Week 24 - ATP 250 Series - Eastbourne : Mens Round 2

Count Zero · Tennis legend

RE: Week 24 - ATP 250 Series - Eastbourne : Mens Round 2

angry1 · Lower Club Player

spud wrote:

angry1 wrote:

spud wrote:

Count Zero wrote:

i wonder if boggo has played himself back into dc contention.....

Tbh Count, I think for Boggo to play himself back into DC consideration he has to do something really big now. Winning today, I would have said yes to him but losing again after coming so close is what i really expected. Yes, he probably has jst as much talent Murray i would say, honest. But how the media has attacked him from so early on in his career and how his mental side has let him down on soo many big occasions, its hard for him to be seen as a long term player for DC now as we have younger players who have that mental aggresion on a court, who want the win that bit more. My opinion, i think im fair. :)

-- Edited by spud on Wednesday 17th of June 2009 09:11:57 PM

It was a really good effort from Alex,but as much talent as Andy?Not a chance IMO.Andy was ranked higher at 18 than Alex has ever been,exceptional talent would have shone through by now.
If he follows this up with a decent draw and a similar performance he'll win a match at Wimbledon.That would barring someone else making a big move mean that he should have a chance of DC selection.Even John Lloyd approached being complimentary,he had little option today.

Yeh, i do think alex has about the same amount of talent as Murray in tennis skills on a court, maybe not as much imagination but; if you watch him hit the ball on his groundstrokes, especially the backhand which he is very clever with, he hits it as clean as any top 20 player i say. He has the ability on both sides off the ground and uses like with Tursunov his opponents power in his attack, especially on the backhand where he can time it on a short swing really well.
As i said, with Alex, he falters with wanting the win enough, playing the bigger points to a high level and just the basic mental side of the game to top 20 level. As i have heard all the commentators say when alex has played, including people like Cash, Petchey is that with the Brits but i think Alex in particular they say how. " The difference between where he/they are now and top 20 is not the tennis ability but the mental side". I totally agree.

I really don't think anyone could be nearly as good as Andy and get to Alex's age without at least say getting to within holding serve of beating a top player.Andy when ranked 300+ at 18 beat Stepanek a top 20 seed at Wimbledon in 3 straight sets.Alex looks a very good player but he's shown no signs of being great to me.

To me on the occasions I've seen Alex he seems often to lack the ability to play safe tennis without getting bossed around because of low margin strokes.

Against Roddick when they went in he was great,but when a bit off he can struggle even against far lesser players.Yesterday was better at times but in the 3rd set tb the most important miss was because he couldn't trust himself to hit dtl hard enough with net clearance causing him to net it.

Most of my evaluation of talent is what you can fairly regularly reproduce and regardless of pressure Andy is IMO far superior in that regard.

Also the difference between top 3 and top 20 is enormous IMO.

-- Edited by angry1 on Thursday 18th of June 2009 04:59:31 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

I know I have in the past been particularly critical of physical issues regarding Boggo ( and it is good to see him at last seem to be making much more of an effort here to help him make the most of the talent that he undoubtably has ) and there are other issues that still clearly arise about his match play and his ability to close out matches.

And I do think he is well capable of being much higher ranked, though his ranking is what he deserves just now.

But "as much talent as Murray", sorry no way. If he had, that would have much more compensated for some of these other factors.

Where he is ranked is due in a large part I feel to the things I mentioned earlier but also largely due to the fact that he most certainly does not have as much talent as Andy.

Some of the inspirational, instinctive, sometimes quite incredible, things that Andy does regularly on a tennis court, Boggo does as far as I can see much much more occasionally. A player supposedly as talented as Andy would produce the truelly inspirational and unexpected much more regularly.

I very much agree with some of angry's points.

PS : on reading back over the posts I appreciate spud was talking more about sheer ball striking, and i do get some of what he was saying although overall I would still disagree that that it is as good as Andy's. As to "maybe not as much imagination" as Andy, sorry as I kind of indicated earlier nowhere even close to as much imagination as Andy.

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 18th of June 2009 06:16:35 PM

Ben W · Social player

Tursonov went on to win the title in eastbourne withou dropping another set!
Puts boggo's performance against him into context a bit!

steven · Tennis legend

You beat me to it - I just came on to say exactly the same thing.

Oh why can't he just win these matches and show all the doubters (including himself) how good he's capable of being.