The tennis thread

i know this mong's been banned anyway, but worth posting the end of year rankings to show exactly how shit this post was:

3. djokovic - 6,035
4. murray - 5,760
5. soderling - 5,580

SHIT YEAH HE BETTER BE CAREFUL OR ROBIN AND NOVAK WILL BE OUT OF SIGHT LOLOLOL.

there's a reason why before the tour finals semis djokovic said "it's nice to have the top 4 guys there" although murray was ranked/seeded 5th.

anyway, in terms of its high points murray's arguably had the third best year after nadal and federer. 2 masters titles, 1 grand slam final, 1 grand slam semi and tour finals semi.

djokovic has looked pretty much back to his best of late which is awesome to see as he's a fantastic player.

soderling is a decent enough player but has nowhere near the variety of talent to stay at the top consistently. his two strategies are 1) hit the ball hard; and 2) hit the ball harder. he gets on streaks where the confidence is flowing and he can blast people off the court, but there's absolutely nothing to fall back on when that doesn't work out.

or to illustrate using stats, federer's h2h against djokovic, murray and soderling:

federer 13 - 6 djokovic
federer 6 - 8 murray
federer 15 - 1 soderling

now it is worth noting that soderling has beaten federer at a slam (which murray has never done), which deserves credit in itself, but the stats still firmly reinforce that soderling is a one-dimensional confidence player, without the depth of the others. he's getting by because the rest of the men's top 10 is relatively weak at the moment.

del potro, on the other hand, now there's a player with some serious talent. really hope he can come back strong from injury next year. he's going to be a fucking dangerous potential first round opponent for the top seeds in tournaments next year, that's for sure.

is andy murray your lover? this is the worst tennis post i've ever read. i could take down your 'arguments' down in a second but i won't. i will continu letting you live these delusional thoughts.

the bottomline of my post is that murray had more points than djoko at the start of the season yet djoko surpassed him again and söderling was 4th at the day i posted that, won his 1st master and he was like 10th at the start of the season. söderling his play is one dimensional, but who cares? he's been a fucking top player for the last 15 months or so.

because murray has a lot of depth in his play i thought this would be the year he might have been a danger for federer and nadal but it's been far from that

so leave your horrible, horrible tendentious posts for yourself next time please? thanks

thread destroyed.

good post andy. I agree with you on the soderling matter, but boy can he hit the ball hard! And his paris masters title showed something that he never showed before, that he's a winner and not what he used to be, a whiner lol.

as always, the hopes for next year are high. and as always in men's tennis, they deliver.
Federer for number one next year when his Anacone partnership really evolves!

god, please stop being such a petty, whiny person.

as you can see i've explained my post. i expected murray to make another big step (like he did in the previous years) but this year he stagnated and had a lot of difficulties staying in front of the ones behind him. andygoingnowhere then comes with the most biased post ever calling me a mong and stuff while, when you look at last year i have a very good point

the h2h thing is dreadful as well as söderling is only playing at top level for the last 15/16 months and beated federer when it mattered most. if he beated nadal in the final his one win against federer would've had 1000 times more value than all murrays wins against federer together. also, murray has been destroyed by federer in every grand slam so far. really hope murray will be able to win a grand slam next year though, he deserves it.

tbh i'm not gonna argue about my being biased cause i'm a big murray fan, but the fact remains that what you said in your original post was that murray was struggling to keep up with djokovic and soderling, which clearly isn't the case.

first things first, murray didn't start the year ahead of djokovic on points. let's get basic facts right here, murray started the year over 1000 points behind djokovic in 4th, then dropped behind del potro to 5th by choosing not to defend his title at doha.

really what this year has shown is that murray and djokovic, who have both had patchy years in their own way (djokovic started very slowly, murray wildly up and down obviously) but have still finished the year at 3 and 4.

and yeah i also conceded that soderling's victory over federer was in a slam and so deserved extra credit, but it's also true that he's been beaten very soundly by federer this year also (shanghai masters especially). and that despite losing heavily to fed at the australian open (where murray definitely bottled it, especially in the third set), murray has also beaten him convincingly in important matches (two masters finals this year).

soderling's had a very good year, but he's not exactly a rookie is he? he's 26 and has been pro for ages, i don't see how you can use the fact that he's only recently got his shit together as an argument in his favour. you're just as biased in his favour as i am in murray's, so surely that balances out?

i'll definitely agree that murray has failed to make a big leap with his game this year though. for most of the year he's still stuggled with the same old shit he always has, and his pathetic loss to wawrinka at the us open shows he still hasn't fully gotten over that tendency to consistently beat the big hitters ranked 10-20 or so - after his wins over cilic in australia and tsonga at wimbledon i had got cautiously optimistic. furthermore, his fitness clearly dropped several levels after australia and at points during the season he looked in as bad shape as i've seen him for ages. thankfully it's looking as though he's getting on top of that again now.

i do think his game has improved in certain areas. his 2nd serve has definitely improved (not enough, though) and he's showing a willingness to attack the ball that he hasn't since 2008 but, yeah, not a big leap and disappointing in that respect. hopefully he's learnt a few lessons.

ok well this certainly is a huge post, i agree with you on most points and your arguments are very clear. cheers. you're right that murray didn't start this year above djoko, he being 2nd in the rankings was already in august last year. i should've explained what i meant in my initial post though and i shouldn't have said your post was the most terrible tennis post ever, because i've always enjoyed your tennis posts in the past and apart from it being it being a bit biased, i think you just misunderstood me .

oh and this might surprise you but, even though i really like söderling, murray is my favourite player. a lot of people are always giving murray shit but i'm not one of them i always try and tell them he's a very talented and complete player and still making progress. lots of people i talk to say they think he's shit because they don't like his behaviour (i've never heard a more terrible excuse than that but then again those are the same people who dismiss cristiano ronalds superior football skills only because he's a bit of a fanny...) anyway, maybe my expectations of him were just too high or maybe in the next few years he will show what i already thought was coming this season

no hard feelings man, i shouldn't have got so confrontational (i think i'm too used to defending murray from my friends who think the tennis year is two weeks long and takes place exclusively in south TCOTU)

have to say i am surprised he's your favourite player but definitely seems you're hard on him in a good way, because like you say there's still so much potential there.

what are your feelings about del potro? i was gutted he missed the whole year, because i fucking love him (probably my favourite player after murray). do you think he'll be able to get back to his best or do you think he's been out too long and will struggle?

anecdotally my one friend who also actually loves tennis works at the LTA and met miles maclagan at a party earlier this year, shortly after the us open actually. he told my friend he doesn't think murray will ever win a slam.

yeah well like i said, my expectations on him also could've been too high. when you like someone/is your favourite player you always hope he just delivers that extra bit you know. and indeed, there's enough potential. murray is still young though. sure nadal is only a year older and federer already won enough at murray his age but it's unfair to compare people in such ways, there's still enough time for him.

i'm not a huge fan of del potro (his appearance and such) but he's a great player. in my opinion he's the stereotype of a modern tennis player. when he's at his best he's a beast and can beat anyone. i really hope for him that he will start next season without any injury issues so he can start to play some tournaments again and can slowly try to get back into the way he was at 2009 us open. i definitely think he can work his way back to that kind of form, just as long as he doesn't pressure himself too much once he returned. i hope so, because del potro on his best is a blessing for tennis

it's hard to say if murray will ever win a slam i think. once federer retires his chances will certainly increase and i don't think nadal will play tennis for another 5 years as well. i remember both federer and nadal saying they couldn't imagine murray never winning a slam. time will tell. hope his first will be wimbledon, murray winning wimbledon would be the best thing that happened to the tournament since ivanisevic winning it

nice bit of sledging from kyrgios.



quite liked that personal viewpoint piece at the end.

in other news.

great britain are into the semi finals of the davis cup.

they could end up winning this sodding thing.

after years of being outside the world group.

murray should get a knighthood if he pulls that shit off.

murray wins rogers cup.



more importantly beats djokovic in the final.

bencic won the women's tourney.

beat serena in the semi's.

murray's in some trouble here.

2 sets down.

murray turns it round.

well done ands.

nadal beaten from 2 sets up.

stunner that.

men's final tonight.

djokovic-federer.

both looked superb in the semi's.

djokovic tough to pick against though.

fed did beat djokovic only a few weeks back.

but can he do it in the biggy these days.

7 yrs since he last won this title.

leave the predictions to me hehe.