First week in the season: Doha, Brisbane, Chennai

[Moxie]

OK, I've recovered enough to post.    Doha: Obviously, Novak badly wanted to gain the H2H advantage (there, Denis, you didn't have to say it.)  Brought rather a lot to a 250 final.  Bazooka to a knife fight.  But what is all this talk about his arm injury?  There have been rumblings, but no specifics.  Anyone know?

Brisbane:  Milos has been looking very good in his return to form after so much injury.  And I agree with those that say it's not fair to call him a serve-bot.  He's not my favorite, but he has ambition, focus, and he works on his game.

 

[brokenshoelace]

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.

There's a reason he's suddenly always able to find this level against Nadal these days.

 

[Federberg]

I have to say, I thought Novak's level was ridiculous. That can be a good or bad thing. You never want to peak to early. I actually thought Rafa was starting to look much better, but we can't use a match against a zoning Novak to determine Rafa's level. We'll have to see what happens in Melbourne

 

[isabelle]

Nole, Stan, Raonic start 2016 well, congrats to all of them

 

[mrzz]

Honestly I was not that impressed with Djokovic's form. Played great, off course, but he usually does that. Nadal's game right now is the perfect hunting ground for Djokovic (and I guess that it is exactly what Broken meant above). He (ND) was also playing pretty well against Berdych and the score line was much closer.

 

[Ricardo]

Honestly I was not that impressed with Djokovic’s form. Played great, off course, but he usually does that. Nadal’s game right now is the perfect hunting ground for Djokovic (and I guess that it is exactly what Broken meant above). He (ND) was also playing pretty well against Berdych and the score line was much closer.

Good observation, instead of getting on the bandwagon it should be obvious to anyone (who looks just a little deeper), that Nadal was not anywhere near the player he was... and some said he played well? this is not to dismiss Novak's great play in anyway, but Nadal looked also bad ball-striking wise when he played exo in Sydney (i know it doesn't count), where he simply couldn't hit balls as cleanly as he wanted. Two things stood out in Doha from Nadal, a lot of short balls and slow movement... that much should be obvious, problem for him is that when he plays the same type of game as Novak but to a lower level, Novak would soundly beat him every time.... even with his B game (which isn't far off from his A game anyway).

Nadal doesn't stand a chance to beat Novak anytime soon, as he doesn't look like his game is going to recover much the next few weeks.

 

[Denis]

I have to say Novak looked pretty amazing out there. He literally blew Nadal off court, did nothing wrong in the process. It came close to the US Open 2011 final which I think is still the best match I have ever seen between the two. Here he was aided by an ailing Nadal: Nadal didn't get enough back and with enough penetration to force Novak into making errors from his side. Levels are inevitably dependent on the opponent. So yeah, it's not the most brilliant match by Novak simply because he wasn't required to go the extra mile. Still some terrific stuff.

 

[Denis]

Denis wrote:
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.

There’s a reason he’s suddenly always able to find this level against Nadal these days.

Just reading this, yes I agree. See my post above.

 

[britbox]

Doha - Djokovic/Nadal Full Match for those who missed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slISzTi0FeY

 

[brokenshoelace]

Doha – Djokovic/Nadal Full Match for those who missed it. <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/slISzTi0FeY?feature=oembed" width="1008" height="567" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

I missed it. Caught the flu and after two sneezes it was unfortunately over.

 

[DarthFed]

Doha – Djokovic/Nadal Full Match for those who missed it. <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/slISzTi0FeY?feature=oembed" width="1008" height="567" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

@britbox  Way to spike the football there my friend  B-)