Oz open prediction game - Day 9!

Thanks NITB...we do what we need to regarding our families hey (re: travel, etc).
I like that it keeps my tennis interest "real". Sometimes when we follow the top guys we forget what its like to see/follow/play high level "grassroots" where there is still a lot of talent on show. Likewise, its very easy to denigrate the top guys too...I see Raonic being called a loser, Nadal a pusher, etc, etc, but these guys have battled their way to the top of global tennis tree - there aren't many shortcuts and we forget how good they actually are in general. The discussion amongst the top 10 players then becomes more one of nuance and preference of ones own style in seeing the game played. I played a match against a 1.2 rated player (just sub-pro level) a few months back and thought to myself (whilst being thrashed) just how good must a top 10/20/30/100 player be...

Thanks Tenez, yep we're all tennis lovers...no point in getting heated over a common passion.

Lol BB, I've barely frequented the other place for quite some time now, it seems to be on the slide from what I can see. Good to see your man having a good run too...I enjoyed the schooling he gave Berdych in particular! Seems to be taking the ball earlier than ever...like a fine wine! Even Nadal seems to be undergoing a renaissance/catharsis after years of frustrating his fans by changing nothing.

bogbrush wrote:Not at all legendkiller; the biggest victim of the crime was the tennis fan. Look at how excited people are at these faster conditions at the AO, we could have had this for the last 8 years during which time the maestro could have thrilled us even more than a Murray / Djokovic 5 hours slugfest.

Agreed, but even players who didn't set off on that path are victims too. Agassi made some spot on comments in relation to Murray saying he was capable of attacking tennis, but chooses not to embrace that part of his game and that for his supporters is a source of frustration.

LOL!

Anyway, the more the merrier.  Welcome here!

Yes ok, I think Lydian and I both argued back there that he was "better" when his game had less of the physical about it, but of course he doesn't create the environment and he's been very successful.

Oh he has. He's adapted to the conditions at the price of doing it very basically.

I hope the quickened conditions will be something we see more of and make it interesting for the rallyers to adapt again to become more varied and attacking.

When you think that already back in the 90s a quick Chang could beat Sampras on carpet and HC ....conditions will have to be very fast to give the SVer the edge with those new strings.

Variety is what's needed...fast, medium, slow to stop the march of identikit coaching and playing styles.

Another huge improvement of Nadal is his BH. Much pacier than in the past and less slices. Plus his DTL BH is much pacier which was his biggest weakness in the past.

Lydian wrote:Variety is what's needed...fast, medium, slow to stop the march of identikit coaching and playing styles.

Even variaty is relative. That's the problem. In the 90s this AO would look slow. The USO is playing with bigger balls since 2010 (they even have bigger balls for men than women there) and Wimbledon is just absurd as it has huge slazengers and I remember that one year (2008 or 2010?) you had more breaks in wimbledon than in FO!

What I don;t like is that they changed the surfaces which were perfectly varied before Nadal's arrival. Remember he coudl not win against seeded players in the USO before 2010.....and teh USO in my (ours I guess in the 90s) time was the medium pace court (between fast Wimby and slow RG).

At least this year at this AO, we have "variety" in the final again. Whereas before it purely about the fittest...and that's how it has been since 2007 roughly....And if we had not had a genius like fed we woudl have had 10 years of lung busting tennis winning everything....which we roughly had anyway.

I have actually enjoyed this AO. I think there has been enough variety to shine through.

Certainly produced the thinkings man tennis. Just hope this is a sign of things to come for 2017.