Week 2 - Australian Open Qualifying (Hard)

indiana · Tennis legend

Week 2 - Australian Open Qualifying (Hard)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

wolf wrote:
JP can be tricky, it wasn't a match I was confident about.

Nor was I. So disappointed to have my fears realised. hmm

FriendofLouieG · Lower Club Player

JP Smith came very close to beating Mischa Zverev in Brisbane last week. For some context.
He is also a serve-volley specialist - never easy to play against as Andy found last year at the AO.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Great to hear from someone who has watched a lot of Cam, the challenges for his future development are obviously slightly different for him now, to be fair he has stepped up at least 3 tiers of competence over the last 6 months in terms of the level at which he performs week in week out.

College tennis week in week out sits between British Tour and Sharm futures. At the elite level national champs etc its decent futures level but you are still likely to come across better players in development on the Spanish Futures circuit for example. Cam has established himself as an elite challenger player on the cusp of GS MD qualification by rank, a fantastic achievement in such a short time on the professional tour full time.

TCU served Cam very well and obviously college is about much more than Tennis but from a purely Tennis perspective you could argue that leaving after his sophmore year may have allowed specific areas to have been worked on earlier. Very easy to say retrospectively but much more important is that the individual is ready to make the step, fully committed and focused on what they need to make it. Such a seamless progression in such a short period of time bypassing a substantial chunk of the futures grind suggests to me that his transition from college to pro tour has been well timed.

I dont feel any of the issues described are unusual when making that step into the top 100 and essential to address if one is to progress into the top 50 and beyond where there are the creme de la creme if serve bots to work out and everyone is capable of a first serve pushing 130 mph. To be frank they are great problems to have.

TCUFrog · Social player

Yes and to be clear, not trying to bring Norrie down. What he's done in the past eight months is incredible with all the success he has had. From watching him first year at TCU to now it's incredible his improvement and the areas he has worked on to get better and make that jump.

I am really looking forward to this spring, he has a basically no points to defend so every tournament will add to his total and bump that ranking. I think it is very realistic that he is an automatic entry to the rest of the Grand Slams this year.

indiana · Tennis legend

TCUFrog wrote:
Yes and to be clear, not trying to bring Norrie down. What he's done in the past eight months is incredible with all the success he has had. From watching him first year at TCU to now it's incredible his improvement and the areas he has worked on to get better and make that jump.

I am really looking forward to this spring, he has a basically no points to defend so every tournament will add to his total and bump that ranking. I think it is very realistic that he is an automatic entry to the rest of the Grand Slams this year.

Yes, he's hugely well set up for top 100 and automatic MD entry to the French Open and Wimbledon ( not that he would presumably need it there but more satisfying to be in on ranking ).

His final points due off before these entry dates are his 2017 Maui Challenger SF 29 points on 29/01, leaving him at this stage with an absolute minimum 503 points from 13 counters banked for the French Open and Wimbledon. The current WR 100 is on 566 points.

Indeed even for the US Open entry date he only has a further total 29 points to come off ( his 80 Binghamton Challenger title points that got him into last year's US Open Qualifying will not come off before the MD entry date ). So he has an absolute minimum 474 points banked for there from 11 counters all added since 31/07/17. About 100 more points added by US Open entry date could be more than enough to get that job done.

So actually he has the chance to push quite far into the top 100 before his big points begin to come off. And hopefully his game can continue to develop such that he can at the very least defend his latter part of the year points. And thus comfortably make next year's Aussie Open MD, having got pretty close on essentially half a year. May be bumps along the way but sounds a plan

Smudge226 · Club Coach

TCUFrog wrote:
The past two weeks he has run into his absolute worst match-up.... lefties with big serves who protect their serve at all costs and then take big risks on the return game. Norrie's biggest weakness is his return and when a guy plays aggressively (serve and volley or first strike) off serve, he really struggles to have success in return games. And at this point his mental game isn't strong enough to play consistently and never have let downs when serving so he ends up dropping a gimme service game every set.

Of interest, I think his game could be best suited for clay courts, where he has never really had experience.

I hope he really works on his return game over the next few months or he's going to drop a lot of matches to big servers as he plays better competition.

Interesting thoughts about Cam on clay. I looked up his clay record and it's dam near 5years since he last competed on the dirt with mixed results for only a 6week period. Its been a while then but I really do hope your hunch is right about is style fitting clay game well.

Jiwan · Club Coach

Some great tweets from Liam for his LGBT support around Magaret Court stadium. Many have avoided the topic.

Nice for Jo to address it too

-- Edited by Jiwan on Tuesday 16th of January 2018 01:25:02 AM

indiana · Tennis legend

Naomi B mentioned in commentary that Laura has worn a rainbow coloured wristband in a previous year on Margaret Court Arena. She was encouraging a mass boycott - err so that she and Anna could get moved onto a show court. Naomi !

But seriously she did seem to approve Laura's pointed choice of wristwear so looks like the Broadys are pretty united in their thoughts ( Naomi may have said more, I kind of joined the Margaret Court Arena discussion ).

-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 16th of January 2018 01:50:12 AM

Jiwan · Club Coach

indiana wrote:
Naomi B mentioned in commentary that Laura has worn a rainbow coloured wristband in a previous year on Margaret Court Arena. She was encouraging a mass boycott - err so that she and Anna could get moved onto a show court. Naomi !

But seriously she did seem to approve Laura's pointed choice of wristwear so looks like the Broadys are pretty united in their thoughts ( Naomi may have said more, I kind of joined the Margaret Court Arena discussion ).

-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 16th of January 2018 01:50:12 AM

Ah yes, I remember that

What's your thoughts on the Arena Indiana? Blimey that's a mouthful

indiana · Tennis legend

To be honest, I'm not really sure about Margaret Court Arena and I'm not up on all Court's opinions but a few seem very non inclusive to put it mildly.

It's a tennis court, it's a name of a great tennis champion. Pass. Sorry.

But the Arena Indiana sounds good

christ · Futures level

It is not fair to judge the behaviour/ beliefs of the past against the standards of the present. She was a great, and of her time - it is impossible to say what she would believe if she had been born only fifteen - thirty years ago, and been brought up with the current generation.

-- interestingly there was a discussion somewhere else very recently about how inappropriate most of the humour - and behaviour - in the TV show "Friends" is, when you watch it with today's values: that was a show that was very popular, and uncriticised at the time, and yet has aged badly. Against that background it is not at all surprising that someone from a couple of generations ago appears to be intolerant and inappropriate to today's audience.

Michael D · All-time great

christ wrote:
It is not fair to judge the behaviour/ beliefs of the past against the standards of the present. She was a great, and of her time - it is impossible to say what she would believe if she had been born only fifteen - thirty years ago, and been brought up with the current generation.

-- interestingly there was a discussion somewhere else very recently about how inappropriate most of the humour - and behaviour - in the TV show "Friends" is, when you watch it with today's values: that was a show that was very popular, and uncriticised at the time, and yet has aged badly. Against that background it is not at all surprising that someone from a couple of generations ago appears to be intolerant and inappropriate to today's audience.

Point is she is the same age as Billie Jean King. I'm not a young person any more, though I'm not their age, but I don't think intolerance and exclusion is acceptable at any age. 'Friends' is a different argument - I have a son in his early 20s who watches a lot of it - another day.

-- Edited by Michael D on Tuesday 16th of January 2018 08:58:37 PM

Jiwan · Club Coach

Thanks guys. It's good to hear other opinions, esp our legends.

I read the 'friends' article a few days ago. Strangely there are comparisons lol

I've a very strong view on it. Like Micheal said we move forward, attitudes shift. Celebrities are stripped of accolades based on their behavior. Nobody is depriving her of her achievements but should we continue to celebrate her if she is pretty close to hate crime/ inciting hatred? Not laws in Australia but .......

Personally everything should be equal (within reputable law) ...money, respect, attitude, behavior.

christ · Futures level

Michael D wrote:
Point is she is the same age as Billie Jean King.

-- Edited by Michael D on Tuesday 16th of January 2018 08:58:37 PM

Not really a fair point, as BJK comes from the community that MC was criticising: it is to be expected that they held/ hold differing views.