2016 Tennis Season - Discussion Thread

As long as Azarenka doesn't play out a marathon SF, she'll do to Kuzzy what Timea has failed to. Best return game in the WTA will kill the Russian's serves: won't be 2/14 for her.
 
when she had to look to the chair umpire a couple times to question whether to challenge, she was already mentally blown out
 
2/14 is just stupid. Russian went 4/7 on her BP chances.

Even though this was 2 sets, Kuzzy still spent another 1:57 on court in the hottest conditions of the tourney so far.
 
Kuznetsova has been on court at @MiamiOpen for 11hr 31m

In comparison, Azarenka and Kerber have been on court for 12hr 2m combined
 
Miami WTA Final

Not much to add to what I previously wrote about Kuznetsova in my SF write-up, so here I'll cover the differences between Bacsinszky & Azarenka, as per what kind of challenge they pose/d to the Russian.

Serve
Bacsinszky's serve was never going to be a weapon against Kuzzy. She got a high percentage of 1st serves in (certainly not where she lost the match), but for her game it's really only a way to start the point. Azarenka's 1st serve, however, has steadily improved to the point where it is a real weapon in and of itself. Her 2nd serve is still the biggest hole in her game (& where Konta completely lost the plot in her approach to counteracting it). Kuznetsova's sole chance in this final comes via Vika delivering a low 1st serve %.

Return game
Bacsinszky repeatedly made UE on weak Kuznetsova 2nd serves, allowing Kuznetsova to win 52% of her 2nd serve points in their SF. Without a doubt this is where Bacsinszky lost the match. So many of those 2nd serve failures for the Swiss came in 1st set break point chances. In Azarenka, we have the best returner in the women's game. Kuznetsova isn't going to be gifted the UE count on her 2nd serves here that she got in her SF.

Ground game
Azarenka's ground game is stronger than Bacsinszky's for the sheer fact that she's dangerous from both wings, whereas Bacsinszky's got a much weaker fh, so she really only hurts people from her bh (unless they're significantly out of position for her to be able to nail a fh winner). Time and again Kuznetsova quite intelligently pounded Bacsinszky's fh side on important points, and visibly frustrated the Swiss. She has no wing to target in this match to allow her 'breathing room' within rallies.

Surface
Bacsinszky's game is most perfectly suited to clay courts (her best result in her breakthough 2015 was that French Open SF against Serena, where she won the 1st set and was up 3-2 & a break in the 2nd before losing the last 10 games of the match). So Kuznetsova was lucky to face someone whose absolute best wouldn't be shown on a HC. Not so here: Azarenka's a HC specialist (she's made 4 finals in HC Slams vs. no finals in non-HC Slams).

Previous Meetings
Kuznetsova took a 2-0 hth record (incl. 1 retirement) into her match against Bacsinszky. While both those results came before the Swiss had found her way on tour, there was certainly nothing negative to weigh on the Russian's mind entering their SF. Here Azarenka has won the last 3 matches between the two since Kuznetsova's heyday period ended (as I mentioned in my previous post, that period being 2006-2009). Those results...

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In 3 of the 4 sets they've played on HC, Kuznetsova has had her shit well & truly pushed in. The one competitive match they've had was on Azarenka's worst surface/Kuzzy's best surface: yet even then the Russian still couldn't manage to win a single set. So the Russian enters this match knowing it's been 7 years since she's had any answers to offer the questions the Belarusian's game has asked of her.

---

Under normal circumstances, this would be an extremely tough match-up for Kuznetsova at this stage of her career. You add in the workload she's had to go through to get here and it becomes a nightmare match-up. Once again her only hope is to win the 1st set: as for her chances of that? Azarenka has dropped only 1 of 15 1st sets at elite WTA tournament matches this year (that sole instance was in her SF loss to Kerber at the AO). Unlike the Russian, she didn't drop her 1st set when beating a Serena (& a Serena who was fully engaged in the match they were playing). I struggle to see how the Russian wins more than 6-7 games if Azarenka produces anything like the form she's shown over her last 3 matches (all 3 of those opponents she beat - Muguruza, Konta & Kerber - I'd pick in a heartbeat to beat Kuznetsova).

Under, laying the games or a 2-0 sets win are the bets I'm considering here. I'll make my mind up close to game time. Hopefully it's a stinking hot again, time to see this Russian bitch finally wilt under the scorching sun & scorching Azarenka returns.
 
I saw a prop at my book that u2.5 sets was +215. lmfao. I hit that shit hard. They have since taken it down and it will probably be cancelled but that's great value IMO. Vika gonna roll.
 
Due to circumstances couldn't be around for the final. Looking at the stats, amazing to see Azarenka didn't even play well. Her 1st serving by her own recent standards was abysmal (48% in the 1st set:rofl:). Had she been at top form for that match, Kuznetsova wouldn't have won more than 2 games. Congrats all ml, Under, spread and straight sets bettors: won't get many other easier wins in a semi- or final this season.
 
Another 'Kuznetsova' scenario is in play Friday on the clay @Charleston.

Yulia Putintseva plays off a 3 hr 3 min match (3 sets) on Thursday. Prior to that, her match on Wednesday lasted 2:21 (3 sets) & her match on Monday lasted 1:40 (2 sets). So that's 5:24 on court the last 2 days (62 games played), and 7:04 on court over the last 4 days (81 games played). By any standard that's a decent workload, but also of note are the players she's knocked off: Nara, Lisicki & then Venus.

Putintseva, 21, is ranked 61, and a quick look at her history tells me she's never knocked off three 'name players' in consecutive matches. How has she managed the last 2? Venus was a mere 7-6 on clay since '14 prior to playing the Russian, and Lisicki was a mere 9-8 (Nara, 10-9). Not one opponent in any way accomplished on clay, yet the Russian's struggled with them all (barring 1 set: Nara's effort gave way after losing a 1st set tiebreak = 2nd set got bageled).

Appearing as the number 3 'name player' after Lisicki & Venus is Sara Errani, whose shitty pop-gun brickwalling game just happens to find its best results on the surface featuring here. Errani is 38-9 on clay vs. players other than Serena since 2014 (that's an 80.9 % win rate). Errani had a bye the 1R, so has played less than half the games (38) & been on court less than half the time (2:53) than what the Russian has through to this point. In their 1 previous meeting Errani won 6-1 6-1 (on clay, no less), but that was 2+ years back when the Ruskie was still finding her way on tour so really doesn't mean as much as it might. My usual concern with Errani is her opponent's ability to blow her off the court, but here Putintseva's physical attributes are all but a mirror image of the Italian's: both 5'4" tall & weighing 59-60 kg.

I'm not inclined to back Errani in straight sets or the Under (her game isn't good enough to blow Putintseva off the court if the Russian still has something significant to give, which is the real bummer for this situation. A more powerful player = less belief the Russian would be capable of winning a set), but I'd certainly consider the Italian's ml as worth finding a parlay for (ideal way to approach this one imo is via live betting: being the late match it should be available). If the Russian flukes her way past this hurdle, then she's certainly a 'dead woman walking' in her next match vs. either Siegemund or (more likely) Vesnina.
 
There's a bet at Stuttgart whose price I perceive as holding some value, and involves my Spanish money-train aka sexy legs.

Muguruza to win 2-1 over Babos (+300)

Watched a couple of Timea Babos matches (via live betting) over the last 2 months, which fortunately had informative commentators who relayed facts mixed with opinion painting the picture of this being her breakthrough year (she turns 23 on May 10th; first Slam = 2012 FO). This season she's claimed a number of name scalps much higher ranked than herself (Kar. Pliskova, Errani), pushed another couple of name players hard (lost 3rd sets vs. Kerber & Vinci), plus beat a player in excellent form herself (Heather Watson). She's also faced Muguruza once (hc), losing 6-2 7-5 (this match was closer than it looks: Mugu went 3/3 in BP chances vs. Babos' 0/5). Babos has spent little time on clay before this year (0-3 L2 years), but is 4-2 this season. Muguruza on clay? All you need to know is she beat Serena 6-2 6-2 at the French: on her day she can obliterate the best. The only players to beat Mugu on clay last year were Safarova (QF of the French, Saffy made the final), Kuznetsova (clay is her best surface, and the match was in the shadow of the French Open; I'm always wary of weighting pre-Slam tourney results too heavily), Mladenovic (two tiebreak sets, 2 weeks out from the French) & Halep (clay arguably her best surface, given her only Slam final appearance has been at the French).

What I like here is Muguruza is not only playing off a 1R bye, where Timea has at least had some court time (beating Lisicki 7-6, 6-3, the German being at home put up a better than usual fight), but that Mugu's last tourney play was 4 weeks ago (having played only 2 Fed Cup matches inbetween times against a couple of old, soft-hitting Italian pushers who combined to not trouble her at all in 3 of 4 sets played, where Timea has a decent serve and is no brickwaller). I think Timea has a shot of catching a Muguruza not up to delivering her very best over 2 straight sets, but at the same time I think Mugu's greater prowess on clay + her natural greater ability/talent should see her through come any 3rd set.
 
will perhaps pull the trigger on fognini +5.5 or O19.5 games. fognini tends to raise his level vs strong opponents and not being focus vs inferior ranked opponents.

when i like underdogs, i never know if it's better to take +1.5 sets, the over or games handicapp. perhaps i should split unit over each ones. cause so many times i see a live dog losing a winning a Tight first set 7-6 only to collapse and lose 6-1/6-2/6-0 the second or third set. usually the more the match lasts the more the favorite makes the difference physically and mentally
 
Roger Federer's time is winding down...

Roger Federer pulls out of French Open to avoid ‘unnecessary fitness risk’

Roger Federer’s withdrawal on Thursday from the French Open – snapping a 65-tournament run in majors reaching back to his grand slam debut at Roland Garros 17 years ago – seems like one of those moments in which tennis history pivots irreversibly.The back injury that has plagued him during the clay-court season, combined with the lingering effects of keyhole surgery for a freakish knee injury in January, as well as a virus that struck him down in Miami, have taken their toll on a player it once seemed might survive a nuclear explosion if he so chose.

The Swiss will be 35 in August and is surrounded by hungry, younger beasts. His sublime body is finally creaking, just like those of his more explosive rivals, and the odds of him beating Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray or the defending champion, Stan Wawrinka, for an unlikely second French title were remote the moment he arrived and chose not to talk to the media after a light workout on Wednesday.

Now he can only hope he has enough time to recuperate and make a respectable charge at Wimbledon, his favoured kingdom, or contemplate as graceful a decline as any father of four in his mid-thirties has a right to expect after 17 years and as many major titles in an era of unprecedented physicality. These must be desperate times for Federer, who admitted after losing to the rising young Austrian Dominic Thiem in straight sets in Rome last week that five matches in four months since his defeat by Djokovic in the semi-finals of the Australian Open in January reflected the parlous state of his tennis.

Federer said after losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Monte Carlo a month ago: “I hope my knee and my body are going to be OK. I definitely won’t play the next couple of weeks.”

Asked would he contemplate surgery on his back if advised, he paused and said: “I think it’s always the beginning of the end, surgery. I still believe that. If I can avoid it, I will always avoid it. Would I have surgery for fun? Not me anyway. I don’t see one funny bit about it.”

For his fans, the immediacy of his leaving Paris, where it all started with a first-round defeat to Pat Rafter in 1999, will be shock enough; to even think the end could be approaching faster than anyone had imagined will induce nightmares.

It says much, also, that Federer chose to issue the news remotely, on Facebook, rather than put himself through a press conference. He plainly is hurting. “I regret to announce I have made the decision not to play in this year’s French Open,” he said. “I have been making steady progress with my overall fitness but I am still not 100% and feel I might be taking an unnecessary risk by playing in this event before I am really ready.

“This decision was not easy to make but I took it to ensure I could play the remainder of the season and help to extend the rest of my career. I remain as motivated and excited as ever and my plan is to achieve the highest level of fitness before returning to the ATP World Tour for the grass-court season. I am sorry for my fans in Paris but I very much look forward to returning to Roland Garros in 2017.”

Federer has never been one to flinch from the truth. If he is sincere in his late-career ambitions, millions will be satisfied at least that he will give them another year or so of his fading genius. The deeper concern is that if he does not fulfil his optimistic charter, if he struggles at Wimbledon to compete with the elan and unfettered grace that have marked him out from everyone in the Open era, he may yet reconsider and just leave quietly.

Murray, who enjoys playing Federer more than any other player even though the Swiss shades him 14 wins to 11 overall, felt recently he was struggling more than was apparent.

“I don’t know what happened with his back injury,” he said. “It’s tough to comment but it will be interesting to see for how long the injury keeps coming back. It’s probably not an easy injury to come back from.”

Speaking as someone who risked surgery in 2014 to correct a lower back problem that threatened to foreshorten his own career, Murray knows what he is talking about. It is also three years since Murray withdrew from the French Open to ease back pain and went on to win at Wimbledon.
 
pretty normal at 35 to get these problems. the most amazing was making 2 grand slams finals at 33/34 without losing a single set and taking 1 set from world number 1 in each final. at 33 and more djokovic and nadal won't make grand slams finals. their game is based on mental/physical strength . roger made finals with easy/free points on his first serve essentially. it's vital to have a good serve to finish well your career.
 
Any French picks?

I'm pretty much preoccupied with other things this first week, but will be around for the second week. Bad weather interrupting matches is generally bad news in my book: imo helps the faves/does no favours for the dogs, and in the early couple of rounds I'm usually looking more for spots to bet the latter as far as SU betting goes so it's no great loss to just be observing as of now.

One result that is in the books does pretty much confirm a pov I arrived at awhile ago: Roberta Vinci is done. Think her competitive fires are dying quickly, my guess is she'll give up at the end of this year.
 
issue in RG debate is potential retractable roof is planned in 2020 at best whereas other grand slams have made more progress so far.

i'm in paris and weather is very cold generally speaking not only beacause of rain. you feel in february/march not in june (start of summer).

Clay is heavier and is slower than usual. it doesn't help big servers. lift has less effect and is more under control with less spin.

been carefully reading pinnacle betting article concerning tennis and it is usually very interesting.

here are some key aspects/systems/trends/

1)Bet against players in GS, out of TOP50 after they won a 5th set match in previous round (-32%ROI) (http://www.tennisratings.co.uk/article---the-effect-of-5)

2) For live betting and tennis is a good sport to bet live. can't predict anything but taking murray today down 2 sets vs stepanek@1.61 was gold because of 37 years old qualified and tired legs of Stepanek

3)Bet against players in GS, out of TOP50 after they won a 5th set match in previous round (-32%ROI) http://www.tennisratings.co.uk/article---the-effect-of-5

fatigue factor is most important in GS ,especially on clay where rallyes/points last usually longer. spending more than 3.5 hours or 5 sets is usually a big burden in forthcoming rounds. look what happened to djokovic last year in final after battling vs murray during 5 sets or losing in Rome vs murray after 3 hours vs nishikori.
4) Bet on players that won 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] and 4th set as well as 3rd and 4th set (56% win in 5th set)
5)Bet on players that won the 4th set 4+ games margin (6-0,6-1 or 6-2). They win 5th set more than 60% of the time. (http://www.bettingexpert.com/blog/who-wins-a-deciding-set-in-mens-tennis)
6)BEt against underdogs ATP/WTA in grand slams of a 10-8+ final set previous match up win (-30%ROI)
è)) BEt against upset winners in grand slams in their following match( player was 50+ ranked vs a 20- ranked player in previous upset win) these upset winners are -35%ROI in ATP/WTA
(http://www.pinnaclesports.com/en/be...perform-following-a-shock-win-in-a-grand-slam)

good luck. personnaly for capping, think previous H2H is more important thant in other sports. knowing surface is key , weather conditions,time spent on court. By looking at previous H2H is not only final winner result but final box score with stats if you are interested in ATS or O/U bets
 
Don't want to turn my thread into an in-game, so this is it:

Serena sweating like a pig into just the 8th game. Mladenovic making her work hard. Frenchwoman missed the easiest winner of her life with game pt for a 4-all scoreline, now struggling to hold serve.
 
like berdych a+money to upset ferrer. it's more a ferrer fade than backing berdych. just think that at 34 years old the spaniard is slightly declining. berdych won also last match on clay vs ferrer this year. The only issue might be the weather since clouds/rain make the clay slower which should benefit ferrer. in Madrid it's indoor clay. conditions are faster
 
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