Davis Cup - USA vs. France

Who comes out on top?

  • Total voters
    50
  • Poll closed .
leonidas1982 said:
Should Blake be considered more of an All-court, all-round player than a baseliner. He certainly plays different when compared to ther baseliners such as Roddick.
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if his aproach shots were better sure. ive seen him mess up to many aproach shots to consider him an all courter. when he gets there his volleys are good but his transition is bad. dont know if thats a lack of confidence going forward or if he is mentaly weak and just messes up. aproach shots hit to the forehand has to be smoked and to many times blake just pushes it over there.
 
The broadcast switched over from Versus to Tennis Channel at like 4-3 in the 5th and then at 5-6 in the 5th, TC all of a sudden went to commericials for like 10 minutes and only came back after the match was already over. WTF?????!!!!!!!! :? :evil:
 
BreakPoint said:
The broadcast switched over from Versus to Tennis Channel at like 4-3 in the 5th and then at 5-6 in the 5th, TC all of a sudden went to commericials for like 10 minutes and only came back after the match was already over. WTF?????!!!!!!!! :? :evil:
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Thank god, because I thought I missed the last points on Mathieu's serve, but what can we do, eh? :-?
 
maverick66 said:
if his aproach shots were better sure. ive seen him mess up to many aproach shots to consider him an all courter. when he gets there his volleys are good but his transition is bad. dont know if thats a lack of confidence going forward or if he is mentaly weak and just messes up. aproach shots hit to the forehand has to be smoked and to many times blake just pushes it over there.
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Agreed. He chooses some really bad times to come to net as well. I've seen matches where he coughed up some of the most important points do to questionable approaches.
 
BreakPoint said:
The broadcast switched over from Versus to Tennis Channel at like 4-3 in the 5th and then at 5-6 in the 5th, TC all of a sudden went to commericials for like 10 minutes and only came back after the match was already over. WTF?????!!!!!!!! :? :evil:
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Man that sucks. Watching it on the Versus website wasn't so bad. At least they showed the end of the match.
 
It wasn't that Mathieu blew away those two match points, Blake just played unbelievably. That 40-15 point was amazing; Blake returned a 1st serve bomb, then chased down a Mathieu forehand all the way across the court and retrieved it somehow behind his back (if memory serves me well). Gimelstob said that Mathieu would have won that point against anyone else. I think the whole of France is replaying that point in their minds, and wondering what if...;)
 
No way James Blake can be considered an "all court" player. In the traditional sense, an "all court" player is one who serves & volley when he wants, as well as play from the baseline. Andy Roddick played more of an "all court" game today. He wasn't afraid to come into the net, and when he did, he stuck it out there until the point was either won or lost. Blake will be drawn in, then makes a hasty retreat back to the baseline. Blake is a "baseliner". He moves quite well side-to-side, but not up and back.

"All court" is rarely used in the context of a players ability on different types of court surfaces. It is used to describe a playing style.
 
Fedace said:
I will predict that French team will upset the Bryans tomorrow. Bryans has not been themselves lately.
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Didn't they just win a masters series? Clement and Llodra lost to the South Africians at the Sony Ericsson in a close match, then the South Africans lost to the Brians in the next round easily.

I agree that they have not had their traditional results so far this year, but they look to be in good form now. They won the Sony Ericsson last week and lost in the quarterfinals of the PLO by a close score. I expect a close match. Let us all be thankful that there won't be that stupid third set 10-point match tiebreaker. We'll get to see a real doubles match.
 
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vbranis said:
That 40-15 point was amazing; Blake returned a 1st serve bomb, then chased down a Mathieu forehand all the way across the court and retrieved it somehow behind his back (if memory serves me well). Gimelstob said that Mathieu would have won that point against anyone else. I think the whole of France is replaying that point in their minds, and wondering what if...;)
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I just came back from the macth...I was on the baseline on Mathieu's side and when he hit that cross court shot he thought he had won the match, he completely neglected to follow the shot to the net and suddenly we all see the ball coming back...UNREAL !!!! Well done Blake...what a tough loss for Mathieu.
 
simi said:
No way James Blake can be considered an "all court" player. In the traditional sense, an "all court" player is one who serves & volley when he wants, as well as play from the baseline. Andy Roddick played more of an "all court" game today. He wasn't afraid to come into the net, and when he did, he stuck it out there until the point was either won or lost. Blake will be drawn in, then makes a hasty retreat back to the baseline. Blake is a "baseliner". He moves quite well side-to-side, but not up and back.

"All court" is rarely used in the context of a players ability on different types of court surfaces. It is used to describe a playing style.
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I don't believe serving and volley qualifies one to be an all-court. One must be able to serve and volley as well as being able to chase balls down. And Blake does serve and volley.
 
Just back from the matches...

I had a great seat, sixth row behind the baseline on the aisle with a fantastic line of vision. A virtual VIP seat. And Gasquet doesn't play. What a disappointment. But I did get his autograph.

I greatly enjoyed Michael Llodra's tennis game. I've never seen him play before. He plays a great classic serve-and-volley game with sweet touch. He reminds me a lot of Stefan Edberg, except he hits a bigger serve instead of the kicker that Edberg used. But he moves very well and volleys nicely, too. Like Edberg, Llodra doesn't do a lot with his groundies, just tries to use them to get to the net.

Roddick served lights-out! I think Llodra only got a couple of break points chances all match, and that was late in the third set. Roddick returned very well and forced Llodra to make some very tough low volleys and half-volleys. A few of these landed short in the court during the tiebreaks, and that pretty much determined the outcome. But except for the one break he suffered in the first set, Llodra took care of his serve pretty nicely with some great serving and perfect volleying. He got into some deep holes on his serve a few times in the second and third sets, but always came up with great shotmaking to come back and hold.

With his serve, Roddick is the monstor-truck-act of men's tennis. The thing is unreal -- looks unreal. The guy's serve is freaky good... what can you say?

Mathieu made a few too many unforced errors off the forehand side during the match. If that side had been as good as his backhand, he would have won the match in three or four sets. He just coughed up errors on some routine shots off the forehand, and didn't return consistently off the forehand. But he hit some blistering backhands.

Give Blake credit. He played his best tennis when he was facing two match points. I really thought the match was over. Mathieu had a very early break in the final set and then held to consolidate, but gave the break back midway in the set. Then he got the break again, and we know the rest of the story. Mathieu missed too many first serves in those last two service games in the fifth, and even when he got in a first serve Blake was still making strong returns. Blake played seemingly without nerves in the clutch and certainly produced his best tennis during those last four games of the set.

I went down and walked out on the court after the crowd cleared out just to see how it felt. It had some cushion to it and more texture than I thought it would. I play on slicker feeling public hardcourts all the time. I'd call it a medium fast surface. But it didn't feel like it would be terribly fast. The ball didn't seem to speed up after the bounce. I've played on courts where the ball would speed up after the bounce. If this is one of the fastest courts the pros ever see, then they are playing on some slow hardcourts and indoor courts these days.
 
leonidas1982 said:
I don't believe serving and volley qualifies one to be an all-court. One must be able to serve and volley as well as being able to chase balls down. And Blake does serve and volley.
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i agree you dont need a serve and volley game to all court. you do need to be able to come forward consistently and he doesnt. to many times he runs up and looks lost. or he hits such a bad aproach that he has no chance at a play. his transition game is not good enough to be an all courter.
 
Lights out serving

Roddick just played an unbelievable match against Llodra especially when serving. I mean he had an astounding 30 aces in the match which is just crazy. You know after his first few service games I knew Roddick had this match in the bag because Llodra wasn't getting hardly, if any break opportunities. It was just an amazing match by Roddick and he deserved to win, plain and simple.
 
arg... another cruel loss for PHM. :?
both played rather good, it was a nice match... and credit to blake, he was hitting the ball like a madman when facing the match points... it was a bit all or nothing... and everything was in during these last few games ! :shock:

i hope the bryan² lose the double so that the tie is not already over before sunday...
 
quest01 said:
Roddick just played an unbelievable match against Llodra especially when serving. I mean he had an astounding 30 aces in the match which is just crazy. You know after his first few service games I knew Roddick had this match in the bag because Llodra wasn't getting hardly, if any break opportunities. It was just an amazing match by Roddick and he deserved to win, plain and simple.
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Yes i agree, Roddick's game is founded on his serves. This is fine and works great against most players except Federer. When certain player is able to read his serves and gets alot of it back, andy seem to get lost and gets lost as to what to do.
 
vive le beau jeu ! said:
arg... another cruel loss for PHM. :?
both played rather good, it was a nice match... and credit to blake, he was hitting the ball like a madman when facing the match points... it was a bit all or nothing... and everything was in during these last few games ! :shock:

i hope the bryan² lose the double so that the tie is not already over before sunday...
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Yeah, I feel bad for Polo. Poor kid played well pretty much that whole match, and you can tell he really loves Davis Cup.

Then there's James, who is starting to carve out a reputation as an American Davis Cup hero. Nowhere near Jim Courier/Johnny Mac yet, but he's getting there and I like him a lot.

Allez, Blake!
 
Gasquetrules said:
I greatly enjoyed Michael Llodra's tennis game. I've never seen him play before. He plays a great classic serve-and-volley game with sweet touch. He reminds me a lot of Stefan Edberg, except he hits a bigger serve instead of the kicker that Edberg used. But he moves very well and volleys nicely, too. Like Edberg, Llodra doesn't do a lot with his groundies, just tries to use them to get to the net.
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You got to enjoy the perfect touch this guy has on the net, to me it is similar to some of the best things Santoro did from the baseline, just magic. Sometimes you wonder if what you saw actually happened, these volleys of his seem impossible. His net play easily qualifies as probably the best at the moment, especially taking into account that his aproaches are so old school and yet he manages to do really well with his volleys.
 
Day one for France

daddy said:
You got to enjoy the perfect touch this guy has on the net, to me it is similar to some of the best things Santoro did from the baseline, just magic. Sometimes you wonder if what you saw actually happened, these volleys of his seem impossible. His net play easily qualifies as probably the best at the moment, especially taking into account that his aproaches are so old school and yet he manages to do really well with his volleys.
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Roddick was hitting blistering returns (when he wasn't aced!). Yet Llodra came in everytime even on his second serve! I didn't think anyone on the tour could do this anymore. Llorda was sweet off the volley, handling Roddick's heavy shots. And his overhead was very reliable. Now and then Llodra would flub a half-volley right off the shoetops or similar great Roddick return or pass, but Llodra won enough of the points on serve during the sets to hold. But one short volley off a low bullet in the tiebreak was all that Roddick needed.

Yeah, I would compare Llodra to a classic roadster sports car with his game... something like an E-type Jag. Again, Roddick is just the monstor-truck-act of the ATP tour. I could relate to Llodra's game. Except for the serve, he doesn't hit the ball any harder than a good 4.5 player. But his movement is so fluid and quick; his hands so sure; he's so accurate; he doesn't make unforced errors. Llodra is a very pleasant throwback to a much earlier style of tennis. It's great to see that someone is a talented enough athlete to win at this game.

Regarding Mathieu's loss, the outcome might have been different if Hawkeye technology had been installed. I was stitting almost on top of the baseline where Blake was playing when Mathieu tried to serve it out in the fifth. The shot on the baseline that was called out on matchpoint looked good to me. And a couple points later there was an out call on the add-court sideline on a sharply hit Mathieu backhand that could have gone either way. I wouldn't have called it out.... it was that close. Yeah... the line calls all went Blake's way in that game.

Mathieu took the loss very hard. You could see the extreme disapointment and hurt on his face as he walked off the court. I felt sorry for the guy. In the US, no more than one person in a hundred knew anything or cared anything about Blake's Davis Cup win... because tennis is not a sport that the registers with the masses of the American people. But I'm sure half the people in France (probably more) will know about Mathieu's fifth-set loss because tennis is a very big deal in France -- especially Davis Cup tennis. Pulling out that win would have been huge for Mathieu. Dropping serve twice in a row to lose it in the fifth will haunt him forever.

With the courts playing as fast as they were, I imagine Guy Forget's decision to play Llodra and Mathieu and leave Gasquet on the bench was probably the right one. With his very long strokes I have to think Gasquet would not have done any better than Llodra or Mathieu -- and perhaps not as well.
 
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nice to see clement/llodra beat the bryan² ! :)
at least the 1st match of tomorrow won't be a dead rubber... but i don't know who will play against roddick...... gasquet didn't post any decent result since the beginning of 2008 (i listened to an interview of him on saturday, and he really seemed to be on another planet) and polo might still be a bit devastated by the blake match... :-?
 
The Bryan brothers were expected to win this match but failed, thats too bad. With Roddick's 15-2 hard court record in Davis Cup I think he will do fine in his next match.
 
The thing is that tommorrow we are going to see really good matches
If Mathieu manages to handle Roddick's serve in just a few games he is a much better player if they start baseline exchanges. And I think that Llodra's S&V game can give blake some trouble. So a comeback is not impossible...
 
quest01 said:
The Bryan brothers were expected to win this match but failed, thats too bad. With Roddick's 15-2 hard court record in Davis Cup I think he will do fine in his next match.
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Bryans are just not playing as well as they did last year.
 
Bryans just ran into more talented opponents

The Bryans are a great doubles team simply because they specialize in doubles and they play together all the time. But in Michael Llodra they simply ran into a player with more talent and ability than they have. Llodra can partner with any decent player and beat the Bryans.

Michael Llodra has really turned some heads and earned some respect with his play in doubles and singles this year.

I also agree with the previous post. If Roddick doesn't serve lights-out, he could lose to Mathieu, and Llodra could pull the upset on Blake. He played very well against Roddick.

I think the issue with Gasquet is how fit he is right now. I actually think he's had some good wins over tough opponents this year. He simply has had some incredibly tough first-round matches despite being a high-seeded player. For example, he had never beaten Dimitry Tursunov before this year. He's beaten him once and lost to him twice in extremely close three-set matches. He's also had to play Robin Soderling twice this year in early rounds, splitting matches. He has two wins over Igor Andreev. His losses have all come against very good hardcourt playeers: Blake, Tursunov, Soderling, Tsonga and Adnreev. It seems he keeps drawing the same opponents every tournament, but still has a winning record.

I hope he has a good clay season and gets and remains fit. I don't know how well his game would work on the courts in Winston-Salem. Perhaps Llodra and Mathieu are the better picks... provided neither is too exhausted from their previous matches this weekend.
 
Gasquetrules said:
Except for the serve, he doesn't hit the ball any harder than a good 4.5 player.
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this is so wrong it hurts. how can u say any pro hits the ball as hard as 4.5 player. have you seen a pro up close? you fail at analyzing matches and seriously this is up there for worst observation of a player ever.
 
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