CAMELOT FANTASIES

order of play for Tuesday:


http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/scores/schedule/index.html

Wawrinka criticizes Wimbledon schedulers.

Stan is completely right.  Grossly unfair.  He and the others in his section will have to play 3 best of 5 matches 3 days in a row. Others like Nadal and Federer will play best of 5 matches 2 days in a row, while top half Murray, Djokovic and others continue to get a day off between matches.

Sunday no play when it was sunny due to tradition and court maintainance.  Saturday they started playing again at around 5 pm.  They had doubles and mixed doubles and other matches on outside courts, when they could have had the remaining 3 or 4 singles matches played on outside courts, and then everyone could have played Monday and had the day off Tuesday.

Security? Blahhh, what a stupid excuse. Short term thinking about money.  They wanted more fans to attend these matches and the outside court stands don't hold enough.  But stupid short term thinking could very well cost them the top name players playing at the end, when they are exhausted because of poor scheduling, not to mention it is unfair to one side of the draw. 

When players of Nadal and/or Federer's stature and popularity make it to the late stages, TV viewing ratings worldwide go up. This is important to the sponsors that foot the bills. Nobody is saying the tournament should bend over backwards to favor those players and especially Wawrinka and the others potentially playing 3 days in a row, but they should at least try to be fair to them.

Boo of the tournament on Wimbledon schedulers.  And they immediately become eligible for my Tournament Boo of the Year.

Disrespectfully,
masterclass

close battle going on with wawrinka and lopez. wawrinka snatched the first set in a breaker.


here are all the live scores:


http://www.tennisexplorer.com/live/#inscore_ifheight_xdc_6727

Who would have thought yesterday that Rafa would lose to Kyrgios in such fashion? I think that those 2 days off did not do him any favor. He played short, the return of serve was horrible, and on the big points Rafa just played bad. Deserved win by the young Aussie, he definitely has potential if he develops his talent!

Great matches tomorrow - Murray - Dimitrov, Fed - Wawa, Nole - Cilic, Kyrgios - Raonic. Let's see how much Kyrgios has left in the tank after that Gasquet match and today's 3 hour thriller!

he was flat and he was way the hell off from the ground.

even his stable, rock solid, money topspin forehand let him down.


his return of serve was as horrible as I have ever seen it.


what I am pissed off about is his willingness to push so many backhands. he never gave his topspin backhand a chance to get into some sort of rhythm.

that is where the majority of those 70 winners came. I mean majority of those outside of 37 aces.

those poorly sliced backhands just sit up for them to blast away.


nick hit 70 winners.


rafa is just off this year. that is all there is to it. even the world's greatest pusher---simon---hit 60 winners on Rafa on the red clay in rome a few weeks back in just 3 sets.


he has lost some of his fitness and his once amazing speed is gone. that leaves him lunging and rushing for his shots.

so they end up being short and stuff.

and that is the reason why his ground game is suffering. remember that this guy hardly ever missed off either wing a few years back. he was like a machine.



well we can say goodbye to the #1 rank unless Andy gets rid of Nole. I do believe that Andy will take out Dimitrov in 4.


lets hope for the best going forward. and most of all lets hope for the best possible health for Rafa.

I think he will do much better at flushing meadows. he is my pick for the title there.

its his crown. he will find a way.



at any rate its a great achievement for Nick. Camelot wishes him the best of luck.

I don't think he is that good but maybe he will prove me wrong. by that I mean that I don't think he is top 10 material.  look steve darcis beat Rafa here last year in straights. rosol took him out the year previous. Rafa is just not himself the last 3 years on grass. that does not make guys like darcis, rosol, and nick world beaters. that distinction does not come that easy in this sport.

almagro beat Rafa in Barcelona. that does not make almagro a world beater. Rafa is hurting this year. bad back has had a lot to do with it.


anyway Nick will move on to battle Milos.

they met at RG.

milos took that one in straights.

fantastic post general masterclass.

nick was very well composed for a 19 year old. especially on the centre court with the whole world watching.

well done. congrats to nick and his fans.



grass has been tough for Rafa to adjust to after RG for the last 3 years. just goes to show how difficult it is to do that historic double: RG + Wimbledon.

that is why so few in history have been able to do it.


I have to agree with general masterclass. put rafa on yesterday afternoon and he probably goes on to take this match.

he had too much time off and he did not use it wisely. I have been saying this all year.

he does not train/practice enough anymore and it has been costing him. he prefers to do a lot of problem solving on the court.

he needed to do 2 practice sessions a day the last 2 days and forget about that world cup and fun and games with his buddies.

he does not work on his returns in practice and it shows so clearly.

Rafa himself says he does not like to practice as much as he used to in the old days.


well it shows. some of the fitness and the muscle mass is gone. and he is not moving like the wind like he used to. I am sure back issues and the knee issues have forced him to cut back.


often he is lunging and reaching for the ball or he rushes. that is why there are so many errors in his matches this year.

at any rate clearly his greatest liability on quicker courts is return of serve. nobody in the world has the guts to tell him that.

he is used to winning nearly all his clay matches so that tends to mask his return stats. this is the first time in 100,000 centuries that he has actually lost 3 clay matches in a single season.


so one key area of huge concern for me is that return of serve.


2nd area--which is the most critical area--is the small hit he has taken on the fitness front.

he even admits it. he said after RG that he needed to work on his fitness. I think he was in halle, Germany when he said that.


so if he can do some work on his return and his fitness, things should start to fall in place again. he is still plenty young.



and you are not going to believe this: my dad just called as I am typing this post. evidently they are showing his match on the tennis channel. I am not going to watch it again.

but here is what dad said: he said why is nadal playing like he is "scared"?


that is my dad's way of saying that he was too defensive.

I think he is right. Rafa knifed too many balls back thereby denying his topspin backhand a chance to get into rhythm. nick just blasted every single one of those poorly knifed shots from Rafa.

and what a day to have an off day off the forehand wing also. his timing was really off on that wing. it was just a tough day for him.

I like to just forget it fast but I cant. I hate to see him play this poorly. there was an opportunity here to advance.

fantastic post general masterclass.

nick was very well composed for a 19 year old. especially on the centre court with the whole world watching.

well done. congrats to nick and his fans.



grass has been tough for Rafa to adjust to after RG for the last 3 years. just goes to show how difficult it is to do that historic double: RG + Wimbledon.

that is why so few in history have been able to do it.


I have to agree with general masterclass. put rafa on yesterday afternoon and he probably goes on to take this match.

he had too much time off and he did not use it wisely. I have been saying this all year.

he does not train/practice enough anymore and it has been costing him. he prefers to do a lot of problem solving on the court.

he needed to do 2 practice sessions a day the last 2 days and forget about that world cup and fun and games with his buddies.

he does not work on his returns in practice and it shows so clearly.

Rafa himself says he does not like to practice as much as he used to in the old days.


well it shows. some of the fitness and the muscle mass is gone. and he is not moving like the wind like he used to. I am sure back issues and the knee issues have forced him to cut back.


often he is lunging and reaching for the ball or he rushes. that is why there are so many errors in his matches this year.

at any rate clearly his greatest liability on quicker courts is return of serve. nobody in the world has the guts to tell him that.

he is used to winning nearly all his clay matches so that tends to mask his return stats. this is the first time in 100,000 centuries that he has actually lost 3 clay matches in a single season.


so one key area of huge concern for me is that return of serve.


2nd area--which is the most critical area--is the small hit he has taken on the fitness front.

he even admits it. he said after RG that he needed to work on his fitness. I think he was in halle, Germany when he said that.


so if he can do some work on his return and his fitness, things should start to fall in place again. he is still plenty young.



and you are not going to believe this: my dad just called as I am typing this post. evidently they are showing his match on the tennis channel. I am not going to watch it again.

but here is what dad said: he said why is nadal playing like he is "scared"?


that is my dad's way of saying that he was too defensive.

I think he is right. Rafa knifed too many balls back thereby denying his topspin backhand a chance to get into rhythm. nick just blasted every single one of those poorly knifed shots from Rafa.

and what a day to have an off day off the forehand wing also. his timing was really off on that wing. it was just a tough day for him.

I like to just forget it fast but I cant. I hate to see him play this poorly. there was an opportunity here to advance.

In addition to all you said, both physical and mental, I think there was also a psychological effect as well. Maybe it's me, but I didn't appreciate the "articles" that surfaced during this tournament. I'm sure that got under Rafa's skin as well, since he actually got a bit peeved in his presser, talking about hearing the "same old song."

I think he's right. This matter of seconds BS is beyond annoying. There isn't a tennis player alive who follows every rule to the letter, starting with the not stopping your chari after one game, so why the picking and choosing? And why only target Nadal?

Usually Rafa doesn't let such stuff get to him, but year in, year out, and usually in the midst of a tournament, is not cool. I'm tired of it and I'm sure Rafa is too.

Wimbledon is getting harder and harder to predict.


Andy was my pick for the title here and now he is gone.