First week in the season: Doha, Brisbane, Chennai

[herios]

And this is how is done!  Awesome Nole

 

[Billie]

Nole stepped up big time for this final.  I was so impressed with his play.  Rafa wasn't playing that bad, it's just Nole was in his best mode.  16th consecutive final.  Great start to the season.  He was nursing a right arm injury so hopefully a week off will be sufficient enough for it to heal.

How about that performance after the match.  I've never seen anything like that in any of the tournaments.  Although with all that fire, it made me a bit nervous LOL

 

[Billie]

I read somewhere that Nole and Rafa are the only tennis players in the history to have played finals against each other in all types of tournaments:  250, 500, M1000, WTF, grand slam. 

 

[DarthFed]

Always nice to see Wafa get destroyed.  Nole looks to have continued his great form into 2016.  It will be tough for anyone to knock him out at AO.

 

[Billie]

^^ Well anything is possible, so we'll see what happens in Melbourne.

The other two finals are set as well:  in India Stan will take on Coric and in Australia Roger will battle Milos (a repeat of last year's final I believe).

Milos has high hopes for this season.  I read online a couple of days ago that he feels he can win a major, just needs to figure out how to beat Nole.  I would think that there are other players Milos needs to worry about.

 

[EdbergsGhost]

Milos has high hopes for this season. I read online a couple of days ago that he feels he can win a major, just needs to figure out how to beat Nole. I would think that there are other players Milos needs to worry about.

First, he needs to remain healthy.  That has been a rather difficult task lately.   Secondly, he will have to show some ability to win against the elite players.   :scratch:  Personally, I think his moms has been putting ganja in his brownies.  

 

[Billie]

^^  I don't mind players being positive and confident in themselves.  We'll see, he is young and can improve.  But he needs to remain healthy, that is a 1st for any player.  Let's see how he does today against Roger.

 

[EdbergsGhost]

Let’s see how he does today against Roger.

I think Federer will win this one in two relatively quick sets.

 

[herios]

Firstly, both of you are right. Milos needs to stay injury free. That should be his first goal. Then, if that happens, I already said he could get back to where he was before injury took him out, in the top 8.

 

 

 

 

 

[Billie]

Billie wrote:
Let’s see how he does today against Roger.

I think Federer will win this one in two relatively quick sets.

I was hoping that they would play during day in Brisbane, but I see that it won't start until 7pm, so that is too early in the morning for me so I won't see it.

I think that Stan will win easily against Coric in Chennai.

 

[Billie]

Firstly, both of you are right. Milos needs to stay injury free. That should be his first goal. Then, if that happens, I already said he could get back to where he was before injury took him out, in the top 8.

No doubt he can do that.  He obviously wants to do well and puts a lot of thought into his development.   He is not afraid to add to his coaching staff.  Here is a nice article about his views for the new season:  http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/brisbane-international-2016-milos-raonics-plan-to-solve-the-conundrum-that-is-novak-djokovic/news-story/6e60024ac883fcb3c8cc734768848927

 

[DarthFed]

Roger should smash Raonic easily. Important for him to have a decent first half of the season this year to get the #2 rank back. He has very little to defend through RG.

 

[DarthFed]

Always a pathetic loss when he loses to the serve bots. I don't know how you get broken in each set by Milos.  Looks like his poor form from last Fall has carried over.

 

[shawnbm]

From the highlights it looks as though milos was playing at a sustained high level.  He rallied well from the backcourt.

 

[herios]

Nice surprise to wake up to. Great to see Milos teaching a lesson to Granpa.

And is time to stop calling Milos only a servebot. If he was one, he could not break Roger at all.

Well Done!

 

[Billie]

It is a surprise, seeing that Milos won in 2 sets.  Nice start for him.  Stan also won in Chennai.  Congratulations to all winners this weekend.

 

[Denis]

I was able to see Novak-Nadal. Ridiculous level from Novak. The kind of match you always hope to see when he faces off against Nadal. This time it happened. Nadal was blown off the court, playing fetch were he could. Hope the arm injury is nothing serious, cause if he can maintain this for two weeks during the AO he will not drop a set.

 

[Denis]

Nice surprise to wake up to. Great to see Milos teaching a lesson to Granpa. And is time to stop calling Milos only a servebot. If he was one, he could not break Roger at all. Well Done!

Good result for sure. I read Federer was not 100%. Anyways, I found it surprising Milos can walk around his backhand the way he does unpunished. He hits the inside-out so well, he gets away with it I guess. Certainly not a serve bot with that shot.

 

[Billie]

I was able to see Novak-Nadal. Ridiculous level from Novak. The kind of match you always hope to see when he faces off against Nadal. This time it happened. Nadal was blown off the court, playing fetch were he could. Hope the arm injury is nothing serious, cause if he can maintain this for two weeks during the AO he will not drop a set.

Even Rafa said that Nole's level was unbelievable.  Frankly it is hard to sustain that level throughout the 2 weeks of a major, let alone for months.  Nole said that he hopes that the pain will go away before AO.  I think it is because of all the big hitting in the first week of the new season after some weeks off.   But I trust him when he says that it should not be a problem for AO.

 

[britbox]

Always a pathetic loss when he loses to the serve bots. I don’t know how you get broken in each set by Milos. Looks like his poor form from last Fall has carried over.

I didn't see any of it but had expected Fed to prevail.  Anyway, I don't think it's that important.  The Slams are what counts for Roger... although additional masters would be nice.