Nicolas Mahut has got game!

Ok, I saw this guy play in person last year at the Montréal's Masters qualifying when he made it into the main draw. I felt that he was a pretty good player just missing some pieces. If I'm not mistaken he was taken out in the first round by Olivier Rochus. But this year he has improved by leaps and bounds. As a former junior Wimbledon champ he hasn't exactly lived up to expectations but he appears to be on track right now. But being a serve and volleyer nowadays is not exactly easy. After seeing him play Roger and Wimby and playing Blake right now it seems he will be a very dangerous floater and will be a forced to be reckoned with on all fast courts. I think I have found a new player to root for in Taylor's absence.

You gotta love his racquet (a paintjobbed PS 6.0 95). LOL

Perfect for his serve and volley game.

BreakPoint said:

You gotta love his racquet (a paintjobbed PS 6.0 95). LOL

Perfect for his serve and volley game.

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LOL, is it really? I saw it in person and it looks like the tour 90 unless he has changed it.

edberg505 said:

LOL, is it really? I saw it in person and it looks like the tour 90 unless he has changed it.

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Yes, it's a PS 6.0 95 with a nCode 90/95 red and white paintjob. Just take a look at this pic at the throat - no cutouts in the two upper corners like on the nCodes but flat like on the PS 6.0. Also, the string pattern is 16x18 like on the PS 6.0, not 16x19 like on the nCode 90.

http://editorial.gettyimages.com/source/search/details_pop.aspx?iid=71244934&cdi=0

Yes, another S&V that I can root for in Taylor's absence. Yes yes yes yes yes!!!!!!!!!

mahut is good but i watched him play blake in the rca tourny and he became too upset and his game went really downhill in the 1st set tiebreak

For a S&V player he gets all upset way too easily. It's a risky game in a first place, plenty of times being passed and all that, he needs to phucking chill and keep hacking at it.

BreakPoint said:

Yes, it's a PS 6.0 95 with a nCode 90/95 red and white paintjob. Just take a look at this pic at the throat - no cutouts in the two upper corners like on the nCodes but flat like on the PS 6.0. Also, the string pattern is 16x18 like on the PS 6.0, not 16x19 like on the nCode 90.

http://editorial.gettyimages.com/source/search/details_pop.aspx?iid=71244934&cdi=0

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Hmm... what if this is nCode 90 with a custom string pattern ?

edberg505 said:

Ok, I saw this guy play in person last year at the Montréal's Masters qualifying when he made it into the main draw. I felt that he was a pretty good player just missing some pieces. If I'm not mistaken he was taken out in the first round by Olivier Rochus. But this year he has improved by leaps and bounds. As a former junior Wimbledon champ he hasn't exactly lived up to expectations but he appears to be on track right now. But being a serve and volleyer nowadays is not exactly easy. After seeing him play Roger and Wimby and playing Blake right now it seems he will be a very dangerous floater and will be a forced to be reckoned with on all fast courts. I think I have found a new player to root for in Taylor's absence.

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Paul Goldstein is better

TennisProPaul said:

Paul Goldstein is better

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Goldstein isn't a serve and volleyer he's a pretty consistent baseliner when he's not playing doubles.

Breaker said:

Goldstein isn't a serve and volleyer he's a pretty consistent baseliner when he's not playing doubles.

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He's also the 2nd greatest pusher behind the fighting Fin, Jarkko Nieminen.

edberg505 said:

He's also the 2nd greatest pusher behind the fighting Fin, Jarkko Nieminen.

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well that pusher just chargd the net a ton of time s to beat hewitt

goldstein goes to the net more then you think, and pushers dont go to the net

another win for the pusher that is much better then mahut who?

TennisProPaul said:

well that pusher just chargd the net a ton of time s to beat hewitt

goldstein goes to the net more then you think, and pushers dont go to the net

another win for the pusher that is much better then mahut who?

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Well not according to the rankings! No he is not much better.

Mahut has got a serve nothing more....(especialy the second serve)

if he had the volleys to back it up he could be in the top 40

edberg505 said:

Well not according to the rankings! No he is not much better.

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If you compare both pros, noting that Goldstein has 1-2 years more on tour, I would def take The cash and wins and overall career for sure.

Note: Most of Mahut's cash has come from doubles

Nicolas Mahut and Goldstein are def play at the top of thier games right now, but the edge certainly goes to the scientist

Mahut
Singles Record:
17 - 37

Goldstein
Singles Record:
73 - 95

The facts
http://wwo.atptennis.com/3/en/players/headtohead/?player1=Goldstein,+Paul&player2=mahut

Mahut
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
1999 - Earned first ATP point at France F5…Reached QF at France F8…Teamed with Julien Cassaigne to win title at France F8…2000 - Reached main draw at Roland Garros as wild card, losing to Hipfl in straight sets…Also received wild card into ATP circuit event in Toulouse, but lost to Tillstrom in three sets in 1st RD…Reached QF at Cherbourg Challenger…Improved year-end ranking 673 positions over previous year…Reached final in doubles at Cherbourg Challenger (w/Benneteau)…2001 - Made debut at Australian Open, losing to Medvedev in five sets…Won titles at Futures level in Luxembourg F1 and France F15…Defeated Godwin in Marseille for first ATP level victory, but lost to Kafelnikov in next round…Played at Roland Garros for second straight year, but dropped to Michael Russell in 1st RD…Made TMS debut in Paris, losing to Philippoussis is straight sets…2002 - Played qualifying at ATP level four times, but was unsuccessful in each effort…Won title at France F17 and reached final in France F21…Played only tour level event at Marseille, losing in 1st RD to Gicquel.

Goldstein
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
1994-Received wild card into US Open draw and lost to Agenor in 1st RD...1995-Lost in 1st RD at Washington ATP event and Binghamton Challenger...1996-Reached first Challenger SF at Urbana...1997-Reached 2nd RD at San Antonio Challenger and first Challenger doubles final in Las Vegas (w/Thomas) ...1998-In August, won first Challenger title in Lexington (d. H. Lee)...Reached SF in Dallas and San Antonio followed by final in San Diego (l. to Liukko)...Won first Challenger doubles title in San Diego (w/Peterson) ...Also reached doubles final at Lexington Challenger (w/Thomas)...1999-Qualified at Australian Open and upset No. 8 Rusedski en route to Grand Slam-best 3rd RD (l. to Pavel in five sets)...Advanced to 3rd RD at Wimbledon...Became first American to win singles gold medal at Pan American Games in Winnipeg since Greg Homes in 1983 (d. Mamiit)...Advanced to first ATP QF in Washington (d. No. 8 Corretja)…2000--Won career-best 20 ATP matches...Won Challenger title at Waikoloa (d. Sa)...Reached first ATP SF in Delray Beach defeating Rafter in QF... Advanced to 3rd RD at Wimbledon (l. to Gambill)...Back-to-back QFs in Newport and Los Angeles...In doubles, reached first ATP final at Brighton (w/ Thomas...Earned career-high $258,043…2001 – Won at least one match at each of first four ATP events…Won only one match the rest of the year…Won Lexington Challenger (d. Brasington)…Claimed Futures title in Malibu (d. Boeker)…Was 16-7 in Challengers…Won doubles titles at Challengers at Waikoloa (w/Thomas) and Bermuda (w/Roddick)…Was 3-13 in ATP doubles and 11-5 in Challengers…2002 – Played three ATP events, reaching 2nd RD at Memphis (d. Arthrus, l. to Gambill)…Challenger winner in Tyler (d. Fish) and runner-up in Lexington (l. to Draper)…Compiled a 15-15 Challenger record…Won doubles title at Binghampton Challenger (w/Humphries)…Finalist at Calabasas (w/Gimelstob)…Went 11-10 in Challengers…2003 – Reached 2nd RD at four of five ATP events he played…In June, claimed Tallahassee Challenger (d. A. Kim)…Closed year by reaching three straight Challenger finals…Runner-up at Waco (l. to G. Lapentti)…Won back-to-back titles in Austin (d. Kendrick) and Champaign (d. Vahaly)…Was 36-14 in Challengers…Reached ATP doubles final at San Jose w/Kendrick (l. to Lee-Voltchkov)…Also w/Kendrick, reached SF at Delray Beach…5-4 in ATP doubles…Reached at least the SF in nine events going 21-13 in Challenger doubles…Won title in San Antonio (w/Morrison)…Reached three other finals…2004 – Reached 2nd RD at four of the six ATP events he played, including as a qualifier at US Open…Won Covington Challenger (d. Sa)…Was 16-11 in Challengers…Won back-to-back Challenger doubles titles in Covington (w/Hippensteel) and College Station (w/Vahaly)…Was 11-4 in Challenger doubles.

goldstein is a pusher, then I dont knoww what the stupid term "pusher" means.

Marat Safinator said:

goldstein is a pusher, then I dont knoww what the stupid term "pusher" means.

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He is more of a grinder

But hey more power to Goldstein if he is a pusher to have made the most out of very little power on the pro tour

To see Goldstein make it on the tour gives hope to all the little guys out there.

TennisProPaul said:

If you compare both pros, noting that Goldstein has 1-2 years more on tour, I would def take The cash and wins and overall career for sure.

Note: Most of Mahut's cash has come from doubles

Nicolas Mahut and Goldstein are def play at the top of thier games right now, but the edge certainly goes to the scientist.

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Well, we will see just how he does against Haas tomorrow. The last time they played Tommy cleaned his clock proper like. And we all know how hard it is to serve and volley on tour nowadays and Mahut is sticking to his guns and you gotta admire him for that.

Bump

Thought I would bump this thread up in light of Mahut's recent results.

Shamo said:

Mahut has got a serve nothing more....(especialy the second serve)

if he had the volleys to back it up he could be in the top 40

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Nothing further from the truth.

Its great to see a serve and volley player, something i have always loved to do on the court, rush the player and make easy points and make him nervous.I wished that Roger did that more but he doesnt want to.

Andres Guazzelli said:

Nothing further from the truth.

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he musta missed todays display of volleying, thats the best net play I've seen in a while

The knock on Mahut has always been that his volleys are no more than adequate, same with Dent. Both have big serves, Mahut's being more consistent, but neither one has great volleys.

If Mahut could get his volleys up to Bjorkman/Henman/Mirnyi level he'd be Top 20 material.

his volleys are as good as any I've ever see

here is his draw in the W qualifying:

http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/scores/draws/qs/r1s1.html

Noam Okun 1st Round, could play Moodie in the 3rd round(which is best of 5)

The Gorilla said:

his volleys are as good as any I've ever see

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I just watched the highlights of his match against Roddick today. Mahut really impressed me - he hit some sick volleys, chip and charged and generally kept Roddick on the back foot. His only weakness seemed to be his transition game - his approach shots weren't always solid.

If he can play that way consistently he'll be a force at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open as well as indoors.

Still, his volleys aren't in the same class with Edberg, Rafter, Krajicek or even Sampras. Like I said if he can improve and volley consistently as well as Henman still can then he'll be headed up.

BreakPoint said:

You gotta love his racquet (a paintjobbed PS 6.0 95). LOL

Perfect for his serve and volley game.

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Would you happen to know what kind of setup he is using bp?

Thought he was volleying out of his mind, except for a drop volley that he missed that gave Roddick the set point (if I remember correctly) Defintely has the size and serve to be a true serve and volleyer. Wish he would chip and charge more.

fastdunn said:

Hmm... what if this is nCode 90 with a custom string pattern ?

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Can't be. The nCode 90 has a completely different throat. Also the head is too big on Mahut's racquet to be a 90. This was last year.

Don't know what he's using nowadays, though.

HewittSuckz said:

Would you happen to know what kind of setup he is using bp?

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He recently switched to something that appears to be different from the PS 6.0 95. Not quite sure what it is though. The closest thing that it appears to be is a K90, but maybe it's some new Wilson model not yet introduced.

Moose Malloy said:

here is his draw in the W qualifying:

http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/scores/draws/qs/r1s1.html

Noam Okun 1st Round, could play Moodie in the 3rd round(which is best of 5)

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It really sucks that he has to play in qualies. If there was anyone deserving of a WC at Wimby it is Mahut.

edberg505 said:

It really sucks that he has to play in qualies. If there was anyone deserving of a WC at Wimby it is Mahut.

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I agree. Too bad he's French and not British. :-(

Mahut probably didn't ask for a wildcard into Wimbledon. If he had he might have gotten one but more than likely not.

hoosierbr said:

Mahut probably didn't ask for a wildcard into Wimbledon. If he had he might have gotten one but more than likely not.

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BreakPoint said:

I agree. Too bad he's French and not British. :-(

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well, it doesn't keep you from getting a WC : tsonga got one after beating hewitt.
i think the thing is that they decided of the WC before the day when mahut ousted ljubicic and nadal... so at this time, i think even nicolas himself didn't even think about asking for an invitation !

i was hoping for some withdrawals so that he doesn't have to play the qualies, but unfortunately...
at the moment he is 2nd on the list, that's really bad luck. :?
let's hope he makes it to the main draw !

edberg505 said:

It really sucks that he has to play in qualies. If there was anyone deserving of a WC at Wimby it is Mahut.

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What?!?!? He has to play the qualies? He's ranked 76 according to the ATP's website and he just got to a grass court final. Does he have to mow the courts or something?

BreakPoint said:

I agree. Too bad he's French and not British. :-(

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thank god he is,Brit tennis sux(besides Murray and the good old days of Henman)

I love his volleys.. I don't know how his volleys in general are, but at Queens he was volleying like the best in the world. Each time I saw Roddick hit a difficult ball I thought that he would miss the ball, but he seemed to have no trouble getting the ball over the net, stunning!

I don't like his backhand however.. He doesn't seem able to produce one single decent passing with it.

I thought Mahut had a great game. Hopefully this will propel him to work harder to get where he deserves to be. I'm sure it's hard being a top junior and go to the pros and take a licking. It's the mental aspect that players have to deal with. His ranking doesn't reflect his talent, but this newfound confidence may have gotten him over the hump!

Mahut has a great game and will be a great player, but he makes some crazy decisions. His volleying at Queens was fantastic.

Very impressed with Mahut.

Out of blue, suddenly S&Ver.

Also makes me think Sampras still could do pretty well, if he ever comes back.

Sampras or Mahut, I hope to see more S&Ver's at Wimbledon.
It was so refreshing to see the classic match up, S&Ver vs baseliner.

Does anyone know if this Queen's Club final between Roddick and Mahut can be seen anywhere on TV or the net? I stopped getting TTC after the FO ended (yes, I have DirecTV).

Mahut won his first round of qualifying today.

Moose Malloy said:

Mahut won his first round of qualifying today.

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ufff... 2 more, allez nico !

BreakPoint said:

Does anyone know if this Queen's Club final between Roddick and Mahut can be seen anywhere on TV or the net? I stopped getting TTC after the FO ended (yes, I have DirecTV).

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A great highlights video is in the clips section. About 11 minutes.

fastdunn said:

Very impressed with Mahut.

Out of blue, suddenly S&Ver.

Also makes me think Sampras still could do pretty well, if he ever comes back.

Sampras or Mahut, I hope to see more S&Ver's at Wimbledon.
It was so refreshing to see the classic match up, S&Ver vs baseliner.

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Sampras would be made a fool of if he ever came back at this point. He lost to George Bastl at his last Wimbledon. He is now the same age as Agassi was last year when Agassi started to suck, and Pete does not age the way Agassi does(few do), and Pete has been off tour for 5 years not playing full time on tour to stay sharp like Agassi at that age.

If Pete came back 75% he loses in the 1st round, 95% he loses in the 3rd round or sooner.

anointedone said:

Sampras would be made a fool of if he ever came back at this point. He lost to George Bastl at his last Wimbledon. He is now the same age as Agassi was last year when Agassi started to suck, and Pete does not age the way Agassi does(few do), and Pete has been off tour for 5 years not playing full time on tour to stay sharp like Agassi at that age.

If Pete came back 75% he loses in the 1st round, 95% he loses in the 3rd round or sooner.

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This is what people said in 2002, and when Pete Sampras pushed himself he defeated an in prime Agassi who had just beat Lleyton Hewitt, the current #1 in the world at the time.



Pete Sampras is no push over, even at this age. If Sampras actually took the time to condition and get in shape, he could still be a force at Wimbledon. Although his serve is nowhere near as big as Mahut's or Roddick's, he has sick disguise even for today's standerds. And as always, he has much better technique on his volleys then most pros of today.

As far as i recall, Mahut was serving in 120's in his match against Roddick.
I'm pretty sure Sampras can serve harder than Mahut even right now
and can still paint the line with more varieties than anyone on tour right now.

Of course, he footwork won't be same as when he was in his 20's.

fastdunn said:

As far as i recall, Mahut was serving in 120's in his match against Roddick.
I'm pretty sure Sampras can serve harder than Mahut even right now
and can still paint the line with more varieties than anyone on tour right now.

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Mahut hit a few in the 140s, his second serves were in the lower 100s to the 120s at times.

fastdunn said:

As far as i recall, Mahut was serving in 120's in his match against Roddick.
I'm pretty sure Sampras can serve harder than Mahut even right now
and can still paint the line with more varieties than anyone on tour right now.

Of course, he footwork won't be same as when he was in his 20's.

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Mahut was serving 133-140 you idiot

Thanks gorilla, that's quite a primal reaction. please stop punching your own chest now.

Well, I took it from commentators on TTC who said Mahut was serving in 120's
but as effective as Roddick's 140's. I thought that would be much more reliable source
than words from a primal species.