Topic: "Ye Olde Castle" Volume #3 : The Castle Sports Bar

[FedFanForever]

Fed training during his vacation is proof enough that once you become a professional tennis player you are never truly "off duty".

[Clay Death]

affirmative. fed also believes in staying healthy and fit year around. the guy stretches 1-2 times daily for instance.
 
he is also spending more time in the gym.

[Raferminator]

Vamos Castle Warriors,

I don't have the energy to stay and chat, but I feel a great desire to comment and reply to everyone reading through the thread today. I suppose I can do both and everyone here is mellow and fine with that. 

MasterClass: You know you have always gotten my highest respect and I admire your maturity. The rant on my part is done for the time being. I've been holding it in ever since I was perma-banned on false allegations around a month ago. Know this for my claims of being a peaceful poster with all the other posters if not necessarily my Player Prefernces. In 2 years, I never received a Single Ban or even
more than several infractions for precisely the reason I don't attack ANYONE personally, ignore attempts to instigate me in fights, never bad rep and only posted postive things about the Posters and left all else off the table. The "Permaban" was actually my First ban.

I highly respect you and will enter the Castle from now on when I am not angry or defensive and be mellow next time. So sorry if I came off in a bad mood earlier today. Shankar and I are currently being publically humiliated with (AGAIN) a Moderator sanctioning and manipulating it. When I saw that, I had to make it here to get truths that have been purposely twisted into lies or misleading accusations cleared and off my mind.   

Nekromanta: I admire what you are doing on this board. You R Legend (movie "I am Legend" is on my queue list by the way) for what I've seen in here and for your longtime at the Toxic Dump. Thank youso much for the welcome. I reciprocate the joy in seeing you!  I will get to Movies and Music next time. The Last Movie I saw and loved  was "Cache" (or Hidden) by the Director of "Funny Games". "Dark Knight Rises" also was very entertaining!

CD: About Rafa about Abu Dhabi, he may start slowly, but if you remember the December before Abu Dhabi in 2010, he came from one of his worst seasons (2009 - injuries again) to winning Abu Dhabi right out to start the year. It seems the more our OCDish hero rests his mind and body, sometimes the results are amazing from the start. I don't include the Summer and Fall of 2009, since he was clearly not ready to come back that time. Maybe that factored into his decision to take such a long time off. Whatever the case, I always feel better about Rafa surprising people in January through early July. So it would be simply a Manic Pop Thrill (name the Band for that album anyone) if he comes back strong. It will deleriously positive just to see him play again after so long. So I don't know what to expect, but wouldn't be surprised by a good early run. But the important thing is that
he will finally be back. Can't wait just to see him again, not just at the AO, but to see that he is actually out there at all. I also like that Rafa will plan to spend more time in the dirt as that will be good on his knees and I thought I heard he would skip Dubai and do the Argentina-Mexico 500s. Long overdue that he should make this move imo.

I promise to bring my amusing writing style back and lighten up on some other days. But when I wrote in the Castle and CD I would often drop the facade. As I think I said a dozen times, even to Mods, I got tons of good reps and people telling me they thought I was funny and they "got it". Especially since it was always about Tennis, pure from my heart, but still unique and never against anyone on the Forum. 

(To any Nole Fans though: Personally, I screamed with delight when Nole won the Masters Cup over Muger Frauderer. Most people know I Love Nole too.) 

Sorry for the Wall of Text. Old habits die hard.

My Dark Horese for 2013: Delpo was just getting better and better last year all the way to the end of the year. Maybe top 5 this year? Raonic impressed me with his composure and I see a new Top 10 player, if not this year, then next year. The Jerzy Janowicz character really did something special at the Paris Masters. Nishikori can simply go on some tremendous runs at times, but then quickly loses form too. He is a mystery to me right now.

[Brick Top]

I've been holding it in ever since I was perma-banned on false allegations around a month ago. Know this for my claims of being a peaceful poster with all the other posters if not necessarily my Player Prefernces. In 2 years, I never received a Single Ban or even
more than several infractions for precisely the reason I don't attack ANYONE personally, ignore attempts to instigate me in fights, never bad rep and only posted postive things about the Posters and left all else off the table. The "Permaban" was actually my First ban.

I have to agree, your ban was totally unfair if you ask me, as you said you did not bash or offend any other user . You have an opinion about certain players and if you express it is your right to do so. Also I dont know why some users there are so offended and mad about that "identity thing" that led to your ban, but lets assume that trigger happy mods could not wait to find a slightest reason..

Btw. Hello online castle folks 

[Clay Death]

hello general brick top, raferminator.
 
 
excellent post raferminator. just make yourself at home. and dont worry about a thing.
 
post away and have a blast.
 
i think i have to agree about d-pot: he is making progress. i also like milos in 2013. he could make some noise.

[Brick Top]

Greetings General Herc  , I think Kei has more to show than Milos who unfortunately with his one sided game is already close to his full potential, he needs to build up and work more on his ground game ASAP.

[Clay Death]

i think you are right general brick top. nishikori is gifted and is rock solid off both wings off the ground.
 
his only problem is sustained good health. he tends to get injured fairly regularly.
 
he has a great game. only thing missing is the ability to attack the net and an effective slice. he could be more comfortable at the net.
 
what do you think?

[Clay Death]

raferminator was talking about jerzy janowicz. he is a huge talent as well.
 
i think she is right about him. that dude`s stock is on the rise.

[Brick Top]

i think you are right general brick top. nishikori is gifted and is rock solid off both wings off the ground.
 
his only problem is sustained good health. he tends to get injured fairly regularly.
 
he has a great game. only thing missing is the ability to attack the net and an effective slice. he could be more comfortable at the net.
 
what do you think?

His will be better in time with his net game but that does not mean that he should not work on it. Battles are now raged on baseline and  if he can stayed focused and start to work even more  from there and gain more confidence in his shots and game in general which will reflect on his net game just like happened with Novak and Ferrer for example, especially with David who vastly improved his volleys and net coverage during  this season, of course that means that Kei should put a lot of hard work on it if he wants to become top (and complete)player in the business. From what I saw Kei does not have a bad volleys but as you said slice and net approaching needs an improvement.

[Brick Top]

raferminator was talking about jerzy janowicz. he is a huge talent as well.
 
i think she is right about him. that dude`s stock is on the rise.

Affirmative general. he will be a bomb in a coming times.

[Clay Death]

jerzy is blessed with a booming serve and he has superb mechanics on his strokes off both wings.
 
he can also take the ball early. and above all that, he is fearless.

[Raferminator]

Greetings General Herc  , I think Kei has more to show than Milos who unfortunately with his one sided game is already close to his full potential, he needs to build up and work more on his ground game ASAP.

Greetings Bricktop and CD,

I agree that Milos LOOKS like he has a one dimensional game (ala Isner, perhaps?), but what makes me feel he is more than that is the fact he could lose a big match and look miserable doing so to Murray at the U.S. Open and then come back and defeat him the next time they played in the Semi-Finals of the Japan Open. Murray is usually someone who is a horrible match-up for an Isner/Karlovic type since he returns really well and has great defense. So the fact that Milos looked like a Big Man Murray easily exposed at the U.S. Open, but then came back to beat Murray for the 2nd time in their last 3 match-ups shows to me he has something a little extra and that his mental fortitude is already top 10. I agree his game is just top 20 right now, but it appears to me that he believes he can win no matter who he is playing. That is one of the strengths of Rafa as well, and it is EXTREMELY rare on the ATP Tour. If his game improves just a little bit, but his composure and confidence continue to be rock steady, he will be ready for the Top 10. I can't see him ever being Top 3 though with that game, I agree.

Jerzy Janowicz - Very highly regarded early in the year, falied to live up to expectations except at SW19, and then exceeded all the wildest expectations in Paris. Another possible "Serve-bot" at 2.03 m who also happens to have a tremendous drop shot? I understand he didn't have much money behind him and labored to get to distant big time events and this partially stunted his success. If he starts getting proper training, coaching and traveling, we may be in for a surprise next year. I think he made more at Paris than he did the entire season, so watch out! Once a player has the revenue, they can start being properly prepared for tournies. Jerzy couldn't financially afford to go to the AO last year. Compare that with the elite players that have Teams almost like small companies that make sure they are prepared.

Kei is a pleasure to watch when he is in the groove. He looks Top 10 or even Top 5 with almost all his shot making when he is on a streak. I also watched him lose to Soeda this year and if one were to see him on THAT  day, they would think he was mediocre in every area. Obviously, injuries play a part, but he seems to run hot and cold too much and consistency is his major problem.

[mimi]

oh Rafferminator, welcome 

no need to apologise, i don't think the photo incident was that big a scandal and i need no explanation, its just that those roger fans made it big.  I always knew that you were harmless, just act a bit crazy for fun, just most of us do. What is more, who can blame you since rafa fans are always being attacked....

[Clay Death]

that is an awesome post raferminator.
 
keep them coming.
 
milos may not have the movement. he is a tiny bit awkward with his movement being around 6 foot 5 or slightly taller.
 
he also needs to spend more time on clay in order to become more consistent off the ground.

[Clay Death]

mimi is right.
 
i have been attacked there by the mods and their attack dogs from day one. they never stopped.
 
mods and the admin was worse than the posters.

[Clay Death]

[Raferminator]

oh Rafferminator, welcome 

no need to apologise, i don't think the photo incident was that big a scandal and i need no explanation, its just that those roger fans made it big.  I always knew that you were harmless, just act a bit crazy for fun, just most of us do. What is more, who can blame you since rafa fans are always being attacked....

Hi Mimi! Glad to see you again. 

Did you see my couple of long explanations, specifically apologizing to you for what happened with the MODS at "Toxic Dump" manipulating my situation and then making it all PUBLIC in a thread without ANY regard to the fact it was a Private matter. They twisted everything and made the hyperbolic judgement that they KNEW was false. In my view this was done to humiliate me and the Rafa fan base. I've been offline for over a month as I was simply humiliated by the whole thing. I gave a short explanation a few pages ago. I noticed earlier today that Shanker and I are being fed to the Wolves today, and I've had enough time to regroup, so I came on here today to try and clear things up. Read back a few pages, as I expressly made apologies to you as you have been so kind and defended me even when their "spin" became facts in people's minds. 

It wasn't fun for me at all and it wasn't a joke; I was supremely humiliated and had been judged and juried before I even realized they had made THEIR side a public fiasco. The Admins would not call off the Stalker who had been following me for weeks with my picture in his Avatar insulting me unless I gave them peronal information (Driver's License or CC) and I tried to make a case that I shouldn't need to do that when another poster is stalking and attacking me. Anyway, I will write up the entire story for the Wall of Shame thread. But there was no "identify theft" and to use that verbage is hyperbolic sewage of the highest order and they even knew it....It was a set-up to drive down the Rafa fan base once again I am more than certain. 

Can't say "Thanks" enough. You are a high class all the way! 

[Raferminator]

I need to go to sleep, so thanks everyone for the kind support and I will visit the Castle for a real relaxed cocktail on a better day! 

Good night , Castle Warriors! 

[Clay Death]

night raferminator.
 
sleep tight.
 
 
this is your castle sports bar. enjoy it at will. we all show up here at will also. some of us like to stay up late.
 
sleep is overrated anyway.

[Clay Death]

i was catching some highlights of the 2008 wimbledon final earlier.
 
sports fans there was some ridiculous shotmaking going on in that battle. just amazing stuff.