Australian Open 2022

poppy37

Great result for Cornet last night, love watching her play, she’s a complete drama queen but so entertaining. Tauson is seriously talented, her game is the complete opposite of Wozniacki’s, her mobility around the court needs more work but barring injuries she has a great career ahead of her.

Speaking of injuries sad to see Cici Bellis announce her retirement at the age of just 22. She tried so hard to make a comeback.

Kyrios/Medvedev on and Eurosport are showing Murray and Radacanu🙄. Kyrios played a terrible tiebreak, I think he needed to win the first set to have any chance.

Royale with Cheese

Murray comprehensively outplayed. Surely another season of getting wildcards an exiting slams early will be enough for him.

gmisk

Murray out 6-4,6-4,6-4.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118504401#Comment_118504401

Possibly (she has a blister on her hand), but she is at least looking good to take this to a third set.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118504435#Comment_118504435

Unless he keeps getting matches against Basilashvili he seems to struggle alright. He did make a final in his last tournament to be fair but not any huge wins.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118504477#Comment_118504477

And she has now been broken back zzz

Floppybits

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118504507#Comment_118504507

Murray will be ok in the short 3 set matches but the 5 set matches are going to be too much for him. He is like Federer and possibly Nadal now in that he needs to keep his matches to 3 sets. Like Federer and at the moment to a lesser extent Nadal, if Murray plays are 5 setter the round before you can be almost guaranteed that he will be beaten in 3 sets in the next round.

gmisk

Raducanu now broken back! So will serve for second set

Floppybits

Can Raducanu now hit a forehand?

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118504553#Comment_118504553

True I would say those hip ops have taken their toll on him

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118504568#Comment_118504568

She had trainer on, big blister on her hand

poppy37

Kyrios starting to get into Medvedev’s head, mad shot selection at times.

gmisk

Raducanu down a break in final set and now breaks back (to love)...bonkers stuff

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118504772#Comment_118504772

Can he last 5 sets though?

gmisk

Raducanu broken...again...and she is out

Kovinić's furthest run at any of the grand slams - has never been past the 2nd round before

10th year as a pro

Beating a WTA top 100 player since the US Open proves elusive yet again - Kovinić is 98

Kyrgios gone - very unlikely that he was going to be able to trouble Medvedev seriously as a part-time tennis player.

Did as much as he was going to do but just gave up in the 4th set.

whiterebel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118502122#Comment_118502122

I'd say he has well made some money already; Nike Gear, Babolat Pure Aero Racquet......

"Please sign here, Mr Nadal.....er Mr Alcaraz. Now, if we could just get a photo mr Nadal....erm....Carlos......"

He hits the ball harder than anyone I've seen, but if that plan doesn't work, does he have the skills for a Plan B? `Doesn't slice much, doesn't come forward a lot, volleys need work. Great for slow courts, but Wimbledon may be a struggle. AO may be interesting as it is so quick, and the US is now much quicker for the last couple of years.

Sinner seems quite one dimensional as well, and has got himself beaten by getting into slugfests just rallying with the stronger players. When he cuts loose and starts angling the ball, he looks unplayable at times. He seems to need to impose his game on the stronger players, rather than let them dictate. Speak of the devil he's on now

Edit; And the commentator just agreed that he's one dimensional!😀

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118505122#Comment_118505122

He hits the ball harder than anyone I've seen, but if that plan doesn't work, does he have the skills for a Plan B? `Doesn't slice much, doesn't come forward a lot, volleys need work. Great for slow courts, but Wimbledon may be a struggle. AO may be interesting as it is so quick, and the US is now much quicker for the last couple of years.

What??? Alcaraz doesn't come forward a lot? Plan B?

You don't appear to have seen much of him (at all) (not the first time I've noted dodgy claims...)

Alcaraz goes to the net far more than the average ATP player (tour statistics bear this out) and has good variety to his game beyond the baseline game with elements like drop shots also

In a straight sets win over Lajovic (with two short sets of three) he came to the net 27 times and won the point 22/27 times - an 81% success rate

For his age his volley game is very developed.

And you might have noticed that Alcaraz is the youngest-ever open-era US Open quarter finalist with his 2021 run (had to retire injured in that match)

Even greats like Nadal recognise his actual game style as he said last year before Alcaraz's breakthrough

“He’s playing very aggressive,” said Rafael Nadal, who defeated Alcaraz in their only career head-to-head in Madrid this spring. “He has a lot of potential. He already has a great level of tennis, but I really believe that he’s going to be a fantastic player in the near future. When somebody at his age is able to do the things that he’s doing, it’s because you have something special. At the same time, he’s humble enough to keep working. He’s passionate about the game. I really believe that he’s a complete player. He’s brave, he’s able to go to the net very often. Great forehand, great backhand. He needs to improve his serve a little bit, but he’s just 18, so he has plenty of time.”

HeidiHeidi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118504685#Comment_118504685

How on earth do you get a big blister on your hand as a tennis pro? Surely all the bits that might be vulnerable would be like leather at this stage?

whiterebel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118505364#Comment_118505364

I didn't hear any comment during matches, was it warm there today? Taro Daniel looked like he'd had a shower on court in the 3rd set. Maybe the wrong grip for the conditions?

josip

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118505364#Comment_118505364

I was wondering that too but she's still only 19 and hasn't played a full year yet, plus the Covid layoff in December might have softened her hands a bit.

HeidiHeidi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118505398#Comment_118505398

She's surely still training X hours a day though?

Sounds a bit mad to me!

A blister on your foot from new shoes I could understand, but the racket is literally the one thing you always, always have in your hand....

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118505398#Comment_118505398

Nadal got a huge open-wound one before when a callous ripped off.

2014 - Australian Open Quarter Final match picture below

He still won that match and made it to the final that year, losing that match to the stanimal in 4 sets.

Brilliant Medved interview

As it goes ->

Q. What's the difference between yoghurt and Australia?

A. If you leave yoghurt alone for 200 years, it will develop a culture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GhpfK4Szd8

Augme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118505588#Comment_118505588

The way you posted it, I thought Medvedev actually made that joke. God, that would have been amazing.

whiterebel

Benoit Paire on a roll, takes out Dimitrov in 4. Will presumably blow up in the next round.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118506539#Comment_118506539

ha, ha that would have been epic!

If someone told him he'd have no problem recounting it

I mean if he has no issue calling the crowd "low IQ" then he'd have no problem doing that.

Daniil Medvedev sees off Nick Kyrgios and takes swipe at ‘low IQ’ crowd

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jan/20/daniil-medvedev-sees-off-nick-kyrgios-and-takes-swipe-at-low-iq-crowd-australian-open-tennis

yerwanthere123

Delighted to see Medvedev handled the clown show pretty well, actually thought it might be trickier than that. Definitely the big favourite to reach the final from that bottom half. Will be very interesting to see who'll make it from the top half, hopefully not Zverev as it feels a bit too predictable. Like others on the thread I'd like Alcaraz to go deep here, but not sure he's quite ready yet.

Disappointed Muguruza went out so early, she was my pick for the title actually 😅 Also disappointing to see Raducanu couldn't get past Kovinic, but if her blisters really did affect her that badly then maybe not the worst loss? My only hope for her this tournament was to make it to the 3rd round to face Halep and see what happens there, so it's a shame she couldn't get that far. It's still difficult trying to make any informed commentary on Raducanu though when we've really no idea what her true level is.

Rising star Tauson did well taking out Kontaveit, I wonder how far she can go here.

Girly Gal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118504941#Comment_118504941

Didn't she beat Sloane Stephens ranked 67 in the first round! No real surprise she's out, wasn't really expecting her to get far, was surprised she got through the first round tbh.