Week 2 - Australian Open Men's Qualifying - Melbourne (outdoor hard)

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

RE: Week 2 - Australian Open Men's Qualifying - Melbourne (outdoor hard)

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

Dan is having no easy service games. He trails 5-2 in the decider

Vhughes · Junior player

Sadly Dan lost 63 in the 3rd set

DF · Tennis legend

KK wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
Gosh, the other guys may well be thinking the same, but those are a very nice set of QR1 draws - no seeds, no one with a high CH, a clay courter Argentinian .....
Dont think James Trotter will be thinking that.

disbelief

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

In finding it hard to get disappointed when Evo loses now, real shame he cant find a way.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Got to think Leon will select Billy for that DC spot now with Cam and Jake and two doubles guys.

B00thy · Lower Club Player

stevemcqueen wrote:
The quality of the stream on Eursport is very good. Worth the £7. cant comment on bet 365

It's good for zero cost, but it's not a like for like comparison. Bet365 offers a view of the match but for matches which don't have widespread interest there is sound but no commentary. Enough to see Dan had a chance to go 3-2 up in the 3rd but his lob was just long. I felt at the time it was a turning point for the worse.

After walking the dogs I returned to find he'd lost and wasn't surprised.

-- Edited by B00thy on Monday 6th of January 2025 02:26:54 PM

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

QR1: James Trotter (JPN) WR 188 defeated Daniel Evans WR 160 by 6-4 3-6 6-3 cry

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

Actually, I much prefer when there is no commentary. I don't hold English commentators in particularly high esteem. I wish there was an option to have sound but no commentary during the grass court season! Do you remember Mike Cation? He gave top notch commentaries on the US challenger circuit, maybe he still does but I've not wateched for ages.

Looking at the stats for today's match, a number that jumps out at me is the points won on 2nd serve: 57% for JT, 39% dor Dan. I watched the whole of the second and third sets. I saw nothing obvious as to why Dan is struggling so much on serve.

Unrelated, but does anyone know if the courts are particularly fast or slow this year? It occurs to me the that Hawkeye has a shed load of data that would be fairly easy to analyse re. velocity and trajectory before and after the bounce.

-- Edited by stevemcqueen on Monday 6th of January 2025 11:25:10 AM

paulisi · Tennis legend

Dan's never had a big serve and I only caught the end of the first set and set 2, but Dan was very passive at the end of the first set and much more aggressive in set 2.

He just seems to lack motivation at times.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I thought he tried really hard in set three

No lack of motivation

He really battled to the end

But just wasn't able to harm Trotter and, in most of the rallies, James would get on the front foot first and then Dan was done for - it wasn't that Trotter was hitting winners left right and centre, he was just gradually getting a better court position and then making it pay

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

To my mind, there is noissue with Dan's motivation. He really wanted this match. Modern elite tennis is a game of tiny, tiny margins. For whatever reason, and I thik it is imperceptible to all of us, his level is not what it was a year ago.

He moves on to Portugal next week. He is racking up the airmiles with not much to show for it.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

stevemcqueen wrote:
To my mind, there is noissue with Dan's motivation. He really wanted this match. Modern elite tennis is a game of tiny, tiny margins. For whatever reason, and I thik it is imperceptible to all of us, his level is not what it was a year ago.
He moves on to Portugal next week. He is racking up the airmiles with not much to show for it.

Agreed - it is not poor motivation at all. Whether he has lost some power, foot pace around court, or whatever, it is a marginal loss that is showing in poor results. Sadly though, they are sustained over a long period, he hasnt been on form for longer than 12 months. My worry is can he ever get it back, age is probably part of it as well.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Just to argue the devil's advocate, and to back paulisi in a way, Dan has certainly been guilty of lack of motivation at times in the past - and might even be so on occasions now

But NEVER in big events

He hates playing in front of one man and his dog (his words), and for crumbs

But he absolutely raises his game for the money, and points, and status, that are on offer at Grand Slams etc - I've never seen him give anything less than 100% at the big events

paulisi · Tennis legend

Just to clarify - Dan is great in front of crowds and can play to the crowd to get him going.
Today, he had a big empty stadium and he was trying alsorts to try and motivate himself, but I suspect his ranking drop and drop to challengers will make it more and more difficult to get his mojo going.