I've never found discussions of the perceived difficulty of draws helpful. In years to come is anyone going to remember the draw? In the end it's the title that matters, everyone has their struggles to get there regardless of the rank of their opponents. If rank was all that mattered Novak wouldn't be losing to Sam Querry would he? It's too simplistic.

If we start thinking like this, we should go back through history and put asterisks next to everyone's titles. Rafa's 2 USO titles as a start, maybe his 2010 Wimbledon title? Really what is the point?

You can certainly question the difficulty of the draw of the 1973 Wimbledon men's singles.

81 players boycotted the event, including 12 of the 16 seeds.

In the 128 draw there were 29 qualifiers and 49 lucky losers.

Champion Jan Kodes (seeded 15 before the boycott, 2nd afterwards) beat a lucky loser, a lucky loser, a qualifier, a lucky loser, an unseeded player and then the 3rd and 4th seeds (originally seeded 16 & 13) for the title.

The title matters to Kodes, but the quality of the draw that year will always be an important footnote in tennis history.

Not that I have to justify my comment to you - this is a tennis forum , not an AM Appreciation thread - but if you read back you will see I was responding to a post about Deplo's difficult draw. If I've mentioned him having an easy draw previously it was because he had.
By all means, call me out if I am posting untruths but I'm sure you'll find this wasn't the case.

I do feel we are going round in circles and I would imagine everyone else does too so I will move on - but please don't take that to mean I feel you have summed up the situation pretty well. Far from it actually.

In other news, I didn't see the match but great to see Dimi progressing - seems to be having a bit more success of late. Although I'm sure Stan will put an end to that.

No idea about this.

Why boycott?

The young ATP flexing its muscles against the ITF, who upheld the suspension of Nikki Pilic (barring him from competing at Wimbledon) because he had allegedly refused to play a Davis Cup tie for Yugoslavia.

Yeah there are extreme examples like this, and Margaret Court's slam total is inflated. But I'm talking in the sense of 'this title is undermined because Federer lost early' which is far more common and usually a reason to complain about a player you don't like. (Not saying Lyn did this at all, i'm talking generally).

It's been mentioned many times before, tennis has some of the ugliest trophies in sport

Oh wow. Interesting

They are all dreadful, except I really like the Paris tree, I'd have that in my living room. I wish Rafa had won them all so that he could fail miserably to bite them, he had a hard time with the Toronto trophy if memory serves.

Wow. Stan lost to Dimi!

JWT lost to Johnson!

Rafa loses 1st set to Coric but he has the trainer on?

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo


UNLESS he's lulling everyone in to a false sense of security for his USO win to keep the StanSlam on track? *looks hopeful*

Rafa injured in facebook update tragedy?

The Stanslam ended at Wimbledon didn't it? He needed to win there this year then USO next year I think. Still gutted he lost to Dimi.

I can't believe i'm saying this but I hope Rafa loses, and it's looking like he will.

Did anyone see Mugz/Coco? They put the match highlights on Garbi's app, and the look on her face as she went to shake Coco's hand (It was amazing). You'd think they hated each other, I wonder if there was some drama in the match.

If Rafa loses now might be a good thing, give him a wee bit more time to rest the wrist before the USO.

So get off facebook Senor Nadal, no typing!

It would appear from stuff on twitter that Stan was unwell.

The trainer was out for a non-wrist issue of Rafa's.

Was it his foot? I'm just watching now but missed most of the match (all 45 minutes of it).

Shoulder?

Well done Coric, he looked so happy. You've done us all a favour as well.

Slightly dramatic Andy advert using Lord of the Rings music.... odd.

Would it be unrealistic to think Rafa could still be a contender at the USO?

Bookies seem to think so pricing him at 20/1.

Coric is one of these up and comers so it'll be a big thing for him.

So we've seen Stan and Rafa go out already. Andy to follow suit?

Doubt it.

I think we might be witnessing something very special here from Murray. He's won 19 matches in a row now. If he wins Cincy he'll be on 23, and if goes on to at least make the final of the USO it will be 29.

I think we're witnessing Murray at his very greatest, at the peak of his powers. How long he can keep this up for is an open question given he is 29, but Murray is in ridiculous form at the moment.

If Djokovic wasn't around, Murray would arguably be on course a CYGS. That's how consistent he has been.

Stan's not played well in ages. His withdrawal from the Olympics was supposedly because of injury, which might explain things. I did wonder if he just needed a break.

I'm not going to be alarmed about Rafa. He's been away for a while, then played a lot of tennis in a short time. He's bound to be knackered, and hopefully all of his niggles are related to that. Coric was always going to be a tough match for him.

If Andy is fit, and not too tired, this tournament could be a great opportunity for him to narrow the gap on #1, but I won't be surprised or bothered if he has an early loss. I think his next win will be his 600th on the tour, so it would be nice for him to get that. Anderson went through a down-spell, but I get the feeling he's steadied the boat, so may not be an easy opponent. This surface should suit him.

Yeah i'm pleased for him.

In the nicest possible way I hope Andy loses. He was having work done on his shoulder in his last match, he needs the rest.

Both Andy and Rafa seem to have had shoulder pain, are they slowly merging into one person?

Sexy Borna Coric is a great prospect and he has beaten Rafa before- Rafa still working his way back. Well done to Coric.

Stan on the other hand has played poorly since Roland Garros.

Good win for Dimi today although Stan was awful. Didn't notice a particular injury but he wasn't in a great frame of mind and smashed a racket. Seen him like that many times before though.

Stan's maybe saving peaking til the USO (I can hope!)

That's Kei out to Tomic in 2 TB's as well.

Andy needs to pack this match in now as his shoulder is clearly preventing him from serving properly and he is in pain. With the short time before the US Open he needs to retire.