WIMBLEDON 2011 Nole Watch: Tis Wimbledon Eve, Let The Games Commence!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-XBDTQkv8k


This Nole fan has recharged the batteries, Roland Garros is a distant, very distant memory.......Wimbledon and the green, green grass of tennis home welcomes you, Nole!

May I be the happiest fan on Earth this time in two weeks time


COME OOOOOOOON NOLEEEE!!!!!!!!!

Day 2, round one for Nole: Jeremy Chardy, a charming French that will feel the pain of revenge for all that the RG crowd put Nole through 2 weeks ago

Chardu done, Anderson dusted, now, let's see who can stop Nole

A quick "update" (sorry for being lazy) Nole bagged Baggy and laundered Llondra so now time for some (A)Tomic demolition....

Well, as one of my favourite film quote says: ToMOrrow is A-NOther day.....and what a day it is gong to be....Sing a Tsonga six-pence....

Well, I had my pre-celebratory glass of red, I've heard Equienoxe5 about 10 times, I think it's time for bed now.....because tomorrow IS ANOTHER DAY

My grandad would be proud of you NITB

To your grandad:

http://www.tiggle-tiggle.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/champagne.jpg

Awww he will be looking down with a smile

Definetly, Nitb I can't wait for the tournament i hope that Novak gets it this year after how disappointing RG was.

socal1976 wrote:Definetly, Nitb I can't wait for the tournament i hope that Novak gets it this year after how disappointing RG was.

RG WAS disappointing, but only for the crowd, as far as I'm concerned. Nole was not disappointing, the organisers were. I feel they have done everything to push Federer into that final (by scheduling Nole matches late and having him finish the following day, then that stupidity by Fognini, then the late scheduling of Novak Federer match contrary to all logic, as they played first during the entire torunament up to that moment)

And here we goooooo, I missed Nole

ooooh, now Wimbledon has come alive to me

Hi NITB, how do you see this one going? I reckon Nole in four, or maybe three with a tight one (TB) thrown in there. He had breakpoint there after a good backhand pass, but Chardy served his way out of trouble and held for 3-2 in the first.

Nole in 3

Nole breaks; Some sloppy play by Chardy with a couple of poor approaches and novak will serve for the first set at 5-4. It was coming you have to say...

Yes, it was just a matter of time before Nole starts reading Chardy's serve...

Keeping an eye on that beautiful short angle cross court forehand...mighty weapon on ANY suface...

Chardy has rather lost the plot in this set, I smell a bagel coming

He,he....

Or should it have been: he (6:4) he (6:1) he (6:1)

Well done NOLEEE

To be honest Chardy was dreadful.

Not much of a challenge for any of the top players.

sportslover wrote:To be honest Chardy was dreadful.

Not much of a challenge for any of the top players.

You forget that Nole is the best returner in the business and once he cracaked Chardy's serve, the game was over; Chardy panicked as well, as Nole disarmed him, I reckon his invincible aura is still working

noleisthebest wrote:

sportslover wrote:To be honest Chardy was dreadful.

Not much of a challenge for any of the top players.

You forget that Nole is the best returner in the business and once he cracaked Chardy's serve, the game was over; Chardy panicked as well, as Nole disarmed him, I reckon his invincible aura is still working

Easy there, he is ONE of the best returners along with the likes of Nadal & Murray!

sportslover wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:

sportslover wrote:To be honest Chardy was dreadful.

Not much of a challenge for any of the top players.

You forget that Nole is the best returner in the business and once he cracaked Chardy's serve, the game was over; Chardy panicked as well, as Nole disarmed him, I reckon his invincible aura is still working

Easy there, he is ONE of the best returners along with the likes of Nadal & Murray!

No, Nole is better, unlike Murray who gets the ball in and then keeps pushing it around, Nole pounces and converts straight away .

noleisthebest wrote:

sportslover wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:

sportslover wrote:To be honest Chardy was dreadful.

Not much of a challenge for any of the top players.

You forget that Nole is the best returner in the business and once he cracaked Chardy's serve, the game was over; Chardy panicked as well, as Nole disarmed him, I reckon his invincible aura is still working

Easy there, he is ONE of the best returners along with the likes of Nadal & Murray!

No, Nole is better, unlike Murray who gets the ball in and then keeps pushing it around, Nole pounces and converts straight away .

You really are obsessed with him aren't you.

Up until the middle of 2010 he couldn't buy a serve never mind return one

I disagree with Djokovic being a better returner than Murray. He's certainly not a more aggressive one. How many returns did Djokovic return for clean winners today? Or hit so well he could follow it in for an easy volley?

Mad for Chelsea wrote:I disagree with Djokovic being a better returner than Murray. He's certainly not a more aggressive one. How many returns did Djokovic return for clean winners today? Or hit so well he could follow it in for an easy volley?

sportslover wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:

sportslover wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:

sportslover wrote:To be honest Chardy was dreadful.

Not much of a challenge for any of the top players.

You forget that Nole is the best returner in the business and once he cracaked Chardy's serve, the game was over; Chardy panicked as well, as Nole disarmed him, I reckon his invincible aura is still working

Easy there, he is ONE of the best returners along with the likes of Nadal & Murray!

No, Nole is better, unlike Murray who gets the ball in and then keeps pushing it around, Nole pounces and converts straight away .

You really are obsessed with him aren't you.

Up until the middle of 2010 he couldn't buy a serve never mind return one

He still managed to win 2 slams, though

I dunno that my response deserved that. I was merely saying that given how many clean winners both hit off the return of serve, Murray seems to me to be the more aggressive returner. If you believe otherwise, fine, but please don't denigrate other's opinions like that...

Sportslover, Djokovic is the best returner in the business he lead the AtP in break percentage in 2010 and is leading again in 2011. By the way who returns Roger better Andy or Novak? Even in the matches Novak loses to Roger he does a good job of getting into Roger's serve but usually struggles on his serve when he loses. Chardy is a much tougher opponent than Russel, Kukushin, or whatever Spanish clay courter murray got and lost a set to. It just seems funny to me that Novak gets the toughest first round match of any of the big 4, and probably the toughest second round match as well. Federer meanwhile goes from playing absolute garbage in the first round in terms of opposition to possilby even bigger garbage in the second round. Novak meanwhile will spend three sets trying to return 145 mile per serves on grass.

Nitb, the french in my mind as I have stated over and over again, was definetly a hostile environment for him and he got no favors with the draw or the scheduling from our gallic friends. Unfortunately, the same thing is coming into play again at wimby. He is number 2 but again he gets Roger in his half for 13th time out of 17. That is the equivalent of flipping a coin 17 times and getting heads 13 times, and now he is currently on a streak of 5 in a row. After getting the toughest opponent of any of the top 4, (ps what are wildcards and qualifiers for), he gets 145 mile per hour serving Kevin Anderson in round 2. For me that is a big scare match. If he wins the Anderson match he is probably a safe bet at least to the semis. But Novak hasn't had a lot of match time on grass and then all of sudden to look down the barrel of 145 mph coming at you on a grass court is going to be tough.

Murray leads the stats in points won on returns of first serve. That for me shows where MFC is coming from.

The best returner of serve is certainly an open debate.

Legendkillar, yes and Djokovic leads the ATP tour in breaking his opponents 41 percent of the time, and lead the tour last year in breaking his opponents. If murray is so much better and more aggressive in the return than he should really dominate the second serve return numbers.

He should no doubt in that socal. I think the reason Murray is highly regarded as the best returner is because naturally it was the one part of his game when he burst onto the scene that was near 'perfect'

I think what is impressive in relation to Djokovics stats is that he has achieved them playing in less tournaments than the others in the 'big' 4

Legend murray is a great returner, but i would say novak is maybe a half degree better in that department. I actually like Murray's backhand a half degree better than Novak's great backhand but again we are talking about a difference that is very miniscule in both departments.

I agree, the comparisons are miniscule and I think is what makes it great for debating as you tend to find people fall on one side or the other and no 'sitting on the fence' views

I agree that it's tight between both of them, which is why I found the facepalm a bit much. My personal view is that Murray is the more aggressive returner. My main arguments are the number of clean winners he hits off the return, and how far inside the baseline he stands to return the second serve. However I would say Djokovic is a bit more consistent, and probably gets more returns in play (these stats aren't kept unfortunately, but I would say it's the case).

As for Nadal, he's also an excellent returner, but IMO not quite up to the level of the first two, and the reason his stats are so good has more to do with what a great rallier he is.

MFC, nadal is really tough to ace and that has to be a component of returning. Although I agree his not as aggressive on the return as the other two. But I would still rate Djoko as the better returner, I think he takes the second serve extremely early and aggressively and hits a lot of winners off the second. Maybe they should could a statsitic for winners off of 1st and second set returns? What I find odd is that in tennis they don't keep track of winners on the ATP site at all, I think errors and winners should be tracked as well as serving and returning. Call me a stat junky if you will.

yeah I'd like to see some more of the return stats too. Points won off first/second serve, BPs converted and percentage of service breaks are all very good, but some more info would have been nice. Then again, I'm a stats freak.

I have no problem with you considering Djokovic to be the best returner, I rank him and Murray equal in terms of returns (there was an article a while back with top 5 of various categories, and I think i ranked them equal first with Nadal third). All about personal preferences really...

socal1976 wrote:Legend murray is a great returner, but i would say novak is maybe a half degree better in that department. I actually like Murray's backhand a half degree better than Novak's great backhand but again we are talking about a difference that is very miniscule in both departments.

When you get a comment like "No, Nole is better, unlike Murray who gets the ball in and then keeps pushing it around, Nole pounces and converts straight away" from an over euphoric nitb it does grind on a bit!

I like Nole after Murray but would never go over the top, and remember Murray was a couple of points away from ending his long unbeaten run until Federer did, so he must be good at something and that includes returning noles serve (and getting it back and winning point from it)

Ease up on Nitb, she is passionate about her player. I think you guys are getting a bit edgy over a simple graphic she added to her post.

I am for one not coming down on NITB, as I do admire her passion. But the forum is for debate and that does include engaging others views and being respectful of those views.

OK, I won't say ANYTHING regarding Murray any more (after this post)....

I think people here obsess with individual statistics, because that is what the pundits go on about all the time, so if he is not winning slams, let's crown him the best returner, the best backhand etc...I mean, who cares?
Novak and Andy have very similar game/arsenal of shots, but I suppose the main and biggest difference shows exactly after that brilliant return of serve they both have: Novak goes for it and tries to switch to attack as soon as he can, Murray on the other hand is happy to counter-punch and draw the error out.
Murray is my favourite counter puncher and I don't mean anything negative about it, he has a great touch and is really at his best in that mode.
However, he needs to learn and implement the optimal time to switch to offensive AS SOON AS THE CHANCE COMES, and he doesn't do it.
That particular aspect has cost him so dearly against Nole at AO , Nole was all out, firing on all cylinders, Murray was overwhelmed and didn't use some really good moments to attack. Watch it on Youtube, it's that long point towards the very end of the first set in which he's got Nole on the ropes and instead of putting a volley away he hands it right back for Nole to recover and win the point, set and eventually the match.
I think Murray has come a long way during the clay season, but his slam winning game is still in the evolving stage, just like for Nole he needs a few things to fall into place first.

NITB no-one is asking you not speak your views on Murray or any other player for that matter. I think it is just that I think MFC wanted to debate and felt the facepalm was just a tad heavy handed.

Your contributions are always welcomed and I enjoy reading them as do many other posters on this forum

I got a face palm and a"obsessed" tag by Sportslover and thought nothing of it, it just shows people are passionate and love tennis, I'm all for great debates within the limits of my knowledge, of course.
I suppose , I have developed thick skin having had years of practice on 606 when I was probably the only Novak fan and was called all sorts of names (incl a wifebeater ) and in all honesty don't remember EVER using vulgar or insulting language towards anyone, it just isn't my style.

I am beginning to realise I may come across as over the top and to people who don't "know" me that probably sounds too much. Well, I won't make any excuses for my passion but will use those facepalms even more sparingly now

BTW, it is absolutely bucketing it down in Berks!!!!!

Nitb, your passion is great, it is just different now that Novak is winning it has silenced some critics but it also has in some ways added to the controversy.

noleisthebest wrote:OK, I won't say ANYTHING regarding Murray any more (after this post)....

I think people here obsess with individual statistics, because that is what the pundits go on about all the time, so if he is not winning slams, let's crown him the best returner, the best backhand etc...I mean, who cares?
Novak and Andy have very similar game/arsenal of shots, but I suppose the main and biggest difference shows exactly after that brilliant return of serve they both have: Novak goes for it and tries to switch to attack as soon as he can, Murray on the other hand is happy to counter-punch and draw the error out.
Murray is my favourite counter puncher and I don't mean anything negative about it, he has a great touch and is really at his best in that mode.
However, he needs to learn and implement the optimal time to switch to offensive AS SOON AS THE CHANCE COMES, and he doesn't do it.
That particular aspect has cost him so dearly against Nole at AO , Nole was all out, firing on all cylinders, Murray was overwhelmed and didn't use some really good moments to attack. Watch it on Youtube, it's that long point towards the very end of the first set in which he's got Nole on the ropes and instead of putting a volley away he hands it right back for Nole to recover and win the point, set and eventually the match.
I think Murray has come a long way during the clay season, but his slam winning game is still in the evolving stage, just like for Nole he needs a few things to fall into place first.

Thats more like it, respect where its due

socal1976 wrote:Nitb, your passion is great, it is just different now that Novak is winning it has silenced some critics but it also has in some ways added to the controversy.

noleisthebest wrote:I got a face palm and a"obsessed" tag by Sportslover and thought nothing of it, it just shows people are passionate and love tennis, I'm all for great debates within the limits of my knowledge, of course.
I suppose , I have developed thick skin having had years of practice on 606 when I was probably the only Novak fan and was called all sorts of names (incl a wifebeater ) and in all honesty don't remember EVER using vulgar or insulting language towards anyone, it just isn't my style.

I am beginning to realise I may come across as over the top and to people who don't "know" me that probably sounds too much. Well, I won't make any excuses for my passion but will use those facepalms even more sparingly now

BTW, it is absolutely bucketing it down in Berks!!!!!

I don't know how an earth someone could resort to such an insult!

It is bucketing down here in Sussex.

It is nothing major NITB, just didn't want to see some of my favourite posters fall out with each other

Just for you socal, the stats when they play Federer.

Murray:
2005 Bangkok: broke once in eleven Federer service games
2006 Cincinati: 7/11 (!)
2008 Dubai: 2/15
2008 Us Open: 2/14
2008 Madrid: 2/15
2008 Shanghai: 6/17
2009 Doha: 4/14
2009 IW: 5/13
2009 Cincinati: 0/10
2009 London: 2/12
2010 AO: 2/16
2010 Toronto: 5/12
2010 Shanghai: 4/9
2010 London: 0/9

Total: 42/178
All on hard court

Djokovic:
2006 Monte Carlo: 2/12
2007 AO: 1/15
2007 Dubai: 2/16
2007 Canada: 3/16
2007 Us Open: 2/17
2008 AO: 4/16
2008 Monte Carlo: 1/7
2008 Us Open: 2/21
2009 Miami: 6/13
2009 Rome: 5/14
2009 Cincinati: 1/10
2009 Us Open: 1/18
2009 Basel: 4/14
2010 Toronto: 3/14
2010 Us Open: 6/25
2010 Shanghai: 1/11
2010 Basel: 1/13
2010 London: 1/9
2011 AO: 5/17
2011 Dubai: 4/9
2011 IW: 5/13
2011 RG: 4/21

Total: 64/321
Four on clay, others on hard, stats missing from the Davis Cup match in 2006.

So over the years Murray has actually broken Federer comparatively more often...

PS: sorry NITB, I think I over-reacted a touch too, it was late and I was tired.

for all

Did anyone see the match?

Any (nice) thoughts)

I didn't see the match i'm afraid NITB. I think MFC did and he will be on later. Could you drop me a pm so I can reply, just want to get your thoughts on something.