thanks for the answer.

so clearly doubles alleys is way bigger than i thought. my roomate also thought it was a massive edge to a capable player and this confirms it (if you'd want odds to play w/ him having alleys).

his serve is solid, nothing that would cost you the game w/ him having 3 of them apparently.

i didn't realize the #2 player in college COULD even play d2 or d3 lol? that's hilarious. i mean i guess he could but yea, why in the world would he choose that?

when i said the dick enberg thing i didn't mean laugh b/c he was funny i meant laugh b/c "omg that was ******ed" lol. love the white gloves. epic. tried to find pics via google. no luck.

I am going to ask the question everybody's thinking. Could you beat the number 1 woman's tennis player in the world?

This question has been answered. Years ago at the Aussie Open Serena and Venus came into the ATP office wanting to play anyone outside the top 200. Unfortunately for them Karsten Braasch was sitting there and took them up. Here are the cliff notes on what happened. Braasch plays 18 holes of golf, at least 3-4 beers during round, comes back to Melbourne park and puts the biggest beatdown on both of them you can imagine all while smoking cigarettes on the changeover. If you think I am fos you don't know Braasch. I didn't see them play but I spent a lot of time with Braasch on the tour and I can vouch for him without hesitation.

P.S I can't think of a worse guy for them to pick though, so I don't think it would be inconceivable for them to win a set off some guy ranked 1k but generally speaking they are just way too slow to be competitive.

Ok--that was weird. You must have been writing that at the exact same time I was.

LOL. nobody was thinking that. not even close.

I was in the car this morning and I thought, "Holy sh#t, dangerfish is Mardy Fish."

Maybe he directly said as much in the thread, but, if so, I missed it.

That blows me away. I'm a big fan. I was roommates with Amr El-Sawaf in college, and lived near Jeff Morrison. I was buddies with Jack Whigham in college, but haven't chatted with him in ten years or so (I'm UF '98).

Wozniacki would crush Pat, no question about it.

Alright, Dangerfish gets a 1% freeroll on the 220k. Everyone else.... I need more action. You can take my side at 7-1 or Pat's side at 12-1. Either way, to book: send the liability amount my FT or Stars before the match (Min 1k. I'll have some people guarantee) and send me a 2p2 PM telling me what side you're on.

Brandon

Alright, 1% is contingent on evidence it's Mardy. But I believe it is. I still haven't gone back to check on thread but 1) if it's not him, dangerfish is not credible, as he said he got to quarters twice (as mardy did) 2) dangerfish exhibits strong knowledge, delivered quickly and casually. obv knows tennis v well 3) it would be strange to have 800+ posts under name 'dangerfish' then randomly show up making tennis posts and pretending to be mardy fish. BA

confirmed, dangerfish is not marty fish.

Gus was sitting at wozniaki's table other day in the cafeteria, so they have to be still dating. When we gonna see this go down, this week?

Brandon--I am really sorry to disappoint you but I never pretended to be Mardy Fish or anyone other than myself. I reached the quarters of U.S Open twice in dubs.. Thought I made that pretty clear, guess not. Ironically, both times I beat Mardy Fish in route to quarters.

Btw--not sure why outing myself publicly seems kinda strange but I can promise you I would never exaggerate any bit of my tennis career or anything else for that matter. I really enjoyed talking some tennis for a change but that part where Brandon says if I am not Mardy Fish I am not credible took me by surprise.

oops guess u dont want to be outed. sry

???

I'll out his name for 200, pm for details.

lol, obv i wouldnt out him. maybe 500 lol.

Sounds like there are still fish in tennis.

Oh, that's cool. Didn't see the doubs part

Heh, was a joke based on the other big tennis thread I saw on here. Although I did actually want to know the answer given the guy was 400 in singles at peak and is now retired for several years. I would have thought that would make it somewhat close between him and Wozniacki.

just a hypothetical- what odds would you guys put on a match of a random player ranked 100-200 vs rafa assuming the random gets to serve every game and its only 1 set? what about best of 3?

I think that depends on who the random player is. If you picked one out of a hat I would take Rafa all day long to win and lay a good price to bet against him. One set or best of 3 wouldn't really change much for me other than reducing the luck factor a bit and therefore helping the dog in the shorter format. Few other factors such as surface, balls, weather would play into it but my general answer stands. FWIW, I tend to differ from the opinion most of you have regarding giving up the alleys. Don't think that is as big a help as some of you think. Thats just my initial reaction to it, but I could be wrong about that.

who's advantage is it to have the new balls every set?
and why?

thanks this is an awesome thread.

new balls help the quicker person and the one who puts more action on the ball.

ball loses response as it gets used. fur (or whatever you call it) slows down spin as it moves through the air. more fur comes in contact w/ the air as it gets used.

so the speed of ball off the bounce (and size of bounce) is reduced as it gets used and speed of ball through the air is reduced so the slower person has more of a chance to get a racket on the ball.

i probably missed some stuff here but i think that's about right.

i also am not sure of the size of the advantage but i'd guess it's probably pretty small.

ty sir.

Just helps the server cause balls slow down a lot more you play. Sticking with that theme, men's tennis has done a lot to slow down conditions over the last 5-10 years. Courts are slower than they used to be, balls are heavier. Wimbledon is the biggest joke ever, the balls are so heavy and fluffy its crazy, it can play slower than some clay courts nowadays and your arm is ready to fall off after two weeks. The single biggest change that just ruined it for serve volley players is the string. It is just ridiculously easy to get the ball up and down compared to when I started that it makes that game style (serve and volley) almost impossible.

How good a server do they have to be before they are favourite? Karlovic is a large favourite right? Not sure if he has dropped out of top 100 without checking.

yeah Karlovic would be rough and Rafa prob doesn't have much of a chance if Karlovic played even reasonably well. Don't even know how to handicap that one. There are probably a few other players that serve well enough to be favorites but generally speaking my money is on Rafa.

i think if the match is on clay it doesnt matter who the player is rafa is still easily the smart money given the handicap

I'd like to make a wager on this match, what are the odds and who are the parties?