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Tennis 2015

Started by Mr_Simnock, January 02, 2015, 07:59:08 PM

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selectivememory

Quote from: Deanjam on January 16, 2015, 12:39:12 AM
Nadal v Youzhny could be interesting too.

Just noticed this. That might be a really tricky one for Nadal if he's still a little rusty, and if he makes it through he might have to face his old pal Lukáš Rosol in the third round.

Deanjam

Quote from: pigamus on January 17, 2015, 02:31:18 PM
And yet, on 5 Live, they spent about three minutes talking about Andy Murray's new coaching team and then just "Oh yeah, Heather Watson won a title as well." I thought that was a bit off.

I'm not surprised. I've saw more coverage of Murray's engagement that most other Brits get for their tennis. Fair enough if Andy wins a big tourney, but the off court stuff is a bore.

Quote from: selectivememory on January 17, 2015, 02:38:27 PM
Good for her. She was at a similar ranking when she got ill, so it's nice to see she's managed to get herself back up there. Hard to tell if she's capable of going even higher. I always thought Robson was the more talented of the two, but she's not due back for a while yet and will probably take an equally long time, if not longer, to get herself back up in the top 50. Both have time on their side though.

Robson has bigger shots, so can get the wins over better players. But she's been too unfocused in training in the past and has a lousy serve. Hopefully the year out will make her appreciate having to focus more. I think Robson can be top 10, Heather top 20. Hopefully they can prove it with injury/illness free years.

Quote from: selectivememory on January 17, 2015, 02:38:27 PM
Whatever happened to Dan Evans? I was thinking he was the highest-ranked male Brit after Murray, and it wasn't that long ago that he seemed to be on the brink of breaking the top 100, but I just checked and he's not even in the top 300 any more.

I think he picked up a bit of an injury. He made the semis in Zagreb last Feb to get a career high #123 in the world. Then won just one main tour match and two challenger tour matches all season and hasn't played since September. I think he may have a bit of an injury, but knowing Dan he may have just gone on a year long bender.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Well done Heather Watson- she didn't have to beat any big names but certainly coped with the pressure well. I have a bet with a mate that Heather Watson will go on to have a more successful career than Robson, so this is helping.

Deanjam

Well it's 2-0 in title count to Heather. Weird that Robbo hasn't won a WTA title yet, although she does have an Olympic silver, which is pretty cool.

selectivememory

Quote from: Deanjam on January 17, 2015, 03:05:04 PM
Well it's 2-0 in title count to Heather. Weird that Robbo hasn't won a WTA title yet, although she does have an Olympic silver, which is pretty cool.

Actually, talking about her poor serve, I remember that that was probably what cost her and Murray the gold in that Olympics match. Lots of tightening up at big moments, though then again, she'd have been very young and it was a pretty big stage in comparison to what she'd have been used to.[nb]I also remember that match for Murray being utterly fucking miserable afterwards in his interview, despite having earlier that very day had the (at that point) biggest victory of his career.[/nb]

Deanjam

It's weird with Murray. He always seems like a misery on TV, but he's by far the funniest of the top players on Twitter.

rjd2

Daniel Evans is basically a massive waster who probably has more talent than James Ward simply does not have the work ethic to compensate to for his laziness. A really downmarket substandard tedious and slightly racist version of Ernst Gulbis.

Good effort from Watson, she has essentially vultured this week with nobody about but a win is a win. For what its worth, she is playing Pironkova first round and the bookies have that priced very closely. Not ideal at all for Heather.

Looking at the men side, Murray is fucked, brutal quarter and even then its probably Nadal or Berdych in the semi finals. Not going to happen.

Novak will be content with the draw, seems painless until Stan or Nishikori in the semi final.

Deanjam

Quote from: rjd2 on January 17, 2015, 03:57:36 PM
she has essentially vultured this week with nobody about but a win is a win.

I wouldn't consider this vulturing. For me, that's when a player plays an event below their usual level in order to boost their ranking (see Murray at Shenzen & Vienna last year). Heather wasn't even seeded for Hobart.

Mr_Simnock

QuoteGood effort from Watson, she has essentially vultured this week with nobody about but a win is a win

That's enough of the MTF talk on here thank you. Vultured? That's silly, she did beat four players ranked higher than herself and it doesn't matter they arn't much above her either and it was good win.

Bugger Deabjam beat me to it

rjd2

Yeah fair enough lads, way to harsh on her.

I will say though, fucking hell with all the focus understandably on the Aussie Open, easy to forget Sloane got to the semis a few years ago beating Serena and has done sweet fuck all since. She was one of those crushed by Heather this week.

Deanjam

Stephens is another example of someone thinking they'd made it after one successful tournament. I don't really care for her.

selectivememory

Quote from: rjd2 on January 17, 2015, 03:57:36 PM
Looking at the men side, Murray is fucked, brutal quarter and even then its probably Nadal or Berdych in the semi finals. Not going to happen.

He should make the fourth round easily enough and we'll see from there, but I think if he's playing well he won't have much trouble with Dimitrov (who played very well at Wimbledon, but Murray had an absolute shocker that day, and at his best is still on another level to Grigor at the moment). After that it's very tough against (in all likelihood) Federer, but we'll see about the semifinal. Nadal may struggle to make it that far, although it's hard to tell where he's at until we've seen him in a couple of matches here, and I reckon Murray would be super-motivated to beat Berdych since his former long-time coach/hitting partner/friend Vallverdu has now joined Berdych's team.

Also happy to see that this year Murray's side of the draw is playing first, which might have some significance should he make the final. I'm getting ahead of myself though. Anyhow, his first match should be sometime around 2am GMT on Monday. Excited for it, I love it when a slam gets going, and I think the Aussie is going to be a lot of fun this year. I'd love it if any of Murray, Stan or Kei won it.

Deanjam

Quote from: selectivememory on January 17, 2015, 07:05:11 PM
I love it when a slam gets going, and I think the Aussie is going to be a lot of fun this year.

Yeah, me too. Shame that I don't see much live from Melbourne cos of the time difference. Have to try and avoid the results then watch a replay as live.

rjd2

Some rumours about that Djokovic has done his wrist in practise, its probably bollocks but if he was to pull out, massive for the likes of Stan, Nishikori and especially Raonic who are all his side.

Deanjam

Rumours are because he cancelled tomorrow's practice session and arranged a press conference. However, it seems the presser was a re-schedule from one he missed on Friday and he has another training session booked later.

Looks like it was nothing after all.

rjd2

Quote from: Deanjam on January 14, 2015, 04:29:39 PM
Great to have the big fella back. He's not got a great record in Melbourne, so I'm not expecting much there. But if his wrist holds up then he'll be a threat all year.


Unlike Novak, very likely he may not play. His coach has said he had to abandon training after 20 minutes in serious pain. He is playing Jerzy in the first round and probably Monfils, if any doubt he shouldn't bother, not worth it. So many injuries, wouldn't be shocked if he retires prematurely sadly.

Deanjam

Quote from: rjd2 on January 18, 2015, 12:21:08 AM

Unlike Novak, very likely he may not play. His coach has said he had to abandon training after 20 minutes in serious pain. He is playing Jerzy in the first round and probably Monfils, if any doubt he shouldn't bother, not worth it. So many injuries, wouldn't be shocked if he retires prematurely sadly.

Oh for fuck's sake. Those bastard wrists.

selectivememory

Confirmed now, unfortunately. That classic Wimbledon semifinal against Djokovic seems a long time ago now, but back then he looked like he was back to his best and very likely to seriously challenge for slams again. What a shame. I hope he can come back from this, because without all his injury problems I reckon we'd have been talking about a big five rather than a big four. Since he won the US Open he's had horrific luck.

Apparently Novak had some bug which prevented him training until today, but he says he's good to go now. He's got himself a nice draw to ease himself in and should make the semifinals without too much bother.

Deanjam

Yeah, he's got a nice draw. Verdasco's the highest ranked player he might face in the first 3 rounds. Then probably Isner or Bautista-Agut in the fourth. Can't see any problems for him.

selectivememory

Tremendous match here between Aussie youngster Kokkinakis and Ernests Gulbis. Deep into the fifth, getting exciting.

Everything else seems to have gone exactly as expected in the night.

selectivememory

Kokkinakis takes it, celebrates like he's just won the tournament. Did a fucking lap of honour.

Edit: Wow, I'm being a real judgemental prick. Kid's only 18 and it'd be hard not to get carried away by that atmosphere.

Deanjam

Yeah it's easy to be annoyed by Kokk & Kygrios but I'm happy to see a couple of youngsters emerge with a bit of attitude. It's especially good for the event as the Aussies haven't had much to get excited about lately.

As usual it was the women who provided the upsets with a whole bunch of seeds tumbling out. Sad but not surprised to see Lisicki & Ivanovic among them. Bouchard now has no seeds to face before the quarters.

Fed, Nad & Muzza all strolled through easy enough. Murray still managed to have a blip against the lowest ranked man in the tournament though. Thought Dimitrov looked good against Dustin Brown.

rjd2

Kerber gone as well.

Ivanovic is so overrated,  rarely does much at any Slams, yeah I know she beat Serena last year but of course she lost her next match. Mental midget. A sexy one though.

I'd be more impressed with Kokk than Tomic, Gulbis is a much more talented opponent than Delbonis who is pretty average.



selectivememory

Quote from: Deanjam on January 19, 2015, 01:57:08 PM
Fed, Nad & Muzza all strolled through easy enough. Murray still managed to have a blip against the lowest ranked man in the tournament though. Thought Dimitrov looked good against Dustin Brown.

Saw a bit of the Dimitrov match and he was indeed looking pretty sharp. Brown could've been a banana skin but he didn't look remotely in it to me.

Didn't see the Murray match, but he did say that he served well, which is encouraging since in all of his most dismal defeats last year there were significant passages of play where his serve was utter dogshit. Cautiously optimistic with Murray, but unless he had really struggled it would've been hard to draw any conclusions from a match against a player as low-ranked as that. He should beat Matosevic comfortably.

Rafa doesn't look so rusty after all. He's downplayed his chances here, but I wonder if he's engaging in a bit of the old psychological gamesmanship. Or just getting his excuses in early. Still, I think he's probably about equal favourite with Federer for making the final on that side of the draw.

Quote from: Deanjam on January 19, 2015, 01:57:08 PM
Yeah it's easy to be annoyed by Kokk & Kygrios but I'm happy to see a couple of youngsters emerge with a bit of attitude.

It's good for the sport for there to be teenagers breaking through again and beating the top players (I guess Kokk has a way to go before he can be said to have had a breakthrough, but people are already expecting big things of Kyrgios, so it'll be interesting to see if he can back up his success last year and get up towards the top thirty or so). It helps as well that, from what I've seen of them, they're both very entertaining players. I was being a cynical twat earlier w/r/t Kokk, really I have no business sneering at an 18-year-old in that situation, and it looked and sounded like an incredible atmosphere, and given the circumstances of his victory, what with him saving match points and all, it must have felt huge to him. Not fond of Gulbis at all, so that was also satisfying.

selectivememory

Murray through very comfortably indeed, along with Dimitrov, Federer and Berdych. Nadal's on at the moment, looks like his match will be a formality as well. Kyrgios almost home against Karlovic, and if he and Federer each win their next matches they'll meet in the 4th round, which could be immense fun.

selectivememory

Nadal's not having it so easy after all against Smyczek. One set each, but a break of serve down in the third. And now I have to go out just as it gets interesting.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Two sets to one down!

Finally I can again say
Come on Tim!!!

selectivememory

Wahey, back in time for the conclusion of the match. Nothing quite like watching Nadal struggle against players outside of the top 100.

Johnny Textface

Great match! Well played Nadal there - looked down and out at one point.