The olympics team pairing thread

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Re: The olympics team pairing thread

Post by Atithee »

Arjun, you beat me to this (while I was responding to Jay's male chauvinism post on the other thread). Looks like Sania has heard Jay's plea. However, it is amazing that she keeps saying how she is ready to move on but cannot help expressing her "preference" every single time. If you truly want to move on, just let go and move on.
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Re: The olympics team pairing thread

Post by jayakris »

But she has not even come close to even hinting that she thinks LP is a worse player than MB. Not even once. Her preference was completely based on having played more with MB and more importantly because of the court-side issue. She is not intending anybody to read anything more to it. I only blame her for not trying to get in touch with Lee and have at least a text or phone chat. But that fault lies equally or more with Leander.

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Re: The olympics team pairing thread

Post by PKBasu »

Yes, I think this interview with Times Now clears the air. She continues to express her preference for MB purely on the grounds that "he is a backhand player" and she is a "forehand player", but says very clearly that she is looking forward to playing with Leander at the Olympics. It is a bit troubling that SP Misra has to intervene to get them to practice together, but hopefully these hiccups will be overcome soon enough (by July 23rd). I'm not sure the Washington Kastles will be done by July 23rd, though...
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Re: The olympics team pairing thread

Post by Omkara »

There is a mental block against lee. The ad court/backhand player excuse though sound serious but maybe used hide feelings against Lee.
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Re: The olympics team pairing thread

Post by jayakris »

It is not a mental block. Lee is a difficult guy. He can be the most loving type and all that, but could also go into a shell like you wouldn't believe. Sania may well be quite unsure what the heck Lee is thinking, for her to say anything more. I won't even be surprised if Sania tried to contact him at London but couldn't get through to him. He has been known to change his phone, or not pick up calls, hide and dodge people, and do all kinds of things when he goes into his shell with anybody. He has done that to me, someone he had no reason to take importantly enough to even misunderstand (it was because I complained loudly when he was quitting singles without saying it); so I know.

If I am not mistaken, Sania herself has had that situation once in the past when she was trying to talk to him about mixed doubles (can't remember where, but she had to get somebody else to call him or change the voice and call or something funny). I don't think I have mentioned that here before, but thought you should know. It is not all just Mahesh being the cunning business man, and Sania being in his camp, and all those things. Lee could just misunderstand anybody (or whatever) and could just scoot from you - and people may not get a chance to be in his camp, even if they want to!

That is Leander in his withdrawing mood, for you. He could come out of it too when he chooses to. It is up to him. It is no coincidence that players would somewhat unanimously say that he is a difficult guy to deal with. But also very nice and kind at other times. Not a bad guy or a constantly scheming arrogant guy like some here would like to portray him, but there are behavioral peculiarities with Leander that are tough to handle (but many geniuses in various domains have such things about them).

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Re: The olympics team pairing thread

Post by jaydeep »

Olympic medal ranks above Grand Slams: Bhupathi
"The Olympics come once in four years. We play Grand Slams every year; Davis Cup is a yearly thing too. I think it is every athlete's dream to win an Olympic medal for his country. As far as expectations are concerned, the hardest thing for an athlete to win is an Olympic medal. We [he and Rohan Bopanna] feel we have a shot as good as the rest. We need to play well; we need to have some luck and things will fall into place."

"Obviously, in a doubles team you have to find the best ways you can compliment each other so that you can get the best results. Rohan and me have been working at it for the last seven months. I started with the deuce and he moved to the deuce early in February and since then it has been working for us. We have been practicing pretty hard and we are looking forward to the Games. We have been preparing very hard for the Olympics for some months now. This year it has been very difficult for us travel-wise, because we are playing as many tournaments as possible to get ready,"

"Luckily, the Olympics will be played on grass, and the grasscourt season has just ended. So, for the last four weeks we have been practicing very hard. Obviously, the results at Wimbledon didn't go our way, but practice continues and the tournaments continue. Rohan and me have been training hard and we are full-time partners on the tour. You need some kind of preparation, because we are not as talented as Roger [Federer] or Rafa [Nadal] to pick up the pieces and win a medal. We felt it was extremely necessary to go with proper preparation and, hence, we have."
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Re: The olympics team pairing thread

Post by jayakris »

Something interesting here.
"Games will be gloomy" - Chances not bright for Mahesh-Bopanna: Jaidip The Telegraph, Kolkata
He probably shouldn't be saying that any teams chance is low etc, as a selector, but the newspapers are probably making it out to be his key statement. But there was something else he said at the end of the article that was very interesting. Kinda shocked me, though I myself had had a sneaky suspicion for a while that LP just might be considering it --
On the mixed doubles pair of Leander and Sania, Mukerjea said: “Both are right court players. So someone has to make a sacrifice. In all probability Leander will be playing on the left court. I am not sure. After all it’s their call…”
Does he know something here, or is it only some blind speculation from him? Leander moving to the AD court? Wow. If they do that, it could get pretty damn interesting!! I have a feeling that Leander may just be able to pull off a switch better than Sania, if she feels very uncomfortable to play on the left side now. May be with a little bit of practice, Lee would be fine there. I am not sure if he has played on the AD court in some 20 years, but if they do this, watch out! I just raised their medal chance up by about 50% from what it was before.

[Now I am confused. Which sides do Vishnu and Rushmi play on? Would this require Vishnu to move to right, if LP moves to the left?]

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Re: The olympics team pairing thread

Post by PKBasu »

I suspect people will be testing LP's backhand service return, putting a lot of kick into their serves and serving wide -- a la Nadal testing Federer with high balls to his backhand. For a single-handed backhand, that is the biggest challenge.
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Re: The olympics team pairing thread

Post by jaydeep »

But Indian team captain S P Misra having different views ... As per him Lee should stick to deuce court and Sania should support him from Ad court with her solid ground strokes ... :)

India captain wants Sania to support Paes from ad court
"Sania has solid ground strokes. I feel she should play from the ad court. Sania returns well also, so she should support Leander from that side. Leander has always played from the deuce court and that is his strength."

"I have never seen Leander playing from the ad court. He has played with different partners in his career from Martina Navratilova to Lisa Raymond to Elena Vesnina but he has always played from right side."
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Re: The olympics team pairing thread

Post by jayakris »

I guess SP MIshra knows better, and so I cant' argue with him. But I feel (just a hunch) that moving LP to the left would not take much away from his game, while somehow I feel that Sania might need more than 3-4 days practice to move. Basically because LP is a crazy genius at times, and I always feel that he has a better chance than others to pull off tough things ... But that is nothing but a hunch.

But what is this thing about "Sania supporting Paes"? Why do people say these kind of things, without realizing the biases involved in it? They said such things about MB too, about playing the "supporting role". Did he mean to say that "LP should support Sania" also, but forgot to say it? Why pick her out to be "supporting". It is MxD. Both needs to be playing their game, and both needs to complement the other. We need her to go out there and attack with her game, and not just "support" LP. She didn't get to top-10 in doubles by fluke. Is Lee so old that he needs Sania to support him every now and then from falling or something? :) ...

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Re: The olympics team pairing thread

Post by madhavan »

Hi All,

1) Check the video from 1min 54 seconds onwards : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylHp_dTM ... ure=relmfu
2) Check this video from 0.11 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut_kQdbE ... ure=relmfu

Leander doing a neat job from the Ad court playing for Kastles in XD at the WTT championship.

He is quietly working on his AD Court game. He is doing great, hasn't dropped a match yet.
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Re: The olympics team pairing thread

Post by jaydeep »

Thanks madhavan for sharing these videos ... Nice to see Lee is adjusting quiet well from ad court.
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Re: The olympics team pairing thread

Post by PKBasu »

madhavan wrote:Hi All,

1) Check the video from 1min 54 seconds onwards : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylHp_dTM ... ure=relmfu
2) Check this video from 0.11 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut_kQdbE ... ure=relmfu

Leander doing a neat job from the Ad court playing for Kastles in XD at the WTT championship.

He is quietly working on his AD Court game. He is doing great, hasn't dropped a match yet.
What a consummate professional :notworthy:

He seems to be doing fabulously well playing from the Ad court in MxD there, and continuing to thoroughly dominate the net. Notably, he continues to play from the Deuce court in Men's Doubles (with Bobby Reynolds).
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Re: The olympics team pairing thread

Post by arjun2761 »

Playing deuce court will help him dominate the net even more when Sania is returning so that is a plus. However, LP may have to return serves using his own backhand which is significantly worse than his forehand. Perhaps, he will stand wide and try to take as much as he can on his forehand but that would also make it more difficult for him to move to the center when he does put a return into play.
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Re: The olympics team pairing thread

Post by jic »

LP is showing a great level of professionalism, leadership and, dare I say, maturity in the period following the acrimonious settlement of the doubles teams for the Olympics. Whether it is getting used to playing the Ad court during WTT, taking Vishnu under his wing at Wimbledon and the US, or being relatively quiet about what transpired, he's done well, by my reckoning. He seemed to be focusing on what he can control, and doing the best he can with what's in his control. So good stuff from Lee.
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