Andy Roddick and Sam Querrey are looking good, Andy Murray looks transformed \u2013 for better or worse, and I don\u2019t know what\u2019s up with David Nalbandian.<\/b>,<\/p>\n
The planned shutdown of MVN.com has been delayed due to software problems. I\u2019ll keep you up to date, meanwhile keep tuning in because the US Open is smokin\u2019.<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\nI had Andy Roddick<\/b> on the downside for the US Open because he\u2019s had all kinds of injury problems this summer. He only got to the second round in Toronto and failed to win either of the small hard court events he entered but, he\u2019s looked strong so far. He took out the talented young Latvian Ernests Gulbis<\/b> to reach the third round and there\u2019s no sign of injury anywhere on him so. Of course, I also ignored Sam Querrey<\/b> and wrote off Jo-Wilfried Tsonga<\/b> but they\u2019re still around too.<\/p>\nWhen I first saw Querrey play in Los Angeles two years ago, I figured we had another Roddick on our hands but with slightly worse movement and that\u2019s not good. He might not be a smooth mover but I did see him lunge for a sweet half-volley crosscourt winner in his third round victory over Ivo Karlovic<\/b>. After Querrey hit the shot, his legs were churning and his body lurched out over those long legs, but he made the shot and he also came through on the big points.<\/p>\nQuerrey hit a fantastic flick lob over his 6\u201910\u201d(208cm) counterpart in the first set tiebreaker. And Karlovic gave Querrey a set point in the second set tiebreaker with a double fault while Querrey closed the set out with an ace. Querrey won the match in straight sets and is now into the fourth round at a slam for the first time.<\/p>\nTsonga is the stuff of dreams. He\u2019s everything many players are not: lithe, smooth, aggressive, strong, charismatic \u2013 in short, one of those artist types we\u2019ve been arguing about with regard to the Roger Federer<\/b> – Rafael Nadal<\/b> divide. Leaving charisma out of it for the moment, Federer is the artist and Nadal is the grinder. Some people view this as a slap at Nadal and an unwarranted appreciation of Mr. Federer but I can\u2019t help it, I\u2019m an unabashed artistry lover and it pained me to see Roger unable to pull the trigger on a simple forehand passing shot against Thiago Alves<\/b> in the third round because there isn\u2019t a lot of artistry to take his place. A magician is not the same thing. I cringe when I watch Fabrice Santoro<\/b> hit slice two-handers off both sides. I get mad when he beats more stylish players. I\u2019m superficial, what can I say.<\/p>\nBut it\u2019s not quite that simple. I love stylish players but only when they come with transcendent power. Federer\u2019s looseness allows him to unload that fearsome forehand and Tsonga just slams the ball. That could be part of Tsonga\u2019s problem. As stylish as he is, if you watch his forehand you can see a possible cause of the disc problem he suffered and, by extension, his recent knee injury. Tsonga\u2019s arm looks like it\u2019s stuck to his body when he hits his forehand.<\/p>\nThink of it like this: some players hit with too much arm and not enough trunk rotation (Filippo Volandri<\/b> is the best example of that, he\u2019s all arm), and others twist their trunk but fail to let the racket fly freely on the follow-through. If you\u2019re arm doesn\u2019t fly freely at the end of the shot, your spine will over-rotate and you\u2019ll get disc problems. Further down the kinetic chain, the extra trunk rotation will put pressure on your knees. Tsonga\u2019s got style and artistry, especially around the net, but that style might be causing his recurring injury problems.<\/p>\nI haven\u2019t made the mistake of discounting Andy Murray<\/b> but I\u2019m also expecting him to take a bit longer to develop. His conditioning has improved but he\u2019s still behind other players. He didn’t pop out of the womb running as I’m sure Rafael Nadal<\/b> did. Murray was probably a couch potato baby and even now he\u2019s a video game addict – Brad Gilbert<\/b> recently claimed that Murray plays video games seven hours a day but maybe he was exaggerating. Anyway, Murray’s conditioning almost cost him his place in the fourth round.<\/p>\nJurgen Melzer<\/b> was up two sets to none and leading in the third set tiebreaker, 5-4, and Murray looked tired. Murray managed to win the next two points \u2013 the second with a 138mph(222kph) ace, wow, where\u2019d that come from? – then played the following magnificent point to close out the set.<\/p>\nMelzer hit a sharp crosscourt shot to run Murray wide to one direction then hit another to the opposite corner. Melzer followed the second shot to the net and hit a sweet drop shot. And this is what makes the slouchy Murray so interesting: most players would have been spinning their wheels like mad to get to that shot, but Murray\u2019s length and anticipation got him there in time to decelerate and hit a pretty easy winner down the line. Melzer took the fourth set off and finally ran out of gas at the end of the fifth, and in that sense Murray was lucky. But even if Murray does well here – and he could end next week at number four in the world \u2013 his conditioning still has to improve.<\/p>\nOn another note, while I\u2019m happy to see fewer self-lacerating outbursts from Murray, I\u2019m not so sure about the alternative that has emerged in its place. Melzer stayed even with Murray in the fifth set until Murray broke him to go up 4-3. In the next game, Murray made a great lunge save of a hard Melzer backhand down the line then followed it up with a passing shot to win the point. Murray immediately put his hands on his hips, turned to his box, and mouthed what I think were the following words to his box: \u201cIt\u2019s too strong! You\u2019re too strong!\u201d No doubt he was referring to himself.<\/p>\nI loved Murray\u2019s crowd stirring antics at Wimbledon against Gasquet as he came back from two sets down to win the match because that was designed to pump up the crowd. But here, Murray was belittling Melzer\u2019s game and I don\u2019t like that. A few points later, Murray hit a fantastic return winner off a wide serve and he posed again, this time throwing up his hands as if he could barely stand his own greatness<\/p>\nI exaggerate slightly but Melzer deserved better because he played great tennis to get up two sets in the match. It looks like Murray is overcompensating for his inner hater. Instead of trashing himself verbally he\u2019s now clowning his opponents. I hope Murray keeps developing until he can find a balance between those two parts of himself. I\u2019m assuming it\u2019ll come with the years.<\/p>\nOne quick comment about David Nalbandian<\/b>. I was surprised to see that he\u2019s still ranked number seven given his mediocre results this year and he looked awful against Gael Monfils<\/b>. He lost his second match in a row to Monfils on Saturday and he looked like he didn\u2019t want to be out there. He was down 4-1 in the third set when he sauntered casually to the net and let a soft passing shot float over him and land at least a foot inside the baseline. Nalbandian looked all the worse given the number of times Monfils slipped and dove and tumbled to get to wide and short balls.<\/p>\nThe journalists at the US Open are holding up release of player interviews for 24 hours to keep us bloggers from advertising the sport too heavily, but soon as it comes out, I\u2019d be very interested to know what Nalbandian has to say for himself. Stay tuned, lots more to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Roddick and Sam Querrey are looking good, Andy Murray looks transformed \u2013 for better or worse, and I don\u2019t know what\u2019s up with David Nalbandian., The planned shutdown of MVN.com has been delayed due to software problems. I\u2019ll keep you up to date, meanwhile keep tuning in because the US Open is smokin\u2019. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
I had Andy Roddick<\/b> on the downside for the US Open because he\u2019s had all kinds of injury problems this summer. He only got to the second round in Toronto and failed to win either of the small hard court events he entered but, he\u2019s looked strong so far. He took out the talented young Latvian Ernests Gulbis<\/b> to reach the third round and there\u2019s no sign of injury anywhere on him so. Of course, I also ignored Sam Querrey<\/b> and wrote off Jo-Wilfried Tsonga<\/b> but they\u2019re still around too.<\/p>\n
When I first saw Querrey play in Los Angeles two years ago, I figured we had another Roddick on our hands but with slightly worse movement and that\u2019s not good. He might not be a smooth mover but I did see him lunge for a sweet half-volley crosscourt winner in his third round victory over Ivo Karlovic<\/b>. After Querrey hit the shot, his legs were churning and his body lurched out over those long legs, but he made the shot and he also came through on the big points.<\/p>\n
Querrey hit a fantastic flick lob over his 6\u201910\u201d(208cm) counterpart in the first set tiebreaker. And Karlovic gave Querrey a set point in the second set tiebreaker with a double fault while Querrey closed the set out with an ace. Querrey won the match in straight sets and is now into the fourth round at a slam for the first time.<\/p>\n
Tsonga is the stuff of dreams. He\u2019s everything many players are not: lithe, smooth, aggressive, strong, charismatic \u2013 in short, one of those artist types we\u2019ve been arguing about with regard to the Roger Federer<\/b> – Rafael Nadal<\/b> divide. Leaving charisma out of it for the moment, Federer is the artist and Nadal is the grinder. Some people view this as a slap at Nadal and an unwarranted appreciation of Mr. Federer but I can\u2019t help it, I\u2019m an unabashed artistry lover and it pained me to see Roger unable to pull the trigger on a simple forehand passing shot against Thiago Alves<\/b> in the third round because there isn\u2019t a lot of artistry to take his place. A magician is not the same thing. I cringe when I watch Fabrice Santoro<\/b> hit slice two-handers off both sides. I get mad when he beats more stylish players. I\u2019m superficial, what can I say.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not quite that simple. I love stylish players but only when they come with transcendent power. Federer\u2019s looseness allows him to unload that fearsome forehand and Tsonga just slams the ball. That could be part of Tsonga\u2019s problem. As stylish as he is, if you watch his forehand you can see a possible cause of the disc problem he suffered and, by extension, his recent knee injury. Tsonga\u2019s arm looks like it\u2019s stuck to his body when he hits his forehand.<\/p>\n
Think of it like this: some players hit with too much arm and not enough trunk rotation (Filippo Volandri<\/b> is the best example of that, he\u2019s all arm), and others twist their trunk but fail to let the racket fly freely on the follow-through. If you\u2019re arm doesn\u2019t fly freely at the end of the shot, your spine will over-rotate and you\u2019ll get disc problems. Further down the kinetic chain, the extra trunk rotation will put pressure on your knees. Tsonga\u2019s got style and artistry, especially around the net, but that style might be causing his recurring injury problems.<\/p>\n
I haven\u2019t made the mistake of discounting Andy Murray<\/b> but I\u2019m also expecting him to take a bit longer to develop. His conditioning has improved but he\u2019s still behind other players. He didn’t pop out of the womb running as I’m sure Rafael Nadal<\/b> did. Murray was probably a couch potato baby and even now he\u2019s a video game addict – Brad Gilbert<\/b> recently claimed that Murray plays video games seven hours a day but maybe he was exaggerating. Anyway, Murray’s conditioning almost cost him his place in the fourth round.<\/p>\n
Jurgen Melzer<\/b> was up two sets to none and leading in the third set tiebreaker, 5-4, and Murray looked tired. Murray managed to win the next two points \u2013 the second with a 138mph(222kph) ace, wow, where\u2019d that come from? – then played the following magnificent point to close out the set.<\/p>\n
Melzer hit a sharp crosscourt shot to run Murray wide to one direction then hit another to the opposite corner. Melzer followed the second shot to the net and hit a sweet drop shot. And this is what makes the slouchy Murray so interesting: most players would have been spinning their wheels like mad to get to that shot, but Murray\u2019s length and anticipation got him there in time to decelerate and hit a pretty easy winner down the line. Melzer took the fourth set off and finally ran out of gas at the end of the fifth, and in that sense Murray was lucky. But even if Murray does well here – and he could end next week at number four in the world \u2013 his conditioning still has to improve.<\/p>\n
On another note, while I\u2019m happy to see fewer self-lacerating outbursts from Murray, I\u2019m not so sure about the alternative that has emerged in its place. Melzer stayed even with Murray in the fifth set until Murray broke him to go up 4-3. In the next game, Murray made a great lunge save of a hard Melzer backhand down the line then followed it up with a passing shot to win the point. Murray immediately put his hands on his hips, turned to his box, and mouthed what I think were the following words to his box: \u201cIt\u2019s too strong! You\u2019re too strong!\u201d No doubt he was referring to himself.<\/p>\n
I loved Murray\u2019s crowd stirring antics at Wimbledon against Gasquet as he came back from two sets down to win the match because that was designed to pump up the crowd. But here, Murray was belittling Melzer\u2019s game and I don\u2019t like that. A few points later, Murray hit a fantastic return winner off a wide serve and he posed again, this time throwing up his hands as if he could barely stand his own greatness<\/p>\n
I exaggerate slightly but Melzer deserved better because he played great tennis to get up two sets in the match. It looks like Murray is overcompensating for his inner hater. Instead of trashing himself verbally he\u2019s now clowning his opponents. I hope Murray keeps developing until he can find a balance between those two parts of himself. I\u2019m assuming it\u2019ll come with the years.<\/p>\n
One quick comment about David Nalbandian<\/b>. I was surprised to see that he\u2019s still ranked number seven given his mediocre results this year and he looked awful against Gael Monfils<\/b>. He lost his second match in a row to Monfils on Saturday and he looked like he didn\u2019t want to be out there. He was down 4-1 in the third set when he sauntered casually to the net and let a soft passing shot float over him and land at least a foot inside the baseline. Nalbandian looked all the worse given the number of times Monfils slipped and dove and tumbled to get to wide and short balls.<\/p>\n
The journalists at the US Open are holding up release of player interviews for 24 hours to keep us bloggers from advertising the sport too heavily, but soon as it comes out, I\u2019d be very interested to know what Nalbandian has to say for himself. Stay tuned, lots more to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Andy Roddick and Sam Querrey are looking good, Andy Murray looks transformed \u2013 for better or worse, and I don\u2019t know what\u2019s up with David Nalbandian., The planned shutdown of MVN.com has been delayed due to software problems. I\u2019ll keep you up to date, meanwhile keep tuning in because the US Open is smokin\u2019. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}