Looking for Tennis and Racket Sports International News?

The RacketSTAR Tennis News Blog and Article Feed gives you up to the minute news and information about the Players and Sports Updates.

Agassi Praises Federer in New Book | Ultimate Tennis Blog

“Walking to the net, I’m certain that I’ve lose to the better man, the Everest of the generation. I pity the young players who will have to contend with him. I feel for the man who is fated to play Agassi to his Sampras. Though I don’t mention Pete by name, I have him uppermost in my mind when I tell reports: It’s real simple. Most players have weaknesses. Federer has none.”

http://www.menstennisforums.com/showthread.php?t=154414

Since I was ‘let go’ at my previous job and will start my tennis coaching career only on Monday, it gives me some time to make up to you for the period when I wasn’t blogging much. I found the above excerpt from Andre Agassi’s new and controversial book at Men’s Tennis Forum. It seems like the Agassi book will be a stimulating read, and hopefully I will get my hands on it soon. The quote from Agassi’s book apparently pertains to the 2005 US Open final, where Roger beat Agassi in four sets. If you read the comments of the poster who started the thread, you will see that he also refers to their meeting in 2004, where Roger won in five sets. But of course as a Sampras fan, he conveniently leaves out the fact that there was a gale force wind blowing that day, which is the ultimate equalizer.

He also says that in the 2005 final Agassi was 35 years old and that he had played three five set matches to get to the final, and still gave Roger a run for his money. But again he fails to mention that if a player gets through close matches like that, they often become very confident. It just goes to show that people will always change the facts in a subtle way to make the player they support look like the best. I don’t need to change any facts to show that Roger is better than Sampras. Anyone with half a brain can see that. And if you don’t have half a brain, then I’ll point out to you that Roger has won more grand slam titles than Sampras, as well as the career grand slam which Sampras couldn’t manage. And on top of that Roger is not finished with his career.

You will also see that this genius of a poster made the thread title so that it makes Roger look bad again. Now this post of mine is not about debunking some clueless Sampras fanboy, but the things he wrote gives me a good place to start at. Again he conveniently leaves out the fact that more than half of the meetings between Roger and Rafa have been on Rafa’s favorite surface, just because of the fact that Rafa is not good enough to make it far enough outside of clay to meet Roger on a regular basis. We saw it again this year at the US Open, where Rafa was crushed 2, 2 and 2 by Delpo in the semi’s, while Roger kept his end of the bargain again by being in the final for the sixth consecutive year. If Sampras and Agassi had met more then half of the time on clay as well, I guarantee you Agassi would have led the rivalry as well, but only five of their thirty-four matches was on clay.

Continue reading

Copyright

© Ultimate Tennis Blog

  881 Hits
Tags:

Additional Thoughts On the Rome Masters and Upcoming French Open | Ultimate Tennis Blog

The Rome Masters was an interesting event and since I haven’t blogged a lot of late I wanted to make one more post before the French Open draw comes out. There is an exciting time ahead in the tennis world and there is a lot more to be said.

I have already made it clear what I think about Djokovic’s week in Rome as well as the others for that matter. But I want to go into some more detail here because I didn’t say everything I wanted to say. A lot has been made of Djokovic’s ‘bizarre’ week in Rome.

I think there has been a certain amount of overreaction from fans. I admitted in my last post that he had a bizarre week but I also made it clear that he did what needed to be done. He could not have done any better under the circumstances.

This must be clearly understood. Someone commented on my last post that Djokovic not only had a brutal draw but he also had a tough schedule by playing at night and then having to play the final with less than 24 hours of rest during the day.

It was reminiscent of the French Open last yeat where Djokovic had to play the semis and the final over three days after the semis against Murray were delayed due to rain. It proved to be his undoing because he was not fresh enough in the final.

Continue reading

Copyright

© Ultimate Tennis Blog

  693 Hits
Tags:

About | Ultimate Tennis Blog

OK so it’s time to update this page since this it’s not Ru-an’s Federer Blog anymore but Ultimate Tennis Blog. Tennis has always been a big passion of mine. I started watching tennis at a young age. The first match I remember watching was the 1985 Wimbledon final when Becker had that historic win. I remember watching Edberg, Lendl, Wilander, Mcenroe and all those legends too. The first time I picked up an old wooden racquet was around the age of 8 years and it was love at first shot. I spent hours just hitting against the wall and acting out imaginary matches in my head. Strangely enough, I started out with a one-handed backhand. That’s right. I never had a two-handed backhand! And, in general, I tend to be a fan of one-handers

Anyway, to skip ahead a few years I tried playing some professional tournaments for a while, beat some players with ATP points, but that was as far as it went. I never had an ATP ranking myself. I don’t think I reached anything close to my full potential, but then again I probably wasn’t talented enough to make it anyway. I’ve tried some tennis coaching since but for me that love was always in playing and competing. I have however found something which I enjoy quite a lot which is writing about tennis. In the past it was more like a hobby I did on the side while I did other full-time jobs. But I didn’t find anything I was really passionate about so I want to try and make writing into something more full time.

I love following the very best in the men’s game, writing about it, and interacting with my readers. I hope you join us!

Copyright

© Ultimate Tennis Blog

  742 Hits
Tags:

Nadal Wins 3rd US Open Title – Blog to Close Down Soon

Hi, folks. Long time no post. I'm sorry but I am starting a business offline and I just haven't felt very inspired to post of late. I have been blogging about tennis for close to 10 years. I started at the end of 2008. I haven't lost interest in tennis but I don't think I will have much time for blogging once I start my business and I will keep this page to make updates and maybe just close down my blog. The fact that Djokovic is currently out is therefore not the reason I quit blogging but it didn't help. I am now in a transitional phase and it is unlikely that I will still have a blog next year. In fact I may close it down very soon. But like I said I will still do posts here and will leave the option open to start a blog again next year but it seems unlikely at this point. But I will keep this page because when Djokovic comes back I may have some more inspiration to write about tennis again. It's been fun anyway and I am grateful to everyone who participated and supported my blog. Congrats to Nadal for winning a 3rd US Open as well. Him and Federer have split slams this year which very few of us expected if anyone. All of a sudden Federer is on 19 slams, Nadal on 16, and Djokovic back at 12 again. But Djokovic is still the only big 3 member who did the personal slam. He now has a lot of work to do to catch up with Nadal who came back from the dead and is now #1 again. I suppose if Nadal can do that then Djokovic can still win many more slams.

It will be interesting to see what happens when Djokovic comes back in Australia next year anyway with Agassi in his corner. They certainly have the potential to do amazing things together and they will have to if Djokovic is to catch up with Federer and Nadal now. ... See more

Copyright

© Ultimate Tennis Blog

  1430 Hits
Tags:

Djokovic Calls It a Season in 2017

I took time to make a decision about my recovery. Sorry for keeping you in the dark these days. Read more here https://t.co/tCSw46TOL2

— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) July 26, 2017

Djokovic’s announcement was today and I was happy to hear that he decided to pack it in for the season. Obviously, as a fan, I will miss his tennis but this break is so long overdue that it needs to be this long.

Enough is enough. It is better to do a Federer now and come back in 2018 fresh and 100% healthy. No more unnecessary risks with his all-important health. Health always comes first especially for an athlete because without it, you are on the sidelines.

That is the hard lesson Djokovic had to learn because by not taking a break after he won the personal slam he has pretty much wasted a year on tour and now he has to take an added five months off. His ranking will fall but that is of least importance now.

Continue reading

Copyright

© Ultimate Tennis Blog

  1549 Hits
Tags:

The GOAT Debate Is a Fairytale Used to Promote Tennis

First of all, before some people get their knickers in a twist because I often talk about the GOAT, let me make it clear that I always said I don’t really believe in a GOAT but that I liked the debate and speculation.

Now I’m not even sure about that part anymore. Why? Because it has become clearer than ever to me that the GOAT argument is used as a phony marketing tool and that there are far too many variables to determine a GOAT, some of which I will look at in this post. Other variables have also become apparent to me at this Wimbledon like the biased scheduling and the influence of the media which is considerable.

But let’s start with the following:

Click image to enlarge




Continue reading

Copyright

© Ultimate Tennis Blog

  1603 Hits
Tags:

Federer Wins Record 8th Wimbledon Title in Blowout Final

I said I wouldn’t make another post about this Wimbledon because of their biased scheduling but you know me, I can’t stay angry for long. Congrats to Federer for finally breaking the record for the most Wimbledon title as he surpasses the record he held with Sampras.

Today he defeated Cilic 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 to achieve this incredible record. Unfortunately, the final was even more one-sided than I predicted. After Djokovic lost I said Federer would win the title without dropping a set but I expected a better fight from Cilic in the final.

The key moment came very early in the match. Cilic started very well after a shaky opening service game and had a break point on Federer’s serve at 2-2 and 40-30 but missed a return off a second serve from Federer right into the net. Absolutely unforgivable.

I was waiting for Cilic to choke from the beginning because he was always a bit of a choker to me and it happened in no time. When you get a second serve on break point you at the absolute least make the other guy play. But by making an unforced error on that return he showed Federer weakness right away and from there on it was one-way traffic.

I felt it was the boring no-contest final Wimbledon deserved after their biased scheduling. It was a bit of a disaster to be honest because Cilic even started crying at one point. Can you imagine? What a tragic way for Federer to achieve such an incredible milestone.

Continue reading

Copyright

© Ultimate Tennis Blog

  1599 Hits
Tags:

Djokovic Retires from Rigged Wimbledon

So Djokovic had to retire in his match against Berdych after trailing 7-6(2), 2-0 due to his old arm injury after having to play two days in a row when Wimbledon could have let him play on Center Court on Monday.

First of all, I have lost interest in this tournament after the biased behavior of the organizers. This will be my final blog post about the 2017 Rigged Championships unless Federer loses which is highly unlikely. It is more likely that he will win Wimbledon without dropping a set.

I don’t feel like a tournament which favors certain players over others with their scheduling deserves another post from me unless it is to celebrate their failure to get what they want. They already failed to get one of their favorites past the quarterfinals when Murray lost to Querrey which was great but if Federer wins the tournament they would still have gotten their way.

Federer winning a record 8th Wimbledon title is what they want to see and now they have helped to eliminate his nemesis through ridiculous scheduling. Djokovic was in pain from the start and hardly moved out of second gear. When he lost the first set it was obvious he wasn’t going to complete the match.

It was the old arm injury that never properly healed after he completed the personal slam. Djokovic is just as responsible for his retirement as Wimbledon but it doesn’t excuse Wimbledon’s pathetic behavior in any way. It was obvious to anyone who knows something about tennis that he never properly recovered from the historical 2015-16 run.

Continue reading

Copyright

© Ultimate Tennis Blog

  1587 Hits
Tags:

Djokovic Fills Final Quarterfinal Space at Wimbledon

Djokovic defeated Mannarino 6-2, 7-6(5), 6-4 in the final fourth round match today after Wimbledon unfairly refused to let him finish his match yesterday on Center Court. As if that was not enough of an insult, they scheduled his match for the quarterfinals for the third match in a row.

We are talking about a 3-time Wimbledon champion here not some grass court novice. You would think they will let Federer or Murray play on Court 1 at least once and the fact that they play all their matches in the same conditions also gives them an unfair advantage.

I mean it’s just shameless stuff that they aren’t even trying to hide. But what they don’t seem to learn from experience is that these kinds of things only motivates Djokovic and makes him play better. And today he remarked how poor the condition of Center Court is this year so he probably doesn’t mind playing on Court 1.

He also played on Center Court today so at least he won’t have to adjust to Center Court again after three matches on Court 1 if he makes the semis.

As for his match today, I missed the first set and a half due to the changed starting time and he wasn’t playing that great when I joined but the important thing is that he recovered from a break down in the tiebreak and won in straight sets. Apparently, he was playing great in the first set and a half too.


Continue reading

Copyright

© Ultimate Tennis Blog

  1594 Hits
Tags:

Nadal Crashes Out of Wimbledon to Muller in Classic

The first casualty of the big 4 at Wimbledon this year is Nadal who was ironically looking the best of the big 4 in the first week. This is why first-week form means very little and why the real tournament begins in the second week. That is when the real favorites play their best.

Muller’s 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 15-13 victory in 4h47min over Nadal today was easily the best match of the tournament so far though and surely one of the best Wimbledon 4th rounds ever. There was great drama and when Nadal leveled at two sets all you thought he would get the job done.

From the Nadal vs Muller match, this is beyond a doubt, the most incredible point of #Wimbledon this year so far. pic.twitter.com/tvFFZg8OWf

— Cal (@Panayisalad) July 10, 2017

Especially after Muller blew 4 match points. That is usually the situation in which Nadal excels. But this is grass and Nadal have not been past the 4th round at Wimbledon since 2011. So much for all the hype after Nadal’s French Open title and now he can’t get back to #1 after Wimbledon either.


Continue reading

Copyright

© Ultimate Tennis Blog

  1593 Hits
Tags:

Big 4 Still Standing as Wimbledon Heads Into Second Week

As we head into the second week of Wimbledon 2017 the big four and eight out of the top 10 seeds are still left standing. There is also only three unseeded players left in the draw including Paire, Anderson, and Mannarino.

So things are shaping up nicely but Murray and Djokovic have by far the easier draws left of the big four. Djokovic, in particular, is having it quite good with his first round opponent retiring and not having faced a seed four the first four rounds. Even the 15th seed Monfils lost to Mannarino. It just goes to show you that draws don’t necessarily mean anything.

That said, Djokovic has been playing well and it probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference who he faced. Today he defeated one of the surprises of the Championships Gulbis 6-4, 6-1, 7-6(2). It was a slow start but once Djokovic found Gulbis’ forehand it was one unforced error after the other and Gulbis never recovered.

That Djokovic shot of the day I mentioned earlier (courtesy of @doublefault28) pic.twitter.com/uiLOokfJnf


Continue reading

Copyright

© Ultimate Tennis Blog

  1702 Hits
Tags:

Djokovic and Federer Eases Into Third Round at Wimbledon

Timeline Photos

Day 1 of Wimbledon 2017 is over and four seeds have already lost the biggest upset being Wawrinka who lost 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 to Medvedev, the player who lost to Djokovic in the Eastbourne semis.

I was quite impressed with Medvedev in Eastbourne and looking at the draw I thought he could make life difficult for Stan. But apparently, Stan is struggling with a knee injury so who knows how much that affected him. Either way, it is a big win for Medvedev who hits the ball flat and hard so his game is suited to grass.

The second highest seed who lost is 20th seed Kyrgios who withdrew with an injury again after going 6-3, 6-4 down to Herbert.

21st seed Karlovic also lost 8-6 in the 5th to Bedene after splitting the first four sets in tiebreaks.

Finally, 31st seed Verdasco lost to my countryman Anderson in four sets. That's a nice win for Anderson after struggling with injuries for some time and whose draw is quite good now with Wawrinka having lost.

Continue reading

Copyright

© Ultimate Tennis Blog

  1528 Hits
Tags:

Retirements Plague Wimbledon on Day 2 of Championships

Timeline Photos

Djokovic won Eastbourne today for his 2nd title of the year by defeating Monfils 6-3, 6-4. Regrettably, I couldn't watch the match but I followed live scores and watched the highlights.

I said in my last post that if he kept improving he should win the final and I think that is exactly what he did. Monfils is a talented player and to break him three times on grass in two sets is a good effort.

Judging from the highlights and the match stats Djokovic's returns and backhand is still in good shape while he made 72% of his first serves. Another thing that occured to me this week was his net game and he was 9/12 at the net vs Monfils.

Like Djokovic's game in general, his volleys are underrated. His backhand, movement, and returns are not underrated. Everyone knows those are world class. But I think his net game, serve, forehand, and touch is underrated.

You are not going to be an all-time great on grass like Djokovic without having some net skills. He has many strengths but his volleys are an important part of his game on grass especially. He has some pretty average overheads and he can look stupid at the net but when he plays well he can also play surprisingly well at the net.

Continue reading

Copyright

© Ultimate Tennis Blog

  1578 Hits
Tags:

Djokovic Wins Title in Eastbourne + Wimbledon Draw

Timeline Photos

Djokovic won Eastbourne today for his 2nd title of the year by defeating Monfils 6-3, 6-4. Regrettably, I couldn't watch the match but I followed live scores and watched the highlights.

I said in my last post that if he kept improving he should win the final and I think that is exactly what he did. Monfils is a talented player and to break him three times on grass in two sets is a good effort.

Judging from the highlights and the match stats Djokovic's returns and backhand is still in good shape while he made 72% of his first serves. Another thing that occured to me this week was his net game and he was 9/12 at the net vs Monfils.

Like Djokovic's game in general, his volleys are underrated. His backhand, movement, and returns are not underrated. Everyone knows those are world class. But I think his net game, serve, forehand, and touch is underrated.

You are not going to be an all-time great on grass like Djokovic without having some net skills. He has many strengths but his volleys are an important part of his game on grass especially. He has some pretty average overheads and he can look stupid at the net but when he plays well he can also play surprisingly well at the net.

Continue reading

Copyright

© Ultimate Tennis Blog

  1552 Hits
Tags:

Federer and Lopez Claim Titles in Halle and Queens

Last week two 35-year olds won the ATP 500 titles in Halle and Queens and showed once again that the age for men to play their best tennis is getting older and older. Federer easily disposed of A. Zverev 6-3, 6-1 to win his 9th Halle title while Lopez defeated Cilic 4-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(8) to win his 6th career title.

Lopez also made the final of Stuttgart the previous week so he is on a strong run and has one of the best grass court games around. With his big serve and very solid volleys, he will be someone to watch out for at Wimbledon. Federer lost his first match in Stuttgart and then same as he did after losing to Donskoy in Dubai he won the next tournament he played.

This was Federer’s 92nd overall title and 4th title of the year. The way he disposed of Zverev in the final was particularly impressive. I think he wanted to send a little message after losing to Zverev in the Halle semis last year. Zverev had no chance at all and Federer was superb.

Roger Federer has now won 92 career titles ª¾

†††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††† pic.twitter.com/mlwOQiGJUI


Continue reading

Copyright

© Ultimate Tennis Blog

  1573 Hits

How Does Nadal’s 10th French Open Title Affect the GOAT Debate?

Now that a big three member won a grand slam title again we can once again look at how it affected the GOAT debate. Just to be clear, I don’t believe a GOAT can be determined. There are too many variables and intricacies. But just because it can’t be determined it doesn’t mean there isn’t one, so it is worth discussing. And besides, it’s interesting and fun.

First of all, a 10th French Open title is an unbelievable achievement and will be the most difficult record to beat of all the records. That said, 10 is not very different from 9, and it didn’t tell us much about Nadal that we didn’t already know.

In fact, it made Nadal’s already unbalanced resume even more skewed toward clay. Nadal is not merely a clay court specialist. He is actually the only player in history that has won more than one slam on each surface, a fact that only very recently occurred to me.

But as far as a 10th French open title goes it only raises the ratio of clay court slams to other slams and clay court titles to other titles. With a 10th French Open title, Nadal has now won exactly two-thirds of his slams on clay(10/15). That is 67%.

Some other stats:


Loading ...
Continue reading

Copyright

© Ultimate Tennis Blog

  1581 Hits

Nadal Wins Incredible 10th French Open Title

Congrats to Nadal for coming back from a deep slump and a three-year slam drought to defeat Wawrinka 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 today. This has to go down as one of the greatest achievements ever in our sport. Or at the very least the single greatest achievement on clay.

I personally think that the French Open is the most difficult slam to win due to it’s sheer physical and mental demands. Over the years I have seen all-time greats like Agassi, Federer, and Djokovic struggle immensely to finally win their one and only French Open title and when they finally won it it was very emotional and a huge relief.

Other greats like Sampras, Edberg, and Becker could never win the title. It takes enormous mental and physical reserves to win this slam and Nadal has now done it 10 times. And this time he made it look easier than ever except for 2008.

The 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 scoreline today was almost as humiliating as in 2008 when Nadal destroyed Federer 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 in the final. 2008 was Nadal’s most dominant run at the French Open but it is pretty crazy that this year was his second most dominant run in Paris.

But that’s what can happen when a player comes back from a long and deep slump. The deeper the valley the higher the peak. It’s a kind of law of nature. Just like Djokovic is currently in a deep valley after the peak of the personal slam. But either way, it was another very impressive clay court season from Nadal and he has finally surpassed Sampras in slam titles.

Continue reading

Copyright

© Ultimate Tennis Blog

  1462 Hits

Wawrinka and Nadal Will Contest 2017 French Open Final

Wawrinka and Nadal will face each other in the 2017 French Open final after they defeated Murray 6-7(6), 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(3), 6-1 and Thiem 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 respectively. The Wawrinka vs Murray match was the match of the tournament while the second semi-final was generally a disappointment.

Congrats to Stan for turning last year’s semi-final loss to Murray around but it was by no means easy. Stan served for the first set and was a break up in the third but he gradually gained the upper hand and the fourth set tiebreak was the key.

Murray had the opportunity to close it out there but once Stan won it it was one-way traffic. I was glad he didn’t get the bagel because that would have been unfitting after such a great match.

Instant Classic

Wawrinka vs. Murray did not disappoint. Watch highlights to see how @stanwawrinka booked his spot in the final. ½ #RG17 pic.twitter.com/92t633Awzm

Loading ...

Continue reading

Copyright

© Ultimate Tennis Blog

  1538 Hits

Thiem Scores Big Win Over Djokovic at French Open

Timeline Photos

Today on day 8 of the 2017 French Open Djokovic and Nadal continued their winning ways but this time it was much more comfortable for Djokovic as he defeated Ramos 7-6(5), 6-1, 6-3. Nadal continued on his destructive path as he defeated Agut 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.

Today Agassi was not in Djokovic's box and won't be for the remainder of the event but I'm sure he has already had a positive impact on Djokovic. Djokovic started out shakily and almost went a double break down at 0-2 but held on and clawed his way back into the first to eventually force a tiebreak.

After the unconvincing first set, Djokovic pulled away and played some terrific tennis. I thought it was a great effort to defeat the player who won the most clay court matches this year in straight sets. And given how Djokovic ended his last match it is kind of expected.

You wouldn't think from this result that Djokovic is struggling. That's because he isn't. He has been on an upward trend since the beginning of the clay court season and just because he went to five sets in his previous match doesn't mean he is struggling.

If anything it was a good thing because it gave him court time, something he hasn't had much of so far this season. But is is also important that he got a convincing win over a very capable opponent today.

Continue reading

Copyright

© Ultimate Tennis Blog

  1461 Hits

Quarterfinals are Set as the French Open Moves Into Its Business End

Men’s QFs set:
Murray vs Nishikori
Wawrinka vs Cilic
Carreño Busta vs Nadal
Thiem vs Djokovic

Predictions? #RG17

— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 5, 2017

I’m done with exams in time to blog about the business end of the 2017 French Open which promises to be an exciting few days. For once, Murray and Wawrinka have come to play which adds to the intrigue.

Lendl joined Murray in Paris which must have had a positive effect because he has been playing more like a world number one for once. He defeated Del Potro in straight sets and today he defeated the promising youngster Khachanov 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

Continue reading

Copyright

© Ultimate Tennis Blog

  1570 Hits

RacketStar.com