Early AO talk

[Carol]

Milos has improved whatever you think but to be ranked as #3 without any MS and GS title it's pretty sad

He didn't win a single title last year, not even a 250. His ranking is based on consistently going deep in most events. He's kinda like the male Caroline Wozniacki. His main issue is fitness and once he can stay fit, he's definitely gonna start winning titles.

Very sad that a player like him is the #3, it means that the most of the Tour has been very weak

 

[the AntiPusher]

He didn't win a single title last year, not even a 250. His ranking is based on consistently going deep in most events. He's kinda like the male Caroline Wozniacki. His main issue is fitness and once he can stay fit, he's definitely gonna start winning titles.

Or he's a better version of Berdych, the QF sticky?

Yup, sounds about right to me. Or Tsonga.

No,,I disagree about JowillieTs..jowillieTs has more talent and athleticism than Cilic but never had a perfect storm scenario like Cilic did to have faced only one of the top 5 guys to make it to the finals against Nishikori.

 

[Front242]

Milos has improved whatever you think but to be ranked as #3 without any MS and GS title it's pretty sad

He didn't win a single title last year, not even a 250. His ranking is based on consistently going deep in most events. He's kinda like the male Caroline Wozniacki. His main issue is fitness and once he can stay fit, he's definitely gonna start winning titles.

Wrong. He won Brisbane, kicking Roger's butt.

Forgot he won Brisbane but 6-4 6-4 is about a million miles from kicking someone's butt. Though he's clearly improved his whole game a lot, it's still kind of WTA-esque being ranked number 3 with a mere one 250 title.

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

Jurgen Melzer will play Roger in the first round.

Roger Federer vs Jurgen Melzer

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

Roger should not encounter any problems. A straight sets win for sure.

 

[Front242]

Or he's a better version of Berdych, the QF sticky?

Yup, sounds about right to me. Or Tsonga.

No,,I disagree about JowillieTs..jowillieTs has more talent and athleticism than Cilic but never had a perfect storm scenario like Cilic did to have faced only one of the top 5 guys to make it to the finals against Nishikori.

Yeah, but I'm comparing Berdych to Tsonga not Cilic. I checked their stats on Wiki and there's practically nothing separating Berdych and Tsonga really.

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

Frankly Roger's first two opponents are going to be nobodies. When he shows up against Berdych, he will really need to step up his game all of a sudden. But, even if he loses the first set he should do it.

 

[the AntiPusher]

Yup, sounds about right to me. Or Tsonga.

No,,I disagree about JowillieTs..jowillieTs has more talent and athleticism than Cilic but never had a perfect storm scenario like Cilic did to have faced only one of the top 5 guys to make it to the finals against Nishikori.

Yeah, but I'm comparing Berdych to Tsonga not Cilic. I checked their stats on Wiki and there's practically nothing separating Berdych and Tsonga really.

True

 

[Front242]

Frankly Roger's first two opponents are going to be nobodies. When he shows up against Berdych, he will really need to step up his game all of a sudden. But, even if he loses the first set he should do it.

We don't know that yet till they announce the qualifiers names. Could be it's Stepanek and Opelka. At 6' 11" Opelka has a big serve though his overall game isn't great. Still, not exactly an ideal player to meet in the early rounds as you'll have no rhythm whatsoever. He's only 19 so he may well get better.

 

[Front242]

Stepanek is a tricky first round opponent for anyone.

 

[herios]

Roger plays J. Melzer, then the winner between Rubin and Fratangelo

 

[Front242]

Not too bad so I guess. Fratangelo won a 6-2 first set against Djokovic at Indian Wells last year but lost the next 2 badly.

 

[Front242]

Someone else can gladly get torn a new one by Stepanek in that case.

 

[herios]

Someone else can gladly get torn a new one by Stepanek in that case.

It will be Tursunov

 

[Front242]

Someone else can gladly get torn a new one by Stepanek in that case.

It will be Tursunov

Hmmm. Just wondering how the draw works. Live ranking says Tursunov is ranked 405 so how does he get drawn to play a qualifier when he himself is ranked so low? Forgot he was even still on tour (a lot of injuries last few years).

 

[herios]

Someone else can gladly get torn a new one by Stepanek in that case.

It will be Tursunov

Hmmm. Just wondering how the draw works. Live ranking says Tursunov is ranked 405 so how does he get drawn to play a qualifier when he himself is ranked so low? Forgot he was even still on tour (a lot of injuries last few years).

Protected ranking

 

[Front242]

It will be Tursunov

Hmmm. Just wondering how the draw works. Live ranking says Tursunov is ranked 405 so how does he get drawn to play a qualifier when he himself is ranked so low? Forgot he was even still on tour (a lot of injuries last few years).

Protected ranking

Aha. Cheers.

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

Not too bad so I guess. Fratangelo won a 6-2 first set against Djokovic at Indian Wells last year but lost the next 2 badly.

Djokovic suffers from bad days. So, that's not a great indicator.

 

[Backhand_DTL]

Think it's time to change Djokovic name to Cake Walk Nole,when was the last time this guy got a bad draw?@ least Andy does it the hard way year end for example.

Andy's way to the quarters is as smooth as he could ask for and then the difficulty depends on the form of Roger, Nishikori, Wawrinka, Cilic and Kyrgios which are all question marks right now. So if it turns out none of them is playing great he would end up with quite an easy way to the final.

Also I don't think Novak had an especially easy draw at any Slam last year. In Australia he had Nishikori and Federer for QF and SF which is definitely more on the tough side.
In Paris he was supposed to meet Berdych and Rafa, so Rafa withdrawing before the third round is what made his way to the final rather easy, but the draw itself wasn't.
The US Open was similar as he ended up playing injured Tsonga and Monfils instead of Cilic (who was considered the toughest draw of the 5-8 seeds after winning Cincinnati) and Rafa so it wasn't a cakewalk because of an initially easy draw but a result of his side of the draw falling apart.
And at Wimbledon he would have had to play Raonic and Roger before the final which certainly isn't an easy draw either.

Also the opponents Andy had to beat in the later stages to reach his Slam finals last year were Ferrer and Raonic, Gasquet and Wawrinka and Tsonga and Berdych which are surely far away from being extremely tough roads either.

In the WTF Novak clearly got the easier group on paper but the 2nd ranked player of the "tough" group ended up losing the SF 1:6 1:6 to Novak whereas the 2nd ranked player of the "weak" group had a match point against Andy, so in reality things weren't as black and white as they looked before the start of the tournament.

 

[El Dude]

I think the vast majority of Slam draws range from "pretty hard" to "really hard," with occasional outliers of "getting by with a little help from my friends" to "f$*k! Three of the Big Four in a row!!!"

The point being, no one has an "easy" draw. Very occasionally you'll get a situation like Novak had last year at the US Open, when he had the following:

Janowicz
Vesely (wo)
Youzhny (retired in 1st set)
Edmund
Tsonga (retired after 2nd set)
Monfils
Wawrinka (lost)

I can't think of an easier draw in memory: a head-case in the 1st round, a walkover and the withdrawal in the 2nd and 3rd rounds, a young and inexperienced player in the 4th round, Tsonga retiring in the QF, erratic Monfils in the SF. But that's pretty rare.