Bad move by Mahut

Cesc Fabregas

Cesc Fabregas

Legend
Why did Mahut want to stop? Isner was barely moving at all and was serving 20 mph less than his usual speed, if they would have stayed out on court it was only a matter of time before Isner wilted. Now Isner can recover to a certain extent for tommorow and get his service speed up again, if Mahut ends up losing this match he will regret the decision for the rest of his life.
 
viduka0101

viduka0101

Hall of Fame
Cesc Fabregas said:
Why did Mahut want to stop? Isner was barely moving at all and was serving 20 mph less than his usual speed, if they would have stayed out on court it was only a matter of time before Isner wilted. Now Isner can recover to a certain extent for tommorow and get his service speed up again, if Mahut ends up losing this match he will regret the decision for the rest of his life.
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because he couldn't see the ball,it was too dark to play
Isner was barely moving but was hitting aces,service winners and ripping forehands
 
GasquetGOAT

GasquetGOAT

Hall of Fame
I agree it was a bad move. Isner was in zombie mode, Mahut could have broken him in a few more games, now Isner will be fresh for tomorrow.
 
M

Moose Malloy

G.O.A.T.
If he had won, he would have had to play De Bakker tomorrow on very little rest, with the odds against him. If he can win quickly tomorrow he will have close to a day of recovery for his match on Friday. Could be a great decision in retrospect.
 
D

decades

Guest
isner was no zombie. it's classic rope a dope. he walks around like he can't even move then he bangs 2 aces and hits two forehand winners. mahut did the right thing. try to jump on him when he is cold and sore.
 
Baikalic

Baikalic

Semi-Pro
Cesc Fabregas said:
Why did Mahut want to stop? Isner was barely moving at all and was serving 20 mph less than his usual speed, if they would have stayed out on court it was only a matter of time before Isner wilted. Now Isner can recover to a certain extent for tommorow and get his service speed up again, if Mahut ends up losing this match he will regret the decision for the rest of his life.
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Actually the real reason Mahut stopped was to give the linespeople staff a break from standing and the ballgirl staff from running to get balls after xxxx hours, a real gentleman's move.
 
Mustard

Mustard

Bionic Poster
Isner looked done from around 30-30 onwards, yet continued to hold serve. I think stopping was the correct decision.
 
BreakPoint

BreakPoint

Bionic Poster
Cesc Fabregas said:
Why did Mahut want to stop? Isner was barely moving at all and was serving 20 mph less than his usual speed, if they would have stayed out on court it was only a matter of time before Isner wilted. Now Isner can recover to a certain extent for tommorow and get his service speed up again, if Mahut ends up losing this match he will regret the decision for the rest of his life.
Click to expand...
For once, I agree with you. Bonehead move by Mahut. He had Isner on the ropes tonight and probably would have finished him off in a couple of more games. Isner should be much tougher to beat tomorrow after a night's rest and nutrition.
 
BreakPoint

BreakPoint

Bionic Poster
Baikalic said:
Actually the real reason Mahut stopped was to give the linespeople staff a break from standing and the ballgirl staff from running to get balls after xxxx hours, a real gentleman's move.
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The linespeople and the ball kids don't work the whole match nor even the whole set. They take shifts every few games and they rest in between.
 
T

TennisandMusic

Guest
BreakPoint said:
For once, I agree with you. Bonehead move by Mahut. He had Isner on the ropes tonight and probably would have finished him off in a couple of more games. Isner should be much tougher to beat tomorrow after a night's rest and nutrition.
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And for once, I agree with you as well! :p
 
JeMar

JeMar

Legend
If Mahut couldn't break his serve in broad daylight, how was he gonna break serve in the twilight?
 
Andres

Andres

G.O.A.T.
JeMar said:
If Mahut couldn't break his serve in broad daylight, how was he gonna break serve in the twilight?
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Maybe John could doublefault as he couldn't see the ball while he was serving? :D

On the other hand, these guys are so good they could probably put 2nd serves in with their eyes closed, just by muscle memory :p
 
rovex

rovex

Legend
Isner will be turning up on court with crutches anyway. He's too drained physically to recover while on the other hand Mahut is as fit as a daisy.
 
GameSetMatch

GameSetMatch

Banned
djokovicgonzalez2010 said:
9:15 is enough light.
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What are talking on about? You don't even live in SW London!

The court just isn't lit in the same way that would be an hour earlier. It's also dusk which isn't apparent from TV pictures. Like I said already, I was at Wimbledon on Monday and at 9.15pm the light is definitely fading - you just cannot see the ball well. During the Djokovic match they put the roof and floodlights on centre court at around 8.30pm due to fading light. At 10pm I can assure you that all the outside courts are in complete darkness.

This is the London skyline shortly after the Isner/Mahut match was suspended:

wimb.jpg
 
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kimbahpnam

kimbahpnam

Hall of Fame
Moose Malloy said:
If he had won, he would have had to play De Bakker tomorrow on very little rest, with the odds against him. If he can win quickly tomorrow he will have close to a day of recovery for his match on Friday. Could be a great decision in retrospect.
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they wouldn't have put him on the next day
 
Marius_Hancu

Marius_Hancu

Talk Tennis Guru
No.

Isner had been play-acting the tired guy for hours (and he was tired to some extent, of course), a la Murray, but at the most critical of moments, had always recovered.

Mahut was right to stop.
 
BreakPoint

BreakPoint

Bionic Poster
JeMar said:
If Mahut couldn't break his serve in broad daylight, how was he gonna break serve in the twilight?
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Because towards the end there, Isner's serve speed dropped off quite a bit since he was so darn tired and could barely move or raise his arm.
 
JeMar

JeMar

Legend
BreakPoint said:
Also, Nadal broke Federer's serve when it was even darker than this in the 2008 final.
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Nadal is a much better returner than these two and Federer's serve doesn't have as much action on it as a tired serve by Isner. His speed dropped off, but he was still moving it around extremely well.
 
D

Don Felder

Semi-Pro
Anyone ever played a rough match and been beat afterwards? Yeah, it gets worse the morning after... and sometimes even worse 2 days later. Isner will be lucky to get out of bed tomorrow.
 
rovex

rovex

Legend
Don Felder said:
Anyone ever played a rough match and been beat afterwards? Yeah, it gets worse the morning after... and sometimes even worse 2 days later. Isner will be lucky to get out of bed tomorrow.
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Yep. This has played right into Mahut's hands.
 
viduka0101

viduka0101

Hall of Fame
Don Felder said:
Anyone ever played a rough match and been beat afterwards? Yeah, it gets worse the morning after... and sometimes even worse 2 days later. Isner will be lucky to get out of bed tomorrow.
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good point
I don't actually play tennis but I know what you mean from lifting weights and playing basketball
 
M

Moose Malloy

G.O.A.T.
they wouldn't have put him on the next day
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The schedule of play was posted while their match was still going on. it had De Bakker vs winner of mahut/isner listed as 3rd on court 18 tomorrow. they have since revised that schedule.
 
P_Agony

P_Agony

Banned
BreakPoint said:
For once, I agree with you. Bonehead move by Mahut. He had Isner on the ropes tonight and probably would have finished him off in a couple of more games. Isner should be much tougher to beat tomorrow after a night's rest and nutrition.
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Isner looked half dead there but he still held his serve with ease and he was the one to get to MP on Mahut's serve, not the opposite. Isner's body language was nothing like his performence - he kept hitting winners and serving aces.
 
D

decades

Guest
BreakPoint said:
Because towards the end there, Isner's serve speed dropped off quite a bit since he was so darn tired and could barely move or raise his arm.
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Isner was hitting bombs the entire match. they were heavy and hitting lines. Smart move by Nic...
 
T

Tyrus

Professional
I've seen it! Court 18 is cornered between 3 walls and the sun sets behind those walls. Even though that photo shows the sun still out at Canary Wharf. Ct. 18 gets dark pretty fast.
 
Centered

Centered

Hall of Fame
1. Mahut had a bad finger.
2. It was 10 minutes from sunset according to commentators.
3. Isner was play-acting, and he was tired. It's both.
4. Mahut tried his diving tactics and they didn't distract Isner. So, he needed to get a new plan from the coach.
5. Mahut was having more trouble holding serve than Isner was.

Mahut wanted to stop and Isner wanted to keep playing. That says enough.
 
C

Cloned_Spud

New User
It was suggested that the match might be put on Centre Court for the 1st match, would have preferred that as we will be going tomorrow.....but we have boring Scot Murray to look forward to.........worst than watching paint dry.
 
Mustard

Mustard

Bionic Poster
If they put it on Centre Court, it's like a different match altogether from the epic we've seen. It must stay on Court 18. They should reward the winner by putting his second round match on Centre Court.
 
skip1969

skip1969

G.O.A.T.
JeMar said:
If Mahut couldn't break his serve in broad daylight, how was he gonna break serve in the twilight?
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this is what i thought during the match, as well. we just had an instance last month where the players played beyond the point which seemed reasonable. they were out there long enough.
 
BreakPoint

BreakPoint

Bionic Poster
Gugafan said:
Word has it Mahut wanted to stop because if the match was completed on wednesday the winner would have to comeback the day after (Though Mahut's fitness looks good enough to play another few hours!!). However now the match has been scheduled for thursday, if someone can do the impossible and nick a break relatively quickly the winner would have a better chance of recovering for their third rd encounter, on friday.

BTW the match is to be played third up on court 18..
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You mean 2nd round. Isner-Mahut is still a 1st round match, believe it or not. :shock:
 
M

Moose Malloy

G.O.A.T.
^and if mahut can somehow win tomorrow & friday, he gets to play on...saturday. no rest for the weary. he could be playing 5 straight days.
 
Lsmkenpo

Lsmkenpo

Hall of Fame
Mahut was 100% correct to want to stop play, he did them both a favor.

The winner would have had to play a match the following day without a chance to recover, in a sense both players would have lost if they finished that late.

Isner was the one not thinking clearly, not Mahut.
 
Fee

Fee

Legend
Mahut was right to want to stop, he was having a harder time seeing John's serves and forehands.

In my opinion, the offical was wrong to ask them. Players rarely agree on this, and when they don't people rail on them unnecessarily, and then the crowd gets involved and it just gets ugly all around. The referee should have walked out on court, watched two ball kids throw a ball from one side of the court to the other, and then decided whether to play two more games or not. They probably only had enough light for two more games anyway.

I think this decision might benefit Mahut physically, but it might help Isner mentally and that could give Isner a slight advantage when they get back on court.
 
Bud

Bud

Bionic Poster
Cesc Fabregas said:
Why did Mahut want to stop? Isner was barely moving at all and was serving 20 mph less than his usual speed, if they would have stayed out on court it was only a matter of time before Isner wilted. Now Isner can recover to a certain extent for tommorow and get his service speed up again, if Mahut ends up losing this match he will regret the decision for the rest of his life.
Click to expand...

IMO, it was a wise decision. His serving effectiveness was definitely going downhill in that last game.

Isner looked spent from about 20-20 onward so who knows how much of that was acting and how much was true fatigue.
 
Bud

Bud

Bionic Poster
Overheadsmash said:
I want Isner to win, so to me it was a great move by Yoohoo to quit playing tonight. Gives Isner a chance to rest up.
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Hopefully, Isner can walk/get out of bed tomorrow :-D

He only has about 14-16 hours to eat, sleep and recover (massage, ice massage, etc.) before he's back on court.
 
okdude1992

okdude1992

Hall of Fame
Bud said:
IMO, it was a wise decision. His serving effectiveness was definitely going downhill in that last game.

Isner looked spent from about 20-20 onward so who knows how much of that was acting and how much was true fatigue.
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lol thats about when i turned it on this morning, and I thought the same thing. kept waiting for him to get broken but somehow he kept holding. i think isner just slumps and walks around slowly like murray. than when the point starts he looks fine.
 
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