Talk About Tennis 2.0

I didn't see the match, but it looks like Fritz was in it the whole time. After this week, I definitely feel like he's the most solid American top 10 player on the men's side since Roddick.

Sunday, November 20, 2022 Day 8

Centre Court Starts At 4:00 Pm
F
(4) Nikola Mektic/Mate Pavic VS (2) Rajeev Ram/Joe Salisbury
Not Before 7:00 Pm
F
(3) Casper Ruud VS (7) Novak Djokovic

It's funny to see people writing Djokovic off so easily.
Sure, he's getting older... Sure, he played a draining match vs. Medvedev... But this sport is about the 'intangibles' more than anything else - and the most significant intangible - because it's difficult to physically measure - is psychological strength. Most people continue to ignore/dismiss/not understand how significant this element is.

Ruud continues to impress me more and more. His shots are neither flashy nor spectacular. He reminds me of Borg in that he simply goes about his business - no drama, no controversy, no attention seeking, no temper tantrums, no crazy parents, no flamboyant 'team'... he just goes out there and plays solidly and consistently.
And wins.
That's why I picked him to win in the poll at the top of this page. But it'll be difficult against one of the most psychologically strong players ever.

JTContinental wrote: ↑Sat Nov 19, 2022 9:42 pm I didn't see the match, but it looks like Fritz was in it the whole time. After this week, I definitely feel like he's the most solid American top 10 player on the men's side since Roddick.

He was. It was one point somewhere.
He served for the set at 5-4 in the second. Just a case of running into the monolith, that was all.

ti-amie wrote: ↑Sat Nov 19, 2022 9:48 pm

...

Prediction: if Ruud serves at 75% 1st serves, and keeps his UE's down to 5 per set, he can lose 7-5 in the third.
Serious here. He needs to push it to three, and he just needs to make sure he can extend the sets and hope Novak tires a bit. I give him a solid 25% chance of winning.

I really don't like that all-green outfit though..!

JTContinental wrote: ↑Sat Nov 19, 2022 9:42 pm I didn't see the match, but it looks like Fritz was in it the whole time. After this week, I definitely feel like he's the most solid American top 10 player on the men's side since Roddick.

Really? I have almost no faith in him. In a match against Djokovic, but he loses to Brandon Holt. Fine if you want to classify that as a fluke, but since I can't trust him to regularly beat players in the 30-50 range, I definitely don't consider him anywhere near as consistent as Roddick. Maybe I will in the future, but he has too many loses that Roddick didn't tend to have. One or two wouldn't be a red flag to me, but he's got many more than that don't make me think consistency where he is concerned.

Roddick was a great player..he should have could have won Wimbledon..Fritz is just another big hitting, slow-moving player in the Querrey class..not even Isner..

The only reason Ruud can beat Djokovic is because Djokovic isn't ok yet, physically...so 80-20 today, normally I would have given Ruud 0 (yes 0, not 0.5,) % chance..

Roddick was an arrogant, obnoxious ass. And he had the ugliest game I've ever seen in pro tennis. Watching him play was akin to fingernails scratching a blackboard. Thankfully Federer was there - because if Roddick had become the de facto #1, pro tennis may never have recovered.
Federer was the antithesis of Roddick - polite, respectful, and with a beautifully fluid game that was majestic to watch.

Fritz is very vanilla. He's a good player - but everything about him is just very plain - right down to his facial expression (blank).
He'll have to do significantly more over a longer period of time to pass guys like Isner on the American scale.

JazzNU wrote: ↑Sun Nov 20, 2022 1:44 am

JTContinental wrote: ↑Sat Nov 19, 2022 9:42 pm I didn't see the match, but it looks like Fritz was in it the whole time. After this week, I definitely feel like he's the most solid American top 10 player on the men's side since Roddick.

Really? I have almost no faith in him. In a match against Djokovic, but he loses to Brandon Holt. Fine if you want to classify that as a fluke, but since I can't trust him to regularly beat players in the 30-50 range, I definitely don't consider him anywhere near as consistent as Roddick. Maybe I will in the future, but he has too many loses that Roddick didn't tend to have. One or two wouldn't be a red flag to me, but he's got many more than that don't make me think consistency where he is concerned.

Note I said "since Roddick," and not "as good as Roddick." He certainly has more upside than Isner or Jack Sock.

JTContinental wrote: ↑Sun Nov 20, 2022 3:33 am

JazzNU wrote: ↑Sun Nov 20, 2022 1:44 am

JTContinental wrote: ↑Sat Nov 19, 2022 9:42 pm I didn't see the match, but it looks like Fritz was in it the whole time. After this week, I definitely feel like he's the most solid American top 10 player on the men's side since Roddick.

Really? I have almost no faith in him. In a match against Djokovic, but he loses to Brandon Holt. Fine if you want to classify that as a fluke, but since I can't trust him to regularly beat players in the 30-50 range, I definitely don't consider him anywhere near as consistent as Roddick. Maybe I will in the future, but he has too many loses that Roddick didn't tend to have. One or two wouldn't be a red flag to me, but he's got many more than that don't make me think consistency where he is concerned.

Note I said "since Roddick," and not "as good as Roddick." He certainly has more upside than Isner or Jack Sock.

I did notice and I can appreciate that distinction. For me, I can't even put him in the same sentence as Roddick right now. I'm not sure I'd say Fritz has greater upside than what Jack had at one time when he got to the top 10. It wasn't realized of course, but I would probably give the edge to Sock in what I remember from how he was talked about and playing at that point.

Maybe I've just received it differently, but the Fritz excitement has seemed rather forced to me based on the American men drought.

I'll be waiting to see if he improves on this year. He's had a good week for sure, but didn't even qualify without the injury, so to say he was playing with house money is an understatement. I certainly don't expect him to win every week or anything, but he gets tripped up a lot by what I would consider good, but not great players.