Australian Open 2018

[Y2K]

Baghdatis played two exhibition matches this year winning both against Kevin Anderson and next gen Tiafoe..so expecting a tough one

[Rajiv]

and also narrowly beat Karan Rastogi in a junior G1 tournament in Tokyo aeons ago).

Fantastic Memory, PKB,very few people would remember this, it was Grade 1 finals he was contesting in Tokyo on a Sunday and me and Sunil Yajman were trying desperately hard to arrange Karan flight from Tokyo via HKG to reach Karnataka on Mon/ Tues for the Tumkur Challenger.

[Rajiv]

Baghdatis can go on rallying forever and if Yuki gets into rallying match he would eventually be worn down.

So the emphasis should be quick shorter ralies and more than frequent net rushing.

[Prashant]

One of the better draws Yuki could have hoped for. One round at a time. Just beat Baghdatis first. Hopefully Ferrer will grind Rublev down for 5 hours in R1 and soften him up for Yuki

[S_K_S]

Not that it has much bearing on Monday but RamK did play Baghdatis in a QF on grass in Turkey in 2017

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/scores/2 ... atch-stats

Hopefully RamK can give Yuki some insight.

As much as I want to share the optimism of some I feel this is a bad match-up for Yuki. Baghdatis is a wall with so much experience. I watched him beat Harsh in Surbiton back in 2005!! Hard to wear out a wall. Can Yuki hit through him? Unlikely but hope I am wrong.

<edit> Can I just say what a load of rubbish is the Aus Open website. Did they all go on a massive bender all week and then put together that website on Friday at 3pm?

[sameerph]

Based on the energy, focus and effort that RamK displays on court, I'd like to think that he does care. And I hope he is walking away from this match with the confidence that this match was winnable - because it was not a blowout, against an experienced opponent no less. This is where I think he will benefit from proper advice and analysis support - to figure out what he could have done better/changed to win. Sadly, I didn't see any support group for him during this match (because he was not looking to anyone in the crowd at any time). So I think you're right that he's not getting the advice/support that he could use.

Agree with this. Just having proper tactics can win RamK many more matches than he currently does. He just does not put much effort in service returns at all. Apart from his backhand return which is weak, even on forehand side he is just content on put a floating ball into the court awaiting the opponent to make an error. This will not work against top level opponents.

Also rushing into net on almost every service point( first or second serve) is not going to work. He needs to keep that as a surprise element, do the serve and volley a lot more than most of the players ( as he has big serve and is good at the net, but still cannot do it on every other point and hope to succeed.

Perhaps today he was a bit nervous too being so close to his first grand slam main draw. Hope he makes these improvement as the year goes on and qualifies for another slam this year itself.

[knarayen]

Based on the energy, focus and effort that RamK displays on court, I'd like to think that he does care. And I hope he is walking away from this match with the confidence that this match was winnable - because it was not a blowout, against an experienced opponent no less. This is where I think he will benefit from proper advice and analysis support - to figure out what he could have done better/changed to win. Sadly, I didn't see any support group for him during this match (because he was not looking to anyone in the crowd at any time). So I think you're right that he's not getting the advice/support that he could use.

Agree with this. Just having proper tactics can win RamK many more matches than he currently does. He just does not put much effort in service returns at all. Apart from his backhand return which is weak, even on forehand side he is just content on put a floating ball into the court awaiting the opponent to make an error. This will not work against top level opponents.

Also rushing into net on almost every service point( first or second serve) is not going to work. He needs to keep that as a surprise element, do the serve and volley a lot more than most of the players ( as he has big serve and is good at the net, but still cannot do it on every other point and hope to succeed.

Perhaps today he was a bit nervous too being so close to his first grand slam main draw. Hope he makes these improvement as the year goes on and qualifies for another slam this year itself.

Agree with everything said here - and fans/well wishers will have a point of view that can be different from a coach's perspective (namely, mine).

As a coach, I can see his potential and it is much more than a change of tactics - he needs to work on some stroking patterns that he currently doesn't have:

1. He does not currently have an aggressive service return on both sides - this needs to be developed and learned as a separate stroke and it will NOT happen automatically by just playing more matches and changing tactics. Francis Tiafoe has developed this capability and it vaulted him into the Top 100 - Yuki also arguably has this capability (though in Yuki's case I feel he still needs to develop some more). Several ancillary capabilities need to be developed in order to make this happen - we can go into details but it will take too long to describe here.

2. RamK's court coverage seems good on the surface, but one reason he retreats far behind the baseline (as he did yesterday) is to give himself more time to scramble returns back. The fact that he needs more time is very telling I would think, wouldnt you? Very revealing, as a matter of fact, and any opposition coach watching him would know right away exactly what his/her ward should do to win against RamK.

On the positive side, he has a great serving game, his serve/volley style is clearly superior and a formidable strength (I don't use these words lightly) - one that he can and must leverage as in fact he tried to do yesterday. But it wasn't enough to get him over the finish line, and it wont be enough against better players than Popsisil (and there are many as we all know).

This is why even if he had sneaked a win yesterday, I would not be "singing a different tune".

Prof

[sameerph]

That is very well put, Prof. much better than a fan like me had put in the earlier post. I had thought not trying to be aggressive on his returns is more of a mindset factor for RamK rather the question of abilities at least on forehand side. But, as you said he currently lacks the capability on return of serve like say Yuki has to a larger extent. Hope he gets the right coaching on this and the other aspect you mentioned with his Spanish coaches . He will need that if he wants to transition into a regular top 100 player.

[PKBasu]

I think it’s worth emphasising that RamK just turned 23 and has made steady, linear progress in the past two years (and especially in 2017) by reducing the key weakness in his game (the backhand), and adding even more to his strength (first serve and forehand). His linear progress continued into the AO this year, where he came the closest he ever has to making the main draw of a Slam. He will have a good chance to go one better at Roland Garros.

Yuki had a slightly more meteoric rise (qualifying into the AO main draw 3 years ago, when he was 22), but has effectively stagnated there (because of his proneness to injuries). That he has merely emulated what he did three years ago emphasises the stagnation in his game. Of course if he wins one or two rounds at the AO, that will make this year a very different and positively affirming one. A lot depends on him beating Baghdatis tomorrow to kickstart the next, higher phase of his career!

[arjun2761]

This Australian Open website article projects Yuki as one of the 3 qualifiers likely to do well.

[ankit1407]

Anyone else facing trouble with website ? It keeps throwing error ..

[PKBasu]

The previous match on Court 8 is done (Carreno-Busta through in 4 sets). But Yuki’s match is still reportedly 40 or more minutes from starting.

[sameerph]

Yes, as the ladies first round match is currently going on court 8, towards the end of first set. If that match gets done in straight sets, Yuki-Marcos could start in about 45 mins. If it goes to 3 sets, it will more than an hour.

[Rajiv]

its because a ladies match between Kateryna Kozlova & Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is in progress and the score there is 5-3 to Kozlova who will serve for the set
Once that match is completed , Yuki will be on the court

[PKBasu]

Looks like that match is going to a third set.

It wasn’t showing on my Australian Open scores page, but I can see it on the Google page for the AO.