Australian Open 2022

dominatinMC

Now that the dust has settled and we can reflect on the match, this will surely go down as one of Nadals greatest victories, and up there with Federers 2017 AO victory as one of the great comebacks in all of sport. It's scarcely believable when you consider the circumstances - out for 6 months with a career threatening injury, apparently bedridden by a bad dose of Covid a few weeks ago, playing his least successful slam at the age of 35, and up against a string of younger (allegedly fitter) opponents, culminating with the in-form player on the tour and a 2 set to nil deficit. Remarkable really, there's a new GOAT in town.

Few posters banging on about this win being diluted because Djokovic wasn't playing, which I don't subscribe to. Fair enough, if they had met in Melbourne, I have no doubt Djokovic would have won as he has a huge edge on hard courts. But you can only beat what's in front of you, what's to say Djokovic wouldn't have been beaten by someone else anyway. Nadals draw was tough on paper, he navigated through it and earned this title the hard way. He has missed plenty of slams due to injury (including the 2016 FO), does that diminish the achievements of the players that won those? Absolutely not.

As for the slam race, some seem convinced the Djokovic is a lock for the most slams. I wouldn't share that confidence at the moment. The French is next, and Nadal should be overwhelming favourite to win that if fit and playing well - he should be playing even better by then than he was in Oz. Djokovic should win SW19 but USO is anyones, bearing in mind Nadal has more titles than anyone apart from Fed and Sampras there. So I wouldn't rule out Nadal adding a few more slams before the year is out, and possibly putting the debate to end once and for all.

AllForIt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118557518#Comment_118557518

Firstly let me say that I think Daniil Medvedev is pure class, both as a tennis player and as a person. He is way more existing a newish player than any of the others in his class and I think he has a great personality as well.

I don't have any problem with his complaints. But I think he's making a mistake to take in on the way he does.

I do think the audience were a disgrace. How one can have the privilege to have an opportunity to even be there in the first place, perhaps people who never held a racket in their hands in their lives, and use that opportunity to boo anyone without good reason. I think that kind of behaviour is utterly disgusting.

I think Medvedev in 3 years or so time will be the man to beat, and he's got the opportunity now to win a few slams. But if he lets this persecution complex get under his skin, which I agree is warranted, he's in danger of not reaching his potential.

Good luck to him. I think he's fantastic for tennis and I hope he tries to focus more on his job going forward than be too bothered about booing. edit: he needs someone to convince him to win the audience over and how to do that.

cannonballTaffyOjones

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118557518#Comment_118557518

:D :D :D Nadal the underdog ...

poppy37

I agree about the Eurosport cube, Alize Lim was shockingly bad, giggling like a schoolgirl, stumbling over her words and making absolutely no sense at times. As Schett’s husband is Australian it made sense for her to report from there but really there have to be better presenters available than Lim.

Also Mats Wilander’s comments after the Women’s Final about how great it was to see a player winning slams without blasting the other player off court like Serena were uncalled for. Can he not praise one player without making disparaging remarks about another. I’m no fan of Serena but she deserves more respect than that.

walshb

Am I the only one again saying Nadal won’t win FO?

Yes, he won Australia, but he actually looks an old man. France is an even tougher ride. I think his body suffers on clay.

I would not be surprised if he won. He is that great a player and competitor, but I see him failing again.

Dr. Bre

Aussie and American crowds are more vocal than at Wimbledon or Roland

lostcat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118559499#Comment_118559499

It will obviously depend on how much the past two weeks took out of him, I wonder will that chronic foot injury flare up again? he invested an awful lot into the past two weeks.

All else being equal (i.e. if everyone is present and correct) I would have him and Djokovic as joint favorites for the French. None of the other top players are, strangely enough, that hectic on clay.

josip

Three way toss up for me between Tsitsipas, Nadal and Djokovic.

How far Nadal goes will depend on his foot/other body parts holding up.

How far Djokovic gets depends on French Covid restrictions.

How far Tsitsipas gets depends how much he wants it.

wassie

Ive been to a couple of Australian Open finals and found the atmosphere and lively crowds is electric. I'm not aware of any other sports you can watch live as a spectator that run well beyond midnight. There are always a few idiots who go to far but they generally get sorted.

The Aussie crowds can certainly be one sided - but they were always appreciative at the end of the match for the winner(s) & loser(s) alike.

The AO seems to have a good rep also as a player friendly tournament with the players as the organisers always get a positive mention during the presentation speeches over and above the usual thanks.

Girly Gal

This year's AO proved that the next gen aren't capable of pushing Nadal & Djokovic off their pedestal, it's likely the slams will again be split this year between these two, with only the US open offering any chance of an alternative winner. Had Medvedev won and added to him defeating Djokovic at the USO, it might have signalled a changing of the guard and given a boost to the next gen guys that maybe their reign ( Djokovic & Nadal) was nearing an end. Their reign will end, but, it will be down to the ravages of time and not anything the next gen are doing.

wassie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118557586#Comment_118557586

Few posters banging on about this win being diluted because Djokovic wasn't playing, which I don't subscribe to. Fair enough, if they had met in Melbourne, I have no doubt Djokovic would have won as he has a huge edge on hard courts. But you can only beat what's in front of you, what's to say Djokovic wouldn't have been beaten by someone else anyway. Nadals draw was tough on paper, he navigated through it and earned this title the hard way. He has missed plenty of slams due to injury (including the 2016 FO), does that diminish the achievements of the players that won those? Absolutely not.

Nadal has won 2 out of 2 slam titles when Djokovic has been absent (Aus Open 2022 & US Open 2017).

But then again, Djokovic won the Aus Open 2013 and Wimbledon 2021 with Nadal missing.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118560861#Comment_118560861

The most pertinent fact is that Nadal has last won a set of hardcourt tennis off Djokovic in 2013

Since then Djokovic has won 19 hardcourt consecutive sets against Nadal, including the straight sets win in the AO final in 2019 - 6–3, 6–2, 6–3

That's hardcourt surfaces

But it's onto the next tournament now - Medvedev blew the match with three match points at 0-40 in the third set and then throwing away his own service in the very next game with a really dumb blast into the net with a gimme bounce and it went from there and that's the result.

Clearly viewable here

https://www.atptour.com/en/players/atp-head-2-head/novak-djokovic-vs-rafael-nadal/D643/N409

wassie

Why is it more pertinent that he's won more sets on hard courts?

I was pointing out that both of their records have instances of wins where the other wasn't playing.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118560991#Comment_118560991

because it's quite common knowledge that surfaces play a huge role in tennis matches, mainly due to how a ball behaves when it impacts the surface

Nadal is fairly well known for being handy on clay.

you might be familiar with that.

he has won 13 french opens

bit of a trend there perhaps?

Nadal has a much better record vs Djokovic on clay

clay is a surface where a ball comes off that surface pretty slowly compared to other surfaces

it's a slow surface

Nadal is less good on faster surfaces

hardcourts are faster surfaces, like the Australian Open

indoor hardcourts are even faster than outdoor hardcourt surfaces

Nadal has been to the year-end ATP finals 16 years in a row, a tournament of only the top 8 players

they are held on indoor hardcourts

Nadal hasn't won it even once

bit of a trend there

Djokovic has won the last 19 consecutive sets on hardcourts vs Nadal

bit of a trend there

HeidiHeidi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118561091#Comment_118561091

God almighty, could you be any more condescending???

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118561101#Comment_118561101

pretty effective explanation that I laid out clearly for someone who doesn't seem to be au fait with the implications of tennis surfaces at the top-level of the ATP

don't damage yourself getting down off that high horse

HeidiHeidi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118561114#Comment_118561114

😂

Who's on a high horse?

MisterAnarchy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118561091#Comment_118561091

There used to be a big variation in court speeds but since the homogenisation of court speeds the variation in speed is nowhere near as large as it was.

There are very few true fast surface on the tour nowadays, alot of slow and alot of medium speed surfaces.

Indoor courts are much slower than indoor courts of bygone eras, carpet is gone, so is wood .

The ATP finals have been played on Medium speed courts for the last decade if not more.

Slowing the hard and indoor courts changed the game and allowed players like Nadal and Djokovic to win more Grand Slams on these titles than they would on faster courts.

It helped Federer too but to a much lesser extent as he said 2 years ago

Q. Do you think your record of 20, numbers of weeks at the top, are threatened by Djokovic or Nadal?

ROGER FEDERER: Since a long time, yes. This is not new. Maybe there's more talk about it now. I think, like before, as the surfaces get more equal, everybody can pile up more Grand Slam wins, like I did. It was the reason for me probably to pass Sampras by having the surfaces be more equal.

Good article on speed surfaces here which backs up my points.

https://www.perfect-tennis.com/tennis-court-surfaces-and-court-speeds/

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118561251#Comment_118561251

any discussion about relative homogenisation of surfaces does not involve clay

there are still significant differences between Clay, where Nadal has won 13 of 21 slams and the other surfaces

saying that clay (Nadal - 13 RG titles) and the ATP finals surfaces (Nadal zip for 16 with only 8 players) are not very different is a little silly.

lostcat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118561120#Comment_118561120

walshb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118561114#Comment_118561114

The poster simply pointed out slams where both men won where the other was absent. You then went off on some research buzz (that was nice), but irrelevant to anything the poster said.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118561517#Comment_118561517

Why is it more pertinent that he's won more sets on hard courts?

He asked that question.

I then addressed that question.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118560991#Comment_118560991

wassie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118561091#Comment_118561091

Think you have gotten a bit excited there schooling me about "implications of tennis surfaces at the top-level of the ATP"

Let me put my question another way for you (cause you still didnt answer it)

Are you saying that Nadal's record of 21 Grand Slams is diminished by virtue of Djokos record against him?

I didn't say that

I was pointing out djokovic's 19 consecutive sets on hard courts Vs Nadal is more relevant than who was present at what event or not

Beating Nadal at the French open was and still is what many commentators call the hardest thing in tennis

Nadal beating djokovic on a hard court has proved even harder for Nadal over the last 9 years.

He hasn't done it

He hasn't won a single set in fact out of 19 sets

Girly Gal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118561601#Comment_118561601

Djokovic had the same opportunity to enter the AO as every other player, but, blatantly tried to side step the rules,so, can't really complain now. The chances are he probably would have won the AO, but, he wasn't there and that was all of his own making.

Also another point is that Nadal managed to do what Djokovic failed to do at the USO, he turned the match around when he was in a very similar situation as Djokovic was against the same opponent. Going on about Nadal's record against Djokovic on hard courts is totally irrelevant and won't change the fact Nadal won AO 22 and now moves ahead in total slams.

Nadal has the title

Medved blew a massive chance for himself

Fair play to Nadal.

That's in the record books and is not going to change.

Historical fact

Also historical fact is that Nadal has been beaten like an ass by djokovic on hard courts for the best part of ten years

AllForIt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118560787#Comment_118560787

That's exactly what I expected to see. Medvedev winning and that would signal a change of the old guard.

I think he really should have won it. I think he let the crowd get to him. As well as Nadal played to recover and win, I still think Medvedev lost it rather Nadal won it. I think if there wasn't a booing issue he would have won.

You'd really have to give credit where it's due to the most notable achievement on the WTA singles side to Sabalenka

When someone is serving as badly as she was this year in general (a cracker from Adelaide below) and in Melbourne at the AO, to make it to the second week of a grand slam was very impressive indeed.

Especially after starting out with a startling 6 double-faults in her first game against Wang in the second round.

Real number-2-in-the-world level stuff (still number 2).

Quality.

👍️ 👍️ 👍️

(honourable mention to Emma Raducanu who somehow moved up 5 spots to world number 13 for getting to the second round)

yerwanthere123

How January started

And how it ended 😎

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118562794#Comment_118562794

Good on Rafa!

👍️👍️👍️