Topic: Castle Camelot ~-* Volume 10 | Kick back, Relax & Let the good times roll !

[masterclass]

hola general MC.
 
are you expecting a ryan harrison win today?

Hola General Hercules of the Western Warriors.

Lukasz Kubot has slipped in his form.  So if Harrison can play with some confidence, I think he'll snatch it.
But who the hell knows with these players.  On any given day, one can be off and the other on.

By the way General,  Mr. Federer has 7 Wimbledon titles, not 6...

Respectfully,
masterclass

[Clay Death]

he is making it happen general mc.
 
he stole pages from the nadal book and also the roger book.
 
hs is the new nadal. and roger stretches 1-2 times a day. he never misses a day of training.
 
 
 
and here is nadal complaining to the gods this time. why doesnt he just forget about jacking off to endless viewing of football games, playing ridiculous amount of poker and golf. soon he will have 65 years to do that.


 
that would mean less crying on the court at least. and he can even start showing up for the bigger events.
 
 
he is yelling at the gods now. he is asking them why they have robbed him of his superhuman physical strength and stamina:
 
 

[masterclass]

and here is nadal complaining to the gods this time. why doesnt he just forget about jacking off to endless viewing of football games, playing ridiculous amount of poker and golf. soon he will have 65 years to do that.
 
that would mean less crying on the court at least. and he can even start showing up for the bigger events.
 
he is yelling at the gods now. he is asking them why they have robbed him of his superhuman physical strength and stamina:

Perhaps Rafa doesn't realize it yet, but the 25 second time limit enforcement by the umpires could be the best thing that happened to his serve.  It will force him to stop wasting time between serves, and should give him better, more consistent service games.  Many of the world's best servers like to get up to the line quickly to keep their service rhythm at a premium.

Additionally, though perhaps it will limit his recovery between points, it will also limit his opponent's recovery time.  It might also help with his health. If he can't recover completely every point, he'll be forced to run less during succeeding points. 

He should look on the bright side more and complain less.

Respectfully,
masterclass

[Clay Death]

so is roger tied with sampras with 7 wimbledon titles?
 
this wimbledon is going to be quite special if roger can get into the final.
 
what a year: nadal going for his 8th RG crown and roger for the 8th wimby title.

[masterclass]

so is roger tied with sampras with 7 wimbledon titles?
 
this wimbledon is going to be quite special if roger can get into the final.
 
what a year: nadal going for his 8th RG crown and roger for the 8th wimby title.

Yes Sir.  Federer already has a record 8 finals, but remains tied with Sampras and the ancient (1880's) William Renshaw for 7 titles.  Though it's difficult to really count Renshaw as he got direct entry to the final after winning the previous year 6 times while the rest had to go through the draw.
An eighth Wimbledon title would put Federer at the top alone.  If he wins one more US Open, he'll also be alone at the top in the Open era with 6 US Open titles.  Big Bill Tilden won 7 US Opens back in the 20's tying a couple of other ancients.

Nadal already is alone with 7 Roland Garros titles, but I'm sure he wouldn't return an eighth trophy...   If he hadn't messed himself up health-wise, I think he could have had 10 by the time his career is done, but as we've discussed, he's brought it on himself.  So he'll have to be happy with what he has, which is enough for anyone anyway...

Respectfully,
masterclass

[Clay Death]

i have heard that uncle tony has tried telling nadal that he is a bit of a maniac and a mad man with all his rituals. the problem is that tony does not control nadal anymore.
 
nadal controls them all because he feeds them all. he is the one with all the records and he is the one who is bringing in over $20 million a year. they all start calling the shots pretty much once they achieve this global rock star status.
 
roger is worth around $500 million now and nadal around $200 million. and there is no end in sight. many of the endorsement deals are for life.
 
also 7 french opens for nadal means another $100 million in the pipeline. same for roger and wimbledon.
 
 
all athletes are superstitious. i was the same damn way but i did not waste time on the court.
 
nadal is less worried about recovery and more about his rituals.
 
the problem is that they dont work. that is what the deal is but who is going to tell him. his uncle already tried. his dad, his mom, and his sister love him to death so they are not going to say a damn thing.
 
nadal has lost 12 finals since 2010. and he is dropping like a rock in the rankings. bottom line: his rituals are not working.
 
that is what he has to learn but nobody is going to tell him a damn thing since he does not have to listen to anyone.
 
of course he can always argue that his ritual do work. just look at his record. 11 majors. 51 titles. 7 french opens, 7-8 monte carlo masters, 6 rome masters, 7 barcelona titles. it just never ends.
 
he has lost 9 matches on clay since 2005 and most of those due to his own stupidity. he wins nearly 94% of his matches on clay and that is with a limited game.
 
so he can always argue that his rituals and whatever else he is doing does work.

[masterclass]

It boggles the mind that if Rafa had stayed healthy in 2009, he may have never lost a match at Roland Garros.

But Rotterdam was important to him... I heard he probably got close to 1 million extra for that appearance and the tournament also got their 2nd biggest attendance that year with 107,000.  Unfortunately, his knee bore the brunt of that appearance, and he never really recovered until close to a year later. 

Here was the news of the day after Nadal fell to Murray in the Rotterdam final:

World number one Rafael Nadal suffered another knee injury worry as he slipped to a 6-3, 4-6, 6-0 defeat to Britain's Andy Murray in the Rotterdam Open Sunday.  The fourth-ranked Scot, who won his second title of 2009, admitted that the knee injury which struck the Spaniard in the second set - and which Nadal refused to discuss - took the sparkle off the final.  The Spaniard suffered the problem from the second set and took a treatment break after the third game. From that point on, and through seven straight breaks of serve, the six-time Grand Slam title winner claimed just two points on his serve in the set.

"I'm happy with the week but not especially with the way that it ended," said Murray, who also won in Doha in January against Nadal.
"I can't be disappointed with how I was playing. I knew something was wrong with Rafa as he took about 30kph off of his serve in the second set.

Respectfully,
masterclass

[Clay Death]

in many ways rafa is just like borg. they are the ultimate x factors in the sport general MC.
 
no telling what rafa could have achieved if he had simply dropped majority of the hard court activity right after winning the 2009 australian open.
if he had started practicing on clay year around and minimized his match play on hard courts, he would be sitting on a few more slams and a healthy knee.
 
minimizing match play on hard courts means planning to lose early in singles and never playing doubles there. it also means playing any exos that you have to play for charity or for money on indoor clay.
 
this simple little adjustment would have netted him 4-5 more slams and no knee issues today.
 
he did not have to go to rotterdam in 2009. he was already having knee problems in melbourne. he went because of the greed. he should have gone straight home and rested like the other top players did.

[masterclass]

General, Hercules Nadal's probably lost all those finals since 2010 because he hasn't worked hard enough to improve like the others.  He's fallen behind.  In 2012, they tinkered with his racquet.  This year, Uncle Toni convinced Nadal to go to a new racquet/string combination that gives him even more topspin with a lighter swing weight. So it looks like to get improvement, they are intent on changing his equipment. 

But I think it's his fundamentals that need shoring up and improving.   He's almost stopped using his backhand, and keeps running around it leaving his forehand court wide open.  The result?  His backhand is no longer dependable when he is forced to use it more than two times a point.  Count on a shot in the net or a flyer.  Then as we saw in the Rome 2006 video, that Rafa returned from 1-2 meters behind the baseline.  Now it's more like 3-5 meters.  His return lands short a lot and gives the returner a big opportunity.  His return must get back to the best.  Djokovic and Murray have surpassed him in that regard.

So That's only two areas that he could have improved.  Even during his 7 month absence he could have stood and practiced returning a hundred serves a day and practiced hitting backhands...  Oh well.

Respectfully,
masterclass 

[Clay Death]

100% spot on general. i have been saying for years now that the single most important shot in the sport is the return of serve.
 
you cant win if you cant break. also a great return of serve takes the pressure off on your own serve. it even makes the weak serve a good serve because you are more relaxed. you can even take some chances on your serve.

 
borg ---to this day---attributes his 5 wimbledon titles to his improved return of serve. he worked on it diligently to make sure he was returning well enough on grass.
 
now here is the deal with nadal: when he was in his prime and had those machine like strokes off both wings, returning well was not an issue. of course he also had that blinding speed so his wheels saved him if the returns were short.
 
and he would win majority of the rallies.
 
but now the consistency is gone because he wont practice year around on clay and the shaky knees and fitness have killed his movement.
 
he still cant figure out even after 37 titles on clay and winning 94% of the matches on clay that clay is the wellspring from which he flows.
 
clay makes him what he became in the sport. clay is the only thing that can save him. it is the only thing that can help him last a little bit longer in the sport.
 
its either clay or sit on the damn sidelines. its his call.
 
i hear he is not going to indian wells. horse crap. he will not only go but he will play both singles and doubles there.
 
appearance fee is well over $1 million. for him,  greed  before common sense every single time.
 
he should go but plan to lose early in indian wells and also in miami. and no doubles.
 
lose early, save the knee, and get the hell out and go get on clay asap if he wants a shot at 8th RG crown.
 
 

[Clay Death]

going for a bike ride.
 
see you all a little bit later.
 
have fun.

[EnriqueIG8]

Thanks for the good reads CD and John! Enjoyed it.

Just got back from the gym...pumped now! Gotta shower first :D

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[Tennis4you]

and here is nadal complaining to the gods this time. why doesnt he just forget about jacking off to endless viewing of football games, playing ridiculous amount of poker and golf. soon he will have 65 years to do that.
 
that would mean less crying on the court at least. and he can even start showing up for the bigger events.
 
he is yelling at the gods now. he is asking them why they have robbed him of his superhuman physical strength and stamina:

Perhaps Rafa doesn't realize it yet, but the 25 second time limit enforcement by the umpires could be the best thing that happened to his serve.  It will force him to stop wasting time between serves, and should give him better, more consistent service games.  Many of the world's best servers like to get up to the line quickly to keep their service rhythm at a premium.

Additionally, though perhaps it will limit his recovery between points, it will also limit his opponent's recovery time.  It might also help with his health. If he can't recover completely every point, he'll be forced to run less during succeeding points. 

He should look on the bright side more and complain less.

Respectfully,
masterclass

The bad news for less time between points is that he runs a lot during points and it is a big part of his game.  Of the top 4 he does the most running big time.  The other three run their opponents a lot more than they are forced to run.  Nadal is in shape though, rare to see him tired so maybe not a big deal.  He is not getting any younger though.

[Litotes]

hola general MC.
 
are you expecting a ryan harrison win today?

Can't speak for general MC, but I was and am expecting a Harrison win. Kubot has been injured recently, and Harrison has been better this season. Kubot won the 1st, though. Harrison just won the 2nd on a tiebreak. Haven't seen anything but live score, he had 5*-2 and then doublefaulted to 5-4* but came back to win the next two in Kubot's serve. Third should be interesting.

[Clash]

kubot is a mental midget, i expect harrison to come through this one

[Litotes]

so is roger tied with sampras with 7 wimbledon titles?
 
this wimbledon is going to be quite special if roger can get into the final.
 
what a year: nadal going for his 8th RG crown and roger for the 8th wimby title.

Yes Sir.  Federer already has a record 8 finals, but remains tied with Sampras and the ancient (1880's) William Renshaw for 7 titles.  Though it's difficult to really count Renshaw as he got direct entry to the final after winning the previous year 6 times while the rest had to go through the draw.
An eighth Wimbledon title would put Federer at the top alone.  If he wins one more US Open, he'll also be alone at the top in the Open era with 6 US Open titles.  Big Bill Tilden won 7 US Opens back in the 20's tying a couple of other ancients.

Nadal already is alone with 7 Roland Garros titles, but I'm sure he wouldn't return an eighth trophy...   If he hadn't messed himself up health-wise, I think he could have had 10 by the time his career is done, but as we've discussed, he's brought it on himself.  So he'll have to be happy with what he has, which is enough for anyone anyway...

Respectfully,
masterclass

When we're talking about Renshaw he had eight finals also. He won his first six 1881-86, then didn't defend his title in 1887, but then won a seventh title in 1889 after going through the draw for the 2nd time, and lost the final (which he had direct admission to) in 1890. I do not count this achievement as superior to Sampras' seven finals, worlds apart, just thought I'd get the record straight.

It's quite an era we're in now. Every slam has record setting potential. Another Federer/Djokovic win in AO would be a record for the open era. Another Nadal RG win improvement of his own record, and a Federer W/USO win would break the open era tie or indeed, in the case of W, the all time tie.

[Freak3yman84]

Markus, I've made the thread here. And you can publish it on MTF? 

[EnriqueIG8]

Scott Markus, Duncan and Dylan. Good evening pals.


Steve can't you draw some 'veterans' of this forum to this thread? Maybe it will stimulate some growth!
Swish, huntingyou, Alex are already posting here from time to time!

Markus, I've made the thread here. And you can publish it on MTF? 

what is it?

[Freak3yman84]

Steve, Markus, Duncan and Dylan. Good evening pals.


Steve can't you draw some 'veterans' of this forum to this thread? Maybe it will stimulate some growth!
Swish, huntingyou, Alex are already posting here from time to time!

what is it?

http://www.tennis4you.com/forum/index.php?topic=17412.msg545386#new

And it's Scott, not Steve  Steve is the horrible MTF admin 

[Clash]

Harrison up a break