2018 Aussie Open

[nuraman00]

I am live now.

 

[nuraman00]

Cilic broken twice early and loses 6 - 2.

He could barely win a point.

Hopefully he finds a way to just get some balls in play right now, then finds his game, so this can at least be competitive and show how Cilic can be.

 

[nuraman00]

I've never seen someone have batting practice on Cilic's 2nd serve before.

Cilic needed to play 15 points to hold on his service game, in the 2nd set.

 

[Smart]

Cilic is starting to come to life. He's played even on the long rallies for the last several games. The difference is that Fed is getting a lot more points with his serve.

 

[nuraman00]

Cilic had set points late in the 2nd set, but couldn't convert.

He finally wins the 2nd set in a tiebreak.

 

[nuraman00]

Cilic is starting to come to life. He's played even on the long rallies for the last several games. The difference is that Fed is getting a lot more points with his serve.

Hey, @Smart . Nice to see you here.

 

[Smart]

Hey, @Smart . Nice to see you here.

I wouldn't miss another chance to watch Fed win a grand slam. I've dumped cable since last year and the TVs in the common area of my apartment building don't have DVR, so I haven't seen much besides the Aussie Open highlights. But since I can't DVR it, I sure as hell am not gonna miss it live.

 

[Smart]

Cilic played great for the entire second and third set, save for the one game he was broken. That form is gone now. He was broken after missing a routine shot up 30-0. Then last game he had to battle and save a break point to avoid going down a double break. At this point, Cilic should just go for broke on the Federer serve. Playing his normal game hasn't gotten him any traction.

 

[Smart]

A weird set of games there. Fed gets broken at love. He comes right back and earns break point, but Cilic survives for the hold. Then Cilic has it 15-40 and has the edge in that point, but Fed comes back to have the advantage, only to see Cilic play the best point of the match and eventually break.

Cilic is serving to go 5. The Federer serve is misfiring everywhere, which is not a good sign.

 

[Smart]

And we go to the fifth. Federer will be the one serving first in the deciding set.

 

[Smart]

A classic game to open the fifth. Cilic misses an easy shot at 30-30. Cilic hits long at 40-30, but Fed does not challenge and loses the point. Cilic gets the hard-earned break point and misses an easy return. Marin again hits a deep ball to the Fed backhand, and the slice misfires again. Then Federer comes up with three gutsy point wins with multiple line painters.

1-0 Federer, but certainly not comfortable like his serve games were prior to 30 minutes ago.

 

[Smart]

Fed's pressure to the Cilic serve pays off. After Fed starts the game with a huge winner that gets negated due to a poor out call, Cilic doubles twice in the game and Federer breaks at deuce.

2-0 Federer

 

[Smart]

Cilic makes a great get off a near-perfect Federer drop shot at 30-15. Cilic then misses an easy return of a floater second serve. Federer's first serve just misses, and Cilic wins a short forehand rally off the Fed error. Then when he needs it most, the serve comes up huge for Federer. Cilic can't return the deuce point, and Fed's serve allows him to dictate the ad point before the Cilic forced error.

3-0 Federer. These games are tense. Outside of Cilic's hold to end the fourth set, each of the last six games have been gone to deuce, I believe.

 

[Smart]

Cilic with the easy love hold. Federer only was able to return one of the four serves.

Federer responds with a love hold of his own. Cilic got the first serve back, but the next three points were all unreturned.

4-1 Federer

 

[Hs0022]

Woke up at 3:30 then snoozed, then woke up at Fed leading by two set to one and fourth set 3-4 with serve. Then went back to sleep, woke up again and it’s two sets all. Scoreboard frozen at
0-0 fifth set opening game. Then stuck around for grandpa to take a 3-0 lead.

 

[Smart]

Cilic with a terrible miss at 0-15 and he looks completely dejected. He regroups to win the next point, but has a close forehand miss to give Fed two breaks (and blows a challenge). Fed with the great deep return at 15-40 and a solid rally ends with Cilic missing a fairly routine short ball.

5-1 Federer.

 

[Hs0022]

Fed wins #20!

 

[Smart]

And there it ends. Federer pulls it out with a routine game.

It's tough to assess this match too much. Cilic played a very poor first set and a weak fifth set. Roger's serve abandoned him for a long time in the fourth set. A key part of his good runs in 2012, 2015, and last year was that he did not these runs and always found a way to hit the big serves. The good tennis in this match was played in the second and third sets. Cilic controlled the long rallies for the most part, but in order to do so, his margin of error was so small that he missed a lot of balls. I was disappointed that Fed moved as poorly as he did, and his form is not as good as it was a year ago. The big thing helping him is that no one else seems to be in great form either.

But after this, everything is gravy. 20 majors is an incredible achievement. To do so in the same era as Nadal and Djokovic is absurd. To keep winning them at age 36 is really unprecedented. If he can just win Dubai, he'll be the oldest #1 ever. Yet another huge accomplishment for the greatest player of all-time.

 

[Old Lion]

Great match. Looked like Fed was going to roll him but losing the tiebreak kept Cilic in it and by the middle of the 4th set it looked like Fed was going to flame out. Somehow he got it together in the 5th early and it was Cilic who lost his nerve.

 

[bksballer89]

Great match. Looked like Fed was going to roll him but losing the tiebreak kept Cilic in it and by the middle of the 4th set it looked like Fed was going to flame out. Somehow he got it together in the 5th early and it was Cilic who lost his nerve.

Yep just watched the first 4 sets on my DVR. Refused to watch the 5th as I'm assuming it was a lot like the 1st set after seeing the scoreline.

How did he fall off so much after playing amazing in the 4th set? Don't get it