Australian Open Day 10-14 - Djokurray! And others! :P

First topic message reminder :

Well some of you hardcore mob will no doubt be up watching the first round matches and even up first thing if your boarding the Fed Express. I will be utilising the power of Sky+!

So we have Federer, Nadal, Murray, Berdych, Gulbis and Dimitov all in action on the men's side.

On the ladies we have Halep, Sharapova, Bouchard, Ivanovic, Kerber and young gun Bencic.

Should be an action packed day.

Nishikori wins the first set to lead Ferrer. Plenty of mileage left in this one I think.

Yes I think you are right. I dont know how much that match tonight took out of him. They both looked remarkably fresh throughout I have to say. However, I felt there were times when I felt Stan should have shortened the point.. GGL could have kept up the rallies without much problem. On the night shbh for shbh GGL gave stan a run for his money. Djoko will, I think, come into the net more .. I dont think Stan will pull of the win this year. Andy in my view, from what Ive seen, has made a big improvement and he is in with a chance

CaledonianCraig wrote:Nishikori wins the first set to lead Ferrer. Plenty of mileage left in this one I think.

Yes I think so.. its been a Spanish night tonight !! Im going to have Raonic rammed down my throat now.. come on Feli.!!
But David wont give up until that fat lady sings bless him !!!

Ferrer breaks to end a marathon first game of the second set. Life in the old dog yet.

Haddie-nuff wrote:

CaledonianCraig wrote:Nishikori wins the first set to lead Ferrer. Plenty of mileage left in this one I think.

Yes I think so.. its been a Spanish night tonight !!  Im going to have Raonic rammed down my throat now.. come on Feli.!!
But David wont give up until that fat lady sings bless him !!!

Fingers crossed for Lopez. I really hope he wins as I find his style 100 times more pleasing than Raonic whose all serve and precious little else game bores the pants off me.

Nishikori breaks back straight away.

CaledonianCraig wrote:

Haddie-nuff wrote:

CaledonianCraig wrote:Nishikori wins the first set to lead Ferrer. Plenty of mileage left in this one I think.

Yes I think so.. its been a Spanish night tonight !!  Im going to have Raonic rammed down my throat now.. come on Feli.!!
But David wont give up until that fat lady sings bless him !!!

Fingers crossed for Lopez. I really hope he wins as I find his style 100 times more pleasing than Raonic whose all serve and precious little else game bores the pants off me.

Oh CC can I join your club !!!! I said the other night when he was playing (bearing in mind he was on about four different channels here) if he is the future of tennis I wont be watching anymore (I went into the wilderness when Sampras was at his peak) Milos is ten times worse he needs a charisma transplant.. his movements are robotic.. that stupid sleeve he wears.. and Im sure he has his hair blow dried and lacquered before every match....yuk !!! On top of which as you say he is all wham bam and thank you mam

Yes he isn't my cup of tea at all. Take away his massive serve and he would be nowhere near the top 32 seeds in my opinion.

I absolutely agree..he will, imo, never win anything major unless he can improve on his game.. If he was going to do that he should have done it by now.The sad thing is that little Ferrer has such a good h 2 h against him it was a shame he wasn't playing him tonight.

Oh dear not a good sign Feli struggles with his serve but just holds first serve

Yes that is a pity. I like my players to have many strengths, many shots in their armoury and a bit of spirit and Raonic falls short in all of these departments. Anyway enough negativity and back to the tennis.

Well I think I probably have had all the excitement Im going to get for one night.. that match of Stan's is a hard one to follow.. so 1.30 pm here says I better get some sleep.I would like to think I might wake up to a Lopez win
They are still on serve.

Come on Ninja.

Come on Raonic.

You never know haddie nuff. Nishikori looks good far a QF spot leading two sets to love.

Stan the Man through in 4 tough sets and Nishi crushes Ferrer losing 9 games in straight sets.

Ferrer used to own Nish, we can see how far now that rivalry has come as Nish has developed and father time finally catches up with the energizer bunny.

Ferrer has never owned Kei. He lost their first match in 5 at the US in 08 and again at the Olympics. The best he ever managed to get the h2h was 3-2, despite being much higher ranked during those early matches.

CaledonianCraig wrote:Let's take one step at a time banbrotam though. I will just enjoy seeing Andy back to a semblance of form and pumped up like he was against Dimi. I, like Danny, feel he won't win this slam but he is putting himself back in the frame again.

My point is that, once and frustratingly again, Andy's efforts at achieving what he did at the back end of last year have been grossly underestimated, given that he'd had what we now realise was major surgery

Consequently, as soon as he looked fit and raring to go early season, I don't get why people are so surprised that he's raised himself enough to be a genuine slam contender at an event he's reached the final three times

It could just be that he's currently the fittest he's even been. Is he mentally sharp enough to get through Nadal and Nole? - probably not, but nobody should be surprised if he does do it

I've listened / read a few pre-season reviews and the negativity towards him was so frustrating - the typical err on the side of British negative caution . If this was Del B or Cilic or even Rafa - he'd be getting the plaudits for his ability to bounce back

Only Leon Smith seems to have been on the money, when he stated similar to what I feel about the back end of last year

The event is shaping up nicely

CaledonianCraig wrote:

Gerry SA wrote:

CaledonianCraig wrote:

Gerry SA wrote:So Murray's made 7 consecutive 1/4 finals....

Why try to make it look more impressive by distorting the facts?

And can you name me multiple slam winners who have beaten the world No.1 in each of their slam wins?

Did I say in every slam?

And I recent memory Nadal's beaten Federer 5/6 times enroute to winning majors. Nadal's beaten Djokovic as well. Djokovic has beaten both Nadal and Federer in the same event.

 I will leave you to ponder the answer to my question and I would be amazed if you can bring yourself to utter the answer.

The amazing thing to me is if people post here then I presume we are all tennis fans just like those crammed into the Rod Laver Arena tonight and they certainly felt regally entertained by the brilliant tennis on offer yet listen to certain posters on here and the negative vibe is terrible. I can only presume then that some of those posters will never be able to appreciate cracking tennis when they see it.

Enjoy the rest of your day - I know I will.

CC,

I have some bad news.

I was thinking about Wimbledon 2012 on the way to work today. Federer got the World No.1 back after winning, making him World No.1 at the US Open that year too

I am not sure what I am supposed to say to that lk. Still it changes nothing despite what some posters here like to portray that Murray got lucky. he won his first two slams beating more high profile players than Rafa and Roger did when they won their first two slam wins but still these fantasists insist on claiming Murray got lucky.

You don’t need to say anything CC. I think we can safely say Andy hasn’t beaten the no.1 player in the world for his Slams, but I won’t disagree that he faced difficult competition.

All I would say is that those who proclaim luck, Federer was lucky he wasn’t in the 80’s with Lendl/Becker/Edberg/McEnroe/Wilander. Nadal was lucky not face Borg on Clay. Suffice to say you’re lucky when you're born!

Just ignore the detractors. The proper fans know the difficulty in winning a Slam let alone 2.

Novak might not have been no.1 when they met at USO in 2012, but he was for sure the hard court king. He was reigning champion and 2 time AO champion. In other words, Murray's win was the first time anyone had defeated Novak in a HC slam in 28 matches.

As LK says, those who know their tennis know exactly how big an achievement it was.

Has the OOP for tomorrow been released yet?

Desperately hoping that Murray match is early morning (uk time) like around 6-7, so I can watch some before work.

It will start c. 8 15 UK time Danny.

expect djokovic to destroy giles and have an easy day also with raonic... after that either wawrinka or nishikori will give fight in semis, but the final has djokovic in it for sure (imo)

as for the other half.... at the moment nadal is such an enigma that I cannot tell... murray looks focused, dont think kyrgios can beat him,... but who knows if the ausie finds a good day on serve

to me this seems like a nole andy final anyway

I think the people on here who have been slamming/dismissing Raonic are being very unfair and failing to recognise the steps he's taken to develop his game in the last 12 months. Under Ljubicic's tutelage his all-round game has improved enormously -- his backhand, court-positioning and net-play in particular. As for lacking "charisma", well if that means he's not a drama queen given to bouts of histrionics, then so much the better.

I like the way he goes about his business with a quiet. steely determination -- not yet ready to beat Djokovic in a slam QF, but he shouldn't be underestimated.

Naxroy, agree that Novak's only challenge will be Nish or Stan. Agree that he should come through that. He will make the final.

Other side, I see Murray beating Kyrgios. 4 sets at worst. I see Rafa breezing past Berdy. Rafa v Andy semi would be a tough one. I would edge towards Rafa. He can be caught cold in slams early on nowadays, but once he reaches last 4 he's usually in the groove. I don't know his slam semi final record, but I imagine it's phenomenal.

So Nole v Rafa for me. And a Nole win. A reasonably comfortable Nole win.

Michael O. I also think higher of Raonic than most people on here. He does have a nice forehand and pretty decent feel at net as well as that huge serve. His return, movement, and backhand could all stand improvement. But he is six five so its not like he is ever going to Djokovic out there in those regards.

Some sick defensive work from Djokovic. Muller is tricky though. Great serve, great volleys and he plays so differently than everyone else on tour it is hard to prepare for.

Interesting game within the game. Early on Muller getting a lot of joy at serving repeatedly to Novak's forehand. Novak got dialed in on that sides return now Giles going more at Djokovic backhand. Usually, that side is stronger though in the return. Muller has such a great serve motion not overwhelming mphs but great precision and consistency.

Novak moving unbelievably well. Wow so quick.

Muller serving well but got to find away to apply some pressure on Novak's serve.

Ridiculous passing shot return off the backhand pulled off the court wide and still hit a winner on that return. I guess that is why they don't S and V anymore.

I never said I don't think Raonic is efficient - he obviously is but that is about 90% reliant on serve. If that doesn't function for him he is dead in the water. My comments were also aesthetically speaking that he is the player I least like watching. If that offends some then sorry but that is my opinion.

No craig no offense, you can like whatever style player you like. I am also not a big proponent of big serve tennis either.

Djokovic a little sloppy losing a couple of points from the back 15-40 on serve. First break points of the match for Muller half way through set 3.

Really poor play here in this service game. 4 BPs and double so far.

CaledonianCraig wrote:I never said I don't think Raonic is efficient - he obviously is but that is about 90% reliant on serve. If that doesn't function for him he is dead in the water. My comments were also aesthetically speaking that he is the player I least like watching. If that offends some then sorry but that is my opinion.

Fair enough, but all I'm saying is that Raonic's game today is unrecognisable from where he was a couple of years ago when all he had was a serve and the epithet "boring" was no doubt justified. The story since then has been one of continuous, gradual expansion and improvement. There's no reason to think that improvement won't continue further to the point where he'll be a serious contender for a Slam victory, if not this year then next.

michael_o wrote:I think the people on here who have been slamming/dismissing Raonic are being very unfair and failing to recognise the steps he's taken to develop his game in the last 12 months. Under Ljubicic's tutelage his all-round game has improved enormously -- his backhand, court-positioning and net-play in particular. As for lacking "charisma", well if that means he's not a drama queen given to bouts of histrionics, then so much the better.

I like the way he goes about his business with a quiet. steely determination -- not yet ready to beat Djokovic in a slam QF, but he shouldn't be underestimated.

Fully agree. People can dislike his game - and there are plenty of reasons to - but he has improved considerably since the start of last year. Anyone who thinks otherwise (Craig) should watch the recent Brisbane final. He's still reliant on his serve, but he now builds the rest of his game around it much more effectively; his one-two punch is outstanding, and hardly any players of his size can play the whipped forehand in the way that he does.

Definitely needs more consistency in his return and general BH game, but to say he hasn't worked to improve is ludicrous and uninformed.

Muller has performed quite well barring the 1st set, he's nudging top 40 territory and I'm surprised he hadn't been that high ever!

So now it's Murray Kyrgios and Nadal Berd tomorrow.

Murrdal semi for me but would obviously prefer the opposite

Wow, that's a great win for Kei. I'd expect another absolute barnburner when he plays Stan, their USO match was phenomenal.

First 2 sets Djokovic had a 30% advantage on 2nd serves won. This set however it's Muller with 20% more 2nd serves won.

Novak Milos QF should be simple for the #1

Not sure I am feeling the Raonic love. Great serve and FH, but a total non existent BH. He is still a work in progress though. Hopefully Ivan will get that extra bit of quality out of him.

Silver wrote:Wow, that's a great win for Kei. I'd expect another absolute barnburner when he plays Stan, their USO match was phenomenal.

It'll be the tightest of the 4 QF's I should imagine both so well matched. Giving the edge to Kei though based on the run of form

And that is a tough three set win. Muller in no way disgraced himself. He is tough opponent Muller has made a couple of good runs at the USO and here at AO. He is a lefty, has a precise serve, and plays S and V which no one else does so he gives you a different look to what you are used to. Good effort from both guys. This was tight and edgy although Novak was always in control.

Yeah, that was a professional performance from Novak. Danger was never too far away but he kept composed and had control of the match. Very nicely done. Muller played a good match though, no shame in losing to the #1.

I recognise Raonic has made improvements to his game (I haven't said anywhere that he hadn't) but serve aside other elements of his game is a good bit behind other players at the top or even those in top 30.

Solid performance from Novak in getting the job done in straight sets. I think from this match plaudits must go to Muller though. He is not long back on the main tour after time out through injury and ploughed the challenger tour last year so to keep all three sets so tight deserves much credit.

Hmm, not sure about top 30. Top ten, definitely.

Incidentally, despite all the interesting runs through the draw from unseeded players, of the top 8 only Federer has failed to make his QF spot. Kind of disappointing for those hoping for a surge from some lower-ranked players. Maybe 2015 is going to be the same as it ever was...

Can't say anything bad about Muller.

Love Muller yoghurts.