Also, the only way I am even able to compete with someone remotely talented is because she (my regular tennis partner) is right handed and I'm a southpaw, so she keeps hitting to my forehand at the start of our matches. But she's experienced and quickly realizes this, and changes it up to my backhand, which is actually better than my forehand since I spend more time practicing it.
My Yonex is a muscle power from around '04 or so. It was tough to get used to the small head size, but the extra weight is nice. I think a larger, more modern head would really help my consistency, though.
Not sure if you ever used an MP, but I wonder how the Ezone would compare?
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
I still have an RDX 90, which is what came right after the muscle power iirc. I use when I just want to hit flat, flat shots.
What I use these days are the RDS01 95 (that bright yellow one), and the EZone. I used to have a Dunlop Aerogel 300 but I broke it out of frustration one match (instant catharsis, instant regret). The Ezone is stiff but it always feels stable. Spin, not so much compared to other racquets, but it's solid at the net and when it comes to serves it gives me enough spin so that I don't have to kick the serve that much. What I really like is the swingweight; compared to the RDX which felt like you were moving the whole thing, the EZone is more spread out so following through on swings feels cleaner.
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
Australian Open, the best slam, started up Monday.
So far:
-Venus lost
-Haas lost (retired)
-Karlovic lost
-Isner lost (retired)
-Hewitt lost in 5 (but he's still in the doubles with Pat Rafter of all people, oi oi oi did I do that right?)
The heat seems to be messing with players more this year, at least early on. And Aussies and Americans are dropping off the brackets like flies.
I haven't checked the rankings in a while, have they moved much or is it pretty much the usual suspects? I'd check myself but I'm mobile on the office internet.
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
In the first tournaments before Melbourne, you had some usual winners with nice surprises (Isner won Auckland, Hewitt beat Federer to win Brisbane, Nadal won Doha, Wawrinka won Chennai, DelPo won Sydney). This changed the rankings but not enough to factor into the AO, but the top men are:
Nadal
Djokovic
Ferrer
Murray (first big tournament since surgery)
DelPo
Federer
Berdych
Could be interesting to see if Ferrer works hard to another final, or if some of younger players make it through this year.
Notable features for the Men:
Nadal seems to have the easier half this year with the top player in his Quarter being David Ferrer. The top ranked player in his half is Wawrinka.
Djokovic has Raonic, Tsonga, and Cilic in his half, all of whom can be rough if you catch them on a good day. Federer is the top ranked player in his half.
The French is going to be interesting this year. Nadal suffered early losses in Monte Carlo and Barcelona, and he barely eeked out a win against Nishikori in the Madrid final. He lost to Djokovic in the Rome final. I know that best of 5 is way different than best of 3, but a lot of writers think this might be the end of Nadal's supremacy at the French.
For the Women:
Uh, does anyone think Serena won't win if she stays healthy?
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
Maybe Radwanska can do something, but it's the women's game, it changes as regularly as the sun in the sky.
Nadal being off this clay season has been really weird. I'm ok with losing to Djokovic, but the Ferrer loss didn't feel like he tanked to help his friend (like against Almagro). Wawrinka did win the FO as a junior, and with his backhand perfected into a battering ram now, it might be the surprise on clay to get him another slam this year. I guess it all depends on the weather.
Haven't Nadal/Federer already topped virtually every "I am at the top of my game" record there is? It wouldn't surprise me if they were basically done dominating the leaderboards.
Maybe Radwanska can do something, but it's the women's game, it changes as regularly as the sun in the sky.
Nadal being off this clay season has been really weird. I'm ok with losing to Djokovic, but the Ferrer loss didn't feel like he tanked to help his friend (like against Almagro). Wawrinka did win the FO as a junior, and with his backhand perfected into a battering ram now, it might be the surprise on clay to get him another slam this year. I guess it all depends on the weather.
Wawrinka is the only player in like 15 years who has won a junior title and then gone on to win a real slam, so I don't think it means much that he won the junior FO.
Not sure why he's getting off to a slow start against Garcia-Lopez. Needs to get those errors under control.
Edit: Post third set: What on earth is going on with Stan? It's so depressing to see him make this many errors... I hope he can take the fourth and maybe finish up the match tomorrow.
LoveIsUnity on
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
Wawrinka and Nishikori go down in the first round on clay.
I mean, what are they, Americans? *rimshot* *french people laughnig like ribbiting frogs*
The FO is the most wild open in terms of complete journeyman making deep runs, looks like it might be that kind of year.
Well, clay slows play down, so players can't get as many points from aces and impossible-to-return-on-hard-court shots. Athleticism and technique come more into play. God I love the clay season.
Nishikori's play has been on point, though, and while Stan wasn't looking great throughout the clay season, he was looking awesome up until then. I actually expected both of them to go deep. Super disappointing.
In WTA upsets, Li Na went out today to Mladenovic... She had a pretty nice draw, so I expected her to make it at least to the semis.
Wozniacki went out as well, but I probably wouldn't play too well either if the asshole I was engaged to decided to call it off after we had already sent out invitations.
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
Basically everyone is out, save for Nadal and Djokovic (who slapped Tsonga around pretty well today). The Gulbis/Federer match was very similar to a Safin/Federer match from a decade earlier.
Murray and Kolschreibber had a four hour match that went over two days and Murray won, but he's probably done in the QF.
Yeah, anytime a match goes really long like that it's basically a guarantee that whichever one wins is done, son. They really take it out of the players.
Which is sad, because sometimes those really long matches are very exciting!
I'm kind of bummed that Stosur just fell apart at the end of the second set against Sharapova. She had one absolutely terrible service game and Maria took the next 9 games to take the match....
Also, Murray is up 2 sets on Verdasco, so I think he'll be okay as long as he gets a day to rest tomorrow.
LoveIsUnity on
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
That Sharapove/Maguwhashername, had to quit watching the shrieking got too loud.
Gulbis/Djokovic, that's going to be a nice match if Gulbis plays the way he has. Friday is supposed to be sunny so dry courts, use the poweerrrrr
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
Women's final turns out to be exactly what the media wants, so it's going to be boob talk and Sharapova shrieking and Halep probably choking like every Cinderella story usually happens in Women's tennis.
I guess I don't hate Sharapova as much as most people do. She's actually pretty damn good, it's just that she's been consistently overshadowed by Serena since, like, 2004.
Is it her attitude that most people don't like?
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
It's the screaming. The blatant, non-grunting screaming. And she acts like she's not doing it.
For whatever reason she always loses the first set. Her serve has never recovered since surgery years back. So in the second set you can always see her up the screaming to an unbelievable level and really jarr the opponent. It happened with Stosur in the 4th round and Muguruza in the QF. I remember it as far back as the '07 AO when she almost lost in the first round to some french chick. And no one calls her on it because the other player doesn't want to seem like a dick about it, but they'd be completely in the right.
At this point I'd love to sit in the stands of one of her matches, and after every scream go "Screaming not grunting" to the point where I get kicked out and be the bad guy. Something needs to be done and attention needs to be drawn to it in a way where they make a real change. Fuck this Michael Jordan get away with calls mentality.
And Nadal destroyed Murray, which was even better by all his expressions.
At this point I'm wondering if there's no rule changes on "grunting" because of the apparently not-insignificant numbers of men who watch women's tennis for that reason. I really don't buy the line that stopping the noise negatively affects play (except maybe insomuch as their opponent will be less distracted).
Anyway, Sharapova isn't the loudest one, but I guess I understand how that gets on people's nerves.
I actually think Sharapova is one of (if not the) loudest. Also, she gets louder the closer she is to being on the ropes, so she's way fucking louder when she's down 0-40 than when she's up 40-0. It's pretty clearly intentional. I watched a few minutes of the Wimbledon final she won all those years ago a few weeks ago, and she wasn't anything like she is now. She also stares people down across the net and just acts like an asshole a lot of the time. (Also wouldn't sign autographs for a bunch of cute six year olds. Federer, Djokovic, Azarenka, and Murray all stopped to sign for them...)
Michelle Larcher de Brito is arguably louder than Sharapova (but that's a pointless debate, it isn't like they were measured in a controlled environment or anything), but the difference to me is that Michelle's vocalizations are waaaaaay more distracting:
I'm not saying she's a fantastic exemplar of a human being, just that she isn't without a little introspection on this particular issue. Of course, it's easy for her to support it after shrieking her way to many a victory, but still.
That was a good final even if it wasn't the result I was hoping for. Halep played well for a first time slam finalist, and Maria is about as mentally tough as it gets.
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
Really good match.
Nadal just rode out the opening Djokovic salvo and then when both had injuries/quasi breakdowns/vomitting he steeled himself better. Not a lot of slices this match which was interesting, it was more a battle for the forehand.
Realistically, I can't see Nadal not winning another two FOs minimum, it's just a matter of what other title he could win to surpass Federer (who might get to another final or two but not win).
I used to think that Nadal was a contender to go far at Wimbledon, but that theory hasn't worked out the last couple of years. I know that grass is the easiest surface to get completely hit off the court, which is what happened against Rosol, but I don't have quite as much confidence in his game on grass as I used to. I'd sure as hell like to see him pick up another Wimbledon, though. Maybe we could even get a 2011 rematch, because as much as I didn't like seeing Djokovic win, it was a pretty good match.
Back to this year's final: it was brutal watching them both deal with injuries and fatigue in the third and fourth sets. Djokovic threw up a couple of times, and Nadal's back issues returned at the worst possible time. I've got a lot of respect for both of them for grinding it out.
Edit: Also @joshofalltrades , I just noticed the new thread title. So awesome.
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
I know! I was going to put something up at day's end!
Screw World Cup, Grass Tennis!
The top of the Men's draw is very very light until the SF, Outside of Djokovic and Murray I can only see Berdych being a contender, everyone else including Tsonga seem to flake off. It's almost magical how it's filled with top ranked players but they all suffer on grass, in the same bracket the defending champ brit is in, hmmmm (even accounting for Wimbledon's official/grass ranking hybrid system).
Yeah, top half is definitely the place to be in the men's draw. In the bottom half, I would like to see Nadal and Federer square off at Wimbledon again.
Azarenka is back after being out for a while. Yay? Sam Stosur does what she does best on grass: lose.
Posts
http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/demoprogram.html
http://www.tennisexpress.com/category.cfm/tennis/Tennis-Demo-Racquets
Not sure if you ever used an MP, but I wonder how the Ezone would compare?
What I use these days are the RDS01 95 (that bright yellow one), and the EZone. I used to have a Dunlop Aerogel 300 but I broke it out of frustration one match (instant catharsis, instant regret). The Ezone is stiff but it always feels stable. Spin, not so much compared to other racquets, but it's solid at the net and when it comes to serves it gives me enough spin so that I don't have to kick the serve that much. What I really like is the swingweight; compared to the RDX which felt like you were moving the whole thing, the EZone is more spread out so following through on swings feels cleaner.
So far:
-Venus lost
-Haas lost (retired)
-Karlovic lost
-Isner lost (retired)
-Hewitt lost in 5 (but he's still in the doubles with Pat Rafter of all people, oi oi oi did I do that right?)
The heat seems to be messing with players more this year, at least early on. And Aussies and Americans are dropping off the brackets like flies.
Nadal
Djokovic
Ferrer
Murray (first big tournament since surgery)
DelPo
Federer
Berdych
Could be interesting to see if Ferrer works hard to another final, or if some of younger players make it through this year.
Then he lost some matches and "Oh, I guess he isn't a precognizant cyborg tennis god."
Other than that it's been relatively smooth sailing, Nadal plays Nishikori tonight and Tsonga v Federer, one might be an upset.
Wawrinka beat Djokovic in 5 sets
Berdych beat Ferrer in 4
Some Canadian named Bouchard beat Ivanovic
Here is the men's draw: http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/scores/draws/ms/index.html
Here is the women's draw: http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/scores/draws/ws/index.html
Notable features for the Men:
Nadal seems to have the easier half this year with the top player in his Quarter being David Ferrer. The top ranked player in his half is Wawrinka.
Djokovic has Raonic, Tsonga, and Cilic in his half, all of whom can be rough if you catch them on a good day. Federer is the top ranked player in his half.
The French is going to be interesting this year. Nadal suffered early losses in Monte Carlo and Barcelona, and he barely eeked out a win against Nishikori in the Madrid final. He lost to Djokovic in the Rome final. I know that best of 5 is way different than best of 3, but a lot of writers think this might be the end of Nadal's supremacy at the French.
For the Women:
Uh, does anyone think Serena won't win if she stays healthy?
Nadal being off this clay season has been really weird. I'm ok with losing to Djokovic, but the Ferrer loss didn't feel like he tanked to help his friend (like against Almagro). Wawrinka did win the FO as a junior, and with his backhand perfected into a battering ram now, it might be the surprise on clay to get him another slam this year. I guess it all depends on the weather.
Wawrinka is the only player in like 15 years who has won a junior title and then gone on to win a real slam, so I don't think it means much that he won the junior FO.
Not sure why he's getting off to a slow start against Garcia-Lopez. Needs to get those errors under control.
Edit: Post third set: What on earth is going on with Stan? It's so depressing to see him make this many errors... I hope he can take the fourth and maybe finish up the match tomorrow.
I mean, what are they, Americans? *rimshot* *french people laughnig like ribbiting frogs*
The FO is the most wild open in terms of complete journeyman making deep runs, looks like it might be that kind of year.
In WTA upsets, Li Na went out today to Mladenovic... She had a pretty nice draw, so I expected her to make it at least to the semis.
Wozniacki went out as well, but I probably wouldn't play too well either if the asshole I was engaged to decided to call it off after we had already sent out invitations.
Murray and Kolschreibber had a four hour match that went over two days and Murray won, but he's probably done in the QF.
Which is sad, because sometimes those really long matches are very exciting!
Also, Murray is up 2 sets on Verdasco, so I think he'll be okay as long as he gets a day to rest tomorrow.
Gulbis/Djokovic, that's going to be a nice match if Gulbis plays the way he has. Friday is supposed to be sunny so dry courts, use the poweerrrrr
I also hate Sharapova so, so much, though...
Fuck, I hope she loses.
Is it her attitude that most people don't like?
For whatever reason she always loses the first set. Her serve has never recovered since surgery years back. So in the second set you can always see her up the screaming to an unbelievable level and really jarr the opponent. It happened with Stosur in the 4th round and Muguruza in the QF. I remember it as far back as the '07 AO when she almost lost in the first round to some french chick. And no one calls her on it because the other player doesn't want to seem like a dick about it, but they'd be completely in the right.
At this point I'd love to sit in the stands of one of her matches, and after every scream go "Screaming not grunting" to the point where I get kicked out and be the bad guy. Something needs to be done and attention needs to be drawn to it in a way where they make a real change. Fuck this Michael Jordan get away with calls mentality.
And Nadal destroyed Murray, which was even better by all his expressions.
Which makes commentary like this kind of sad.
At this point I'm wondering if there's no rule changes on "grunting" because of the apparently not-insignificant numbers of men who watch women's tennis for that reason. I really don't buy the line that stopping the noise negatively affects play (except maybe insomuch as their opponent will be less distracted).
Anyway, Sharapova isn't the loudest one, but I guess I understand how that gets on people's nerves.
Most annoying definitely goes to Azarenka though.
I'm not saying she's a fantastic exemplar of a human being, just that she isn't without a little introspection on this particular issue. Of course, it's easy for her to support it after shrieking her way to many a victory, but still.
Nadal just rode out the opening Djokovic salvo and then when both had injuries/quasi breakdowns/vomitting he steeled himself better. Not a lot of slices this match which was interesting, it was more a battle for the forehand.
Realistically, I can't see Nadal not winning another two FOs minimum, it's just a matter of what other title he could win to surpass Federer (who might get to another final or two but not win).
I used to think that Nadal was a contender to go far at Wimbledon, but that theory hasn't worked out the last couple of years. I know that grass is the easiest surface to get completely hit off the court, which is what happened against Rosol, but I don't have quite as much confidence in his game on grass as I used to. I'd sure as hell like to see him pick up another Wimbledon, though. Maybe we could even get a 2011 rematch, because as much as I didn't like seeing Djokovic win, it was a pretty good match.
Back to this year's final: it was brutal watching them both deal with injuries and fatigue in the third and fourth sets. Djokovic threw up a couple of times, and Nadal's back issues returned at the worst possible time. I've got a lot of respect for both of them for grinding it out.
Edit: Also @joshofalltrades , I just noticed the new thread title. So awesome.
Screw World Cup, Grass Tennis!
The top of the Men's draw is very very light until the SF, Outside of Djokovic and Murray I can only see Berdych being a contender, everyone else including Tsonga seem to flake off. It's almost magical how it's filled with top ranked players but they all suffer on grass, in the same bracket the defending champ brit is in, hmmmm (even accounting for Wimbledon's official/grass ranking hybrid system).
Azarenka is back after being out for a while. Yay? Sam Stosur does what she does best on grass: lose.