Not in about 5 years. The knee surgeries were mounting. Peak Meles was about 150 hours on court over six weeks.
Retooled my grips and game to emulate Fed of all people just before the recent sabbatical.
You wouldn't be referring to our little butt picking friend?
Thiem would have mauled Stan. The whole half with Wawrinka and Murray last year was a joke once Zverev got bounced.
Merely suggesting that such forays ought to be left to the seasoned pros.You wouldn't be referring to our little butt picking friend?
He needed the 1R Moutet annihilation to stoke the emotional bonfire. Pretty bad blood as juniors in that rivalry, mostly the French teen's fault for being bush league by quitting a losing match two points away from Tsitsipas winning.Tsitsipas as well hasn't lost a set in Barcelona
R64 - Corentin Moutet - 137
R32 - Schwartzman - 17
R16 - Ramos-Vinolas - 40
QF - Thiem - 7
SF - Carrena Busta - 11
F - Nadal - 1
Four straight victories over high quality clay courters.
cc check back in a few as I'm going to do some statistical ANALysis just for you.
@cc0509 approved ANALysis.
LOL. You probably think Dimitrov is good on clay because he made SF at Monte-Carlo and have doubled down on Glassikori.LOL. You do all of these stats and watch nothing but tennis day in and day out and yet, you are one of the worst predictors on this board whereas I can watch a few key matches and get most of the picture most of the time.
I can't remember if its you or TA whose been on the Raonic clay train for years.
LOL. You do all of these stats and watch nothing but tennis day in and day out and yet, you are one of the worst predictors on this board whereas I can watch a few key matches and get most of the picture most of the time.
Cool story but I’m afraid that’s all it is..
Win-win (not really): 1) The reality is cool, or 2) Nadal further cements his specialist status.Cool story but I’m afraid that’s all it is..
). How do the players games match up.
cc loves me even coined the term Zedzilla:
6-1, 6-4, 6-4 loss to Nadal in Davis Cup nts given the recent Nadal maulings.I’m giving you a sympathy like because I feel sorry for your fingers that typed all that just for Nadal to give him a bagel and a breadstick.Statistics are tea leaves at best so far in the season, but give a general feel for the level of a players. Time to break down this matchup like I did for Thiem and PCB (both predicted Tsitsi in 2 @cc0509
Tsitsipas strengths:
1. Has goated against high spinners Gasquet and Thiem this year so he should play extremely well against Nadal.
2. First serve. Had three aces in a row against ARV and saw some 226 kph serves against PCB (140 mph)
3. Forehand - can hit through anyone on tour including Nadal, may be hard to read
4. Return - great reach should help against Nadal first serve and won 36% first serves against Shapo on clay who has a hooky lefty serve as well
5. Backhand - a raking spinny, deep shot that seems to go deeper under pressure. Against righty backhands its been highly effective. One of the keys to taking to Nadal is having the ability to attack his forehand and keep him honest. The Tsitsipas backhand is ultra reliable so it may defy Nadal and another poster pointed out that Nadal has a worse record against one-handed backhands despite his infamous abuse of the Federer backhand.
6. Going from defense to offense - surprising depth when really stretched allows Tsitsipas to often take advantage of the next shot and suprise the opponent with a winner.
7. According to some posters Tsitsi has great point construction like Kuerten. To me Stefanos plays like Federer in his dreams on clay. He's a very, very different style of clay courter from Nadal or Thiem.
8. Tough under pressure - very easy for Tsitsi to fall back on a grinding game plus he always has #6 above.
Tsistsipas weaknesses:
1. Take time away from him on both sides and he becomes very ordinary. PCB and ARV failed at this task (their forte) because they couldn't keep it up without UEs creeping in due to Tsitsipas heaviness and depth. On clay its difficult to expose Tsitsipas in this manner, but Nadal was very aggressive with his court position against Goffin today so he'll have a shot at this, but his heavy spin will actually slow his balls through the air and see Tsitsi strength #1 above (goats against spinny players).
2. Lefties - you could see it with ARV's lefty forehand doing some damage to the Tsistsipas backhand. The great question for this match is will Nadal be able to hit winners off the Tsitsi backhand. Trading cross court shots alone may not work. Tsitsipas is a very crafty player on clay so he may be able to exploit Nadal's leftiness to counteract this seeming mismatch.
3. Stamina - was forced into some grinding rallies late in the match with Busta that left him in some kind of Del Potro Del Possum mode (perhaps even more dangerous than the Del Possum). Needless to say this may become an issue for RG and would be in a three setter with Nadal.
This could be the recipe for an amazing upset.
cc loves me even coined the term Zedzilla:
On the Zedzilla front he's fifth in return games won on clay this year at 43% so look out if his serve from last year shows up.
So does your presence in this thread mean you rate the Tsitsipas backhand the GOAT one-hander on clay?
I love stats especially on clay and I'm loving what I see so its no effort at all. Tennis abstract had all the data.
His serve is just a lot worse and he's playing much more defensively. What is stupid on TTW is everyone of course things JCF was a coaching God and Zverev has attitude problems when of course the absolute reverse is the case as this kid has lived and breathed tour tennis (as in on it with his brother) from a very young age and is one of the hardest workers. Serve velocity and stats have swooned inexplicably. Eventually that should come around because no one has peaked at serving at age 20.
Heh. Weren't you an eager participant in the Nole Express to mediocrity?
This is the interesting factor. Can Nadal without Moya this week figure out and expose the seemingly invulnerable Tsitsipas clay game? I suspect he's going to go heavy to the Tsitsi backhand and somehow I think Tsitsi is pretty used to that gag.
I think Nadal has won too many matches on clay to not be able to find a way if he had trouble. Many young baseliners can’t handle shorter rally balls well. I have a feeling Nadal will try to draw him in if he can’t beat him from baseline. Besides it is not like Nadal will even need to change his game. His spin can open up the angels like nobody else. It is entirely possible, that his forehand will not have a problem.
Will you please stop calling this guy "Zedzilla" when he's never made it past R4 of a major? Unless you mean this version...
awesomeThe Ledger Legend of Tsitsipas
1. 56.1% points won on clay this year - (Nadal career 56.0%, Djokovic 54.0% are the best since 1991)
2. 56.7% points won at Barcelona against the best clay courters (Nadal 58.0% this week against a much weaker path in Barcelona)
3. 46.0% return points won (Nadal career 46.6%, Coria 45.8%, Djoko 43.5%) Nadal 50.2% in Barcelona this week
4. 68.1% serve points won (Federer career 67.0%, Nadal 66.1%) Nadal 67.7% this week
5. 75.9% first serve points won (Federer career 74.5%)
vs early Nadal:
2006 Barcelona/Monte-Carlo 56.2% points won (Tsitsi at 56.1% for both events with MC loss to Goffin)
2005 Barc/MC 58.7% points won (Nadal 2018 59.6%)
vs peak Kuerten (Acapulco and Monte-Carlo 2001):
1. 55.7% points won (Tsitsi 56.1%)
2. 77.0% first serve points won (Tsitsi 74.0%, but higher first serves in for Titsi)
3. Both at 68.1% serve points won
4. 44.2% return points won (Tsitsi 43.5%)
With a bad loss to Nadal Tsitsipas's numbers could swoon a bit, but still these are great numbers by any standard especially the serve numbers.
Tomorrow's final may not be a walk in the park for Nadal.
I'm doing the Zedzilla (@cc0509 is the mastermind behind Zedzilla and now apparently a danceWill you please stop calling this guy "Zedzilla" when he's never made it past R4 of a major? Unless you mean this version...
) as this match reminds me so much of the eve of Rome last year where everyone thought Djokovic would win. The stats have certainly aligned with Tsitsi's even better and he'll need it because this is Nadal at or near his best, not Pepovic.
I’d agree wholeheartedly.
Is this just fraudulent transference? Rafa on clay actually has a worse record against one-handers.
Yes, in all three match threads
This one is fraud free, but I'll be out before too long as friend coming over to watch.
