Australian Open 2015: Matches of the day: Day 5 23-Jan-2015

Kevin Anderson (RSA) [14]
Richard Gasquet (FRA) [24]


Marcos Baghdatis (CYP)
Grigor Dimitrov(BUL) [10]


Bernard Tomic (AUS)
Sam Groth (AUS)


Andy Murray (GBR) [6]
Joao Sousa (POR)


Malek Jaziri (TUN)
Nick Kyrgios (AUS)


Tomas Berdych (CZE) [7]
Viktor Troicki (SRB)


Dudi Sela (ISR)
Rafael Nadal (ESP) [3]


Andreas Seppi (ITA)
Roger Federer (SUI) [2]


Have fun!

Hopefully some interesting matches today...

So far, I only enjoyed Monfils-Pouille, but didn't see much else anyway...
Scheduling has been really annoying, first matches start midnight UK time and they are all women's...

But I'll def stay up for Troicki-Berdych, should be good. Then it's Fed-Seppi amd then...

noleisthebest wrote:Hopefully some interesting matches today...

So far, I only enjoyed Monfils-Pouille, but didn't see much else anyway...
Scheduling has been really annoying, first matches start midnight UK time and they are all women's...

But I'll def stay up for Troicki-Berdych, should be good.

Same here...Smy Nadal too though both matches had a bad ending.

Richard Gasquet (FRA) [24] - Though Gasquet does not do well v great servers.


Marcos Baghdatis (CYP) - Hoping for a Bagda revival.

Bernard Tomic (AUS)

Andy Murray (GBR) [6]

Nick Kyrgios (AUS)

Viktor Troicki (SRB) - Not so sure but the reward is better.

Rafael Nadal (ESP) [3]

Roger Federer (SUI) [2]

Anderson, Dimitrov, Tomic, Murray, Kyrgios, Troicki, Federer...
aaaand Sela- Why? Because it feels good!  

Nadal is going to be running full speed tonight. Sela is going to be obliterated.

I hope not...he was so "sick" yesterday!
Even Murray who is a notorious Nadal fan-boy had had enough of it:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/22/us-tennis-open-murray-idUSKBN0KV07R20150122

But you're probably right, just saw he is playing the last match of the evening session...I'm hoping Sela can do a Darcis!

Tenez wrote:Richard Gasquet (FRA) [24] - Though Gasquet does not do well v great servers.


Marcos Baghdatis (CYP) - Hoping for a Bagda revival.

Bernard Tomic (AUS)

Andy Murray (GBR) [6]

Nick Kyrgios (AUS)

Viktor Troicki (SRB) - Not so sure but the reward is better.

Rafael Nadal (ESP) [3]

Roger Federer (SUI) [2]

Anderson
Dimitrov
Tomic
Murray
Kyrgios
Berdych
Baldal
Goat Federer

Hewitt talking about the conditions slowing greatly as night comes on.. Mirroring what Fed said.

“Conditions were different, too, from the start of the match till the end of the match. Totally different conditions. (Earlier) the ball was flying through the air. Obviously you start in daylight and it goes into night time. By the end the balls were so much heavier out there, which was obviously harder to dictate play, especially from the back of the court for me.”

Boy- Nadal has to be licking his chops for those quarter and semi night matches..

Anderson, Dimi, Tomic, Kyrgios, Troicki, Sela, Feds, Murray.

Anderson
Baghdatis
Tomic
Murray
Kyrgios
Troicki
Sela
Federer

1. Richard Gasquet (FRA) [24]
2. Grigor Dimitrov(BUL) [10], good luck to Bagdhatis though
3. Bernard Tomic (AUS)
4. Andy Murray (GBR) [6]
5. Nick Kyrgios (AUS)
6. Viktor Troicki (SRB) - Berdych looked good so far, but Troicki (btw NITB, is it pronounced Troïtsky or Troïkki?) might test him
7. Dudi Sela (ISR) - hopefully Nadal plays another shocker , though I certainly don't expect it sadly. Just maybe there is truly something gone wrong with his treatment and he suffers from some kind of intolerance to certain medications. If so, it might be tough to address so quickly. Plus he already got a ready-made excuse to enhance his legend.
8. Roger Federer (SUI) [2]

German spelling for Troicki should be Treuizki, though I'm not sure you have any words that have "z" in front of a consonant, only a vowel, like in Melzer.

It's not "k" like in like Lisicki.

Gasquet
Dimitrov
Tomic
Murray
Kyrgios
Troicki
Sela
Federer

truffin1 wrote:Hewitt talking about the conditions slowing greatly as night comes on.. Mirroring what Fed said.

“Conditions were different, too, from the start of the match till the end of the match. Totally different conditions. (Earlier) the ball was flying through the air. Obviously you start in daylight and it goes into night time. By the end the balls were so much heavier out there, which was obviously harder to dictate play, especially from the back of the court for me.”

Boy- Nadal has to be licking his chops for those quarter and semi night matches..

I would think Nadal woudl love to play in the middle of the day with those crazy high bounces. I am not sure Nadal loves those slow conds. What he wants above all is bouncy conds. This is what hurts him. The WTF is very slow but the low bounce never suited him....or rather suited his opponents.

I dont fully agree- the night bounce at AO isn't that low, certainly not like wtf. Fed and Hewitt said it was very hard to hit winners which is what anyone, esp fed will have to do to beat nadal. The bounce might negate some of the condition advantage nadal gets, but it's still a court that helps his game and blunts his opponents. Past two night semis against fed are perfect examples

truffin1 wrote:I dont fully agree- the night bounce at AO isn't that low,  certainly not like wtf.  Fed and Hewitt said it was very hard to hit winners which is what anyone, esp fed will have to do to beat nadal.  The bounce might negate some of the condition advantage nadal gets, but it's still a court that helps his game and blunts his opponents.  Past two night semis against fed are perfect examples

It's not that straightforward. Nadal has never been as dangerous as on sunny bouncy clay but I agree that slow conds favours him too. AO09 was ridiculously slow and it certainly helped him. However we saw last year how the night session allowed Stan to have the ball in his firing range as opposed to having to hit a BH at shoulder heighth.

Slow courts means the attacker can hit the ball harder with more precision....but it would help a big hitter like Delpo or Soderling more than fed for sure who relies more on the opponents pace.

Tenez wrote:

truffin1 wrote:Hewitt talking about the conditions slowing greatly as night comes on.. Mirroring what Fed said.

“Conditions were different, too, from the start of the match till the end of the match. Totally different conditions. (Earlier) the ball was flying through the air. Obviously you start in daylight and it goes into night time. By the end the balls were so much heavier out there, which was obviously harder to dictate play, especially from the back of the court for me.”

Boy- Nadal has to be licking his chops for those quarter and semi night matches..

I would think Nadal woudl love to play in the middle of the day with those crazy high bounces. I am not sure Nadal loves those slow conds. What he wants above all is bouncy conds. This is what hurts him. The WTF is very slow but the low bounce never suited him....or rather suited his opponents.

Yep, that's what I've always thought too.
Nadal is very fast, he can actually get balls back in play when the court is playing quicker, but he's at his best when the forehand is bouncing up high and making it awkward for the opponent to attack.

Wow, Baggy bags the first set, time to have a look!

Pretty boring match...
As expected, some football style fans yelling/chanting out both players' names after EVERY point.

I don't know which court this is, but it's very slow, esp as it's noon there...

2:4 down in the 2nd set, Baggy decides to take a rest, sprawl himself & chill out on a towel while receiving a nice massage.
They call it MTO these days....

Fed in trouble, two sets down...
Just lost a TB from a mini break up in it.

Seppi playing very well, still, Fed same as in his previous match, slow legs...takes a bathroom break...

...but fighting and playing through - now with a break up.
If he wins today, this indeed can start looking like 2012.

You can see that the hands and shots ate all there, just his body letting him down.
That must be so frustrating for him.

Fed is toast. Even if he pulls this out with guile and talent- we've seen what the 5 setters have done to him the past few years- no way he then has enough for kyegios, Murray, nadal, djoko in a row.

Clealry this is wimby 2012 all over in his mind- hoping to gut out a bad back and win a major. He's moving completely different than he did for most of briabane, where it looked like he tweaked the back. Clearly movement is shot. A shame as the firm was there.

I'd like to believe he is not toast, as long as he is choosing to play.

Ut's important for him to play through this tournament, regardless of how far he goes in it.

Why with his back court game in tatters has he stopped approaching the net?

Seppi was passing him all the time...

And now the wind has picked up!

That was some gutsy hold from Fed!

TB!

GO ROG!!!!!!!

 Nooo..

noleisthebest wrote:Seppi was passing him all the time...

He passed him with a brilliant shot at MP too..

truffin1 wrote:Fed is toast.  Even if he pulls this out with guile and talent- we've seen what the 5 setters have done to him the past few years-  no way he then has enough for kyegios, Murray, nadal, djoko in a row.

Clealry this is wimby 2012 all over in his mind- hoping to gut out a bad back and win a major.  He's moving completely different than he did for most of briabane, where it looked like he tweaked the back.  Clearly movement is shot.  A shame as the firm was there.

Yep....sad isn't it?

Q. You never lost a set with him. Was it surprising the way he played? Do you think Seppi played his best ever?

ROGER FEDERER: Against me, you mean?



Q. Yes.

ROGER FEDERER: Possibly so. We had some good matches in the past. He hits a good ball, forehand and backhand, so I knew that on a quicker court where he gets more help on the serve it was potentially going to be more tricky. And I felt for some reason yesterday and this morning it was not going to be very simple today. Even in practice I still felt the same way. I was just hoping it was one of those feelings you sometimes have and it's totally not true and you just come out and you play a routine match. Yeah, it was a mistake. And I know the strength of Seppi, especially after he beat Chardy, who I know can play very well. I was aware of the test and was well-prepared. Just somehow couldn't play my best tennis today. It was definitely partially because of Andreas playing very well
=======================================

And

=============================
. Do you feel like you're having these off days, do you feel they're coming more often in the last couple of years?

ROGER FEDERER: Oh, no. This is a feeling I've had for 15 years. To me I don't read anything into that. It's just not the best feeling to have. It's not like I'm playing shocking or I'm feeling shocking. It's like one of those things you look back and maybe, Yeah, I didn't feel so good. But if you win, you never even question it. If I were you, I wouldn't read very much into that.
======================================
Oh yeah Roger.....We are reading it very clearly. Your back keeps playing up!

Dimi is very disappointing. Sure he won but he is at an age now where his game shoudl be much cleaner. It's still a draft!...a poor one!

Yes, there is not much to say. Not disappointing, just sad and such a shame.
Let's hope for a good stretch of health in the spring.

Fed could do with some rest now.

Sela-Nadal is a travesty of a 3round slam match.

Can't wait to see that pink crybaby get trashed by whomever in this tournament.

AO draw fixers should have run out of useless midgets by now...

Seppi deserved to win, great performance !

Kim Jong-Un wrote:Seppi deserved to win, great performance !

Sad you cannot see sub-perf by an injured player.....when it's not Nadal of course.

Seppi will lose in the next round or 2. Seppi is Seppi.

Looks like Nadal's blood transfusion problems are over.

Tenez wrote:

Kim Jong-Un wrote:Seppi deserved to win, great performance !

Sad you cannot see sub-perf by an injured player.....when it's not Nadal of course.

Seppi will lose in the next round or 2. Seppi is Seppi.

Federer wasn't at his best, but Seppi should get credit for great play to take advantage of it ! Especially in the crunch moments !!

Kim Jong-Un wrote:

Tenez wrote:

Kim Jong-Un wrote:Seppi deserved to win, great performance !

Sad you cannot see sub-perf by an injured player.....when it's not Nadal of course.

Seppi will lose in the next round or 2. Seppi is Seppi.

Federer wasn't at his best, but Seppi should get credit for great play to take advantage of it ! Especially in the crunch moments !!

It's easy to take advantage of an opponent who insists on giving you loads of freebies and easy attackable balls. I didn't see anything special in Seppi's play today, solid yes. He managed to keep the ball in play, Fed would cough up the errors or come up with suicidal net attacks every time. There's a reason why he never could take a set off Fed with the exception of Doha 2012, where Fed withdrew later because of injury (!).

Anyway - bad news to wake up to. Got spoilt in the morning, because usually I'd watch the matches I recorded later in the evening. But this... just sad. What a loss for the tournament.

Tenez wrote:Richard Gasquet (FRA) [24] - Though Gasquet does not do well v great servers.

I knew but coudl not help. I don;t think Gasquet ever won a match versus a good server. He is useless at returning and is baseline game is more or less as far back as nadal....except that he hasn;t got the legs to cover the ground and nor the power to make up for it.

Gasquet, time to retire!

Tenez wrote:Looks like Nadal's blood transfusion problems are over.

As expected, sadly. I wonder though why he would waste a blood bag on Smyczek, maybe another intolerance. Bad news for him though, that Murray cruises through and likely will be his opponent in the semi.

Autumnleaf wrote:Anyway - bad news to wake up to. Got spoilt in the morning, because usually I'd watch the matches I recorded later in the evening. But this... just sad. What a loss for the tournament.

Yes but somehow I had a feeling.....Big loss for the tournament. Now, the 2 matches i am interested in are Nadal v Murray and Djoko v Rao.

Tenez wrote:

Autumnleaf wrote:Anyway - bad news to wake up to. Got spoilt in the morning, because usually I'd watch the matches I recorded later in the evening. But this... just sad. What a loss for the tournament.

Yes but somehow I had a feeling.....Big loss for the tournament. Now, the 2 matches i am interested in are Nadal v Murray and Djoko v Rao.

Me too, especially after seeing the first two matches - not at all convincing. But I thought it might be just enough vs. Seppi who really is just a solid player. I was also a bit concerned about the hand, because it could be an ulnar nerve inflammation. I guess, we won't hear though, not sure.

I was also surprised how laid-back Fed congratulated Seppi at the net. A hug and a big smile, unusual after such a hurtful loss, have seen a lot of different reactions. Well, I guess it's easily explained when he just wanted to give himself a fighting chance there and it didn't work out (as almost expected).

It's weird as he played so well in Cincy last year lining up 10 matches in 2 weeks......

What is really sad is we know that even if he rests, one bad move, a single long match can simply neutralise him nowadays.

But hey yeah...well done Seppi!

This was such a great chance for Federer to get onto 18 slams.
Fed looked in incredible form in Brisbane where he played amazing tennis, Nadal still looks really rusty; and Fed vs Djoko is a pretty unpredictable match.

Seppi played so well though, he really brought his best when it mattered.