Roland Garros 2015

[C4iLL]

Topic to talk about your matches and so on. Don't be shy...

[C4iLL]

You sux 100 views, lot of close match, not a single report...

[VMoe86]

You suck! Where are your reports?

Here a little review of my Roland Garros so far: I first played against 620eli, who had also around 620 ELO! He is new, so that I tried to give him some technical advices on how to understand the gameplay. Against FedSerena17 I faced more resistance, because he was quite solid in rallies. I hope my advices will help him to improve further!

The first serious challenge was Juani. He had close matches with some top players this season. There were, are and always will be discussions about his connection since he is from Argentina, but I had no problem at all with him. The ping was stable and we could play at 167ms delay (I could have also tried 150ms delay) with very few turtles.

I did not move at my best at the beginning of the match and he managed to break me at 2-2 for 3-2. I got a break point for 3-3, but he saved it with some good net play. Whenever I hit a short shot he was on it and attacked the net with Fognini. That way it was difficult for me to find the rhythm and timing required. I still got one more break point in that first set, but could not convert it, 4-6. I knew that pidzi was waiting in the QF, so that prospect was enough motivation to hang in there and try to win the match.

In the second set I found my groove, good returns, was earlier on the balls and was able to hit great passings. Consequently I ran away with a double break lead, 6-2. Ever since that one break point in the first set I did not face a break point anymore. In the third set it pretty much continued as before in the second set, with the exception that I did not convert a 0-40 situation into a break on his serve early on. Therefore I had to hang in a bit more to win the set 6-3. He had to leave after the 3rd set and we finished the match two nights later, where I immediately started to play well and he had less resistance to offer.

The expected QF was now set up, my 7th chance to get a win over pidzi. I had many close matches against pidzi in the past, end of 2013 season and all matches in 2014 season except for the Wimbledon SF. However, I won only 1 set in 6 matches. Most people expected pidzi to win, who did not play a competitive match since winning Wimbledon 2014. When he signed up for Roland Garros there comments like these:

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[19:16:53]    <Sorauze> no matter
[19:16:57]    <Sorauze> he will win anyway
[19:17:47]    <VMoe> I don't think so.
[19:18:04]    <Sorauze> why ?
[19:18:11]    <Sorauze> you think you can beat him ?
[19:18:18]    <Sorauze> it's a joke ^^
[19:18:36]    <VMoe> I think I can do it, yes. :p
[19:18:40]    <Sorauze> ...
[19:18:45]    <VMoe> Otherwise I would not even play.
[19:19:02]    <Sorauze> you think badly
[19:20:17]    <Sorauze> You put pidzi with any player
[19:20:20]    <Sorauze> he will win
[19:21:13]    <Lucky777> ofc pidzi will win easy

While admitting that he was worse than in 2014, pidzi was confident of his level, too:

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[19:30:57]    <pidzi> i was better last year
[19:32:13]    <VMoe> I can say the same.
[19:32:35]    <pidzi> its obvious your skills are a bit blunted from playing less
[19:32:51]    <pidzi> but im better than in 2013 which was already sufficient so

When the draw came out, it was expected that pidzi and I meet in the QF (with me losing ):

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[15:15:06]    <Richie> Pidzi in my semi :p
[15:16:25]    <Richie> Pidzi/Vmoe for a Quarter
[15:16:37]    <Richie> Poor Vmoe ahah

I believed in my chances just as I did last season when I was going to meet Richie in QF (there I said "I will be lucky the next time against Richie." and won the QF in a 5-setter):

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[23:06:39]    <VMoe> pidzi will go down at RG, that's all that matters to me -- in about two weeks you will see. :p

This was on May 26th, I knew what I had to do to give me the chance of achieving it. Two weeks before the match against pidzi I had a tour match against Richie which gave me confidence: After a bad start, going 0-6, 0-3, I played against him on equal terms and had a couple of chances to get back in the 2nd set. It showed me that the level was there, just needed to be prepared better for such a match.

Right before the match djarvik put out a news article:

The two players with the best chance are Magav and Vramvrim. Both won Richie this year and both have done it in straight sets.

....and then there is Pidzi.

The last man to win Richie in Grand Slam Final is BACK! ...and firing on all cylinders!

So lets turn to the match. The first set was so-so, the first games went over quickly. Then at 2-1 pidzi had a couple of break points and me game points. It was a long game and eventually he broke to lead 3-1. The next game I had my chances to break back, but did not convert, 4-1. It all seemed like the usual stuff between him and me, similar to the first set of our RG SF in 2014. We then managed to hold serve until 5-3. Then I broke him when he served for the set. I was finally starting to play better, move better, 5-5. He held comfortable for 6-5, all the pressure on me to stay in the set, but he broke me, 7-5. In the first set I was better in short rallies whereas he had the edge in long ones.

Second set I started very well, breaking early and getting to a 3-1 lead. I had break point for 4-1, but he held and with some sloppy play I gave away the break advantage. We held until 4-4, where I had two more break points, but no, once again he held! I was like "Are you really going to lose this set?". At 6-5 I was serving to stay in the set, had 40-15. Somehow I had to save 5 set points to reach tie break, but I did it! In the tie break I was even down 1-4 and won it 7-4 -- finally the second official set against pidzi! I still had the edge in shorter rallies, but the longer rallies were finally on equal terms.

I started to be more relaxed in the 3rd set, more confident about my chances, while I noticed that he started to make more mistakes and he rushed the net more often. A combination of that led to a 6-1 set (he had chances to break back, but did not take them). It continued that way in the 4th set until I led 4-0. I had a couple of break points to go for 5-0, but that was maybe too much then. pidzi gave all he had to hold here and put pressure on me in the next game. And indeed, I did a little choke. From 40-15 up I managed to lose serve and let the score to 4-3. I regrouped, held for 5-3 and broke for 6-3 to conclude the match, phew.

I am sure pidzi will play better on grass, after some more matches on tour. It is not easy to come back on tour after such a long time of not playing long competitive matches.

Next up is Richie or willito, time to prepare for that match!

[Richie1308]

Vmoe showing some strong character, I like it !

[C4iLL]

Well nothing interesting to say about my matchs so far, so no report

[FEDERER2]

Ok, i will give my report, but most people know about my report but i'll say it anyway

FEDERER2 - Vlade 7-6 6-4 2-6 6-7 3-6

Well after the match, I found out that my fellow American FEZZZZZZZZZZZZ was rooting against me . But i'm fine with that just because he is unpredictable . Anyway to the epically unepic match.

SET 1

I immediately broke for 3-2 or something, he broke (guessed) back to have 2 or 3 set points at 4-5. But i used my non-gambling skills to win the set in a tie break. (Don't worry Vlade, i'm just kidding around).


SET2

I used my momentum to finally break at 4-5, other than that nothing different, and i closed the set 6-4.

SET3

In usual FEDERER2 fashion, i lost concentration to get broken twice to lose the set 6-2.

SET4 The "interesting" set

Well at 4-3, i had a few break points that got gambled away, and it still kills me . I was serving up 5-4 in the tiebreak to have it gambled away 7-5.

SET5

Nothing real interesting happened until Vlade legitimately guessed on a fh to break my serve and to close out the match with an epically non-epic score of 6-7 4-6 6-2 7-6 6-3.


Vlade, u have the potential to be a great player, but the cheesy guessing isn't going to get u anywhere, but an ok match once in a blue moon, but u had a good run and that's what matters, congrats to u for the win.

[Sabratha]

I got routined by TheBoss94 6-2, 6-2, 6-0. In the first round too.

[C4iLL]

Report of the quarter vs Magav : 6-4 6-1 6-0

First set : he got the first break to lead 2-0 as I wasn't really in the rythm at the start of the match. FInally I managed to catch up with his level, and it became closer, but I had no break point opportunities throughout the set and the match.

We both hold our serve till 5-4 with intense rallies, highly risky or tactical stuff, but at the end he won the set 6-4. At that moment I was really confident about myself, thinking it was absolutely not a problem this first set lost.

Second set : I won easily the first game I think, him too, 1-1. I think I made like 3 UE at that moment, and he broke.

From here, I started to face a wall, he was on every shots, being on lines or no, it was really impressive. Technically we could hit the same kind of shots, but tactically I just found no solution.

The problem was the following :

I touch the line with a short accel from BH, he got it and he's out of the court ;
what to do ?

a) A DTL ? But he gets it generally because I was rarely touching the lines there.
b) Another short accel on lines ? Right ! I think I touched the line 3 times in a row like that, but he still stayed on this side and anticipated it... And let's say I hit a DTL after the second short accel, or the first one... He constantly got it . Useless then. So I was just powerless against his defense : my shots were fast, risky, but he was constantly anticipated it despite the fact I variated my side selection (but maybe still not enough ?)

Another problem : he was constantly running around his BH. So easy solution : you hit a DTL as there is a gap, or other stuff like 2 times a shot on his BH. But nothing really worked in the middle term :/

He got a second break and here I decided to let go the set by playing SV and break his patterns. Wasn't effective, once again

Third set : He started to reach more the lines, I really lost focus because I found nothing able to destabilize him. I tried to hit even riskier shots, try to bring him in the FH-FH diagonal, where I did some good stuff, but it wasn't that effective too. I started to make more errors and so on, it was finished

All in all, I didn't find the solution to what he offered. I played well in defense, well in attack, nothing to regret. Maybe in the second set I made a mistake, being a bit too far from baseline, I realized that at the very last game of the third set
Also we played a set with the delay at 100 instead of 117 and Ifelt more comfortable, but it was perhaps a misperception. Congratulations man, you deserve your ranking IMO

edit : 9.1 of rally lenght, Magav won 70% of the long rallies.

[inseedious]

Unfortunately, on clay there's not a concrete scheme that gives you a concrete chance to hit winners. Surprise is way stronger than pushing an angle and then changing direction. During a bh to bh rally (especially when there are lots of short accels) the only way to hit a DTL winner, or at least a shot that gives you some advantage in the point, is to anticipate your opponent and charge a very well positioned DTL bh (I did it many times vs vramvrim). To do this, you have to charge your shot the most time you can, so it's not easy without much training. Another way, useful when you are attacking with bh short accels, is to push your opponent very widely and then turn around your bh. If the opponent isn't clearly guessing, it's very hard to return a DTL shot after an offensive and well placed short accel, ofc because of TE mechanics. My favourite solutions are the inside-in fh (which can be very strong because it's not 100% DTL, but a bit wider), or keeping up pushing with inside-out fh short accels, that can be a wrong-foot winner or a good approach shot.

[C4iLL]

Good points you made here indeed. I never thought to run around BH to hit a FH in this match with djoko: it's a pity, it would have mess a bit his defense, definitely (and it was doable as he constantly hit cross shots, so quite predictable).

The BH DTL is then definitely something key today at the top level on this clay. I certainly paid the lack of high level competitive matchs prior to RG to figure out that kind of tactical things and improve the efficiency of that shot.

You should write a report inseed about your match, some stats and so on

[inseedious]

Good points you made here indeed. I never thought to run around BH to hit a FH in this match with djoko: it's a pity, it would have mess a bit his defense, definitely (and it was doable as he constantly hit cross shots, so quite predictable).

The BH DTL is then definitely something key today at the top level on this clay. I certainly paid the lack of high level competitive matchs prior to RG to figure out that kind of tactical things and improve the efficiency of that shot.

You should write a report inseed about your match, some stats and so on

I will make a report, but I'm very busy in these days. Maybe I'll be able to write something this weekend.

[JasonBourne]

My report: I just missed the bus. Got too late to sign up because I just decided to join the tour.