2017 Australian Open Day 1: Monday, Jan 16 - Order of Play

[mightyjeditribble]

lucky netcord gives Melzer 15-30, then an amazing passing shot makes it two break points.

Fed in trouble?

5-3. Melzer wins 4 on the trot and will serve for the second set. uzzled

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

Guys, melzer serving for second set. Was hard to imagine straight sets anyway after the start.

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[pavlik89]

Jurgen Melzer vs Roger Federer FULL MATCH HD Australian Open 2017
[video=dailymotion]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x58od52[/video]

 

[mightyjeditribble]

Great net play from Fed on the second point. 15-15.

But his inside-out forehand is wide. 30-15.

Gets it to 40-30, but Melzer brings up set point ...

Great backhand passing shot - deuce!

Come on Fed ...

 

[mightyjeditribble]

Great serve - another set point.

Backhand long - Melzer wins 5 in a row and levels the match at one set all.

Oh Roger.

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

Credit to melzer who is making life challenging for Roger. The first serve percent of Roger needs to improve. 56% won't work.

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[Shivashish Sarkar]

On a hard court, you want to be the one imposing your game on the opponent taking your chances or the surface will play to your disadvantage.

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[rafanoy1992]

This version of Federer is like Nadal in 2015. You could clearly see the rust and rhythm being off after a long layout.

 

[mightyjeditribble]

Great lob brings up MP for Fed. And he finishes the job in four sets.

In the end, he got a good workout, and at just over two hours it was shorter than some straight-sets matches.

On the evidence of today it's hard to see Roger go past Berdych and Nishikori, not to mention Murray. But there is hope for the rust to come off quickly. Rubin up next, who came through a five-setter in the first round. Should be easier on paper for Fed, so fitness shouldn't be an issue when he goes into the third round (presumably) against Berdych.

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

No, fitness will most probably not be an issue. Federer's first serve percentage was too low today for the first and second sets especially considering Melzer was playing so well himself. Federer then did better in the third set. In the fourth set, he was serving really well with good percentage and aces. So, perhaps Federer took some time to get his rust off him or Melzer really was exhausted after the second set. I think Roger stepped up his game too. So, after 4 sets, the stats don't look bad for Roger but the truth is he only really began to play well after Melzer was a little fatigued. Matches against qualifiers can sometimes be unreliable tool for assesment of form.

 

[mrzz]

Great post Shivashish.

But one way or another the matched seemed high quality for me and I disagree with the posters above. This level is more than enough for current versions of Nishikori (I saw his match) and Berdych. Not enough for Murray, though.

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

Great post Shivashish.

But one way or another the matched seemed high quality for me and I disagree with the posters above. This level is more than enough for current versions of Nishikori (I saw his match) and Berdych. Not enough for Murray, though.

Federer will really step his game up for these guys, especially Murray. Win or loss is tough to say but Roger will be up to the task. The only thing that he needs is a very good first serve percentage. Everything else will fall into place.

 

[mightyjeditribble]

To be fair mrzz, I haven't watched Berdych recently, and haven't seen Nishikori play since we saw him live in the WTF semis a few months ago. However, even though Kei was summarily dismissed by Novak, I don't think that Fed's level today (at least in the first two sets - I didn't manage to see much of the set after that) would have been good enough to beat him.

Now, Roger has had scares in early rounds before, even when he wasn't coming back from injury, and then clicked into form. But realistically, the best-case scenario seems to be an easy win in R2, two tough wins against Berdych and Nishikori, by which point he won't be able to do much about Andy.

Very happy to be proved wrong!

 

[mrzz]

^Let´s see. To assess a players level is far from easy. Federer surely looked a bit strange in the first two, but Melzer wasn´t giving anything free, in fact was playing fearless tennis, with a lot of speed off both wings. And he is lefty.

I say for a first round is good. Needs to raise his level for sure, but the good thing was the reasonable number of UFE´s, and that in fact his adversary got tired before him...

With a good serving day I say he can straight set Berdych. But that is not a given...

 

[Carol]

Stan definitely is an animal :eyepop
Ouch!

https://mobile.twitter.com/AustralianOpen/status/820965031730757632/video/1

 

[Carol]

And nobody talks too much about the very young player De Miñaur, 17 years old, his mother is from Spain and his father from Uruguay, he was born in Sydney but when he was 5 years old their parents decided to move to Spain. Years later when he started to play well his parents asked help to the Spanish Federation but he didn't get it so his father decided to comeback to Australia and the Aussie Federation is helping him a lot expecting and longing to have a new Champion. He did beat Benoit Paire in Sydney and yesterday was his first win in a GS match and maybe more to come, stay tune. I think Spain has missed the opportunity to have another Champion, we'll see

 

[El Dude]

De Minaur could be the answer to the question, "Where does Spanish tennis go after Rafa?" He's vying with Denis Shapovalov for most promising player born in 1999.

 

[Carol]

De Minaur could be the answer to the question, "Where does Spanish tennis go after Rafa?" He's vying with Denis Shapovalov for most promising player born in 1999.

I think the Spanish Federation made a big mistake but we don't know why really they made that decision or how much they will regret about it :nono