Australian Open 2014

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Draw happening now in Melbourne.

Womens:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Australian_Open_%E2%80%93_Women%27s_Singles

Serena and Li Na in one half.
Vika and Sharapova in the other.

Top half possible R16s: Serena-Ivanovic, Vinci-Errani, Li-Lisicki, Kerber-Kvitova
Bottom half R16s: Jankovic-Halep, Suarez Navarro-Sharapova, Radwanska-Wozniacki, Sloane-Azarenka.

Mens:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Australian_Open_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_Singles

Murray and Nadal in one half.
Djokovic and Ferrer in the other.

Nadal opens agains Bernie Tomic Could be epic, could be a disaster.

Possible Men's QF - Nadal-del Potro, Murray-Federer, Berdych-Ferrer, Wawrinka-Djokovic.

yerwanthere123

Serena gets Barty in R1. Whilst obviously the result won't be in doubt, should be fun all the same. Serena could face a R4 challenge in the form of Stosur, but that obviously depends on if Stosur manages to scrape through three matches, which I doubt.

Tough draw for Laura, getting Flipkens in R1. I don't fancy Laura's chances tbh, especially being injured and having played just the one match this year. Section 2 of the draw is looking fairly soft, we could (and I really hope we do) get a Keys-Bouchard 4th rounder, which would be pretty cool.

Li Na pretty much has a bye to the QF's, unless Lisicki actually shows up and plays some decent tennis. Pretty good draw for Kvitova too, she should go through to the QF's without too much trouble. A Kvitova-Li Na QF would be pretty good actually.

Decent draw for Jankovic too, I don't see people like Halep or Jovanovski stopping her progressing to the QF's, athough I think Jovanovski has a good shot at defending her points from last year.

Sharapova gets Mattek-Sands in R1, there's a potential banana skin for her if ever I saw one! I can actually see that going to three sets, but with Maria ultimately coming through. Radwanska will play charm school graduate Yulia Putintseva, which could be a fun match. Radwanska should reach her fifth QF here, but I see her going no further.

A R3 rematch with Jamie Hampton looms for Azarenka, hopefully it'll be as fun as last year, should it happen. And even better, a rematch with Sloane in R4 also looms. That is of course if Sloane actually gets that far, she could crumble early under the weight of expectations. Kuznetsova also in that part of the draw, she's always a dark horse. Seems weird to think she's the #19 seed actually!

This is, as always, Serena's title for the taking, but as we saw against Sloane last year, anything can happen.

yerwanthere123

Nadal-Tomic should be epic! At least in atmosphere anyway. Ryan Harrison gets Monfils in R1, which I think is a winnable match, but with Nadal looming in R3 he shan't be going far. I actually think Ryan is talented, and with a decent draw at a slam he could get to maybe the 4R/QF. He never gets a good draw though!

Decent draw for Delpo, possible 4th rounder with Raonic or Dimitrov. A QF with Nadal could be pretty special, and Delpo certainly has the firepower to hit through Nadal. With the courts apparently playing faster as well, this will work in his favour. I am of course, looking way too far ahead, Delpo could well bomb out in R2/R3.

Very good draw for Andy, as good as it could be for a player coming back from injury. Will probably play the winner of the looming 4th rounder between Fed and Tsonga, which I would make Tsonga the favourite for. Would be a shame to see Fed out before the QF's for a 3rd consecutive slam... but there you go.

Possibility of a Ferrer-Janowicz 4th rounder, but I'm guessing Jerzy will implode long before this point.

Djokovic pretty much has a bye to the QF's, where a potential rematch with Wawrinka looms. Could never see him losing to Wawrinka though, so it looks as if Djokovic is pretty much a lock in for another final in Melbourne. Would do anything to see neither him nor Nadal win it though!

Looking forward to it now, can't wait

MisterAnarchy

So we have Nadal,Murray,Federer and Del Potro in one half of the draw and Djokovic on his own in the other half of the draw.
4 of the top 6 seeds in one half of the draw ,with dangers like Tsonga,Verdasco,Isner,Tomic and Raonic also in the top half whilst the bottom half has only one grand slam winner and nobody else really of note.Ridiculous

WaterLily.

I know it is pure coincidence but I totally agree! Terribly unbalanced but there you go!

edit: cant wait for Nadal v Tomic! if Tomic plays like he is playing this week in Sydney it could be a simply fantastic match. However Tomic could be a complete no show as he often is which would mean (as someone said) complete disaster.

RosyLily

Stosur must think the AO people hate her! R1- Zakopalova (Hobart finalist), R2- Pironkova (Sydney champ), R3- Ivanovic (Auckland champ), R4- Serena. Ouch!!

John.Icy

AO tournament director has come out and said the court speed will be the same as last year. I guess Brisbane was down to the heat and other factors.

Disappointing.

yerwanthere123

John.Icy wrote: »

AO tournament director has come out and said the court speed will be the same as last year. I guess Brisbane was down to the heat and other factors.

Disappointing.

This was the first I had heard of that, I then looked it up and found out that Craig Tiley announced this 5 days ago? Surprised more noise wasn't made about it. If it is indeed true, well... I for one will not be looking forward to the 14 hour Rafa/Nole final.

Rjd2

RosyLily wrote: »

Stosur must think the AO people hate her! R1- Zakopalova (Hobart finalist), R2- Pironkova (Sydney champ), R3- Ivanovic (Auckland champ), R4- Serena. Ouch!!

Makes no difference always bombs here to be fair.

MisterAnarchy

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

If it is indeed true, well... I for one will not be looking forward to the 14 hour Rafa/Nole final.

Yes I heard they plan to play the final over 2 days ,7 hours each day .

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

John.Icy wrote: »

AO tournament director has come out and said the court speed will be the same as last year. I guess Brisbane was down to the heat and other factors.

Disappointing.

Sydney was playing quite fast too. Delpo said the bounce was low and fast and Pironkova, who plays well at Wimbledon and nowhere else, won her first career title there.

I was looking forward to a more exciting Aus Open this year, I guess it's not to be. Tomic v Nadal on a fast surface could have been interesting to see.

yerwanthere123

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

Yes I heard they plan to play the final over 2 days ,7 hours each day .

With many tennis 'experts' afterwards labelling it the "greatest match of all time" :pac:

WaterLily.

^ any sports match that goes on for that long ceases to be good and just becomes tedious. I found the last set exciting but that was about it... And I did not watch much of the middle part of the match!

Completely unrelated to the actual game of tennis but Andy Murray's twitter page is very funny, I'm not on twitter nor do I have any desire to be but I do find myself reading his page and he cracks me up. Anyone that says he doesn't have a personality is talking absolute crap.

MisterAnarchy

WaterLily. wrote: »

^ any sports match that goes on for that long ceases to be good and just becomes tedious. I found the last set exciting but that was about it... And I did not watch much of the middle part of the match!

Yes ,those long rallies are tedious as the vast majority of the baseline shots land inside the service box .
Its rare you get a long rally when both players are going for the lines.

yerwanthere123

WaterLily. wrote: »

^ any sports match that goes on for that long ceases to be good and just becomes tedious. I found the last set exciting but that was about it... And I did not watch much of the middle part of the match!

Completely unrelated to the actual game of tennis but Andy Murray's twitter page is very funny, I'm not on twitter nor do I have any desire to be but I do find myself reading his page and he cracks me up. Anyone that says he doesn't have a personality is talking absolute crap.

I remember watching the match.. good god it was awful. It probably didn't help that I was tired and hungover though. I watched the first set, which was and hour and a half, then fast-forwarded to the final set. So like you, I didn't watch much of the middle. I was so glad it was over, and utterly bemused to then hear it being referred to as one of the greatest matches of all time! Even worse, at one point people were questioning if it was better than Nadal-Federer '08! That has long since faded, thank god, and I think most people now see the match for what it was.

Agree 100% about your Andy Murray comments too. Did you see the Q&A's he did with his followers on Twitter a couple of weeks back? It was absolutely hilarious
http://tennis.si.com/2013/12/29/andy-murray-twitter-q-and-a-qatar-open/

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

^ I think the issue with Murray is that people confuse being a personality with having one.

Murray is an athlete first and foremost. He does his media obligation at tournaments but that's where it ends for him. He's not an entertainer and that should be fine.

I used to find Djokovic very entertaining off the court but after a while it wears a bit thin and he seems more like a performing monkey these days. The likes of Nadal and Federer are more reserved than Djokovic but their public personas are still very much a managed thing. You only see the real personality of a lot of these players when they're losing or going through a difficult patch. Serena Williams another example. She's always being praised for her attitude and persona but take a look at her when she gets a bad call or is losing to someone she shouldn't be losing to. Completely different matter.

With Murray you get what you see. He's a whinging bugger during his matches, win or lose, but he's talking to himself most of the time. Off court he's much the same, other than the whinging.

RosyLily

Day 1 schedule is out http://www.ausopen.com/en_AU/scores/schedule/index.html

Good to see Zvonareva back on the tour! Kimiko Date-Krumm vs. Belinda Bencic.....a massive 27 year age difference between these two!!:eek:

yerwanthere123

RosyLily wrote: »

Day 1 schedule is out http://www.ausopen.com/en_AU/scores/schedule/index.html

Good to see Zvonareva back on the tour! Kimiko Date-Krumm vs. Belinda Bencic.....a massive 27 year age difference between these two!!:eek:

Further highlighting the age difference, Belinda Bencic's mother is five years younger than Date-Krumm!

Also, the Day 1 schedule is pretty poor I must say!

WaterLily.

[QUOTE=yerwanthere123;88418398

Agree 100% about your Andy Murray comments too. Did you see the Q&A's he did with his followers on Twitter a couple of weeks back? It was absolutely hilarious
http://tennis.si.com/2013/12/29/andy-murray-twitter-q-and-a-qatar-open/[/QUOTE]

Yes I did that was hilarious!! I love the photos with the falcon and his captions!

There's an interesting interview with Nadal in the financial times magazine this weekend. They did a sort of special on him with a big interview straight after he lost the world tour finals final to Djokovic. I find Nadal gets a lot of stick due to his extreme niceness and modesty in interviews and even I was thinking ok he can't be that nice and modest ALL the time, but after reading the interview I believe that the Rafa that we see on tv is the exact same in real life.

The article talks about how he won a big juniors competition when he was 15 and his aunt wanted to throw him a party and uncle Toni said absolutely no way and read off the names of all the previous winners of the competition and asked Rafa how many he had heard of. Then when he won Wimbledon in 2008 he bought himself an Aston Martin which his whole family was completely against and to this day they refuse to be seen in public with it! He also says he wants to be born and die in Mallorca and he will never move and he speaks to his parents and sister every single day when on the tour. The interviewer asks him that surely he thinks that he is brilliant at what he does and he just says no 'I don't, and the second I start to think that, this, my career and my success is all over'.

I just found it an interesting read

Chefrio

WaterLily. wrote: »

Yes I did that was hilarious!! I love the photos with the falcon and his captions!

There's an interesting interview with Nadal in the financial times magazine this weekend. They did a sort of special on him with a big interview straight after he lost the world tour finals final to Djokovic. I find Nadal gets a lot of stick due to his extreme niceness and modesty in interviews and even I was thinking ok he can't be that nice and modest ALL the time, but after reading the interview I believe that the Rafa that we see on tv is the exact same in real life.

The article talks about how he won a big juniors competition when he was 15 and his aunt wanted to throw him a party and uncle Toni said absolutely no way and read off the names of all the previous winners of the competition and asked Rafa how many he had heard of. Then when he won Wimbledon in 2008 he bought himself an Aston Martin which his whole family was completely against and to this day they refuse to be seen in public with it! He also says he wants to be born and die in Mallorca and he will never move and he speaks to his parents and sister every single day when on the tour. The interviewer asks him that surely he thinks that he is brilliant at what he does and he just says no 'I don't, and the second I start to think that, this, my career and my success is all over'.

I just found it an interesting read

I 'd recommend everyone reads Nadal's book, there's a lot of lessons to be taken from it, both life lessons and achieving success in sport.

yerwanthere123

Vika surely must be the least popular women's champion in Australian Open history. Every time the AO Facebook page posts anything about her it's always just a wave of negativity.

Looking forward to tonight! Although as I've already mentioned the day schedule is pretty poor for Day 1. I mean, I know Gajdošová plays for Australia and everything... but come on. That match should not be on Rod Laver Arena.

WaterLily.

After reading that interview I actually would quite like to read his book, and I've heard that about it.

I feel sorry for Vika, she isn't really that popular in general and I don't really know why. The schedule is rubbish for day 1!!! I was planning on staying up but I really couldn't be bothered, I'll just record it and watch any decent matches tomorrow.

yerwanthere123

Here we go

frostie500

Always like the Aussie Open even though it means staying up all night! This year Im over in California so at least I'll get the early games at a reasonable hour but I'll miss all the night session matches

Rjd2

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

Yes I heard they plan to play the final over 2 days ,7 hours each day .

yerwanthere123

Horrendous from Laura, but the wrist may have something to do with it. Or maybe not. Only Laura knows. Either way, not good being the very first player out, just after midday!

yerwanthere123

Rjd2 wrote: »

You never miss an opportunity to use that :pac:

Rjd2

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

You never miss an opportunity to use that :pac:

True but it is just so apt!

Flipkens right now is a better player than Robson so no real shock that one.

flazio

And now Watson gone as well but put up a better fight. Li Na is set to go through as well.

flazio

First big upset in the ladies. Kvitova knocked out by Thai player Kumkhum.

WaterLily.

Big upset with kvitova, only caught the last few games and the young Thai player was playing incredibly!

Also Robson looks to me like she needs more time in the gym, she doesn't look like she plays sport for a living. It could be her wrist but she just looked awful both physically and mentally. Not much more could have gone wrong in that match for her.

Mousewar

I see Nadal is moaning again already.
Unbelievable that guy. Just unbelievable.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/tramlines/why-rafael-nadal-incredibly-angry-melbourne-073407443.html

WaterLily.

Just looked at the schedule for tomorrow and I hadn't even realised pretty sure player I like (as far as I can remember) is on that side of the draw! Radwanska, Wozniaki, Murray, Del Potro, Nadal, Tsonga.

Couldn't really give a crap about the other side, except for Wawrinka possibly... and Lisicki if she shows up, which she did today actually good win for her 6-2 6-1

WaterLily.

Mousewar wrote: »

I see Nadal is moaning again already.
Unbelievable that guy. Just unbelievable.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/tramlines/why-rafael-nadal-incredibly-angry-melbourne-073407443.html

That headline is ridiculous. He is not 'so angry' or 'furious' as the title suggests. have you actually read the article?

What he says is the court is different and faster so 'it's a pity for me'. Nothing more than that. He doesn't have to rave about everything, if a reporter asked him how the courts felt to him he is entitled to give his opinion.

I think it's good the courts have sped up so if he's right I'm very pleased, they needed to be. But that article has blown a simple answer to a question waay out of proportion.

Mousewar

WaterLily. wrote: »

'it's a pity for me'. .

That alone is more than enough.
This is possibly the luckiest sportsperson in the history of sport. A guy who came along and had court speed and racquet technology all change to completely suit him at the exact time he needed.
And he's pitying himself...AGAIN.

WaterLily.

So going by what you are saying, he has no right to express his opinion.

The court speed was not changed for him and racquet technology has nothing to do with it, things advance, become more modern. Everything changes over time, it has nothing to do with him.

Rafael Nadal has won 13 grand slams, 26 masters, an Olympic gold, he is the only man ever to have won 8 slams at the same event, finished year end no1 3 times and has overcome a serious career-threatening injury.

That is not luck that's talent.

Mousewar

WaterLily. wrote: »

So going by what you are saying, he has no right to express his opinion.

No, I'm criticizing his opinion. Because it's self-pitying nonsense as usual.

WaterLily. wrote: »

The court speed was not changed for him and racquet technology has nothing to do with it, things advance, become more modern. Everything changes over time, it has nothing to do with him.

I didn't say it was changed for him. I said he was insanely lucky that it changed so dramatically at the exact time he came along with a game that was perfectly suited to take advantage of those changes. The luck involved is incredible to be frank.

WaterLily. wrote: »

Rafael Nadal has won 13 grand slams, 26 masters, an Olympic gold, he is the only man ever to have won 8 slams at the same event, finished year end no1 3 times and has overcome a serious career-threatening injury.
That is not luck that's talent.

He deserves everything he got on clay. The organisers of this sport will answer to history for letting a claycourt defensive grinder like him win the rest.

MisterAnarchy

WaterLily. wrote: »

The court speed was not changed for him and racquet technology has nothing to do with it, things advance, become more modern. Everything changes over time, it has nothing to do with him.

Rafael Nadal has won 13 grand slams, 26 masters, an Olympic gold, he is the only man ever to have won 8 slams at the same event, finished year end no1 3 times and has overcome a serious career-threatening injury.

That is not luck that's talent.

Nobody is doubting his talent and his superb temperament but he owes alot of his success due to the homogenisation of court speeds.

There is no way he would have had as much success playing on the faster courts of 10-15 years ago ,no chance.
His style of game and technique isnt suited to faster courts with lower bounce and less reaction time for him to hit his huge top spin.

He has repeatedly banged his drum about the need for slowing the surfaces down and any time the Atp increase the speed or the balls he brings it up.

I havent heard Federer constantly going on about how slow the courts are now ,he has had most to lose due to the reduction in the court speeds .
He rarely mentions it and when he does he doesnt say its a pity for me ,oh woe is me, e.g Atp finals,Madrid blue clay,etc etc .

There were more winners made at the French Open last year than Wimbledon and the Australian Open,that is how messed up the court speeds are now.
Tennis surfaces should reward aggressive play but they dont ,they reward defensive players who can keep the ball in play.
I have no interest in watching 30 shot rallies when 80% of the shots are landing in the service box and the middle of the court .

yerwanthere123

Kvitova :rolleyes:

Just watched the Serena/Barty game, not bad from Barty, all things considered. Played a lot better than a lot do against Serena!

the_monkey

Nadal gets lucky again ....

Tomic retires .... black few years ahead with him winning pretty much 8 slams in 14/15....

Mousewar

I actually think Tomic might have won that without the injury.

Floppybits

Murray was impressive this morning. His serving was excellent. I think he might do well here.

smurfs5

Berdych is really impressive right now. He could meet Ferrer in the QFs which could be close even though he hasn't outdone himself in any Grand Slams recently. Also, he made 2 GS QFs last year, both against Novak, so he could fancy his chances if he keeps playing well.

Also, so nice to see that they've made the courts a bit faster this year. Hopefully Delpo and Stan can capitalise.

Feel so sorry for the players having to play in these conditions. 43 degrees is outrageous.

yerwanthere123

Anyone watch Bencic-Li Na? Bencic recovered from a bagel in first set to force tiebreak in 2nd. My first time ever watching her play, extremely impressed, was able to match Li Na groundstroke for groundstroke. Was a real shame she wasn't able to force a third set, she completely deserved one. Huge potential for the future!

smurfs5

Oh Sabine

flazio

Unfortunately it was always the most likely upset to happen. Too many unforced errors.
I reckon Li Na is probably going to be Serena's biggest threat.

smurfs5

flazio wrote: »

Unfortunately it was always the most likely upset to happen. Too many unforced errors.
I reckon Li Na is probably going to be Serena's biggest threat.

We can live in hope that she acquits herself well at more than 1 Grand Slam.

Agree about Li Na. Can't see anyone other than her or Vika challenging Serena.

flazio

Dare I say it, but I'm not expecting great things from Lisicki at this years Wimbledon either,I think the pressure and attention might still get to her.

yerwanthere123

Not even gonna comment on the Sabine result :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Inexplicably, Mona Barthel has actually managed to win not one but two matches over the last couple of days, through to the 3rd round! If she can find her best, and that's a big if, she should reach the 4th round, and could even give Kerber a run for her money there. Having said that, I fully expect her to bomb out 0-6 0-6 to Puig or whoever :pac:

flazio

Mona Barthel, that name almost sounds familiar :pac:

flazio

Didn't see the match but I see Flipkins went out without much of a flight.