2017 Australian Open Day 10: Wednesday, Jan 25 - Order of Play

[kskate2]

ROD LAVER ARENA 11:00 AM

Women's Singles - Quarterfinals
Karolina Pliskova (CZE) [5] vs. Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (CRO)

Not Before: 1:00 PM
Women's Singles - Quarterfinals
Johanna Konta (GBR) [9] vs. Serena Williams (USA) [2]

Men's Singles - Quarterfinals
David Goffin (BEL) [11] vs. Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) [15]

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ROD LAVER ARENA 7:30 PM

Men's Singles - Quarterfinals
Rafael Nadal (ESP) [9] vs. Milos Raonic (CAN) [3]

Men's Doubles - Quarterfinals
Henri Kontinen (FIN) [4]/John Peers (AUS) [4] vs. Sam Groth (AUS)/Chris Guccione (AUS)

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MARGARET COURT ARENA 11:00 AM

Men's Legends' Doubles
Wayne Arthurs (AUS)Richard Fromberg (AUS) vs. Jonas Bjorkman (SWE)/Thomas Johansson (SWE)

Not Before: 12:00 PM
Mixed Doubles - Quarterfinals
Michaella Krajicek (NED)/Raven Klaasen (RSA) vs. Abigail Spears (USA)/Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL)

Not Before: 2:00 PM
Men's Doubles - Quarterfinals
Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA) [1]/Nicolas Mahut (FRA) [1] vs. Marc Polmans (AUS)/Andrew Whittington (AUS)

Not Before: 5:00 PM
Women's Doubles - Semifinals
Caroline Garcia (FRA)[1]/Kristina Mladenovic(FRA)[1] or Ashleigh Barty(AUS)/Casey Dellacqua(AUS) vs. Andrea Hlavackova (CZE) [12]/Shuai Peng (CHN) [12]

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SHOW COURT 2 11:00 AM

Junior Girls' Singles - Round 3
Jodie Anna Burrage (GBR) [6] vs. Marta Kostyuk (UKR) [11]

Not Before: 1:00 PM
Men's Legends' Doubles
Carlos Moya (ESP)/Mark Philippoussis (AUS) vs. Todd Woodbridge (AUS)/Mansour Bahrami (FRA)

Not Before: 3:00 PM
Women's Legends' Doubles
Mary Joe Fernandez (USA)/Barbara Schett (AUT) vs. Iva Majoli (CRO)/Alicia Molik (AUS)

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SHOW COURT 3 11:00 AM

Junior Boys' Singles - Round 3
Yibing Wu (CHN) [1] vs. Maxence Broville (FRA)

Junior Girls' Singles - Round 3
Rebeka Masarova (SUI) [1] vs. Carson Branstine (USA) [13]

Not Before: 1:30 PM
Mixed Doubles - Quarterfinals
Gabriela Dabrowski (CAN)/Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs. Sania Mirza (IND) [2]/Ivan Dodig (CRO) [2]

Not Before: 3:00 PM
Women's Doubles - Semifinals
Eri Hozumi (JPN)/Miyu Kato (JPN) vs. Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA) [2]/Lucie Safarova (CZE) [2]

 

[isabelle]

can't wait to see if Lord Carlos's better than Krajicek.... maybe Manacor's bull can blast big Milos ? any opinions or predictions about this match ? the Spaniard's favourite for me

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

can't wait to see if Lord Carlos's better than Krajicek.... maybe Manacor's bull can blast big Milos ? any opinions or predictions about this match ? the Spaniard's favourite for me

I think it depends on how well Milos will be serving his first serves. Let's say he maintains a first serve in percentage of above 65% and commits not more than 1 double fault in a set, then he has got a server's chance. To be really frank, I think Rafa is playing too well to go down against Milos now. It could be a close match though with Rafa pulling it off. I would think he has the experience to do this.

 

[Puppet Master]

can't wait to see if Lord Carlos's better than Krajicek.... maybe Manacor's bull can blast big Milos ? any opinions or predictions about this match ? the Spaniard's favourite for me

I don't know. It's very tricky to predict since both haven't been playing perfect tennis. If Nadal can find a rhythm in Raonic's service games the Canadian is in big trouble. Then again, if Rafa stands behind the Melbourne sign spamming slow loopy forehands he will get roasted as well, as has been shown in Brisbane this year and Indian Wells 2015.
If you put a gun to my head and make me predict the result, I am going with Nadal in 5, after Raonic collapses from being moved around so much.
Also, I will add the result, just to see how far off I will be:
Nadal def. Raonic ( 6-7 6-4 6-4 2-6 6-4 ) 4 hours and 18 minutes.

 

[El Dude]

I'd like to think Milos can beat Nadal, but I'm giving Rafa the edge. Milos has to play a near perfect match to beat Rafa in this form.

Goffin will put up a bit of fuss, but Grigor will beat him in four.

And then Rafa will be hoping desperately that Roger can beat Stan.

 

[the AntiPusher]

can't wait to see if Lord Carlos's better than Krajicek.... maybe Manacor's bull can blast big Milos ? any opinions or predictions about this match ? the Spaniard's favourite for me

It's funny most of the so called tennis experts are picking a Milos by a slight favorite on paper..however this tennis board is smarter..Rafa could win this in straight or 4 sets if the combination of both happens: Milos has an off day serving and Rafa stands closer to the baseline line instead of returning from almost ten feet behind at the Melbourne sign..However there's hope. If you noticed later during the later stages of Rafa vs Monfils , when Gael continued to serve 135-139 bombs and playing first strike tennis, Rafa made a huge adjustment because he saw the Ghost of Rafa's grand slams recent past. Rafa began to crank his backhand return of serves. Also, during the rallies he drop some balls short, to draw Gael into the net.. All this will work vs Milos.. Rafa serving is key, 65-70 first serve percentage will help Rafa's cause. A course the dtl fh is Rafa's bread and butter but during the early Rafa's matches, some of the analysts feel what I have been saying for years..Rafa other most prominent weapon is his CC bh..this will pull Milos off the court and force Milos to began to go for broke. Moya will address all of this because he is Rafa's technical coach/mentor/friend and he is getting paid too.

 

[the AntiPusher]

I'd like to think Milos can beat Nadal, but I'm giving Rafa the edge. Milos has to play a near perfect match to beat Rafa in this form.

Goffin will put up a bit of fuss, but Grigor will beat him in four.

And then Rafa will be hoping desperately that Roger can beat Stan.

Nah.. if Rafa gets past Milos, I would hope he would want revenge over Stan if Roger doesn't win. I know I would if my name was Nadal.

 

[atttomole]

can't wait to see if Lord Carlos's better than Krajicek.... maybe Manacor's bull can blast big Milos ? any opinions or predictions about this match ? the Spaniard's favourite for me

It's funny most of the so called tennis experts are picking a Milos by a slight favorite on paper..however this tennis board is smarter..Rafa could win this in straight or 4 sets if the combination of both happens: Milos has an off day serving and Rafa stands closer to the baseline line instead of returning from almost ten feet behind at the Melbourne sign..However there's hope. If you noticed later during the later stages of Rafa vs Monfils , when Gael continued to serve 135-139 bombs and playing first strike tennis, Rafa made a huge adjustment because he saw the Ghost of Rafa's grand slams recent past. Rafa began to crank his backhand return of serves. Also, during the rallies he drop some balls short, to draw Gael into the net.. All this will work vs Milos.. Rafa serving is key, 65-70 first serve percentage will help Rafa's cause. A course the dtl fh is Rafa's bread and butter but during the early Rafa's matches, some of the analysts feel what I have been saying for years..Rafa other most prominent weapon is his CC bh..this will pull Milos off the court and force Milos to began to go for broke. Moya will address all of this because he is Rafa's technical coach/mentor/friend and he is getting paid too.

I am also surprised that tennis experts think that Milos is favorite, considering Rafa's experience at grand slams. Over the years I have noticed that people on these boards actually know more tennis than TV pundits.

 

[mrzz]

That´s a tricky question, I guess. Course the natural thing is to consider Nadal as the favorite, 14 slams against zero, more talent, higher tennis IQ. However, Raonic is the #3 seed for a reason, he´s been ranked higher than Nadal for a while, and in this courts a big server is always a big threat. What I mean is that no result should be considered an upset.

If somehow they would have met earlier in the tournament, considering that it´s been a while since Nadal has had good results, I could understand considering Raonic the favorite. As for now, I disagree.

However, you cannot blame the people who pick Raonic as the winner. He was a finalist at Wimbledon, after all. It has also been a while since Nadal has beaten a top 10.

To me is a coin toss. Nadal faced two opponents who are dangerous, but are, well, brainless. Nadal, being Nadal, exploited it perfectly. Raonic is much more feet on the ground.

My pick is that Raonic wins the first, and whoever wins the second wins the match.

 

[El Dude]

Rafa just beat Monfils, who is top 10. But maybe you mean "real to 10?"

I think that either Raonic-Dimitrov or Dimitrov-Nadal could be very interesting. If Rafa gets by Milos, and assuming Grigor beats Goffin, Grigor might be a harder opponent than Milos, with his more varied play style.

Milos will beat Rafa if he serves really well. But if not, he'll lose. If Grigor doesn't serve really well, he'll probably lose but he has more to fall back on.

 

[mrzz]

Ouch! Thanks, Dude.

I meant "real tennis players".

 

[rafanoy1992]

I agree with mrzz on why most tennis pundits pick Milos as a slight favorite. He has played well in the past 6 months, and his big serve will always be a threat especially at a hardcourt and against Nadal (who tends to play way back to return big serves). So while I think Nadal should beat Milos, I would not be surprised if Milos beat Nadal.

As for the potential match-ups, in my opinion at this point, Nadal is just happy he is playing well right now. Of course he would rather play Goffin/Federer but he knows if he starts playing poorly he will get beat any single day.

 

[the AntiPusher]

I agree with mrzz on why most tennis pundits pick Milos as a slight favorite. He has played well in the past 6 months, and his big serve will always be a threat especially at a hardcourt and against Nadal (who tends to play way back to return big serves). So while I think Nadal should beat Milos, I would not be surprised if Milos beat Nadal.

As for the potential match-ups, in my opinion at this point, Nadal is just happy he is playing well right now. Of course he would rather play Goffin/Federer but he knows if he starts playing poorly he will get beat any single day.

I just rewatched Abu Dhabi match between Rafa and Milos on December 30, 2016..it was a fast court and Rafa was able to get off to a early lead...just like Brisbane but this time Rafa got a victory however..it wasn't an ATP sanctioned tournament

 

[crystalfire]

praying rafa loses. cant watch another beat down hes gonna give fed. had enough of those in the last decade *cries*

 

[the AntiPusher]

praying rafa loses. cant watch another beat down hes gonna give fed. had enough of those in the last decade *cries*

Praying Rafa wins..I Can't wait to see another beat down he gonna give Fed. I can't get enough of those which has been plentiful this past decade:heart:

 

[10isfan]

I have seen "Fed is the favorite to win the title" for the last two days. This shows the bettors don't know tennis all that well. As long as Nadal is in the draw, Fed can't be the favorite.

Nadal is hoping Fed beats Stan.
Fed is hoping Raonic beats Nadal.

Things have fallen into place perfectly for Nadal so far. Djoke loses early. He will likely play Baby Fed just before Fed. I think Nadal gets to 15. I am hoping Fed gets to 18.

 

[Carol]

I'd like to think Milos can beat Nadal, but I'm giving Rafa the edge. Milos has to play a near perfect match to beat Rafa in this form.

Goffin will put up a bit of fuss, but Grigor will beat him in four.

And then Rafa will be hoping desperately that Roger can beat Stan.

Hmmm, I would say that Rafa would like more Stan winning and then to have the opportunity that he missed in 2014

 

[mrzz]

Of course that the last guy I want to see facing Federer in the final, IF he gets there, is Nadal. However, in the last, say three years, I was hoping they have played each other more, I am sure Federer would have had more wins than losses, and right now we could be perceiving things quite differently

 

[Carol]

can't wait to see if Lord Carlos's better than Krajicek.... maybe Manacor's bull can blast big Milos ? any opinions or predictions about this match ? the Spaniard's favourite for me

It's funny most of the so called tennis experts are picking a Milos by a slight favorite on paper..however this tennis board is smarter..Rafa could win this in straight or 4 sets if the combination of both happens: Milos has an off day serving and Rafa stands closer to the baseline line instead of returning from almost ten feet behind at the Melbourne sign..However there's hope. If you noticed later during the later stages of Rafa vs Monfils , when Gael continued to serve 135-139 bombs and playing first strike tennis, Rafa made a huge adjustment because he saw the Ghost of Rafa's grand slams recent past. Rafa began to crank his backhand return of serves. Also, during the rallies he drop some balls short, to draw Gael into the net.. All this will work vs Milos.. Rafa serving is key, 65-70 first serve percentage will help Rafa's cause. A course the dtl fh is Rafa's bread and butter but during the early Rafa's matches, some of the analysts feel what I have been saying for years..Rafa other most prominent weapon is his CC bh..this will pull Milos off the court and force Milos to began to go for broke. Moya will address all of this because he is Rafa's technical coach/mentor/friend and he is getting paid too.

Those 'experts" are the same that they picked Novak or Muzz to win this AO. They go more through how each player has played last year (Rafa we all know has played bad) or through the last matches they have played (Rafa-Milos) which it's even more silly.

 

[rafanoy1992]

It is interesting to talk about Nadal potentially winning his 2nd AO title and completing a 2nd career slam once again.

I remembered El Dude creating a thread in which he asked, "Which title would you like Nadal to win as last hurrah or something..." Most of the posters voted for a 2nd AO title. At first, I thought it will be impossible because of Nadal's level of play but he is 3 wins away of achieving the goal.