Tennis Thread

[Sedition]

Caught some of this last night. Jack Sock gave me a bit of a laugh.

A few Aussies in action today I hear, must still be in the early rounds. Roddick announced his retirement last night, so the atmosphere will be intense for his match against our Tomic tonight or so.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

tsonga's out in the 2nd. that's a major relief for murray because as it stood beforehand, he'd have to beat the same guys he had to beat at wimbledon then tack djokovic on to the end to win the thing.

I've always wanted to see murray in a semi final with federer (and it should happen now) I do think he has a mental block when playing him in finals but their head to head record suggests he should have beaten him on at least one of the three occassions.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

best sporting moment of my life.

we have a tennis grand slam champ. still finding it difficult to believe.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

time for me to bump the tennis thread. which I do so at every slam to remind all you australians, saffers, indians, pakistanis or english men you are all terrible at tennis and this is how I feel on this cricket board most of the time.

so yeah! erm. absolutely nothing eventful happening really. no nadal which is disappointing, but it's business as usual everywhere else. berdych is looking the most dangerous QF opponent and he's got djokovic. Murray should stroll into the semi final and I want to see fed there too as a semi final would be interesting.

 

[Skater]

Murray v Djokovic final I think.

 

[barmyarmy]

Most likely but Federer can still beat anyone on his day plus he has played all evening matches whereas Murray has played during the day.
Sometimes it helps to play and come through the 5 setters as Djokovic and Federer have done too compared to Murray yet to drop a set.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

djokovic was in terrifying form today, but at least there's some comfort in the fact that bullying either federer or murray's serve in that way should be nigh on impossible.

I'm not calling fed or murray, but muzza owes him a stuffing in a slam.

 

[puddleduck]

Yeah you just can't call Fed v Murray. By all accounts Murray should have too much for him as when he's ticking he's got just a bit too much power and is fitter... that said, Fed is Fed and he's got a single handed backhand that I can only dream of being able to hit.

Djoko looking ominous, I swear he has to be on some kind of performance enhancing something or other. He's a machine at the moment.

 

[Skater]

Djoko looking ominous, I swear he has to be on some kind of performance enhancing something or other. He's a machine at the moment.

Don't open that can of worms!

Murray started well, up a break in the first set.

 

[zimrahil]

Yeah Murray - please beat Djoko now

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

he puts you through the ringer that boy, but like the US open a relatively straightforward final set. he'll need to raise his level against djokovic but there were definitely signs that he can push him close.

that's murray's third slam final in a row, bloody impressive stuff.

 

[Skater]

I thought he'd thrown it away when he lost the fourth set having been 30-15 up serving for the match. He came back, though, and thumped Federer in the fifth. That's the first time Murray has beaten Federer in a grand slam and only the second time in a big match (Olympic final). Another step forward for him, and it certainly seems that Djokovic and Murray will be no.1 and no.2 for a few years.

As for the final, my money is on Djokovic. He's playing incredibly well and will have had an extra day's rest before the final.

 

[puddleduck]

Obviously final can go either way, but I always feel Murray in 3 sets can take out Djoko, and to an extent Nadal when he was actually fit, but when it's 5 sets Djoko just has a little too much.

That all said, like Skater I would have expected Murray to lose the 5th after the way he lost the 4th, he really has gone up a level in his mental game and it's great to see as he plays a much more aggressive game of tennis now. Backs himself to hit winners far earlier in rallies rather than waiting for the opponent to make a mistake... which inevitably the top 2 or 3 don't.

 

[swacker]

Well done to Djokovic!

Not really a great final, tbh but a third consecutive win at AO is a great achievement.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

djoko is just a beast, you couldn't really seperate them in the first two sets but djoko just gets stronger the longer a match goes. once he was on top in the 3rd that was it. I think the only way murray would bave beaten him was if he got that 2nd set (he arguably deserved it, though in fairness djokovic was slightly in top in the first so 1:1 was a fair result at that point) and then simply used the 4th to get his breath back for a final charge in the 5th. perhaps that's how he managed to win at the US Open.

there is one negative point and that is, while I'm definitely not accusing djokovic of anything, his game is showing that tennis is moving in a direction where PEDs could have a significant impact on results. before people wrote them off as you can't use PEDs to get a serve like sampras, or a forehand like federer, you can however use them so that you can keep battering and chasing for 4-5 hours, which a lot of modern matches seem to go. I don't know if it's a good sign or a sign that tennis isn't doing enough, as you'd think with the money involved there would have been a few more players caught out.