Your Assessment of Your Favorite Player at the Australian Open...

[brokenshoelace]

OK, so the thread title is pretty self-explanatory. Two matches in, what are your thoughts regarding how your favorite player is playing? Do you expect improvement? What is clicking? What is not clicking? Any predictions for this tournament?

We can keep this thread running throughout the tournament... Obviously, it doesn't have to be limited to your favorite player. You can give your thoughts on anyone you want.

I'll start with a good, bad and ugly format, but you can do whatever you want.

Rafael Nadal: .

THE GOOD: Decent start, about what is expected. Serve is clicking. The sliced serve (on either side of the court, but especially on the ad side) is skidding through the court more than I've ever seen it do so. He's also getting some decent pace when he fires it up the middle, occasionally clocking over 200 Kph, which he normally only does against guys like Murray, Djokovic, and the sort of players he feels he needs free points against.

Changing direction on the forehand with confidence, and most importantly, moving well. Decent returning too.

THE BAD: Okay, it's not really "BAD" but more like "somewhat worrying": His cross court forehand is definitely not kicking up the court as much as it previously did in Australia, and by Nadal's own admission, "it is very difficult to adjust." I think that's the only worrying thing so far, in that he's still trying to adjust to the court speed. However, the court speed is partially why his serve is clicking so well.

The thing about that is not so much the surface playing slightly quicker, but Nadal being taken by surprise. In other words, when he goes to play the US Open, he expects the surface to play fast and tailors his game accordingly (to great results, as we've seen in his last 3 appearances). However, when you come with a certain mindset, gameplan, tailored to the way you think a surface will play, and you're suddenly taken aback, it might not be very easy to make immediate adjustments.

THE UGLY: Those clothes.

The Monfils match will be telling in that Nadal will almost assuredly be tested (even if it doesn't happen score-wise, it will happen on a match-to-match basis). I do expect improvement, and Nadal to be feeling more confident about the way he's playing. It's usually easy to tell how upbeat/downbeat he is about his game by listening to his own comments.

The draw definitely opened up after that, so it will be smooth sailing to the semis if he gets past that with ease.

 

[Denis]

EDIT: It's looking really good overall. Serve is especially good, although I'd like to see him keep the UE's a bit more in check (overhitting a bit too much maybe). And I think the lack of focus (crowd) was due to the first couple of rounds.

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

For Roger, the GOOD: He is still in it. The serve clicked last match, the rest only clicks sometimes. See BAD: Inconsistency...you just don't know who is going to show up from day to day. You see glimpses of TMF, or just a half decent dude playing out there.
UGLY was his BP conversion against a pretty much nobody (No offense) like Duckworth, with 4 of 17. Got better against Kavcic ( 6 of 11), but Roger needs to solidify the return. If ever his serve falters against one of the big guys, his only half chance will be his return game, which is not looking great to me right now.

 

[DarthFed]

I only saw the Duckworth match and it was pretty much all ugly. Seeing as it was just the 1st match that's not too much to draw on. Clearly he must have been sharper yesterday.

 

[rafanoy1992]

Rafael Nadal:

As for Nadal, the good thing about him right now is he is not spending too much energy. In most cases, he's spending a lot of energy just to win matches. I hope he will have a competitive but efficient match against Monfils on Saturday.

The bad thing (which isn't really a bad thing) about him is that he still looking for consistency. He is not playing bad but I think he knows that he needs to be more consistent in order to win his second career slam.

There is no ugly for Nadal yet.

With Del Potro out, I expect Nadal to reach the semis with little energy spent assuming of course if he continues to improve his game match by match.

Andy Murray:
The good thing is he is not spending a lot of energy out there right now. It is important for him to conserve energy until the Quarters where he could potentially face Tsonga or Federer. Add in the fact his fitness is not 100% percent yet.

The bad thing about Murray is his movement and his shots. He looks like he is running slow right now. In fairness, having surgery and missing three months of competitive tennis will affect your movement a little bit. In addition, his shots are landing short so he needs to improve that aspect if he wants to reach the semifinals. The good thing is there are two more matches before the Quarters so he could definitely use those matches to improve his fitness and etc...

There isn't really an ugly for Murray at least for me anyways...

 

[Moxie]

Nadal: I'll add that luck has favored him a bit, after not so much with the draw. He hasn't had to do much in the heat, and it breaks after today. (Broken, you've mentioned twice how much you hate his kit. I'd go with 'meh.' Not nearly as bad as what Nike did to Kokkinakis!)

Murray: From set point on Millot's serve, Andy reeled off 23 points to take the set and the match. That looked pretty good.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

I only saw the Duckworth match and it was pretty much all ugly. Seeing as it was just the 1st match that's not too much to draw on. Clearly he must have been sharper yesterday.

He played much better yesterday, especially in the first two sets. He had back to
back winners on return of service. When was the last time you saw a winner from Fed
on ROS. I have not seen it for a long time. He had several yesterday including one
back to back occurrence. He still has some shanks though.

 

[Goldenboy]

Rafa:

The good:

He hit some very good looking groundstrokes against Kokkinakis, but I would be a lot more convinced if I see them against a better opponent in longer rallies (like tomorrow against Monfils). The forehand down the line was starting to click and the deep backhand cross court will hopefully come soon.

His serve is looking so much better than I remember. I hope he continues to go for his first serve, I never like it when he takes the pace off to get them in like he did at the US Open last year.

Although that obviously worked, so I'm probably wrong.

The biggest thing for me is that the movement looks smooth and fast. There were a fair number of tournaments last year where he looked slow in the early rounds. It is not the case here, and if he improves even a little bit his defense will be very good in the second week.

The bad:

He still has doubts about the surface and the balls, which could play up mentally in a crunch situation when he needs to go for a forehand winner or something similar. However, I do feel he looked a lot happier after the second round, so there is a good chance he will feel completely comfortable if he can win another couple of rounds.

 

[britbox]

Been travelling this week, so hardly seen any of the AO. It really starts tomorrow for me... but good thread and will be watching the AO on a daily basis now and watching Federer with interest.

 

[Riotbeard]

The time difference and work schedule has prevented me from seeing more than about five minutes of Novak. I have kind of been at the will of whoever is playing at ten o'clock U.S. eastern time. That being said, what I have seen looks pretty good. Fognini will be a little test, the real question will be against Stan.

 

[I.Haychew]

Youzhny...
The good: He won a match.
The bad: He won one match.

F3...
The good: He won three consecutive hard court matches.
The bad: He plays Djokovic next.

K. Anderson...
The good: He's still in it.
The bad: Not for long, as he plays Berdych next.

 

[El Dude]

I haven't had a chance to watch Roger play yet, but from what I've heard he's improved each round, which is good. Still wondering how he's going to fair against either Frenchmen, both of whom he's hit snags with before. His possible road ahead is just nasty: Tsonga, Murray, Nadal, Djokovic.

As for my favorite non-elite player, Grigor Dimitrov really impressed by beating Milos Raonic. As I said in two other threads, I only caught the last few minutes, but he looked like a different player: composed and focused, and seemingly not tired. Very encouraging. If that's a sign of what's to come, I expect him to skyrocket into the #10-15 range in very little time and maybe even vie for a top 10 spot by the end of the year.

I know, I'm getting ahead of myself.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Nadal's been struggling for the past couple of matches. I think he needs to find a way to navigate through the semi as I don't see him losing to Wawrinka/Berdych in the final, regardless of form.

 

[DarthFed]

Well with Roger it had really been an outstanding 8.75 sets in a row (I didn't see the 2nd round match). And he deserves some credit for recovering a little bit in the 4th though I think Murray was on fumes and neither played particularly well that last set.

Overall, the movement and ROS are the biggest improvements I see from last year. He is getting a lot more first serves back in play and he is going after more second serves instead of just chipping them all back. Certainly the forehand has been great and the serve pretty good too but that is to be expected as he can't really play great if neither shot is firing well. Edberg seems to have him looking to go to net a lot more and with great success. Roger the past couple matches is finding the opponent's weaker side on a lot of the approaches and the approach shots have mostly been better. By midway through the 2nd Murray was passing a lot better so it became dicier but I think he still did a pretty good job after that. It is only one great tournament but it seems like he is back, there is more focus on top of everything. He did gag at 5-4 for sure and was tight after it but that happens to them all, playing 2-3 excellent sets of tennis in a row is a welcomed change because for all of last year you'd get one at most.