Australian Open 2024

[prasen9]

Sumit needs a session or two or a fitness plan from Somdev. Different bodies I know but he needs to get fitter and his stamina needs to improve if he wants to move up significantly. This is not new where he wins the first set and then fades.

[Sanjay]

He definitely can play at a top 100 level.

[prasen9]

Yes, but only one set is not good enough. If he can do it for longer, he needs to show that. And, be consistent. He is 26. Needs to make that move.

[Kumar]

Could it be that Sumit played out of his mind and his opponent played badly in the first set and regression to mean results in eventual loss

Lot of times, a superior player is good at making adjustments and then blow their opponent off.. and it is very rare for player who loves and does well on clay court to have poor conditioning

[arjun2761]

Didn’t see the last match in particular other than the last few games but Sumit has a very solid back court game that can stand up a typical top 60/70 level player. However, he has mostly playin serve (although he cranked up the kph in this tournament compared to previous years) and doesn’t have a real put away ground stroke especially from the back hand side. So he need to work harder than most to win points and hence he needs a higher level of fitness than most.

[prasen9]

Kumar this is universally true. Leander Paes blew Andre Agassi off the court for a set and a bit. And, then Agassi made adjustments and Lee could not play at that level for a whole five sets or whatever and lost.That is one of the days when I realized that top players are those who make adjustments during the game and can sustain their efforts for the long run.

[sameerph]

Balaji along with Vlad Cornea of Romania beat the all Italian pairing of Arnaldi and Pellegrino 63 64 in first round. Good for Bala, he lost his Pune ATP final points from last year last week and dropped to 79 in rankings from career high of 71. Good that he defended his Australian open second round points from last year.

Next up for them is 10th seeded pairing of Arevalo and Pavic.

[SaniaFan]

Saw the entire match. Sumit was very good in the first set but Shang was also making lot of mistakes. And the combined effect was that Sumit won it very convincingly. Later Sumit got tired and Shang also upped his game. Shang is 18yo and I think we'll hear more about him in future. He was able to adjust his game quickly, did server and volley as well when required and vastly improved the serve quality in the later sets.

BTW Somdev did coach Sumit for sometime last year as mentioned by him during the commentary. He was coaching him when Sumit beat Jason Jung. He mentioned that Sumit lost the first set and then he gave him some tip and sumit was able to turn it around. They(Somdev and Sania) were basically discussing the on court coaching that is allowed now. They are both against it though.

[prasen9]

I am for all on-court coaching without it disrupting or holding on play. We have it during Davis Cup and that does not produce worse tennis. Oldies will always want traditional ways of life and things. I don't care much about these. I'd allow people calling out things from the seats as long as, again, it does not stop play, players don't specifically go to someone between points holding up the game from moving on, etc. And maybe not during a point. That could disturb the other player and generally be a nusance, I think.

[sameerph]

Rohan and Ebden beat another all Australian pairing of Millman and Winter 64 62 in second round.

Now, they play 14th seeds Koolhof and Mektic. That could be a tricky match.

[sameerph]

Balaji with Vlad Cornea lost 10th seeds Arevalo and Pavic 36 36 in second round.

Also Rohan and Babos withdrew from mixed doubles, not sure about the reason. But, that means Rohan in mens doubles is the only Indian contention left in this Australian open.

[Kumar]

I am not fond of coaching during the game. It widens the gap between haves and have nots. Could be a big difference maker between players of similar levels . Having a traveling coach is very expensive .

[Sanjay]

I am not fond of coaching during the game. It widens the gap between haves and have nots. Could be a big difference maker between players of similar levels . Having a traveling coach is very expensive .

I agree with you and you make a good point. Djoko and other top players can afford people. Not Nagal. That makes it unfair and rich stay rich and poor stay poor. Not an even field.

I think all coaching should be done before and people in players boxes should STFU and watch and say nothing.

I am a Djokovic fan but I hate him screaming at his coaches and blaming them in his language to blow steam off or whatever while they stare back dopey eyed and when he wins, he goes and hugs them. It is stupid.

[prasen9]

I like Djokovic's tennis. But, Djokovic is stupid.

[sameerph]

Bops and Ebden move thru to QF with a straight sets win in 2 tie breaks.

[R3] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND) / Mathew Ebden (AUS) d. (14) Wesley Koolhof (NED) / Nikola Mektic (CRO) 76(8) 76(4)

With that Rohan moves to career high world #2 in live rankings. If they win the QF, Rohan will move to world #1.

[QF] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND) / Mathew Ebden (AUS) vs. (6) Maximo Gonzalez (ARG) / Andres Molteni (ARG)