214 replies to this topic

[jon abbey]

No thread on this yet? Surprising.

Clijsters just had an amazing comeback against Li Na, hurting her ankle in the first set and down a set and 6-2 in the second set tiebreaker, she won six straight points, took a 5-1 lead in the 3rd, and held on at 6-4.

Also, Berdych/Almagro (both top 10 players) had some entertaining fireworks. Almagro hit Berdych in the shoulder with a hard shot, Berdych thought it was a sitter and cheap shot, and thus didn't shake his hand after winning a tough four setter. The crowd did not agree and booed the crap out of him during the entire post-match interview, they will be ugly during his next match against Nadal (not that it would probably matter either way).

[jon abbey]

Also Federer has an insane draw if he wants to win this, his potential matches starting in the third round:

Karlovic (won a tough, close match)
Tomic (tonight, the Aussie kid has been playing well)
Del Potro
Nadal
Djokovic

!!!

[SoxScout]

I've watched all of Tomic's matches. I'm not a tennis fan, at all, but man this kid is fun to watch.

He was slicing and dicing through his first matches and I figured Federer would overpower him.... And what do you know, it's 4-4 in the first set and he is matching power with his finesse.

Going to be fun watching him develop. Also, his girlfriend is ridiculous and ESPN shows her constantly.

[SoxScout]

Is what happened to Berdych frowned upon, like an unwritten rule, because if the guy is standing at the net why not pound it at him? Seemed smart.

[jon abbey]

Is what happened to Berdych frowned upon, like an unwritten rule, because if the guy is standing at the net why not pound it at him? Seemed smart.

Well, if one player is at the net and the other one has a short, easy shot that he can go anywhere with, then it's frowned upon to hit it right at him.

But that wasn't what happened at all, Almagro had a running forehand that was far from an easy shot, it was a huge point (5-5, 4th set, love-30), and he still apologized immediately. Patrick McEnroe thought Berdych was insane for the way he overreacted, and said if he was Almagro, he'd have been throwing down in the locker room afterwards (as a side note, the thought of Patrick McEnroe "throwing down" with anyone makes me laugh).

[jon abbey]

Serena goes out pretty easily to the unseeded Makarova, she was the last American in either the men's or women's singles. Pretty embarrassing, no quarterfinalists.

[cannonball 1729]

Where the hell did Nishikori come from? He's been a revelation this tournament.

[jon abbey]

Kei Nishikori with an impressive five set win over Tsonga, he is the best Japanese men's player ever (top 20 now), but presumably will have nothing left for Murray in the next round. He is supposed to play mixed doubles tomorrow, that will be a tough decision (he needs the rest but presumably has a way better chance in the mixed doubles draw).

[jon abbey]

Where the hell did Nishikori come from? He's been a revelation this tournament.

Cross post, but he's had a good year, he's never been healthy before. He even beat Djokovic in November, only one of two non-injury shortened matches he lost in 2011. Here is a piece on him from before tonight:

http://www.australia...7280405408.html

[cannonball 1729]

Cross post, but he's had a good year, he's never been healthy before. He even beat Djokovic in November, only one of two non-injury shortened matches he lost in 2011. here is a piece on him from before tonight:

http://www.australia...7280405408.html

Interesting. And pretty impressive - beating Tsonga on hard court (twice) and Djokovic on any surface is pretty good. Although I thought Djokovic was battling a shoulder injury in his second loss.

Edited by cannonball 1729, 23 January 2012 - 03:29 AM.

[jon abbey]

Federer/Del Potro and Nadal/Berdych tonight, it's getting good now.

[jon abbey]

Clijsters will almost certainly have to beat four of the top five seeds to win it all, she's already taken out #5 Li Na and #1 Wozniacki. Next is #3 Azarenka in the semis, then #2 Kvitova or #4 Sharapova.

Federer/Del Potro up next, I'm excited.

[fletcherpost]

Federer making light work of Del Potro. Thought Del Potro would give him more of a test but Federer's playing great at the moment. Making it look easy. Hope the next QF is more of a match.

[cannonball 1729]

Federer making light work of Del Potro. Thought Del Potro would give him more of a test but Federer's playing great at the moment. Making it look easy. Hope the next QF is more of a match.

That was ridiculous. There's no way DelPo played that badly. Federer was just on another level today.

[jon abbey]

He was amazing against Tomic too, he knows he will need everything he has to get by both Nadal and Djokovic consecutively.

[cannonball 1729]

He was amazing against Tomic too, he knows he will need everything he has to get by both Nadal and Djokovic consecutively.

Yeah, I'm pumped for Fed/Nadal on Thursday if it comes to pass. Fed finally looks as good as he did when he and Nadal were having those epic battles in the finals back in 2008/2009.

[jon abbey]

Botched call by the linesman that Nadal is too late to challenge gives Berdych a 6-5 lead in the tiebreaker instead of Nadal, and Berdych wins the next point and takes the first set. He is hitting cannonball shots out there, amazing D by Nadal to not lose the set earlier.

[fletcherpost]

And now Berdych loses his serve and finds he is out of challenges 1-3 down in the second. Nadal is way off his peak at the moment but he never gives up. I half thought I should route for Berdych cos one less of the three above Murray the better but I can't see Berdych troublng Federer too much and Berdych is a hard guy to root for at the best of times.

And I'm hoping Novak's quarter final is a 4 hour grind versus Ferrer.

[Infield Infidel]

Berdych has won 3 straight service games at love. Looks like another tiebreak unless Nadal can turn that around

[Infield Infidel]

Nadal forces a couple unforced errors by Berdych to win the tie-break. Nobody puts the pressure on like Nadal.

[Apisith]

Federer looked great today. I thought he would struggle in the sun but he looked very comfortable except for those two lapses of concentration at the end of both sets. Very pleasing to watch today, overall.

This match on now has been very entertaining. Berdych had the match on his racquet an hour ago but couldn't win the set. I'm surprised at how deep Rafa is defending. If Berdych hits in a nice rhythm then he'll win, but he has no mental strength, and has given away too many easy points.

I'm really surprised at how weak Nadal looked an hour ago but he's recovered and hitting much closer to the baseline now.

[Apisith]

Wow. Two horrible points by Berdych.

[Infield Infidel]

Nadal hit an incredible shot that you won't see in any highlight footage

Berdych serving, and hits a 135mph serve right at Nadal. If it were any of us, it'd hit us in the sternum and we'd need an ambulance. If it were any other player on the tour, they might get a racket on it but definitely not getting the ball to the net.

What does Nadal do? He slides to his right, hits an inside-out forehand hard enough to land right at Berdych's feet. Berdych scrambles, hits a weak reply and three shots later Nadal wins a point against a serve he had no business even returning.

[Apisith]

This match has been a war.

[Apisith]

Sorry, this game has been a war.

[fletcherpost]

I don't think Berdych thinks he can win this match. Nadal handed him a gift there...i hope this goes to five.

[Apisith]

Mental strength is the difference between the two today.

[jon abbey]

I fell asleep, but I was impressed by how well Berdych played in the first two sets.

[BGrif21125]

I believe this is the first time since the 2005 French that Federer and Nadal will meet in a Grand Slam in any round other than the Final.

Should be a great atmosphere at night in Melbourne.

[MentalDisabldLst]

From the ESPN writeup of Nadal's QF match:

During the tiebreaker, a Berdych shot landed out, and Nadal returned it, then challenged the call. Chair umpire Carlos Bernardes wouldn't allow the challenge because Nadal hadn't immediately stopped play, but Nadal responded by saying he didn't challenge immediately because he thought the linesman had called it out.

The replay showed the ball was out.

"Carlos, I'll tell you something, you never get one right, not one correct overrule," Nadal said in Spanish. "You're not here as a spectator. You know that ball was out."

mee-yow.

[BigMike]

From the ESPN writeup of Nadal's QF match:



mee-yow.

Well the linesmen made themselves the story last night. It was a grand slam quarterfinal match and it looked like it was being officiated by people who's previus gig were at an U-14 club championship in Brisbane. They were just laughably bad, sometimes making calls in anticipation of the ball being out before it landed other times being a second or more late making calls

It cost Byrdech in the second set where he got really frustrated, burned his challenges in a bad way one of which on a ball that really wasn't close but was called out like a second late, and then he had no challenges left when a bad call came so went into a mental funk for a game and dropped his serve

[Apisith]

Thursday will hopefully be a good match. We know Rafa is going to turn up, but which Federer is the key. If it's the confident one with a ganeplan then he'll win. He has had the match on his racquet the last two times he's played Rafa, and won one. The other was of course the French, which I still think he was very close to winning.

We all know Rafa is going to pound the BH but if Federer can turn the tables and start pounding Rafa's BH then he'll have a great shot. He also really needs to convert his BP chances. If he goes 1/17 or whatever ridiculous percentage again then I am going to poke my own eyes out.

[jon abbey]

Five men left, top five seeds.

[fletcherpost]

Let's talk up David Ferrer's chances. He's fit, he can run all day, he keeps the ball in play he has a good return of serve and he has nothing to lose. He has had some decent results against Novak, most notably at the ATP Finals in London (where he beat a sub par Djokovic who was clearly fatigued) but a win's a win.

A long match is all i ask for, five, six maybe seven hours, five sets, come back tomorrow.

[Apisith]

What a point.

I hope Ferrer can keep this up.

[Apisith]

Djokovic is so solid nowadays; no errors, and his groundstrokes are so heavy, too.

This has been a good match so far but Ferrer just doesn't have enough in his game to damage Djokovic.

[fletcherpost]

Novak's looking tired, possibly cramping. He's digging deep though. If only Ferrer had some killer shots in him but he lacks the knockout punch. Still hoping this goes 3 hours or more. If Ferrer could just nick a set.

[Apisith]

It looks like there's something up with his left leg.

If Ferrer gets a set then this will go 4+ hours.

Djokovic is certainly looking vulnerable at the moment.

[jon abbey]

Yep, right up until he's not. He got broken 6-5 up to go to a second set tiebreaker, was down 4-2 in the breaker, then ran off 5 straight points and is now up 2 sets. This has to be somewhat exhausting, though, definitely a good shot for Murray.

[jon abbey]

Still hoping this goes 3 hours or more.

2:14 through 2 sets, although this one is going much more quickly so far.

[jon abbey]

Yeah, the end of the second set just killed Ferrer, 30 minute 6-1 3rd set.

[Apisith]

He looked like he was tired mentally, too. He just didn't look up for running all over the court. I don't know, something to watch out for when he plays Murray I suppose. It's the second match in a row that he's looked a bit lazy and tired in parts. It's not unforced errors or anything like that, but he just looks tired for some reason.

[cannonball 1729]

He looked like he was tired mentally, too. He just didn't look up for running all over the court. I don't know, something to watch out for when he plays Murray I suppose. It's the second match in a row that he's looked a bit lazy and tired in parts. It's not unforced errors or anything like that, but he just looks tired for some reason.

Apparently, he's sick or something:

Djokovic rubbed the back of his upper left leg on several occasions, looked on the verge of being physically sick in the second set and buried his head in towels several times during breaks. During the third set, a tired-looking Djokovic sat down on a linesman's chair during a line-call video challenge by Ferrer.

"I was lucky to get out of the second set, it was a big mental advantage to get two sets up," Djokovic said. "I don't have any physical issues, but today I found it difficult to breathe. You have to hang in there."

http://www.cbssports...er-aussie-semis

Edited by cannonball 1729, 25 January 2012 - 01:51 PM.

[Saby]

My predictions for semi-finals:

Nadal over Fed in 5

Djokovic over Murray in 4

Final:

Djokovic over Nadal in 4

[fletcherpost]

Got to Hand it to Djokovic, he hung in there when he was some ways off his best. He made some amazing gets and he did a great job of grinding out the second set. If Murray is to have a good shot he needs to up his first serve %, and Murray can't switch off for the odd game as he is prone to do, especially after he breaks an opponent or wins a set he can drop his intensity in the opening games of the new set. And he has to make more use of his break points. Murray gets a lot f break points against the top guys but he doesn't convert as much as he should.

Nadal v Feder - i just want a long match. Federer should win. He's playing better than Nadal, well within himself, in command of his game. Nadal seems to be struggling a tiny bit...looks a little vulnerable, whilst Fed looks like his old serene self. All four of them have a great shot. I hope Lendl's been saying the right things to Murray. His problems are mostly between the ears, Mentally, Lendl was very strong and preparation and fitness wise was a beast.

[jon abbey]

Clijsters over Azarenka
Kvitova over Sharapova
Clijsters over Kvitova

Federer over Nadal
Djokovic over Murray
Federer over Djokovic

Old school.

[Apisith]

Couldn't care less about the women's.

Federer over Nadal in three.
Djokovic over Murray in four.

The best final from a tennis perspective would probably be Federer v Djokovic anyway, given how well both are playing and how they usually play attacking, offensive tennis.

[jon abbey]

Nice win for Azarenka, Clijsters looked a bit tired. Three women left, whoever wins it all will be the new #1.

[fletcherpost]

IF Sharapova wins her semi the final is gonna be a scream fest

[jon abbey]

IF Sharapova wins her semi the final is gonna be a scream fest

This would probably be the best thing for the women's game, because people would make such a big deal about it, they'd probably finally try to legislate against it going forward. It's ridiculous, even the announcers were saying that earlier tonight.