Cincinatti Combo

[jimlosaltos]

While Djokovic pulled out of Cinci, Sinner and Alcaraz have both returned to play. Sabalenka also back,

Jannik had "the quickest match of the year" beating Galan in less than an hour.

Ruud hasn't found form yet since his knee, losing in 3 to yet another amusing French ATP player, Arthur Rinderknech.

Sinner Highlights 4:15 min YT

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https://youtu.be/tzgAWr3QGv0?si=lNvLEiftP2H29hRM

This is a long video, but the initial part of it when Sheldon talks about what it is like to play against Sinner is very interesting.

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Opelka takes out Demon in straight sets. It was a template for what he is capable of when he manages his game at its best.

[jimlosaltos]

Opelka takes out Demon in straight sets. It was a template for what he is capable of when he manages his game at its best.

Please. Serve Bots don't merit encouragement

[jimlosaltos]

Alcaraz & Shelton up this afternoon.

Emma Navarro down a set to Ella Seidel ( 20 yo German, unknown to me)
A loss would smart since her father, billionaire Ben Navarro, owns the Cincinnati Open, and it's a special year celebrating $200+ Million redo.

Two walk overs in the first round, Ostapenko and Anisimova benefitting.

UPDATE: Alcaraz struggled but won in 3 vs unseeded Dzhumur. Navarro indeed out in 3 to unheralded Seidel, 20 yo and unseeded.

[jimlosaltos]

https://youtu.be/tzgAWr3QGv0?si=lNvLEiftP2H29hRM

This is a long video, but the initial part of it when Sheldon talks about what it is like to play against Sinner is very interesting.

Excellent, click for the Shelton comments, stick around for the forehand breakdown.
Thanks for introducing me/us to these guys.

[stroke]

Excellent, click for the Sheldon comments, stick around for the forehand breakdown.
Thanks for introducing me/us to these guys.

I really like this Fault Tolerant guy analysis.

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Sinner to me looking like an updated Federer, a Federer with a much better updated 2 handed backhand.

[jimlosaltos]

Sinner to me looking like an updated Federer, a Federer with a much better updated 2 handed backhand.

Strong praise indeed! Jannik is certainly playing well in Cinci. Had to save a match point vs Diallo ( yet another 6 ft 8 in servebot ) but it was straight sets: 6-2, 7-6(6)

Jannik does hold the baseline well ala Fed ( or Djoko ), spot server also like both. No comparison at the net though, IMHO. Not that he's bad but no Fed IMHO

Amusing (to me ) contrast: Emma Raducanu whined to the chair about a baby crying in the stands eliciting the response: "I can't have security throw it out, it's a baby".
Then Sinner-Diallo agreed to play THROUGH A FIRE ALARM. Seriously, fire alarm in a luxury suite wouldn't stop flashing and alarms so the players decided to play on. Only 4 points but still kudos. Emma did push Sabalenka to the wall, tho. Good showing. But how often do we say about Emma "Good showing in a loss"?

Joao Fonseca out disappointingly to a qualifier, Altameir in straight sets. Seems too early for having a sophomore slump?

Barbora Krejcikova tops 17 yo Iva Jovic from US, but needed 3 sets and 7 match points. "I wish I played like her when I was 17!" she said in her on-court interview. "I definitely wasn't that far, and I feel she's having a great, great future ahead of her."

Rain delay. I'm off.

[jimlosaltos]

Carlos Alcaraz has now gotten 50 wins four years in a row, the first since Djokovic -- at 22 years old.

[jimlosaltos]

From WTA: Sabalenka "11-0 in first-set tiebreaks this year, and has won an astounding 18 of 19 tiebreaks in 2025. (The one lost tiebreak came against Ekaterina Alexandrova
in Doha, back in February.) Those 18 tiebreaks won is already the highest tally in a single calendar year in the Open Era, and we haven't even reached the US Open yet.

[jimlosaltos]

Brad Gilbert one of many saying heat in Cincinatti and earlier in Toronto is forcing "a record number of retirements". Others add the new, longer format in Cinci.

I can't find an numbers but some include:

• Arthur Rinderknech: Collapsed on court mid-match due to heat exhaustion and was forced to retire.
• Jakub Menš?k: Retired due to illness.
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina: Retired due to the intense heat.
• Luciano Darderi: Retired due to the intense heat.
• Dayana Yastremska: Withdrew due to illness.

Opelka and Comesano both appeared to be suffering from the heat.

[jimlosaltos]

Tennis Insights Data from Cinci

1 of 2 This ranking is by four stages of the game: Attack, Conversion, Steal, Baseline points won.

Carlos is the best at "stealing" a point when the other player has the advantage. I think we've all seen him do that.
Rublev is on "attack" most often. Not surprising.
Sinner's top at "conversion", I guess that is closing out when one has an advantage. Jiri close behind him is perhaps a surprise.
Sinner being a very lonely circle atop "baseline" points just echoes his "Shot Quality" ratings in the prior graphic.

P.S. Sorry this post is repeating one graphic. The forum software is being difficult, won't let the second graph post but shows one twice so .... I'll put 2 of 2 in a separate reply below.



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[jimlosaltos]

2 of 2 Here TI's stats for the four basic strokes show Sinner's forehand off the charts (third column from your right, column names at the bottom of each graph). Zverev has nearly the same lead on serving.
Combine forehand and backhand and nobody is close to Jannik.

P.S. I can't explain nor understand Ben Shelton's high rating on his backhand. A couple of outlier matches this week or I've simply been completely under-appreciating his off side. Could they possibly have swapped Ben's forehand and backhand stats?

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[jimlosaltos]

Ben Shelton seems to have lifted his game. Got his first Masters 1000 title last week.
So, wondering what he did I searched and found this from Craig O'Shannessy at Braingame.com
Ben's comments echo John's long emphasis on video.

Craig: Ben's jump isn't about improving his serve or forehand it's about understanding the dynamics of the sport and the person on the other side of the net.

Ben Shelton is Raising his Tennis IQ

Excerpt:
BEN SHELTON: I think that watching film is a huge piece for me, something that I didn’t do as much in the past, and as of late it’s been kind of an every-match thing for me, at least watching one match or one set start to finish on the guy I’m playing. I think it’s an important piece of the game that maybe I overlooked a little bit in the past, or didn’t think was as important, because I was like, I’m going to impose my game on whoever I was playing, but it’s a really important part of the game. I think that my tennis IQ and my tennis mind is something that is getting better, and something that needs to continue to get better

And this about being more consistent:


BEN SHELTON: Yeah, for me, being as consistent as I was this week. I think that the more opportunities that you have, the more times you put yourself in the position to be playing against the best players in the world, you’re only going to get better.

So, for me it’s being in the later stages of the tournament and playing against guys who are playing their best tennis to see where I match up, and see where my weaknesses are and where I can get better.

Here's what Craig wrote about his process:

Statistics are important, as they can instantly raise green and red flags to identify what you are doing well, or what is going wrong.

But video is king. There is nothing more powerful than a player watching themselves do something right in a match.

I do a lot of Zoom lessons where players send me recordings of their matches and we go through them together. I also make two highlight videos. One is Best Patterns, and the other is To Improve. Players are quickly able to jump to the next level because they are not guessing about their game.