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

First topic message reminder :

Also not Berdych's biggest fan, but I do like him, and he's a watch connoisseur, I'm an amateur watch maker... Gotta support the market!

slashermcguirk wrote:IMBL, that may be true but you could see in the 1st set that Berdych had his number. He then goes AWOL in the 2nd set when a mentally stronger player would have gone for the jugular. Even in 4th set he was getting into Murrays service games and then the moment the pressure came on at 5-5, he gifts the game away with double faults.

Just proves that between the ears, he doesnt seem to have the mental strength. I think if Berdych keeps up his level of the 1st set, he wins that match. We have seen it too many times from Tomas though. In truth he would have struggled against novak or stan in the final but i do feel for him a bit. He has been around a long time but that was his chance. He would have fancies his chances against murray more so than the other semi finalists.

The match was lost at 5-3 in the first. Andy made like 18 UE's in the first set and hadn't clicked into gear.

Andy to nick your phrase had his number after the first set.

IMBL, no way, NEVER, get real, though you are a young guy

No discussion about taste, pointless

Jahu wrote:IMBL, no way, NEVER, get real, though you are a young guy

No discussion about taste, pointless

I'm right, you're wrong; get over it

IMBL, we are both wrong, others are enjoying picking their fruits

It Must Be Love wrote:

slashermcguirk wrote:Kim is a decent looking girl but she is no Jelena Ristic and Berdych's girlfriend definitely wins the H2H too. Berdych might get over the loss quicker than we might think

Kim is better looking than Ester and Jelena...

Agreed but there are no absolutes. World would be rather boring if we all liked the same looks.

Agree to disagree then.

Kim better looking than Jelena.........you have to be joking !!!

Enough talking about who does who in bed.

I'm at work, you know

No one commented on Katie Swan reaching junior girls singles SF?  Knocked out number 1 seed en-route.

Think you find I did

Kims accent takes it for me, its gorgeous.

LK did, a few pages back.

Jelena is bloody gorgeous. Sears is really only reasonably attractive, and Andy could have done better if he felt he needed a trophy wife. Certainly wouldn't look twice if I ran into her in a supermarket

temporary21 wrote:Kims accent takes it for me, its gorgeous.

What, you are a guy?

Of course not Jahu, I just appreciate a sexy voice

kingraf wrote:Certainly wouldn't look twice if I ran into her in a supermarket

Quote of the month yeah roll my eyes to the floor, avoid contact at all costs.

temporary21 wrote:Of course not Jahu, I just appreciate a sexy voice

So what you are an F?

This forum is getting all confusing, now Audio is a priority

Dont get me wrong, if you bumped into Kim in a niteclub you would hope it leads to the no pants dance. Jelena is smokin though.

If only we could ask Marat Safin or Fernando Verdasco, they would be good judges!

What is this, a 4some now and we watch?

Stop it man, stop this!!!

You bunch of virgins!

The best looking WAG is Lleyton's wife. The rest are massively inferior.

ARoddick's was hot too.

Come on Slasher... standards aren't particularly high at nightclubs. The standard of woman you'd try to pick up at your local grocer is higher than the one you'd try get lucky with in a Club!

In any case none of these women are ugly, Jelena is just really beautiful. Nadal's sister also used to be quite the looker, in a rather uncomfortable way, back in the day. Not sure about now

Is Nadal still with his gf? Not seen her in his box long ago?

Is Murray back in the top 4 ranking places after AO now regardless of what happens in the remainder of the tournament ? Seems that way to me but I have been wrong before and may be again.

He is 4'th now.

Nadal 5,745
Murray 5,515

Nice win for Murray  he'll no doubt be hoping for Stan to pull through.

Calder: I think you might be right. Murray got 360 points last year, and already has 1200 this year. Even if Stan defends his points, the current gap between them is less than 840 (695), so Murray should jump ahead of him.

Edit: Pfft, damn Jahu, thinking he's cool and beating me to the punch

Thanks I had it my mind that if Stan won the tournament he would stay in the top 4 but hadn't looked that closely until now.

Yes I thought if Stan retained title he would stay fourth but I was wrong. He would be around 200 points behind Murray.

Sorry I Never saw the match. But well done Andy go for it !!!!

return to the top 4 is excellent of course, means he can't face the big 3 in QFs (and perhaps more importantly have to beat them in succession), and should also make accumulating further ranking points easier.

after realising berdych has had 0-6 sets 17 other times in his career it's harder to say what form Andy is in. Extra day rest could prove vital if Stan and Novak have the same match they had last year

CaledonianCraig wrote:

legendkillarV2 wrote:If you are reading this Gerry, I will save you the trouble of your ad nauseum.

"Djokovic will crush Andy in 3"

"Wawrinka will crush Andy in 3"

"Andy got lucky again with a cakewalk draw"

I think that pretty much covers it.

You forgot one lk so here goes:-

I hate him because he is British a la anti-Hamilton, anti-British boxers and anti-English cricket team posts that Gerry is famed for

Not normally a fan of gloating, but Gerry, bless him, does rather set himself up for it. Silly bugger doesn't realise that his anti-Murray jibes make wins like this all the sweeter for us fans.....

The @GBtennis man said Andy would be 4th if runner-up, 3rd if he wins. Stan wouldn't feature in the top 4.

He always seems to know what he's talking about with stats, plus I'm too lazy to work it out myself, so I believe everything he says.

A couple of comments from Andy's press conference that caught my eye:

"To be in the final four times here, I mean, because I'm surrounded by guys like Roger, Novak and Rafa, doesn't look like much, but that doesn't happen that often. So I'm very proud of that."

Very true. Other than Lleyton Hewitt, has any other active player not called Federer, Nadal or Djokovic made even 2 finals at the same slam? 4 finals is a very impressive achievement.

"I'll try my best on Sunday. I'll go in with best tactics possible, prepare well, couple days' rest, recover as best as I can. And, yeah, all I can do is give my best. If it's enough, great. If not, I literally couldn't have done anything more to put myself in a better position come Sunday."

I like this mindset very much. He seems relaxed and knows he's put the work in. I think this make him very dangerous.

Federer: 5
Djokovic: 4 (possibly 5 soon)
Murray: 4
Nadal: 3

That's AO final appearances. Very impressive record that Murray has here. Last six years: F, F, SF, F, QF, F/W.

Hilariously, if he wins he'll be as close to the career slam as Novak. But unlike him, Murray has little chance of actually getting it!

I'll be accused of jinxing but my gut is telling me that this is probably Andy's time to win this slam. I think he's too good a player to make 4 finals and not win one of them.

HM, I think best to make a prediction after we see Novak's semi. I think unless Novak improves on his level of play so far, I can see Murray winning in 5 sets. However it's very possible (and I think likely) that Djokovic will raise his game up a gear for the final 2 matches of the tournament and win.
Also I don't think it's relevant whether he's reached 3 finals in the past, I don't see that having any impact on the final on Sunday.

HM Murdoch wrote:I'll be accused of jinxing but my gut is telling me that this is probably Andy's time to win this slam. I think he's too good a player to make 4 finals and not win one of them.

He's certainly never looked in better shape Murdoch. He's playing really well, and the key components of his game are all firing. He's serving well, returning well, playing (mostly) on the front foot and moving better than I've seen at any time in his career. That last statement is pretty huge, but he's 5 kilos lighter that last season and boy can you tell. He looks so fast.

Will it be enough to win it? Well, I think he'll face Novak and playing Novak on this court is the second toughest match in tennis (after Rafa at RG) and your man hasn't looked to shabby to get to the semis. Whichever way it goes, he's back... And that's the main thing for me as a fan.

I just hope it's as good a match as the 2012 semi between them.

It Must Be Love wrote:HM, I think best to make a prediction after we see Novak's semi. I think unless Novak improves on his level of play so far, I can see Murray winning in 5 sets. However it's very possible (and I think likely) that Djokovic will raise his game up a gear for the final 2 matches of the tournament and win.
Also I don't think it's relevant whether he's reached 3 finals in the past, I don't see that having any impact on the final on Sunday.

Djoko first have to overcome Stan the Man and at the moment Stan's form in the tournament is very scary, the only guy in the whole tournament looked like the one capable of winning this whole tournament.

Chances of Starry finals are as bright as Djokrray finals.

HM Murdoch wrote:I'll be accused of jinxing but my gut is telling me that this is probably Andy's time to win this slam. I think he's too good a player to make 4 finals and not win one of them.

Jinxer!

In all seriousness though, if it is to be Djokovic/Murray first set is key. Djokovic has never lost to Murray after winning the first set.

Andy will have 3 days off as well, so that might help if Stan-Djoko do a heavy 5 setter.

legendkillarV2 wrote:The match was lost at 5-3 in the first. Andy made like 18 UE's in the first set and hadn't clicked into gear

Agree. Berdych should have won that first set 6-1. Murray had no business getting it to a tie-break

It was a nervy slow start for Andy and that will dictate how the final goes

banbrotam wrote:

legendkillarV2 wrote:The match was lost at 5-3 in the first. Andy made like 18 UE's in the first set and hadn't clicked into gear

Agree. Berdych should have won that first set 6-1. Murray had no business getting it to a tie-break

It was a nervy slow start for Andy and that will dictate how the final goes

Indeed or even 6-3 would've given him confidence to steam roller Andy. I think that break at 5-3 killed him and Andy from that point smelt blood. Berdych totally un-done himself. Losing the TB was the best thing for Andy because he knew he should've nicked it.

Andy grew stronger and Berdych didn't just brain-fart, he totally brain-shat himself!

Danny_1982 wrote:He's certainly never looked in better shape Murdoch. He's playing really well, and the key components of his game are all firing. He's serving well, returning well, playing (mostly) on the front foot and moving better than I've seen at any time in his career. That last statement is pretty huge, but he's 5 kilos lighter that last season and boy can you tell. He looks so fast.

All true, but the thing that makes me really feel like I do is that Murray has that swagger about him again.

I find it hard to define exactly, but there's something in his bearing on court that I haven't seen since the Lendl days.

That player beats Wawrinka comfortably and get under Novak's skin (in tennis terms, not personal terms).

It's going to be an interesting few days!

Josiah Maiestas wrote:Joint favourite?

Murray for me has the worst chance of the 4 left. Hasn't looked 'pretty' in any of his last few matches. Berdych will eat up his serve.

I missed this one. Are you Gerry in disguise? For goodness sake, dislike Murray as much as you like, but please don't sound like some ignorant who's never watched Tennis. The Dimitrov match was one of the best you'll see all year and Murray looked very 'pretty'

5kg is a huge amount of weight to drop, for a pro athlete. I wonder what motivated that decision?

I'm glad he's made it though.

banbrotam wrote:

Josiah Maiestas wrote:Joint favourite?

Murray for me has the worst chance of the 4 left. Hasn't looked 'pretty' in any of his last few matches. Berdych will eat up his serve.

I missed this one. Are you Gerry in disguise? For goodness sake, dislike Murray as much as you like, but please don't sound like some ignorant who's never watched Tennis. The Dimitrov match was one of the best you'll see all year and Murray looked very 'pretty'

He outdone himself on the other thread when he declared Berdych the best player left in the draw

Silver wrote:5kg is a huge amount of weight to drop, for a pro athlete. I wonder what motivated that decision?

I'm glad he's made it though.

My guess would be a combination of wanting to take pressure off his back and feeling that his movement was not as good in 2014. Which it wasn't. His winter training focussed on movement and speed rather than core strength, which is usually the focus. Murray has always been blessed with great acceleration and movement but had to work on his strength to build it up. I suspect there was a feeling he had become bulky at the expense of his movement, and he wanted to reverse that. Looks a pretty good decision.

I suspect his change in direction is also why he changed his team. Certainly why he changed his conditioning coach.

That's interesting stuff, thanks Danny. It certainly does look to be a good call, he's doing particularly good work around the ball at the moment, great footwork - presumably because he has more time upon getting there earlier.

That ability to be able to decipher what's wrong with your game, and fully commit to changing it...it can't be easy.

HM Murdoch wrote:

Danny_1982 wrote:He's certainly never looked in better shape Murdoch. He's playing really well, and the key components of his game are all firing. He's serving well, returning well, playing (mostly) on the front foot and moving better than I've seen at any time in his career. That last statement is pretty huge, but he's 5 kilos lighter that last season and boy can you tell. He looks so fast.

All true, but the thing that makes me really feel like I do is that Murray has that swagger about him again.

I find it hard to define exactly, but there's something in his bearing on court that I haven't seen since the Lendl days.

That player beats Wawrinka comfortably and get under Novak's skin (in tennis terms, not personal terms).

It's going to be an interesting few days!

Totally agree about Murray getting his swagger back. Amazing to think that only a few weeks ago he narrowly avoided a double bagel against Federer at the WTF. I remember when he ran out of steam against Novak at the US Open, a few people were remarking that Murray was carrying too much bulk, which was possibly slowing him down and affecting stamina. By becoming leaner and more nimble, he really seems to have got his mojo back.

Novak has been dominating the match-up of late (although Andy's injury comeback has clearly been a factor). So, if he gets through Stan, I'd certainly have him as favourite, but I would expect it to be very competitive. Still hoping that Stan can pull a shock, as you can't really avoid the feeling of 'been there, done that' with Andy and Nole in Slam finals.