Murray/Dimitrov – that should be a fun match. Annoying can’t see it.

bad luck on the Sharp twisting her ankle – always a violent surprise when this happens. Unless you’re very drunk. I can remember some decades ago falling on my ankle after having had a skinful and rolling all the way down a pretty substantial staircase. Calmly got up and walked home – that’s the trouble with drink, makes you think you can do anything. Next morning, could barely move, and somehow had to get to airport.

The Sharp, however, looked pretty sober to me, and I think she did the right thing in calling it a day. I don’t think you can guard against twisting your ankle – it’s like every now and then, Nature decides to mock your assumption that you are in control of your destiny. Kvitova on her way back? Zvonerova will be a good test.

September 29th, 2011 at 7:26 pm

grendel – i actually was looking forward to see the results of kvitova/sharapova, it would have told us if kvitova is really back..too bad it didn’t happen.

asian swing is hard to watch if you are living on the east coast…too late at night. Hoping kvitova is really on her way back.

“Murray/Dimitrov – that should be a fun match. Annoying can’t see it.” it could be grendel but i have a feeling it wont. dimitrov has not given any top player a close match yet. I think it will be murray in easy straight sets.

Impressed with donald young though…two matches he won in Thailand.

September 29th, 2011 at 7:56 pm

i meant east coast north america…

September 29th, 2011 at 7:57 pm

well, Kimmi, Dimitrov’s match with Tsonga at Wimbie wasn’t exactly close, but for a while was a battle. Tsonga had too much power. But I guess what I meant by fun match – not close, Murray as you say should win quite easy, but maybe some spectacular rallies. off to stick the head on the pillow now.

September 29th, 2011 at 8:49 pm

I just read a few article on a blog. It is strange, but the best amateur tennis blogs are written by women. “Any given surface”, “The tennis chick”, “Savannah’s world”, “All I need is a picket fence”… They are often more entertaining, more interesting than blogs written by pros.

September 29th, 2011 at 9:55 pm

http://sport.uk.msn.com/football/news/sticky-fingers-de-gea-warned-over-doughnut-incident

One law for the……

Don’t you love the smoothie statement by the company spokesman:”"A customer was spoken to by our security team and the issue was resolved.”

Monty Python might possibly have got away with that….

September 30th, 2011 at 7:39 am

grendel, are you saying you cannot watch it because you don’t have a link or because it’s wrong time of day/night for you?

If the link, fromsports.com on sportlemon is fairly reliable if that helps.

September 30th, 2011 at 10:37 am

Dimitrov has been talked about for the last 2 years, I think when he was working with Lundgren. There was an ‘ATP tour revealed’ special on Dimitrov where he loved playing table tennis and he was good at it too. Hope he does make a break through because he is a very good player. A very committed one too, it would seem unlike Gulbis who just disappoints, particularly with all that talent that lays dormant then springs back when he feels like it.

September 30th, 2011 at 10:40 am

thankyou, madmax, I was just about to test your link when I thought better check on when it’s being played – and discovered it was over!http://eurosport.yahoo.com/30092011/58/atp-bangkok-murray-reaches-bangkok-semi.html
judging by this report, seems to have been a good match, so have missed out again. story of my life. the good news is, Murray’s on song and Dimitrov is beginning to justify all the hopes invested in him

September 30th, 2011 at 11:06 am

Way to go Muzza – come on and win the whole thing!

September 30th, 2011 at 12:16 pm

If Murray wants to win GS, He need to focus on his anger management. One of the biggest reason he lost this year against Nadal is his frequent outburst. sometimes I feel he is a whining baby:
:
Here is another interesting article:Anger: Difference between Good (McEnroe,Murray) & Great (Federer,Nadal,Djokovc) http://bit.ly/paCkWk

September 30th, 2011 at 1:54 pm

@Lou: Thanks for the article.

Murray has everything to win a slam but he needs to master himself.

He’s got the game to answer any question nadal, djokovic and federer ask of him but not the strong mind to deliver it.

Its the strength of mind and self control that separate the BIG 3 and murray.

September 30th, 2011 at 2:09 pm

@Lou’s link:
“Marat Safin – if only he could keep control on his emotions”. I’m not so sure about that. I wouldn’t swear to it, but I have the impression that Safin tended to lose it as a specific response to fading powers. That is, he knew what he once was capable of, and was not reconciled to the fact he had changed for the worse(through prolonged injury, whatever). Since his powers were enormous, his rages were correspondingly spectacular. But here, perhaps the anger was the result of something bad rather than the cause of something bad – not that you can always neatly disentangle these two ideas, admittedly.

“John McEnroe is another player who I think could have won more GS than 7.” Well, certainly, the way he faded after his great year has always been mysterious. Surely not due to anger, though. McEnroe was the great counter-example of the generally correct notion that anger is counter-productive. Anger actually seemed to energize McEnroe.

“Andy Murray is also a good example. In US Open SF, one of the reasons he lost so was his inability to control his emotions. When you are frustrated after almost every point, you tend to lose focus and make errors”. Yes, the question here is why does Murray get so angry? Is it something altogether apart from his tennis, a buried trauma which anger taps into on the slightest provocation? Is it the finely tuned nature of his game where things, by definition, can much more easily go wrong than in less imaginatively based games? Some sort of mixture? Whatever it is, it won’t be easy for Murray to sort it out and there is no real comparison with McEnroe.
“Another athlete I have never seen shouting profanities is Rafael Nadal. No matter, how tough the situation gets, here is a player who, in my knowledge, has never lost his cool” He certainly lost his cool at the O2 last year, when playing Berdych. Interestingly, far from harming him, the incident served to light him up and he went on to play his most decisive tennis.

The author retells the well rehearsed story of the young, easily angry Federer who managed to transform himself as a result of a tragic incident. But I suspect the “anger” here was largely that of a spoiled teenage genius who expected something for nothing, the way teenagers are apt to. Maybe he just grew up.

One things for sure. Anger has many faces, and there are no general or easy solutions for its depredations.
“

September 30th, 2011 at 4:19 pm

The opening of the article, “Despite his discontent with the scheduling, Murray is playing tennis this week”, rather implies that he is contradictng himself. Not so. He has already said that he’s playing Bangkok to get acclimatised to Asia ready for Beijing. But then, if he retired tomorrow and gave his entire fortune to famine relief, someone would find an excuse to have a dig at him.

September 30th, 2011 at 5:43 pm

Grendel,
good job. Much better, me thinks, than a bit naive article behind that link. Just what I thought, on all paragraphs (but was lazy/incapable to express properly). And on Safin, in particular. Ditto on Nadal, I smiled when reading that “never lost his cool”, not saying about profanities. That episode vs Berdych was very eloquent, indeed, wrt his ability to channel his anger, right a la McEnroe, in a threshold-like elevation of his game. He certainly is a much more complex personality than he’d like to show up. Wait for a next Lynn Barber?

September 30th, 2011 at 6:20 pm

Young and Monfls, & Muzza and Simon: interesting semis. I am guessing Murray will meet la Monf in the finale? They are 3-2 H2H, edge to Murray. Monfils won the last one in Paris last year, but Gael was at home; he plays well there all the time.

October 1st, 2011 at 1:59 am

OMG! donald young beat monfils. he is in the final of Thailand open…the talent everyone has been talking about is starting to show. Good to see he doesnt go away in matchestoo. this is a three set match, winning 2 tie breaks. Good for him.

He is in the top 50 in the ranking now.

October 1st, 2011 at 7:11 am

radwanska is beating the big hitters now. easy win against zvonareva to win the tokyo. Love her game, she is better than wozniacki for sure.

October 1st, 2011 at 7:13 am

COngrats to DOnald Young, a lot of heart to take the win. apparently monfils was furious with himself.

October 1st, 2011 at 7:47 am

All the best Murray.

October 1st, 2011 at 7:53 am

Wow, I am glad to see D Young stringing together several weeks of good play! It’s always nice when someone comes out of controversy (Twitter cursing the USTA!) an improved player/person and at least for the moment that seems the case for him!

October 1st, 2011 at 8:39 am

Come on Andy!

October 1st, 2011 at 9:44 am

Simon is a fighter, so good for Muzza to come through. Will Simon be back in the top ten now? Also, a surprising win for the Donald, so kudos to him. La Monf, sigh.

ANYhow. Go Murray, win the title!!

October 1st, 2011 at 10:34 am

Murray beat a game Simon – I think Murray takes Young down too.

October 1st, 2011 at 11:17 am

Janko tips and Marcos bagh are in the final in KL.
Lets hope tipsarevic finally gets his first title.
Happy for donald, final is a good result its time for murrqy to take it!

October 1st, 2011 at 3:46 pm

Another athlete I have never seen shouting profanities is Rafael Nadal.
—-
Thank you for not noticing my profanity. All I say is P*ta.

October 1st, 2011 at 4:28 pm

La Monf needs some aggression. I think he plays too much of a juniors game and being the #1 junior may have stunted his development. Once something works people tend to stick with it.

BTW – Here is a column I put up on Guga Kuerten – http://danmartintennis.wordpress.com/2011/10/01/gustavo-guga-kuerten-coming-to-a-hall-of-fame-near-you/

October 1st, 2011 at 6:11 pm

Dan Martin: apparently Monfils was much bigger physically than the other juniors, which may have contributed to his success. Of course now they’ve all caught him up!

October 2nd, 2011 at 10:16 am