Aussie Open.

First Grand Slam for the year shaping up to be a real goodie. At least on the men's side... Those women folk are too unpredictable for my liking.

Rafa, Fed & Djokovic all looking in clean winning form. Murray the dark horse looking good too. Would be good to see a Brit back in the mix after so long without a real hope.

Watching an EPIC match between JW Tsonga & Ljubicic at the moment. Tie breaker in every set so far. This Tsonga kid can really hit a ball.

Obviously too early to pick who's going to win, but I'd like to see Rafa bow out early and have Djokovic defend the title, or as I said before, have Andy Murray take it out. He's beaten the Fed and Nadal lately so knows how to handle himself in the boiler room!



gc.

Just finished watching that. It was epic. Some brilliant rallies. Good win for Tsonga.

Then got to see Venus Williams screaching away. So I changed channels. Can't stand that screaming constantly when hitting the ball. You almost need an option to turn off the on court microphones from the feed and just listen to the commentators. I hope the weird looking Spanish chick takes out the 3rd set.

Winning for sure. I've watched both of their two matches each and am really surprised at the difference in quality of opponents. Nadal has had two complete bunnies in a row and Federer has had one pretty darn solid player and one total grenade, the young Russian guy Evgeny Korolev, who was hitting winners from anywhere on the court (Russians huh!).

Federer had heaps of lulls in both of his matches I though and even the scoreline against the rusing Russian star Evgeny Korolev (6-2 6-3 6-1) makes it look an easier game than it was.

His first match, against top 30 player Andreas Seppi, was also pretty mediocre by his standards too. 6-1 7-6 7-5. He was never going to lose, but was def not firing his best at all - altho, the first match isn't that good a show of form in anyone.

Nadal's 1st round match was just painful to watch. From the first point he was pretty much hitting winners off anything that Christophe Rochus hit.. 6-0 6-2 6-2. The guy looked like a kid (he's only 170cm tall!)

Hope this doesn't affect their preparation for their following games. Next up, Federer has got Safin who can destroy anyone if he can keep that crazy brain of his in check.

- Tsonga wont make it the distance.
- Djokovic.. have missed his games so far.. what's he looking like?

Only saw one of Djokovic's games, not sure if he's even played another?

Anyway, dodgy first set, looked very tentative.. Won 7-5 but then punished him in the following 2 sets. I like watching Djokovic play, doesn't seem to have any obvious weakness or strength, just hits everything on its merit. Very consistent serving game too, although that seems to be pretty common amongst the top blokes.

Will be interesting to see Murray play this evening against this Spanish fella.



gc.

Heh, Williams out. That's the universe punishing her for absurd screaching.

You guys think Tsonga looks good at the moment???

He is carrying a niggle and is playing well below his best imo.

You should see him when he is 100%

He looks ok I suppose. Some flashes of brilliance that's for sure. But a tough match yesterday and that niggle means that, as RobW said, he won't go the distance. Not in the face of a fully fit Rafa, Murray, Djokovic or Federer.



gc.

Tsonga is shaping up to be a classic French player - talent and touch beyond compare, but an inability to keep it together long enough to win the tough matches other than once or twice a year. I actually was pretty impressed with the other French guy, Gael Monfils, though.

It's hard to judge them by how they beat chumps. As I said above, Nadal looks great but he played two total bunnies in reality. Not much more than a hitting session for him imo.

James Blake is still in too, with his last match being very tidy. I also see Roddick has Fabrice Santoro next up - who is possibly the biggest giant killer in tennis with is freaky two-handed backhand AND forehand (36 years old too!!).

Just watched Djokovic's game... He won.. but if he plays like that he'll be lucky to even make the semi-finals. Nothing special at all.

Me wants Tsonga to take it out - don't think he will though

Just watched the Jankovic/Sugiyama match... What a complete joke woman's tennis is these days. the number one player in the world hitting 1st serves into the net at 99km/h and not even trying to run down completely gettable balls.

I bet Navratilova is ashamed of being a woman.

Ivanovic vs the fat Russian. Pretty crap game. Unforced errors all over the place ...and then we see we've missed a set and a half of Federer vs Safin.

I only watched the third set of Federer's game against Safin and he was playing totally crap. In the tie-breaker it was just pure luck and his serving that won it for him.

Yeah niether Federer or Djokovic looked very sharp in their most recent games. I have noticed in this tourny in particular that a lot of the seeded and senior players seem to drop to the level of their opponents for most of the game, but realise the clinch moments where they have to dominate.

I think as the tournament goes on you'll see less of that. Obviously Rafa is in the form of his life so he can go out there and obliterate people... Federer and Djokovic not so much.

Murray had many errors in his game too it must be said. A lack of thought a lot of the time.



gc.

Tsonga wins again

...and in terribly erratic form (he's French, to be expected). His all-round lazy footwork shows he's not hungry enough to me.

Smf.. To be fair to Federer and Djokovic, they've played miles, miles better players than Nadal has to date. I've watched the first two sets of Fed today and he obliterated Safin - but mostly because of Safin's basic inability to dig deep which has always been his problem.

Nadal has Tommy Hass tonight who, from other times I've seen him, shouldn't really have the juice to push Nadal too hard for the whole match.

Am interested to see how Roddick, Murry and Gilles Simon play in their coming matches.

Rafa unstoppable against Haas. Ridiculous really!



gc.

Murray is being ridiculously overhyped here, yes he has a good chance but people are saying he's the clear favourite. I don't think you can ever call someone who's never won a grand slam the favourite in a grand slam. Watched Federer-Safin while I was at work and would agree with Rob's assessment 100%.

What is it about Aussie's and calling foot faults though? Especially on the back foot... It's a bit like a league referee calling incorrect scrum put ins, or a football ref calling foul throws.

Nice. Safin didn't like that at all huh... Weird as in some of Tsonga's games I swear I've seen him foot-fault down the middle line worse than Safin many times...

Bartoli!!!!!!!!


Awesome match- all over the World Number 1.

OMG.. how average was Federer today?... He used a fair few of his legendary get out of jail serves for sure.

He is just not seeing the ball as well as others for some reason - tons of miss-hits, tons of half-volleys right near the bassline (lazy footwork!) and not getting the bang out of his flat forehand.

Nadal vs. Gonzalez today

Roger

Yeah. Should be an interesting one.

Also - I read the write up in the sport section of the Herald re: Jankovic losing. I struggle to even believe she was the number one player actually - she played so poorly it was embarrassing. What is up with the ranking system these days ha ha..

Could it be that Jankovic played more tournaments than the other top women's players recently? I seem to recall reading something about a number of players out for periods of time with niggling injuries.

3 players retired hurt today!

Serena Williams might be a bit lucky to go through after being a set down when her opponent had to retire. She had an injury time out, went off court for a bit, then came back wobbly on her feet and looked like she was going to keel over and faint when she tried to continue.

Murray out.... Missed the game but must have been a goodie. Can anyone stop Rafa?

Only Federer & Djokovic really have the talent, but niether are playing well enough to combat Nadal at the moment. Could even be a boring straight sets final at this rate..

We'll see how Tsonga v Blake goes next.



gc.

/rubs hands together in excitement

Looks like he might have eaten a dodgy prawn last night...

that match was looking good too....

BOOM...

The Fed hits back in dominant form tonight. Awesome!



gc.

jesus christ federer just massacred del potro

Ha ha... he was definitely seeing the ball better tonight. He is the new McEnroe for sure - no-one since the Mac has hit so many amazing half-volleys so consistently.

I'm now drooling at the prospect of Federer vs Nadal, especially if they both deliver their very best. 30 or 40 odd winners and less than 10 unforced errors... Almost unstoppable- except if they did it against each other!



gc.

Interesting to see Federer ripping into Djokovic. Basically saying he doesn't have the mental strength to be the best in the world.

lol - I didn't see that but he is correct imo. Djokovic is patchy, very patchy and tanks some games for sure. (Goran Ivanisevic also did this... maybe Serbians and Croatians are more similar than they want to admit )

Playing so well so often as Federer has done hasn't been done since Sampras was in his prime and before him Lendl. So only three or four guys in about 25 years!! No-one else has managed since the early 80s to be so consistently good - even on their off days - as Federer and Nadal.

If Agassi, Courier, Edberg, Chang & Becker couldn't ever compete with the top guys for more than a couple of months at a time there is dick-all chance of Djokovic, Murry, Tsonga etc becoming that guy. They really are resigned consigned to being nearly the top as long as Fed/Nadal are around.

Nadal and Federer are it currently. No-one else comes close on a rolling average.

Federer has now been in 19 consecutive Grand Slam semi-finals!!!! Holy crap. We know what McEnroe thinks already but I'd love to hear Lendl or Sampras' take on Federer's achievements to date.

Tough game for Nadal tonight. Its going to be an EPIC final if its him and Roger

Yeah, next best was McEnroe on 10 straight... Crazy.



gc.

Also on this note - three times Djokovic has pulled out of a 2nd week Grand Slam match - 2006 French Open and 2007 Wimbledon semi finals and now this quarter final match.

He's not mentally strong enough to do the fitness prep to be the best, let along be the best skill-wise. He needs to learn from Nadal and be honest about the flaws in his game and work his ass of to fix them.

Poor Roddick He is playing well enough to beat almost anyone in the world but just can't seem to touch Fed. This is going to be a good final on the weekend assuming Nadal goes through.

Roddick is probably the most 1 dimensional player on the mens tour, so no surprise that Federer is dominating him.

I disagree a bit on that. Of the top players I'd say Nadal is just as so... Fortunately he plays his game so goddam well - with unbelievable intensity - that no-one can turn it into a weakness as they do in Roddick's case.

Fed dominates people by playing really antagonistic relative to their game style - probably better than anyone in history. He just has a 6th sense as you can see by the number of pretty slow balls he still hit by Roddick, purely because he could get him on the wrong foot etc.

Nadal on the other hand doesn't modify his game to suit - it's not his strength at all - but he makes up for it by hitting so consistently deep and doesn't go for anything unless he knows it's on. I'd liken him to the modern version of Lendl: hit deep, hit with high-ish pace and don't take risks if you're already winning by this method.

Anyways... how amazing was Federer's slice backhand down the line to pass Roddick early in the 2nd set? 99 out of 100 player would have tried to blast it and most would have missed. Pure McEnroe-style genius.

Roddick needs to channel his aggression towards his game, not wazzing out at the umpire/ballpeople.

Roddick certainly gave that linesman some shit for the poor fault call, was well inside the line.

"Audible profanity - warning Roddick"

"I'll telegraph you my apology" or something to that effect. What an arrogant wanker lol

I think Verdasco will give Nadal a good run for his money..

I thought he said "I take back my apology.." because he'd done so just before... Was funny tho. He's known for being funny as hell not a wanker - how he acted was at the relatively low end of profanity/swearing/poor behaviour.

I wouldn't call Nadal one dimensional at all, first of all he changes how he hits the ball depending the surface. At WImbledon he hit it up more whereas at the French he was hitting it quite low and flat. While he does rely on his pace and generally returns it deep, he can still hit some fantastic winners, his passing shots in particular are unreal. I remember two consecutive points during the Wimbledon final when he and Federer hit what were probably the two best passing shots of all time.

Everyone does to some extent. Other than that he has one game - hit deep, run down everything and don't make mistakes. He uses the exact same plan that Michael Chang used his entire career only Nadal can hit the ball way harder and is taller (and is a leftie).



It's quite different.. TV is deceptive for a start - you can't see a lot of the (compared to if you're there live) arc of the ball. Clay = more topspin in rallies and flatten it out to push - no-one plays flat on clay (that's how you lose as Sampras, Becker etc have shown). Grass = much faster and therefore lower, flatter shots win the day (but it's a trade-off with margin of error when hitting flatter). Hence why, historically, guys with flatter strokes have done better at Wimbledon and guys with semi or full-western grips do better on slower surfaces like clay. Modern times have seen clay get faster and grass get slower purely to reduce the number of one-sided, boring matches.



Yes - but, as I said, he doesn't go for them unless they're 'on'. Players like Federer/Sampras/Becker on the other hand would go for shots that aren't on all the time and (freakily) make them relatively often. Nadal is great at what he does and it's easy to look at the results and assume he plays a varied game when he doesn't. He is the nth degree of fine-tuning power and consistent tennis which, in itself, is a super rare talent probably no more common than the magical shot-making and intuitive movement of Federer.

It's almost as if they were made specifically to be the other's career-long opponent.

Urgh so sick of your completely miss informed analyses of Nadals game

Yeah, imagine how sick I am of debating the finer points of tennis with people who show over and over again their knowledge is limited to a few comments made by commentators.

Nadal plays basically the same no matter where he plays - he just does it so bloody well he doesn't have much need to change.

who here has played tennis competitively as a kid etc?

i played up until i was around 12, when swimming took over.

when i was around 16, i used it as cross training for forearm strength for breaststroke (had a court at home).

pretty cool sport, but haven't played it much in years.

Bloody random - I was just waiting for a coffee and picked up a Time Mag which had an article about Nadal and his coach and how they came up with his style - quite interesting. I think the link below is the full article again.

His coach is trying to get him to flatten out his forehand permanently it seems - to get more pace (more spin - slower shots) and get more free points - as he says Federer does. If he can do this it'd be curtains to so many more games so much faster.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1870373,00.html

Interesting they talked about ball rotations per minute from shots. Nadal's forehand ~ "3,200 times a minute. Andre Agassi, one of the game's great shotmakers, generated 1,900 rotations per minute in his prime, and current world No. 2 Roger Federer, whose forehand is considered among the game's best, generates 2,700."

Interesting. Agassi's forehand was a gem of sport - he could hit with mega topspin and also flat which very few can do so well. I'd have guessed they didn't measure his big topspin shot.. also plenty of guys who grew up on clay (Sergi Brugera comes to mind) had whippy forehands like Nadal in the early-mid 90s. It was their big strength but also their weakness if you could play it well. I reckon Nadal flattening out or at least being able to would make him almost unstoppable.

They bring up an interesting point about intensity/physicality of the game. Nadal, like other heavy counter-punchers before him runs the risk of injury - Lendl, Chang, Agassi - all in the broadly similar type of game - had big chunks of their career taken away by injury.. and Nadal already is having knee problems (all that running). So, wonder if this new plan his coach has is also to keep him on court for more of his career. I said in a previous thread that the North American hard-court season which starts after Wimbledon is always notable for the clay-courters who are missing or perform poorly due to injury or sheer fatigue.

Anyway - interesting subject for sure.

Super match between Nadal and Verdasco on right now!

Verdasco has taken the first set and I am cheering for him on account of all the hot bitches he has boned.

I played from about age 5-16, was in the Auckland Squad for a while. Played interclub from when I was old enough through to 16 when I gave it up completely due to the fact it is can be the most frustrating game there is.

OMG that second to last point before Nadal took the 2nd set!!! What a rally!

I guess you could probably argue that any serve/volley or base line player is one dimensional though.

This game is going to go on for a while...

I think it's odd that Nadal's coach would want him to change his forehand, as it seems to be a big crutch I reckon. His topspin actually keeps him in more points- and allows him to hit crazy winners. Flattening it out would surely increase his unforced error rate...

For the most part his backhand just keeps him in the game. Plays a lot of slices and goes for very little off the backhand, even when it's there to be taken.

Personally I think Rafa is quite one dimensional also. Especially based around running everything down and waiting for that forehand winner. Compared to the all round games of Federer and Djokovic, he's very different. Pity Djokovic has the mental fortitude of a doorknob (as we discussed earlier), if he had the same application as Rafa or Fed, there'd be a fantastic trio at the top of tennis.



gc.

Now that was an epic match.

Exactly. But the theory goes he's win tons more points way quicker so he'd use less energy and it's be way less stress on his body.



Interesting that for years the slice was seen as a shot when you absolutely couldn't hit over the ball - then Fed comes along five or so years ago and reminds the worlds how good it can be for unsettling your opponent with lack of pace, height and/or depth - esp if they're just trying to blast the cover of the ball.

The problem here is, guys with two-handed backhands don't hit very good slice and also only do it when they're really stretched, making it even worse generally. It was Agassi's biggest hole.. and Wilander is the only 2-hander who I can recall having a truly good slice backhand.



Exactly. I hope he isn't the new Safin.

Word missing oops..

Two games now where Nadal just didn't look comfortable. Going to be an EPIC final ...

Nadal only took 4 from 20 break point chances last night

Pissed - this was the one match that's been which I missed and didn't want to... Was at Pappa at Coherent ha ha.

Played competitively from 12 to about 17 when hockey took over completely. Too hard to play one sport at an international level and another at a high level.

Stayed on as a tennis coach for another couple years before I packed it in completely. Started getting back into last year and might start playing again as more time frees up.

What a match last night. Thank god for my-sky haha. Got to watch the end at a decent hour of the morning!

Predictions?

Federer to take it in 4..

Seconded

This is looking like another marathon! Hmmm work isn't going to be fun tomorrow haha.

Just EPIC! Could not have asked for a better game ...

Nadal is a machine!

Federer looks really really devastated.

Must be hard to have to get up there and have to say something when you probably don't want to be there at the moment.

Can't believe Federer hung his head so easily in the 5th. Down 1-2 but up 30-0 in the 4th game, he should not have got his head down so badly. Quite mystified by the whole thing!



gc.

QFT. He seemed pretty flat once they'd both exchanges love service games in the 5th.

A couple of other things to add.

- Federer. 1st SERVE percentage! 52%!! What is up? Given the 1st serve points won percentages, if Federer could have gotten up to even Nadals 64% (itself only barely acceptable) he could have won in all likelihood as his points won on 1st serve percentage was in the mid 70s (compared to mid 60% for Nadal)

And on break points, Christ! take some chances when you have more than one lined up.

- Commentators. We know Nadal had a long match 32 hours earlier. He does this all year in case you sleep all year. He looked flat for a matter of minutes and you spend two whole sets talking about how the writing is on the wall when neither his play, the score or demeanour supported this. Fred Stolle & the other main guy - time to retire thanks.

- Nadal. Sort out your undies. Every single point having to un-puck is weird.

Having said that - good to see Federer coming over the ball on his backhand return. He kept that one on the down-low for the entire tournament. That was pretty much the only thing worth mentioning that the commentators got right. Sad to see Federer volleying so poorly - his forehand volley was shocking on key points.

The low percentages of break point conversions shows how well contested this was. Federer converted 32% and Nadal 44% - pretty low for both... shows good defence when under pressure. That pretty much sums the match up for me - Federer squandered more opportunities than Nadal. Neither really got on top in terms of game-play for more than a game or two which shows some really solid tennis imo. Both hit more winners than unforced errors and won about the same percentage of receiving points (Nadal 40% and Federer 41%).

In all, it was good but not really a classic match when you consider the 5th set. People will remember it mostly for being Nadal's first win at a hardcourt major.