Quality Tennis Discussion / Spring tennis 2018

**Posted by Forehand_lob** 2/20/2018 6:13 am

Federer made his play for #1 and won Rotterdam. I do not think that he'll keep it for long since he's defending a huge chunk of points at Indian Wells and Miami. If he's serious about keeping it, we'll see him on clay this year. We might also see him on clay if Nadal falters; if he does look for Thiem to pick up his first French Open.

I guess the more concerning thing is how Djokovic is having a very difficult time getting back to his old level; I'm not sure he will. I have a feeling that he and Murray saw Federer (and to a degree, Wawrinka) making tennis after 30 look easy, and they thought "I can do that." And, well, maybe they can't do that.

**Posted by Forehand_lob** 4/17/2018 4:28 pm

I watched some of the Houston tournament this last weekend.
I feel that Sandgren should have won, but he got too nervous at the end. I think he has a bigger upside than Johnson.
I also got to see Taylor Fritz play for the first time. He's got a lot of weapons, but he lacks consistency. He makes me appreciate Zverev a lot more.

**Posted by funches** 5/11/2018 9:10 am

Well, it looks like Nadal will never lose again on clay the rest of his life, a combination of his high level and the pitiful level of every other contender. I have no idea what happened to Thiem, who has a chance to prove me wrong later today against Rafa.

I still expect Djokovic to get back to his top level, but he's nowhere close now and I understand the opposing sentiment. In my opinion, he's too good to stay this way, but we'll see.

Kyle Edmund is one heck of a ball striker. I felt this when I watched him in Davis Cup two years ago, again at the Australian Open in January and again v. Djokovic in Madrid when he was controlling most of the baseline rallies. He's not a good mover, which will keep him from ever winning a slam, but his groundies are relentless.

It is looking more and more like Federer rallying from a break down in the 5th set last year against Nadal in the Aussie Open final was the decisive moment in determining which of them would finish with more slams. Thank God Fed won that one.

**Posted by Forehand_lob** 5/26/2018 7:15 am

The funches jinx is alive! Though if rain hadn't come down in Rome, I think he would have lost to Zverev.

Would you categorize Kyle Edmund as a player in the Berdych/Davenport/Keys mold?

I was looking at old newsletters I had from tennisreporters.net, and one of them dealt with Clijsters's coming back to win the US Open in 2009. In it, it mentioned that she could barely run and play for 30 minutes 9 months after she gave birth to her child. With that in mind, she was younger, a better natural athlete, and had an easier childbirth than Serena, so based off of that, I have serious doubts that Serena will win a title this year.

**Posted by funches** 5/26/2018 10:42 am

I agree with you about Serena. I picked Clijsters to win that U.S. Open in the Tennis-X contest. She looked terrific in the summer tournaments. Serena looked awful at Indian Wells and Miami.

Happy to have jinxed Nadal, although I still think there is a less than 1 percent chances he loses at Roland Garros.

I would not put Edmund in Berdych/Davenport/Keys category, but It's possible he gets to a Berdych level. It depends on whether he can improve his movement. Apparently, he gave Zverev a heck of a match in Rome last week (I didn't see it).

When Berdych was younger, he was a more explosive ball-striker than Edmund is even though I love the way Edmund hits it. Edmund's strength is the consistent power and depth of his groundstrokes, but Berdych could end a point any time from anywhere on both his forehand and backhand. Edmund, though, might become a better mover than Berdych.