Australian Open Day 4: Thursday, Jan 16 - Order of Play

[kskate2]

ace. 2 MP's

 

[Goldenboy]

GSM Bautista. Sorry for Del Potro but happy for Rafa. He now has a clearer path to the semis.

 

[kskate2]

another huge serve out wide and JMDP is going home

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Let's see the dimensions of the said cajones now, serving for it...

Sizable, turns out...clap:clap

 

[Denis]

Bye bye Delpony. Well deserved win by Batista a-Gut.

 

[tented]

Incredible! Congrats to Bautista Agut.

Is it too late to include him in my predictions for end-of-year Top 10?

 

[Goldenboy]

I really think Del Potro shouldn't have played Sydney. He looked pretty gassed at the end here. No serious contender plays the week before a slam.

 

[tented]

I really think Del Potro shouldn't have played Sydney. He looked pretty gassed at the end here. No serious contender plays the week before a slam.

Good point. Hopefully this will prevent him from doing it again.

 

[britbox]

JMDP has never done much in Oz.

 

[kskate2]

I really think Del Potro shouldn't have played Sydney. He looked pretty gassed at the end here. No serious contender plays the week before a slam.

Good point. Hopefully this will prevent him from doing it again.

Not likely. Some of them don't learn from their mistakes. Didn't he go out early to Chardy last year? Seems like he would have wanted a better result this year and schedule accordingly to achieve it.

 

[DarthFed]

JMDP has never done much in Oz.

True, the problem is he hasn't done much anywhere in 4 years. It still figures to be US Open where he is possibly a contender, though he has shown some promise on grass the past couple years.

 

[Tennis Miller]

Kyrgios seems to be tiring.

Why in the world didn't he ask to see the physio after 3d game of 5th set? He just gave it away .

Cheers

TM

 

[the AntiPusher]

Let me just mention, and without rancor, that, in the US, ESPN has been showing the Federer match, and I'm relegated to watching Nadal on the internet stream. I say this for all the Djokovic fans out there who feel they get short-shrift. Point is, the hierarchy remains consistent: Federer, then Nadal, Djokovic and everyone else. :angel:

No, it depends on the state of the match. Once Fed won the 2nd set, they switched it
to Nadal match on TV and I have to watch Fed on stream now.

True, but Federer will still produce the most ratings so the general point stands.

Fed is still the Beloved.. How many times I have met numerous of friendly people on the tennis courts until they discover I am a Rafa fan(I guess the fact that I only wear Rafa t-shirts pretty much confirms it), then its like "Oh.. "you are one of them:snigger

 

[Riotbeard]

JMDP has never done much in Oz.

True, the problem is he hasn't done much anywhere in 4 years. It still figures to be US Open where he is possibly a contender, though he has shown some promise on grass the past couple years.

Very disappointed but this isn't exactly true. He had a good match against fed at the French, and semis at Wimbledon ain't nothing, but this is a disappointing start no doubt .

 

[DarthFed]

JMDP has never done much in Oz.

True, the problem is he hasn't done much anywhere in 4 years. It still figures to be US Open where he is possibly a contender, though he has shown some promise on grass the past couple years.

Very disappointed but this isn't exactly true. He had a good match against fed at the French, and semis at Wimbledon ain't nothing, but this is a disappointing start no doubt .

That is the only semi of a slam he has made in 4+ years now and that's why I mentioned he has shown some promise on grass. The quarters of the French or any slam IS nothing though.

The AO just seems a bad slam for him. One year (09) he got to the quarters of AO surprisingly and wasn't remotely ready for Roger and the other year (12) is when he really looked great but ran into a hot Federer. Other than that he has been mincemeat early and not to anyone good.

 

[Moxie]

Well, I turn my attention away from the tennis for a few hours and this happens. So, who is advising Juan Martín, and how much longer am I supposed to keep believing he might win another Slam? Good for Rafa, but not really good, overall.

 

[nehmeth]

Well Cilic barely made it past the first round and Simon sends him home in the 2nd.

(so much for the "dark horse" pick of McGrogan and Tignor)

:snigger

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah :nono

del potro fans everywhere sit in a puddle of gloom. :violins:

 

[tenisplayrla08]

Rather sad I missed the DelPo match. Really surprised to see he last. Bastista Agut has shown some promise over the last couple of years, but I don't think I realized he was this good. I'm sure he had some help from DelPo. Mostly I'm just rather annoyed that it opens up Rafa's part of the draw a bit more. Rafa may very well have beaten DelPo, but he would most likely had to work pretty hard for it which could have at least made him a little fatigued.
The other match that I was surprised to see the result this morning was Simon's win over Cilic. Cilic was up 2 sets to 1 and I figured he'd take it in four. I thought it was him announcing that he's back. But even before he was suspended, he was always inconsistent. But, nonetheless, I'm sure we'll see him back in the top 30 or 20 by the end of the season. At least I hope we will.

Looking forward to the Raonic v Dimitrov match on day 6. And hoping that Paire beats Batista Agut and Dimitrov comes out on top against Raonic and we get to see Dimitrov v Paire. And I do hope Young can get past Nishikori. That seems doable. But I don't know. In one sense, Nishikori is no member of the top 4. But for all I know it may turn out that his game matches up really well against Young's. Oh wait, that's what the h2h is for. A quick look... says they've played once, last year in Memphis and Nishikori won 6-3, 6-3.

 

[I.Haychew]

Verdy can't hold serve and is broken in the match game. Gabashvili advances 7-6 3-6 2-6 6-4 6-4.

Verdasco served 18 double faults in this match. Maybe he should hire Todd Martin to get that worked out.