Click on the twitter link to hear the short interview Novak gave at the Tennis Channel desk. His thoughts on the Bo5 format are deplorable and weak. I am surprised he actually thinks even MAJORS should be Bo3. He did note that he disagreed with Federer, with a chuckle, so maybe he’s saying this about Bo5 just to be antagonistic? But I doubt it. He seemed genuine in his imbecilic perspective on Bo5. What a shame.
I can’t even fathom this point-of-view.
As for the tennis yesterday that I was able to watch.
Kyrgios, in all of his antic-filled bullshit, toyed with a very difficult Coric. When he wants to play, he’s unplayable, almost. I didn’t see the second set, but I suspect Nick tanked. Get him off the tour until he can pass this character test of playing hard, trying and not acting like a fourteen year-old.
Stan continues to roll. A Federer v Stan QF could be phenomenal. The two Swiss should be able to advance today in their respective matches.
Djokovic v Dimitrov should be a Novak routine win unless he continues to play like that first set against Mannarino and Dimitrov actually puts together some brilliant hard court tennis. He has the game for this surface; he is the defending champ. However, I see a three-set Novak win at worst for the Serb. Losing to Dimitrov would be a tough loss in his pre-USO tune-up.
Chung v Del Potro needs to still be played from yesterday. Not sure about Juan Martin’s health. Not sure this has much consequence if his wrist is ailing, even if does win.
Shapovalov v Raonic should favor the big serve of Milos. Denis getting through that would be a marvelous sign of his hard court tennis at this point.
The Khachanov v Cilic has my interest, as well. Khachanov is becoming a legit power tennis player along the lines of a Querrey. Does he take the next step? Cilic should win here, but Karen’s confidence is growing. Should be good.
Anderson v Goffin and Haase v Carreno Busta fill-out the day’s schedule.
Shaping-up to be a nice next few days of business-end Masters tennis.
Enjoy.
I can see Stan defeating Fed in QF, Fed’s game as always fluent and nice to watch, but if Stan can move well, his bazookas on both wings can make Fed running more than he likes and be required to make one step back. Fed is always vulnerable to power hitting opponents.
Again about Nick. You say “like a 14 years old” .. my answer is “he is mentally 14 years old and he likes it”. Letting things happen according to own scenario. If this is acceptable for ATP, probably not, but Nick is still a guy, the public wants to watch, so he brings still some money into ATP’s pot. They will accept it and he will never win big titles and he is not very eager to do this.
I have not heard Novak’s interview about Bo5 format. Hard to understand. He is rather well accustomed to it and was winning a lot of that over some years. Don’t understand his motivation. My concept would be to set up a time limit for a match, say 4 or 5 hours and after the time is gone, to play a champions tie-break. Things like Isner-Mahut may be good thing for record lovers, but not for tennis quality and public.
Bo5 is some special format, where most of wins are collected by not many very top players.
Being spectator (but – thanks god – not sitting on the stadium – I would give right Novak in one aspect. Even if it’s epic and dramatic Wimbledon final featuring Fed and Rafa or Djoker, I cannot sit and watch more than 3 hours at a time. Not healthy for my old backbone 😉
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Stan is looking very dangerous, since Toronto. No matter what happens in Cincy, and I agree he could trouble Fed, he will be major factor in NYC.
Partly because of the Bo5. The Isner-Mahut is such an exception. And that’s a TB issue, not a Bo5 issue.
Best of five is critical for the integrity of the sport. Period. Record the matches so you can fast-forward if it’s too much.
This is ridiculous.
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Karen Khachanov is silently becoming a real threat. He doesn’t create a lot of drama (like Kyrgios), and he’s not too “showy” like some of the others (Shapovalov). Just solid!
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Totally agree.
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