SMC1809 wrote:

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I agree completely with you RJA, but many on here have been saying exactly the same things as Greg.

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To be fair, I think all of us, including the commentators, the LTA support team and most of the forum posters would still tell him to slow down a bit more between serves, especially between first and second serves. Not so much as to disturb his rhythmn, but certainly enough to focus more, visualise his target and set himself properly for second serves. That's point 1.

On point 5, I also heard Leon shouting out to him to "build the point" during set 1. I don't think that was a call to be less aggressive or go for less, just to pick his moments more cannily. 

On points 2-4, although I didn't see sets 2-4 of the match, I certainly agree with RJA and SMC that if that was Greg's advice, I'm not sure it made much sense. Losing individual points by playing higher risk tennis can have a positive impact on the match, by keeping that constant pressure on the opponent, and forcing them to go for more themselves. Assuming you also win your fair share of such points, and also force the other player into changing their "go to" game.

I love Greg's enthusiasm, but I do find him borderline hysterical at times, like a sort of 6 foot 3 Woody Allen with no glasses and a tennis racquet..

 

I didn't hear Greg but agree with you RJA - nonsense!

What I'd heard (from tweets, an interview back at wimbledon time and one 'friend-of'a-friend' sort of thing) was that Greg's advice is always: go for the huge first serve, go for the first serve. If that doesn't work, he doesn't have any other advice - it is a sort of 'well, just get the ball back and maybe chip and charge the net or the guy'll make an error' sort of advice.

I don;t know if this is true but it obviously ties in exactly with Greg's style of play and, also obviously, is contrary to the majority of modern players' games. So probably not too helpful . . .

And, yes, Dan has a wonderful fluid attacking style - he's going to make errors, it's part of the game. As Dan said himself, Tomic just 'pushed the ball back mid-court' in the TB and look where that got him.

As an aside, there's been a lot of press today about the Monfils/Isner match with Isner supposedly disgusted at the amount of support Gael got and the US commentators retaliating by saying that the US crowd love Gael because he's a real character, a breath of fresh air, a cool young dude etc. etc.
Well, our Dan has a bit of the Gael going on and I'm not surprised that the US press have warmed to him and his 'story'. Nothing against Tommy but I'm sure the crowd will be rooting for Dan.

I'm going to defend Greg a little, because he has a huge knowledge of the game and he is particularly close to GB mens tennis. Ask him to talk about women's tennis now thats a completely different matter, clueless.

All I think he was asking Evo to do was to temper some of that aggression from time to time. Evo occasionally was going for some low percentage returns, when if he had just made the return he would have kept the pressure on Tomic. Slowing down between points is valid and of course Evo was using the towel tactic, something Greg knows all about to help with that.

To be fair Evo basically worked it out for himself as the match went on, as in when to press not just attacking every ball.

However I agree with RJA about the 1st serve/2nd serve as in to continue to be aggressive there.

Greg was certainly right about his criticism of Evo's use of the drop shot which he used too often and Tomic was reading everytime.

philwrig wrote:

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I'm going to defend Greg a little, because he has a huge knowledge of the game and he is particularly close to GB mens tennis.

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Which to be honest is not something I am that keen on. He might be okay in a limited support role but I wouldn't want to see him have a major role in the development of our elite youngsters.

RJA wrote:

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Unbelievable, simply unbelievable. Dan gets a prime time slot on a massive court and how does Neil Harman respond

As ever @usopen shows scant regard for coverage of their sport. Evans v Robredo last gives GB papers no chance of making it. As if they care

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Buffoon! Hasn't he noticed this internet-thingy is changing the way people consume information......would have thought with him constantly bemoaning the redundancies amongst his erstwhile colleagues every month , he might have spotted that newspapers in the traditional sense are all but dead! Really beggars belief!

Dan should, of course, consider it an honour and a privilege that Mr Harman may grace him with his presence tomorrow; I'm sure thats top of his agenda.

If one is self-centred enough, one might actually start believing that the interests of the thousands of spectactors in the stadium and the  millions of TV watchers in GB is less important than the print publishing deadlines of 1 or 2 British newspapers whose circulations are plummeting every week.

-- Edited by korriban on Friday 30th of August 2013 09:29:35 PM

As one of the ones that was calling for Dan to slow down - in self-defence I must say that was in the first set, and inbetween first and second serves, at a time when he threw in a few double faults. A very short pause just to take a breath I felt would not come amiss. The speed wasn't working in that set. 

Otherwise I'm all for quick play!