2017 Australian Open

jon abbey

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Into the second day, the only big upset so far is Halep (#4 seed).

Federer made his much awaited return last night and won pretty easily in four sets against Jurgen Melzer.

Serena had a tough first round draw against Bencic (who beat her in one of their two prior meetings, in 2015) and she won 6-4, 6-3, the score looks more lopsided than the match was.

Djokovic starts later tonight.
 

Infield Infidel

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Into the second day, the only big upset so far is Halep (#4 seed).

Federer made his much awaited return last night and won pretty easily in four sets against Jurgen Melzer.

Serena had a tough first round draw against Bencic (who beat her in one of their two prior meetings, in 2015) and she won 6-4, 6-3, the score looks more lopsided than the match was.

Djokovic starts later tonight.
Thanks for starting this thread, I always feel like this tourney comes out of nowhere and forget when it starts.

I'm a little confused about the Serena score, straight sets sure but 6-4 6-3 looks close, just one break seperated them in the first and 1 or 2 breaks in the second.

I feel like Halep will never win a slam
 

jon abbey

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Serena/Bencic was 4-4 in the first and looked really even, Bencic was playing great. Then Serena kicked it up a notch and won seven straight games before having trouble closing it out.
 

AMS25

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Thanks for starting this thread. I suffer from insomnia, and I have spent many early morning hours, watching the Australian until I can get back to sleep. Watching Verdasco v. Djoker right now -- very tight second set.
 

jon abbey

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That set was great, Djokovic was lucky to pull it out.

Karlovic is at 12-12 in the 5th set now, he has 59 aces (Australian Open record). The more amazing stat is that there has not been a single rally of over 4 shots in the match so far, according to the announcers just now.
 

jon abbey

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Also the temperature has dropped precipitously during that Karlovic match, 99 when they started and low 70s now.
 

jon abbey

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17-17 now, the vision on that dinky outside court looks terrible.
 

Infield Infidel

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Giulio Fedele
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Record of most aces in a match: #AusOpen: Karlovic (75) Roland Garros: Karlovic (55) Wimbledon: Isner (113) US Open: Karlovic (61)
 

jon abbey

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The women's game continues to be pretty terrible at the top, #1 seeded Kerber just blew a 3-1 lead in a second set tiebreak, losing 6 straight points, including a pair of consecutive double-faults at 3-2, so with the changeover they were from both ends of the court. Onto a third set...
 

jon abbey

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Federer will be in the third round shortly, but what an incredibly potential brutal road for him from here as the #17 seed, you could do the draw 10,000 times and maybe not get another one as tough as this (assuming no upsets obv):

3rd round: #10 Berdych
4th round: #5 Nishikori
QF: #1 Murray
SF: #4 Wawrinka
F: #2 and six-time champion Djokovic
 

tbrep

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Watching him play Rubin, I don't think Federer needs to worry too much about the road ahead. Can't see him getting past Berdych the way he's played to this point
 

jon abbey

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Never been a big Isner fan, but he has been blasting some returns in this one. Agreed with McEnroe and whoever else that they should go to a 5th set tiebreak here as opposed to playing it out, not just to preserve the winner somewhat for the next round but because they're generally not that compelling.
 

jon abbey

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And as I type that long post, Isner gets broken and loses 9-7.
 

jon abbey

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Krygios has to be the most insane player I can remember. He won the first two sets easily tonight against Seppi, dropped the next two, got broken at 5-5, so he needed to break back to stay in the match. First point of the 5-6 game, he hits a groundstroke back between his legs mid-rally for no apparent reason, goes on to win the point and then break back, up 7-6 now.
 

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unranked (British #3) Dan Evans took down #7Marin Cilic. Evans lost his sponsor before the tourney

"I'm just out of contract with Nike. They didn't offer me another contract so I just went to the store and bought a load of clothes the other day, plain clothes," Evans said.

"The shirts are £19.99. I just picked the shorts up. I was more worried about the shirts. I bought about 18 shirts, something like that."
http://www.irishnews.com/sport/othersports/2017/01/18/news/no-sponsor-no-problem-for-dan-evans-at-australian-open-tennis-891839/
 

jon abbey

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Djokovic getting all he can handle through two sets against Istomin, a set apiece 6-7, 7-5, 2:23 elapsed already.
 

jon abbey

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I don't think Djok was expecting a five hour second round match, on serve now at 2-1 in the 5th and 4:20 in.
 

jon abbey

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Istomin breaks, up 3-2 now. Djok is 40-1 here since 2011, this would be historic.
 

jon abbey

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No one else watching. huh? Istomin trying to serve it out at 5-4.
 

jon abbey

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And he does it, 6-4. Shocking. Murray has to be the overwhelming fave now.
 

jsinger121

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And now #3 Radwanska goes down easily, 6-3, 6-2.
Radwanska is such an underachiever in my opinion. So much wasted talent and only one major final back in 2012 at Wimbledon. No one under achieves as much as her.
 

jsinger121

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Novak losing in the 2nd round of the Aussie is a stunner. This is the earliest he has be bounced since there 2007 when he was ousted in the 4th round before he had yet to win a major.
 

BigMike

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Novak was a true class act in defeat

“He deserved to win. No doubt, he was a better player in the clutch moments,” Djokovic said after the match. “Many things came together for him today and he’s a well-deserved winner. There’s not much I could do.”
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/six-time-champ-djokovic-bounced-in-second-round-of-australian-open-132851515.html

And from the same article you get the terrible analogy of the year award, as we have to dumb tennis down to Americans

For American perspective, this is like Alabama football losing to a Division III school … or, given the numerical draw, literally the equivalent of the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament falling to a 16-seed.
 

InstaFace

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Bouchard and Coco Vandeweghe putting on an extremely entertaining 3rd set. Now on serve at 5*-6. Coco's facial-expressions game is strong, as is Genie's wet-tshirt game.

Also, bigger surprise: Rafael Nadal somehow being at #9 prior to clay court season, or Gael Monfils being world #6 at all, ever?

(I'm a Monfils fanboy)
 

Mr. Wednesday

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Radwanska is such an underachiever in my opinion. So much wasted talent and only one major final back in 2012 at Wimbledon. No one under achieves as much as her.
Underachiever? I'd say the opposite: her problem is that she's an overachiever who has exceeded her speed and power by honing a finesse game. As a result, she has less of a margin for error than some other players, because if she's a little off, she doesn't have a serve or a big hit that she can fall back on to win points.
 

jon abbey

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Federer/Berdych around 4:30 EST, that is even pushing it on the late side for night owl me.
 

tbrep

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Federer/Berdych around 4:30 EST, that is even pushing it on the late side for night owl me.
Pretty ridiculous scheduling. I understand they'd want Ash Barty in a prime spot given she's the local girl but I can't imagine her match being a better draw than Fed-Berdych.
 

jon abbey

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Well, it's a little better for European viewers than the earlier slot, and I'm sure the US audience isn't much different between 3 AM and 4:30.
 

tbrep

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I meant prime for Australian viewers. Barty will play around 7:30pm Melbourne time (would've thought Fed would get that slot)
 

jon abbey

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Women's matches are usually two hours max, this way they get it over with and the women aren't waiting around all night if Fed/Berdych goes 4-5 hours.
 

SumnerH

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Agreed with McEnroe and whoever else that they should go to a 5th set tiebreak here as opposed to playing it out, not just to preserve the winner somewhat for the next round but because they're generally not that compelling.
This is insane. Things like Roddick vs El Anouye and Isner/Mahut are among the most memorable matches of my lifetime. Tiebreaks are good for TV schedules but suck for tennis fans.
 

jon abbey

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Disagree, I find those extended fifth set matches dull as hell, especially when a huge server like Isner or Karlovic is involved. To each their own...
 

jon abbey

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There wasn't a single four shot rally in that entire Karlovic match the other night (stat was given deep in the 5th set, so possibly there was one after that, but the point remains essentially the same).
 

jon abbey

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The Barty match ran long, just over now, so Fed/Berdych will start between 5:30-6 AM EST.
 

jon abbey

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Fed looks good early, up a break at 3-2. He has won 11 straight sets from Berdych coming into this in their careers.
 

jon abbey

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Fed up a break in the second set now, the McEnroe brothers keep talking about how predictable Berdych is in some aspects of his game, and it seems like Fed knows that better than anyone.
 

tbrep

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I was so so wrong about this Federer-Berdych match. Thought it'd be more along the lines of their 2010 US Open meeting
 

tbrep

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This was the best I've seen Federer play in years - backhand was clinical, serve great and volleying out of this world. Amazing performance at 35 years of age and after 6 months out of the game!