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Rafa Hatas & Co Chat Thread Subdued On Clay - Vol. 69

237K views 5K replies 50 participants last post by  scoobs 
#1 · (Edited)
Enjoy the coming spring with Rafa! :wavey:

Made the thread ready, will be back later with better titles, if you have any suggestions, my inbox is open. :D
 
#11 ·
Re: Rafa Chat Thread For All The Hatas And Such Vol. 69


The NY Times had an article about Davis Cup and Andy's participation. (Also about Simon :tape:)

But despite all those ranking points he will soon have to start defending , the 28-year-old Roddick still made the trip to Chile to be part of Courier’s inaugural voyage as captain.

“Andy is a very giving individual, he missed the team camaraderie, the team meals,” said his coach, Larry Stefanki. “It’s not going to be easy, nothing is ever easy, but it’s something he wants to do, and it’s going to make him happy.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/sports/tennis/04iht-TENNIS04.html?ref=tennis
 
#8 ·
Re: Rafa Chat Thread For All The Hatas And Such Vol. 69

UK lost? :lol: :awww: Whom did they lose to?

Metis, it's fine that you didn't know. Ernests didn't participate in the tie so there was no reason to go see it anyway :p Well, okay, Karlis Lejnieks would have been a reason but he fell and broke his nose during practice on Thursday or Friday so he had to be taken to the hospital :awww: :hug:
 
#23 ·
Re: Rafa Chat Thread For All The Hatas And Such Vol. 69

In the meantime, Simon is losing :(

Why, oh why, did i let myself talked into picking him :banghead:
The Times went on at length about Simon.

Meanwhile, the French captain Guy Forget, close to an institution in his 12th season in the post, has been told to back off and hold the courtside advice by a player, Gilles Simon, who has yet to win a Davis Cup match that mattered. :eek:

That Simon remains in the French lineup for Friday’s opening day of play against Austria speaks volumes about France’s current predicament. Its top three players — Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gaël Monfils and Richard Gasquet — are all missing with injuries, and Monfils and Gasquet would have been particularly useful on the indoor clay court that the Austrians have installed near Vienna.

****​

Not with Austria’s top player, the 10th-ranked Jürgen Melzer, in the best phase of his long career and strong enough on clay to have reached the French Open semifinals last year. Simon, a former top 10 player himself, is still counterpunching his way back up the rankings after a chronic knee problem. Though he has won three minor tournaments on clay, he has had his most impressive results on hardcourts and was in rare form at the Australian Open this year, pushing Roger Federer to a fifth set before losing in the second round.

For now, however, he remains an underachiever in the game’s premier team competition. He has lost all three of his live Davis Cup singles matches and was beaten soundly by Djokovic on the first day of the final last year in Belgrade. The Serbs ultimately won 3-2 as Forget passed over Simon in favor of Michaël Llodra for the decisive fifth match and then saw Llodra get picked apart in a hurry by Viktor Troicki on the relatively slow indoor court.

Simon, who had a 4-0 record against Troicki, was far from delighted. Forget, despite receiving no shortage of criticism in France for his overall management of the final, received a two-year contract extension.

Simon’s straight-set defeat in Belgrade certainly looks better now, in light of Djokovic’s 12-0 record so far this year. But Simon certainly exposed himself further by giving Forget marching orders during a long interview conducted in Dubai and published this week by the French sports daily L’Equipe.

Simon said he had spoken with Forget at the Australian Open and asked him to change his approach during matches by not offering any more tactical advice. “Or he should spend more time watching how I win matches,” Simon said. “Guy’s vision is proactive. I play more in reaction.

“Guy was an attacking player. He won the Davis Cup and the Paris indoors by attacking, so that’s his perception of the game. I respect it, but it doesn’t correspond at all to my way of playing. When I beat Rafael Nadal in 2008, Guy only noticed my two or three rushes to the net near the end. He told me, ‘You see! It’s like that you beat him!’ But no. In that match, I ran everywhere. Kilometers! Guy remembers the winners but not the mistakes I made the other guy make.”

In the interview, Simon also criticized the atmosphere in the French squad, saying that players often failed to respect team rules or think collectively. Simon might be correct — he is one of the game’s more perceptive and articulate players at the moment — but making his gripes public presumably did little for team morale.

He has since lashed out at L’Equipe, claiming its reporter failed to preserve the spirit of the interview.
 
#38 ·
Re: Rafa Chat Thread For All The Hatas And Such Vol. 69

Simon 2 sets to 1 on Melzer, if he wins this match he wins the tie.

And then NYT reporter will have to write a new article :D
I was thinking the same! :lol:

Really, I think Simon was right to tell Forget to shut up because his advice doesn't help. But, maybe he shouldn't have given the interview.

Anyway -- Vamos, Simon.
 
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