Nadal, Federer On Tap Wednesday In Monte Carlo; Djokovic Dominates In Opener

Anyone else see an upset alert in Pouille over Rafa?

Joking…

Maybe Monaco over Wawrinka.

April 14th, 2015 at 7:51 pm

Another question for knowledgable TX posters, what is the difference beetwen dry and slippery court and court that has been just watered, does ball flies faster or slower, higher or lower etc etc.

April 14th, 2015 at 10:16 pm

Wog Boy,

The dryer the courrs the faster it behaves. It is as if the “clay” dust is of so it behaves more like a HC. But the dryer also the higher bounce. Sun and dry, high bounce and fast. Wet and cloudy, less bounce and more slow conditions.
Hamburgo used tonhe one of the slowest courts or if you have too much clay as it was in Buenos Aires (seems they were playing on sand).

April 14th, 2015 at 10:55 pm

Daniel, thanks, that is what I thought. I was tring to work out why Ramos complained to Murphy when he decided to water ans level the court after few games in the second set. I think Nole said it was slippery and uneven (since they forgot to level and water the court after first set as they should) and Ramos insisted that he is quite happy to play as it is, the brake worked in Nole’s favour, he played better after court was watered and broke him imidiatelly.

April 14th, 2015 at 11:25 pm

Didn’t saw the match, but when you take to long without wetting the court, the “wholes” and uneven shows and affect play more. Wetting also level the ground and prevent does dust winds. It’s awful to play in supper dry courts, send in your eyes and the uneven kick all the time.

April 15th, 2015 at 12:45 am

^^That was excatly Murhy’s point since organisers missed to do it at the end of the second set.
mat4, I know you have to be right;) but I disagree that Nole played great. He played good enough to win, his service percentage was low, not up to his standard, too many UE for two sets, FHDTL wasn’t really great (partly due to Ramos being lefty and having good FH himself), break point coversion low… Good thing in a case Nole and Rafa are too meet is that he played lefty and most importantly Boris and Vajda are together in MC, and should stay in MC regardless of result to work with Nole.

April 15th, 2015 at 1:58 am

^^ Murphy’s

April 15th, 2015 at 2:01 am

should say “at the end of first set”

April 15th, 2015 at 2:04 am

Nole played well enough to beat Ramos comfortably I thought. AND thanks for clay court explained @Daniel.

Stan Wawrinka has golfers pants on -short version. He’s playing very fast, allowing no time for Monaco to put his thinking cap on. It’s a confident Stan. Takes the 1st set 6-1

April 15th, 2015 at 5:23 am

Okay, let’s see if Monaco can turn this around.

April 15th, 2015 at 5:31 am

This is good tennis. Monaco up a break to start the 2nd set but the man in the best shorts breaks right back. Benoit Paire. Cheers him on.

April 15th, 2015 at 5:38 am

“best shorts”. Hahaha

April 15th, 2015 at 5:59 am

Robredo doing some baking winning 1 and 1,some performance against Granollers,i like Robredo he has a good game….

April 15th, 2015 at 6:04 am

No middle ground for Stan. Errors everywhere – left and right 2nd set. Monaco has hadone plenty of chances. But Stan makes it 6-4. 1st set was brilliant.

April 15th, 2015 at 6:10 am

I like Robredo too @ Hippy Chick. All i’m getting on tennis channel now is Berdych and Stakhovsky.

Until Rafa starts.

April 15th, 2015 at 6:17 am

Didn’t see Nadal’s match but judging by score he’s back.

Federer having a clinical performance serving 5-1 second set for the match, considering his opponent. Although Chardy could play better, he DF twice in BP against.

This Masters is packed, a lot of nice matches right from the go, and next round Wawrinka x Dimitrov; Ferrer x Simon and hope for Fed x Monfils.

April 15th, 2015 at 8:40 am

Nadal played well, not quite his A game, and Stan was lights out in the first set (started going for a bit too much in the 2nd). His shorts are definitely different and take some getting used to, but Roger’s going w/ a camouflage stripe on navy blue shorts and rafa’s got silver so everyone seems to be trying something new

I think Pouille has real potential, but doesn’t really have his head together yet, in terms of shot selection. He played well against Monfils in Australia, but gassed out in the 5th. W/ no upsets as of right now, matches should get really interesting after a pretty routine day yesterday (though Fernando definitely had his chances against Grigor).

April 15th, 2015 at 9:21 am

Rafa looked fine. Pouille though not so much. Easy win. Federer duffed up a lackluster Chardy. Nice win for Dimitrov.

Yes @Daniel. Wawrinka Dimitrov… looking forward to that! Ferrer Simon too.

April 15th, 2015 at 9:32 am

@ Emily. No one has anything over Monfils. As to kit style points.

April 15th, 2015 at 9:36 am

@jalep, hadn’t seen Monfils’ new kit and you are correct. It’s like one of those magic eye pictures.

April 15th, 2015 at 9:48 am

Djoko also went with a orange yellowish shirt, kind of different for him, he usually wears blue on clay.

April 15th, 2015 at 9:51 am

“Rafa looked fine. Pouille though not so much.”
Yep, actually Pouille was pathetic, like only could get half of his first serves in the box? Guess there is a reason he is 108.

April 15th, 2015 at 10:04 am

Raonic Ronaldo hair. Quite nice especially if a lock falls wayward onto his forhead. The sleeved Superman.

Edged Sousa, I see.

April 15th, 2015 at 10:05 am

@jalep, good call w/ reference to Ronaldo hair, and I heard a commentator say Raonic looks like superman when the lock falls on his forehead.

Here’s hoping we get a good match w/ Gael and Dolgo, since the outfits have been more interesting than today’s matches.

April 15th, 2015 at 10:10 am

`Raonic Ronaldo hair. Quite nice especially if a lock falls wayward onto his forhead. The sleeved Superman…`

Superman, Ronaldo?
lol I think he looks more like `Moe Szyslak` from `The Simpsons` myself…

April 15th, 2015 at 10:28 am

Haha. Sexy.Milos.

Oh ya. Monfils Dog!

April 15th, 2015 at 10:39 am

Tie break to Monfils. But that was wild.

April 15th, 2015 at 10:58 am

Very physical match but Dog is at a disadvantage. Monfils is loving it!

April 15th, 2015 at 11:16 am

Instead of the shot making we’re used to from Gael and Alex, it’s been more about who can make fewer sloppy errors. However, that Monfils fake out was priceless; even he had to give a little wink after winning that point.

April 15th, 2015 at 11:25 am

Loved the wink.

Full of profound errors for sure. Far from boring! Another tie break…

Monfils won the last encounter with Federer on clay. Would like to see this Monfils play Federer next round. I don’t think Dog can trouble Federer.

Rafa has to play Isner.

April 15th, 2015 at 11:48 am

What an amazing lineup of matches tomorrow:
Dmitrov/Wawrinka
Fed/Monfils
Nadal/Isner
Cilic/Tsonga
Ferrer/Simon

That is a smorgasbord of star clashes, and INTERESTING star clashes- Isner/Rafa because Isner’s been hot lately and had a great clay match against Rafa last time. Certainly expect Rafa to coast but there’s a bit of a ‘could be’ here.

Fed/Monfils b/c of how close their last match was, and their own recent clay history.

Then you’ve got Novak and Raonic in action as a bonus.

April 15th, 2015 at 12:44 pm

indeed TV; great line up, especially considering this masters event is optional. of course who wouldn’t want to play in that beautiful city on that court? it’s pure eye candy. :)

April 15th, 2015 at 12:58 pm

Certainly will be a day to set the DVR @TennisVagabond.
Also:
Bautista-Agut gets underrated. He could upset Berdych.
Robredo will trouble Milos.
Haider-Maurer…should be an easy out for Nole. But the tattooed Austrian is tough.

April 15th, 2015 at 1:04 pm

Okiegal says……”Whew, glad that TB is over”

April 16th, 2015 at 9:18 am