Australian Open 2012: Discussion Thread

Pighead

strawberryb0y wrote: »

What age are you?

I'm guessing he's about 15. Have a feeling jcf stands for 'Junior Cert Fella'. Can't be anymore than that judging from his silly posts.

MisterAnarchy

Pighead wrote: »

Nadal on top now after a shaky start. Fed was brilliant for the first eight or nine games but since then Nadal has gradually improved. Since Fed broke in the opening game of the second set it's been all Nadal. Stormed through teh second set 6-2 and is currently 2-1 up in the third. Roger's gonna have to change something quickly.

Same old story as usual.
How many times have we seen this ?
Federer starts well,wins the first set ,then goes to pot early in the second set.
Mats Wilander was saying that Federer of 2012 would easily defeat Federer of 2007,not losing a set,I'm not so sure of that.
Today was Federer's acid test and he failed it,I dont think he will win another Grand Slam due to the mental strength of Nadal and Djokovic and the slowness of the courts nowadays.

jcf

jcf = Juan Carlos Ferrero ..



Nadal plays mind games, he lies about injury, he time wastes, he receives coaching from his coach on court.

He intimidates his opponent.

Pretty low player in my book - and I think I know Tennis I play at a USTA 5.0 level.

jcf

The joke http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/16715110.stm

Nadal, who injured his knee prior to the tournament, added: "Two Sundays ago I really couldn't imagine being in the final. It's a dream to be here."


HE DIDN'T INJURE HIS KNEE!!! HE IS A LIAR !!!!!


A dream to be here ? really Rafa ? - how so , since you are in perfect physical shape and have been lying about your so called "injuries" ....

MisterAnarchy

Has Annacone made any improvements to Federer's tactics or performance against Nadal ?
Federer played well in the first set, continuously pushing or top spinning BH to Nadal's BH side.
However as the match progressed, his tactics gradually disappeared and he started to play with instinct.
So it went back to the same old story.

RosyLily

jcf wrote: »

jcf = Juan Carlos Ferrero ..

JUAN CARLOS?? On our li' forum? Wow, holá senor. Bienvenida! Cómo estás?


In other news, I was quite surprised that Azarenka managed to beat Clijsters. Especially after losing the 2nd, I thought she might implode but she showed a great maturity to pull off the win. Well done. Kvitova had too many unforced errors against Sharapova. She also had more BPs (14 to Maria's 5) but only converted 3, whereas Maria converted all of hers. Not a lot between the players. For the final, Sharapova absolutely has to cut down her DFs and rush the net when the opportunity arises.

Not sure if I'm gonna watch the women's final. 8am in the morning listening to 2 screechers? Ouch!:eek:

Other men's SF on tomorrow morning. Murray vs. Djokovic with the Serb leading their H-2-H. Hope Murray can do himself justice and put up a decent fight...actually give Djokovic a test. Rafa is silently hoping for a Murray win!:P

BazBox

RosyLily wrote: »

JUAN CARLOS?? On our li' forum? Wow, holá senor. Bienvenida! Cómo estás?


In other news, I was quite surprised that Azarenka managed to beat Clijsters. Especially after losing the 2nd, I thought she might implode but she showed a great maturity to pull off the win. Well done. Kvitova had too many unforced errors against Sharapova. She also had more BPs (14 to Maria's 5) but only converted 3, whereas Maria converted all of hers. Not a lot between the players. For the final, Sharapova absolutely has to cut down her DFs and rush the net when the opportunity arises.

Not sure if I'm gonna watch the women's final. 8am in the morning listening to 2 screechers? Ouch!:eek:

Other men's SF on tomorrow morning. Murray vs. Djokovic with the Serb leading their H-2-H. Hope Murray can do himself justice and put up a decent fight...actually give Djokovic a test. Rafa is silently hoping for a Murray win!:P

Sounds great to me!!!!

Djokovic and Murray should be a great match, I would expect Djokovic to win and then go onto win the final, although I would prefer Nadal to win it cos he is a legend.

On a side note, and ye all probably already know this, but I was just looking at Wozniackis wikipedia and it says she never won a slam yet was world number 1 for ages, that's crazy and kind of bad for the womens game!

jcf

BazBox wrote: »

Sounds great to me!!!!

Djokovic and Murray should be a great match, I would expect Djokovic to win and then go onto win the final, although I would prefer Nadal to win it cos he is a cheat and a lowlife.

On a side note, and ye all probably already know this, but I was just looking at Wozniackis wikipedia and it says she never won a slam yet was world number 1 for ages, that's crazy and kind of bad for the womens game!

Fixed that for you.

RosyLily

Everyone's entitled to their own opinion jcf so stop changing their post to suit yourself!

walshb

How can someone have that kind of hate for another person?

Anyway, I really hope Murray doesn't somehow cause an upset, not because I dislike him, I would love to see him win a slam, but if he causes the upset, I see almost no chance for him vs. Nadal. At least with Novak, Nadal really is up against a man who has the beatings of him.

walshb

jcf wrote: »

I play at a USTA 5.0 level.

That makes your comments even worse than a 15 year old Junior Certer'.

MisterAnarchy

RosyLily wrote: »

Not sure if I'm gonna watch the women's final. 8am in the morning listening to 2 screechers? Ouch!:eek:

The battle of the boring Banshees ,best watched with the sound muted and perhaps the eyes closed if I am honest.

MisterAnarchy

Surface Homogenization
Interesting and honest comments by Federer after his match today

Anyway, every surface is very similar today, otherwise we couldn't have achieved all these things on all these different surfaces so quickly, like him (Nadal) and myself.

It's quite clear that the current surface speeds are snail-like compared to even Fed's domination era (2004-07)
Now we are watching who makes the first mistake , if the play was faster, we'd be watching who makes the winning shot.
I would really like if the surfaces went back to what they were like in the past.
Clay which is slow,grass and carpet which are fast and hard-court which could be slow and fast.
Then we will see how all the players will adapt to different court surfaces.
Too many 4 hour plus slugfests nowadays.

CountryJoe

Poor Fed, as is mostly the case when he plays against Nadal, his unforced errors always sink him.

MisterAnarchy

CountryJoe wrote: »

Poor Fed, as is mostly the case when he plays against Nadal, his unforced errors always sink him.

Watching the highlights again it was a very tight match.
Fed could have won the fourth set ,Nadal made some outrageous gets and was poxed to hold serve at 4-3 down in that set.
3/10 break points for Federer ,thats the primary stat that always lets him down.
He just cant seem to win the crucial points against Nadal .

RosyLily

Agree, it was a very tight match. Both players made some amazing shots and some awful mistakes. Federer played great in the first set then seemed to lose concentration and let Nadal in. Excellent match though!

Someone had it right on Twitter: "Roger Federer has a Rafa Nadal problem & Rafa has a Novak Djokovic problem."

jcf

walshb wrote: »

That makes your comments even worse than a 15 year old Junior Certer'.

Eh ?

Stella89

jcf wrote: »

Eh ?

I think he is saying that as You are an Adult who plays competitive sport, why are acting like a 15 year old child. I feel sorry for the opponents that have to play you in tennis . Are they all cheaters if they beat you?

jcf

Stella89 wrote: »

I think he is saying that as You are an Adult who plays competitive sport, why are acting like a 15 year old child. I feel sorry for the opponents that have to play you in tennis . Are they all cheaters if they beat you?

No actually, I like getting beat - it's good practice , I rather get beat by a guy and get a good game then win 6-4 6-4 playing like a pusher.


And seriously , have you not seen Nadal over the last few GS tournaments claiming injury, claiming fitness problems ?? - maybe he does it to lesses the pressure for himself , i don't know - but he's clearly exagerrating his "injuries"

walshb

Murray is really up against it here, 5-2 down.

jcf

1st set Nole, good he is the only one who can take the Nadal down ...

newballsplease

Murrary playing bad here. Djok to take over and win comfortably now i think

Pighead

Murray really upped his game there in the latter part of that second set. 1 set each now and Murray has just gone favourite.

jcf

Done deal for Nadal if Murray wins this ...

StephenHendry

come on andy, great chance to make it 2-1

StephenHendry

andy biggest threat is himself in this game. 6-6 in the 3rd set. tiebreak now...

StephenHendry

2-1 in sets to murray , he wants to win this the hard way

IvySlayer

Djokovic just blew him away in that set.

2-2, should be a cracker of a last set.

walshb

BBC live scores wanna' get their act together. They are two games behind paddy power. Murray unable to close the show. C'mon Novak. Seal this and give us a final that will be competitive.

CountryJoe

Watching the highlights again it was a very tight match.
Fed could have won the fourth set ,Nadal made some outrageous gets and was poxed to hold serve at 4-3 down in that set.
3/10 break points for Federer ,thats the primary stat that always lets him down.
He just cant seem to win the crucial points against Nadal .

Agreed, it was a tight match, but Fed had 63 unforced errors which helped Nadal out quite a bit. It was a great match though.

2 sets all now between Djokovic and Murray. Is the momentum with Novak after taking the fourth set 6-1. Im still hoping for Murray!

walshb

Crucial misses is Fed's problem. Unforced error count is far too high. He is handing games away from unforced errors being far too high.

63 points he gave away compared to Nadal, who gave away 36 was it?

velo.2010

No one commenting on Novak's pill-popping? Did the same last year at the US. Found 'new' energy against Nadal in that final and seems to have found 'new' energy again today after looking out on his feet in the second.

jcf

walshb wrote: »

BBC live scores wanna' get their act together. They are two games behind paddy power. Murray unable to close the show. C'mon Novak. Seal this and give us a final that will be competitive.

in fairness they have the text commentery too

shels4ever

velo.2010 wrote: »

No one commenting on Novak's pill-popping? Did the same last year at the US. Found 'new' energy against Nadal in that final and seems to have found 'new' energy again today after looking out on his feet in the second.

There is no problem in popping pills during games once the pills are legal, muarry was having drops added to his water also(which is still ok).

walshb

One can pop what they want as long as it's legal I would imagine. They eat bananas, don't they? Pills, bananas, if all leagal, no problem.

velo.2010

IMO medication on court for stress/fatigue should be banned. Novak claimed they were 'pain pills' last year. He popped one at the medical time-out and came out a new man. Looked fresh as a daisy at the end compared to Nadal. It may be legal but it slightly stinks.

walshb

Well, the ATP need to make it clear.

mike65

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_five_live

I'm only listening and I'm exhausted!

bing3

Epic Match.
Fair play to Murray. Really mature performance.
Hope Nole has enough in the tank for Nadal after that.

Morrisseeee

Game over, Murray looses.................again! Will he ever win a GS ??!!

Pighead

Morrisseeee wrote: »

Game over, Murray looses.................again! Will he ever win a GS ??!!

I'm still convinced he can. The naysayers will point to yet another disappointment at the business end of a Grand Slam but he is so so close. In my opinion there is barely anything between the top four in the world at the moment.

Murray is getting closer all the time. It's not even a matter of belief. He came back strongly in that final set and it came down to millimetres in the end. That lob that was called long in the second last game looked in to me but unfortunately for Murray he had no challenges left.

Unfortunately for Murray the French and Wimbledon represent his least likely chances of success so he's gonna have to wait til September to mount another realistic challenge.

On Djokovic, you have to admire the guy. Looked down and out twice in that match and somehow summoned energy to turn it around. That huge risky second serve when Murray had a break point to make it 5-6 in the final set was very brave. Hope he recovers well and we get another epic on Sunday morning. Hard to call but I'm gonna have to go Nadal.

walshb

I bet Nadal is freaked. He knows he beats Murray, but knows Novak has his number.

velo.2010

Murray is unfortunate in that he's playing against arguably the 3 greatest players of all time in actual performance terms. I think he needs a break if he is going to get a slam win, ie. one of the top 3 to drop out on his side so he has a clear run to the final and hope the other two have a right old dingdong of a match. Probably has to happen at the US.

If they weren't pills he was a poppin' then I'd love to know what exactly Djoko was snacking on under that towel! Had to laugh when he was telling Courier his energy levels were down to water and banana's.:pac:

steelcityblues

Excellent match this morning, but the last thing I wanted was another Nadal/Djokovic final. I fear that Djokovic will win again in 4 sets, but hope to be proven wrong. Nothing worse for a neutral than a one-sided rivalry.

Murray is rapidly improving, and it will be interesting to see his form book going into the French. One of the best matches I have ever seen.

RosyLily

I agree with Pighead. Andy looks even closer to winning a Grand Slam. To come back after losing the 4th set 6-1, then going 2-5 down in final set only to pull it back showed how mentally strong Murray is. On his day, he can beat the best; he's just gotta believe it. IMO, he's got 1 finger on a GS...whichever one it will be.
Ivan Lendl lost 4 GS finals before finally winning his first. Could Andy Murray replicate this feat?? Quite possibly!!

Bravo to both players though; they played some amazing tennis. I was shattered watching it!!

Really impressed by the quality of tennis in the SFS, both men's and women's. They really showed why people love tennis.

_Bella_

velo.2010 wrote: »

No one commenting on Novak's pill-popping? Did the same last year at the US. Found 'new' energy against Nadal in that final and seems to have found 'new' energy again today after looking out on his feet in the second.

Are you sure that wasn't his inhaler, thats what it seemed like to me?

Fantastic match anyway. Full of drama, and showed the progress Murray has made. Has been a of the great Grand Slam on both the men and women's side. I'm tipping Sharapova for tomorrow, she really wants it and has been playing very well. Hopefully her serve doesn't let her down. I think Nadal has to be favourite for the mens as he has been playing very well and has had the extra days rest.

bnt

I guess I'm the only person watching the Women's Single final, then? I came in when Sharapova was 2-0 up in the first set, and the commentators were wondering when Azarenka would wake up. Two games later ... she did. Took the first set 6-3, and the second set 6-0 for the championship and the world #1 spot.

It looked like Azarenka basically neutralised everything that Sharapova could offer, leading to more forced and unforced errors. Sharapova's first serve let her down too often, slowing the pace down, and that allowed Azarenka to play with much more variety, including some good-old-fashioned net play. Great stuff.

Don't know much about Ms. Azarenka, but she seems like an interesting character - or maybe it's just those specs: :cool:

vgv

I was hoping that Murray would be able to take another step in his development as a player and beat one of the big 3(N F D)as these are the only guys he seems unable to ever beat.And while he did give Djokovic a tough game I really thought this was one he could and should have won.In the second and third sets Djokovic seemed to be struggling but Murray could just not put him away quickly.The third set was almost 90 mins and was decided by a tiebreak when really it should never have got that far.It seemed that every time Murray went slightly ahead he would do something stupid and let Djokovic back in.He was never comfortable having the lead and played godawful in the first and particularly the 4th set,which was unforgiveably bad.It made me almost angry:mad: to watch him fight back in the fifth and then blow more break pts to go 6-5 up,not necessarily by getting outplayed but by making errors that he seemed to avoid making until the really crucial points.It seems to me that he has the tools to be a Slam winner but lacks the self belief and needs to become more ruthless.However he is certainly a class above Henman and Rusedski and I believe if he keeps on improving as he has been,he will be a Slam winner.

MisterAnarchy

bnt wrote: »

I guess I'm the only person watching the Women's Single final

People have sense,I cant remember the last time I saw a decent womans final,they tend to be short one sided affairs .

bnt wrote: »

It looked like Azarenka basically neutralised everything that Sharapova could offer, leading to more forced and unforced errors. Sharapova's first serve let her down too often, slowing the pace down, and that allowed Azarenka to play with much more variety, including some good-old-fashioned net play. Great stuff.

Sharapova is a completely one dimensional player .
If Plan A doesnt work she gets shown up.
She got annihilated in the Aus final by Serena Williams a few years ago,Kvitova hammered her last year.

Had to laugh when Virginia Wade was saying the other day that Sharapova was as mentally strong as Nadal :rolleyes:
Herself and Wilander are clueless

hollowlands

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMMPG4bc-sE

Surely he wouldn't take anything dodgy when it would be so easy to get caught on camera. It's still strange behaviour though.