Year Round The Tennis Thread

[goldb]

How sad. There goes his QF streak.

Serena vs Venus coming. Please don't let there be any upsets. There's not many(if but one or two) players left in the draw that could upset her charge to the title now.

---------- Post added September 11, 2015 at 08:25 PM ---------- Previous post was September 08, 2015 at 05:30 AM ----------

Serena lost To probably the most unlikely opponent in the draw. Way to make people remember your name. I'm really gutted because I think this is the best chance Serena had to complete the Calendar Slam and I honestly dunno if she can do it after this.

 

[FrostyMouse]

Yeah, this sucks.

What made it even worse is all of these American trolls on the internet rooting against Serena.

 

[goldb]

Yeah, this sucks.

What made it even worse is all of these American trolls on the internet rooting against Serena.

Really? they didnt want her to win? I don't understand why.

So both Federer and Djokovic crush their opponents to reach the final. It's gonna be interesting. Djokovic will be the clear favourite but Federer hasn't dropped a set in the tournament yet.

 

[FrostyMouse]

Really? they didnt want her to win? I don't understand why.

So both Federer and Djokovic crush their opponents to reach the final. It's gonna be interesting. Djokovic will be the clear favourite but Federer hasn't dropped a set in the tournament yet.

Who knows their reasons. Some of them even said that they like to root for underdogs or against milestones.

Of course, if it was their precious Federer going for a milestone (his 18th Slam), they'd never use such arguments, except they can claim that Fed is an underdog against Novak.

 

[Faust]

Sloppy third set...

---------- Post added at 10:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:35 AM ----------

Djokovic Grand Slam No. 10

 

[FrostyMouse]

10th Slam for Novak!

 

[Charlie]

I don't follow Tennis regularly... but when I do.... I heart Djokovic!


So how does Djokovic rank over all in-terms of wins?

 

[goldb]

I don't follow Tennis regularly... but when I do.... I heart Djokovic!


So how does Djokovic rank over all in-terms of wins?

He's got 10 now, which puts him at no.5 on the all time list. Federer still leads the way with 17.

 

[Nii]

Wow Kerber actually won.... I watched the second and third set and just wow, that was an amazing match. Not like I watch Tennis often but I felt like that was on a really high level, never expected Kerber to actually stand a chance... and yet she beat her. Extremely happy for Kerber, she really deserves it after all this time of staying in the Top 10. Serena was a fair loser, when they hugged each other you could clearly see the respect and sympathy from both sides. Congratz Angelique!

 

[Kaoz]

Wow Kerber actually won.... I watched the second and third set and just wow, that was an amazing match. Not like I watch Tennis often but I felt like that was on a really high level, never expected Kerber to actually stand a chance... and yet she beat her.

I only caught the end of the final set and checked the match stats (if anyone's curious), but from those I don't feel like the match was on an incredibly high level, personally. Kerber was certainly the better player and managed to keep a low error count, but I also think that Williams' play was a big factor. If you look at the Unforced Errors, Williams had a total of 46 this match which is almost two sets in itself (with only 47 winners to balance it out as opposed to Kerber's 13 and 25 respectively), and the last couple points also reflected that. I don't know if it was different before I tuned in, but a lot of Kerber's shots were rather short from what I saw and she was lucky Williams didn't capitalize on them.

Don't get me wrong, Kerber did great, but I think she was helped by her opponent not playing her best tennis as well. With that said, congrats from my side as well.

 

[FrostyMouse]

Novak won handily 6-1 7-5 7-6(3).

 

[goldb]

Really sucks for Murray; can't be easy at all to bear all those defeat (5 Australian Open losses).

Though the outcome could be predicted, I hoped he'd at least be able to take a set off Djokovic but that wasn't the case. At this stage, there's a good possibility of psychological disadvantage. Not just with Murray but also with Federer; who both seem to be the only players to really stand in Novak's way this year, on his way to a Calendar Slam.

The gulf between the world no.1 and the rest seems quite huge and it's scary. This year is going to be interesting, to see how he will play and dominate the Masters and Grand Slam events.

 

[Kaoz]

The gulf between the world no.1 and the rest seems quite huge and it's scary. This year is going to be interesting, to see how he will play and dominate the Masters and Grand Slam events.

So Murray beat Djokovic cleanly in two sets yesterday after Djokovic had close matches with Nadal and Nishikori in the previous rounds as well. I didn't get to see any of them (besides the end of yesterday's match point which was really well done by Murray), but it seems like Djokovic has been struggling a bit to get into matches recently. That should be less of an issue in a 3/5 than a 2/3, but he certainly doesn't seem to be invincible right now.

Djokovic, Murray and Nadal all seem to have a shot at RG this year and you can't count out the Swiss and Nishikori either, although Federer in particular might struggle considering how few tournament matches he's played since coming back from his injury. It will also be interesting to see how far Thiem and Kyrgios can make it.

 

[goldb]

Federer pulled out, ending a run of 17 consecutive Grand Slam appearances. That's a real bummer for the neutrals but it means it's made a part of the draw easier and it's an opportunity for some to advance even further.

--- Double Post Merged, Jun 8, 2016, Original Post Date: May 20, 2016 ---

Maria Sharapova has been banned for 2 years for failed drug test, but she said she'll appeal. Article is HERE.

I mean it really is a shame for the women's game to lose someone of her talent for such a long time, but I don't know; I really don't think she deserved that long. Maximum a year for negligence or whatever they'd want to label it as but I guess it's better than 4 years. Anway, at this rate we'd see her back at the age of 31 and I don't think she'd be the same as Serena, who seems to get better with age or retain that cutting edge about her game.

 

[Brandish μ]

I've been trying to watch some of the Aussie Open but haven't had the time to watch some matches.

I can't believe Djokovic lost that early tbh. But those things can happen... usually he's golden when he comes here.

Thankfully Federer got thru, I only watched bits of this match.

Nick Kyrios is the worst ever, Tomic ain't much better. Wish we had guys like Pat Rafter... welp.

 

[Kaoz]

I can't believe Djokovic lost that early tbh. But those things can happen... usually he's golden when he comes here.

Yeah, it's kind of hard to believe that he did. I just watched the highlights of his match and it's not like he was playing badly or anything and choked it away though, Istomin won that match in every sense of the word. In fact, if the rest of the match was as good as the highlights I watched, I wish I could've caught it live.

Hoping Istomin will go deeper in this tournament, although after a 5 setter like this he might be a bit low on energy now.

Thankfully Federer got thru, I only watched bits of this match.

He seems to be getting better every round. He was looking a bit shaky to me in the first match against Melzer and also had some weak spots against Rubin in the second round (again just judging by the highlights), but the win against Berdych was quite clear-cut judging by the results. Of course the opponents aren't getting easier. He's facing Nishikori next and then potentially Murray in the semis - if he plays well he can most certainly beat both of them, but if he doesn't capitalize on his chances when he gets them he might be in for some tough fights.

Upcoming match of interest tomorrow is definitely Zverev vs Nadal. Zverev beat Federer during the Hopman Cup and whoever wins benefits from Djokovic's loss. Also curious to see how Thiem and Dimitrov will perform, especially the latter after he just won Brisbane, defeating Thiem, Raonic and Nishikori on the way to the title.

 

[Brandish μ]

Yeah, it's kind of hard to believe that he did. I just watched the highlights of his match and it's not like he was playing badly or anything and choked it away though, Istomin won that match in every sense of the word. In fact, if the rest of the match was as good as the highlights I watched, I wish I could've caught it live.

Hoping Istomin will go deeper in this tournament, although after a 5 setter like this he might be a bit low on energy now.

Yep even if Novak is playing conservatively at that stage of the tournament it's still a massive win for Istomin. Hope he does well too... it was a 5-setter with 2 tiebreaks and a 7-5 so it's going to be tough in the heat for sure.

He seems to be getting better every round. He was looking a bit shaky to me in the first match against Melzer and also had some weak spots against Rubin in the second round (again just judging by the highlights), but the win against Berdych was quite clear-cut judging by the results. Of course the opponents aren't getting easier. He's facing Nishikori next and then potentially Murray in the semis - if he plays well he can most certainly beat both of them, but if he doesn't capitalize on his chances when he gets them he might be in for some tough fights.

Well at his age and coming back from injury I thought he'd lose to Berdych tbh but every time I watched it he had the upperhand in momentum. The quick game here makes it easier for him too. He'll need to be at his best or close to it I agree, especially against Murray. It'll be tough against him even if he plays well. I'd really love for Fed to win this though.

The Nadal vs Zverev match is the only one I'll see live tomorrow I think. Maybe I can catch the Dimitrov match at night, he's usually entertaining with his game.

 

[goldb]

Just seen highlights of the Federer match; looks like the time off he took has really paid off, that was years he rolled back against Berdych. Really felt good watching such high level shot making and his movements.

I was reading an article on BBC about Djokovic's loss and it was almost a statistical improbability for him to lose against a player of such low rank. Now, I've not seen highlights of this match but from what I've read, it is as Kaoz wrote; it's more that Istomin won the match than Djokovic losing it. Good on him though, playing way above his level.

Sometimes I enjoy upsets like these; really opens the draw up.

 

[Brandish μ]

A friend of mine who went to the game said Fed was very dominant in the match. It didn't last too long.

 

[Kaoz]

Well, what's especially noteworthy and what was probably the biggest contributor to his good performance was his service game. He won 95% of 1st service points and never faced a single break point throughout the entire match. He serve and volleyed quite nicely too, winning 87% of points when playing the net. The question is just if this carries over into the next rounds.

I was reading an article on BBC about Djokovic's loss and it was almost a statistical improbability for him to lose against a player of such low rank.

Even more so since, from what I've been told, Djokovic is actually the guy who kept eliminating Istomin from the AO in the past years.