The 2015 In Between Grand Slam Thread

walshb · 24-04-2015 09:53AM

Never write Nadal off at RG but one has to admit that this recent run of form is his worst pre RG. Nole is beating him consistently on clay and almost beat him a couple of times in RG. I would make Nole the favorite if he makes the final.

Floppybits · 24-04-2015 10:40AM

lostcat wrote: »

Not so sure.

Nadal got into his clay groove early in 2014, winning one or more 250s or 500s in south America (no big deal, but good for confidence and a lot better than he did on his spin around there this year)

He also won Madrid and lost the Rome final to Djokovic in three sets.

So last years season was a lot better than this one is looking thus far. I really think Nadal is in a spot of bother, and if he doesn't win or at the very least get to the later stages of both Rome and Madrid he will have three problems in Paris:

- Low confidence, he is playing poorly at the moment, and only has two tournaments left to find a bit of form and confidence
- Reduced fear factor in the locker room, a lot of snipers will see this as a great chance (hell, even if I was Fognini now I wouldn't mind having another crack off him!)
- He cannot gain ranking points in Madrid and if he looses early in Rome he is likely to be seeded 5th in Paris, meaning he could meet Djokovic in the quarters or semi. I think the earlier he meets Djokovic the more chance there is of Djokovic beating him.

He will be the favourite, and rightly so, but 'overwhelming'? I can't see it atm.

There is one other little thing to add to this and that is Nadal's match fitness over 5 sets. I think another reason for him not winning as much this year is down to his fitness. He spent the end of last year laid up with injuries and no matter how much of an athlete he is, it does take time to build up the fitness levels again, just look at Murray last year after his injury lay off.

I would have him as favourite for the French open but not an overwhelming favourite.

Pighead · 24-04-2015 12:15PM

Watching Nishikori at the moment against Bautista Agut and you can see why he has been threatening the top four. Powerful serve, great speed around the court and a brilliant returning game. I'd say he is just behind Djokovic at the minute on clay and will possibly be recognised as the second or third best player in the world by the end of the year if he can keep his body in shape and free from injury. Decent bet for the French Open this year I think.

RosyLily · 24-04-2015 05:44PM

I really like Kei! He'll definitely win a Grand Slam, if not multiple. Wouldn't be surprised if he cracked into the top 3 or 4 this year.

According to Russell Fuller on Twitter, Navratilova and Radwanska have parted ways. Says Martina underestimated how much time coaching would take alongside her family and business commitments.

Absoluvely · 24-04-2015 11:16PM

McGee knocks out #1 seed Tim Smyczek in the QF of the Savannah Challenger.

StillIntact · 24-04-2015 11:25PM

Glad to see someone else on here was keeping an eye on McGee's performance. Another win against a top 100 player. The green clay seems to suit him. Good chance of getting to the final and hopefully one step further than San Luis Potosi.

yerwanthere123 · 25-04-2015 01:43AM

Terrific stuff from James. Weird that it's coming on clay too!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 25-04-2015 10:07AM

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Terrific stuff from James. Weird that it's coming on clay too!

He's been based in Spain for a long time though, I think?

yerwanthere123 · 25-04-2015 11:29AM

2015's least shocking development so far, Radwanska/Navratilova have parted ways. Navratilova is insisting it's her decision... but I'm not convinced.

yerwanthere123 · 25-04-2015 05:08PM

Wow, big win for Woz. Would be interesting to see if she can make an impact on clay this year.

Nishikori looks on his way to win Barcelona also, hopefully he can go far in Paris next month. I'm still disappointed he didn't win the US Open last year.

Floppybits · 26-04-2015 12:04AM

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Terrific stuff from James. Weird that it's coming on clay too!

Another win for James today. Great to see. Hope he does well at RG.

yerwanthere123 · 26-04-2015 02:19AM

Floppybits wrote: »

Another win for James today. Great to see. Hope he does well at RG.

Just qualifying would be enough for me, he got so close last year.

Does green clay generally play faster than red? I know it does at Charleston on the WTA side, not sure about elsewhere.

Pighead · 26-04-2015 10:52AM

Floppybits wrote: »

Another win for James today. Great to see. Hope he does well at RG.

Watched it last night and he looked really good in the first set. Second set was weird though. His body language was all wrong and he looked like he gave up the set after the first break. Was strange as he had been so in control. Got back on track though and closed it out impressively. Very close to breaking into the worlds top 150 now. Great to see.

I thought McGee would be favourite going into this evenings final but Chung is 1/2 favourite so he must be playing well. Hopefully James can get the job done.

StillIntact · 26-04-2015 12:26PM

The gradual improvement in performances and rankings from McGee has been impressive. The way things are going he could be seeded for Grand Slam qualifying or else he is very close to it.

As far as green clay goes, anything I've seen has said it is faster than red clay. Also the event in Mexico was at altitude.

It's not surprising James is the underdog tonight because his opponent has already won at Challenger level. Hopefully he can make the step up tonight and that he performs as well as he can.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 26-04-2015 02:40PM

I was a bit worried about McGee after last year's US Open. He talked about using the money to fund his training and all that but it was looking for a while there like nothing had come of it. I guess it was just slow progress, or all the work he's done has been on clay and we're only seeing the results of it now.

I wonder what chance he has of getting a few WC's into bigger events now. Around 160 he wouldn't be that far off the cut off point for automatic qualifying for slams, especially when you take a few people out for injuries. Be nice of Wimbledon to give him one, that is if he hasn't managed to climb a bit more before the cut off.

StillIntact · 26-04-2015 05:09PM

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I was a bit worried about McGee after last year's US Open. He talked about using the money to fund his training and all that but it was looking for a while there like nothing had come of it. I guess it was just slow progress, or all the work he's done has been on clay and we're only seeing the results of it now.

I wonder what chance he has of getting a few WC's into bigger events now. Around 160 he wouldn't be that far off the cut off point for automatic qualifying for slams, especially when you take a few people out for injuries. Be nice of Wimbledon to give him one, that is if he hasn't managed to climb a bit more before the cut off.

I think after Dubai he would be delighted to get the chance again. It's a tough one though. He's making progress at Challenger level and would need to be more consistent at that level for a start. Would like to see him get a WC for one of the UK tournaments aside from Wimbledon and test himself there. I would have thought he needed to be closer to the 120 mark for getting automatically into the slams and realistically that's a couple of titles away.

yerwanthere123 · 26-04-2015 05:24PM

In bizarre news, apparently Donna Vekic and Stan Wawrinka have been having an affair since Miami last year. Might explain the irate press release Stan's wife made a few days ago.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 26-04-2015 05:28PM

StillIntact wrote: »

I think after Dubai he would be delighted to get the chance again. It's a tough one though. He's making progress at Challenger level and would need to be more consistent at that level for a start. Would like to see him get a WC for one of the UK tournaments aside from Wimbledon and test himself there. I would have thought he needed to be closer to the 120 mark for getting automatically into the slams and realistically that's a couple of titles away.

Yeah, you'd need to be in the top 120 for automatic qualification but there's always injuries and people pull out before play starts. 160 is probably a bit too far out but a couple more good weeks and you never know.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 26-04-2015 05:31PM

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

In bizarre news, apparently Donna Vekic and Stan Wawrinka have been having an affair since Miami last year. Might explain the irate press release Stan's wife made a few days ago.

Jeez, that's a new one. They do/did have a lot of back and forth on twitter but I've never thought it was anything more than that.

He walked out on her and the kid before though, not officially, but said something to the effect that having to think about two other people took away from his tennis. They obviously stayed together through that time but he's come across as really selfish as far as they're concerned, to me anyway.

RosyLily · 26-04-2015 10:15PM

"His instability, desire to regain his freedom—at all levels—are the source. And I have to admit the repeated fibs and emotional betrayals eventually destroyed entirely the confidence I had in him."

Ouch!! Stinging statement from Mrs Stan. The full one is quite the burn. Can't blame her though, especially if the Donna rumors are true.

Nishikori successfully defended in Barcelona. Excited to see what he can do at RG! AFAIK, he was knocked out in the first round last year so a good run here will be great for his ranking.

Kerber still going well; beat Wozniacki to win in Stuttgart.

yerwanthere123 · 27-04-2015 03:29PM

James lost the final, although he's up to a new career high of 152, so not all bad. He'll also be the 8th seed at the Tallahassee challenger this week.

RosyLily · 27-04-2015 04:32PM

Good stuff!! Hopefully he goes one better in Tallahassee. Tournament will be streamed if anyone's interested.

StillIntact · 27-04-2015 06:30PM

Great tournament from McGee despite not getting over the line. Perhaps not at his best in the final but his opponent looked a good prospect.

A lot of these events are streamed and there is a link through the Challenger tour section of the ATP website if anyone is interested for this tournament or the later US hard court season.

Floppybits · 29-04-2015 11:44AM

When is the qualifying starting for RG?

StillIntact · 29-04-2015 05:16PM

Floppybits wrote: »

When is the qualifying starting for RG?

The main draw starts the last week of May so the qualifiers will be the week before. Not sure whether they start on the Tuesday or Wednesday.

yerwanthere123 · 05-05-2015 05:23PM

This thread has been too quiet recently. Delighted to see Andy finally win that elusive clay title. I did fear he may go a whole career without winning one. He is now level with Federer and Nadal this year, one clay title each :pac:

Delighted also to see Kyrgios get to his first career final, and on clay no less. Impressive when you consider he's only played a handful of clay events on the main tour. No shame in losing to Gasquet either. Very excited to see how far Nick can go. He'll get a crack at Federer now in Madrid.

Good to see Pliskova and Svitolina win titles also. Marrakesh is Svitolina's third title at just 20, bodes well for her. She flies under the radar too, which is the best way to be really.

On to this week, the ATP field will be delighted to see no Djokovic in Madrid. I think we could possibly see a repeat of last year's final. On the WTA side, Bouchard lost again, extend her losing streak to six. Sharapova has broken her mini losing streak, whilst Azarenka continues to play herself back to form, getting wins over both Venus and Tomljanović, although Serena is up next so that's unlikely to continue. Radwanska will likely drop out of the top ten this week, unless she can get past both Wozniacki and Sharapova/Garcia, which seems highly unlikely on recent form.

RosyLily · 06-05-2015 01:22PM

First clay final and title for Murray....not a bad start to the season!

Nice to see the Aegon Open in Nottingham will honour Elena Baltacha. The winner will receive the Elena Baltacha trophy. Hard to believe it's a year since she passed away.

CassieManson · 06-05-2015 04:51PM

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

This thread has been too quiet recently. Delighted to see Andy finally win that elusive clay title. I did fear he may go a whole career without winning one. He is now level with Federer and Nadal this year, one clay title each :pac:

Delighted also to see Kyrgios get to his first career final, and on clay no less. Impressive when you consider he's only played a handful of clay events on the main tour. No shame in losing to Gasquet either. Very excited to see how far Nick can go. He'll get a crack at Federer now in Madrid.

Good to see Pliskova and Svitolina win titles also. Marrakesh is Svitolina's third title at just 20, bodes well for her. She flies under the radar too, which is the best way to be really.

On to this week, the ATP field will be delighted to see no Djokovic in Madrid. I think we could possibly see a repeat of last year's final. On the WTA side, Bouchard lost again, extend her losing streak to six. Sharapova has broken her mini losing streak, whilst Azarenka continues to play herself back to form, getting wins over both Venus and Tomljanović, although Serena is up next so that's unlikely to continue. Radwanska will likely drop out of the top ten this week, unless she can get past both Wozniacki and Sharapova/Garcia, which seems highly unlikely on recent form.

It will be interesting to see how Federer v Kyrgios goes today - this will be their first match!

yerwanthere123 · 06-05-2015 11:38PM

Whoa, just seen the Kyrgios result. What a win, and on clay! Didn't see that coming.

RosyLily · 07-05-2015 02:28PM

Was a great match! Nick's serve was unreturnable at times. He's playing Isner now; John just broke to go 5-3. Looking forward to seeing Kyrgios on grass and if he can improve at Wimbledon next month.

Good win for Dimitrov over Stan. Loads of 3-set matches the past few days!

The 2015 In Between Grand Slam Thread

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