Following up on the success of my Brisbane International Tennis thread, the Australian Open got under way this morning at Melbourne Park, Melbourne. Australian Bernard Tomic is playing Ferdando Verdasco, the lefty Spanish former squeeze of Ana Ivanovic - he is looking extremely fit too as it looks like he has been hammerring the gym, hard. Tomic looks a little underdone prep wise and his legs are not really enabling him to be at the ball to promote clean dominant hitting. He is holding his own nevertheless.
The FedExpress was in fine form at the end of 2011 and I feel he is in strong contention for the title this year. This event is among his favourites and he tends to amp it up due to his love of records, history, nostalgia and his admiration for great former and current Australian players. I think it will be a Fed vs Djokovic final in a tight five setter with the Fed rising to the occasion! :)
Fernando enjoying happy times.
Fernando now after Adam Scott pulled the rug out from underneath him and stole his woman.
I Watched Ash Barty play at the gym , it was tennis or the golden globes.
Turns out Barty is the youngest cousin in of one of my mates and she goes to my old school
Rock on Bernard! Well said Heardy, those really tall guys like Isner, Querrey and Karlovic are hugely inhibited by their height, a supposed advantage - depending on with whom you speak with. Limited movement and agility, normally weaker groundies and more heavily reliant on a massive serve with the ball coming down from the air at a higher angle to the opponent than usual and bouncing as such. They should have stuck to basketball! :)
Didn't Tomic take a set of Federer at Davis Cup a while back? He's come a fair way since then so it might be an interesting match, but I doubt it - Tomic may be young but he has already played at least double the tennis Federer has in this event. The FedEx in four! :)
Nice results! Apart from blowing away Novak in straighties when he first popped onto the scene when he was in his late prime, Lleyton has only taken 2 sets off him in the past 5 meetings/losses to him - I don't think it's going to be pretty, his game hasn't transgressed from half a decade ago and the sport has changed. :) I also don't think it was prudent for for Tomic to be on any tennis court whatsoever in preparation for his Federer match considering how much territory he has coverered in his early matches, though it was noble to turn up for mixed dubs I guess - Jelena is kinda hawt yo. Novak in three(3), Federer in four(4). :)
True that - his work ethic, motivation, dedication and discipline are second to none but he lacked exuberant amounts of natural talent, any notable weapons and an adequate stature to suit the game - his groundies are weakish and lacking dip/spin/penetration, serve is par, eye hand is very good, body is prone to injury, possibly due to being over-worked in part due to his ongoing commitment to Australia's Davis Cup cause (and spending long nights in his spa with Bec :p), which is admirable. He is tennis' equivalent and the epitome of an Aussie battler and despite having the best serve the game has ever seen, Andy Roddick falls into this category as well I think.
Unfortunately for these type of guys, the game has usurped them - to be a top 5 er and a contender in all the slams and 1000's you need to tick most, if not all of the boxes. Federer(rocks no doubt) though, is the exact polar opposite and seems to me to be a little blaze and a smidge too nonchalant about it all these days. None the less the other guys have the jump on him because he struck out on the hotness scale of his WAG comparatively, haha. :)
His chat with Jim after the game was very humble, and I was surprised to hear him say "I was just hoping my body would hold up", he was moving amazingly
Went to the Australian open two years ago and got to watch Jelena Jankovic in the third round from 3 rows back right on the centreline. Not a great face but a damned fine body.
Totally 100% agree with Pave about Hewitt. Not only was he a sub par number 1 but his game just was not fun to watch. Give me Patty Rafter any day of the week, I absolutely loved watching him play as I was growing up on the court.
Federer = <3 love his game and his attitude, totally prefer him over Nadal.
If I was Hewitt I would retire and just concentrate on banging Bec Cartright as much as possible.
Oh btw quick plug for Virginblue Australian open deals. 2 years ago wife and I arranged flights + 2 nights on little collins street in a 4 star hotel including buffet breakfast, centre court round 3 night session, round 3 Hisense day session and then round 3 night session on centre court. All up I think it only cost us about $1,000. Was absolutely awesome. First night on centre court we got these randomly awesome seats in the middle of the corporate section about 15 rows back right on the centre line looking down the court. Then as mentioned 3 rows back on centre line on hisense. Seats for the second night session were only average though.
Edit: In those matches we managed to see Federer, Murray, Nadal, Clijsters, Jankovic, Henin and I can't remember the other female match.
I know its easy to say it now. If I had have read/commented earlier it would have gone along the lines of:
Tomic and the last fella (long hair pony-tail dude)
That was the most boring/amature game i have seen. I don't watch too much tennis but it seemed like a training run. No class or style. I couldnt even watch the final set.
I usuallY make a point of watching ANY 5th set of a game purely for the drama. I couldnt do it in that one.
Then i read here he is playing Fed.
Easy to say now I know. I just can't see him doing much at all.
Did Tomic fluke his way into that round? or was his draw favourable? or did he actually play heaps good to get to the round before last and the most recent one.
Easy to say now I know. I just can't see him doing much at all. Did Tomic fluke his way into that round? or was his draw favourable? or did he actually play heaps good to get to the round before last and the most recent one.
No his draw wasn't too favourable I don't think - he has come along in leaps and bounds lately as he has matured into a/his own man and his body has progressed as well. His father has loosened his grip on him somewhat also, alleviating a lot of pressure that tennis parents tend to place on their kids (pupils, haha). At this point he is not really a threat to the big 5 - he just hasn't got the game/power/experience/repertoire/mental prowess yet, but I think this will come with time. His groundies are too weak and flat, his forehand is a little inside out which is strange, and he is a little cocky but this comes with youth. Tennis players are like plants - they need a lot of nurturing. He has what is required to make it big-time though, no doubt. Also, as I mentioned before the match it looked like he was a little overcooked - rookie mistake wasting your time with mixed dubs when so much is on the line in the second week of singles at slams, despite it being relatively low output.
Andy Murray is your classic underachiever - he has made a few slam finals and has admirable records against the big boys at lesser events but usually when push comes to shove on the biggest of stages he gets a bit of stage fright and flails about like a stunned mullet, eventually imploding mentally. His game quickly follows. In essence his foundation is wirey - trick shots, mixing it up from the baseline and changing it up to net play occasionally, lots of backhand slice, return of serve chip charge etc etc. His recruiting of Ivan Lendl as his new coach was a good move I think - Lendl was a steely faced work horse who loved discipline - what he lacked in natural talent and penetration/whip/power he made up for by perfecting the basics/controllable variables and working his way up from there - similar to Murray.
I can't see Murray beating Djokovic at this event considering recent form, work load and what's on the line - The Joker has Murray's entire arsenal at his disposal and he does it all better than him. He is also in never before seen type of form. That's what happens when you hit balls as a kid while air raid sirens are going off!
I would hardly call that an embarrassment. Djokavic played an almost perfect match. The guy is an absolute freakshow. The commentators were saying he had dropped just 10 games in his last 11 sets leading up to this fourth round match. The way he was playing, Lleyton would have taken down just about any other player bar the top 3.
Given the amount of people (myself included) who have only developed admiration for Lleyton in his latter years I would say he's done a lot for Australian tennis and clearly isn't just there for the pay cheque.
I didn't see the game, but Berdych is a bit of a freak - his groundies are heavy/pacey, deep, flatish and accurate and he has a killer serve. Combined with his height this tends to take time away from his opponents and it may appear that they are not getting to the ball prompty.
He had Federer two sets to love down and was a break up in the 3rd set in the 2010 Aus Open quarters(I think?) and lost heh.
POLICE are outside the Gold Coast home of tennis star Bernard Tomic, waiting to interview him about a suspected traffic infringement on a Southport street.
Five police, including two senior officers and a forensic policeman, were on the road opposite the 19-year-old's house in Lenneburg Street, Southport.
It's believed the forensic officer followed Tomic to his home after tailing his orange high-performance BMW sports car.
The officer was heard telling one of the senior police that he had tried to pull Tomic over but he continued driving to his house.
Not a bad match! I think Federer should and could have wrapped it up in straighties - he was all over Nadal like a rash hitting through him and taking away his time - he had a break in each set and failed to consolidate any of them, partly I think due to his realisation that it could never be that easy against a man with whom he has such a poor win-loss ratio. He spent the next set and a half ruing missed opportunity I feel. Deep down he knows he is the better tennis player, but his dedication is perhaps waning - it is obvious who is spending the most time in the gym and doing drills. I guess all his interests and kids take up a fair chunk of his time to be sure too - they say fatherhood sometimes is the beginning of the end for tennis greats. :)
Men's singles finals time, 6:30/7:30 pm tonight! Interest seems to wane somewhat at our home event when the Aussie contingent gets eliminated but enthusiasts will be enjoying the 1 vs 2 seed/ranked continuing rivalry that Djokovic and Nadal will be strengthening tonight.
Here is my tip: Don't listen to a word I say when it comes to tennis and cricket tipping! It's anyone's match to be honest - both guys have been worked hard, are carrying slight niggles, are in good form with confidence levels up and are peaking at the correct time - Djokovic in five(5)! :p
Great game so far. How embarrassing was that raining scene though? Nadal had to practically DROWN before they seemed to believe it was actually raining and thought maybe they should close the roof, then they have the slaves mopping the floor with what looked like the world's TINIEST handkerchief
I still can't get over the way these top guys slide around the hard court so much without huge injury rate. the strain from planting your foot at such speed and sliding into cracking shots would have to be massive! absolute freakshows.
I still can't get over the way these top guys slide around the hard court so much without huge injury rate. the strain from planting your foot at such speed and sliding into cracking shots would have to be massive! absolute freakshows.last edited by reload! at 00:05:36 30/Jan/12
this is exactly what I'm thinking as well. bloody hell that must be hard on the ankles and knees.
unbelievable match... earning every cent of the $2.3m they are being paid. Unlike the womans who played for 88 mins in TOTAL and get the same_freaking_prize_money!
These guys have been battling it out for close to 6 hours.
Fuck, that was an incredible match. Best I've ever seen.
I was saying damn they need to fucking sit down while the suits were talking on and on during the presentations. Novak was killing for a seat, Nadal was sitting on the net. Then they get given some seats to collapse on haha, great to see that get a good laugh too.
when Rafa was up 4-2 in the 5th he had a major mental/psychological edge over Novak and was going to run him into the ground. Then there was a rally where Rafa went to the net (score was 40-15? to Rafa), the court was wide open, Rafa setup himself up beautifully and goes to the net and back hand smashes the ball down the line which should have gone in but it just lands outside the side line. Everyone thought it was in until Novak challenged it, in the replay the ball lands out and Rafa knew that he should have got simple shot because the court was wide open with Novak to the side. I said to my wife instantly he's gonna crash mentally and lose this match after that major fuckup. After that Rafa was playing ordinary, Novak comes back to take win the championship.
it's amazing how one little thing like that can change the outcome of such a historic match..
Her name is Yael Rothschild and she is refusing to give the shirt up. I thought Djokovic's press machine would have sent along another shirt for her by now.
novak looks fucked. watch him break out the towel for a cheeky bump between games and come out firing.
I've been thinking about this. Although I wasn't fortunate enough to see the end stages of the match Novak often harks back to his allergies hindering his performances and breathing. This is all well and good, but If I had to wager a guess he is inhaling a combination of an aqueous antihistamine (claritin etc) to reduce the histamine response that swells up and congests airways in response to a foreign invader/allergen etc, combined with a decongestant derived from the Chinese Ma Hung/Ephedra plant which is in turn manufactured using this plant/yeast method into drugs that possess stimulant properties(pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, etc). Drug running/shopping/cooking Americans were/are forever cracking open those inhalers to produce Methamphetamine etc, and body builders love the ECA stack.
Once those drugs enter the body/blood via the mucous membranes the instant affects resulting from a dopamine/norepinephrine etc release and increased CNS activity can include an increased pain threshhold/awareness of pain, increased levels of alertness, breathing ability/capacity increases allowing more oxygenated blood to engorge muscles etc although vessels often constrict and glycogen is released from muscles enabling instant and prolonged amounts of excessive energy.
The half life is relatively short and the majority of it is excreted via urine I believe - Alot of what I posted would be apparent to some people already I guess. I'd hate to think he was up to mischievous activities! According to The Goods it's illegal above a certain threshold, though if used in lower controlled doses in it's sulfate form with an efficient delivery mechanism (inhaler), this results in a big long legal BOOM. His resurgence was a bit extreme and what he did at the end of the game I found extremely unusual, even considering the preceding match circumstances.
Here is a snippet from Nadal, who seems to have cottonned on to what is going on, taken from a pre-match interview:
MELBOURNE, Australia -- Like Andy Murray before him, Rafael Nadal isn't convinced Novak Djokovic has any breathing problems going into their Australian Open final on Sunday night. During Djokovic's five-set semifinal win over Murray on Friday night, and to a lesser extent during his quarterfinal victory over David Ferrer, the Serbian player showed signs of breathing difficulties, something he's put down to allergies. On Saturday, Nadal told a pre-final news conference that he, like Murray, had seen it all before. Nadal suggested that Djokovic tends to make incredible physical recoveries, even in the latter stages of big matches. "It's funny, no?," Nadal said after a two-hour workout Saturday. "I saw the match yesterday on the TV ... when he was in the fifth set moving fantastically well, and they show images from 2 hours, 50 [minutes] before and seems like he was destroyed. Two hours 50 later he was in perfect condition.
Airborne allergies are very real, and treatment is usually with desensitisation over a long time by putting tiny amounts of known allergens into the bodies of sufferers who have had their allergens diagnosed with a prick test previously over a graduated process and a non-sedating non stimulant anti-histamine. Use of pseudoephedrine containing products is usually a last resort due to it's adverse side-affects and tablet forms are usually sustained release to alleviate any of the stimulant properties.
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