2017 Australian Open

[cezero]

Imagine trying to swat a 90 mph rock with the back of your right hand while your arm is extended above the shoulder joint. that's kind of what it feels like for somebody with a one-handed backhand against a lefty's crosscourt forehand with among the highest topspin in tennis history.

 

[cezero]

I am counting on Venus to tank and let her lil sis win

my god you're stupid

 

[bksballer89]

my god you're stupid

Yeah that was such a ridiculous statement.

 

[ElTexan]

That match was boring af

 

[ElTexan]

Predict: Fed wins sets 1,2,4

 

[Old Lion]

That match was boring af

Glad I did not watch it. Will be DVR-ing the Fed / Rafa match. So far the Rafa / Dimitrov has been the highlight of the Aussie. Hopfully Dimitrov keeps this level of play going forward. He will win several majors if he does.

 

[Hs0022]

Glad I did not watch it. Will be DVR-ing the Fed / Rafa match. So far the Rafa / Dimitrov has been the highlight of the Aussie. Hopfully Dimitrov keeps this level of play going forward. He will win several majors if he does.

If one likeable guy to disrupt the Nole - Murray empire I would rather it was Dimitrov.

 

[Hs0022]

As expected Venus gift wraps it to lil sis so she could break Steffi's record. What more could an elder sis want? They met in nine gs finals and Serena won seven of them. Hmm can I sense an asterisk coming next to Serena's name in terms of GS achievement?

 

[cezero]

Serena's incredible.

As if trying to break Graf's record weren't enough,she also had to do it against one of the most important people in her life.

Hard to imagine maintaining that laser focus with all of that stress, but she did it.

 

[cezero]

HS as always shows he knows zero about tennis. Always a hoot to see sub-90 IQs try to use words.

 

[cezero]

All of these years of rivalry between Rafa and Fed, and this is only their 2nd hard court major final.

If it were best of 3, I'd pick Fed. Best of 5, I have to go with Rafa, though I hope I'm wrong.

Biggest factors for me:

1) Look for Rafa to go down the line with his backhand a lot. If Fed can somehow find a way to reply to that, then he increases his chances of winning by a lot.

2) Rafa will serve almost exclusively to Fed's backhand, no matter the score. If that changes, it probably means that Fed has come up with a reply.

3) Will be interesting to see Fed's approach to serving. Will he go for high 1st serve %, or go for power? We'll see.

4) Depth is more important than angle and speed for Fed's backhand. If his backhands aren't consistently landing within a foot of the baseline, it could get ugly real fast.

 

[bksballer89]

Serena's incredible.

As if trying to break Graf's record weren't enough,she also had to do it against one of the most important people in her life.

Hard to imagine maintaining that laser focus with all of that stress, but she did it.

Think she can get to 25 this year?

 

[bksballer89]

Tonight I'll probably set my alarm for 5 or 515 AM. Not even going to try and watch this match from the start. If I wake up at that time, I should catch the match from some point in the 2nd set.

 

[cezero]

Think she can get to 25 this year?

she could easily win another couple majors this year, yeah

 

[nuraman00]

You didn't include the women.
That Chang-Edberg match still haunts me. I think I still have that on VHS

Does that site have any stats on Women?

 

[nuraman00]

Does that site have any stats on Women?

Ok, this one does.

List of Grand Slam singles champions in Open Era with age of first title - Wikipedia

12 winners under 20, including 3 16 year olds.

Kuznetsova, Sharapova, and Majoli were the most recent.

 

[nuraman00]

Damn auto correct.

Damn You Auto Correct! - Funny iPhone Fails and Autocorrect Horror Stories

 

[nuraman00]

Catching up on a few things:


* FED vs. Wawrinka felt kind of random. Wawrinka won sets 3 and 4, then just had a random bad serving game to lose the match. There didn't seem to be many long deuce games in this match. It felt like when someone held or broke, it was an easy game.


So to me, kind of had a weird random feel.


Unlike other matches, where there's long deuce games, and someone either then holds or breaks. You can feel more tension then.


* Nadal vs. Dmitrov: This might be the best chance Dmitrov will ever have to play in a Final. He's good, but not quite consistent enough on his shots. If I look at other top layers like Berdych, Tsonga, and Cilic, they've played in 1 GS Final each. So Dmitrov might fall into that.


Maybe things will get easier after Djokovic and Murray slow down, and other players will break through to more Finals. But if not, then this will be a lost opportunity.


Dmitrov has the talent to win, but so have several of these other players, but they've had a hard time getting through to the Finals.


Again, maybe it will get easier when Djokovic and Murray aren't getting to so many Finals.


But maybe not.


* Venus vs. Serena: Was rooting for Venus, because of how long it had been since she's won a major.

Venus had chances to break early in the 2nd set, but she couldn't do it.


She didn't serve as well as she needed to to in the match. It might sound odd because Venus is such a great historical server, but it just wasn't good enough today.


And in the 1st set, she would make errors before Serena would.


Then in the final game, she had another chance to get to a break point, but couldn't.


Congrats to Serena.


Venus played well, just wish she could have won a title she's never won, and only played in her 2nd AO Finals.


She hasn't been past the QF round of the FO since 2006, although she has 2 4th round appearances since then (2010, 2016). It would be cool to see her win that title because she's never won, but that would be even harder than winning the AO would be.

 

[nuraman00]

Nadal has historically done well against players with one-handed backhands. There's a reason why Wawrinka was 0-12 against Nadal heading into the 2014 AO Finals. Wawrinka hadn't even won a set against Nadal before that matchup, although there had been 6 tiebreakers in those 12 matches.

Nadal is a creature of pattern. He serves 99% to a player's backhand.

The topspin that Nadal generates is just too much for players with one handed backhands.

This quote displays the pattern.

++++++++++

Patrick McEnroe: "I'm pretty sure I know where this one's going."

Nadal then aces Zverev on set point for the 4th set, by hitting it down the middle, to the forehand side!

"Oooh, he waited for the right time!"

I think that had been the first time all match Nadal didn't serve to Zverev's backhand. Or one of the few.

++++++++++++

Nadal vs. Gasquet (another one-handed backhand), Nadal is 14-0, dropping only 4 sets.

 

[nuraman00]

Between the Men's and Women's QFs, only one match wasn't in straight sets -- Pliskova vs. Lucic-Baroni.