• The KillerFrogs

TCU Men's Tennis 2021-2022

Longfrog

Active Member
Interesting perspective. Might very well be right. I do think Norrie is going to have a huge clay court season, but maybe the slow courts will just result in breaks of serve every game

Here are 52-week splits. Unfortunately they don't divide hard into indoor vs outdoor. But the grass vs clay tells the story imo. Could just be sample size, who knows. Point to make is probably that he's a legit threat on any surface as long as he isn't playing the top top guys.

Hold %Break %Sum
Hard80%31%110%
Clay82%27%109%
Grass89%25%113%
 

Longfrog

Active Member
Tsitsipas retires? (Another spot in Turin possibly?)

Edit: Or yeah, what Jared said...

Tsitsipas retired with an arm injury against Popyrin, so he's out at Paris. This is bad news for Norrie because Sinner wouldn't have to face Stefanos in his half of the draw - it'd only be good news if the injury also eliminates Tsitsipas from the Turin race and makes another spot open up there.
 
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Jared7

Active Member
Definitely might have one more spot open. Would be great if Alcaraz can close out Sinner
Alcaraz wins the first set in a breaker 7-6. Tsitsipas will almost certainly skip Stockholm next week, but probably not Turin (we'll see).

Alcaraz gets a break in the 2nd - serving for the match against Sinner leading 6-5!

Alcaraz beats Sinner 7-6 (7-1), 7-5!
 
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jake102

Active Member
Alcaraz wins the first set in a breaker 7-6. Tsitsipas will almost certainly skip Stockholm next week, but probably not Turin (we'll see).

Alcaraz gets a break in the 2nd - serving for the match against Sinner leading 6-5!

Alcaraz beats Sinner 7-6 (7-1), 7-5!

So Norrie came in to this event 140 points behind Sinner. By my read, Sinner only receives 10 points since he got a 1st round bye but lost his first match. Norrie has earned 90 points so far, so net gain of 80 points, now down by 60 to Sinner. If Norrie wins his next match, he will get another 90 points, launching him 30 ahead of Sinner.

Norrie came in 80 points behind Hurkacz who unfortunately won his match. So he has now earned the same 90 points as Norrie. Hurkacz gets Koepfer next where Hurkacz should be a pretty big favorite. And even further unfortunate, the draw above Hurkacz fell apart with Tsitsipas withdrawing and Bautista Agust getting upset. So Hurkacz would face a guy named Popyrin or Duckworth eesh.

Looking at Norrie's draw, if he gets by Fritz, it looks like Djokovic will be waiting.

We are big Koepfer fans.
 

Jared7

Active Member
So Norrie came in to this event 140 points behind Sinner. By my read, Sinner only receives 10 points since he got a 1st round bye but lost his first match. Norrie has earned 90 points so far, so net gain of 80 points, now down by 60 to Sinner. If Norrie wins his next match, he will get another 90 points, launching him 30 ahead of Sinner.

Norrie came in 80 points behind Hurkacz who unfortunately won his match. So he has now earned the same 90 points as Norrie. Hurkacz gets Koepfer next where Hurkacz should be a pretty big favorite. And even further unfortunate, the draw above Hurkacz fell apart with Tsitsipas withdrawing and Bautista Agust getting upset. So Hurkacz would face a guy named Popyrin or Duckworth eesh.

Looking at Norrie's draw, if he gets by Fritz, it looks like Djokovic will be waiting.

We are big Koepfer fans.
Agreed on rooting for Koepfer! But didn't Hurkacz get a first round bye as well? If, like Sinner, he only has earned 10 points, doesn't that make Norrie and Hurkacz tied (with a gain of 80)?

On edit, scratch that - you explained it. Hurkacz won; Sinner didn't.
 

Jared7

Active Member
Unfortunately, in the first match of the day at Paris, Hurkacz beat Koepfer in 3 sets - Koepfer won the first set and was up a break in the 2nd, but Hubie turned it around and prevailed. So, he's one round ahead of Norrie now and Cam really needs to win against Fritz to maintain the pace in the Race to Turin. Norrie v. Fritz is up next and they're now warming up. H2H - it's Norrie leading 4-3 all-time, with Fritz winning earlier this year in Miami and Cam taking the most recent match at Los Cabos. Fritz wants to finish the year in the Top 20; Cam wants to keep pace with Hurkacz and pass Sinner. Big match starting shortly.

1-all early. Good play from both in their holds.
1-2. Fritz holds easily. Cam has passed the $4,000,000 alltime-career earnings milestone; over half of it this year.
2-all. Hurkacz has Duckworth next; if Norrie wins, he'll get Djokovic in the quarters. Not exactly even as Djoker is a GOAT candidate.
2-3. Fritz with a quick love hold.
2-4. (sigh). Norrie with a very sloppy game and 2 double-faults hands Fritz the break.
2-5. Taylor takes command of the set with another easy hold.
3-6. Cam falls in the first set due to that one bad service game. Not looking good.
 
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Jared7

Active Member
3-all in the 2nd now.
7th game key as Norrie survives a break point that could have sealed it for Fritz.
Whew! 4-3. That was oh-so-close. If Fritz wins, he becomes the top ranked American.
4-all. Fritz gets a bit of luck with a net court that just sneaked over.
5-4. Norrie digs himself a love-30 hole, but averts danger and holds.
6-5. Very close late.
6-all. Into a breaker to decide the set.
Norrie 8-7 in tiebreaks this year; Fritz 18-15.
Norrie in a 1-4 hole in the breaker with unforced errors...
2-5 in the breaker.
2-6. with a double.
3-6.
Ouch! Cam falls 3-6, 6-7 (3-7) and his dreams of Turin may have just suffered a death blow. Hurkacz can seal it with more W's regardless of what happens in Stockholm.
 
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jake102

Active Member
I've said it many times before, but tall right handed players whose best groundstroke is their backhand is not great for Norrie. He needs his lefty topspin forehand to do damage by getting up high on backhands. Fritz is just a tough ask, especially on that court.
 

Jared7

Active Member
Cam's now slim hopes for making it to Turin for the ATP finals now depend on Hurkacz not going so deep at Paris in the draw so as to earn enough points to eliminate both Norrie and Sinner from the competition. Hurkacz is currently playing James Duckworth in the quarters and they've split the first two sets 6-2, 6-7 (4-7) and Hurkacz leads 2-1 in the 3rd. So far, Hurkacz has advanced only 1 round further than Cam, but if that's it and he loses today, it would still be possible (in theory) for Norrie or Sinner to catch him next week in Stockholm. So, it's kind of on Hurkacz's racquet today in Paris.

Now 3-2; Hurkacz leading on serve in the 3rd.
3-all. Duckworth is ranked 55th with few major victories over top competition.
4-3. Casper Ruud clinched the next-to-last spot at Turin yesterday with a victory over Giron.
4-all. Still even on serve.
5-4.
6-5. There's a lot of pressure on Hurkacz to win and close out the Race and clinch the final spot.
Double match point as Duckworth chokes...
Hurkacz wins, advances and clinches as Norrie and Sinner are eliminated.

It turns out that the L's to Auger-Aliassime and Fritz were determinative for Cam. He was close and was in the conversation, but it didn't happen. He and Sinner will now battle for the first alternate slot in Stockholm next week in case Tsitsipas or someone else drops out late.

Attention now shifts to San Diego where Aguilar, Maxted and Vives Marcos will represent the Frogs this weekend at the ITA Finals.
 
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Jared7

Active Member
At Paris, Hurkacz ended up losing to Djoker in the semis, but it took 3 sets and a third-set breaker to do it. Medvedev is leading Zverev in the other semi.

At the ITA Fall Nationals in San Diego, Juan Carlos Aguilar lost to Ohio State's J.J. Tracy in the first round 6-4, 5-7, 1-6 in singles. But in doubles, Vives Marcos and Maxted won their first round over UNC's team of Zapp/Kania 7-5, 6-3 and they also won their 2nd round over NC State's team of Van Sambeek/Rocens 6-4, 7-5. And they are now scheduled to play Texas' team of Spizziri/Woldeab today at 2:00 p.m. in the quarterfinals. I don't think they'll be favored because they're both freshmen and UT's team is much more experienced, but anything could happen.
 

Jared7

Active Member
In addition to TCU beating Baylor in football today, the Frogs also beat the Longhorns! Pedro Vives Marcos and Lui Maxted beat Spizzirri and Woldeab today 6-4, 6-4 and advanced to the doubles semi-finals at the ITA Fall Nationals in San Diego. Unfortunately, they then played the Stanford team of Fery/Rotsaert for a ticket to the finals later today and lost 3-6, 5-7. I'm not sure why I was pessimistic against UT because Lui and Pedro did win the ITA Texas Regionals and UT was there. They may be freshmen but they're already one of the 4 best doubles teams in the nation. Congrats for making it so deep.
 
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Jared7

Active Member
Cam Norrie decided to withdraw from the tourney in Stockholm because Hurkacz clinched the final spot in the Race to Turin at Paris. So that's it for Norrie for this season - he'll next appear as the leader of the British Davis Cup team in a couple of weeks.

Alastair Gray is back in action this week - he's headed for Heraklion in Greece for an ITF tourney - he's already into the main draw and will play tomorrow or Wednesday.

Nick Chappell lost in the qualies yesterday at the Knoxville Challenger to Johannus Monday 6-4, 5-7, 3-6.
 
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Retired Frog

Active Member
In addition to TCU beating Baylor in football today, the Frogs also beat the Longhorns! Pedro Vives Marcos and Lui Maxted beat Spizzirri and Woldeab today 6-4, 6-4 and advanced to the doubles semi-finals at the ITA Fall Nationals in San Diego. Unfortunately, they then played the Stanford team of Fery/Rotsaert for a ticket to the finals later today and lost 3-6, 5-7. I'm not sure why I was pessimistic against UT because Lui and Pedro did win the ITA Texas Regionals and UT was there. They may be freshmen but they're already one of the 4 best doubles teams in the nation. Congrats for making it so deep.
So your liking our chances in Doubles this year?
 

Jared7

Active Member
So your liking our chances in Doubles this year?
Absolutely! With Fomba, Jong, Aguilar, Ruehl all having top level doubles experience and now with Vives and Maxted going to the semis of the ITA Fall Nationals, I am very optimistic about our doubles prospects this year.

Gray's first opponent at Heraklion will be Preston Brown (ATP#1735).
 

Jared7

Active Member
Alastair Gray easily beat Brown 6-1, 7-5 at Heraklion in Greece this morning. His 2nd round opponent will be Hazem Naw, a Syrian with an ATP ranking of #959.
 
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