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Tennis Volume 6


Calibandar

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Under WADA regulations, the recreational drugs aren't tested for, and aren't banned out-of-competition. But tennis players basically don't get any "out of competition" time; as it's not just when matches are being played, but includes things like pre-season for the relevant sports, and in season.

Plenty from many sports have been banned for cocaine (which btw is considered performance enhancing anyway; but again, only in-competition). Highest profile tennis ban for cocaine I can think of would be Gasquet and Hingis.

Elsewhere in rugby for example; Matt Stevens was banned for 2 years for taking cocaine in a post-match celebration; whilst... team-mates were merely dismissed for taking it at the end-of-season party.

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32 minutes ago, lessthanluke said:

Because what athletes do in their private time is no one's business.

If a doctor can turn up at your door in the middle of the night, interrupt whatever you're doing (having sex included) and demand blood and urine samples, private time argument kind of falls on its ass right then and there.

If we're talking unethical, then sharing medical records is more of a reason to frown than testing if someone smoked a joint or snorted some cocaine.

Like it or not, all that is part and parcel of being a professional athlete. If athletes have a problem with that, they should switch to other, less privacy-invasive but alas also less lucrative, professions.

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1 hour ago, Which Tyler said:

Under WADA regulations, the recreational drugs aren't tested for, and aren't banned out-of-competition. But tennis players basically don't get any "out of competition" time; as it's not just when matches are being played, but includes things like pre-season for the relevant sports, and in season.

Plenty from many sports have been banned for cocaine (which btw is considered performance enhancing anyway; but again, only in-competition). Highest profile tennis ban for cocaine I can think of would be Gasquet and Hingis.

Elsewhere in rugby for example; Matt Stevens was banned for 2 years for taking cocaine in a post-match celebration; whilst... team-mates were merely dismissed for taking it at the end-of-season party.

Getting banned for taking cocaine while not performing seems ridiculous to me, particularly as its use is so widespread, the only thing I guess is, compared to other drugs it leaves sometimes system pretty quickly so they would have to be quite unlucky to get a positive test for it if they weren't a regular user, weed though takes a lot longer IIRC.

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18 year old Zverev destroyed Simon in two sets ( again) and went on to play Nadal last night.

A long 3 setter in which Zverev had match points, but eventually missed his volley and Nadal won 7-5 in the 3rd set.

The Murray Eel knocked out early. Surprising but maybe not that much, he's just not that great a player IMO.

Raonic powering through to the quarter finals as well.

I do really miss Federer not playing though, makes a big difference. 

 

 

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Raonic has looked well below his best form that he showed at the start of the season.

He's just not playing as well, high on mistakes, bad on footwork. But still coming through on the strength of his massive serve.

I expect him to get hammered by Djokovic, unfortunately, and as such not really looking forward to the final.

This sounds kind of down on Raonic given that he beat Berdych, Monfils and now Goffin ( who himself had beaten a few guys he normally loses to like Stan and Cilic), but the standard of play just hasn't been that great this tournament. The heat has been offered as a reason for that ( even in March it is scorching there, wouldn't want to live in a place like that), the fact that the balls bounce up high etc. 

Djokovic is also not reaching his normal levels. Of course Nadal, he wasn't blown away today like he was in January in Doha, but still,  a fairly hopeless affair all in all. He's played well this tournament Nadal, did a good job in defeating and demoralizing Nishikori in the quarter finals but isn't himself when he plays Djokovic, too tentative, too hesitant. His serve isn't good enough to worry Djokovic and that leads to longer rallies, which sadly aren't even that spectacular, most of them just go to the Djoker and that's it. A disappointing semi. Nadal can be upbeat about his overall performance ( unlike say, Murray, or Stan) but also must conclude again that Novak would beat him 11 times out of 10, so big is the gap. Heard a stat that Nadal hasn't broken Novak's serve in ages.

Tsonga will be the toughest opponent Djoker had, and even he couldn't drag a set from him.

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Andy Murray, pride of the UK and self professed Bond lover, just said his favorite Bond movie is Goldenball.

He's also apparently a failed rap star. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/scottishnews/2802603/Andy-Murray-song-sells-just-200-copies.html

:P

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Miami has been an interesting tournament so far. There's really been a rise of youngsters these first few months.

Zverev and Fritz, both only 18, went out in round 2. Zverev especially looks like a massive talent. 

Kuznetsov is a 25 year old Russian with an agressive style who looks really good and beat Stan the Man in Miami.

Kyrgios and Raonic are powering through. Thiem played well but was ejected by the Djoker yesterday. Dimitrov mamaged to beat Andy Murray but has now been ejected by Monfils,

Only shame is that Federer withdrew.

 

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I'm actually trying to stay up very late to catch the Kyrgios vs Nishikori game.

Both attractive players going at it. 

Djokovic struggled in round 4 against Thiem, conceded 15 break points but if you looked at the result alone you'd never think this game was anything special. He had it even tougher today against Goffin, who was genuinely better than Djokovic in the first set but repeatedly made silly errors at the crucial moments, including a terrible smash during the tie break that would have given him set points on his own serve. Djokovic was exhausted.

But as these things go when the Djoker plays, he wins that set, and then in the second set one break sufficed for the win. What's clear is that there is a tactic against Djokovic that works, now implemented by guys like Simon, Thiem and Goffin, which is try to outlast him, if you are that sort of player. And all of those guys have success with that sort of style against most anyone else ( all of them are ranked top 20). Keep the ball in play, endlessly, and you'll see that the Djoker is so much of a counterpuncher that he actually finds playing opponents like that more difficult than aggressive shotmakers. The only way it doesn't work is that despite all his troubles in those games, he's still beaten all of those guys, just like he beats all the more agressive players.

Anyway, Kyrgios is one such agressive player and Nishikori is also not in Goffin/Simon vein, he is much more into shorter points. He was nearly ejected by Monfils in the quarter final and has thus looked less impressive coming into this as Kyrgios. I'd especially want Kyrgios to win because I want to see him play the Djoker. We already know what happens when the Djoker plays Nishikori after all.

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Well, Kyrgios beaten fair and square by Nishikori.

Hopefully the Japanese can keep up that level in the finall, but what is more likely to happen is what seems to happen all the time the Djoker faces someone, he negates their powers and they go in a slump. Which sadly tends to make for lousy finals.

Man I am so ready for the Djoker to get defeated.

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  • 2 weeks later...

People, have I read the news today well or is it possible that entire meldonium scandal will be for nothing? I heard WADA is considering giving free pass to the athletes caught red handed? Now, that is a luck...

As for Djokovic lost, it could mean nothing and it could mean everything... :)

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21 hours ago, Leap said:

Ask and thou shalt receive!

Djokovic out of the Monte Carlo Masters, by none other than Jiri Vesely! Wait...who? That's right, Djokovic beaten by someone ranked 55th in the world. 

Vesely's top ranking is 35, which is pretty good - although still somewhat below the barrier you'd expect someone had to be to beat Djokovic right now. This is probably the highlight of his career. 

I am super chuffed. I like Djokovic, but being beaten a surprisingly low ranking player is exactly what signalled a major downturn for Nadal and Federer, and I really hope that this goes a long way to humanising him - taking away the fear factor. .

I am not convinced this signals anything. While I agree with you he lost plenty of sets even though he never ever gets beaten, this is most likely just a fluke. He could just be tired, he's played a lot recently and this is his first clay court match of the season, and we already know that is his weakest surface. No I really need to see a loss in a more important match for me to believe there is competition again at the top.

Risto,

As I heard it, because this product takes a while to get out of people's system, they are allowing  everyone who was caught before March 1st to go free, most likely, because they could still have used the product in 2015, when of course it was still legal.

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1 hour ago, Calibandar said:

Risto,

As I heard it, because this product takes a while to get out of people's system, they are allowing  everyone who was caught before March 1st to go free, most likely, because they could still have used the product in 2015, when of course it was still legal.

Yeah, it is absurd... I wonder what will happen to Sharapowa. She didn't outright admit she using it after January 1st, although logically, there is no other conclusion to her testimony. It will be interesting to see how this resolves.

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20 hours ago, Leap said:

Rafa wins his 28th Masters 1000, now he's tied with Djokovic on that count (who's held the record for a month or so). Madrid is only 2 weeks away, and Rafa will be in prime position to take the lead once again. 

That's not to say I think Rafa is back, back for good. I still have reservations, but I have a lot more confidence that Rafa will continue to do well than I do that Djokovic is going to have a bad season. 

 

 

On this sort of slow surface he can beat everybody, because he can drag every opponent into these very long rallies, point after point.

There is just no one who can keep up with him in that. Except of course the Djoker, I think he can beat Nadal on clay.

Someone like Federer or Raonic is going to get absolutely pulverized playing Nadal on this slow clay. Murray made a decent fist of it in the semi final but was let down again by his mentality, as is his wont.

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It was a fairly interesting final. Nishikori has the tools to beat Nadal.

He's very good at clay, clearly, he has one of the better backhands in the game and unlike say Federer he can deal quite well with Nadal's high shots to the backhand. He is technically very sound, and he is aggresive in his baseline game, even on clay.

But then you know, mentally, here we go again. 8 break points for him in set 1, only 1 break, 2 break points for Nadal, two breaks. 

Second set starts with Nadal being outplayed and losing serve, followed by Nishikori immediately allowing a break again. It's just...

Nadal played well of course, he clearly keeps getting better with his forehand, big confidence boosts keep following week after week.

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  • 1 month later...
13 minutes ago, Leap said:

Nadal retires from RG with a wrist injury, despite a better start to the tournament than any other player. 

Apparently it's pretty bad. Even if it gets better, I can't see any way that he'll come back from this. 

Fuck.

So lame. I loved watching Nadal in his prime. But his game just doesn't age well. He's probably finished.  

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