BNP Paribas Open, INDIAN WELLS, 2016

[don_budge]

Djokovic vs. Tsonga…2-1. Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Novak Djokovic up a break in the first 2-1. That's enough for me…off to bed I go. Pretty sad that the number one tennis player does not have any appeal for a guy like myself. A tennis aficionado.

I have never read Adolescent. Is it good? Have you read the book Dead Souls by Gogol? You could certainly relate that to today's tennis tour in some ways.

I read it for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It had been sitting on my book shelf for many years. I had forgotten about it. I used to go to the bookstore and buy up to four or five books at a time and knock them off one by one. Somehow this gem escaped me.

It's a great book. "The Adolescent" really showcases the incredible versatility of the great Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I am rereading it which is recommended…to sort of get a better feeling for the details…the style. I haven't read "Dead Souls" but that is going right to the top of my list. Russia has such an incredible history. It seems that they are always demonized by the West. Vladimir Putin did a great job of showing up the rest of the world in Syria. He was taking care of business, kicking ass and taking names.

My next read is another Dostoyevsky novel called "The Possessed" or "The Devils". Another novel that has been sitting on the bookshelf for perhaps twenty years that never got read. You know…everything happens for a reason. I needed a couple of great books to read to get me through the rest of the winter here in Sweden and then these two brilliant novels appear in my book shelf. I read a couple of books by Somerset Maughm before this…"The Razor's Edge" and "Of Human Bondage". Wonderful books in their own right. So much to be gleaned from Classic literature as compared to the contemporary nonsense. Sound familiar? Living in the past again. But you know what they say…if you don't know your history you are doomed to repeat it. Something like that.

[gzhpcu]

Hope Rafa puts up a good fight tonight against Nole. Should be a good match. This should show where he is at the moment in attempting to find his game again. He played well against Nishikori after a shaky start.

[stotty]

Benchmark Djokovic

Hope Rafa puts up a good fight tonight against Nole. Should be a good match. This should show where he is at the moment in attempting to find his game again. He played well against Nishikori after a shaky start.

Yes Djokovic is the benchmark. The acid test as to how well a player really is playing.

[don_budge]

Dueling Banjos...

Yes Djokovic is the benchmark. The acid test as to how well a player really is playing.

How much you wanna bet…it is going to be a baseline duel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tqxzWdKKu8

My money is on Djokovic.

[stotty]

Nadal...

Good first set from Nadal. It was promising. It's the first time I've seen him maintain an aggressive and consistently good length for at least a year. He fell away in the second and Djokovic freed up and seized on every opportunity thereafter.

A good match. I enjoyed it. Theirs is the one slugfest I really enjoy.

[klacr]

Djokovic finds the extra gear. His defensive capabilities are now better than Nadal's. His offensive capabilities are better than Nadal's. His mental toughness is up there as well. Never seen a player that was capable of rebounding after a momentum swing in his opponents direction better than Djokovic. He gets broken, he breaks right back. Loses a set, storms out 3 or 4-love in the next set.

Will see it first hand next week in Miami.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[nickw]

It's been a good tournament, agree that Zverev is the real deal, watched most of his matches with Dimitrov and Nadal, temperament so impressive for his age, but Nadal match will go down as experience, missing a sitter for the match, then collapsing after he had the Spaniard beat. And what a backhand, ticks all the boxes for me, so explosive, maybe it could even take over from Djokovic as the best model for the 2-hander one day?

I saw Tiafoe beat Fritz, exciting player, and must have done more good stuff to take Goffin all the way in the next round, look forward to see more of him.

Great to see Del Potro play such a high level, even if just for 1 set against Berdych.

Could Raonic go close in the final? I think his temperament, current level, and belief in himself, could see him run the Serbian machine very close, and if Djokovic doesn't find another level (as he usually does in finals), then maybe he could score the upset win. Might not be the most exciting match-up to watch though.

[don_budge]

Novak Djokovic vs. Fafa Nadal…Novak Djokovic vs. Milos Raonic

Good first set from Nadal. It was promising.
A good match. I enjoyed it. Theirs is the one slugfest I really enjoy.

Djokovic finds the extra gear. His defensive capabilities are now better than Nadal's. His offensive capabilities are better than Nadal's. His mental toughness is up there as well. Never seen a player that was capable of rebounding after a momentum swing in his opponents direction better than Djokovic. He gets broken, he breaks right back. Loses a set, storms out 3 or 4-love in the next set.

Will see it first hand next week in Miami.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

It's been a good tournament...
Could Raonic go close in the final? Might not be the most exciting match-up to watch though.

All that I can say is obviously we are all seeing the same thing…only from different points of view. Where's the Church Lady…singing the praises of this "heavyweight spectacle"? Oh yeah…he's banned me from his existence…as if I could give a shit. He put me on his ignore list…how lame.

I watched the first set and honestly…I couldn't take anymore. I'm not an angry person but I am amused. It's amusing that anybody in their right mind would take this utter and complete devastation of the game of tennis seriously. Some can be excused on account of their age…but the others are only pandering. It's nonsense and the absence of any real tennis player (read Roger Federer) makes it all the more obvious. Not one single match worth watching from start to finish. On the other hand…any time Federer is playing I can stay tuned through out the warmup until the interview is over. The difference is only that he is playing something akin to the real game of tennis.

Peter Fleming and Leif Shiras were in the booth with the responsibility to make it at least appear interesting but they struggled with it. The other "commentatoe"…such a beautiful word…was throwing around superlatives whenever he saw an opening. He was so lame it was pathetic. Towards the end of the first set in the less than awe inspiring tie-break Fleming slipped and blurted out…"who are these impostors?. It was bad…a real stinker. Shitty.

Not even an inkling of all court play. When they did they looked almost clumsy. Novak got drawn in a couple of times. Once off of a lame overhead he came in to volley meekly and Fafa came in a drilled a forehand by him as he was haplessly standing at the net. Another time Novak hit the lamest of volleys short to the Fafa forehand and Fafa drilled it…into the net.

The announcers no less that four times brought up the rivalry of John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg…as if these to impostors have any sort of carry over value to the real thing. The question about McEnroe and Borg was one of quantity…or quality? McEnroe and Borg only played 14 times in competition while these two have played like 3,000 or so. Only because the sport lacks any kind of depth…real or imagined. It has been the same four for ten years.

Yeah…it has been a slugfest in the past. One cannot deny the athleticism…but how much of that is drug induced. I have had my suspicions of Djokovic ever since he suddenly went "Meteoric". Nadal? Is this what he looks like without his "juice"?

I didn't see the second set. I managed with a supreme effort to stay conscious through the tie-break. I gave over an hour of my time to watch and to try and think positively…but I have come to the conclusion that there is no hope. Alexander Zverev or whatever his name is. Milos Raonic and Dominic Thiem...the rest of the cast of hopefuls. Aren't they destined to go the way of the Grigor Dimitrov's, the Jerzy Janowicz's. Flash in the pan. One trick ponies. Impostors?

Which leads us to the final match of Milos Raonic vs. Novak Djokovic. A couple of years ago I had the great fortune to visit Paris, France…while it was still Paris. Last that I have heard it is under Marshal Law and locked down for all intents and purposes. When I was there there were machine gun hauling police patrolling the streets. There was the 100th anniversary of WWI or the 75th anniversary of the landing of something at Normandy. Another invasion. But inside of Roland Garros I was "treated" to a match between Maria Sharapova (currently banned from the game) and Garbine Muguruza where I swear Sharapova cheated her out of a match with her gamesmanship…and a match between Milos Raonic and Novak Djokovic…a preview of today's final. Between the two matches I needed something like six cups of coffee to stay awake. I mean that literally. The coffee was expensive and I on a shoestring budget…I really needed it.

Nick say it might not be the most interesting of match ups. But what is these days? Roger Federer and anybody? Everything else comes in a distant second? Novak Djokovic doesn't look to have the razor's edge at this point. He has been at the summit now for a very long time. Any idea how much energy it takes to stay there? Any idea how much energy it takes to get there? How much energy is there in the human body? Its finite that is for certain. But energy comes in a bottle these days…or a pill…or a syringe. It is only a matter of where. It's a science…a weird science at that. Teams surrounding a player? One of them is for certain an alchemist.

Milos Raonic is a strange one. The serve is so good it is sort of nauseating. It's sickening how this one stroke gives him such an edge. But the rest of his game has certainly raised an notch or even two. But is it sustainable? This is always the question…whether it is tennis players or even societies. His body type is definitely not the type to be jerked around until infinity from left to right. All that pounding…all that grinding on the joints. It's got to hurt. Novak only has to break him once…or even just outlast him in a tie-break. Djokovic takes care of his serve as good as any one in the game today. Yesterday he lost his first service game to Nadal…but the sun was in his eyes. The old standby excuse was actually a reality. The desert sun nearly fried his pupils in the first game so he put a hat on and didn't take it off for the whole match. End of story.

[stotty]

Blame the courts...

Yes the final might be a bit of a snoozer. I may watch for a while to see if Raonic takes to approaching the net. I know tennis_chiro thinks Raonic has really improved that area of his game.

The lack of volleying skills has proved costly at Indian Wells. Zverez had a relatively straightforward volley to win his match against Nadal, but fluffed it. He got caught a little too far back and then tackled the shot with a forehand grip. I am not sure if this is his standard grip for volleying...wouldn't surprise me. A number of top players use unrefined grips to volley with and can look clumsy, cack-handed even, when playing straightforward put-aways.

But it's the courts. Acrylic courts account for around 70% of the pro tour. They are soulless and favour monotone baseliners who use topspin. Slice just sits up to be hit a lot of the time and has no real effect. Federer has been able to make things work on the faster acrylic courts but he's the only one.

My club has acrylic. Formerly we had shale courts, which are similar to clay. The difference in the type of player each court produces is striking, even at just good regional level. I have witnessed the transition first hand.

Bottom line: don't blame the players, blame the courts. VOTE for change...VOTE now.

[stroke]

It looks to be Raonic is looking more comfortable in the forecourt. He certainly looks better in this area that the other tall guys out there like Berdych, Cilic, Zverev. And that serve is just the best out there. Djokovic is obviously very good at holding serve, and has the best return and backcourt game out there. To me, Raonic has the best shot of any player beating him in a meaningful match right now. Maybe Kyrios too, but with his poser bad boy tiresome routine, I hope not.

[stotty]

A rout

Well the final was a complete rout....

[stroke]

Well the final was a complete rout....

Yup, Novak just treated his serve as a typical ATP serve, which is just a credit to Novak. He is the best returner I have ever seen. That, with his best in the world baseline game, is tough to topple. But things change. The next 3 majors will be interesting.

[klacr]

C-O-M-P-R-E-H-E-N-S-I-V-E

Djokovic made just 4 unforced errors. He made the missile look like a BB gun.

Raonic movement is nowhere close to Djokovic's. Nor should it be. So why would he go toe to toe with him from the baseline? No one is going to win that battle vs. Novak at the moment.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[don_budge]

The chain is only as strong as its weakest link...

Raonic movement is nowhere close to Djokovic's. Nor should it be. So why would he go toe to toe with him from the baseline?
Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

Did I miss something? I watched the Ladies Final from start to finish. Ok…I lied. But just a little. I walked away from the screen…afterall watching that much Serena in one sitting is asking a lot. Of anyone. I missed her loser's speech…perhaps the most important tidbit of all. I would have dearly loved to watch her hem and haw her way through that soliloquy. A song and a dance…the aftermath of her destruction of her racquets. Where is the outrage? What about her influence on the kids? Role model? It means nothing…all utter nonsense.

Oh yes…back to Mr. Djokovic and Mr. Raonic. What did I miss? I don't even know the score…well I know the score but I don't know how they ended up.

It's true…dismantle the human backboard trying to play his game? Unlikely at this point. First you must deconstruct him. Case in point…Djokovic versus Nadal. How did Djokovic deconstruct Nadal? He destroyed his strength…that's how. Djokovic learned that he must go aggressively to the strength of Nadal to get to his weakness. In other words he attacked the forehand to open up the backhand side of the court.

Does Djokovic have a weakness? Don't forget all weakness are relative to the big picture. What does Djokovic do least well? Go ask McEnroe.

Yes the final might be a bit of a snoozer.

The lack of volleying skills has proved costly at Indian Wells. But it's the courts.

VOTE for change...VOTE now.

Your vote doesn't count. Neither does mine.

[nickw]

Destruction, Djokovic did his usual of saving his best effort for the last match. Raonic physical issues again, but doesn't hide the fact Novak is at another level. Raonic 2nd Serve points won: 10% - Wow!

Wasn't inspired to watch from start to finish, kept an eye on the score, then switched on for last few games. But there have been some matches that I have been very content watching pretty much right through.

Fritz vs Tiafoe: Exciting up and coming players, although don_budge may rightly point out that Fritz is just more of the same machine-like baseline tennis. Tiafoe raw and explosive, not Federer like, but for me very entertaining.

Zverev vs Dimitrov: Another exciting player, loving the beast of a backhand, and learning about his mental strength, when he's able to come from *1-3 0-40 in final set when looked like he had lost the battle physically. Dimitrov also mental issues, assisting with his demise with some weak errors on big points.

On a side note, I love any match that goes to the wire, even if it is two baseline machines who lack creativity. I love seeing how they handle the big moments, the pressure, those few points that will decide an exhausting 3hr battle. And tennis is serving up plenty of such matches every week.

Lopez vs Bautista: Ball goes short, Lopez on it early and knifing a slice backhand down the line. A predictable but effective play, so effective that in the final crucial game, Bautista's attempted backhand pass actually hit the ground before the net. Love it, Lopez testing these machines with regular serve/volley and a backhand that he hardly ever hits with topspin. Was a marathon, but happily watched most of it.