The 2016 In Between Grand Slam Thread

MisterAnarchy · 18-09-2016 5:25pm

RosyLily wrote: »

Dan Evans vs. Leonardo Mayer to decide who goes through to the final.

I dont know what the Argentinians were thinking putting Del Potro out in the doubles yesterday .
Idiotic decision ,they should have just concentrated on keeping Del potro fit to play Dan Evans ,for what would surely have been a formality for Del Potro.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 18-09-2016 5:27pm

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

I dont know what the Argentinians were thinking putting Del Potro out in the doubles yesterday .
Idiotic decision ,they should have just concentrated on keeping Del potro fit to play Dan Evans ,for what would surely have been a formality for Del Potro.

I'd assume Delpo was thinking he's only just come back from a major wrist injury and after playing for something like 5 hours the other day he didn't need to be playing another singles match.

MisterAnarchy · 18-09-2016 5:39pm

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I'd assume Delpo was thinking he's only just come back from a major wrist injury and after playing for something like 5 hours the other day he didn't need to be playing another singles match.

Yes but he should have sat out the doubles match and played the singles today.
He'd have had an extra days rest and he would steam roll Evans .

RosyLily · 18-09-2016 6:04pm

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

Yes but he should have sat out the doubles match and played the singles today.
He'd have had an extra days rest and he would steam roll Evans .

Maybe with Andy playing doubles Argentina decided to throw in Delpo to increase their chances of winning. I'd imagine that doubles might be a bit better for his wrist than another 4/5 hour singles match on Sunday, regardless of the rest day.

MisterAnarchy · 18-09-2016 6:06pm

RosyLily wrote: »

Maybe with Andy playing doubles Argentina decided to throw in Delpo to increase their chances of winning. I'd imagine that doubles might be a bit better for his wrist than another 4/5 hour singles match on Sunday, regardless of the rest day.

4/5 hours singles match against Dan Evans ,lol,he'd flog him in 2 hours ,injured or not.

RosyLily · 18-09-2016 6:34pm

I'd imagine it was Delpo's call to sit out the singles or else the wrist is bothering him and he was told no. I hope it's the former though.

Would love if Argentina win this. Mayer now 4-3 up and serving.

RosyLily · 18-09-2016 6:43pm

Argentina vs. Croatia final.

StillIntact · 18-09-2016 9:18pm

Fantastic first career Challenger level title for James McGee in North Carolina.

Floppybits · 19-09-2016 10:14am

RosyLily wrote: »

I'd imagine it was Delpo's call to sit out the singles or else the wrist is bothering him and he was told no. I hope it's the former though.

Would love if Argentina win this. Mayer now 4-3 up and serving.

I'd say that when Delpo played the doubles on Saturday there was no way he was going to play the singles.

Delighted Argentina won, it was tough watching it on the BBC having to listen to the commentators. It would be great now if Delpo can stay injury free and get in some good work in the close season and get the confidence up in the wrist and he will be a force next year.

Floppybits · 19-09-2016 10:20am

StillIntact wrote: »

Fantastic first career Challenger level title for James McGee in North Carolina.

A great win for McGee and especially since he wasn't suppose to be in the tournament. The only reason why he was playing it was because he was denied a Visa into China to play a tournament there.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/mcgee-wins-first-challenger-title-cary-2016

yerwanthere123 · 20-09-2016 11:02am

What a fabulous result for James, richly deserved too :cool:

Regarding Delpo, what a comeback this has been for him though, Olympic Silver medal, US Open QF and now into the Davis Cup final. Hope he can stay healthy, not too old to nab another slam or two.

With her win over Safarova in Tokyo, Cibulkova is still very much in the race to make it to Singapore. It'd be nice to see her there, if a little odd considering she only made one slam QF this year.

iroced · 20-09-2016 2:48pm

RosyLily wrote: »

Argentina vs. Croatia final.

What a waste again from a French perspective. World number 1 double team. Couldn't lift their level up enough to the event. Tsonga does not seem to bother. Ditto Monfils. So we relied on an unfit Gasquet and young Pouille. We don't have world class players but we have one of the strongest squad for ages now... for 0 title. There's something deeply wrong at our federation (to start with useless incompetent technical director Arnaud Di Pasquale, what a muppet!).

Floppybits · 20-09-2016 4:11pm

iroced wrote: »

RosyLily wrote: »

Argentina vs. Croatia final.

What a waste again from a French perspective. World number 1 double team. Couldn't lift their level up enough to the event. Tsonga does not seem to bother. Ditto Monfils. So we relied on an unfit Gasquet and young Pouille. We don't have world class players but we have one of the strongest squad for ages now... for 0 title. There's something deeply wrong at our federation (to start with useless incompetent technical director Arnaud Di Pasquale, what a muppet!).

I was expecting France to win that Semi Final. By right France with their players at the moment should be in the final each year. They must be the only country that has more higher ranked players in their team than all the rest. Most other teams maybe one top 10 player in their team that is usually enough to get them over the line like Great Britain last year.

yerwanthere123 · 20-09-2016 5:18pm

Confirmed: Lepchenko tested positive for Meldonium and was, as suspected, provisionally banned at the beginning of the year.

RosyLily · 20-09-2016 9:43pm

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Confirmed: Lepchenko tested positive for Meldonium and was, as suspected, provisionally banned at the beginning of the year.

Worst kept secret in tennis. No mention of what length ban she got?

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 20-09-2016 10:18pm

RosyLily wrote: »

Worst kept secret in tennis. No mention of what length ban she got?

I don't think she got any ban, she says she stopped taking it in December.

RosyLily · 20-09-2016 11:05pm

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I don't think she got any ban, she says she stopped taking it in December.

Thank you!

Had a proper read of the article now. The drug stays in the system a long time. She finished the prescription in December and it's still in samples in April. Was she not allowed to talk about the case when in press conferences? I remember her giving "no comment" answers a while back.

Makes me wonder what would have happened if Sharapova kept quiet.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 20-09-2016 11:15pm

RosyLily wrote: »

Thank you!

Had a proper read of the article now. The drug stays in the system a long time. She finished the prescription in December and it's still in samples in April. Was she not allowed to talk about the case when in press conferences? I remember her giving "no comment" answers a while back.

Makes me wonder what would have happened if Sharapova kept quiet.

That's what I've been saying all along.

The ITF's usual procedure is to give a player a "silent ban" until their case is heard. Most players keep their mouths shut during that time. Sharapova, for some reason, decided she would be upfront about it and wouldn't serve the "silent" ban and would instead tell everyone. There's a lot of criticism of this system so in a lot of ways she was doing a "good" thing there. Her mistake was admitting she took it after December though. Unless it was in her system in a huge amount that would have made it obvious she'd only just taken it, they wouldn't have been able to say when she took it. Plus her failed test was 2/3 weeks into January, if people failing tests in April are still getting off she probably would have had a good shot if she'd followed ITF procedure and kept quiet.

yerwanthere123 · 21-09-2016 1:08am

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

That's what I've been saying all along.

The ITF's usual procedure is to give a player a "silent ban" until their case is heard. Most players keep their mouths shut during that time. Sharapova, for some reason, decided she would be upfront about it and wouldn't serve the "silent" ban and would instead tell everyone. There's a lot of criticism of this system so in a lot of ways she was doing a "good" thing there. Her mistake was admitting she took it after December though. Unless it was in her system in a huge amount that would have made it obvious she'd only just taken it, they wouldn't have been able to say when she took it. Plus her failed test was 2/3 weeks into January, if people failing tests in April are still getting off she probably would have had a good shot if she'd followed ITF procedure and kept quiet.

Don't think Sharapova would have gotten away with it though as she admitted taking it at the Australian Open, so obviously it would have been in her system in much greater volumes than Lepchenko.

I don't understand why Lepchenko doesn't seem to be getting any flak over it though, she was quite obviously taking it for performance enhancing purposes like Maria was, it's still 'cheating within the rules' or whatever you want to call it. She's gotten away with it scot-free?

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 21-09-2016 1:28am

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

I don't understand why Lepchenko doesn't seem to be getting any flak over it though, she was quite obviously taking it for performance enhancing purposes like Maria was, it's still 'cheating within the rules' or whatever you want to call it. She's gotten away with it scot-free?

If you believe she stopped taking it in December then she hasn't done anything wrong. Whether you think it's still cheating or not is irrelevant. By the letter of the law she didn't take it after it was banned so there's nothing to punish her for. WADA's science in this is so bad that they can't prove when she stopped taking it so they have no choice but to accept her story.

cowboyBuilder · 27-09-2016 2:22pm

Nice win for Zverev (1st ATP title) in St. Petersburg.

Wavrinka showing he doesn't give a bollix for smaller tournys.

I reckon he signed up for that months ago believing he'd be out of NY a lot sooner then he was

Floppybits · 27-09-2016 3:11pm

cowboyBuilder wrote: »

Nice win for Zverev (1st ATP title) in St. Petersburg.

Wavrinka showing he doesn't give a bollix for smaller tournys.

I reckon he signed up for that months ago believing he'd be out of NY a lot sooner then he was

Considering how Wawrinka treats ATP 1000 tournaments I was shocked to see he was in this one. He must have owed a sponsor a favour or something.

iroced · 27-09-2016 4:49pm

cowboyBuilder wrote: »

Nice win for Zverev (1st ATP title) in St. Petersburg.

Nice win for Pouille too (1st ATP title too, in Metz ATP 250) against same generation rival Dominic Thiem.

mickmackey1 · 27-09-2016 6:12pm

even Generation Useless have to win something when there's no half-decent player in the draw.

lostcat · 27-09-2016 10:55pm

mickmackey1 wrote: »

even Generation Useless have to win something when there's no half-decent player in the draw.

ah that's a bit harsh. I think Thiem has got enough game to do some stuff, Poulle and a couple others look like they are maturing a bit also

lets face it, between the above two, zerev, and maybe the two aussie lads they are probably going to end up with a few slams each starting in the next couple of years.

the raonic/nishikori/sharapovas ex generation are the ones who are going to miss out, being sandwiched between the big 4/5 and the next big 4/5.

cowboyBuilder · 27-09-2016 11:08pm

Next year we will see at least 2 new Grand Slam winners - bold prediction I know ...

iroced · 28-09-2016 9:29am

mickmackey1 wrote: »

even Generation Useless have to win something when there's no half-decent player in the draw.

Pouille beat Goffin (ATP n° 14) & Thiem (ATP n° 10).
Zverev beat Berdych (ATP n° 9) & Wawrinka (ATP n° 3). Raonic (ATP n° 6) was there too (beaten by Youzhny).

So, going by your criteria, there are 2 half-decent players in the world: Djokovic & Murray :pac:...

mickmackey1 · 28-09-2016 12:30pm

iroced wrote: »

Pouille beat Goffin (ATP n° 14) & Thiem (ATP n° 10).
Zverev beat Berdych (ATP n° 9) & Wawrinka (ATP n° 3). Raonic (ATP n° 6) was there too (beaten by Youzhny).

So, going by your criteria, there are 2 half-decent players in the world: Djokovic & Murray :pac:...

I'm exaggerating a bit but you know what I mean. Zverev is the only one who might some day be compared with the big 4 imo.

iroced · 28-09-2016 1:36pm

mickmackey1 wrote: »

I'm exaggerating a bit but you know what I mean. Zverev is the only one who might some day be compared with the big 4 imo.

Yeah. For me though it's only a big 3. But it's maybe THE big 3. The 3 greatest ever?... I'm not sure any of Zverev, Thiem or Pouille will ever be able to reach their level of consistency uptop. But win a GS like Del Potro or Cilic, why not?!

From a French perspective, Pouille seems to be stronger mentally than any of our so-(badly)-called new musketeers (Gasquet, Tsonga, Monfils & Simon). It's still early so we'll see. But the way he dealt with his game against Nadal in US Open and even if it's not the best of Nadal these days and the fact he got this first title at home where we kinda expected him to
tells a lot about the man. Now... how far can he go? I have no idea. But he's definitely promising.

yerwanthere123 · 29-09-2016 3:35am

Forgot to post, but just to echo the consensus on here, fabulous to see Zverev and Pouille winning their first titles. Particularly good by Zverev, beating two top ten players in Berdych and Wawrinka, even if the energy/motivation wasn't really there for the latter. He's closing in on the top 20 now, and since 1994 only Hewitt, Roddick, Gasquet, Nadal, Murray and Djokovic have ended the year in the top 20 as a teenager. So, wouldn't be a bad club to be a part of :pac: I wouldn't be surprised if he has a bit of a comedown next year, but he's wonderfully talented and there's so much potential there for the future.

The 2016 In Between Grand Slam Thread

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