Indian Wells
- Thread starter Kieran
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nehmeth
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So Federer/Wawrinka have made it to the doubles semis defeating the #4 seeds, Paes/Stepanek in the super tiebreaker. It is guaranteed that an American pair will be in the final, as the doubles #1 ranked Bryan brothers will now play Isner/Querrey, while Federer/Wawrinka will play the #2 doubles seeds, Peya/Soares.
Note that there have only been 2 men in the history of Indian Wells (since 1976) that have won the singles and doubles title in the same year. Jim Courier did it in 1991 with Javier Sanchez, and Boris Becker did it in 1988 with Guy Forget. Can this be the third time it happens?
Novak Djokovic took the final QF spot with a come from behind 3 set victory over Marin Cilic for his 8th win without a defeat against him. I still don't like his level, but it has been sufficient to get him through his fairly easy draw so far where none of his 3 opponents ever had a victory over him and he only played one seeded player, #24 Cilic. His next match will see him play another unseeded player, Julian Benneteau, who has only a single victory over Novak in 6 attempts, which coincidentally, was at Indian Wells in 2006. I'm afraid he might be undercooked when he gets to the semifinal and has to play either big serving Isner or the mercurial Gulbis, but we will see. If Isner and Djokovic get through, we will see a rematch of their 2012 semifinal, where Isner prevailed in the deciding set tiebreaker.
So the quarterfinals are set. I'll bold my picks.
[28] Dolgopolov vs. [10] Raonic
[17] Anderson vs. [7] Federer
[12] Isner vs. [20] Gulbis
Benneteau vs. [2] Djokovic
Isner-Gulbis should be the most interesting match. Gulbis has a slight edge in the H2H, 2-1, but I'll give the edge to Isner on these courts. The ball flies through the air fast, especially during a hot sunny day, which allows the big servers to do their thing, but the court is slow and high bouncing, which allows even the worst movers to balls it off the ground that they normally would not. And Isner can bring his serve down from the clouds and make it bounce higher and as fast as anyone left in the draw. I pick Raonic for similar reasons. Only the last quarter does not feature a big server, so I'll pick the better retriever, but Djokovic has to be a bit steadier than he has been so far.
Respectfully,
masterclass
Note that there have only been 2 men in the history of Indian Wells (since 1976) that have won the singles and doubles title in the same year. Jim Courier did it in 1991 with Javier Sanchez, and Boris Becker did it in 1988 with Guy Forget. Can this be the third time it happens?
Novak Djokovic took the final QF spot with a come from behind 3 set victory over Marin Cilic for his 8th win without a defeat against him. I still don't like his level, but it has been sufficient to get him through his fairly easy draw so far where none of his 3 opponents ever had a victory over him and he only played one seeded player, #24 Cilic. His next match will see him play another unseeded player, Julian Benneteau, who has only a single victory over Novak in 6 attempts, which coincidentally, was at Indian Wells in 2006. I'm afraid he might be undercooked when he gets to the semifinal and has to play either big serving Isner or the mercurial Gulbis, but we will see. If Isner and Djokovic get through, we will see a rematch of their 2012 semifinal, where Isner prevailed in the deciding set tiebreaker.
So the quarterfinals are set. I'll bold my picks.
[28] Dolgopolov vs. [10] Raonic
[17] Anderson vs. [7] Federer
[12] Isner vs. [20] Gulbis
Benneteau vs. [2] Djokovic
Isner-Gulbis should be the most interesting match. Gulbis has a slight edge in the H2H, 2-1, but I'll give the edge to Isner on these courts. The ball flies through the air fast, especially during a hot sunny day, which allows the big servers to do their thing, but the court is slow and high bouncing, which allows even the worst movers to balls it off the ground that they normally would not. And Isner can bring his serve down from the clouds and make it bounce higher and as fast as anyone left in the draw. I pick Raonic for similar reasons. Only the last quarter does not feature a big server, so I'll pick the better retriever, but Djokovic has to be a bit steadier than he has been so far.
Respectfully,
masterclass
Denis
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Benneteau next, then Isner or Gulbis. I think Novak has a better shot against Gulbis, cause a walkabout can cost you dearly against Isner. You lose a tiebreak and go on a walkabout for a game and you're out.
Benneteau should be beaten, although the guy has quite an aggressive game too. Can't afford too much lapses there either.
Btw, Dolgopolov has the weirdest fore-hand motion I've seen on tour. Looks like he's imitating a helicopter.
uzzled
Benneteau should be beaten, although the guy has quite an aggressive game too. Can't afford too much lapses there either.
Btw, Dolgopolov has the weirdest fore-hand motion I've seen on tour. Looks like he's imitating a helicopter.
uzzled
nehmeth
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Riotbeard said:
Watching it now with breakfast and just finished the first set. Dismal stuff from Novak, but Marin looked great! Still believing the Djoker will turn things around here in the second set!
Federberg
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just looked at the live rankings, if (IF) Fed wins IW he goes to 4. No matter what happens from here, he jumps above Muzza... runners up might be enough for his ranking to go to 4. It could make it a lot easier to avoid those tough opening rounds going forward...
Murat Baslamisli
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isabelle said:
Stan performed as he more or less usually does. His performance at Oz was the anomaly and I think he'll settle back to where he was. But I'd prefer Roger to win this one: a confident Nole is a threat to Rafa at the slams...
GameSetAndMath
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federberg said:
No, runner-up will not be enough to make it to top 4. See my post in ranking thread for
details.
herios
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Kieran said:
I don't think Stan will settle back, he comes from an injury, do not forget that.
Aboout Roger, we shall see. I see you still do not but into the fact that the picture of tennis slightly is changing. Keep on watching carefully, the fact that only 2 top 10 players made it into the QF has not happened for a VERY LONG time. You might be surprised over and over.
I am ready to predict that Miami will have a lot of surprises as well.
GameSetAndMath
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Kieran said:
I think this is too quick of a judgment. I will cut him some slack. Let us see how he performs
in his next three or four tournaments before writing him off.
While I expected Stan to lose at IW, I expected him to lose to a top 10 player and definitely
not to Anderson. But, then he did win two matches and convincingly. Also, he took a set in the
match that he lost.
GameSetAndMath
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1972Murat said:
Finally, Fedrinka gets a relatively easy opponent. They play Peya-Soares in Semifinals.
While they are not big names, they are the #2 seeds. Hence, it won't be as easy as it sounds.
Assuming Fedrinka wins it, they will most likely get BB in the finals, which would be
a very interesting match again.
herios
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Riotbeard said:
Ditto here and I will not be pleased with the prospect of an encounter with Isner for Nole in this form.
I hope Ernie takes care of the job and dismisses Big John.
Milos and Dolgo never played before.
Anything could happen here, big step forward for the winner, whoever that would be.
Milos comes back for an injury which sidelined him for more than a month and Dolgo is rebounding after he had slipped out of the top 50.
GameSetAndMath
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Are there any stat gurus out there? When was the last time only two top 10
players were left in the draw when QF started in a major tournament (ATP 1000 or GS)?
No guesses, only facts.
players were left in the draw when QF started in a major tournament (ATP 1000 or GS)?
No guesses, only facts.
nehmeth
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herios said:
I'm not sure I can agree with all the "hoping Ernie beats John" that I've been reading. I do understand that if Nole goes on one of his patented walkabouts with Isner it could be all over. At the same time, Ernie has the type of power game that Stan used to hit him out of Oz. On paper, it might be "safer" to go with the known whack-job over the terminally boring giant, but be careful what you wish for Nole fans.
