Australian Open: Day Six - 2014

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http://www.ausopen.com/en_AU/scores/schedule/schedule11.html

Monfils v Nadal is an intriguing match. La Monf has nothing to lose. Nadal in 4.

Murray v Lopez in the afternoon on HiSense is good test for Murray. Murray in 4.

Tsonga v Simon in the evening. Simon has the counterpunching to take Tsonga out. Simon in 5.

Raonic v Dimitrov. May be Raonic in 4 tight sets.

Nishikori in 3 v Young.

Federer v Gabashvili. Federer in 4.

Paire v Agut in 3. Klizan v Robert in 5.

Azarenka, MaSha, Woz, ARad should make it through after yesterday's close matches.

Not agreeing with the commentary either about the quality of the match. Nadal looks really difficult to beat though; when I watch him play, I don't know how anyone ever beat him.

"It's tough to remember a better performance on this court in recent years"  

Whoa, what has Lopez done to his hair? He's unrecognisable.

Monfils is a shambles. He's probably the worst player to watch on both circuits and yes, I am including Lourdes Dominguez-Lino.

Monfils is playing such a high risk game its crazy! Gotta love it when it comes off

Nice hold from Monfils.

Monfils has loads of talent but I don't think he has a brain. He just flays away hoping to fire winners and knows nothing of point construction.

Nadal is so good at moving your opponent around the court, with not risky but penetrating shots, before going in for the kill.

Nadal as usual so good on BP.

Monfils could have done more on the break point though. Was very passive on the second serve return. Contrast that with the last point.

I am certainly not saying Rafa is playing poorly (far from it) but Monfils is rather shooting himself in the foot a lot of the time. More canny and patient players would have dealt with certain points in this match much better.

What a point!

52 unforced errors from Monfils, I doubt he's hit more winners than that.

GSM

Was always going to break there - wild from Monfils.

break_in_the_fifth wrote:52 unforced errors from Monfils, I doubt he's hit more winners than that.

33/56 now

Nadal is 20/18

And Rafa seals a straight-forward win in straight sets in just over two hours. Up next for him in the Fourth Round is a match against Kei Nishikori.

Quality opponent? 56 unforced errors? Eh?

Regretting missing the Fed match.

"It's sort of like Monfils doesn't want to take away from Rafa's feeling that he's played the perfect match" - Wilander making zero sense.

"Has the Rod Laver Arena ever seen a better performance than that?" "I've certainly not seen a better three sets against a quality opponent" - both commentators talking complete nonsense.

Just looking at the stats from this round, Dimi and Flo Mayer going well on the winner/UE stats:

Mayer : 38/7
Dimitrov : 49/13

Both were playing servebots but even so those stats are impressive.

Just noticed Dimitrov coming through the draw. How's he looking?

Born Slippy wrote:"It's sort of like Monfils doesn't want to take away from Rafa's feeling that he's played the perfect match" - Wilander making zero sense.

"Has the Rod Laver Arena ever seen a better performance than that?" "I've certainly not seen a better three sets against a quality opponent" - both commentators talking complete nonsense.

Yeah I'm not sure why they were particularly crazy over this match. Nadal looks impossible to overcome but we never really got to see.

Impressed with Dimitrov. Kept his head together.

Nadal looking scary good. La Monf fell apart. He loves to watch Roger () and some unnamed WTA players. (The Grand Slam question was very poignant).

Paire and Klizan predictions were non-starters (not even close).

Very good match from Robert. Reminded of why he beat Berdych in the first round at RG.

I've not seen any action at all but from what I'm reading, Murray's serve has been a weapon so far this tournament which is an excellent sign. I knew early last year something was amiss as he was serving so many double faults and struggling to get his first serve above 130mph until Wimbledon. I'm sure the rest of his game will come good over the next few months and then we'll see him peaking at Wimbledon.

Good to see Murray play with much more variation than we have witnessed in previous years. Murray struggled early on and was seemed he had a twinge in his back. He seemed to be moving better as the match went on. He needs to get that second serve speed up if he is to mount a serious challenge here.

Nadal looked scary good. Monfil's played an excellent match and that forced Nadal to bring out stuff that he doesn't usually need. What was most impressive was his backhand. It was a fun match to watch with lots of breath taking rallies. If Nadal plays like that in future matches the AO trophy is his.

CaledonianCraig wrote:I am certainly not saying Rafa is playing poorly (far from it) but Monfils is rather shooting himself in the foot a lot of the time. More canny and patient players would have dealt with certain points in this match much better.

More canny and patient players would have left the court quicker than Azarenka's opponent in the fist match on RLA and looked just as red faced  Monfil's played the way all players are correctly advised to play Nadal with all out aggression. Unlike others that attempt it he was capable of playing with this game plan and he was very composed with an excellent attitude (His mentality looked fine to me). He was just playing a better player.

Lol monfils played an excellent match he was awful for a lot of it.
Brilliant at times, woeful for most.

Aggression is definitely the way to go against Rafa. With the unique trajectory of his shots he has so much margin for error both over the net and dipping inside the baseline that you're never going to get him to commit loads of errors. You have to beat him.

I didn't see the Monfils match, but it sounds as though he crossed the line from aggression to kamikaze.

Danny_1982 wrote:

I didn't see the Monfils match

I recommend you should try and watch it. This one is worth watching even on repeat  

hawkeye wrote:

Danny_1982 wrote:

I didn't see the Monfils match

I recommend you should try and watch it. This one is worth watching even on repeat  

If the wife allows it I'll try and see the repeat later. She's addicted to Breaking Bad though - which we've been watching religiously lately - so not sure I'll get a chance.

Agression against the best Defense is waiting for disaster. The only person who can sustain such aggression is Federer, that too on a good day (like RG 2011), but he is now getting on.

Djokovic exemplifies what is needed against Nadal, extreme patience. DelPo and Berdych (like La Monf) cannot sustain aggression over five sets.

Danny_1982 wrote:I didn't see the Monfils match, but it sounds as though he crossed the line from aggression to kamikaze.

Monfils kamikaze may work against lesser players, but v Nadal, he just gets ground to dust.

hawkeye wrote:

Danny_1982 wrote:

I didn't see the Monfils match

I recommend you should try and watch it. This one is worth watching even on repeat  

Eh? Yes if you want to see Monfils hitting near on 60 unforced errors and Rafael hitting around 20 winners. Does that prospect excite you Danny?

^ think I'll watch more Breaking Bad Craig!

Danny_1982 wrote:^ think I'll watch more Breaking Bad Craig!

Well if you do watch it turn down Eurosport commentary. If hawkeye thinks British media are pro Murray biased then they have nothing on the fawning over Rafa in a match which he only hit around 20 winners.

Totally with you on this one CC. Maybe this was what it was like for people who didn't like Fed when he used to play well.

What were you thoughts on Murray then Craig? I've watched a fair bit of it on Sky+ and was generally quite impressed. Third set was very good. Bit worried about the amount of times he grabbed his back though... Particularly in that second set.

Don't get me wrong I like Rafael but please commentators do me a favour. According to them it was the best performance seen on that court for years. Eh? He hit 21 winners. It wasn't even the best performance of the day. Likewise it was not the best Rafael had ever played (Wilander).

LuvSports! wrote:Monfils is playing such a high risk game its crazy! Gotta love it when it comes off

Anyone can play high risk game and spray it all over the place. No virtue in that.

I set my alarm to 5.30am so I could catch most of the match. When I woke up, Nadal had already won the first set 6:1, so I went back to sleep. Glad I did not stay and watch.

Danny_1982 wrote:What were you thoughts on Murray then Craig? I've watched a fair bit of it on Sky+ and was generally quite impressed. Third set was very good. Bit worried about the amount of times he grabbed his back though... Particularly in that second set.

Started off tentatively and movement not great but he began getting into his groove at the business end of the first set. He then settled into a nice rhythm and began playing some very good stuff and by the end of the second set Lopez was demoralised.

break_in_the_fifth wrote:Just noticed Dimitrov coming through the draw. How's he looking?

Dimitrov looked good - very good even. If you can I suggest you watch some of it - if you watch from 5:4 in the fourth through the end, you will get a good taste of what it was like and you will see a couple of great shots too. He also played tactically well - a lot of low slices at the right moments that Rao had hard time picking up.

His movement is unrecognizable from a couple of years ago - which is good in itself plus it also indicates he is serious about his game, you do not improve your movement so much by accident.

I will be disappointed if he does not break into top 10 this year, and am hoping that maybe he can even make some further inroads once there.

Danny_1982 wrote:What were you thoughts on Murray then Craig? I've watched a fair bit of it on Sky+ and was generally quite impressed. Third set was very good. Bit worried about the amount of times he grabbed his back though... Particularly in that second set.

Second set? Seemed to me he more or less stopped the back clutching mid way through the first set. Have to say I didn't think he looked inhibited in any way though. As Craig said, he started slowly but he looked to be hitting the ball exceptionally well.

There was an interview with him after the match (not the on-court one) where he was asked about the back. He said something like he is still having to be cautious with it as he hasn't played much tennis but he is having to do less post-match recovery work on it than before the op - which sounds encouraging. He seemed relaxed about it.

As suggested by Virginia (I think it was) that back-clutching may just be a nervous tick. His slow starts in the last two rounds tells me he wants to make sure everything is as it should be after previous match exertions. Once he is certain he starts relaxing and concentrating on the tennis. That is my thoughts on it.

Commentary aside, is that how a match should be judged CC, i.e. purely by winner count alone?

If one digs deeper there are reasons why Monfils hit 57 UEs...the only thing going to work for him today was blazing shots because he simply couldnt live with Nadal in the ralleys. Not sure many could have today. In Set 2 Nadal made 2 UEs, he was making Monfils play ball after ball...he ran him left and right in Set 1 and 2 which burst Monfils lungs. So all he could do was try to go for ridiculous winners, and of course most went out or were absorbed and countered relatively easily by Nadal. It's not Nadal's fault if Monfils couldnt sustain the ralleys via UEs, he didn't have to go for winners. The flipside is that Nadal was very good today. His BH was a standout and he served well too. He'll be very satisfied heading into Round 4 and sent a signal to the rest with that performance, even if it had < 20 winners.

Agree a good win for Dimitrov...a very low UE rate today and matched Raonic for power. He may be coming of age in this tournament...one to watch and may give Nadal one heck of a match if they meet in the QF. Just shows that very good movement isn't just an innate skill but can be developed through high intensity training to gain more fast twitch fibres.

Yes Nadal was very good but no way worth the accolades the Euro sport commentators are chucking around or that hawkeye is trying to make this into. Let's remember it was Monfils who, for all his talent, really plays brainless tennis at times hence his shabby record at slams for one so talented.

Monfils was making errors on just rallying shots, so many times when he wasn't even going for winners. It looked like at times he wanted to do what Djokovic does but when he hit his shots that were supposed to move Nadal around, he'd overshoot on many occasions. He wasn't playing well enough to make either style work.

Yes Monfils is brainless at times and made a lot of errors today but I'm more of the opinion he hit a wall called Nadal today...and simply folded.

Yes I would agree with that.

Well of course Nadal would have been favourite for this match regardless of how Monfils played and I guess he's not the first player to look all demoralised against Nadal.

Federer has got to the fourth round without any trouble.  He has a tough fourth round match against Tsonga next.  Both players have yet to drop a set.  If Federer loses he will drop 540 ranking points and drop to around 8 or 9 depending on other results.


Hmmm Wawrinka has got to the fourth round only playing one and a half matches (one walkover & one retirement).

So good win for Dimitrov.

So Roger just has to pull off Tsonga-Murray-Nadal-Djokovic to win the title?   

Tsonga just needs to cruise past all of the big 4. (Well old school big 4.) If he does that he should do a lap of honour of the entire of France.

Djokovic's half looks easier. I think I'd prefer someone from the top half to win it who has the more difficult route.

Order of favourites must be Djokovic >> Nadal >> Murray >> others I suppose. Really haven't been following the tournament closely or watched any matches. How's it going?