What happened? Errors, or Stan raised his game?