2015 Australian Open discussion

Post #1 » by **Slava** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 5:43 am

Sorry haven't visited this board in a while. Surprised to see no thread for the Australian Open.

Federer down 2 sets right now, up a break in the third vs Seppi.
Murray cruising so far and his opponent looks ready to tap out with cramps.

Post #2 » by **Slava** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 5:46 am

Lovely serve and volley game by Fed. Amazing that he only goes to it when his back's against the wall.

olive_triangurl · Post #3 » by **olive_triangurl** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 1:56 pm

No surprise to see Seppi beat Federer, after seeing Stakhovsky, Robredo, Gulbis and Cilic all beat Federer at slams since 2013.
We knew Federer was susceptible to such losses even when in great form.
Its a tough era this, where even the world's #1 ranked player (Djokovic) has only won ONE of the last SEVEN slam events.

Post #4 » by **Slava** » Tue Jan 27, 2015 4:09 am

Nadal is getting dominated by Berdych. I know he likes to play defensively but this is a bit too extreme to be playing so far back the baseline.

Post #5 » by **Slava** » Tue Jan 27, 2015 4:12 am

Berdych, great break to start the 2nd. #Beast

Hero · Post #6 » by **Hero** » Tue Jan 27, 2015 2:55 pm

Nadal out!

It's there for the taking for Novak.

Prince12 · Post #7 » by **Prince12** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 11:11 am

Murray is an unbelievable defensive player and overall has done well to battle away under as much pressure as he has been similar to Henman back in the day. But man is he boring, being Aussie obviously I was backing Kyrgios who has a massive future if he can keep his ego in check. There is no real characters left in the draw and has left me a bit uninterested. I'll watch the final but hoping Berdych can get the breakthrough.

Post #8 » by **Slava** » Thu Jan 29, 2015 5:54 am

Sharapova looked excellent against Makarova. Her combination of agility and power is probably second only to Serena on the circuit right now.

Prince12 · Post #9 » by **Prince12** » Thu Jan 29, 2015 10:06 am

The Sharapova v Bouchard matchup from the other day deserves a mention, great viewing.

Post #10 » by **mrpoetryNmotion** » Fri Jan 30, 2015 3:10 am

Man, I might have to wake up early for this Djokovic vs. Wawrinka match at 3:30 ET. Simply the best matchups in tennis over the past two years.

Prince12 · Post #11 » by **Prince12** » Fri Jan 30, 2015 8:30 am

Hopefully Stan the man gets up. Never been a Novak fan, either way I will heavily backing Murrays opponent come Sunday night.

Post #12 » by **mrpoetryNmotion** » Fri Jan 30, 2015 10:20 pm

Might be pulling for Murray at this point. Just not a Novak fan at all and it's tiring seeing the same people win over and over again.

Prince12 · Post #13 » by **Prince12** » Sat Jan 31, 2015 6:28 am

Murray and Djoker..yawn.

Post #14 » by **Doctor MJ** » Sat Jan 31, 2015 6:17 pm

So people are aware, RealGM is in the process of closing this board down and just having it be part of the Other Sports board. It may be that Howard sending that message has left people not coming here, and no one made this thread over in the other forum either, so yeah, those interested should make a point of trying to get conversation going over there.

So yeah, Serena wins. I find myself thinking about her GOAT candidacy. I have a long history of scoffing at such things, and I still think I was right to do so, but Serena's now very close to having what I consider to be a legit case.

I've said for a while now that if Serena breaks Graf's major record, she probably becomes my GOAT. That bugs me a little because anytime you make ranking based on one person hitting a target that the other didn't have, you're basically treating the earlier player like they couldn't have possibly done more, when in fact in the case of someone like Graf, the numbers simply ceased to have any meaning. She was way ahead of everyone else, so there's no other landmark to hit.

Serena's now at 19, so she's getting close to that. But there's now something else in play: If Serena remains the dominant player in the world this year, then we're talking about a stretch of 14 seasons where she has that role. She has some middle seasons where she failed to do this of course, and that has everything to do with my GOAT skepticism for her, but bottom line: A run of 14 years where when she was at her best, she was the best in the world.

That's totally unprecedented in the world of tennis. Navratilova, queen of longevity, didn't even maintain Top 2 levels for that long - I believe I counted a 13 year top 2 stretch for her. So yeah, basically, if Serena keeps it up another year, I think she'll have a true GOAT case. I still think she needs to break Graf's record to hammer in her plea, but either way she's knocking on the door.

Bank Shot · Post #15 » by **Bank Shot** » Sun Feb 1, 2015 9:28 pm

Man, Novak's extra gear is just absurd. There's turning it up a notch and then there's what he did to Stan and Murray in the final set.

olive_triangurl · Post #16 » by **olive_triangurl** » Mon Feb 2, 2015 1:49 am

Bank Shot wrote:Man, Novak's extra gear is just absurd. There's turning it up a notch and then there's what he did to Stan and Murray in the final set.

Yeah but why does he do it after pretending to fall over and not being able to breathe?
I've seen him do it numerous times, and it ends with him playing his best tennis (or him cashing-in because his opponent has stopped attacking and is instead trying to move Djokovic around to exploit the so-called injury/illness).
It looks like gamesmanship, and it inevitably changes the way his opponent plays from that point on.

mrpoetryNmotion wrote:Might be pulling for Murray at this point. Just not a Novak fan at all and it's tiring seeing the same people win over and over again.

Yeah but Djokovic had only won ONE of the last SEVEN slams before this AO, and that's horrible for a World Number One (by Nadal/Federer standards anyway).
I guess that's why Djokovic lost the #1 ranking as soon as Nadal won a couple of slams in 2013.
Anyway Djokovic won the AO so that makes it TWO of the last EIGHT slams.
Djokovic is now the sole leader at the Australian Open with FIVE crowns.
Nadal going for his TENTH French Open crown next, and I've got to say reaching the QF of his worst slam event while at the very beginning of his comeback should give him plenty of confidence - and he's been able to preserve the 15 match slam winning streak over Djokovic(4)-Federer(6)-Murray(5), albeit while losing the streak he had over Berdych.

EH15 · Post #17 » by **EH15** » Mon Feb 2, 2015 2:41 am

Not surprised to see Djokovic win. A bit surprising to see Federer fall so early but he's not a significant threat on hard courts anymore. Also not surprised to see Nadal bow out. Novak will top out with 11 or 12 slams. Nadal maybe 1 or 2 more, I don't expect much from him, especially on non-clay courts. He's already turning 29 soon and has the body of a 35 year old. His decline from here on out will not be graceful like Federer's; it will be sharp. His lack of longevity will inevitably end GOAT debates with Federer.

I think there's a lot of parity at the top right now. You look at the top 12 and I see all of them (except D. Ferrer) having a chance to contend for each slam.

Djokovic
Nadal
Wawrinka
Nishikori
Murray
Berdych
Raonic
Cilic
Ferrer
Dimitrov
Tsonga

olive_triangurl · Post #18 » by **olive_triangurl** » Mon Feb 2, 2015 3:02 am

You can't beat Nadal at the French Open no matter what preparation he's had.
And he still made the AO quarter-finals despite zero preparation.
And Nadal looked unstoppable at the 2013 US Open where he beat Djokovic for the 2nd time there (and it was even more lopsided than their last 3 French Open meetings) 6-1 in the fourth set.
I'm sorry but the only way Djokovic wins slams is if he avoids Nadal, and as we've already seen, Nadal never goes away for longer than a few months.
That's the way Serena has been for the last decade or 2, she's won slams, recovered from her niggling injures and won more slams, repeat cycle.
Serena and Nadal will end up with the most slams in history.
All we saw in Australia was the norm - Djokovic won his pet slam event, Nadal lost in the QF of his worst slam event.

Prince12 · Post #19 » by **Prince12** » Mon Feb 2, 2015 6:46 am

Watching Novak's pathetic stumbling and faking some issue/injury just confirmed for me how much of a tosser he really is. Shocking display and it's not the first time.

Michael Lucky · Post #20 » by **Michael Lucky** » Mon Feb 2, 2015 6:56 am

I don't see the parity at all at the top. I think Novak and a healthy Nadal are clearly superior to the rest. Heck Djokovic almost has double the points of the second place person in the ATP rankings, that's how far the disparity goes.

Also it's tennis, just about every player has these sort of in game injuries whether fake, exaggerated, or not. Heck Murray is well known for doing the exact same thing.