2nd set W/UE for Xman is 11/8 and Gilles 18/8. Amazing that he lost that 2nd set if you just look at the state. But it's really just down to the last game which he's tentative and Xmas is just going all out since the break will give him the set.
The mid section of Xman is kinda big for a sportsman. He looks a little bit laboring during pts, but his play hasn't diminished, still fast and hitting hard. Gilles needs to make him run more.
Gilles still up a break. Please hold Gilles, please hold.
Good point to start, wrongfooted Xman and got a minibreak. Also good 2nd point, yoyoing Xman and led him to miss the last pt. Sadly, DF to give the break back, as usual. 2-1
That's it. He lost in 3 sets. Bye bye Wimbledon.
Not that it's much of an upset, still very disappointing GS performance. 2 second round loss and 1 third round loss this year in GS, it's pretty pathetic for a Top 15 players, sorry to have to say that but it's the truth.
indeed. don't see any bright light for the rest of the season, i think mentally he's spent for the next few months.
at least nadal lost (though i like him, can't stand the way he's playing ever since he got hammered by djoko - well wrong thread but one has to find some sour joy elsewhere...)
So frustrating but once I looked at Malisse's results through the years on the grass I knew it was going to be extremely difficult. That said, I don't think Malisse did anything special and Gilles could have won if he took his chances. So tough being a fan of his
Honestly, there's just no words. It's just the same old sh#t with him. Can't play for crap in a tiebreak and always is the first to buckle under the pressure of big moments during the match. As a result, it's no coincidence that he lost both the 1st and 2nd sets when he had to serve down 4-5 to stay in the sets.
Well he's going to lose points here and i'm sure he won't defend his title in Hamburg so hopefully he can at least make it to the semis to help prevent a boat load of points lost, otherwise, he's going to find himself quickly way down the rankings .
Gilles , i don't know why but he never plays well on grass, his flat shots should adapt well. Today, he didn't played bad, saved a lot of BP's in 2nd set and then he got tight in the last game like in the 1st set. And then, like vs Wawa his inability to hold when leading is depressing. His stats were really good, he played good agressive tennis at times and some incredible shots but he made more mistakes than usual. Wasten chance, he could have got to Top-10 had he reached R4 and Almagro lost in R3. Now, let's hope he does the best he can in Hamburg, after all clay is his best surface this season.
I think the reason he doesn't do well on grass is that it's so dependent on winning important points and Gilles is just not the most mentally strong player out there. He loses so many close sets like the match against DelPotro last year and Malisse this year.
I think the most important thing on grass is the serve. And Gilles is just not consistent enough at serve. I guess it is related to mental strength, with his inconsistency on serve, he just not able to put out a good one on crucial pts. Today, Malisse serves much better, his first serves % was high and he won a lot of unreturnable serve pts. I mean, Gilles had 41 winners compared to Malisse's 34, and Gilles has only 3 more UEs than Xman. I think they count the aces as winners too. So the net W counts for Gilles would be 34 and Xman 24. Usually, when your W/UE differential is so much better, you shouldn't be losing in straight sets. But the unreturnable serve isn't in the stat. Malisse has a lot more of those. Also, I think Malisse was so much more steady in the match than Gilles because he believes he's a better grass player (results shown too). Normally, Xman is not such a consistent match player compare to Gilles. But today, he didn't crack, Gilles did. So it came down to confident, again.
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