What do Mohamed Lahyani, Nick Kyrgios and Roger Federer have in common? They looked like garbage today in Day 4 play in and around Flushing Meadows. Federer We'll start with Federer (to be fair, we're not questioning his character). I clarified how the end of his R1 match was near fatal, having a chance at …
Category: Ivan Lendl
Up Next: IW Quarter Finals
Well, another quick post because that's all I have time for. I leave tomorrow night for Indian Wells Semi Final action on Saturday. Not what I had in mind when I purchased the tickets. I have the potential of seeing: Pablo Carreno Busta v Dominic Thiem and Jack Sock v Nick Kyrgios :0 That would …
The End of Becker
I haven't written too much about the Becker-effect, but I did retrieve this from a July post after Wimbledon 2016: "Look at Djokovic’s career arch and you can see the affect of Becker (unless this is just strange coincidence😉. Djokovic became pretty relevant in the greatness discussion in 2011 when he was actually only being coached …
Addendum to my Addendum
My last post was perhaps as befuddled as is this Fanovic spin zone. The fanboys and girls are jumping on Becker's loose tongue and the hysteria surrounding this spin is as loud as was the uber confidence that their hero would demolish Murray in the WTF like he did that straw man Nishikori. Let me …
Djokovic’s Run
All of the discussion right now is on the impressive run of one Andrew Barron Murray. Undoubtedly, he is having a fantastic year, including having collected his sixth ATP title of the year last week in Vienna. His 2016 achievements include, of course, an Olympic gold medal, so the Brit has indeed been on a big run, looking …
Behold the Madness
Matt's Blog exists to counter some of the madness in the tennis universe by which vulnerable community members might become startled, confused, led astray, and disillusioned. Or worse. The sport seems to be under some sort of attack from tennis spokespeople who somehow think they know what the sport needs. In most of these cases, for almost any relevant …
U.S. Open at the QF
I have so many thoughts on what's happening in NYC I'm not sure where to begin. I am going to keep this very short (sorry), but it's late, and there are so many bigger conversations I want to start in terms of the tennis here and now and, of course, the bigger picture - what …
Looking Back While Moving Forward
I have not written in a while. Obviously. Nor did I watch much tennis other than some Olympics matches and a couple of Toronto/Cincy contests I sniffed perhaps by accident. Between the crumbling nature of competitive excellence on tour and the Djokovic fanboy blowhards, I needed a nice little break. My last post was a bit …
Impressions of Wimbledon
First of all, congratulations to Andy Murray. Getting that third major does back-up his two odd-ball majors in 2012 (USO) and 2013 (WB) when Djokovic's form took a long-term dive, Nadal was typically erratic and Federer was in the midst of his steady decline. I watched as much of the match (taped) as I could, but, frankly, …
More SF Reaction and Final Preview
I wrote the "Roger Wilting" piece about ten minutes after the match, while at work. That post, then, was a quick reaction to the Raonic v Federer match: the image of Roger wilting was as vivid as Raonic rising. This image has almost obscured other images of Federer in our tennis imagination. Of course, even …
