Always was a tough ask for Jack against Rafa. But he got a set off the great man and was competitive. Plenty for Jack to take away and no doubt he will be learning so much from this match. I feel we are still only seeing the beginnings of Jack Draper.

indiana wrote:

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Bob in Spain wrote:

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Caught the end of Jack's match and as you will probably have seen, he could barely move. The talent is clearly there but the cramping is an issue. It doesn't worry me though as I remember Andy going through the same phase as he made his early way on the tour and he didn't do too badly over the years, did he.

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Jack is now 21 though. Apart from later extreme matches Andy's real problems were in his early 18 yo, maybe 19 yo, days and he really worked on it

It sounds from stuff I have read that Jack is certainly trying to put the necessary work in with his team. Hopefully he will stay healthier and get much fitter.

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People develop physically at different ages, and given Jack has missed so much time through injuries, it is not surprising to me that he is a couple of years behind where Andy was in this regard.

indiana wrote:

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JonH comes home wrote:

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7 of todays matches went to 4 hours (ok one is 3:59) - that is ridiculous. Im trying to work out what I think of 4 hour matches in opening rounds/ early rounds? A quarter of opening day matches for the men.

My instinct is it isnt best for anyone really- what do others think?

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 I'm absolutely fine with it. Please no-one interfere with Slam men's singles being best of 5 sets from R1. My previous big dislike was no final set TBs, then to an extent the different final set TB rules. Now all good with MTBs at 6-6 in final sets.

If anything, Slam women's singles matches should be changed to best of 5. At least the later stages but I'd prefer from R1 for them too.

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 I would get rid of lets - not sure how much of an impact it would have on the overall match length

JonH comes home wrote:

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indiana wrote:

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JonH comes home wrote:

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7 of todays matches went to 4 hours (ok one is 3:59) - that is ridiculous. Im trying to work out what I think of 4 hour matches in opening rounds/ early rounds? A quarter of opening day matches for the men.

My instinct is it isnt best for anyone really- what do others think?

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 I'm absolutely fine with it. Please no-one interfere with Slam men's singles being best of 5 sets from R1. My previous big dislike was no final set TBs, then to an extent the different final set TB rules. Now all good with MTBs at 6-6 in final sets.

If anything, Slam women's singles matches should be changed to best of 5. At least the later stages but I'd prefer from R1 for them too.

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 No, please not!!! There are too many one sided best of 3 matches, lets not make it best of 5. We have been there before in the days of Steffi Graf etc and it didnt work!!

As for mens, no, I agree I want to see them as best of 5 but that just feels like too many long matches; probably nothing can be done but just wondered what people's thoughts were

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 I would like the rules about length of time between points taken by certain players to be upheld much more strictly.

Got to hope Dan can win comfortably today but cant see Andy getting more than a set at most

JonH comes home wrote:

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Part of me would like the fifth set to be a MTB after the fourth ends. I realise theyve only just changed to the current arrangement so unlikely to change again soon! And thats fine.

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 I'm fine with 5 for men and 3 for women. In most men's there are a lot of aces and unreturnable serves which shortens the match. With the slower serves in womens this happens less, I reckon some best of 5 womens matches could go on ages if we had them. I don't like playing on after a let like in us college tennis. Sudden death deuce, again as in college, and in a lot of doubles, has a certain excitement to it as both players get game point at same time but I know most people here won't like it. It can also work well in some tournaments to keep matches to a sensible length  eg junior tournaments.