Talk About Tennis 2.0

I bet if it was the French Open they'd both be there.

They would not have played the week before. Which, no top notch ranked player ever does.

The LL's are Elias Ymer and he will play Mannarino, and Luciano Darderi who will play McDonald

Wednesday, March 01, 2023 Day 5 Dubai

Centre Court Starts At 2:00 Pm

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina VS (2) Andrey Rublev
Not Before 4:00 Pm
Lorenzo Sonego VS (4) Felix Auger-Aliassime
Not Before 7:00 Pm
(1) Novak Djokovic VS Tallon Griekspoor
Followed By
(3) Daniil Medvedev VS Alexander Bublik

Court 1 Starts At 2:00 Pm

Botic van de Zandschulp VS Mikael Ymer
Followed By
(7) Alexander Zverev VS (Q) Christopher O'Connell
Followed By
(WC) Thanasi Kokkinakis VS (8) Borna Coric
Followed By
(Q) Pavel Kotov VS (5) Hubert Hurkacz

Court 3 Starts At 2:00 Pm

Maxime Cressy/Fabrice Martin VS (4) Hugo Nys/Jan Zielinski
Followed By
QF
(1) Nikola Mektic/Mate Pavic VS Tomislav Brkic/Gonzalo Escobar
Followed By / After Suitable Rest
QF
(LL) Sander Gille/Joran Vliegen VS Ilya Ivashka/Andrey Rublev

Wednesday, March 01, 2023 Day 5 Acapulco

Estadio Starts At 6:00 Pm

(Q) Taro Daniel VS (2) Casper Ruud
Followed By
(3) Taylor Fritz VS Denis Shapovalov
Not Before 9:00 Pm
Nuno Borges VS (4) Holger Rune

Grandstand Starts At 6:00 Pm

(WC) Feliciano Lopez VS (6) Frances Tiafoe
Followed By
Alex de Minaur Or Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez VS Jacopo Berrettini Or Oscar Otte
Followed By
(LL) Elias Ymer VS Matteo Berrettini

Cancha 1 Starts At 6:00 Pm

Luciano Darderi Or Mackenzie McDonald VS Daniel Altmaier Or Brandon Nakashima
Followed By
Michael Mmoh VS (7) Tommy Paul
Followed By
Nathaniel Lammons/Jackson Withrow VS Santiago Gonzalez/Edouard Roger-Vasselin

Cancha 2 Starts At 7:30 Pm

Mackenzie McDonald/Ben Shelton VS (4) Juan Sebastian Cabal/Robert Farah
Followed By
William Blumberg/Casper Ruud VS Nicolas Mahut/Joe Salisbury

Ruud is having a difficult time in Acapulco...
He was up 3-0 in the 1st set vs. Taro Daniel, and lost the set 5-7. He looks frustrated - like a man who is at the mercy of external forces that are provoking his errors.

He had a tough time in his first match here, as well, vs. Andreozzi, needing a tiebreak in the 3rd set to win it. He looked quite frustrated with himself in that match, as well.

He and Daniel are on serve halfway through the 2nd set now.

Day 6 Order of Play Thursday, March 02, 2023 Day 6 Dubai

Centre Court Starts At 3:00 Pm

QF
(7) Alexander Zverev VS Lorenzo Sonego
Followed By
QF
Botic van de Zandschulp VS (2) Andrey Rublev
Not Before 7:00 Pm
QF
(1) Novak Djokovic VS (5) Hubert Hurkacz
Followed By
QF
(3) Daniil Medvedev VS (8) Borna Coric

Court 1 Starts At 3:00 Pm

QF
(3) Lloyd Glasspool/Harri Heliovaara VS (LL) Yuki Bhambri/Saketh Myneni
Followed By
QF
Robin Haase/Matwe Middelkoop VS Maxime Cressy/Fabrice Martin

Very interesting match between Ruud and Taro Daniel...
Ruud won the 2nd set 6-2.
Daniel played some extraordinary points in the match, running down everything.
Ruud had 2 match points before it got to the 3rd set tiebreak.
Ruud got too impatient in that 3rd set tiebreak, and Daniel won it.
Fully deserved win for Taro.
Total points for the match were 98-98.

Deuce wrote: ↑Thu Mar 02, 2023 1:42 am Ruud is having a difficult time in Acapulco...
He was up 3-0 in the 1st set vs. Taro Daniel, and lost the set 5-7. He looks frustrated - like a man who is at the mercy of external forces that are provoking his errors.

He had a tough time in his first match here, as well, vs. Andreozzi, needing a tiebreak in the 3rd set to win it. He looked quite frustrated with himself in that match, as well.

He and Daniel are on serve halfway through the 2nd set now.

And Daniel wins it in a third-set tie-breaker. He had a run of great points in the middle of that last set, scrambling all over the court to get back balls and then finally hitting winners.

I'm certainly not one to comment on players' clothing, etc. - I prefer to focus on the substance and not the style... but Fritz and Shapovalov tonight (Acapulco) looked like they were playing in a beer league match or something. They were dressed like guys in a pick-up basketball game in a public park.
They were both wearing plain white (or light grey) t-shirts... Fritz had the matching colourless plain shorts, while Denis was wearing those bizarre multi-coloured shorts that look Hawaiian.

I remember when every (male) player wore classy, collared shirts - they had no choice in the matter - it was the rule back then that men's shirts had to have a folding collar. And the collared shirts bore some striking and memorable designs that the players typically wore for at least an entire season, and sometimes for several consecutive seasons. And the companies didn't insist that all of their sponsored players wear the same thing - which is frankly ridiculous. There was more freedom for some individuality, and certain shirt patterns were associated with one particular player (the adidas diamonds with Lendl; the Tacchini shoulder pattern with McEnroe; the adidas 'SE' with Edberg...), as opposed to today's clones.
It was striking back then because the players would be wearing those classy collared shirts while they berated the linesmen and umpires with all sorts of vulgar personal insults .

By the way, insofar as the actual tennis is concerned, Fritz won the 1st set 6-4, and was in complete control of the 2nd at 5-1... but Shapovalov got one break back to make it 5-4 Fritz, and Denis had some momentum going... But Fritz served it out, 6-4.

In Dubai the semi-final between Djokovic and Medvedev has set up to be something of a spectacular match up.

Friday, March 03, 2023 Day 7 Dubai

Centre Court Starts At 3:00 Pm

SF
(1) Nikola Mektic/Mate Pavic VS (3) Lloyd Glasspool/Harri Heliovaara
Not Before 5:00 Pm
SF
(7) Alexander Zverev VS (2) Andrey Rublev
Not Before 7:00 Pm
SF
(1) Novak Djokovic VS (3) Daniil Medvedev
Followed By
SF
Maxime Cressy/Fabrice Martin VS (LL) Sander Gille/Joran Vliegen

That is a great semi lineup at Dubai .interesting to see if zverev is back....the court is a bit fast so suits Medvedev and Ruble. More than Zverev...Djokovic of course is indifferent to such mundane things. !

Thursday, March 02, 2023 Day 6 Acapulco

Estadio Starts At 4:30 Pm

QF
(7) Tommy Paul vs Mackenzie McDonald
Not Before 6:00 Pm
QF
(8) Alex de Minaur VS (Q) Taro Daniel
Not Before 8:00 Pm
QF
(3) Taylor Fritz VS (6) Frances Tiafoe
Followed By
QF
Matteo Berrettini VS (4) Holger Rune

Grandstand Starts At 6:00 Pm

QF
(1) Wesley Koolhof/Neal Skupski VS Sadio Doumbia/Fabien Reboul
Not Before 7:30 Pm
QF
Alexander Erler/Lucas Miedler VS William Blumberg/Casper Ruud
Followed By
QF
Nathaniel Lammons/Jackson Withrow VS Rafael Matos/David Vega Hernandez

Cancha 1 Not Before 7:30 Pm

QF
Andre Goransson/Ben McLachlan VS Mackenzie McDonald/Ben Shelton

Man... Medvedev was very, very impressive in the 2nd set vs. Coric at Dubai...
Coric was ahead 2-0, and then Medvedev decided to get to work. He not only won 6 straight games, but he did so winning the final 21 points of the match.
21 consecutive points - that's the last point of the game that made it 1-2, then 5 games in a row without losing a point.
To say it was one-way tennis would be a huge understatement!