• The KillerFrogs

TCU Men's Tennis 2022-23

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UltimateFrog

Active Member
Longfrog said:
It's a good problem to have but Norrie's been playing a ton of tennis lately. Not only did he make 2 finals in a row, but the last one was a 500 level event so there was no opening round bye. He's in another 500 tournament this week in Acapulco, where he'll have a chance to meet Alcaraz in the final for a 3rd straight week. I guess Alcaraz was hobbled at the end of yesterday's match. The latest news is he's in Acapulco getting an MRI, so we'll see if he plays it.

Nick Chappell is also playing in the main draw at Acapulco, as he made it through qualifying. This will be just his 2nd ATP match ever. He gets former #1 college player Nuno Borges (world #85). If they could both win a couple matches, Norrie and Chappell would meet in the quarters.
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Tough draw for Norrie. First round gets Mannarino which isn't terrible but then gets winner of Berrettini and Molcan. Obviously Berretteni was a top 10 before injury and Molcan is a clay specialist. Then he likely gets Rune who is real tough and Ruud in SF.

Not totally miserable, but tough given his recent workload. Although he's now playing his best clay court tennis and playing in big stages. These past few weeks have set him up to make a run at getting back into top 10... he doesn't have a ton of points to defend between here and May.
 
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UltimateFrog

Active Member
In other pro news - outside of Chappell making the surprise main draw, tough week for our other guys.

Gray and Rybakov both lost in Waco Challenger qualies and Stalder lost in Acapulco qualies. Looks like Gray had to withdraw due to injury... not great. He's having serious health issues.
 
Longfrog

Longfrog

Active Member
UltimateFrog said:
Although he's now playing his best clay court tennis and playing in big stages.
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That's the other weird thing is now he has to move back to hard courts. Link here says Acapulco is the 4th slowest HC on tour, with the 2 March events (Indian Wells, Miami) as #1 & 3. So maybe not as big a change as it could be, but the footwork/movement will still be a big adjustment.

www.tennisabstract.com

Surface speed – Heavy Topspin

www.tennisabstract.com
 
Longfrog

Longfrog

Active Member
StinnettFrog said:
Great win yesterday whether Alcaraz was hobbled or not.
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You could tell it meant a lot to Norrie to win it. I didn't watch the match but the highlights showed a pretty clear decision point by Alcaraz to just start swinging from the hip. They didn't have winner/error stats in Rio but it seemed like he was making a pretty good share of them. A less than 100% Alcaraz is still a top 10 player.

Video | ATP Tour | Tennis

Video from men's professional tennis on the ATP Tour. Featuring hot shots, highlights, exclusive interviews, player profiles, behind-the-scenes clips.
www.atptour.com www.atptour.com
 
U

UltimateFrog

Active Member
Longfrog said:
You could tell it meant a lot to Norrie to win it. I didn't watch the match but the highlights showed a pretty clear decision point by Alcaraz to just start swinging from the hip. They didn't have winner/error stats in Rio but it seemed like he was making a pretty good share of them. A less than 100% Alcaraz is still a top 10 player.

Video | ATP Tour | Tennis

Video from men's professional tennis on the ATP Tour. Featuring hot shots, highlights, exclusive interviews, player profiles, behind-the-scenes clips.
www.atptour.com www.atptour.com
Click to expand...

Based on what I watched, Alcaraz played better in some regards. He was *lightly* injured, meaning he could still move decently, but was injured enough where he wanted to be more aggressive. Sometimes it takes weird things for guys to realize they can play differently, and better.

Great win for Norrie regardless.
 
Purp

Purp

Active Member
Longfrog said:
That's the other weird thing is now he has to move back to hard courts. Link here says Acapulco is the 4th slowest HC on tour, with the 2 March events (Indian Wells, Miami) as #1 & 3. So maybe not as big a change as it could be, but the footwork/movement will still be a big adjustment.

www.tennisabstract.com

Surface speed – Heavy Topspin

www.tennisabstract.com
Click to expand...
After winning on clay yesterday and winning Indian Wells a year or so ago maybe that surface speed isn't much of a problem for Norrie after all.
 
Longfrog

Longfrog

Active Member
Purp said:
After winning on clay yesterday and winning Indian Wells a year or so ago maybe that surface speed isn't much of a problem for Norrie after all.
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I always thought the slow courts would favor him most because he lacked the weapons to capitalize on the fast surfaces. But he's improved his forehand to the point he's pretty similar on all surfaces I think. The forehand looks like it was built for a slow surface with the big windup. But the backhand is the exact opposite, very short and just straight back and straight through.
 
U

UltimateFrog

Active Member
Longfrog said:
I always thought the slow courts would favor him most because he lacked the weapons to capitalize on the fast surfaces. But he's improved his forehand to the point he's pretty similar on all surfaces I think. The forehand looks like it was built for a slow surface with the big windup. But the backhand is the exact opposite, very short and just straight back and straight through.
Click to expand...
I think he's a slow hard court, medium to fast clay court guy. Which probably accounts for 50% of all matches. And he's pretty good on medium hard courts also, barely any difference, which brings him up to like 75% of all matches. He's done a great/amazing job of forming his game given his lack of traditional weapons/technique.

He just withdrew from Acapulco, disappointing but makes sense. Said he is too fatigued to go, which makes sense. Alcaraz pulled out at same time.
 
Longfrog

Longfrog

Active Member
A bunch of Frogs were in the Puerto Vallarta challenger. Unfortunately not much to show for it. Chappell and Rybo each won a 1R qualifier but lost before making the main draw. Stalder and Fomba both played doubles (not together) and lost 1R matches.

Fomba played with the #5 ranked junior in the world, 17yo Mexican national Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez. I have no special insight into why those 2 would have paired up, but I do know Roditi played for the Mexican national team, and he grew up in nearby Guadalajara. Jerry Lopez played for us and he was from Mexico. This really looks like an orchestrated recruiting trip for Fomba, but maybe I'm getting carried away.
 
Purp

Purp

Active Member
Kinda feel sorry for UCLA. That was like running up the score on on a D2 school in football. It's silly how good the team is right now. I get that UCLA didn't have a single ranked player on their roster, but the only match even close was on 5.
 
Longfrog

Longfrog

Active Member
Cam Norrie down 6-7, 1-4 breaks Taro Daniel 5 times in a row to win in 3 at Indian Wells. Gets winner of Rublev/Humbert in R16.
 

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