Australian Open - 2020

Djokovic shall be very happy

Seeing what we saw so far in 2020, I dont see anyone taking this but him

only if courts are really as slow as they say, maybe there is a chance for thiem?

Nadal for sure is unable to beat Djokovic  on hardcourts anymore

5:2 up keep it up baby

Thiem will crush Djoko and Nadal.too, sleep tight Nax

Fed takes it 6:3 he is knackered like a gypsy horse.

Thiem to save the day now, come onnnn

Incredible Federer

Jahu wrote:Fed takes it 6:3 he is knackered like a gypsy horse.

Thiem to save the day now, come onnnn

Thiem could save the day, but only tomorrow

Have to feel Fed’s name is on the trophy surely. Two astonishing wins. The way it’s going I’d expect Raonic to take out Djokovic.

The great escape of Fed continues

Raonic hopefully can serve bombs and fuckup Djokos nerves

9:0 H2H with Raonic, got to be the time to lose viginity finally

Fed 2/12 on BPs

Tennys 0/7 on MPs

I think Fed will win the AO

Tenez wake up, give us some hope here 

For Fed to win in SF, DJoko needs to lose today.

Jahu wrote:Some stats, that only to serve to highlight the unlikeliness of Federer’s victory.
Aces - Sandgren 27 / Federer 5
Winners - Sandgren 73 / Federer 44
Unforced errors - Sandgren 53 / Federer 56
Total points won - Sandgren 161 / Federer 160

Well hard luck for Tennys. Fed himself has many loses in finals including 2 slams where he had better stats compared to the opponent but still lost. Wimbledon 19 final, AO09 final.

Djokoshit cruising 6;4, 5:2

It’s hard to see a not fully fit Federer beating Novak but possibly he will be able to recover before the SF. If Rafa can get past Thiem tomorrow, it’s looking very much like another Djokdal final, as I don’t give either Stan or Zverev much hope against Rafa.

Come on. fed is knackered and scraping past ordinary players.

He’ll be lucky to get 6 games in the semi.

Djokovic is so superior I just dont understand how he dididnt win every slam last year

bogbrush wrote:Come on. fed is knackered and scraping past ordinary players.

He’ll be lucky to get 6 games in the semi.

Fed will play freely I hope, Djoko will look for some WTF revenge and pressure is on him after playing no one worthy so far at this AO.

Zverev and Thiem today me thinks. Can they beat Djokovic? I doubt it in best of 5 format.

Woke up this morning, saw Fed survived 7 MPs.  It would almost have been better if he had not (well, maybe not quite).  I do not see how he will put up any serious resistance vs Nole.  Fed was playing quite well at Wimbledon, and Nole was not, and still Fed could not win.  Nole has looked superb to me thus far.  Definitely the best I have seen him play since last year's AO, and maybe better than that.  Fed on the other hand... …. well not playing his best tennis.  Plus he has now played 14 sets the last three rounds.

I am expecting a score similar to Fed's last year's RG SF loss to Rafa.

Slippy wrote:I don’t give either Stan or Zverev much hope against Rafa.

Yeah, probably agreeing with this.

For me, the most interesting realistic final might be Stan vs Nole.  Nole has been very uncomfortable vs Stan lately - would he finally find a way to assert himself?  But I agree that Stan is unlikely to get past Rafa.

Medvedev I thought was the other way around.  I was able to imagine him beating Rafa, but not Nole.

If Rafa wins tonight, all of the Big 3 will make SF.  This was fairly common 2007-2012 (happened 11 times then) but as at first Federer, and later also Rafa and - to a lesser extent - Nole started to struggle, this stopped happening.  Last year's FO was the first time since 2012 (also FO) when they all made SF.  But now it is becoming more common again - they repeated at Wimbledon and now possibly here.

As a side-note, there were four occasions when all of the Big 4 were in the SF: USO08, FO11, USO11, and AO12.

If Stan and Rafa were to win tonight (not a given, but well within the realm of possible), Nole would be the youngest semifinalist

summerblues wrote:

Slippy wrote:I don’t give either Stan or Zverev much hope against Rafa.

Yeah, probably agreeing with this.

For me, the most interesting realistic final might be Stan vs Nole.  Nole has been very uncomfortable vs Stan lately - would he finally find a way to assert himself?  But I agree that Stan is unlikely to get past Rafa.

Medvedev I thought was the other way around.  I was able to imagine him beating Rafa, but not Nole.

Stan has no chance of beating Djokovic. He redlined against a below par Medvedev and won in 5 sets. His movement has been quite slow since his knee injury. Also he admitted that he put on a lot of weight recently due to poor diet. I think people get confused because Stan beat a injured Djokovic at USO. A lot of people would have beaten Djokovic on that day.

As for Medvedev. I think if Nadal plays well, he would Medvedev in a best of 5. Even the USO final where Nadal choked quite a bit, and Medvedev redlined, Nadal still won. Nadal's record against Medvedev is 3-0 to Rafa, while Djokovic is 4-2 up.
However Medvedev's wins are all BO3, and I doubt he's the guy to beat Djokovic in a Slam. Medvedev is a perfect player to tire out Djokovic though. In fact, he may well cost Djokovic a slam this year simply by tiring him out in SF.

I've thought for ages that Thiem is the best bet to take out Djokovic on all Slams apart from Wimbledon. That came true last year, if u ignore Djokovic's injured loss, Thiem @ RG was Djokovic's only slam loss. If Thiem can beat Rafa today in 4 sets, then I think he has a shot at the tournament. If he goes to 5 he may be tired for his SF (and thus struggle there), and then he'd also be tired for the final with only 1 day break while Djokovic will be fresh with his pending walkover.

Slippy wrote:What’s actually wrong with Fed? Commentators saying he’s injured but he looks to be moving well (only saw the tiebreak).

Maybe he is scared of losing his slam record in a direct final vs Rafa, and that makes him tighten up?

Awful start from Zverev so far. Stan looks so good when he's dominating rallies... the key is to expose his movement by moving him around which Zverev's weak shots aren't doing.

Wawrinka's game is so nice to watch.  Australia is where he first made waves.  I will never forget his first return game in the 2nd set in the final vs Rafa.  One of the most impressive return games you will ever see.  I would not begrudge him another title here.

Generation Worthless showing their form again, I see...

Raonic:  Go away, you useless mental midget.
Zverev:  Losing patience, especially if you lose this match
Theim:  Time to step up - definitely should be knocking Nadal out.

Once again we find ourselves with Federer, Nadal, and Djok in the QF stage... and Wawrinka - the only other player on tour to win 3 slams.  What does that tell you?  It tells you that the main difference is those 4 are champions and the rest are LOSERS.

summerblues wrote:

Slippy wrote:What’s actually wrong with Fed? Commentators saying he’s injured but he looks to be moving well (only saw the tiebreak).

Maybe he is scared of losing his slam record in a direct final vs Rafa, and that makes him tighten up?

He's got a groin injury.  Unlike Nadal, Fed's are genuine and he's 38.

Daniel2 wrote:Generation Worthless showing their form again, I see...

Raonic:  Go away, you useless mental midget.
Zverev:  Losing patience, especially if you lose this match
Theim:  Time to step up - definitely should be knocking Nadal out.

Once again we find ourselves with Federer, Nadal, and Djok in the QF stage... and Wawrinka - the only other player on tour to win 3 slams.  What does that tell you?  It tells you that the main difference is those 4 are champions and the rest are LOSERS.

Fair points.
But what about Thiem beating Nole at the French last year? He might peak 28+ like Stan did.

Zverev is getting into this match.

Daniel2 wrote:

summerblues wrote:

Slippy wrote:What’s actually wrong with Fed? Commentators saying he’s injured but he looks to be moving well (only saw the tiebreak).

Maybe he is scared of losing his slam record in a direct final vs Rafa, and that makes him tighten up?

He's got a groin injury.  Unlike Nadal, Fed's are genuine and he's 38.

Better than a back injury.  He had a groin injury MTO at AO17 too.

This match has changed - wheels coming off the Stan wagon.

Daniel2 wrote:Generation Worthless showing their form again, I see...

Raonic:  Go away, you useless mental midget.
Zverev:  Losing patience, especially if you lose this match
Theim:  Time to step up - definitely should be knocking Nadal out.

Once again we find ourselves with Federer, Nadal, and Djok in the QF stage... and Wawrinka - the only other player on tour to win 3 slams.  What does that tell you?  It tells you that the main difference is those 4 are champions and the rest are LOSERS.

I am hoping your prediction yesterday of Raonic to beat Djokovic in 4 yesterday was one of a mix of a jinx and jest....

Thiem in 4 today.

Come onnnnn

Federer is serial lier when it comes to his fitness. Did he get treated on court? 
To me it more likely to be the back. The fact he says his groin tightness might disappear reminds me his former back problems. Plus he said he entered the ao with low expectations.... So probably already there on a on and off basis.

I'd say Thiem in 3 unless Nadal finds his AO 19 game.

Nadal a bit more aggressive than v Kygios. Knows that short balls won't be pushed a la Kyrgios.

I would advise people to watch AO 09 semi Nadal v Verdasco to see how much the game has evolved since.

Nadal serve volleying twice knowing he won't last 5 sets rallying with Thiem.

Good old moonballing from Nadal derailed Thiem for an important game.

Serving-volleying, moonballing...

sounds varied

Thiem seems to be winning more of the long rallies. Interesting.

Any early bets on whose half at RG is Thiem going to be this year (again)?

Thiem too good

Nervous Nadal again. Serving for the set and ahead in the TB and each time he is ahead he plays poorly. Amazing to be nearly a 20 slam winner and having such poor nerves. What would he have done without those muscles which gave him all his confidence.

Not good news for Nadal, as Thiem will probably open up.

Tenez, do you think Thiem can beat Djokovic?