2015 Australian Open Final: Djokovic vs. Murray

[Front242]

ROFL! I remember this dude's speech took about 15 minutes a few years ago. Cringeworthy stuff.

 

[Kieran]

"And now a word from our sponsors."

"Thank you. Please buy our products. Going half price in selected stores. Built to last! Please buy! Please!"

 

[sid]

Congrats to Nole & his fans on winning the AO.

 

[Kieran]

Kim Sears has been caught on camera: "f***** flash Japanese car salesman f***!"

 

[TennisFanatic7]

Loving this. Murray's resurgence was not so much as we thought.

Slightly unfair assessment in my opinion. It's still a big step for Andy to be playing this match today after what he went through last year. You can't exactly expect him to go straight from that to beating Djokovic in an AO final in the space of a few weeks.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Roy Emerson the 6th time winner of the Australian Open I believe will hand out the trophy's to the runner up and the winner.

 

[Kirijax]

Loving this. Murray's resurgence was not so much as we thought.

Slightly unfair assessment in my opinion. It's still a big step for Andy to be playing this match today after what he went through last year. You can't exactly expect him to go straight from that to beating Djokovic in an AO final in the space of a few weeks.

After seeing the way he folded in the last two sets, I really doubt Murray can stay with the top guys in long drawn out battles anymore. He needs to win in quick fashion or he's toast. I'll be surprised if he can win one again. Not saying he won't but I'm not betting on it.

 

[rafanoy1992]

A couple of key moments in this match may well have changed everything for Andy because he was Nole's equal until he couldn't convert that break point at 3-3 in the previous set.

That volley in the first set tie-break was key, although there's no guarantee whatsoever that Andy would have won that set, and if he had no guarantee he would have still won the second.

At the end of the day, this has been a good tournament for Andy. He's returned to a slam final, even at his best he'd struggle to beat Nole over 4-5 sets on this court and today you can argue the match has swung on a few key moments where he hasn't been quite clinical enough. Maybe if this wasn't his first slam final in 18 months (he hasn't even contested a Masters final since he won Wimbledon), he'd have reacted better on the big points, maybe not.

Either way, this has been a very positive fortnight for Murray even if he'll be gutted right now. If you put into context how outrageous it would have been to bounce back from his 2014 campaign and win the Aussie Open straight off the bat this year, can't be too upset that it hasn't happened.

Congratulations to Novak who was forced to grind out a tough win on what appeared to be a very difficult day for him to find his best form. About time he wins the French this year. I've been saying it for almost two years now but he's in a great position to dominate the tour for the next couple of years and secure his legacy.

Great post. I think for Murray at this point in time just need to find a way to beat either Djokovic, Federer and Nadal in any tournament really. If he could beat either one of them, then it would give him a confidence boost even it is a minor one. Other than that, he looks like he is ready to play and win some tournaments this year.

 

[TsarMatt]

The Kia guy...

 

[Kieran]

A good point was made in the commentary, and I'm not getting at Amelie here, but under Lendl, Murray had more or less eradicated the negativity. He actually started to become negative when he was still up a break in the third, and then he folded. Under Ivan, that sort of thing wasn't so apparent.

It's a positive tournament for him but we can see in this match how important the mental side is, and how any weaknesses in that area can be exploited, and become fatal. Andy will get better, but will he get rid of this whining side of his character? Can he do that twice?

 

[TennisFanatic7]

Loving this. Murray's resurgence was not so much as we thought.

Slightly unfair assessment in my opinion. It's still a big step for Andy to be playing this match today after what he went through last year. You can't exactly expect him to go straight from that to beating Djokovic in an AO final in the space of a few weeks.

After seeing the way he folded in the last two sets, I really doubt Murray can stay with the top guys in long drawn out battles anymore. He needs to win in quick fashion or he's toast. I'll be surprised if he can win one again. Not saying he won't but I'm not betting on it.

Fair point. I do think he'll be back to win one or two more. There's no reason to believe he can't hang with the other top guys in 5 setters - Federer and Nadal haven't exactly been renowned for their staying power in the past year or so. Bear in mind too that this is Nole's favourite slam... Though I agree that he has to find a way to beat Djokovic again.

A couple of key moments in this match may well have changed everything for Andy because he was Nole's equal until he couldn't convert that break point at 3-3 in the previous set.

That volley in the first set tie-break was key, although there's no guarantee whatsoever that Andy would have won that set, and if he had no guarantee he would have still won the second.

At the end of the day, this has been a good tournament for Andy. He's returned to a slam final, even at his best he'd struggle to beat Nole over 4-5 sets on this court and today you can argue the match has swung on a few key moments where he hasn't been quite clinical enough. Maybe if this wasn't his first slam final in 18 months (he hasn't even contested a Masters final since he won Wimbledon), he'd have reacted better on the big points, maybe not.

Either way, this has been a very positive fortnight for Murray even if he'll be gutted right now. If you put into context how outrageous it would have been to bounce back from his 2014 campaign and win the Aussie Open straight off the bat this year, can't be too upset that it hasn't happened.

Congratulations to Novak who was forced to grind out a tough win on what appeared to be a very difficult day for him to find his best form. About time he wins the French this year. I've been saying it for almost two years now but he's in a great position to dominate the tour for the next couple of years and secure his legacy.

Great post. I think for Murray at this point in time just need to find a way to beat either Djokovic, Federer and Nadal in any tournament really. If he could beat either one of them, then it would give him a confidence boost even it is a minor one. Other than that, he looks like he is ready to play and win some tournaments this year.

Hopefully. He doesn't like Indian Wells or the clay though so it'll be tough to break through in the spring with a big title but if he can keep this solid momentum up he has always fared better between Wimbledon and Shanghai so hopefully he can do well there.

 

[Front242]

A good point was made in the commentary, and I'm not getting at Amelie here, but under Lendl, Murray had more or less eradicated the negativity. He actually started to become negative when he was still up a break in the third, and then he folded. Under Ivan, that sort of thing wasn't so apparent.

It's a positive tournament for him but we can see in this match how important the mental side is, and how any weaknesses in that area can be exploited, and become fatal. Andy will get better, but will he get rid of this whining side of his character? Can he do that twice?

Pretty hard to change one's personality so my guess is no.

 

[rafanoy1992]

Loving this. Murray's resurgence was not so much as we thought.

Slightly unfair assessment in my opinion. It's still a big step for Andy to be playing this match today after what he went through last year. You can't exactly expect him to go straight from that to beating Djokovic in an AO final in the space of a few weeks.

After seeing the way he folded in the last two sets, I really doubt Murray can stay with the top guys in long drawn out battles anymore. He needs to win in quick fashion or he's toast. I'll be surprised if he can win one again. Not saying he won't but I'm not betting on it.

You can't use the last two sets as a sample that Murray does not have a resurgence this year. I mean he played very well in the first two and half sets before mentally tapping out in the end. I think this tournament showed that Murray is ready to play and win some major tournaments in the future. The only question is can he beat the Big Three if you like to call it like that.

Finally, I would be really surprise if he doesn't win at the very least one more major. He is too talented (maybe not as talented as the other Top 3 players) not to win one more major. Also, I don't trust the guys below him to win any majors soon. Yes, I Wawrinka and Cilic won slams last year but don't expect it to be like that especially this year.

 

[Front242]

Murray's still right up as a favourite come grass season imo. Ok, he lost miserably to Dimitrov there last year but I wouldn't be surprised if won this year.

 

[Kirijax]

Slightly unfair assessment in my opinion. It's still a big step for Andy to be playing this match today after what he went through last year. You can't exactly expect him to go straight from that to beating Djokovic in an AO final in the space of a few weeks.

After seeing the way he folded in the last two sets, I really doubt Murray can stay with the top guys in long drawn out battles anymore. He needs to win in quick fashion or he's toast. I'll be surprised if he can win one again. Not saying he won't but I'm not betting on it.

You can't use the last two sets as a sample that Murray does not have a resurgence this year. I mean he played very well in the first two and half sets before mentally tapping out in the end. I think this tournament showed that Murray is ready to play and win some major tournaments in the future. The only question is can he beat the Big Three if you like to call it like that.

Finally, I would be really surprise if he doesn't win at the very least one more major. He is too talented (maybe not as talented as the other Top 3 players) not to win one more major. Also, I don't trust the guys below him to win any majors soon. Yes, I Wawrinka and Cilic won slams last year but don't expect it to be like that especially this year.

We'll have to agree to disagree. It seems that Murray has fallen back into that negative mindset that really hurts him in matches like this. Mauresmo maybe doesn't have the ability that Lendl and his former staff had to keep Murray from going off the deepend and snapping mentally like he did tonight. He proved he's not there tonight and who knows if he can make that adjustment again like he did for a brief time in '12 and '13. I don't think he can.

 

[pavlik89]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUUgenVfKjQ[/video]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0S0IscltgY[/video]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSVenqPQLiw[/video]

 

[rafanoy1992]

Also, ESPN or the media has the started asking the question, "Will Djokovic catch Nadal?" Man, these media people are non-stop.

Then when Nadal wins a Major the headlines will be "Will Nadal break Federer's record?"

I hate these types of questions because they set unrealistic expecations and when a player doesn't achieve these expectations, the media will kill him for those failures.

Personally, in my opinion, Djokovic will not catch Nadal, Nadal will not break or catch Federer's record. Basically, I could see Federer staying in top with 17 or 18 majors.

 

[Denis]

Congrats to all the Novak fans here, pretty similar final storyline as two years ago, although I think the level was better this year. I was impressed with Murray, he played really well the first two sets. Novak's serve and Andy's second serve kept Novak in the match.

8 GS titles, now is the time to start setting yourself apart Novak.

Onwards to Paris.

 

[Carol]

So that's 5 AO; 2 Wimbledons; 1 USO?

The most shocking thing about that, is that it's only one USO. That is scary.. surely he'll win 2 or 3 of those?

He should have 3.....he played two of his worst finals to lose those two to Nadal.

I would say Nadal played two great finals......:clap

 

[brokenshoelace]

It's hilarious that Cali thinks Djokovic played worse finals at the 2010 and 2013 US Opens than he did in 2007 and 2012 against Federer and Murray respectively.