Australian Open 2016 - Day 9 (and predictions)

Don't forget to use your joker....

Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) [24] v Carla Suárez Navarro (ESP) [30]
Serena Williams (USA) [20] v Maria Sharapova (RUS) [30]
Roger Federer (SUI) [23] v Tomas Berdych (CZE) [27]
Novak Djokovic (SRB) [25] v Kei Nishikori (JPN) [30]
Vasek Pospisil (CAN) /Sock (USA) 15v [9]Cuevas (URU) [16] v Granollers (ESP) 20
Martina Hingis (SUI) Sania Mirza (IND) 15 v Groenefeld (GER) [12Vandeweghe (USA) 25

Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) [24] joker!
Serena Williams (USA) [20]
Roger Federer (SUI) [23]
Nishi (changed my mind.....1h before the match)
Vasek Pospisil (CAN) /Sock (USA) 15
Martina Hingis (SUI) Sania Mirza (IND) 15

(thanks LS....)

It seems you've forgotten to use your joker despite your message Tenez!

Radwanska
Williams
Federer
Djokovic (joker)
Sock
Hingis

Carla Suárez Navarro (ESP) [30] (though "proper women's tennis" will win, of course, and Tenez and rotla will be on cloud nine! )
Serena Williams (USA) [20]
Roger Federer (SUI) [23]
Novak Djokovic (SRB) [25]  
Vasek Pospisil (CAN) /Sock (USA) 15
Martina Hingis (SUI) Sania Mirza (IND) 15

noleisthebest wrote:Carla Suárez Navarro (ESP) [30] (though "proper women's tennis" will win, of course, and Tenez and rotla will be on cloud nine!   )
Serena Williams (USA) [20]
Roger Federer (SUI) [23]
Novak Djokovic (SRB) [25]  
Vasek Pospisil (CAN) /Sock (USA) 15
Martina Hingis (SUI) Sania Mirza (IND) 15

Well Aza is not in my Angel's list and I certainly prefer Navaro's tennis.....but again, should I go "on Hols", I'd rather take Aza in my luggage than Navarro.

Tenez wrote:
Well Aza is not in my Angel's list and I certainly prefer Navaro's tennis.....but again, should I go "on Hols", I'd rather take Aza in my luggage than Navarro.  

I suppose same as Bob Geldof...except I don't think he had any chavs at his wedding...lucky Aga and poor LR. And poor rotla...
Btw what is an Angel's list?
You are beginning to worry me with your holiness, T...

Think we may finally be seeing the emergence of some new talent now - starting with Raonic.  Can't be far away at any rate.  I am mulling over a 50 quid bet on Nishikori to beat Djok.  I think I may do it.

FedererKing wrote:Think we may finally be seeing the emergence of some new talent now - starting with Raonic.  Can't be far away at any rate.  I am mulling over a 50 quid bet on Nishikori to beat Djok.  I think I may do it.

See how the match starts first.
Not impossible, but I doubt it.

Surely 25 for DJoko is wayyyyy too much!

SIlly Goose:
Rad
Serena 
Fed
Djoko (joker)
Sock
Hingis


hugh jass:
Rad
Serena 
Fed
Djoko (joker)
Sock
Hingis

noleisthebest wrote:

FedererKing wrote:Think we may finally be seeing the emergence of some new talent now - starting with Raonic.  Can't be far away at any rate.  I am mulling over a 50 quid bet on Nishikori to beat Djok.  I think I may do it.

See how the match starts first.
Not impossible, but I doubt it.

If it starts well for Nishikori it won't be 6.5-1 anymore - which defeats the purpose.

luvsports! wrote:Surely 25 for DJoko is wayyyyy too much!

Of course.  50 quid is a very risky bet because I put Nishikori's chance of beating him at less than 50/50  but still relatively good.  Not 6 -1 like most bookies though - that's totally underestimating Nishikori.  He's beat Djokovic in a slam before also. 

But yeah, it's a big risk.  I may have to reduce my bet to 25 quid and not be so greedy.

luvsports! wrote:Surely 25 for DJoko is wayyyyy too much!

It is but Nishi shoudl have a real chance. he did it before.

meant for this game

Despite Nishi and Rao young age, the average age of the AO 1/4 finalists is just 6 months short of 30yo!

I'd be curious to see how old will be the average age of semifinalists.

Radvanska
Williams (joker)
Fed
Nole
Sock/posp
Hingus/mirza

(Have not seen scores yet)

Did not see the match but looks like fed played well. Very aggressive with little UEs....according to Berdych.

Got broken twice though....can't quite afford that v Djoko.

Federer..about DHBH....but more so the strength of the LH!

Fed wrote:In my opinion, Novak and Kei are some of the best returners in the game. Also good in defense because they have a very strong left arm on the double-hander, which allows them to flick it really easily, like Murray has as well.

Smart reply from Fed about the Tomic affair:

Q. I'm not sure if you heard Bernard Tomic's response to some of your comments. Colloquially to a lot of people it feels like a kid having a go at a great. Maybe not having a go, but being disrespectful. Do you feel disrespected?
ROGER FEDERER: I said a lot of things in Brisbane, you know. I guess only a small part got taken out of it. It's a bit out of context, in my opinion. Then you feed it to a player, he reacts, might be frustrated, and then he goes even further.

You know, I'd like to see anybody succeed, you know, and anybody make their move. Especially to top 100 first, top 10, World No. 1. If everybody could be that, I wish that for everyone.

To be quite honest, when I walked out of the press room I thought I was somewhat tough, but at the same time I was fair because I said nice things about him. But then I checked his ranking. I didn't know his ranking was as high as it was, to be quite honest.

I thought he was like 50 or 60 and he was top 20. That was my bad, to be honest. But I don't check the rankings every day. I came from the off-season. I had no clue what was going on anymore. That was my bad.
(It's so weird that we are more aware of what's going on in tennis than federer!!!)

But I still believe it's a big difference top 10 for a week or for a year or for multiple years, and getting there is not easy. It's a lot of dedication, a lot of hard work. There's a lot of guys who have the potential right now, not just him. That's why I think it got brought up in many ways.
(again, that's what makes Djoko and Murray so dominant, they simply are more professional than teh rest)

It was, I thought, quite funny, because I knew what I said and I knew what I didn't know then when I said it. It was kind of funny, I thought.

Another interesting bit. Well we knew that but just conformed by fed.....

It would be a pity to waste talent and all that even more so in this day and age because I feel talent brought you further back in the day. Just talking about a guy who has talent and potential, I can't hear it anymore. Too many guys have talent. Too many guys are working hard. I don't believe in that very much anymore.

Nishi coudl win this one very easily.....as long as he doesn't go for lines.

Tenez wrote:Nishi coudl win this one very easily.....as long as he doesn't go for lines.

Very difficult now.. Nishi is just not consistent with his ground strokes... missing a lot of those long.. the UEs are hurting him...
Djokovic is too solid, such errors can prove costly against him..

0-2 sets down..

Come on Nishikori... he played better than the scores suggest.. only didn't play well on the big points...

MTO nishikori..

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:

Tenez wrote:Nishi coudl win this one very easily.....as long as he doesn't go for lines.

Very difficult now.. Nishi is just not consistent with his ground strokes... missing a lot of those long.. the UEs are hurting him...
Djokovic is too solid, such errors can prove costly against him..

He can be very consistent but the game he lost from being 40/0 up sent him completely off rail.

he is too emotional. He goes for too much when he does not need to.

Sad to see him self destroy!

Yeah.. dealing with emotions is a part of being experienced.. There is not much difference between the 2 except for Djokovic's serves.. but just that Djokovic can control himself well even in crunch times..

He is like how Stan was earlier.. ( Stan even now is on most occasions)

And the break.. but I'm not sure Nishi can sustain this lead till the end of teh set..

and the break-back..

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:Yeah.. dealing with emotions is a part of being experienced.. There is not much difference between the 2 except for Djokovic's serves.. but just that Djokovic can control himself well even in crunch times..

He is like how Stan was earlier.. ( Stan even now is on most occasions)

More than the serve, the difference is that Djoko is more stable emotionally....cause he has less to lose really. Nishi has all to do!

I can easily imagine Nishi saying in his post interview...."It's easy to beat Djoko".....and the crowd laughing.....cause in a couple of years he will beat Djoko easily!...but until then he has to learn not to go for broke.

Nishi's game is way too fragile to be emotionally stable. He has too measure the talent he uses.....he should use much less of it.

At the beginning of the match I thought Djoko may not be physically 100%...but clearly he is. Running like a rabbit as ever.

Thank god I only went for 10....  that was abysmal.  Totally didn't expect a straight sets for Djokovic.

Now it's up to Federer...  I suppose only good news is it isn't a final, so he at least won't be as jittery as some of their final encounters.  But the odds are now firmly in favour of djokovic.

Murray is looking good too.

FedererKing wrote:Thank god I only went for 10....  that was abysmal.  Totally didn't expect a straight sets for Djokovic.

Now it's up to Federer...  I suppose only good news is it isn't a final, so he at least won't be as jittery as some of their final encounters.  But the odds are now firmly in favour of djokovic.

Murray is looking good too.

 Me too prefer Djokovic vs Fed in a semis rather than a final. Especially give Fed losing  his last 3 slam finals only to him. Odd are definitely in favour of Djokovic..

But I don't rule out Fed. He can beat Djokovic here..

Murray... naah.. all he can do is take adv. of his draw and upsets to reach the final.. if he reaches the final, he is most likely to lose.

FedererKing wrote:Thank god I only went for 10....  that was abysmal.  Totally didn't expect a straight sets for Djokovic. :
Now it's up to Federer...  I suppose only good news is it isn't a final, so he at least won't be as jittery as some of their final encounters.  But the odds are now firmly in favour of djokovic.
Murray is looking good too.

I told you to wait....
I did and made £5 from the original £1 I put down!

10 isn't bad.  But waiting isn't what a gamble is about.  The 6-1 odds for Nishikori are the reason you place on a risky bet in the first place.

I saw both matches.
Fed-Berd was good.

Court played fast and gave Berd a chance.
Compared to Fed, Berd does not have the quantum gear, and Fed left him in his wake mid second set.

His BH was fantastic, FH also better than last year, though he was hitting a lot of wristy, loopy CC ones now, probably Ivan's influence.
Plus, he went on a high altitude holiday with his family in the off-season.

He also had a customary rubbish game at the beginning of the 3rd set...probably got a bit relaxed after winning first two sets.

All in all, should be readier than ever for the SF.

Nole-Nishi was disappointing as Nishi again showed his gutless side, giving up easily.

He is not 18, and beat Nole in 5 sets at USO14, so no excuse.


Nole was his usual resilient self, with plenty of spare gears he'll need on Friday.

Should be a good match especially as the H2H is tilted as 22 apiece, and as he mentioned in his post-match interview (probably premeditadedly), he is 23:22 with Nadal.

4 sets*

I'd like to see the Fed/Berd game.

Nishi simply collapsed after his 40/up service game he lost early in the first set, despite a good start.

But what annoys me with him too is that he has to have some kind of injuries to keep his spirit up: teh wrist, the leg, the ankle....so he can lose without bruising his ego too much!....a la nadal!

Tenez wrote:I'd like to see the Fed/Berd game.

Nishi simply collapsed after his 40/up service game he lost early in the first set, despite a good start.

But what annoys me with him too is that he has to have some kind of injuries to keep his spirit up: teh wrist, the leg, the ankle....so he can lose without bruising his ego too much!....a la nadal!

Nishikori is losing Djokovic like Djokovic was losing to Nadal in their earlier years. If Nishi can keep his fitness and control his emotions.. he can have the same grip on Djokovic like Djokovic has over Nadal...

He is not far behind.. but if he goes the Delpotro way.. it will be a shame..

Exactly. This is what I said earlier.

I think Nishikori will never win a Slam if that's the performance he can put in at the top level when it matters.  He doesn't have the extra gear.