CONDE DE GODÓ. THE PRELIMINARY PHASE.

Let’s start, I will name the games that I saw and from there down, one by one I will talk about what is perceived in each of the players, always from respect, consideration, belief in society, and love for life and for tennis. 

 

ALEJANDRO DAVIDOVICH vs ROBERTO CABALLÉS BAENA

DANIEL BRANDS VS IÑIGO CERVANTES (One of the worst game I have experienced to date, maddening, boring, and empty in all four corners)

ANDREY RUBLEV VS DANIEL MASUR (I saw it from center and then down on track 1, different angles)

TARO DANIEL VS JAUME MUNAR

ALEJANDRO DAVIDOVICH VS SANTIAGO GIRALDO

DANIEL MASUR VS CASPER RUDD (I watched the last set)

GUIDO PELLA VS HYEON CHUNG. (I admit that the latter only saw a piece)

THIAGO MONTEIRO VS JORDI SAMPER MONTANA (The last four games of the match, Thiago also trained at the Laietá tennis club and also having him in the gym while I trained).

RICHARD GASQUET (His training with Sergi Bruguera, a little while alone).

KAREN KHACHANOV training with DOMINIC THIEM.

IVAN DODIG (His training).

ANDRE SA / KEVIN ANDERSON VS PURAV RAJA / DIVIJ SHARAN (Doubles Match)

MARCUS DANIELL / MARCELO DEMOLINER VS ANDRE SA / KEVIN ANDERSON (Doubles match)

 

ALEJANDRO DAVIDOVICH:  Player who had already had the opportunity to see him play in doubles at Wiimbledon  , but so far not in Singles. He has a lot of power, presence and poise, translated into good command capacity, an incredible ability to loosen up, however that good initiative needs to be accompanied by many more internal things that allow him to keep him in balance. Being behind on the scoreboard or even in life behind someone, will always be something inevitable at the beginning, and even in temporary periods as well, those are the moments that must be worked the most to achieve a deep and felt channeling in oneself beyond what is considered appropriate.

If you do not work to accept when you are behind, seeing that you are neither better nor worse than anyone else, it will cost you a lot to move up. Patience is essential, the sense of why being there, will allow you to see that even if a ball fails, if the concept and the line to follow is the good one, not give importance to the failure and see that there is the line of work, instead of the hubbub, laments, threats of racket blows, …. etc .. something already common in a large part of the players. In the balance you will have the key.

ROBERTO CABALLÉS BAENA:  He lacked reading of the game, consistency, personality, character, releasing all the energy without squatting, in short a lot of work on self-confidence (self-esteem) along with a huge lack of channeling the emotions of each moment of the game , sometimes shown with airs of unconscious arrogance, ending as not breaking a racket after breaking against in the final set. I hope he finds his space, his terrain where he must move to take out what is his without fear. 

DANIEL BRANDS:  He was seen to be very lacking in confidence, belief in himself, security in every step to be taken, without forgetting a not very orthodox technique, lacking in attitude and clenched teeth along with the connection with himself, it was a lack for many areas. However, his height together with his best shot, within the not very orthodox service technique, at least for me, made him hold on to the game and the next phase. The work to be done here would cover many areas. 

IÑIGO CERVANTES:  Although apparently he did not seem in the best possible shape, his way of facing the game, his low level of thought at every moment of tennis that he could have inside, at moments with attitudes that border on certain unnamed qualifiers, reaching have gestures towards the chair umpire or the opponent. Snorting all the time, finally from the beginning it seemed as if she was carrying a backpack full of stones on her back, which made her walk with a not positive tension to achieve any objective.

ANDREY RUBLEV:  That he is a gamer, he fights and fights, it is not debatable in my opinion, however from the beginning I noticed something that could not end well as it did, when after a while he had to request assistance from the physiotherapist. When so much body load is used without any fictitious mental break, it will only increase the tension of the whole body, until the most logical parts of our loop say enough as it obviously happened. It is true that his rival was a true gamer as well, however he has to find a break, a channeling of each situation much more pleasant and not only for tennis, for life and for his health.

DANIEL MASUR:  For me a surprise that I was unaware of, I loved seeing him play, his style of play, his way of playing, movements and way of walking reminded me a lot of players like Fernando Verdasco or Mischa Zverev. What I witnessed in this first game in everything related to his lack of determination, grasp of initiative, self-assurance combined with the vice of hiding the backhand with reverse forehand all the time, would take its toll sooner or later if with someone that he did not wrinkle in taking initiative, as was the case against Casper Rudd , a misleading result due to Masur’s level of play .

See a player who is capable of offering two super attractive games for the spectator, with a game from you to you, but who nevertheless all that potential flies in the key moments of each game, set and match, due to that lack of security in himself, to take initiation, leadership, conviction … etc, in a certain way it makes him angry because of the ability of his tennis to take the game to the limit, where it is decided, in those small details, which are no more , about who is more mature in that internal channeling taken to one of the highest extremes.

CASPER RUDD:  Player with great self-confidence, bravery, a lot of determination, without fear of taking the initiative saying I am the one in command. Against his haste, disconnection from himself at critical moments, greater patience and handling of the pause-tranquility always necessary for life and for tennis, in view of the result he obtained with Albert Ramos in the next round, he will not walk very far from what should have happened to bother good old Albert at decisive moments.

GUIDO PELLA:  I didn’t see much of his match as I mentioned above, but what little I did see, too fought with himself most of the time. So it is difficult to reconnect not only with what is the reality of your tennis, but with all the internal potential of oneself. 

HYEON CHUNG:  In the Casper Rudd stylein terms of attitude, but in this case and although sometimes he is somewhat dismissed or unfocused, if he has a certain tranquility, pause at different moments of the game, but for me a better search for that patience, and other improvements of all that it encompasses, I feel that it would benefit you in its extension.

SANTIAGO GIRALDO:  In general attitude not too bad, however always very very content, he did not take everything out, he was not able to risk, take command when he played, curious or not so curious, that in those moments where if or if he He must be brave with all one’s potential, by not risking and thinking why I’m not doing it, he was dedicated to generating good anger with himself empty of content. When he won the second set, and at the beginning of the third, he felt calm, defending well, but as I said, attack and security lacking, so that point of calm against someone with the current state of Davidovichit was enough to win the game, which is not valid in the subsequent round. You must let go and seek to ask yourself the right questions of why instead of anger nowhere. 

JORDI SAMPER MONTANA:  The truth is, as I said before, I barely watched the game, more than a couple of games, and the little I can say is that it gave me the feeling that I was thinking too much and lacking in letting go a bit, I can’t speak much more because I did not see beyond. 

THIAGO MONTEIRO:  Although I did not see his first match and from this second I did not see much, the little I saw did not differ much from what was perceived in his training at the tennis club laietá. A player with a lot of momentum, dedication, eagerness, revolutions, body loads, a whole mixture that detracts from its possible potential, generating a certain unnecessary abruptness, however that claw and fight always infects any spectator, but does not help to a greater enjoyment nor to a comfort of him inside the track.

TARO DANIEL:  My feeling with Daniel  was like a kind of scrambled mix, where letting yourself be carried away by luck (something I don’t think) can give you a good taste or, more often than not, the taste is not usually good. There is always the happiness that less is more. I think that this hodgepodge of game, movement and emotional management make him lose all option to show his potential in a clean and fluid way, therefore also more constant and broad results of progress. There is no doubt that watching him play is interesting for the viewer at the risk of being in that mix.

RICHARD GASQUET:  I recognize that I am somewhat uninformed about whether Barcelona was the first tournament that he has played since his appendicitis operation, now see the version that Gasquet took  at Roland Garros , I don’t know if last year or the previous one, super motivated, totally leaving carry, totally connected with himself, but lacking a break that made him pay dearly, from what I saw the other day in training with Bruguera , I felt that I was missing all that, perhaps he came to try himself without more, pick up a rhythm and little by little. Little to get a motivation to continue advancing and competing with criteria, maybe I am very wrong in my perception but it is what I felt the little time I was watching it.

IVAN DODIG:   On the track next to  Gasquet’s , I don’t know who he was training with, not losing his taming, his rhythm. Being a doubles player he’s not doing badly lately, especially with  Marcel Granollers,  little more to say because I barely saw the training session.

KAREN KHACHANOV:  Regardless of different technical aspects to improve, when there are more eyes, like that of a friend who works with him, it also helps to broaden the observation, looking is easy to observe and not so much ; I felt that he lacked fluidity with himself, too much searching for answers in perhaps at a time that does not proceed with a broader emotional channeling. In short sum of several things to continue polishing.

DOMINIC THIEM:  It is true that I came from doing several tournaments at a poor level in terms of results, with respect to the rest I do not know if I had not seen it. However, about what I saw in training with Khachanov,  I saw him serious, focused, very connected with what he was doing, showing a lot of power, training together and playing doubles together, for both of them it has been a great help, for very good combination in every way to learn from each other.

DOUBLES MATCHES:   Andre Sa , a great guy I know from Queen’s , recognized me quickly among the people in his training, if I slowed down, if I didn’t go so fast due to the competitive momentum and because of his hyperactive character, I’m sure he would much better, in this case with Anderson, who for me needs to let go of all his internal fear and lean on all the weapons of tennis. The first game they won, the truth is that Indians Purav and Divij were quite out of shape, yet they competed well. Instead in the final round against Marcus and MarceloThe latter were seen to be much more determined, more convinced and with a better connection between them, something fundamental in doubles, looking like just a player.

Dear reader for the end I have left my right eye, a very special player for me, but much more for a friend of mine, however that has also unquestionably injected an internal feeling towards that player, it is difficult to say if at all. The same emotional level or not as the ones I feel when I see, follow or read things from Guillermo Garcia Lopez, Roberto Bautista Agut or even Jamie Murray because of what I experienced in the Queens’ club during the last two years until just 3 months ago. The player I have left for the end is none other than JAUME MUNAR.

JAUME MUNAR: I have to admit, it was the first time I saw him play, my feeling was that of a very noble boy, good people, being respectful of everything around him on the court, something to be thankful for today, by the way , we will see over time with the rise upwards, how the Ego manages itself. I noticed that in his hand he has a lot of touch, a very good wrist for the most subtle blows and above all, I hope he does not lose it, a very good intelligence when it comes to varying the points and expanding the track at the most compromised point moments , that visual capacity, which should be more common, is not very frequent in the circuit. 

It is true that technically he has to improve each of the blows a lot, gain much more confidence, more personal security, get more his personality, that the nerves are not above him, that he does not wrinkle, that he looks for his self within and take it out, show all that you are without fear or restraint, or with your head down, without complaints or regrets, or losing connection with yourself in talks with the chair umpire on unnecessary balls and learning to manage mistakes, the see when a mistake made in the right line is your greatest ally not an enemy of discussion, always upwards, you walk sticking out your chest, confident and saying this is me, incessantly in the search for balance between suffering and feeling comfortable on the track, enjoying it, without losing that temperance, of which I spoke before, because that solution-finding resource, for me it was simply wonderful. 

 

Dear reader, this was all that I perceived during that weekend of the preliminary phase, surely it will leave me many details, but if I want to clarify , that I could expand on each player talking about many of the technical aspects also to improve, in that with videos, and their respective reviews are always of great help, apart from taking notes of what I see, I also record different moments of the games, however, being true to the name of my blog, hiddentennis.com , I wanted to talk about just what it hides tennis and for most it goes unnoticed in a high percentage of depth.

I hope you like each of the reflections made with the greatest of respect. 

 

Faithfully with affection,
A lover & respectful of the values ​​and spirits of whatever sport but specially The hidden on tennis .
Remember:

ALWAYS PURE TENNIS !!!