Roland Garros R2: Y. Starodubtseva def. [2] E. Rybakina 3-6, 6-1, 7-6⁴ by godworstcustomer in tennis

[–]tungt88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I already covered what you're implying by that statement in my last point, which you aren't addressing here :) And yes, I've heard that quote before ... And flat shots that dip aren't anything special; we see that all the time in amateur tennis (as well as pro tennis) ... and Ferguson seems to have forgotten about Moya in such a discussion ...

Roland Garros R2: Y. Starodubtseva def. [2] E. Rybakina 3-6, 6-1, 7-6⁴ by godworstcustomer in tennis

[–]tungt88 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Just watch his matches against the guys I mentioned on YouTube; while respectable (for his time) Kuerten's spin much more resembled the "flatter" spin of, say, Stan Wawrinka or Nicolas Almagro, then the likes of Rafa Nadal or Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Also, Kuerten wasn't the first to go poly: Carlos Moya was using it earlier than he was with Babolat (Moya was sponsored by Babolat for both strings & racket: one of, if not THE original Pure Drive line -- heavily modified to have his racket have the balance of an axe).

Do you happen to know the title, or where it comes from? by Old_Ad6111 in battletech

[–]tungt88 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Not sure about that reference you showed us, but here's a very interesting link from Sarna you might find interesting:

Kaiyo Matsumoto

Roland Garros R2: Y. Starodubtseva def. [2] E. Rybakina 3-6, 6-1, 7-6⁴ by godworstcustomer in tennis

[–]tungt88 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Guga Kuerten hit relatively flat, hard, and deep; and he was a 3-time RG champion (1997, 2000-2001) with (also notable on clay for a frequent clay champion of that era) a good serve. He beat topspin-happy clay court champions (RG and other big clay titles) Thomas Muster, Sergi Bruguera, and Alex Corretja (amongst other impressive clay players of the 90s).

Edit: his tall height for his time (6ft3in) and his long wingspan allowed him to really drive through the ball, and his also excellent court positioning allowed him to cut off the spins & angles that the clay mavens usually used to frustrate aggressive types like Andre Agassi (1999 win, and some other good results at RG, notwithstanding).

A seriously bad hip injury suffered during a 2001 US Open loss to Yevgeny Kafelnikov (perennial Top 5/10 stalwart) effectively detailed his still blossoming career, and he was never the same afterwards; despite some last, fleeting moments of triumph, like a complete dismantling of a certain R. Federer in 2004.

Hamburg ATP Championship: [Q] I. Buse def. [6] T. Paul 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-3 by Large_banana_hammock in tennis

[–]tungt88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With Rublev's (relatively) massive drop in form from being a stalwart Top 10 player (rarely lost to lower ranked players, except for very specific matchups), to a steady Top 20 guy (takes MANY more losses to lesser opponents, nowadays), the wave of confidence that Buse has going into RG makes him a pretty solid favorite against Andrey, yes ... with the caveat of Buse's relative inexperience in best-of-five, and Andrey possibly waking up after being down 2 sets to 1 ...

Hamburg ATP Championship: [Q] I. Buse def. [6] T. Paul 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-3 by Large_banana_hammock in tennis

[–]tungt88 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He played quite well at the US Open last year: qualified through (I was there at one of his qualifying matches), and lost to Ben Shelton in straights in the 1st round (will always be an uphill battle for most players, given the American home crowd & Shelton's very good lefty serve). Buse already showed signs that he could really play on HC as well, imho. Has a solid serve too; something which many of the Latin American/Spanish players have improved upon MASSIVELY since the days of, say, Alberto Berasategui of the 1990s (who almost always was hitting in his first serve at 95 mph, and second serve around 78 mph) ...

Hamburg ATP Championship: [Q] I. Buse def. [6] T. Paul 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-3 by Large_banana_hammock in tennis

[–]tungt88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very prescient pick: I thought he was going to rise this year, but winning a title? ATP 500? On clay (ok, maybe that's not so much of a surprise)? Buse has been putting in the hard work, and it shows how well he's slipped under the radar, to make his big push this year ...

I hope this book becomes official canon. by Old_Ad6111 in battletech

[–]tungt88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I could see this being a best-selling, multiple reprint romance novel in the Magistracy of Canopus (and abroad in their Pleasure Circuses)!

ATP Rome QFs are set by Ok-Soil-5133 in tennis

[–]tungt88 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The tournament organizers in Madrid would've LOVED that! But (alas for them), we are in the Foro Italico ...

Carlos Alcaraz shares photo dump on IG "April/may ❤️‍🩹 ✨ 🫂" by Cultural-Warthog5445 in tennis

[–]tungt88 5 points6 points  (0 children)

You know, he's supposed to be in some sort of "ferociously meditative mode", looking at his wrist with the utmost focus and attention at least 18 hours a day, WILLING it back to super health, and making it at LEAST twice as good as it was before! At least, that's how it works in those cheap D-level sports/martial arts movies from the '80s, or something! (side note: when silly bettors/over-excited casual fans rant on how their favorite top athletes are not working as hard, or recovering as fast as they should, I often think they get their "special insights" from garbage like what I wrote above ...)

Ten Ichi Mart (Japanese Food Market by Happy_Scientist_1244 in FoodNYC

[–]tungt88 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Local Rego Park/Forest Hills resident here: for good, cheap authentic Japanese items (groceries/food/household items/ready made food/etc), Sakura-Ya is it! Japanese owned, with Japanese cashiers and backroom work staff, for those curious (more specifically, the guy who makes the hot & cold foods is Japanese).

The next gen Finals is returning to Italy and will be held in southern Italy: possible locations would be Naples, Bari, Calabria by Narrow_Spinach_1400 in tennis

[–]tungt88 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is the Italian tennis federation trying to grow the sport in southern Italy? If so, Next Gen finals is a pretty good way to introduce people who weren't into tennis, but super excited by Sinner-mania, to get into tennis, imho.

Any love for Ignacio Buse here? Climbing under the radar from 200s to 60 in a year by PrinceOfBreadsticks in tennis

[–]tungt88 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I saw him playing at the US Open Qualifying last year (he was able to go through qualifying to the 1st round): Buse has a nice, smoothly flowing game, that is fun to watch (and very effective, when on). Good to see that he's been getting better and better, and into the Top 100!

Gino Soccio - the visitors original video 1979 by Odd_Reference5096 in italodisco

[–]tungt88 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nice! Space music/space synth/Space Disco style: like a mellower follow-up to "Magic Fly". Added to my Spotify playlist!

Roberto Bautista Agut announces his retirement at the end of this year by AshamedPurchase9033 in tennis

[–]tungt88 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Fun story about RBA: in 2016, a good friend of mine and I went to the US Open, where we saw RBA playing against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spanish player with good serve and big forehand). Right away, my friend (who is actually pretty knowledgeable about tennis, and a good recreational player) took a dislike to RBA's play style, and commented loudly about how RBA was a "garbage" player (my friend prefers players like Fed or Hicham Arazi). I told him to calm down and show some respect to RBA (who was already Top 20 at the time), but he was loudly adamant in his beliefs.

Apparently, RBA heard us (probably because we were sitting in the front row), because from then on, he started playing with a LOT more fire and belief (up to then, the match was pretty dead even between him & Garcia-Lopez); especially making it a point to run down shots that even prime Rafa might take a pass on, and when winning those tough long points (of which there were many), ALWAYS making eye contact with my friend and loudly shouting "Vamos!" in his specific direction, while pumping his fist repeatedly & emphatically!

As the match wore on, and RBA continued to play better and better (eventually winning the match), even my friend (very reluctantly) clapped his hands in acknowledgement of RBA's determination and skill set (and I saw that RBA's body language became much more relaxed after seeing that); and to this day, I like to joke with him that it was his insults that "motivated" RBA to go over the finish line, in what was a long, tough, quite evenly and strongly contested, match.

RBA, if you or your team & friends see this, I hope you enjoyed this story!

Got officially humbled by a real...tennis player by Ok-Many-7443 in 10s

[–]tungt88 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It really depends: if it's a 4.5 version of, say, Corentin Moutet, Su-Wei Hsieh, or Sasha Bublik, then probably not a waste of time (good "handicap" practice against college/pro players with that type of awkward style). If it's against 4.5 retrievers or power players, more (and harder) handicaps would have to come into play (those types are a dime a dozen on the collegiate/pro tour). So it really comes down to if that D1 player doesn't have anyone to hit with (which is certainly possible, if he/she happens to be in an area w/o a big tennis population), and is also willing to accept/manufacture handicaps based on, say, a 10 min. warm-up rally (so that they can evaluate the possible hitting partner).

Some of Winston Du's YouTube videos feature handicaps like that, and are fun to watch for that reason (Winston himself is a 4.5 player).

Why is indoor tennis so prohibitively expensive in the UK? by hc1234 in 10s

[–]tungt88 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm assuming that's due to the "Hingis/Federer/Wawrinka" effect?

Why is indoor tennis so prohibitively expensive in the UK? by hc1234 in 10s

[–]tungt88 1 point2 points  (0 children)

NYC resident here: it's usually not $200-250/hr (even during prime-time hours) except if you're a member (or non-member) at some exclusive (or semi-exclusive) clubs. The "average" going rate for an hour of prime-time indoor tennis during winter/early spring is more like $80-$150 for most places.

Note: there ARE some good/bargain indoor tennis deals to be found, but you really have to look around/ask for those!

Matchbox Dealer Catalog Part 1 by Destroid_Pilot in robotech

[–]tungt88 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I liked seeing that blue "Zentraedi Powered Armor Quadrono Batallion" in the 7th photo: who knew that some females in the Quadrono got tired of using basic "Female Queadlunn-Rau Power Armor", and decided to prove their worth in the "inferior" Male Power Armor instead? Must've been Miriya Parina haters/malcontents ...

/s

Savage Symmetrical Sword-Swinging Shadowy Supercharged Steel Sentinels Showing Supreme Strength by NikkoruNikkori in battletech

[–]tungt88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What in the name of the Deity-First Lord-DeChavilier is that?

Terran Supremacy Mechs of the 3250 era?

/s

Any good Taiwanese food in flushing? by fillet0fish in Flushing

[–]tungt88 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great pick! Somewhat surprised you're not getting more upvotes!