Cincinnati practice report please fill in

[bublikking]

Yesterday i went to community day: here’s my practice observations! I really enjoy these threads so please fill in more information being that there’s a lot more practice to come:
I watched miomir kecmanovic and sumit nagal practice from afar and man can kecmanovic hit the ball he was playing points with nagal and just painting lines and hitting winners! Definitely wonder why he’s not ranked higher than 50 even though I know he’s been top 30 in the last two years.
Iga practiced with the gold medal winner I forget her name and the gap between 1 in the world and 7 in the world is so drastic on the practice court itself. Iga was missing long on some things but she was dialed in I thought and a clear winner in who looked better
Frances tiafoe & tallon griekspoor caught only a bit of this I find frances’ forehand to be so weird looking up close but he was really hitting it well but his take back isn’t something I see a lot! Trust me I’m not judging at all, tallon crushes the ball and was pretty even keeled!
Struff and musetti we’re practicing forever and gosh struff crushes the ball up close but musetti has so much variety and I love his one hand up close it made me wonder what tsisipas would play like with Lorenzo’s backhand variety
Also met kecmanovic after his practice walking back from the practice courts and he couldn’t have been a nicer guy!
Sorry if this wasn’t very in depth it was just some things i picked up on! I will be back there Tuesday and Wednesday to see more!

 

[InsuranceMan]

Cincy content is always good each year, I appreciate these

 

[norcal]

Iga practiced with the gold medal winner I forget her name and the gap between 1 in the world and 7 in the world is so drastic on the practice court itself

Thanks for the report!

Reminds me of watching Djokovic practice with Dimitrov at IW (pre-covid); Djoko was dominating Dimi in groundstroke games even though Dimi was top 10 at the time. The difference in level was much more than I expected.

 

[bublikking]

Thanks for the report!

Reminds me of watching Djokovic practice with Dimitrov at IW (pre-covid); Djoko was dominating Dimi in groundstroke games even though Dimi was top 10 at the time. The difference in level was much more than I expected.

Completely agree with you and it took me by surprise

 

[Moose Malloy]

Thanks for the report!

Reminds me of watching Djokovic practice with Dimitrov at IW (pre-covid); Djoko was dominating Dimi in groundstroke games even though Dimi was top 10 at the time. The difference in level was much more than I expected.

Well Zheng did just beat Iga at the Olympics(assume that is the "gold medal" winner who he was talking about), so maybe the difference isn't that big.

I went to the USO a lot in the 90s - the worst player I saw in practice consistently over those years was Sampras

 

[Open Stance]

I was there today. They have reconfigured the practice courts making it a little harder to get up close to practice than in years past. I watched Monfils play a practice set against Draper. Ferreira is now coaching Draper. Both guys didn’t look that great. Lots of errors.

Kecmonovic crushes the ball but he doesn’t win much because he’s slow from what I’ve seen of him live.

Iga was there but a lot of people were watching so I didn’t fight the crowd. Coco was doing drills with a male hitting partner with Gilbert right next to her.

Watched Sonegro beat Coric in a R1 qualifying match. Sucks both those guys got stuck in the qualies. High quality tennis. Lorenzo played very well.

 

[InsuranceMan]

I was there today. They have reconfigured the practice courts making it a little harder to get up close to practice than in years past. I watched Monfils play a practice set against Draper. Ferreira is now coaching Draper. Both guys didn’t look that great. Lots of errors.

Kecmonovic crushes the ball but he doesn’t win much because he’s slow from what I’ve seen of him live.

Iga was there but a lot of people were watching so I didn’t fight the crowd. Coco was doing drills with a male hitting partner with Gilbert right next to her.

Watched Sonegro beat Coric in a R1 qualifying match. Sucks both those guys got stuck in the qualies. High quality tennis. Lorenzo played very well.

Lorenzo can ball sometimes

 

[Ray Mercer]

Yesterday i went to community day: here’s my practice observations! I really enjoy these threads so please fill in more information being that there’s a lot more practice to come:
I watched miomir kecmanovic and sumit nagal practice from afar and man can kecmanovic hit the ball he was playing points with nagal and just painting lines and hitting winners! Definitely wonder why he’s not ranked higher than 50 even though I know he’s been top 30 in the last two years.
Iga practiced with the gold medal winner I forget her name and the gap between 1 in the world and 7 in the world is so drastic on the practice court itself. Iga was missing long on some things but she was dialed in I thought and a clear winner in who looked better
Frances tiafoe & tallon griekspoor caught only a bit of this I find frances’ forehand to be so weird looking up close but he was really hitting it well but his take back isn’t something I see a lot! Trust me I’m not judging at all, tallon crushes the ball and was pretty even keeled!
Struff and musetti we’re practicing forever and gosh struff crushes the ball up close but musetti has so much variety and I love his one hand up close it made me wonder what tsisipas would play like with Lorenzo’s backhand variety
Also met kecmanovic after his practice walking back from the practice courts and he couldn’t have been a nicer guy!
Sorry if this wasn’t very in depth it was just some things i picked up on! I will be back there Tuesday and Wednesday to see more!

That’s funny you saw Kecmanovic hit winners because the guy is the definition of a baseline grinder. It must be the faster Cincinatti surface. I haven’t watched in a few years but as little as a couple years ago Cincinatti was one of the fastest courts around. It was a treat to watch.

 

[Open Stance]

I was there today. They have reconfigured the practice courts making it a little harder to get up close to practice than in years past. I watched Monfils play a practice set against Draper. Ferreira is now coaching Draper. Both guys didn’t look that great. Lots of errors.

Kecmonovic crushes the ball but he doesn’t win much because he’s slow from what I’ve seen of him live.

Iga was there but a lot of people were watching so I didn’t fight the crowd. Coco was doing drills with a male hitting partner with Gilbert right next to her.

Watched Sonegro beat Coric in a R1 qualifying match. Sucks both those guys got stuck in the qualies. High quality tennis. Lorenzo played very well.

Also...

Opelka was working on a short ball drill with his coach. I watched for about 5 minutes and he missed about 75% of the time. Guess that's why he's working on it.

Fritz and Tiafoe were practicing together. They were on the far end of the practice courts so I couldn't really observe what was going on.

Khachanov was practicing with (I think) Tabilo. A lot of unfamiliar names and faces in the top 30-40 these days. I've watched Khach practice 2-3 times and he always brings it.

New ownership has made some tweaks to the stadium. They replaced all the seats including removing bench / bleachers in the top 15 rows and replacing them with individual seats. I wonder if that will reduce the capacity at all.

Weather looks good all week with the possible exception of Friday. It was very pleasant today - sunny and a high temp of 78F/25.5C. It's supposed to get a little warmer later in the week but nothing like last year.

 

[bublikking]

I was there today. They have reconfigured the practice courts making it a little harder to get up close to practice than in years past. I watched Monfils play a practice set against Draper. Ferreira is now coaching Draper. Both guys didn’t look that great. Lots of errors.

Kecmonovic crushes the ball but he doesn’t win much because he’s slow from what I’ve seen of him live.

Iga was there but a lot of people were watching so I didn’t fight the crowd. Coco was doing drills with a male hitting partner with Gilbert right next to her.

Watched Sonegro beat Coric in a R1 qualifying match. Sucks both those guys got stuck in the qualies. High quality tennis. Lorenzo played very well.

Coric’s injury issues/lack of form the past few months have been rough. Former champ two years ago, q1 loser dang

 

[bublikking]

Miomir is so solid from the baseline I’ve liked him and kept up with him since his alcaraz match at Miami 22’! Please keep the miomir updates up guys I’d love to know why he’s not ranked higher like he once was

 

[jmnk]

[...]
I watched miomir kecmanovic and sumit nagal practice from afar and man can kecmanovic hit the ball he was playing points with nagal and just painting lines and hitting winners! Definitely wonder why he’s not ranked higher than 50 even though I know he’s been top 30 in the last two years.
[...]

This is why watching players play for points on TV does absolutely no justice to the insane level they are at. On practice courts, when points don't count, literally everyone in top 150 or so looks like a potential #1. Watching tennis players practice should be a mandatory experience for any tennis fans - so they no longer post those ridiculous claims 'player X can't hit three balls in a row in court. Even _I_ can rally 15-20 balls'.