Tennis 2013 Thread

I love reading Tennis magazine a bit late. Their experts predicted Li Na as one of the “has beens” for 2013; they figured it was unlikely for her to reach a final or even go deep again.

And now she is in the final.

She’s about to turn 31 and I didn’t particularly expect her to keep it up either. Picking up Carlos Rodriguez (Justin Henin’s old coach) seems to be paying real dividends for her.

In the post-match interview, she practically said, “Yeah, I didn’t have an injury. I just wanted to ice my opponent who was gaining momentum.”

Argh!

P.S. Stephens’ performance was so disappointing. Only occasionally did she show us a glimpse of her game when she’s on. But I’m so thrilled for her to make it to a semi final of a major.

The trainer, however, says he treated her for back and knee injuries. She is saying now that she misunderstood the question, for whatever that’s worth.

Bah I still hope Li Na beats her anyway.

Djokivic made Ferrer (the 4th seed!) look like a scruffy qualifier last night. Murray or Federer will have to do something special to beat him.

So, who wins the Murray vs. Federer match tonight?

I’m going with Federer in 4 sets.

I’d like Federer to win but I think Murray will win in a five set epic.

Misunderstood the bloody question?!?! She’s been in the US how many years now??

Since she was 16, according to Wikipedia, although I don’t think she blamed it on a language issue. Anyway we’ll see what happens because this seems like a semantic issue anyway: either she had a medical problem and used the time to calm down, or she felt OK and used a medical timeout to calm down.

Murray with a triple break point and the potential to serve for the match. Great tennis. Oh he just got the break. Oh the fortunes of being a student. I don’t think I’ve slept in weeks.

Welp Federer broke back outside of the edit and now it’s a 4th set tiebreak. Apparently Murray pissed off Roger and now he’s going Hulk. Great.

Or not. Should be a great final.

Wow, good for Andy.

Beating Djoker would be a huge win for Andy and his second major in a row.

That’ll be a cracking final, the rankings may suggest otherwise but these are definitely the two best players in the world at the moment (and who knows how those rankings will change in the coming months)

I’m not sure where to stick my money. I really think we may as well flip a coin for this one.

Borg used to make me drool because he was cool as a cucumber.
Agassi used to make me snicker because he was such a brat.
Fabrice Santoro used to make me clap because he was such a trickster.
Gael Monfils makes me laugh out loud because he’s a natural showman.
Nadal makes me gasp because he’s so naturally athletic.
Federer makes me shake my head because he’s so freaking smart.

Djokovic? He makes my jaw drop because he’s got it all. He’s got steel nerves, a touch of brattiness, speed, flexibility, endurance, variety, craftiness, PLUS he’s got a kind heart and a sense of humor. If only he was taller, thicker, and a tad better looking, he’d be the perfect male specimen. :slight_smile:

If Djokovic is “on,” there’s nobody on the planet who can beat him, including Federer, Nadal or Murray. He made David Ferrer look like a rookie.

So while I love me some Djokey, I’m going to have to root for the underdog. Not that Murray is a slouch, mind you. Either way, I hope it’s a good match.

The form book is with Murray. He won at the Olympics and at the US Open. While Djoker do innate the end of the season, I get the feeling that Murray finally has lost his big match nerves.

Azarenka won last night.

[spoiler]Well, Murray takes the first set with a superbly-played tiebreak (7-1!) and is 5-4 up (all on serve so far) in the second. Djokovic is hitting more winners but making far too many unforced errors. I opined in last year’s tennis thread that at the elite level (in Men’s tennis anyway) there is rarely such a thing as an “unforced” error because you are forced to really go for the lines in order to be in with a chance of winning the point (because Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray are all so fit, quick, and good at returning the ball). But in this match there have definitely been times when Djokovic did not need to be quite as aggressive, and he has missed.

Solid service game in progress for Djokovic in progress at the moment - great passing shot from Murray to get to 0-15, but Djokovic then wins 3 points in a row with really solid hitting/serving. Make that four - 5-5.

The overall standard has been amazingly high as you would expect from these two. Murray’s first serve percentage was down early on which led to several break points, but he held firm at the right moments.

One thing I have noticed is that Djokovic has gone to Murray’s right nearly every time he has had an overhead. On the most recent one, Murray guessed correctly and got a racket to the ball (couldn’t return it though). I wonder if he has noticed this apparent trait, in the heat of the moment?[/spoiler]

Good summary Dead Cat, in reply to your last point. it seems like Lendl would be the sort of coach to focus on exactly that level of detail so probably no accident there.

Good game so far, exactly what we would have expected, very little to choose between them. Five sets, five plus hours was what we all expected yes?

1 set all. Going to be another classic.