[TheMadHatter]

I got bored of FM12 by the end. Might get 13 when I get bored of this though.

I'm loving it at the moment. Just lost a ridiculous match 7-6, 1-6, 6-7 to Ernests Gulbis in the SFs of San Jose, my first 250. Served for the match and had match point at 6-5*, but he's unbeatable when he plays well. His stats are insane. I wonder if this game can factor in mental frailty? Because if it can't, he'll easily be a top player. The match literally boiled down to him. I could only compete when serving well, and my serve just collapsed constantly. Swear I was timing it like I normally do but just kept on missing. So frustrating.

Just to take the ultimate piss, up 5-4* in the tie-break he got a net cord winner and then my game froze as I was chasing down a drop shot. Would have won both points probably. Utter pisstake. Then I hit a 126mph shot down the tee and his return comes back at an impossible (literally, impossible) angle to win him the match. So much bullsh*t.

Also some players some really piss poor on this. Raonic regularly struggles in Futures, whilst Nishikori and Del Potro are on 5 match losing streaks, regularly getting hammered 2&0.

Edit: Just qualified for Dubai and drew Djokovic. This should be fun! I'll be happy if I win a single game to be honest. Playing on Pro 5 now.

F**k me he plays like... Djokovic. As expected I got double bagelled. I did win 24 points, and even took him to deuce on one service game (had a break point too). Had like 5 game points in the final game but the evil **** wouldn't let me have even one. And that was playing at my utmost best.

He is a bit unrealistically good though, and is physically impossible to win a game against whilst I'm at this level (like 50s for FH, 40s BH, 80 Speed, 60 Stamina, 50 Serve, unchanged lob, drop shot etc). Exquisite drop shots, perfect volleys, rarely misses (and when he does it's on the rare points where I pummel him without making a mistake). Only way to engage a rally is to use power shots constantly. Any slice or regular shot and he hits a winner. Literally nothing I can do with my serve that can damage him. I mean, I know he's a world class returner but he does get aced/unreturnables every now and then.

[Sir Panda]

Mug.

[TheMadHatter]

The difficulty you have it on is far too high. Pro 5? That's pretty hardcore unless you have become really f**king good.

I reached the SFs of my first 250 on Pro 2, beating James Blake in straights, a qualifier, Starace in 3 and then took Gulbis to a 3rd set tie-break. I'm still beating all the players around my ranking comfortably, just getting hammered by the real top players.

Going to stick to the challenger tour until I've improved sufficiently I think, however tempting it is to qualify for the Masters due to all the players between about 60 and 100 not bothering to play leaving all low ranked players playing qualifying. Currently playing Miami but will return to Challengers after I think, or else lower ATPs.

Just beat Ljubicic 6-2, 6-2. Odd match. His stats are also very high, very similar to Nalbandian in-fact, just huge serve (95% power) and slightly less speed. Yet he was very poor. Normally these sort of players dominate me, yet it was the other way round. He made tonnes of errors, kept on hitting it short and didn't really attack my serve at all. Not complaining though, that's my first Masters win. Youzhny next.

Also, Del Potro lost 6-1, 6-2 to Wesley Moodie. Murray's constantly losing to crap as well - Baghdatis (AO QF), Fish (Dubai R1), Melzer (IW R2), Lopez (Miami R1). Both are really poor for some reason.

[TheMadHatter]

Can you choose to play as Andy ?

I think you can.

I've found out why Del Potro is so poor.



Seriously, why are his stats so awful?

[TheMadHatter]

Why don't you play as Andy and build up your power from a higher base ?

Delpo is a 1 slam wonder. He keeps getting beaten by the top 4 in real life. I agree though that his FH power should be much higher into the 80's

Where's the fun in that? Much more enjoyable to play a full career, starting out from the bottom.

DelPo isn't as good as the top 4 in real life, I agree. He is however the best of the rest (bar Ferrer right now), and his stats on there are equivalent to those that are ranked around 100-150 in real life. When you consider that Nalbandian's stats are high 70's/low 80's for most of them, DelPo's are shocking low.

Lost 5-7, 4-6 to Youzhny. Twice came from a break down, twice got broken back again two games later. Thought it was a good effort. Playing DC with Murray now!

For some reason by Davis Cup tie against Colombia is being played in a massive empty stadium in China, televised in France.

[Sir Panda]

Got FM 2012 from the insurance policy (and a load of other upgrades including Madden) 

O RLY.

Get it installed on your Acer, maybe under your stewardship, Arsenal might win some trophies!

[TheMadHatter]

I hate it when you play players on super-god mode. I'm not talking about players who are better than me and should beat me anyway. I've had good matches against Youzhny (5-7, 4-6) and Fish (4-6, 4-6). I'm talking about when you can't even win a single game. If you serve well, they smash it back with even more power into the opposite corner. If you serve crap, they step in and put it away. This is about 60% of the time, making it nigh-on impossible to hold serve. It's ridiculous.

Playing Montanes in the RG first round, and he's in this mode. In the rally every single shot is a high bouncing shot right on to the baseline, meaning I have to get way behind it to hit it without making an error. Even a massive serve or a big power shot to the other side of the court - he gets it back incredible deep, every time, without fail. The only time I win points are when he makes an error, which happened about 5 times in the first set (lost 1-6, with the 1 coming from breaking him after he made 3 errors). I can't play a power game (he gets everything back and I tire) or a defensive game (he will eventually hit a winner or I will tire and hit an error on a very safe regular shot or slice) and I can't even win points on my own serve because my serve becomes his weapon. I eventually tried weathering him down but even in really long rallies he would play without any stamina left for ages before coming up with a big shot into the corner or a perfectly executed drop shot or volley.

To give an example of the ridiculous level of returning - I made 47 first serves throughout the match. Average at 114mph, the more powerful in the high 120's. About 90% of them are hitting the corners. I made 1 ace, and only a further onee was returned short. 1 ace, 1 returned short, 45 returned to my feet or in the corners. No unreturnables, none mis-hit, none in the middle of the court. When your serve is rendered useless, there is no advantage to serving whatsoever.

/Daily rant.

#74 in the world going into this tournament. After that defeat to Youzhny in Miami I won both my DC rubbers (6-2, 6-3, 6-4 vs Falla; 6-4, 6-0 vs Giraldo), then played Talahassee where I was top seed. Incredibly easy tournament. Had three non-players (or ones I've never heard of anyway) in the first three rounds, Sweeting (6-2, 6-0) in the SFs and Kendrick (6-0, 6-2) in the final. Sweeting was good for the first four games 'til I noticed his stamina was dropping quickly (the bottom bar, not the accelerations), so I started engaging long rallies. I was hoping he'd retire but even after he his 0 stamina he carried on playing as normal (started hitting it harder, actually). Kendrick is a serve and volleyer (first one I've played) but as he's quite slow he was easy to destroy.

Moved into the top 100 after that, then played Bucharest (seeded 8) where I reached the SFs (beat Kavcic 2&1, Marchenko 0&2, Korolev 0&3 before losing 4&4 to Fish). Then qualified for Rome, but got hammered 2&2 by Melzer.

It's fun watching the 'real' players making their way through the small tournaments. Some players are really under-rated though, but I'm not sure why. I tried starting a season on Auto (2009 onwards) and the likes of Del Potro and Raonic have their proper stats. But on this save I started from 2010 and their stats are that of someone around 100-150. Indeed DelPo is #127 in the Race, and that's being top seed for most tournaments. I should have just stayed on Auto but I wanted as up-to-date rankings as possible. I realise now that they'll sort themselves out anyway, but the likes of Del Potro and Raonic will be forever crap.

Think eventually I will start a new game in 2009 so the players are at a more realistic level.