Wimbledon 2016 - Day 7

First topic message reminder :

Schedule - http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/scores/schedule/index.html

Live Scores - http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/scores/index.html

Good to see new faces - Johnson, Vesley, Pouille, Mahut.

MoTD - Kyrgios v Murray (IMVHO).

Too bad for fed fans and fed that an early djokovic exit didn't happen in a wimby where fed wasn't broken down- but that's sports for you. Maybe he can catch some fire though and get the 18th

He did still win all 4 in a row. A recent record of 30 in a row is better than anything weve seen form the other recent legends too.
One early exit still puts him well above average of anone

Dimitrov lost to Johnson. Crazy. Two seeds #1 and #4 gone. Poor McEnroe is going to get ribbed by the press pretty hard.

temporary21 wrote:He did still win all 4 in a row. A recent record of 30 in a row is better than anything weve seen form the other recent legends too.
One early exit still puts him well above average of anone

Only able to win the French after the greatest clay courter became disabled...beating Murray is a slam final is like child's play...

Ive yet to see this broken Federer. How bad is he actually playing? I cant see him being bad enough to be underdog to Cilic, Raonic maybe...

All I can think of is a Taylor Swift song...

This is good stuff on centre court!

temporary21 wrote:He did still win all 4 in a row. A recent record of 30 in a row is better than anything weve seen form the other recent legends too. One early exit still puts him well above average of anone

Quite true, T2. He is also the hunted one. It is a lot of pressure at the top, no matter how you look at it. He has some excellent records to tell Stefan.

laverfan wrote:No worries, SB. I just feel sad for SoCal and HMM. They had their hopes pinned on a CYGS.

I am sure socal and HMM are going to get over it.  I know Nole only won four slams in a row but there are players who had done worse than that.

If Nole loses every match form now till the end of the year... it wont matter... hes got what he wanted finally, and is now a bona fide Fedal like legend.

Hmm in particular never has to feel nervous or sick around the clay season again. Its been the summer they wanted

temporary21 wrote:If Nole loses every match form now till the end of the year... it wont matter...

It might not matter, but it still would be nice

Yeah its ok, he had to lose sometimes. I am glad Querrey gets his moment in the sun as he is a fellow Californian and we are just that highly evolved out here. It was a case of a bad day serving for Novak, he usually holds much easier against Querrey. He created enough breaks and frankly did a bit of a choke job by not holding when he was serving for the 4th set. After than I thought he would lose and did. Sam deserves Congrats, he served amazing and I have never seen him hit his second serve or his backhand that well, which are actually his weaknesses.

I think this was the natural lull that comes from his dream Roland Garros. A certain genius actually predicted that Novak would win the first two slams this year and go for Novak slam and then would not win another slam. I think his name starts with the letter S.

summerblues wrote:

Henman Bill wrote:Interesting to see the betting odds still make Nole the favourite even 2-0 down to a half decent player. Albeit very close to 50/50 odds.

Seems reasonable to me.  Before the match, I would have given him better than 50/50 chance to win in straight sets.  There may be factors that change it now but on balance I think definitely better than 50/50 still.

I bet in play betting during that 4th set tie break would have been fun, I bet the odds were swinging about like mad although I didn't check.

Well, I have been saying for about 2 years that Djokovic was overdue an early round loss and like a broken clock I had to be eventually proved right. If you look at his record, he has had various wobbles (Simon, Anderson etc) in the middle rounds of slams in the last 12 months or more. It was coming. He often plays poorly in these matches, but today, when it came to the crunch he continued to play poorly, and made a number of errors in the latter stage of the tiebreak.

Federer's record of consecutive slam quarter finals now safe until at least into the next decade.

From the perspective of this Wimbledon in isolation, I am glad Novak's lost. It's a good change up. And Murray deserves a chance to win a title playing against a relatively weaker field, it's not something he gets very often, Federer turning 35 and out of form, Nadal injured, Stan gone, Djokovic out, it's the kind of thing he's been waiting about 10 years for that most players in other eras got such an equivalent opportunity much more often.

That said, unlike the BBC who will pile the pressure on, we should not expect him to win it, but it is clearly an opportunity.

I think Andy is the big favorite now. I would say that Murray is 50/50 with field.

Yep Murray is a big favourite unless Fed finds his groove.

TRuffin wrote:Too bad for fed fans and fed that an early djokovic exit didn't happen in a wimby where fed wasn't broken down- but that's sports for you.  Maybe he can catch some fire though and get the 18th

Pure speculation on my part, but if he does #18 on hallowed grounds of W, perhaps he may consider retirement a la Sampras.

With the olympics he woudnt. I think hed retire at Basel this year if his body does indeed take the harder matches hell get in the second week

Jermaine2015 wrote:Only able to win the French after the greatest clay courter became disabled...beating Murray is a slam final is like child's play...

I see (look at the Querrey thread) that, as usual, a shock defeat for Novak or Andy brings out the usual intelligent posters 

Well, at least our traffic has come back. Djokovic truly is the uniter of all people.

Forum drama in one tab. Murray in another.
Istomin Goffin on the tv

Just need a shandy and its a perfect saturday

socal1976 wrote:Yeah its ok, he had to lose sometimes. I am glad Querrey gets his moment in the sun as he is a fellow Californian and we are just that highly evolved out here. It was a case of a bad day serving for Novak, he usually holds much easier against Querrey. He created enough breaks and frankly did a bit of a choke job by not holding when he was serving for the 4th set. After than I thought he would lose and did. Sam deserves Congrats, he served amazing and I have never seen him hit his second serve or his backhand that well, which are actually his weaknesses.

I think this was the natural lull that comes from his dream Roland Garros. A certain genius actually predicted that Novak would win the first two slams this year and go for Novak slam and then would not win another slam. I think his name starts with the letter S.

  

Yep. I think it was only natural after the amazing year he had

Graceful in defeat. Like Andy I'm impressed with how long these two spend signing autographs etc

For me he's now odds on for Olympic Gold and before we get the usual 'meh' comments about its worth, it's now priceless to Novak as he's then done the lot (Slam, Olympics, Davis Cup, Masters Cup (O2)) which would put him a special group of two. Him and the great Andre

Hm, good point, what is the most important tournament than Andre Agassi never won?

For almost every other player in history there is probably a fairly clear answer. I am not sure what the answer is for Rod Laver actually, it can't be the Olympics, as it wasn't played in those days.

But certainly for every other player since Laver, there is a clear answer.

Since Andre won all the tournaments you say, it has to be one of the masters. Interestingly he almost won all of the masters - 7 from 9.

The two he won, Monte Carlo and Hamburg, he never came close to winning. But then he only played each of those events 4-5 times. So perhaps Monte Carlo is the biggest tournament Andre never won. And he probably couldn't care less, either now or then.

banbrotam wrote:and before we get the usual 'meh' comments about its worth, it's now priceless to Novak

Is it?  I was under the impression he was trying to weasel his way out of it on account of the Zika virus.  As I imagine many other players do too.

Curious that he's not playing the Davis Cup. You would think he would play it now the US Open is no longer so uber critical, and he has more rest. Perhaps he wants a long rest before the pile up of tournaments together coming later on.

Definately this year 's US Open has lost a little of the magic now the CYGS is no longer in play, which is a shame.

It does seem that the big four seek to avoid each other in Davis Cup. Are they not willing to expend energy playing each other without there being a large amount of money at stake, or am I being cynical? Is Murray playing? GB with better chance of defending the title now.

I doubt Novak will lose any sleep over not getting an OG.

He'd much rather have another slam - any slam - as would any other player on tour. Perhaps if he was sitting pretty on 25 slams he may consider trading one for an OG.. then again, nah I don't think so.

Henman Bill wrote:Curious that he's not playing the Davis Cup. You would think he would play it now the US Open is no longer so uber critical, and he has more rest. Perhaps he wants a long rest before the pile up of tournaments together coming later on.

Definately this year 's US Open has lost a little of the magic now the CYGS is no longer in play, which is a shame.

It does seem that the big four seek to avoid each other in Davis Cup. Are they not willing to expend energy playing each other without there being a large amount of money at stake, or am I being cynical? Is Murray playing? GB with better chance of defending the title now.

My take on it is people do not realize how - relatively - low on the players' lists events like Davis Cup and Olympics are.  Everything else being equal, sure they will take them, but tell them they can give up one slam and get even a couple of these trophies and they will hold their slam tight.

I just think USO is - by a country mile - the most important remaining tournament of the year in Nole's mind.

Also, remember, he most likely wants to get to 17+, so from that perspective the USO just became more important after today (though obviously CYGS would have been better).

Interesting take from the Guardian on Novak:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2016/jul/02/novak-djokovic-exit-clues-wimbledon-2016

Both yesterday and today Djoko looked ill. I thought he'd be asked about this at his post-match press conference and would - like many players - say little about it, not wishing to detract from the performance of the victor.
   Sure enough he was asked if he was 100%. He didn't lie, said he was not 100%, did not want to elaborate and continued not to elaborate when asked subsequent questions.
  All of which goes to show just how darned hard the CYGS is. Anything can happen - illness, poor scheduling, injury, Stan the Man playing great. Rafa reckoned the CYGS was not possible. For sure, it's mighty difficult.

We have had this discussion before SB as you may recall, so you might not be what surprised by what I'm about to say: The Olympics is the biggest tournament left in this year for Novak, and Federer, because they have never won it, and they both have a hatful of slams.

I doubted this earlier because with the CYGS in play it was a different matter.

Murray already has the Olympics, so for him the US Open is the biggest and in fact Olympics is probably 3rd at best for Murray since he's never won the world tour finals either.

That's just how I would see it if I was them. Their personal thoughts may be different.

Not sure about Zika either, I haven't looked into that in detail, so my comments assuming that risk is low.

sirfredperry wrote:He didn't lie, said he was not 100%

He certainly played as poorly as I have seen him play in a very long time.  I did not see the match yesterday, but Querrey was actually rather poor himself today - and yet he was good enough to take one set out of two.  So it may well be that Nole had some bug or something.

Completely disagree HB, I think both Novak and Roger would take a slam over OG. As a tennis player slams are the hard currency. It's the only thing people remember many years down the line when all is said and done. They're playing for legacy and in that regard an OG means diddly squat.

Didn't Marc Rosset get Olympic Gold. Doubt many remember that, yet the same people would recall if he'd won a Slam.

So, do people think Mahut can beat Querrey?
Just looking it up by the way..Mahut's first ever R4.
Querrey's first R4 since 2010 and he's never reached a QF.
Obviously very big match for both and a winnable match for both of them. Either of them would be pleased with the opponent at this stage.
I wasn't convinced by Querrey even though he beat Djokovic, it was more a case of Djokovic playing badly and Querrey just playing his regular level in the parts I watched.

I would certainly agree that 1 Slam >>> 1 OG. I guess the question is whether 12+slams + 1 OG < 13+ slams. In other words, when one has won so many slams, does the OG become more of a target? Not sure myself.

What a result today. Some players in the top half will be fancying a run to the final certainly now, Raonic first among them IMO.

Murray looked decent again today. Seemed to struggle to adjust initially once the roof came on, but then cruised through the third. Next round against Kyrgios will give us a good idea of where he's at.

Feds looked OK yesterday I thought. Movement looked decent, but he looked maybe a little match rusty still, unsurprisingly perhaps. Felt Evans rather let the occasion get to him unfortunately, rushed things too much and ended up spraying errors everywhere. Feds will beat Johnson with few problems, Cilic or Nishikori could be a decent test for him though.

I'd expect Mahut to beat Querrey TBH. Querrey will probably suffer from "knock big seed letdown" effect, and Mahut's probably the better grass court player in any case.

I tend to agree but there's not much in it, fi Querrey serves well and picks off a couple of passing shots here and there.

I assume Mahut is serving and volleying still, although I haven't seen him play at Wimbledon this year.

Things are going quite on here all of a sudden, perhaps I'm not the only one turning my attention to the Germany-Italy game.

sirfredperry wrote:Didn't Marc Rosset get Olympic Gold. Doubt many remember that, yet the same people would recall if he'd won a Slam.

I think a lot of people know Rosset won OG. Probably as many as could pick Andres Gomez as as slam champ.

Murray is odds on. I don't watch a lot of tennis, just keep the odd eye on it, but I think you've got to be brave to go hard on an odds-on Murray at this stage.

Pouille with a 2-1 set lead over DP. Probably good for Potro they've gone off now. Can regroup tomorrow.

Is this the first time in his career Andy has been the highest ranked player left in a slam?

Therw will be a slew of decent half finished matches to watch tomorrow.
Nick-Lopez, Tsonga-Isner, Delpo-Pouille

Gasquet-Ramos Vinolas also carrying on overnight, with Gasquet having moved to a two sets to one lead after dropping the opening set.

Middle Sunday has an interesting schedule.

BTW, I do not know how much people noticed, but when Djokovic was broken while serving for the 4th set at 5:4, he went down 0-30 on two bad line calls:

His first serve at 0-0, which would have been unreturned and given him 15-0 lead was called out, and he then lost the point from his 2nd serve.

At 0-15, he hit a good shot that was called out.  He was in better than even position in the rally at that time.

Commentators noted that the HE showed both shots were good, but Nole was out of challenges so he was unable to challenge.

But for that, the match may have had a very different ending.

I have been pinning my hopes on Kyrgios against Andy but what I see from him right now is not very encouraging, even if he wins today.  He is missing a lot and not creating enough.

Pouille wins the 4th 6-1. Good for him to make R4. Either him or Tomic will now make QF with a winnable match to make the semi.

Kyrgios gets the break in the third. Playing a very impressive match. Serving great and rock solid from the baseline.

Born Slippy wrote:rock solid from the baseline.

I wish he were.

summerblues wrote:I have been pinning my hopes on Kyrgios against Andy but what I see from him right now is not very encouraging, even if he wins today.  He is missing a lot and not creating enough.

Hmm ..... I'm not so sure.

In principle, I'm inclined to agree. BUT ..... if Kyrgios goes on a hot streak, he will be difficult to manage. His flashy, go-for-broke winners can be troubling for any player. Sure, he has lacked consistency in previous Slam campaigns ; but perhaps this is the year he will finally produce it ....?

lags, I still think Kyrgios has a chance if he were to play Andy tomorrow.  But he will need to play better than he is playing today.  He is capable of doing that though, so I will be hoping.