2017 Australian Open

[bksballer89]

Like the day schedule tonight. Hopefully the women's matches are not too long so I can watch all of the Wawrinka/Tsonga match.

 

[cezero]

Watch out her next match. Konta will give her a match regardless of how well Serena plays.

We'll see.

They've never played, but Serena typically has a harder time against great defenders with great movement than with big servers.

Konta is 25, has played in 9 hard court majors, and has managed two 4th rounds and one SF where she got routed by Kerber.

I'd typically say that Serena at 80% should be enough to beat her pretty easily, but this is Australia 2017.

I'd like to see a good match.

 

[Old Lion]

We'll see.

They've never played, but Serena typically has a harder time against great defenders with great movement than with big servers.

Konta is 25, has played in 9 hard court majors, and has managed two 4th rounds and one SF where she got routed by Kerber.

I'd typically say that Serena at 80% should be enough to beat her pretty easily, but this is Australia 2017.

I'd like to see a good match.

Konta has improved greatly over the last 6 months. She has to not overhit though. Cant win if you cant keep the ball on the court. It should be interesting. There are not too many that can trade with Serena. She is one of the few. Pliskova and Coco still in it too. The rest have no chance.

 

[nuraman00]

We'll see.

They've never played, but Serena typically has a harder time against great defenders with great movement than with big servers.

Konta is 25, has played in 9 hard court majors, and has managed two 4th rounds and one SF where she got routed by Kerber.

I'd typically say that Serena at 80% should be enough to beat her pretty easily, but this is Australia 2017.

I'd like to see a good match.

I agree with this. Outside of Pliskova, Muguruza, and Stosur, more of Serena's losses in general come from good defenders.

 

[cezero]

I agree with this. Outside of Pliskova, Muguruza, and Stosur, more of Serena's losses in general come from good defenders.

Clay is Serena's worst surface by far, and Muguruza's best.

I thought about Stosur, in particular, though. She beat Serena at the Open because of that huge topspin she gets on her forehand. It really nullified Serena's backhand.

Konta hits her FH with very heavy topspin, too, which is the main reason I think she could indeed give Serena a good match. Konta moves pretty poorly, though. I feel like Serena can win the majority of rallies unless Konta is hitting within a foot of the baseline a lot.

 

[bksballer89]

Who do you fellas have taking the Aussie Open title? I must admit Rafa looks damn good. I'm thinking he eliminates Raonic. Dimitrov and Goffin is a toss up IMO.

 

[bksballer89]

Clay is Serena's worst surface by far, and Muguruza's best.

I thought about Stosur, in particular, though. She beat Serena at the Open because of that huge topspin she gets on her forehand. It really nullified Serena's backhand.

Konta hits her FH with very heavy topspin, too, which is the main reason I think she could indeed give Serena a good match. Konta moves pretty poorly, though. I feel like Serena can win the majority of rallies unless Konta is hitting within a foot of the baseline a lot.

Hey I know you're good with the rankings stuff. Will M.Zverev be in the top 32 when the new rankings come out next week even if he loses tonight?

 

[cezero]

Hey I know you're good with the rankings stuff. Will M.Zverev be in the top 32 when the new rankings come out next week even if he loses tonight?

He's at 32 right now, actually.

If he somehow wins tonight, he'll get up to 24, I believe.

 

[nuraman00]

Who do you fellas have taking the Aussie Open title? I must admit Rafa looks damn good. I'm thinking he eliminates Raonic. Dimitrov and Goffin is a toss up IMO.

I don't think Nadal matches up with Raonic at this point in Raonic's career.

I think Raonic has a great shot at the title. Rooting for one of the other possibilities, though.

 

[nuraman00]

Why couldn't Kuznetsova have a more consistent career?

 

[nuraman00]

Who do you fellas have taking the Aussie Open title? I must admit Rafa looks damn good. I'm thinking he eliminates Raonic. Dimitrov and Goffin is a toss up IMO.

For the Women, if it's Venus vs. Serena, Venus is playing very clean right now. I'll pick her.

Whatever the matchups are for the Womens SFs, I think they will be good. More intriguing than the matchups have been so far.

I don't know how Coco will do in her matchup, haven't seen much of her in this tourney.

 

[nuraman00]

Clay is Serena's worst surface by far, and Muguruza's best.

I thought about Stosur, in particular, though. She beat Serena at the Open because of that huge topspin she gets on her forehand. It really nullified Serena's backhand.

Konta hits her FH with very heavy topspin, too, which is the main reason I think she could indeed give Serena a good match. Konta moves pretty poorly, though. I feel like Serena can win the majority of rallies unless Konta is hitting within a foot of the baseline a lot.

Is clay a better surface for Muguruza than grass? If so, why?

 

[nuraman00]

Why couldn't Kuznetsova have a more consistent career?

For someone that has won two majors, and made 2 other Finals, she only has 5 SF appearances.

Which means even though she's proven she can go deep, she doesn't even get to the SF most of the time.

 

[nuraman00]

besides looking incredibly fit, being around martina has probably paid off in ways coco doesn't even really understand on a conscious level.

It took me a while to figure out you meant Hingis, her doubles partner, and not Navratilova.

I thought I might have missed some news about Navratilova coaching Vandeweghe.

 

[cezero]

Is clay a better surface for Muguruza than grass? If so, why?

She was raised on it, and she hits with lots of topspin like most Euros who grew up on it. The ball explodes off the clay court for them. On grass, their shots tend to go right in the strike zones of hard/grass players. It's part of why what Nadal did at Wimbledon against Federer was so remarkable. Muguruza making the final there was quite an accomplishment, IMO.

Players with flatter shots (usually those raised on hard courts) do better on grass because of the low bounce and pure mph of shots taking away their time.

I like Sock's chances of having his best success in Paris because he's such a deviation from a typical American hard courter. His FH topspin surpasses Rafa's.

 

[bksballer89]

Venus wins the first set

 

[bksballer89]

Venus wins the first set

Through to the semi finals

 

[bksballer89]

That Venus match took way too long. Basically ended any shot I had of watching the entire Tsonga/Wawrinka match tonight

 

[nuraman00]

Vandeweghe keeps getting break chances against Muguruza, but isn't capitalizing.

 

[nuraman00]

She was raised on it, and she hits with lots of topspin like most Euros who grew up on it. The ball explodes off the clay court for them. On grass, their shots tend to go right in the strike zones of hard/grass players. It's part of why what Nadal did at Wimbledon against Federer was so remarkable. Muguruza making the final there was quite an accomplishment, IMO.

Players with flatter shots (usually those raised on hard courts) do better on grass because of the low bounce and pure mph of shots taking away their time.

I like Sock's chances of having his best success in Paris because he's such a deviation from a typical American hard courter. His FH topspin surpasses Rafa's.

Thanks.