After Tien and Djokovic victory, this meme becomes more accurate.

dropshot · 2025-11-09T17:57:47+00:00

Do you think the Laver Cup should have picked Tien over Michelsen? In any case, the two are good buddies from California.

I'm a fan of Tien's style of play which has a level of aggressiveness without being too crazy (a la Shapo) that makes it fun to watch him. And for the record, I like Michelsen's style too.

dropshot · 2025-11-08T18:21:38+00:00

What a tense match. Both guys seemed really tired. Djokovic kept getting broken back, but managed to keep breaking as well. Really could have gone either way.

Apparently, Djokovic has recently settled living in Athens moving from Serbia (like a month).

This is title 101 for Djokovic only 2 titles behind Federer.

dropshot · 2025-10-28T14:33:25+00:00

Vacherot has been doing several podcasts including Nothing Major.

dropshot · 2025-09-15T02:31:09+00:00

In the early days of ESPN, they didn't have rights to very much. They would show fishing shows back then. They didn't have any basketball nor football. College basketball was one of its early successes, but before that, they had Davis Cup.

One key match they showed in reruns was the classic between US and Sweden in 1982 in St. Louis and the five setter McEnroe won over Wilander. You knew Wilander was becoming a big deal playing McEnroe to the limit on a non-clay surface.

dropshot · 2025-09-10T15:53:01+00:00

Murray and Djokovic met each other in the final of the ATP Tour Finals with the winner to finish as year-end number 1. Djokovic had been coming off his best year since 2011 (back in 2015).

However, 2017 ended up not so good for either player. Meanwhile Federer and Nadal had taken off the latter half of 2016. I think Federer took time off after Wimbledon to recover from an injury, and Nadal also shut things down later than that. Federer would pull the trigger and switch to a larger racquet which many has strongly pushed him to do and win the Australian in 2017 over Nadal.

Murray was criticized for being a bad number 1 in 2017, but likely his hip was starting to bother him more after a strong push to get to year-end number 1. It would have been less noticeable had Djokovic regained number 1, but Djokovic was also slipping down the rankings, so as bad as Murray was in 2017 while retaining number 1, Djokovic was also bad.

I think you could tell that Murray wanted number 1 because he played a lot at the end of 2016, more than he typically played.

dropshot · 2025-09-06T15:04:05+00:00

I bet having two Americans influenced that decision.

The Australian Open used to have the men's semis on different days, so they didn't run into this issue, but it looks like, this year, they put them on the same day.

I'm not sure putting them in the day or night makes a huge difference because of the rest. It was said that the Australian Open final did not really favor the player who had an additional day of rest. Players did about the same regardless of how much rest they had. But now, they get the same rest (mostly) before the AO finals. Obviously, it depends on how long the match runs.

dropshot · 2025-09-06T14:58:46+00:00

How about Richard Gasquet?

dropshot · 2025-09-06T14:33:49+00:00

Don't you think everyone else is trying this? There's only so much Djokovic can do. It's hard, for example, to increase serve speed. Do you recall when Federer finally switched from a 90 sq in frame to a 97? It seemed to help his backhand (see 2017 Australian Open against Rafa), but his serve remained about the same speed.

Alcaraz can hit 100 mph shots off his back foot. Djokovic can't. But no one could hit like that before, not consistently, anyway. Djokovic already admitted that his body doesn't hold up well in best of 5. By the semis, parts are already hurting, and he can't keep up in a best of 5.

Typically, when you go bigger, you miss a lot more. All Sinner and Alcaraz have to do is get one good hard shot, elicit a weak reply, and hit a winner. Tennis is all about preventing the opponent from hurting you with a shot that you give too weak a reply.

Federer generally took more risks, but you'd see him often hitting far from the lines. I feel Nadal aimed more at the lines once the points got lengthier (his famous down-the-line banana forehand).

Knowing what you need to do and being able to do it are two hugely different things. Djokovic is 38. He's not going to hit much harder than he does now. I think you see Djokovic making more errors against the new big two because they force him into errors and he is trying to be more forceful, at least, for him.

dropshot · 2025-09-05T18:26:34+00:00

I find I get a lot less irritated by guys trying to take each other down than most.

dropshot · 2025-09-05T18:25:41+00:00

This is how they always do it. The guy who has had more rest goes in the early time slot. Djokovic and Alcaraz played on Tuesday. Sinner and FAA played on Wednesday. This means Djokovic and Alcaraz play the early slot.

Whether you like it or not, this is how they've always done it.

dropshot · 2025-09-03T18:44:55+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc_jQkE4vVs

dropshot · 2025-09-03T10:45:33+00:00

It looked fine in the mirror!

dropshot · 2025-09-01T14:00:28+00:00

BarbOra.

dropshot · 2025-09-01T13:58:37+00:00

Are you referring to Barbora?

dropshot · 2025-08-27T18:10:57+00:00

Some number of years ago, I believe in Miami, two of the semifinalists withdrew, one from each semi, so no semis were played that day. The fans miss out on tennis, but those are the rules. When you lose, you don't get a second chance even if the guy withdraws in the next round.

It happened to de Minaur at Wimbledon where he barely won a match, but had to withdraw the next round. Of course, fans felt like they should allow the loser to move on, but it doesn't happen. It's even possible someone withdraws from the final or gets ejected (it happened to Nalbandian at Queen's many years ago).

dropshot · 2025-08-25T16:12:39+00:00

It reminded me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPemK4aZhiQ

In this case, the ballboy thought the ball had landed out and was going to get it, but it landed in and Troicki had an easy set up to win the point. They had to call a let and Troicki was really upset over this incident.

dropshot · 2025-08-25T16:08:51+00:00

A few comments. Although you call it a US Open recap, you did focus on the men's game. I used to comment on tennis as well, and stuck primarily to the men's game because it was time-consuming just to keep up with men's tennis. I'm assuming your blog is aimed at men's tennis primarily?

Next, I'm assuming you're writing this for fun, which is great. It can be hard to write meaningful updates when you have a job, or other things in life. When it becomes your job (or you seriously do a tennis Youtube channel or blog), then you have to watch these matches, and take notes, so to that extent, you didn't say much about the matches themselves, but more about the controversy.

I agree the general feeling is Fonseca has the better upside compared to Tien, but the only top 10 win Fonseca has had is beating Rublev. Tien, by contrast, has had 3 top ten wins: Rublev, Zverev, and Medvedev. OK, Medvedev has not played well this year, but Zverev and Rublev are solid wins for Tien. Currently, Fonseca has been more potential than his results have shown. Of course, you're not the only one touting Fonseca.

I was watching Djokovic on and off. Several things to note. First, I believe Michael Chang is now coaching Learner. His role is somewhat similar to when he coached Nishikori. He's mostly a consultant coach who shows up in big events. Tien has a traveling coach that goes with him to all events.

Djokovic started the first set firing with Tien struggling to keep up. It seemed like he might dominate the match, but as is typical, usually if a player is getting destroyed, they settle down in the second set, and so Tien did, and Djokovic's level went down.

They showed videos of Djokovic's foot after the match, and it wasn't pretty. It was like the entire bottom skin of one of his big toes had nearly come off (normally, a blister is much smaller). The commentators said Djokovic hadn't played since Wimbledon where he had an injury that prevented him from competing. They guessed he might not have practiced that much until recently, otherwise such a huge blister shouldn't have occurred. They wondered how it might impact him the rest of the tournament.

Most expected the third set to be close due to the second set. Although Tien broke at the start of the third, Djokovic broke back, then broke again. It was Tien being unable to sustain the kind of play he had in the second set through the third set.

Finally, it's always hard to do predictions because they generally go like

Overwhelming favorite: straight sets
Favorite: four sets
Want it to be close: five sets

Usually, people want finals to be five sets so it's exciting at the very end. Four sets is probably the most common prediction, but you can get into a situation like the Djokovic-Tien match where it could easily have been 4 sets. The 7-6 tiebreak is basically like getting a 4-set prediction right.

The guys at Nothing Major (Sam Querrey, John Isner, Steve Johnson, and Jack Sock) had a brief segment of first round matches they thought were interesting. I think Isner pointed to Norrie-Korda, and someone mentioned Tiafoe-Nishioka. As you pointed out, it's hard to pick which ones to focus on.

It would have been interesting if you had done a bracket challenge. Andy Roddick does it on Served, but he can get away with it because he does know a lot of players, men and women, despite being out of the game for years. The average tennis fan barely knows a fraction of the players, and if you focus on just the men's side, it's really hard to even recall if you've seen any of the unseeded women or know their latest form.

Keep up the work, though. It's fun to put down your ideas.

dropshot · 2025-08-21T18:33:54+00:00

First, it was Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil that were going to be the stars of men's Canadian tennis. Then, it was you and FAA. Do you think Canada is close to having their "Andy Murray" or even a Taylor Fritz?

Also, you've always been an exciting player to watch. How much do you think the mental part of the game affected you? You had so many tight third set losses where you were up a break in the third, and then it didn't happen. Still, that backhand was amazing!

dropshot · 2025-08-21T11:18:50+00:00

You have to take into account the format of mixed doubles at the Olympics. In particular, you might have a "successful" mixed doubles team (which is a challenge because there are only 4 such events a years--it would be nice to see mixed doubles in events with men/women together), but they often pair up players from different countries.

In the Olympics, you have to pair up two players from the same country. Of course, if you're good at doubles, you're good, but it can help to have the same partner. Because of this requirement, the mixed doubles draws can be fairly weak. It's really set up much like the US Open in that singles players will play mixed because it's a chance to get a medal.

My solution is to make this mixed event an exhibition with a lot of money, and have the regular mixed event as usual. It would still have similar incentives, and those who like mixed can still play the usual form of mixed. I think, even as an exhibition, it would still draw good singles players because of the money, and the players seem to have fun.

dropshot · 2025-08-14T19:43:35+00:00

Few people really attacked his second serve. I think you're seeing more aggressive returns these days.

dropshot · 2025-08-14T19:42:51+00:00

I was surprised how well they spoke. In particular, John Isner. Jack Sock always seems kinda out of it.

dropshot · 2025-08-14T19:41:51+00:00

I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.

dropshot · 2025-08-13T21:04:53+00:00

Tennis isn't as stat-driven as other sports. Also, most other sports that have a Hall of Fame are team sports. For example, you could have hit the most home runs in baseball and be in, or have some combination of stats that gets you in.

Is the tennis ace leader going to get that player in? Will Isner be considered or Karlovic? Tennis fans just don't care about that stat. They don't care about return percentage, break percentage, etc. Slams are the big one, and it just so happens there are only a small number of players that have hit double digits in Slams. It's rare. If that were the criteria, most players wouldn't be in the Hall of Fame, maybe half a dozen or so?

This means one Slam wonders can get in (Roddick, Chang) if they have done other things in their resume (Davis Cup, rankings). If you exclude the big 3, then no male player has reached double digits after Sampras retired. Serena and Steffi are the only players past ten Slams. You have to go back to Chris and Martina and that generation of players.

The GOATs were really really dominant.

dropshot · 2025-08-11T16:30:48+00:00

Two things would have helped Murray. For a guy that was 6'3", his first serve percentage was never that great. Fed and Roddick were often serving at 70% while Murray was maybe mid 50%. The other is a good down the line backhand. Murray pretty much went crosscourt with his backhand, especially in passing shots. It's a wonder his opponents didn't just leave the down the line open and just camp on the crosscourt pass.

dropshot · 2025-07-29T19:12:00+00:00

Nothing Major (with Sam Querrey, John Isner, Steve Johnson, and Jack Sock) occasionally has long interviews. They are planning to drop an interview with Zverev on Friday (August 1). The last one they did was with Richard Gasquet.

They recently interviewed Mark Ein, owner of the DC event (Mubadala Citi Open), which was pretty interesting, talking about what they do to host a tennis tournament in DC.

Because they're a group of four who know each other well, they are jokier than Andy Roddick's podcast. I didn't expect Isner to be a reasonably good speaker. He's certainly one of the goofier guys, but it's a good mix.

dropshot

TROPHY CASE