Gerry Weber Open...Halle, Germany & Aegon Championships...London, England (ATP 500's)

[stotty]

Berdych in a down to the wire finish. Denis Shapovalov...the next. He plays beyond his years. He plays all over the court. Good luck trying to glue him to the baseline. Refreshing to see.

#4 was a great post. Thanks for those lowdowns and updates.

I will make a point of watching Shapovalov when I get the chance. I'm worked off my feet right now...seems every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to take up tennis. I dread picking up the phone in case I have to fit yet another student in. I really must get younger. Have they invented an get-younger pill yet?

But I hope Shapovalov is the all court player you say he is. The game needs it so badly right now.

[don_budge]

klacr...your call on the upcoming match? You know...Berdych versus Shapovalov.

Berdych in a down to the wire finish. Denis Shapovalov...the next. He plays beyond his years. He plays all over the court. Good luck trying to glue him to the baseline. Refreshing to see.

[don_budge]

klacr...your call on the upcoming match? You know...Berdych versus Shapovalov.

[klacr]

Yes he is all of those things. He's still not the best mover you will see, but his forehand is massive. He's a workhorse. He just keeps at it day in and day out. No one thought he would get this far. Sometimes players surprise you and go further than you ever thought possible. Kyle is one of those players.

Thanks for the compliment stotty!
Just kidding, of course the subject was Kyle Edmund. He gave Rafa a good fight this year early on in the clay season. Kid has some toughness to him.


In Halle, Federer eased past Sugita. This could be Roger's week as he gets the engined primed for Wimbledon. The Stuttgart loss was simply an exhibition of sorts where he lost to a friend and home crowd favorite Tommy Haas.

At Queen's Club, Murray, Wawrinka and Raonic all lost. Raonic only player who had decency to come forward consistently enough. ill be interesting to see if Murray does anything less than a title at Wimbledon where that puts the Murray-Lendl coaching relationship.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[don_budge]

Yes he is all of those things. He's still not the best mover you will see, but his forehand is massive. He's a workhorse. He just keeps at it day in and day out. No one thought he would get this far. Sometimes players surprise you and go further than you ever thought possible. Kyle is one of those players.

Grit is a massive asset for a tennis player. Not being afraid of getting your hands dirty goes a long way. Roger Federer has tons of grit although it is well disguised or somehow well incorporated within the whole paradigm of being the living proof. Richard Gonzales was the epitome of grit the same as Roger although it was more easily identifiable when Gonzales was getting "gritty". It was tough to watch for the feint of heart. Kyle needs some work on that service motion which will make him at least half a point better on his service games.

But back to the rest of the rest. I watched Federer pound the "lucky loser" into next week...the next tournament. A good match for Roger to warm up on because he is going to need it in the next round. I've been watching Mischa Zverev getting steadily more comfortable with the various opponents the past six months or so. Ever since I watched him have Novak Djokovic on the ropes last year in China somewhere. The lefty serve seems to be improving and he quickly moves in to "put and maintain pressure on his opponent". Federer played him at the Australian Open I believe and got on top of him right away...it looks like he had better show Mischa who is boss right away on the grass before he gets too comfortable. Mischa beat the same Tommy Haas who defeated Federer in Stuttgart in the same tournament. He then lost to another rapidly improving Feliciano Lopez.

I watched Florian "The Quirky One" dismantle a sometimes dangerous Benoit Paire a bit. Paire seemed to be tanking the first set when I was tuned in...logged on. I missed Nishikori and Verdasco...Verdasco is a first round nightmare for these guys and he gave Nishikori a solid run for his money. I think I mentioned watching "Downtown" Dustin Brown dust off Vasek Pospisil on Monday...Pospisil a recent conquerer of Andy Murray. One of several as a matter of fact. Briefly saw Alexander "Little Bro" Zverev take his victory bows after he dispatched another apparent clay court specialist. He's getting a lot of practice with this bowing procedure. A couple of points here and there from Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils. It looked as though Gael should and would win...but alas it was not meant to be. The rest...the rest...it's all the same. Dominic Thiem in the bottom half. God please...can we just have an all one-handed backhand final. Dominic Thiem versus Roger Federer. I promise to never ask for another thing. How many times have we heard that?

Then there is the other tournament. The one without "The Living Proof"...Roger Federer. The one without his Swiss compatriot as of yesterday as well. Feliciano Lopez looked to get another level more comfortable on the moss as Stan looked to be a fish out of water. Speaking of fish out of water...the number one seed and number one player in the world looked lost and forlorn as he went down to Jordan Thompson this time. The number 90 ranked player in the world. Speaking of comfortable...Andy is the antithesis of comfortable. His clothes don't seem to fit. His own skin is like an itchy rash. The number one position in the world was more "fun" when he was chasing it but now that he has it he doesn't know how to wear it. I don't think I have ever seen a player look so bad trying to play the role.

There is some interesting matches on paper developing although watching them is quite another thing. Some of the announcers are warbling about all of the serve and volley and net play. But it's more or less futile chatter. In most instances the play is rather spotty and mediocre. It reminds me of the era after classic tennis on tranquilizers. The big racquets give the players a chance to utilize the formality of practice they have been doing on their volleys and the all court game but nothing is going to change the state of the game in the foreseeable future. The service motions for the most part are not designed to propel the players forwards and this is a large hindrance to the big picture. I don't find the hyped play so entertaining although I know some are encouraged by the change of pace. One of the announcers used the word "old school" but perhaps he didn't realize that this was the post classic paradigm we are witnessing...not "old school" classic tennis. Only one thing is going to cure the current game of its doldrums and that would be a return to where it all began. Much as Putin is advocating in Russia.

The match of the day occurs at 5.30 today. The match between Tomas Berdych (klacr's boy) and Denis Shapovalov is looming. This may be Shapovalov's coming out party. If he can just get a few matches under his belt here in London he might just feel like he belongs on the hallowed grass at Wimbledon. Check it out. Dominic Thiem plays Robin Hasse at 5.30 as well. This is a great warm up for Thiem and will give us a barometer on his comfort on the grass. I can see him getting through the bottom half unscathed on route to the final.

Keep an eye on these lefties with the capacity to volley. It's a formula that can work during this grass court season. Roger has given the game the impetus recently since he switched the equipment and the need to end points quickly becomes more necessary. Guys like Mischa Zverev, Gilles Muller, Denis Shapovalov, Feliciano Lopez and possibly even Donald "The Donald" Young. One of the bigger question marks is Grigor Dimitrov? What is his role in these proceedings. If I had my way we would see Gilles Muller and Donald Young in one semi and Dimitrov and Feliciano Lopez in the other at The Aegon Championships. At Halle it would be Roger and Dominic in the finals. Let's just see what transpires.

[stotty]

I took away something from Kyle Edmund...this guy is a fighter. Not the most talented...not the sharpest tool in the shed. But this guy just fights relentlessly. Keeps his mouth shut. No nonsenses...just gets to work. Outstanding.

Yes he is all of those things. He's still not the best mover you will see, but his forehand is massive. He's a workhorse. He just keeps at it day in and day out. No one thought he would get this far. Sometimes players surprise you and go further than you ever thought possible. Kyle is one of those players.

[don_budge]

T
Match of the day at The Aegon...Kyle Edmund versus Denis Shapovalov. I've had my eye on this kid now for a while. He's got the look.

It was a good one...Shapovalov in three. I took away something from Kyle Edmund...this guy is a fighter. Not the most talented...not the sharpest tool in the shed. But this guy just fights relentlessly. Keeps his mouth shut. No nonsenses...just gets to work. Outstanding. Shapovalov versus none other than klacr's boy...Tomas Berdych. Berdych might want to take a deep breath and get down to work himself here. It should prove to be interesting. If nothing else...Denis Shapovalov is there to make it interesting.

[don_budge]

Two grass court tournaments...one with Roger Federer and one without. Advantage Halle...Gerry Weber Open. That being said there seems to be a lot more activity at the net and this is a good thing. The long mind numbing baseline rallies aren't going to cut it on the lawn. My only hope is that the lawn is not playing like velcro this year and our boy Roger has the advantage in that case.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/scores/current/london/311/draws

The Aegon Championships has Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Milos Raonic and Marin Cilic as the top four seeds. I watched the first set tie-breaker go to Donald Young over Nick "The Unpredictable" Kyrgios. Note the upgrade from "The Jerk". I just don't care anymore. Fafa Nadal won his tenth French Open. Another sign it is over...for me. Roger is leaving and I am biting my tongue about Nadal. Let me just say this. I was watching some track and field on Eurosport yesterday and I was watching the men and women throwing the discuss. The thing that struck me was how quickly they got the stupid thing airborne. I don't know how much time they are allowed but every single competition got in that circle and just got straight down to business. I was on the golf course playing some golf with some guy named Frederik and we both just got up to the ball and got it done. I'm biting my tongue.

Match of the day at The Aegon...Kyle Edmund versus Denis Shapovalov. I've had my eye on this kid now for a while. He's got the look.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/scores/current/halle/500/draws

Roger Federer, Dominic Thiem, Kei Nishikori and Alexander Zverev are the top four seeds at the Gerry Webber Open. I watched Zverev lose to Gilles Muller the other day and he wasn't that impressive on grass. It will be interesting to see how he reacts. He may be on the fast track learning curve as one cannot argue against the talent. He looked as if he wanted to bust his racquet a number of times but he appeared to resist. But then again it was only a highlight video so if he did bust a move it probably didn't make the highlight reel.

I just watched "Downtown" Dustin Brown take out Vasek Pospisil 7-6 in the third. Mostly I saw the final set tie-break. Dustin made a serve and "swing volley" point deep in the tie-break. John would have loved that. He was barely a meter in from the baseline so I don't think it was choreographed as such. He made a diving drop shot volley to set up the match point...that should make the shot of the day on the ATP website. Dustin could also be known as unpredictable like Nick Kyrgios...but in a different way. I wonder how much the dreadlocks weigh. They look pretty massive and heavy. They sure are very hot to carry around. Is he smoking the ghanga? Just a question...perhaps it is considered medicinal in the Rastafari crowd.

If Roger Federer and Mischa Zverev both win their first rounds they are going to meet in the second round. That could get interesting. I wonder how deep Roger is planning on going in this tournament.