Australian Open 2016

[herios]

Players qualified for the main draw:
Evans, Kovalik, Smyczek, Wu, Stepanek, Basic, Harrison, Gojowczyk, Fritz, Brands, Herbert, Sugita, Ito, Robert, Trungelliti, Olivo.

Two of them, Jozef Kovalik (Slovakia) and Marco Trungelliti (ARG) will play each other in R1.

 

[Front242]

Gojowczyk. Nice. Haven't seen his name for quite some time. Strangely plays better against the top guys than against nobodies much like a few others. Glad to see Stepanek in there too. Haas didn't make it?

 

[herios]

Gojowczyk. Nice. Haven't seen his name for quite some time. Strangely plays better against the top guys than against nobodies much like a few others. Glad to see Stepanek in there too. Haas didn't make it?

Haas did not enter the event.

 

[Front242]

Guess since his 2nd daughter was just born he's taking some time off and will be back for the North American hard court events.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

It appears that the interest level has sunk considerably based on the number of threads created and the number of posts in this thread with just hours to go before the first ball is struck. Is it just my perception or is it real?

p.s. Let us blame it on Novak's dominance.

 

[ftan]

Will there be a Grand Slam challenge thread this time

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[GameSetAndMath]

Except for P. McEnroe and Steve Tignor every other expert has picked Novak to win. Those two have picked Stan to win.

 

[nehmeth]

Except for P. McEnroe and Steve Tignor every other expert has picked Novak to win. Those two have picked Stan to win.

Stan is my #2 choice to win this after Novak.

 

[herios]

I would also like to see a Novak - Stan final

 

[GameSetAndMath]

OK. Here are my picks from QF onwards.

Novak vs. Tsonga
Federer vs. Kyrgios
Anderson vs. Stan
Ferrer vs. Andy

SF:

Novak vs. Kyrgios
Stan vs. Andy

F: Novak vs. Stan

 

[GameSetAndMath]

The doubles draw is out. Not many singles players are playing in doubles (as expected).

Worm is playing with Nestor. Paes is playing with Chardy. F&M Lopezes have joined forces.
Mahesh Bhupathy is playing with Gilles Muller. Strange to find Bryan's names in the middle of the draw (usually it will be either at the top or at the bottom).

It would be interesting to see whether Fedingis will bother to do a trial run in Mixed doubles.
If Fed does that, we can be reasonably sure that he does not realistically expect to win AO.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

From AO Site (9 players have 1% or more chances of winning AO):

PLAYER CHAMPION (% CHANCE) QF OR BETTER EXPECTED POINTS EXPECTED ELO RATING EXPECTED ELO GAIN
Djokovic 54.4 77.5 1399.6 2514.6 0.09
Federer 15.6 47.3 772.2 2353.9 -0.02
Murray 12.4 52.7 791.1 2292.1 0.05
Nadal 6.9 36.9 570.6 2252.2 0.07
Wawrinka 3.3 25.4 415.7 2197.8 0.01
Nishikori 1.8 15.8 278.2 2181.2 -0.13
Ferrer 1.3 20.9 347.4 2120.9 0.07
Berdych 1.1 16.7 303.3 2122.1 0.03
Raonic 1.0 13.2 255.3 2120.0 -0.12

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Top 5 odds as per the bookies.

Novak ---- 8/11
Andy ----- 11/2
Fed ------- 12/1
Stan ------ 14/1
Rafa ------ 16/1

 

[Moose]

I'd bet on Stan before I'd bet on Andy

 

[ftan]

Its gonna be Novak all the way..though it pains me to say that..but i dont see any other possibility at this point

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[Kieran]

I'd bet on Stan before I'd bet on Andy

Yeah, I would too. I can't imagine Andy beating novak but Stan might take a swing at it. I just watched Wolf of Wall Street but even Leo couldn't sell me on anyone else beating Novak this year. But Andy's problem isn't just Novak: I can't imagine Andy beating Roger, Stan or even Rafa if they met at a high stakes match in Oz. Too many variables required for me to see Murray winning this. Add in too that his missus is due to give birth, and it's even harder to see it happening for him...

 

[Riotbeard]

This is exciting! I am watching Kohlschreiber vs. Nishikori. I wish I could see benneteau vs. almagro.

 

[herios]

The first match I am getting here in Canada on TSN2 is Goffin vs. Stak.
Shaky start by Goffin, broken right away. Stak - Goffin 3-0

 

[Riotbeard]

Kei took the first set. They are producing pretty good tennis.

 

[herios]

I already mentioned last year that the American tennis is on its way back up, the bottom is in.
This year at the AO there are 14 USA players in the main draw a lot more than in most recent years ion slams.
One of them is a lucky loser, Brian Fratangelo. I am wondering who withdrew?