CAMELOT FANTASIES

Thank goodness he righted the ship.


Singles title here will do him some good.

He can get some momentum going.

order of play for tomorrow:

http://www.atpworldtour.com/scores/schedule.aspx?year=2015&eventid=321

I was worried about this one.

Rafa took the first set 6-4. they are tied in the 2nd at 5-5.



http://www.livescore.in/tennis/




I saw the highlights of his match against baggy. he has never been this bad. took nearly 3 hours to get rid of baggy.



same story: terrified of hitting a backhand. giving pu too much court by trying to hit all forehands.


and the forehand does not have the potency and the consistency it used to have because he wont log in endless hours on the practice courts.


quite simply the forehand lacks the depth and the pace.


and every volley he hit was pushed or shoved. or it was a drop volley.


he should have punched those volleys and put them away.



bottom line: we can do without volley. it is too damn late. he wont even try to learn to volley. he wont even give him a chance.


but we cant do without a sound ground game. that mean solid forehand and a solid backhand. he has both but he wont bother to get them going by putting in the very long and very hard yards on the practice courts.



he said he needs to return better and move better.


you give away the movement part by giving them most of the court to work with. you give them the free space by playing too far back and also by trying to hit all forehands.


as for the return, his idea of improving his return is playing doubles. return is going to be key during the grass season.


he has to make up his mind to work. ranking is the not the problem now. he can always pick up points.

he cant beat the top players with his current game and his current fitness.


I am worried about him but we can do nothing. he has to be pushed and driven like stan has been.


stan has been saying all along that his team really pushes him and drives him.

he lost the breaker.



he has a doubles match later also.

Hmm, interesting things happening lately. Rafa is playing better on grass than on clay in my opinion. His serve has been pretty big, backhand is very solid, balls are landing deep close to the baseline. I know he only played 2 matches and it is too early to assess but he might have taken the grass season seriously this year.

About freaking time, I would say

Tomorrow he plays Monfils, should be a fun match!

I was worried about this one.

Rafa took the first set 6-4. they are tied in the 2nd at 5-5.



http://www.livescore.in/tennis/




I saw the highlights of his match against baggy. he has never been this bad. took nearly 3 hours to get rid of baggy.



same story: terrified of hitting a backhand. giving pu too much court by trying to hit all forehands.


and the forehand does not have the potency and the consistency it used to have because he wont log in endless hours on the practice courts.


quite simply the forehand lacks the depth and the pace.


and every volley he hit was pushed or shoved. or it was a drop volley.


he should have punched those volleys and put them away.



bottom line: we can do without volley. it is too damn late. he wont even try to learn to volley. he wont even give him a chance.


but we cant do without a sound ground game. that mean solid forehand and a solid backhand. he has both but he wont bother to get them going by putting in the very long and very hard yards on the practice courts.



he said he needs to return better and move better.


you give away the movement part by giving them most of the court to work with. you give them the free space by playing too far back and also by trying to hit all forehands.


as for the return, his idea of improving his return is playing doubles. return is going to be key during the grass season.


he has to make up his mind to work. ranking is the not the problem now. he can always pick up points.

he cant beat the top players with his current game and his current fitness.


I am worried about him but we can do nothing. he has to be pushed and driven like stan has been.


stan has been saying all along that his team really pushes him and drives him.

Brilliant post general.  Rafa and Feli withdrew from the doubles. You could see that Rafa was too tired after the Tomic match.

It's obvious that Baghdatis has some back class, has a good serve when it's in, but erratic, but unfortunately for him, he can't seem to play more than a set at his previous good level anymore. In fact, he is playing most of his matches on the challenger circuit these days.  And even with that, he wasn't far from taking this match in straights, if he had held his nerve in the first set, against a quite poor Nadal.  But Rafa found someone who's fitness is much worse than his, so the third set was easily Rafa's. 

Rafa played better against Tomic, but again, too many double faults; he double faulted the second set away.  Really if Tomic had played aggressively instead of pushing everything, Rafa would have been in real trouble.   But I thought Rafa's forehand and first serve when in had more pop, and his return was ok. But he needs to up his game to challenge the top players.  Now he plays Monfils who hates the grass, but has managed to come through.  Kohli pretty much self destructed and doesn't match up well with Monfils. If Kohli had come through he would have been very dangerous for Rafa on the grass, so good he didn't for Rafa's sake.  I think Rafa should beat Monfils without too much problem.  Monfils big swings work against him on grass, and if he pushes against Rafa, he is cooked.

I think Rafa makes it to the finals... which isn't bad.  He will have those additional grass matches under him, which has to help him for Wimbledon.

Respectfully,
masterclass

Quote from: Clay Death on June 12, 2015, 09:01:04 am

I was worried about this one.

Rafa took the first set 6-4. they are tied in the 2nd at 5-5.



http://www.livescore.in/tennis/




I saw the highlights of his match against baggy. he has never been this bad. took nearly 3 hours to get rid of baggy.



same story: terrified of hitting a backhand. giving pu too much court by trying to hit all forehands.


and the forehand does not have the potency and the consistency it used to have because he wont log in endless hours on the practice courts.


quite simply the forehand lacks the depth and the pace.


and every volley he hit was pushed or shoved. or it was a drop volley.


he should have punched those volleys and put them away.



bottom line: we can do without volley. it is too damn late. he wont even try to learn to volley. he wont even give him a chance.


but we cant do without a sound ground game. that mean solid forehand and a solid backhand. he has both but he wont bother to get them going by putting in the very long and very hard yards on the practice courts.



he said he needs to return better and move better.


you give away the movement part by giving them most of the court to work with. you give them the free space by playing too far back and also by trying to hit all forehands.


as for the return, his idea of improving his return is playing doubles. return is going to be key during the grass season.


he has to make up his mind to work. ranking is the not the problem now. he can always pick up points.

he cant beat the top players with his current game and his current fitness.


I am worried about him but we can do nothing. he has to be pushed and driven like stan has been.


stan has been saying all along that his team really pushes him and drives him.

Brilliant post general.  Rafa and Feli withdrew from the doubles. You could see that Rafa was too tired after the Tomic match.

It's obvious that Baghdatis has some back class, has a good serve when it's in, but erratic, but unfortunately for him, he can't seem to play more than a set at his previous good level anymore. In fact, he is playing most of his matches on the challenger circuit these days.  And even with that, he wasn't far from taking this match in straights, if he had held his nerve in the first set, against a quite poor Nadal.  But Rafa found someone who's fitness is much worse than his, so the third set was easily Rafa's. 

Rafa played better against Tomic, but again, too many double faults; he double faulted the second set away.  Really if Tomic had played aggressively instead of pushing everything, Rafa would have been in real trouble.   But I thought Rafa's forehand and first serve when in had more pop, and his return was ok. But he needs to up his game to challenge the top players.  Now he plays Monfils who hates the grass, but has managed to come through.  Kohli pretty much self destructed and doesn't match up well with Monfils. If Kohli had come through he would have been very dangerous for Rafa on the grass, so good he didn't for Rafa's sake.  I think Rafa should beat Monfils without too much problem.  Monfils big swings work against him on grass, and if he pushes against Rafa, he is cooked.

I think Rafa makes it to the finals... which isn't bad.  He will have those additional grass matches under him, which has to help him for Wimbledon.

Respectfully,
masterclass

baggy used to be pretty good but clearly his best days are behind him. even the very best baggy used to get run over by Rafa in the old days.



you were 100% spot on general. he did manage to get by monfils in straights.


here are all the scores:


http://www.livescore.in/tennis/



rafa is still pushing too many balls back off his backhand wing. he has to try to anticipate better and just get in position to hit the ball back off that wing.


pushing and shoving the backhand back is not going to pay any dividends against the top players. time is now to get that backhand going.


so this is really a function of a weak ground game. he does not have sufficient confidence to go after that backhand.

lack of optimal movement makes it that much harder.


I would work on the following areas immediately:


1. ground game which means hitting a lot of balls while staying somewhat close to the center of the court.

2. return of serve

3. the serve

4. and little bit of work on fitness. and plenty of stretching like djokovic and Federer do. there is a reason why they never get injured. they put in daily work on the fitness front.



taking this title will go a long way to provide Rafa with some momentum. he just has to keep it up and keep working hard.


next year is now and not next year. he said he wants to come back more prepared next year so he can be more competitive.

next year started the day he got thrashed by djokovic at RG. he has to go after it now.