2019 Australian Open, Melbourne - ATP GRAND SLAM

[Front242]

And you Federer fans can be more happy as Nadal will have a very tough match against Berdych who is playing even better than Tsitsipas. The good news for us is that Rafa is not playing so badly like 2015 when he lost against Berdych so I hope will do much better

A young, hungry player with a great offensive all court game is a much tougher opponent than a washed up has been just returning from a back injury. Berdych lost in the first round of the French Open 2018 and has played only a handful of matches since then. Tsitsipas on the other hand won the next gen ATP finals and has had a very good 2018. It's a no brainer which opponent is tougher right now.

 

[Carol]

A young, hungry player with a great offensive all court game is a much tougher opponent than a washed up has been just returning from a back injury. Berdych lost in the first round of the French Open 2018 and has played only a handful of matches since then. Tsitsipas on the other hand won the next gen ATP finals and has had a very good 2018. It's a no brainer which opponent is tougher right now.

Remember that Rafa has returned of an ankle surgery too and the experience (Berdych) is gold and Tsitsipas on the other hand makes more noise than anything else. He beat Novak in Montreal but he hasn't do too much later....oh wait "the next gen ATP", and?

 

[Front242]

Remember that Rafa has returned of an ankle surgery too and the experience (Berdych) is gold and Tsitsipas on the other hand makes more noise than anything else. He beat Novak in Montreal but he hasn't do too much later....oh wait "the next gen ATP", and?

That wasn't an injury. Don't lie to yourself and the whole forum. He had a small foreign object removed from his ankle that wasn't impairing his movement in any way whatsoever. Maybe you didn't watch Tsitsipas v Federer at Hopman Cup. Federer barely won and both played great. He's the best of the next gen players by far and a much tougher opponent than Berdych. Experience doesn't mean a whole damn lot when you have an amazing 4-19 record against your opponent lol.

 

[Carol]

That wasn't an injury. Don't lie to yourself and the whole forum. He had a small foreign object removed from his ankle that wasn't impairing his movement in any way whatsoever. Maybe you didn't watch Tsitsipas v Federer at Hopman Cup. Federer barely won and both played great. He's the best of the next gen players by far and a much tougher opponent than Berdych. Experience doesn't mean a whole damn lot when you have an amazing 4-19 record against your opponent lol.

What are you talking about? are you so dumb thinking that wasn't an injury????? and what about when he had to retire of the USO because his knee and has been 4 months out of the court?
And don't worry so much about your dear Federer because Wilander has said the Tsitsipas can beat him which means he won't B-)

 

[mrzz]

Honestly I expect Berdych to give a lot of trouble to Nadal. Nadal is visibly adjusting his game, some very interesting features (for example, it seems that he added even more accuracy to his DTL forehand from the ad court, as he seems to be running around his back hand a bit more), but I am not sure that everything is clicking. I was not particularly impressed with his level, tbh. Actually I expect him to fall back to his more traditional style against Berdych, specially on serve. I may be wrong, of course, but one way or another I think Berdych takes at least a set, and will be in a position to take a good lead at some point. From that moment onwards, anything could happen, but the most likely outcome would be Nadal turning it around, but I won't be surprised with any result.

As I won't be surprised with any scoreline on Federer's match. Both of them can either come up playing ultra well, or pretty much like shit. Federer due to his recent pattern of oscillation, Tsitsipas due to the fact that he is basically in uncharted territory .So a beat down either way is possible, as is a competitive high level match, or even a competitive terrible match, which is actually what I think will happen, don't know exactly why. Surely their Hopman match was a pretty good one.

The other two matches are quite interesting to me at least. Like both Dimitrov and Tiafoe, prefer Cilic to RBA but I guess RBA will win 3x1 or 3x0.

 

[Carol]

Can someone tell me which one of the 3 Top players is playing better and why?

 

[Moxie]

A young, hungry player with a great offensive all court game is a much tougher opponent than a washed up has been just returning from a back injury. Berdych lost in the first round of the French Open 2018 and has played only a handful of matches since then. Tsitsipas on the other hand won the next gen ATP finals and has had a very good 2018. It's a no brainer which opponent is tougher right now.

I know these draw vs. draw fights are irresistible, (and tedious,) but I'd be careful what you say about Berdych. In the 2017 draw, I got a lot of argument from Fed fans about Berdy being tough in Roger's draw, because I said he was clearly on a down-slide, which it turns out he was. Now he's back and starting to look crisp, but you're finally embracing that it's been a rough couple of years for Tomas. Sorry, but I had to point that out. I don't think he'll give Rafa too much trouble, as he has an historically poor record against him. But there could be some, as @mrzz points out. (Though I think he overstates it.) For the record, I do agree with you that Tsitsipas is the more dangerous opponent of the 2.

 

[britbox]

Can someone tell me which one of the 3 Top players is playing better and why?

I'll answer the question after today's play!

 

[Moxie]

I'll answer the question after today's play!

Chicken.

 

[Moxie]

Honestly I expect Berdych to give a lot of trouble to Nadal. Nadal is visibly adjusting his game, some very interesting features (for example, it seems that he added even more accuracy to his DTL forehand from the ad court, as he seems to be running around his back hand a bit more), but I am not sure that everything is clicking. I was not particularly impressed with his level, tbh. Actually I expect him to fall back to his more traditional style against Berdych, specially on serve. I may be wrong, of course, but one way or another I think Berdych takes at least a set, and will be in a position to take a good lead at some point. From that moment onwards, anything could happen, but the most likely outcome would be Nadal turning it around, but I won't be surprised with any result.

As I won't be surprised with any scoreline on Federer's match. Both of them can either come up playing ultra well, or pretty much like shit. Federer due to his recent pattern of oscillation, Tsitsipas due to the fact that he is basically in uncharted territory .So a beat down either way is possible, as is a competitive high level match, or even a competitive terrible match, which is actually what I think will happen, don't know exactly why. Surely their Hopman match was a pretty good one.

The other two matches are quite interesting to me at least. Like both Dimitrov and Tiafoe, prefer Cilic to RBA but I guess RBA will win 3x1 or 3x0.

I agree with some of this, not all, but I'm interested that you casually throw in that RBA will handle Cilic pretty easily. Mind you, he's on a good win streak, and Cilic is coming off of injury.

 

[Carol]

There is something very clear like crystal, if Berdych would play against Federer his fans would say that he is very 'dangerous' like they always have said even when he was playing his worst, same old same old

 

[britbox]

Chicken.

I haven't seen enough of Fed yet but will be glued to the Tsipitas match.

 

[Moxie]

I haven't seen enough of Fed yet but will be glued to the Tsipitas match.

I'm tempted to go to bed after Rafa's match. But it's a holiday weekend here, and we're tucked in here for a snow storm, so it wouldn't be the worst thing to do a AO Vampire night.

 

[Front242]

What are you talking about? are you so dumb thinking that wasn't an injury????? and what about when he had to retire of the USO because his knee and has been 4 months out of the court?
And don't worry so much about your dear Federer because Wilander has said the Tsitsipas can beat him which means he won't B-)

Yes, he had knee issues. Not ankle. Try and keep up.

 

[Moxie]

There is something very clear like crystal, if Berdych would play against Federer his fans would say that he is very 'dangerous' like they always have said even when he was playing his worst, same old same old

They have more of a baked-in fear of Berdych, with some reason. It does matter somewhat, due to h2h. But the de Miñaur v. Evans comparison in retrospect did have me smh a bit.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

After three rounds are over and 16 players are remaining, it is time to take a look at the odds again. Thirteen of them have a puncher's chance (1% or more). Novak is the favorite with a wide margin and is tied with the field. Roger and Ralph are contenders and tied with each other. Sasha has outside chance. Raonic leads the list of nine pretenders. The only three remaining players who were not even given a punchers chance are Pouille, Tiafoe (tied at 200) and PCB (400).

1. Novak 1 50%

2. Roger / Ralph 5 16.66%

4. Sasha 12 7.69%
5. Raonic 25 3.85%
6. Cilic / Nishikori 33 2.94%
8. Grigor 40 2.44%
9. Coric 50 1.96%
10. Berdych / Medvedev 66 1.49%
12. Perseus / RBA 80 1.23 %

 

[Front242]

I know these draw vs. draw fights are irresistible, (and tedious,) but I'd be careful what you say about Berdych. In the 2017 draw, I got a lot of argument from Fed fans about Berdy being tough in Roger's draw, because I said he was clearly on a down-slide, which it turns out he was. Now he's back and starting to look crisp, but you're finally embracing that it's been a rough couple of years for Tomas. Sorry, but I had to point that out. I don't think he'll give Rafa too much trouble, as he has an historically poor record against him. But there could be some, as @mrzz points out. (Though I think he overstates it.) For the record, I do agree with you that Tsitsipas is the more dangerous opponent of the 2.

Sure, Berdych has beaten them both before but 4-19 against Nadal isn't really very impressive now is it? And now that he's just back from over a half a year off due to a back injury that 4-19 becomes even more relevant. If Berdych serves well and holds and the opponent doesn't then he's tough to play obviously enough and he has an uncanny read on Federer's serve (especially 2nd) just like Federer did against Roddick, but the fact remains, he's mostly cannon fodder for Nadal especially.

The annoying Nadal fans here need to just be honest with themselves for once and ask themselves which is a bigger upset, Federer losing to Tsitsipas or Nadal losing to Berdych. The 37 year old losing to a much younger guy with a highly offensive game is clearly the lesser and more likely upset should it happen.

 

[Moxie]

Yes, he had knee issues. Not ankle. Try and keep up.

She didn't say anything wrong, though you said she did, in your post above. It is correct that Nadal had ankle surgery, which is what she said. It is also true that he had a knee injury, so he took the down time to fix the ankle problem. You should really try to keep up, if you're going to so condescending.

 

[Moxie]

Sure, Berdych has beaten them both before but 4-19 against Nadal isn't really very impressive now is it? And now that he's just back from over a half a year off due to a back injury that 4-19 becomes even more relevant. If Berdych serves well and holds and the opponent doesn't then he's tough to play obviously enough and he has an uncanny read on Federer's serve (especially 2nd) just like Federer did against Roddick, but the fact remains, he's mostly cannon fodder for Nadal especially.

The annoying Nadal fans here need to just be honest with themselves for once and ask themselves which is a bigger upset, Federer losing to Tsitsipas or Nadal losing to Berdych. The 37 year old losing to a much younger guy with a highly offensive game is clearly the lesser and more likely upset should it happen.

If you're going to quote my post, then you should notice that I did say that the h2h is poor, and that Tsitispas is the tougher opponent. You're arguing with other people, not me.

 

[Moxie]

After three rounds are over and 16 players are remaining, it is time to take a look at the odds again. Thirteen of them have a puncher's chance (1% or more). Novak is the favorite with a wide margin and is tied with the field. Roger and Ralph are contenders and tied with each other. Sasha has outside chance. Raonic leads the list of nine pretenders. The only three remaining players who were not even given a punchers chance are Pouille, Tiafoe (tied at 200) and PCB (400).

1. Novak 1 50%
2. Roger / Ralph 5 16.66%
4. Sasha 12 7.69%
5. Raonic 25 3.85%
6. Cilic / Nishikori 33 2.94%
8. Grigor 40 2.44%
9. Coric 50 1.96%
10. Berdych / Medvedev 66 1.49%
12. Perseus / RBA 80 1.23 %

Seems the odds makers didn't watch Djokovic's match last night.