Australian Open Tennis

So who has been watching this? A couple of good games so far.

Women's draw is a bit more interesting now that Henin and Clijsters are back ...although the excessive screaming from some of the female players is really annoying.

A lot of people have beef with the grunting/screaming...I'm not bothered by it really, they're putting in a fuck tonne of effort/energy into their games/shots, makes sense for there to be some noise

Wish I could be sitting courtside daily!

@ Hewitts draw, can't make quarter finals without meeting Federer in 4th round...screwed unless there's a serious upset!

Yeah, but some of them do a big scream when doing a sliced backhand.

No problem with grunts from exertion of energy, but some of them take it to a ridiculous level with the screams.

I thought people scream to mask the sound of racket hitting ball, as it provides some information about the shot

Del Potro beating James Blake 10-8 in the 5th set last night... Some good tennis in there but people are still pretty patchy this early in the year. Even Federer made hard work for himself, almost losing the 3rd set in his match, before he turned on the magic.

Well he lost the 1st set of the tournemant so yeah he didn't look to good but def picked up. Nadal doing his usual slow start with a crushing finish in his first game but then looked as solid as ever in round 2! Good to notice there is no knee bandages for him.

How much of del Potro and Blake did they show, I tried to watch it when I read the matc was underway but they had Henin and Demetieva on TV instead.

On grunting: It's funny that I've heard very little criticism of Sharapova's grunt, which is one of the loudest (even louder live than on TV, at the French you could hear her from court 4) - I guess no one wants to criticise the ridiculously hot girl.

I think it's pretty silly for players starting games after midnight then letting them continue to 4am... how do ya prepare for that??

What is the point?

It's very difficult to mask a shot in tennis when you are hitting the ball as the way the racquet makes contact with the ball will always determine the spin. You can mask your back swing to a degree but when you swing it's pretty obvious whether you are using top spin or slice... It's more about breathing out at the moment you are exerting yourself, when I was young our coach used to encourage players to grunt as they swung if he thought they weren't breathing correctly.

5/10 IMO



gc.

They only televise the games in Rod Laver Arena, he was probably playing in Hisense Arena...but shitty, but there's so many games they can't show them all, and they put the big names/big match up's in Rod Laver as it's bigger and they can open or close the roof as required.

I've read comments suggesting they are doing it to mask the moment the ball hits the racket. Some players have complained that people are doing a premature scream to try and put the other player off in their timing.

Oh and see the Vic Gov put forward proposals for a $33 Million (US) upgrade to to Melbourne Park which will mean the Aussie Open stays put till at least 2036! SWEET!

Oh, and sorry, Hisense also has a retractable roof, didn't realise that!

Cough, $336 million upgrade, not 33!

They switch coverage to games in Hisense when there is a break between games in Rod Laver.

I guess they have most of their tv stuff setup in Rod Laver, so they prefer to broadcast whatever match is going.

Last night they were showing Del Potro/Blake, but then switched to Henin/Demetiava as soon as that was underway.

Don't be ridiculous mate, I would give her at least a 6/10 ... she is not borderline average.

That's only a 6/10 in your word?!?! :cookoo:

I'd overhand smash the shit out of her...make those grunting noises baby, oh yeah

Oh, and I guess the only thing that'd stop Melbourne from retaining the open for decades to come, will be the fucking idiot Crotians and Serbs getting into fights and shit...that make the news over there? It's pretty retarded, considering how ummm, pim and proper tennis is, and they get all up in each others grillz over a fucking game of tennis?!?

Idiots

Really don't dig it eh. Got a little kid's face, a moustache and and average body. Plus she's really fkn weird too - saw an interview with her and some other chicks on tour. Definitely hotter girls on tour. Plus she's too tall for me. I'm sticking with my original 5.



gc.

Ill give you everything but avg body? go smoke your crack somewhere else!

Yeah. But you can't tell how well or cleanly someone hit the ball with your eyes until the ball is near you - but you can tell instantly if you can hear them hit it. Grunting/screaming loudly impedes the hearing part of this for the other player and why they should do something more about it.

The fact is plenty of players grunt but the higher pitched screams of some females get the bad press. The physical exertion, even hitting slice and especially when you're tentative, is a big reason for the sounds which players make. Moreso, when people concentrate hard in sport breathing is one thing which often gets affected, especially if a person is nervous... hence the breath out as you exert advice.

Interesting...didn't know about that

Federrer has warmed up now. Just dominated his match.

Man Fed hit some blinding shots in that match - almost hitting winners at will. He still looks a little out of sorts on drop-shot and close encounters at the net tho. Usually you'd expect him to win 9/10 of those but he fudged a pile of them. Maybe early season lack-of-sharpness there...

Yeah, but to be fair Hanescu didn't really play that badly and managed to keep his aggression up too. If someone is sconning the ball at you at 150 clicks all the time, there are bound to be some errors.

Didn't he win like 21/24 points at the net?



gc.

I said 'close encounters' - as-in when you're both near the net... usually after drop-shots etc.

It is his first tournament of the year. He didn't bother with any of the others. I guess he figures he's good enough to use the early rounds of the Aussie Open as his warm up for the year.

It's his 3rd actually. He got beaten by Robin Soderling in Abu Dhabi and then by Nikolay Davydenko in Qatar in tournaments so far this year.

In any case, he just lost a few more of those at-net encounters which I'd normally expect him to pwn.

Still, losing a 'few more' would imply that he lost many at all?? He only lost 3 points at the net in the whole game dude.



gc.

If he's played other tournaments this year, then I don't know what the hell the Aussie commentators were on about then. Maybe they only pay attention to stuff in Australia.

So some poor teenage ball boy wet himself on one of the side courts...damp patch on court...game suspended as they had to dry the court with a blower vac thing, replace ball boy...HOW WOULD YA FEEL?

Poor guy, he'll NEVER live that down.

On the subject of the ball persons. Why do they make them wear those gay hats with the flap at the back during the night games?

I know there are to protect them from the sun during day, but it's just cruel to make them wear them at night.

Bro unless you can reply to what was written and not what you think you read please don't bother.

Net statistics include when the ball is taken inside the service line before the bounce. So, drop shots gets where you win the point are not in the net stats. Hence plenty of the close encounters I spoke of wont be in the statistics.

In any case the official stats say he lost 5 points at the net. (he won 22 of 27)

Venus Williams. SHUT THE FUCK UP!

That screaming was beyond a joke. And she only started doing it once her opponent got on a bit of a role.

Way above the sound of "exertion" from hitting the ball. That was ear piercing nonsense.

Federer vs Hewitt @ 9.30pm tonight

Sweet. Perfect time to sit down in front of the tv.

Hewitt doesn't stand a chance...he'll take 1 set if he's lucky

Off to Rod Laver for the Wednesday day session...hope we get some good games...should be quarter finals by then, but might get a doubles game as well as a singles...guess we'll see on the day!

There is no better entertainment than to watch Hewitt get laced in front of his adoring Australian fans.



gc.

True enough!

"COME ON!!!"

Shame that Del Potro got bounced, too many long games seem to ahve taken their toll.

Del Potro did not deserve to win. He is pretty overrrated imo. He gets undone so often by guys who play dedicated enough to keep away from his favourite forehand. Cilic for the most part managed to do that and it cost Del Potro.

Also anyone notice that match - the men's match between the 4th and 14th seeds - goes to the 5th set... So what does TV do? It crosses over to 25 mins of an unseeded woman playing a qualifier... then returns to the men's match at 5-2. What a bunch of tards. We missed what could have been some of the best tennis of that match.

Re: Roddick - Gonzalez match. I only watched the first 3 sets of the match but how totally awesome is Gonzalez's backhand? It is near perfection. He lost anyway. Roddick and Cilic now play.

Murry vs Nadal tomorrow. Nadal def making a few uncharacteristic average shots selections and executions. Hope he's on his way to peaking..

I think Nadal has peaked already.

There I said it.



gc.

Yeah I was mighitly annoyed by the coverage switch, especially to the first set of a match... FFS!

smf- 'sif I would listen to the opinion of someone silly enough to say Nadal is overrated.

Crushed.

Roddick vs Cilic is the last day match on centre court today. (maybe 2pm ish if the women's games only take 90 mins each)

Nadal and Murry is the first match in the evening session. 9.30 NZT.

Can't wait for the Murray - Nadal match, probably my two favourite players ATM (I freely admit to getting swept up in Muuray mania whilst in the UK, plus he high fived me at the French). Of course I want to Nadal to win though so that we will hopefully have another Nadal-Federer classic in the final.

What do they do if that match goes for, say, 4hours? Do the poor buggers playing doubles have to come on at 11:30pm to play their game?



gc.

Yeah. Plenty of matches don't get on court until after 11 if earlier matches go long - or they move them to another court which isn't that hard at this stage of the tournament compared to week 1. Ages ago some suggested that if it gets past a certain time they only put woman's matches on.. since their average playing time is something like 1h 20m compared with 2h 45m for men. Maybe they do some swaps sometimes like that.

Having said that Henin's match on now is looking like it could be a long one. Maybe the Roddick/Cilic match will be on more like 4.30pm now.

You were wrong on the form thing. He played his best two sets of the entire tournament this evening....

......and lost them both.

And then the return of the gimpy knee. Shame it happened but, the way he plays, it was not going to be a oncer.

I get the impression he was carrying the injury throughout the match (possibly the whole tournament) as the tactics he employed seemed odd given that he was playing Andy Murray who I would expect a fully fit Rafa to outplay quite easily from well behind the baseline. Murray was more aggressive than usual for sure but Nadal was standing right on the baseline from the get go so I suspect he was worried his knee wouldn't make it through long rallies where he was constantly chasing the ball down.

I don't reckon he was... I think the biggest factory is he's been 'discovered' a la Jim Courier and Lendl before him two other players with very similar game plans. People have realised that the way to play Nadal is to end baseline points faster. Staying in them longer works more and more in his favour so people chose to go for more which, in turn makes him take more risks than he ought to.

Most of the time he will still weather it out but you'll find more and more (especially from guys you've hardly heard of) at later stages of tournaments some guy consistent and having a good day will do this to him. And it's only a matter of a couple of points swing - maybe 5 or six significant points per set. All tournament he's been losing a few extra points like this - I wonder if his plan to work on his forehand (to add a flatter shot as he and coach uncle Tony talked about last year to improve his point-ending ability) is causing him more grief than he wishes consistency-wise.

In any case. 3rd match on in the daytime session is Federer vs Davydenko. (after two women's matches starting at 1pm)

I meant peaked in his career. He'll never get back to where he was.



gc.

Seems like he wasn't carrying any injury in the tournament fyi. He was just hurt his knee in the match.

Nadal this morning : "I didn’t have lot of problems for the last six months. And today is the first time. I felt something which I think is a bad movement. But is not because the knee is tired or has been a bad movement or gesture. No, I think it’s going to be OK.”

Not a bad day for work to surprise you by taking you to the tennis, eh? Both the William's sisters and Federer on display! SUPER SWEET!

Was hoping for Tsonga though, love that guy! But he's the evening session

Was just looking at some stats re: Federer and Davydenko for their whole tournament.

Check this one.

Winners by match so far.
Federer - 39, 61, 48, 57 (added up then divided by sets played = 15.7 per set)
Davydenko - 46, 36, 29, 44 (added up then divided by sets played = 11 per set)

Federer hitting 50% more winners per set is no mean feat (especially as his sets were also shorter on average) when you consider the opponents Davydenko has had to date have hit roughly only 65-80% of his own total.

I wonder if Fed will go for more in this match or if he'll be more conservative... Davydenko has proven himself, especially on his forehand, to be an amazing defensive player.

Also. Year to stats date shows they're pretty darn close..

Service games won
Fed: 85% - Dav: 85%

1st service return points won
Fed: 32% - Dav: 33%

Altho Dav is better at converting break points than most Fed is better at saving them. Wonder how it'll pan out in this respect.

Break points saved
Fed: 71% - Dav: 60%

Break points converted
Fed: 34% - Dav: 44%

Venus Williams just got knocked out. Glad her screeching will be gone. It was probably good the tv here at work was on mute when I watched the end of the match.

Hell... someone spiked Fed with a dodgy curry laved with sleeping pills huh! Once he got going in the middle of the 2nd set and won 12 or so games in a row... that is the sort of brilliance he hasn't shown for ages imo. Sure Davydenko was fading pretty bad but you've gotta be on top of your game to play so confidently and deliver like that.

Do you think Federer sometimes finds it hard to get up emotionally for some of these earlier games? He does look a little bored and lack luster sometimes early on.



gc.

I dunno. He seems to be lacklustre in his demeanour early on very often - even when he's caning the other guy. Almost as if he's thinking 'meh, gonna roll this guy once I get under his skin..'.

In the latter part of the 1st set and first part of the 2nd you could see he was trying to hit out more - trying to find his range by going for winners. He knows that, even if he's missing, he'll eventually find his range - which he did. Being loose and fluid is absolutely key to playing well and you can't get there by playing safe. He did it against Hewitt the other night too. About the beginning of the 2nd set he just stepped up a notch.

(You can tell when Fed has found his range when one shot, his deep cross-court forehand, starts working - the one which catches everyone out like it's going wide/long and then just dips sharply at the end.)

An interesting stat - compare to the above stats for the year to date.

Break points converted
Fed: 57% - Dav: 26% - I.e. Fed raised his from his year-to-date average by 40% and Davydenko's fell by 40%

Anyone see the Serena Williams v Azarenka match?

Was pretty awesome.. 6-4 to Azarenka in the first, and then was up 4-0 in the second, and Williams was kinda limping about ant not bothering to run for some shots, looked like she'd all but given up. Then suddenly something snapped and she started owning - won 6 out of the next 7 games and then smashed 6-2 in the third

Only enough to go: 'crap, the Fed game will be another 2 hours.'

Fucking brilliant comeback, eh? Was annoyed at it though, meant the Fed VS Davy game started so late I had to leave part way through the second set!

And what the fuck is with Azarenka's moans/squeals?!?! I mean it's one thing to make some noise when you make a shot, but hers are these long, drawn out moans which carry on till the ball has been returned back to her by the opponent! Serena makes some noise, too, but it's more a grunt on a power shot, Azarenka was doing it EVERY FUCKING SHOT...yet when she hit a shot which went into the net, her sign/moan/noise stopped in an instant, so why the fuck is she intentionally carrying it on for so long on made shots?!? Pretty freaking annoying

Haha yes, that was tilting the shit out of me as well. As shallow as it sounds it's probably the #1 reason why I typically don't like womens' tennis haha. I don't even know why - the constant groaning for every normal shot just really annoys me

I don't even watch women's tennis any more. They can all fuck off and die.



gc.

Yah, it's getting out of hand, eh? Totally over the fucking top when you compare it to Federer who barely makes any noise...at all...ever

Serena made noise when you could see the extra effort gone in, this bitch made these noises when making simple blocking shots!

Well that, and the fact that most of the players on tour are inconsistent, moody and lack any class at all. I'm glad Clijsters and Henin are back because they address some of the balance - but still for the most part, watching women's tennis at the moment is like about as exciting as a calculus class, where the teacher is running his nails down the chalk board every 10 seconds just to fuck with you.



gc.

9.30 tonight: Murray vs Cilic.

They've only played 4 times with Murray 3-1 ahead. However, in games-won the split is only 50.6% in Murray's favour.... I.e. they have always had close sets with only a few points separating them.

Most recently Cilic smashed Murray at the US Open in straight sets 7-5 6-2 6-2.

WOW!

Murray VS cilic - what a match by Murray, that final game was just brilliant, around the net, GOLD!

shot of the tourney that

Fed hit one that good in the 1st or 2nd round. He does in every tournament. I'd say he hits half of all around-the-netpost shots on the tour and the rest of the players make up the other other half. Murrays was good timing though - to rark him up and pwn his opponent.

9.30pm tonight: Fed vs Tsonga.

You reckon Tsonga has any remote chance of winning that one, Rob?

Yes. Tsonga has shown so many times that even if he looks out of it can turn it around and almost walk on water. He did it the other night against Djokovic too. It seems to be a real French thing - to be massively talented but having a hand-grenade for a brain. (think: Goran Ivanisevic, Marat Safin...). I think Fed knows this so will not panic if Tsonga has a good run in patches. Fed is, by far, the best player that ever existed at making good players self-implode so will hopefully frustrate the hell out of Tsonga.

Cool, should be an awesome match...would LOVE to see Tsonga make the final again!

16 slams for Fed coming up. No chance for Tsonga. Murray won't have the head game to topple the Fed on the big stage either. Game, set, match... championship: Federer.



gc.

Yeah, that's the most likley outcome, as much as I'd love to see Tsonga trump Fed, I doubt very much it'll happen

Well that sort of went well...

Federer once again pulling a top player out of his comfort zone. Surprised Tsonga didn't blow his nana actually. That's gotta be so frustrating for a guy like him.

Murray vs Federer head to head

Matches won: Murray leads 6 - 4
---Sets won: Federer leads 14-13 (51.9% vs 48.1%)
---Tie breaks won: Federer leads 3-1 (75% vs 25%)

Most recent matches:
---ATP World Tour Finals (Nov 09): Federer won 3-6, 6-3, 6-1
---Western & Southern Financial Group Masters (Aug 09): Federer won 6-2, 7-6
---BNP Paribas Open (March 09): Murray won: 6-3, 4-6, 6-1

Other randoms...
- Murray has never beaten Federer in straight sets but Federer has beaten Murray in straight sets in 3 of his 4 wins.

I also read somewhere the other day and can't find it now: In Grand Slam matches, when Federer loses the first set his record is about 10 wins - 10 losses (50% - 50%)... But when he wins the first set however his is something like: 176 wins - 7 losses (95% - 5%) WTF!!!!

And for the Aussie Open, tournament to-date comparisons

1st Serve percentage
Murray 56% - Federer 63%

Points won on 1st serve
Murray 78% - Federer 78%

Percentage of points won on 2nd serve
Murray 53% - Federer 56%

Winner to unforced error ratio:
Murray 2.0 : 1 - Federer 1.6 : 1

Not much in it except the winner to unforced error ratio which probably just shows that Murray is more risk averse, making less errors overall, compared to Federer going for more outright winners.

Lastly, 2 of Federer's losses to Murray came in the middle of his suffering from mono in 2008. He mentioned this in the post match interview... wonder if it wasn't a dig to imply: he can usually only beat me when I'm ill

It's a classic counter-puncher versus stroke-maker.... it's Courier vs Sampras all over again...

I just don't think Murray has it upstairs to beat Federer in the final of a slam. Should be a good game, but the master will be too good.



gc.

gee wimmins tennis sure is boring innit?

Yeah... That Fed guy - his days are so numbered huh!

green back numbered

Re: my stat about Federer's win-loss record when he wins the first set: It was actually: 172 wins to 5 losses.

When up 2 sets (in grand slams only obviously) he is 156 and 0. Equal best front-runner in tennis history - probably with Sampras.

Also... wonder why, with so much money/success (rumoured in the US$250 mill mark already all up), guys like Fed don't upon receiving the trophy say they'll donate their winning cheque to the Haiti appeal or something?? I mean, the guy is already popular, but if he donated the winnings of majors imagine the pressure it would lump on others to do the same in other sports.

Totally smashed it, semi's and final seemed all too easy for him Murray only really giving him a run for the money in the last set...shame as tough games are more enjoyable to watch, but such is, he proves again why he's world number 1...over $50mil in tournament prize money alone, you'd think all his sponsorships and whatnot would be worth MORE than $200mil, eh?

He sparked up an off the cuff event before the tournament that raised $650k for the Haiti appeal.

There shouldn't be pressure on anyone to donate to, or champion causes. Helping others isn't a competition, and there is certainly no way he can be expected to help out every bad thing that happens around the world.



gc.

Actually, the largest donation ever given in the aims of charity - a billion dollar, by Tedd Turner in the late 90s - sparked him and Bono to basically embarrass others like Bill Gates, Paul Allen etc etc to give money - since they were way, way richer. Without that first step I imagine it would not have come so soon - if ever. That was competitive donating in many ways.

There are a lot of sports people out there worth well over $100m - Imagine if Bono (sic) sorted them into a unit (lol). They would have truly massive financial and public-opinion clout - the likes of which could encourage (i.e. force) a lot of organisations to change the way they operated etc..