Reassessing opinions about players

When we see a new player play for the first time particularly if its against our favourite player, there is a tendency to form a certain opinion of them. This opinion may not be entirely accurate but can sometimes be hard to change as this would mean admitting that we may not have been completely correct to begin with. Have you ever reassessed an opinion you had of a player and if so who and what caused this? For me looking at some of the replays of Murray's big matches this year especially against Nadal has caused me to reassess his goat potential that he may have had in 2008. In contrast to this when I first saw Del Potro get double bagelled by Fed at the Australian open there was no way I saw his subsequent French Open and US open performances coming.

Of course over time when you watch a player you find out more and more about them. Plus players themselves grow and get better and sometimes their skills degrade with age or injury. It isn't always the same guy that goes out there, ups and downs also play a role. Nadal in the USO 2010 with his new bigger first serve made me reassess his game quite a bit, I thought he might never win that particular slam. Djoko has made me reassess his game on a number of occassions. And murray as well, I thought that at this stage of his career he would be better and would have grown more as a player but he has stagnated.

socal1976 wrote:Of course over time when you watch a player you find out more and more about them. Plus players themselves grow and get better and sometimes their skills degrade with age or injury. It isn't always the same guy that goes out there, ups and downs also play a role. Nadal in the USO 2010 with his new bigger first serve made me reassess his game quite a bit, I thought he might never win that particular slam. Djoko has made me reassess his game on a number of occassions. And murray as well, I thought that at this stage of his career he would be better and would have grown more as a player but he has stagnated.

Exactly what I thought. You reassess all the time according to the latest scoreboard!

In contrast to this when I first saw Del Potro get double bagelled by Fed at the Australian open there was no way I saw his subsequent French Open and US open performances coming.

'Judge not lest ye be judged' Matthew 7:1

My opinion has changed about Mardy Fish lately, did not expect he could strike the ball so cleanly from the back of the court, infact I used to think of him as the poor man's Andy Roddick but he's proved me wrong with his Wimbledon and recent Montreal/Cinci performance.

Josiah Maiestas wrote:

In contrast to this when I first saw Del Potro get double bagelled by Fed at the Australian open there was no way I saw his subsequent French Open and US open performances coming.

'Judge not lest ye be judged' Matthew 7:1

My opinion has changed about Mardy Fish lately, did not expect he could strike the ball so cleanly from the back of the court, infact I used to think of him as the poor man's Andy Roddick but he's proved me wrong with his Wimbledon and recent Montreal/Cinci performance.

Mardy was a good player at first when he came on tour, then while the tour became fitter, Mardy did not. He has worked amazingly hard like everyone else recently and is now super fit, and more importantly for his game moves much faster. That allowed him to apply his talent abit more. That's all it takes.

Yep, my opinions of Djoko and Murray have changed the most in the last year. I always viewed Murray as the more gifted player, and the more mentally and physically strong.

However Djoko has now shot ahead in terms of mentality and endurnace, and Murray - whist still having the gifts - has not pushed on as i hoped/expected.

A year ago I was sure Murray would win a slam and was pretty confident he'd be a multi slam winner. Not so confident now. Djokovic has achieved a level far beyond what i thought possible. All aspects of his game are at their optimum, and that's an astonishing achievement. He now looks a level above the rest, and I would never have said he'd have done that.

Dany, a lot of people on old 606 were of the belief that murray was the more talented and would have more success in his career than Djoko. I did an article where I rated Novak better than andy and got a lot of negative feedback, particularly when I said Novak was the better returner. What drives me nuts about Murray is that the same weaknesses he had in his game 2 and three years ago are what plague him now on tour. He just hasn't grown as a player. I thought that he would have 2 slams for sure by now. Now I am starting to wonder although I think he still will get a slam or two in the near future, I just don't think he is living up to his potential at this point.

I still think Murray is the more inventive of the two, but Djokovic's confidence is almost tangible. Completely and utterly believes in himself and everything he's doing.

Murray doesn't have that confidence. Murray is where Djokovic was a year ago. Hope you are right about the slams, but my confidence has diminished a lot this year. 1 win against fellow top 4 players is pretty poor when you consider a couple of years ago he was beating them fairly regularly.

Dany, certainly confidence is part of it. But Andy hasn't adequately addressed the two weaknesses in his game that have plagued him for many years. His second serve is still the weakest second serve of any of the other top 4 and his forehand is too hit and miss. I think he has stagnated as a player, and if he doesn't adequately address these areas like Novak addressed his serve than he won't have any reason to have confidence. Confidence comes from the belief in your own abilities right now he needs a tangible improvement in these two areas to have that type of confidence.

I agree about the second serve, that hasn't moved forward at all. The forehand has though in my opinion. When he's on it, it's now a weapon.

First set at SW19 being a great example, he was really hammering it and Nadal couldn't cope with it. Of course, when his confidence evapourated so did the forehand.

So I put that down to belief as well.

Yeah, when he is playing well Dany that forehand is a weapon. But in my mind it has a techinical flaw to it when he starts to miss it seems to my humble opinion to be because he doesn't get enough body rotation and leg drive. It becomes a shot that he just arms. He needs to really focus on getting into a closed stance and rotating through that ball with his whole body. If you pay attention when he starts missing that ball he hits it with an open stance, he needs to get sideways prior to striking that ball, bend his knees and open up shoulders upon contact. He doesn't do that yet as second nature.

I don't think my opinion about Djokovic has changed much. He is an amazing player. In 2009 and 2010 he was not exactly dismissed but many started to rate him below Murray or worse imagine he was in decline. I could never quite see it that way. He continued to play well but lost a few matches that maybe he should have won.

He has had an amazing season in 2011 and deserves all his success... But just because Djokovics done well this year doesn't mean I've changed my opinion about Nadal or Federer. Both of them have continued to play well but in 2011 they have lost a few matches that maybe they should have won. Wouldn't be suprised by Nadal or Federer (despite his age) doing well next year. Also if Djokovic doesn't repeat this years form I certainly won't be writing him off.

These three players have shown enough consistancy that a few losses or wins are not enough to change my opinion of them.

Well that is true Hawkeye one has to take the long view in terms of a player. Every player has slumps and golden periods when they can't miss, they are never as good as their best streaks and never as bad as they seem during their losing streaks. I think a lot of people however myself included didn't predict this kind of dominance from Novak. I thought that he would be a multislam champion and at some point would be a strong #1, but I didn't think he would get 3 slams in a season. He overshot even my positive estimates of his ability by quite a bit.

Something else that has happened this year is that the the first GS of the year has, in fact, determined how the year was going to go. This is the first year this has happened since 2007.
Indeed, the winner of the AO in 08, 09, and '10 did not even reach another GS final for the rest of that year.
OK, the trend was bound to be broken sooner or later but funnily enough I thought it would continue this year I still reckoned that Fedal would dominate the slams.
Perhaps something that could be discussed is the almost complete domination of the Big four in the Slams, with just two semi-final slots - Tsonga at Wimby and Ferrer at the AO - going to anyone else. Has there been a season like that? Another thing that it's meant is that guys are scrapping to get in the year-end champs with comparatively few points as the big four have swallowed them all up. I mean, Dolgulpalot is in the running, for Pete's sake.

I thought one of the remarkable stats, as well as being a little depressing in a way, was that the semi final line up at US Open was exactly the same as 2008 - little has changed in 3 years to see where the next challenger is coming from. Del Po had a great RG and brilliant US in 2009, but at this point in time looks a shadow of that player.

The one I have reassessed my opinion of is Murray. I was quite worried that he would beat Fed in 2008, and AO 2010 and thought he would be very unfortunate not to win a slam - I don't think that now, sadly at all.

In my opinion, when the top 4 are finished with their careers and retired, they will have:

Djokovic 8 slams
Nadal 11 slams
Federer 16 slams
Murray 3 slams

Also Del Potro might end up with 2 slams

Tomic might win a slam someday(2014), he has tons of potential.

The next 10 slams might be won by: Djokovic(4 slams), Murray(3 slams), Nadal(1 slam), Del Potro(1 slam), Tomic(1 slam).