Miami Masters 27 March 2014

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Dolgo up and down with Berdy,  breaks him, then loses his serve.

Come on Dolgo, spit him like a cheap czech lager   

That was the first full match I've watched since the AO final and it was a strange one. At 2-2 both started solid and looked like a good quality match may be in store. However, after that Nadal just seemed flat whereas, credit to him, Djokoic just remained solid throughout.

carrieg4 wrote:Not watching the match.  Pundits speculating that Nadal has a back problem?? How does it look?

pundits or/are stupids?   

I saw the match there was no discomfort on Rafa's side, Djoko was on supreme form which is understandable the way he outplayed Fed in IW finals, that match really helped him to keep the form on and Rafa certainly looked clueless on what he has to do to beat this Nole, his topspins really had no bite.

Utter demolition of a match. 

Only caught the last few games but that's a great result!

That's the best result to add some spice to the clay season.

4 Masters in a row for Novak. Between them, Rafa and Novak currently hold all 9 Masters titles.

A compelling rivalry.

By the sounds of it Djokovic's play would have made anyone a bit flat today.  The journalists on Twitter are going crazy about it.  Glad that there is no injury.

JuliusHMarx wrote:

kingraf wrote:I've never known whether to be amazed, or bemused at Sampras' contempt at anything not a Slam.

The game has changed kr - once one or two top players start concentrating on the Masters (either through wanting the ranking points, the increased marketing/pressure from sponsors, increased visibility on TV, or just sheer competitiveness) the other top players follow suit. It's all part of the increased professionalism and commercialisation of the sport. Sampras concentrated on what mattered back then - slams, and little else, defined a great player.  

Spot on. Reason number 26 why using trophy count across 'eras' to compare players is fraught with danger.

Kudos to Novak.

Frightening level of tennis from djokovic, it was like watching him in 2011. If he keeps that up over the clay season, could get very interesting! Brilliant stuff from Novak

nitb is saying hello to everyone on 606v2 from "the other side".  I think she is in a cheerful mood tonight.

Wake me up when Wimbledon starts...

Congrats to Nole it is pretty sweet right now Slasher and Murdoch, he played a blinder. What I liked the most about Novak was his temparment and his cool hand luke routine. In the slams recently against his top opponents he seems tense and emotionally combustible. Tonight he was just even keel, he never got too high and never got too low. He even blew an overhead and he didn't even look perturbed. His serve was ridiculous, his backhand CC was the best stroke in the match. Rafa just one break point the whole match. The best thing was his icy and self assured demeanor.

Last six sets albeit with the surfaces favoring Djokovic. Novak 6 Rafa 0. 19 of 20 service games held in two matches against Nadal and Murray. Considering Miami is a slow court and that Murray and Nadal are the two best returners he will have to face on tour that is some freaking ridiculous serving. 95 percent hold percentage against Murray and Nadal. Lets just start calling him Samprasovic.

Just finished watching the match, if the first set was good, the second set was a stranglehold on Nadal. Djokovic played an excellent match.

Very different from his tentative IW matches. (No Fognini effect either).

Congrats Slasher, HMM, SoCal (and NITB, on the other side - via SB).

Number 1 ranking back in play again. Nadal has had it locked up for a while but the battle is on now. I imagine it will be in play at all the slams this season at least. I could see another season where no-one wins 2 slams being a possibility, and I could see Djokovic perhaps coming out on top if that happens.

Good call HB, I think this will be a hotly contested fight for number 1. If Djokovic can replicate this form in slams he should take it. What I liked was his poise and composure combined with sublime serving. I still believe that in terms of ball striking and the patterns of play Novak of today is better, but mental toughness he is more up and down than Nadal who is just an incredible competitor.

I agree with Socal's comment about the calmness. That's crucial to Novak's future success at the slams. When he's playing well and he's calm, he's very difficult to beat.

I can't help but feel a little sorry for Boris. Novak wins 2 masters and WTF with Vajda at the end of last season. Boris comes in and Novak has two very patchy tournaments (AO and Dubai). Vajda comes back in for two Masters tournaments and Novak wins them both! I wonder when the first 'Boris win' will arrive?

Good call socal, he did look very composed throughout. It really did resemble Novak in 2011, solid serving, impeccable returning and precision ground strokes. Makes me a lot more optimistic for his chances in the clay season. Losing to nadal would have put seeds of doubt in his mind with the clay swing ahead. I feel this was a very important win for Novak and his confidence for big matches ahead.

With 40 matches already played between them, you have to wonder how many they will have played by the end of their careers. 50-60 perhaps?? H2H now 22-18, no other player comes close to that against nadal (except davydenko :-)

The 22-18 is a good figure for the H to H in that's its so close. OK, the Rafa-Rog rivalry has been terrific but - for any number of reasons - the actual score is pretty one sided.
Presume, barring accidents, we'll get a good few more Djoko-Rafa matches and the good thing is that both are good enough to meet on all surfaces, both are around the same age and both should be around for a while. As S'mcQ says, we could be on for as many as 60 H to Hs. Shades of Chrissie and Martina (how many was that, about 80?!)

The H2H is 16-16 since Novak won his first slam (which seems a sensible point to judge them in real terms as Rafa was such an early developer).

Rafa was 14 -4 up at one point. So Djoko is 14-8 up since then.

On hard court it's 14-7 to Djoko overall. Fair to say Djoko is the better hard court player by some margin.

Just as it's gonna be interesting to see what the H to H finally works out is to see if Rafa, Djoko and Murray (all around the same age) can last out as long as Fed and still be top four when they're 32/33.
All of the above started young and have piled up the matches and, effectively, are the guys who have played their whole careers during the ultra-fit, run-until-you-drop era when just being talented aint gonna do the job.
It would be nice to think these big three of the big four will be around for a while, as they are exceptional talents. But is Rafa, for example, going to be top four in five years time?

Fed seems to have incredible motivation and has generally been fairly fortunate with injuries. My personal view is that he played the best tennis of his career in 2011-12 which was amazing. Given Rafa and Andy's injury issues I think its unlikely they will play much past 30. Novak may, particularly if, in the absence of those three, he senses an opportunity to clean up against the next generation.

slashermcguirk wrote:Good call socal, he did look very composed throughout. It really did resemble Novak in 2011, solid serving, impeccable returning and precision ground strokes. Makes me a lot more optimistic for his chances in the clay season. Losing to nadal would have put seeds of doubt in his mind with the clay swing ahead. I feel this was a very important win for Novak and his confidence for big matches ahead.

With 40 matches already played between them, you have to wonder how many they will have played by the end of their careers. 50-60 perhaps?? H2H now 22-18, no other player comes close to that against nadal (except davydenko :-)

Yeah slasher it was a very 2011 type performance. There seemed to be this up and down emotional cycle with djokovic the last couple of years he would hit a shot or get a win and get too ramped up. He would miss and easy ball and look so disappointed with himself. In tennis you really have to let things go and just focus on the next point. He just wasn't doing that recently in slams. He seemed to constantly be thinking too much about the score or what happened in previous points. As to confidence I fully agree. Novak can now go into the clay court season with the wind at his sails having beaten Fed, Nadal, and Murray in recent weeks. We know that a confident Djokovic can at times be unbeatable.

sirfredperry wrote:Just as it's gonna be interesting to see what the H to H finally works out is to see if Rafa, Djoko and Murray (all around the same age) can last out as long as Fed and still be top four when they're 32/33.
   All of the above started young and have piled up the matches and, effectively, are the guys who have played their whole careers during the ultra-fit, run-until-you-drop era when just being talented aint gonna do the job.
  It would be nice to think these big three of the big four will be around for a while, as they are exceptional talents. But is Rafa, for example, going to be top four in five years time?  

I don't see why these guys can't be at the top or near the top into their early thirties. I mean if guys like Ferrer and Haas can play great stuff into the thirties they should be able to. With Nadal we always have the question of injuries. And to a lesser extent with Murray as well. But Djokovic except for a muscle tear in his back at the end of 2011 has pretty much been the most durable guy on tour the last few years. The fitness level of today's tour seems to be increasing the length of careers as opposed to shortening them. Barring cataclysmic types of injuries I could see all three of them being around for a long time. Plus the cupboard looks pretty bare in terms of the next wave of players coming along. Who can push them of their pedestal?

socal1976 wrote:Last six sets albeit with the surfaces favoring Djokovic. Novak 6 Rafa 0. 19 of 20 service games held in two matches against Nadal and Murray. Considering Miami is a slow court and that Murray and Nadal are the two best returners he will have to face on tour that is some freaking ridiculous serving. 95 percent hold percentage against Murray and Nadal. Lets just start calling him Samprasovic.

Ferrer is a much better returner than Nadal IMO. You could argue Nishikori is too.

The Special Juan wrote:

socal1976 wrote:Last six sets albeit with the surfaces favoring Djokovic. Novak 6 Rafa 0. 19 of 20 service games held in two matches against Nadal and Murray. Considering Miami is a slow court and that Murray and Nadal are the two best returners he will have to face on tour that is some freaking ridiculous serving. 95 percent hold percentage against Murray and Nadal. Lets just start calling him Samprasovic.

Ferrer is a much better returner than Nadal IMO.  You could argue Nishikori is too.

I don't think Ferrer is much better, I think Ferrer and Nishikori are in the mix as the top 5 returners in the game but I believe last year Nadal lead the tour in break percentage. He has a different method of returning than the other guys but it is very effective. He steps back to get a heavy first swing on the return. He doesn't look to win the point outright on the second serve return but instead to garner a short reply, which with Nadal's movement and forehand basically ends the point right there. The tactic is better on clay than hardcourt but Nadal year in and year out is in the top 3 in return percentage. Unless he produces a quality first ball on the return he would not be so consistently near the best.