Tennis

The lack of lights is a total mystery for me. They should have lights even if they don't schedule night sessions. The lack of a roof is something they have been wanting to address for years, but it's a very complicated issue that is related to building permits and the space available (or lack of thereof). I believe a redesign of the site (that includes at the very least a roof on the main court) has finally been put in motion and is expected to be done by 2017 or something. Hawkeye will never happen on clay because there is really no point to it as the ball leave marks on the surface that are conclusive 99% of the time. To be more precise, line calling with hawkeye will never happen, because the technology is in use on most courts already to gather statistical data (shot placement maps, etc).

No surprise today as far as men are concerned. It was 3rd round of the bottom of the draw so we have four of our R16 matches:

DJOKOVICunexpectedly played poorly today. He was a bit slipping around on the court for some reason, so could not really execute his aggressive shots and counter-punches properly. Adapting his game plan to the form of the day, he decided to be a lot more defensive and basically challenged Cilic to win. Sadly for the croatian, he showed a lot of good things, challenged Djokovic even, but his forehand proved too leaky to really have a shot. Djokovic escaped in four sets.
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TSONGAplayed a solid and business-like match against Janowicz, but, truth be told, in Poland christmas must be in May because Janowicz literately gifted break of serves with huge unforced errors and double faults everytime the tension raised a bit. A poor competitor on that day was the pole.

Last year, Tsonga lost an epic against Djokovic where he had several match points. Will we get a similar scenario this time around?


RAONICsurvived his meeting with Simon in a topsy-turvy match where he blew hot and cold. The match went the distance but in the end was notthatlong so should not hinder significantly the canadian's chances.
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??????The Klizan vs Granollers match was stoped for the day with the spaniard leading by two sets to one. It was on court 807265 so who knows what happened?

Raonic will be the heavy favorite no matter who emerges.


FEDERERonce again played a decent enough match with very good serving, but an inspired and hard hitting Tursunov still managed to grab a set in a breaker.
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GULBISwas extremely impressive in his straight sets dismissal of Stepanek. He served an avalanche of aces and unreturned and blew the cover off the ball in countless winners. Both of which were expected. More surprising and therefore notable was his focus from the first to the last point (even if he allowed himself some colorful comments toward the referee and his opponent - also to be expected!), the consistency that resulted from this focus (only one break point for Stepanek and it was quickly snuffed out), and the stupendous quality of his defensive game. Yep. The court coverage and the quality of the shots produced when stretched wide was top drawer stuff. If we have to find a negative, he was a little bit too conservative on break points and as a result only converted 3 of 12.

While Sunday should be a dry day, it will remain a cloudy and lukewarm day. As a result, play conditions should remain slowish which is most likely a plus for Gulbis as he needs time on his forehand and has enough power to hit through the slowest of courts. With this weather, the two big question marks are How efficient will Federer be able to be with his serve (efficient enough today, but Tursunov is also not as good a returner as Gulbis) and how ell will he be able to deal with Gulbis' power and drag him out of his comfort zone and into rallies made of rhythm and effect variations? How will they deal with the moment too? In the last year and a half Gulbis showed tremendous improvements in his attitude and consistency. It translated into a surge in the rankings but still not into a good performance at grand slam level. He is very hungry for it and that could mess with his mind on Sunday.


BERDYCHdealt with Bautista-Agut in fours sets.
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ISNERserved his way past Robredo in four sets (7-6 (15-13!!), 7-6 (7-3), 6-7 (5-7), 7-5). Yep, Isner was the only one to break (out of 6 occasions) and the spaniard will have nightmares because he converted none out of 13!

Surprisingly, only 3 of the 16 sets they played against each other ended in breakers! A very difficult match to call though. The winner will be the one who manages his game and his nerves the best.



On the WTA side of things, Radwanska played a terrible match against youngster Tomljanovic so the tournament lost its 3rd seed (after loosing the 1st and 2nd!). Young american Townsend also played a terrible match and gave a spot in the fourth round to Suarez-Navarro.

With all these upsets, the draw is now pretty strange with giant slayer Muguruza facing french journeyman (and often injured) Parmentier (the Cinderella story for french media) for a place in the quarter final to meet.... Stosur or Sharapova who will face in a fourtn round that almost feels like a semi final!

Very strange day of ATP tennis today. Two matches could not be concluded but we have the other three R16 matches:

NADALplayed a good first set against a useful Mayer, but then things took a turn for the bizarre: Nadal started serving a lot slower than usual and as Mayer competed well, playing some well constructed aggressive tennis, the 2nd set turned into quit the battle. Nadal found a narrow path to steal the set 7-5 and that was too much of a blow to Mayer's hope and confidence for the match to stay close, but that raised some questions about Nadal's health.
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LAJOVICis a serbian player who... plays the dead rubbers in Serbia's davis cup ties? Seriously I don't know the guy at all, but he won in straight sets against american youngster Sock.

You can never tell what will happen when you put a journeyman on center stage. Unless that makes him play well above his regular level and/or Nadal does indeed have a fitness problem, it's pretty safe to expect Nadal to go through with ease.EDIT: Nadal said in press conference that he felt a little pain in his back in his last two matches and that is why he did not serve as hard as usual.


ANDERSONwas ready for a tough old nerve battle again Karlovic, but he broke the coratian veteran, won the first set 6-3 and then Karlovic retired. A bit sad as he was obviously in good form up until that point. I guess his opponents are crossing their fingers, hoping that injury will keep him away from the grass court season!
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FERRERbeat Seppi. I was talking about Seppi the other with a friend and I said "I don't think I ever saw Seppi win a tennis match". A dreadful stat might explain why: today was Seppi's 51st match against a Top 10 player and today he lost for the 50th time!

These two met last year at the French: 6-2 6-1 6-1 for Ferrer. I guess Anderson will aim for 'better than that' and see where it takes him.


GARCIA-LOPEZlooked at first like he would cruise past Young as he won the first two sets with ease, but the american took an early lead in the 3rd that he did not let go of and then forced a breaker in the 4th that he dominated. The guy even found himself with a couple break chances at 4-4 in the fifth, but the spaniard steadied the ship and then was literally gifted a break (and as a result the match) by Young. It should be said that it's sadly symbolic of Young's professional career as a tennis player.
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MONFILSended the 'victor' in his 'match' against his buddy Fognini. I use quotations marks because that was the worst excuse of a tennis match I have ever witnessed. Monfils refused to play, doing WTA serves circa 1943 and just looping the ball on the other side of the net and Fognini refused to compete, going for the most ridiculous shots, missing the most routine strikes, making no effort at all to move his feet.... and that shit lasted 5 sets. A travesty.

Garcia-Lopez is less retarded than Fognini so I seriously doubt that he will give the match away.


VERDASCOcan almost be written here as he was in the process of spanking Gasquet 6-3 6-2 2-2 when play had to be stopped. Unless the spaniard sleeps on the wrong side of the bed or Gasquet get some miraculous tactical advice there should be only one winner tomorrow.
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Impossible to guess who will win as Murray and Kohlschreiber got stopped at 7-7 in the fifth! Murray had a pretty commanding lead of two sets to one and a break, but twice the german clawed his way back into the match and even managed to steal the 4th set to force a very close decider. The 5th set was pretty crazy, with both players alternating amazing shots with surprising mistakes (due to a mix of pressure and fading lights). And important plot point is that Murray is in pain. He has something in the back of one of his thigh and spent the whole fifth set grimacing after each point and getting massaged at every change of end. For all we know he might simply be unable to walk tomorrow.

Fun fact: Murray is a pro since 2005 and Kohlschreiber since 2001, both play a lot of matches every year, yet... they faced each other only once before in 2010! The german won that one 2 and 1 on the clay of Monte-Carlo.




On the WTA some seeds fell (Ivanovic [11] to an inspired Safarova, Kvitova [5] in a tough battle against Kuznetsova), but some impressed (Jancovic[6], 2 and 1 againt Cirstea, Erani [10], 1 and 0 against Glushko). Last but not least, the favorite on paper, the fourth seed, the highest seed remaining in the draw won 3 and 0 against spanish youngster Torro-Flor... but who is that? It's romanian Halep! Dubbed the least known 4th seed in the world!

End of the road for giant slayer and french youngster Mladenovic. She lost to Petkovic in a tight three sets matche, sadly giving away his serve late in the third with her back against the wall. A disappointment that might be increased when she will learn that it would have been to play against a weak opponent that sneaked her way into the 4th round through the seedicide.

First, Verdasco indeed finish his demolition work against Gasquet and Murray escaped 12-10 in the fifth against Kohlschreiber. The german had several break chances today too! Murray was still in pain so I'll have to vavor a confident Verdasco for their match tomorrow.

Anyway, we have the two quarters of the bottom of the draw:

DJOKOVICplayed a very high level match against Tsonga, smothering the frenchman with the precision of his shots. A lightning fast straight set victory for the serb!
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RAONIC, as expected, was not troubled by Granollers and also sailed through in straight sets.

Raonic's job will be to stay with Djokovic as long as possible and capitilize on the end of set pressure and frustration of the favorite. Still... considering the guy got broken five times by Simon I would be surprised if he manages to reach a breaker against Djokovic.


BERDYCHplayed a very high quality match against Isner. Moving the ball around very cleanly when he had the upper hand and covering the court better than I have ever seen him do, Berdych managed to break Isner early in each set and surf on these early advantages for an impressive straight set victory.
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GULBISalso played well, kept his composure and got a little lucky to upset Federer in five spectacular sets. Gulbis started the match better against a slightly nervous Federer. The underdog broke first, but then immediately surrendered the advantage with a poor service game. He also took an early lead in the ensuing breaker, only to see Federer weasel his way through to a one set to love lead.

This did not deter Gulbis who continued to serve well, to force rallies into the backhand diagonal that he could dominate and to hold his own in some vicious touch battles packed with drop shots, angled passing shots, lobs, half volleys at the net or on the base line: high quality stuff all around from all involved (we witnessed things like Federer rushing the net after a brilliant kick serve wide, Gulbis managing to return it with a viciously dipping backhand, the swiss playing an impossible half-volley that was flat, pacy and deep, wrong-footing his opponent, but the latvian still able to generate a top spin lob landing on the baseline! Crazy stuff!). These good intentions translated into another early break, but once again, Gulbis missfired when came time to consolidate it with a hold of his own. This turn of event emboldened Federer who started to play more freely, hitting deeper and heavier on both wings, forcing Gulbis to defend more often that not. This lead him to a very commanding 5-3 40-15 lead where another brilliantly constructed offensive point gave him an emphatic smash to lead two sets to love.... and he played right at Gulbis who blocked it in the open court for a winner! More than a point this costed Federer the set as he instantly went back to being his tense self of the first set, which resulted in a break and a few minutes later a lost breaker. One set all is a whole different beast than two sets to love!

Totally in the match (and not undeservingly so), Gulbis raised the level of his game and cruised in the third set, winning it 6-2! Federer is not the champion he is by walking away from a fight though and the swiss raised his level in the fourth, putting tremendous pressure on Gulbis, notably by returning a huge quantity of serves, robbing Gulbis of all manner of free points in that department. This paid off as Gulbis cracked and got broken twice. 5-2 in the fourth, serving next, playing very well, all was in place for Federer to force a fifth set and start it with a lot of momentum. At that point though Gulbis took a medical time-out that forced him off the court (some lower back issue) and when he came back he decided that, lost for lost, he was going to swat at every ball for winners. The problem is that with the power and talent of a Gulbis along with the lack of pressure due to the scoreboard situation and the drop in intensity due to the time out, this new strategy worked extremely well, netting him something like 10 of the next 11 points! Instead of having a Federer triumphantly entering the fifth, we got one barely escaping a barrage of winners to reach the fifth.

No longer with the momentum, nervous again, Federer started the fifth poorly and despite a valiant effort could not recover from an early break. Gulbis decinding this time to maintain a high level of play even when come to the time to close the match.

Things will get said and written about that timely 4th set medical time out I am sure, but in the end, there should not have been a fourth set as the swiss should have closed the second, and with a two sets to love lead any other outcome than a Federer victory would have been very very unlikely. Still a very high quality match with very very entertaining tennis. It went though the whole play book and even spiked it with some spur of the moment improvised shots (surprised by a ball landing in, Gulbis played the most casual and deadly forehand drop shot cross court that had all the tennis coach in the world in agony). Federer will certainly regret his miss-target smash of the 2nd set, but I feel he should also worry a bit about his mental management of his matches and the quality of his first volleys (he did not miss many, but he gave Gulbis too many second looks for my liking when it feel he should have won the points directly with snappy angled volleys).


Considering how well both played in the tournament so far, the Berdych vs Gulbis quarter could be a very open and entertaining match. Let's just hope they don't fight for 7621354 hours synonymous with a defeat in semi for the victor!

It's a bit tough to say 'Fed's decline continues'. It's true that he fails to reach the quarter final at the French for the first time in a decade, but that's only half the story. With the tennis he played today, he would have been the heavy favorite in all the other R16 match. Sadly for him, he had to face the guy who has played at Top 10 level since the start of the year (currently 8th at the race with today's win). It has nothing to do with 2013's Federer and his chronic back problems. 2014 Federer is at 6 win to 3 losses against Top 10 players (with two of these wins being over Djokovic), won a 500, reached the final of two Masters 1000 and the semi of a Grand Slam. To put things into perspective, Federer's 2014 achievements are better than Isner career achievements and comparable to Gasquet's (2 GS semi, 3 Masters final but no 500 title).

Fun Federer Fact discovered in the making of this post: He reached the semi or better of the last 11 Australian Open!

We have our top two quarters:

NADALstill served slowly to preserve his back, but still crushed Lajovic.
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FERRERfaced a pretty good Anderson today, but the dramatic part is that even when the south african managed to be a break up in sets, it still felt like there could be only one winner. Anderson managed to force a breaker in the third and played it very well to bag the set, so Ferrer turned his shit to 11 and won the fourth set 6-1.

Considering how Nadal's clay court season went, I suspect there is a good chance he will lose to Ferrer. The man from Valencia won in Monaco against Nadal, executing cleanly a clear game plan. He also beat Nadal indoor in Paris and played two very close matches on the european clay last year (one in Madrid that he should have won 721356 times over and one in Rome). Now there is also in the lot a clean Nadal win at the World Tour Final and a clean Nadal win against a timid Ferrer in last year's French Open final. That's for me the critical point: will Ferrer be mentally ready to win against Nadal at the French? He has without a doubt the tennis, the game plan and the fitness, but will he have the belief? The mental fortitude? This remain to be seen, but his win in MC should help him greatly in that regard.

MURRAYprevailed in a very tight battle against Verdasco. Sadly, the spaniard blinked at the end of each set, allowing Murray to win 6-4 7-5 7-6.
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MONFILSplayed somewhat better than in his earlier rounds, but Garcia-Lopez (was he ill? Injured?) also plyed poorly, making an inordinate amount of unforced errors (some of them was going for too much to try and put the ball past Monfils' impressive court coverage, but most of them came in regular rally shots without being under pressure). I'll check the interviews later today to see what's up.

I am done trying to predict what will happen in a Monfils match other than he will play without sense nor reason. Oh and the public will support him.


Fun fact of the day overheard in Ferrer's match commentary: by reaching the quarter final, Ferrer reaches his 10th quarter final or better in a Grand Slam in a row! He is incidentally one of only six people in the Open era who reached the quarter or better of all four Grand Slam two years in a row. Unsurprisingly, the other five are Lendl (87,88), Nadal (10,11), Murray (11,12), Djokovic (10,11,12,13!) and, well, Federer (05,06,07,08,09,10,11,12). You read that right. Also it's pretty crazy how in 40+ years of open era tennis five of these six super dominant guys are active now. That could be related to the evolution of surfaces and the fact a lot of people skipped the Australian Open in the past (unsurprisingly, Rod Laver, the one guy with not only one but two calendar Grand Slams, is australian).



WTA: There were still some upsets today, but much more reasonable ones: The 10th seed, clay court specialist and former French Open finalist Erani beat the 6th seed Jankovic. The 27th seed and former French Open champion Kuznetsova beat 23rd seed Safarova. Let's run down the quarter real quick:

MUGURUZAthe young athletic spaniard is still around as the draw opened up before her after convincingly beating Serena Williams.
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SHARAPOVA[7] is a former champion at the French and must like her chances with all the seeds dropping left and right.

The russian wins a lot of matches simply because her intensity crushes her opponent. The thing is that is also the case with Serena Williams and Muguruza proved mightily unimpressed and mentally stable as a rock. Could be interesting


SUAREZ NAVARRO[14] The draw open up for her and she raised to the occasion. A very useful clay court player.
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BOUCHARD[18] is very young, but it certainly does not show in the way she handle herself in a tennis court. A lot of confidence, a very clear idea of what she wants to do. Impressive.

The spaniard has not the typical power game of the WTA, she works with angles and spins, build her points in the classic dirtballer way. It will be interesting to see how Bouchard will react to this style or if she will be able to rush Suarez Navarro and not allow her to enter rallies.


KUZNETSOVA[27] is a brilliant player, but also somewhat of a choke artist. Past Grand Slam victories prove that she can sometimes hold her nerves (or at least hold them better than her opponents!).
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HALEP[4] The top seed is certainly interested to make a name for herself and she certainly knows how to win. She's been doing just that since her junior years.

I must say I have not seen Halep play enough to predict anything. I'll just say that a Kuznetsova that plays well is very difficult to beat because she has a very complete game and is not afraid to run.


ERRANI[10] former finalist and clay court master.
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PETKOVIC[28] the german is a former Top 10 player, but she had a lot of injury problems.

Petkovic managed barely to take advantage of the holes in the draw, so I suspect that the buck will stop here for the german. I doubt her competitive spirit will save her this time.


At this point it feels a bit like the title is Sharapova's to lose, but one of the youngster could very well rise to the occasion.

We two semi finals already:

DJOKOVICproved to be extraordinarily opportunistic and made the most of the little opennings Raonic gave him on serve. So after two very tight sets, it was two sets to love to the Serb who took an early two breaks lead in the third. To the credit of his canadian opponent, Raonic kept on fighting and was rewarded by a break of his own (helped a bit by an unfocused Djokovic). The World N?2 did not blink twice though and close the deal for a 7-5 7-6 6-4 victory.
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GULBISwas not interested in missing a lot of balls today, extending rallies with squash shots, retrieving smashes, punishing weak approach shots with deadly lobs. Not fun for Berdych! As Gulbis served well and his opponent not so well, it ended up being a match a lot more one sided than initially expected. Gulbis broke the Berdych serve five times in three sets and only dropped it the once in a game he made a cluster of forehand unforced errors.

In his match against Federer, Gulbis could have some confidence from the fact he was dominating the backhand to backhand diagonal. Against Berdych today, he never was under any real pressure because he broke early and often. It will be interesting to see how he will deal with the more complete package that is Djokovic on an even bigger stage.


SHARAPOVAwas very nervous initially and faced a player who was in full flow from the get go. Luckily for the russian after getting blown away in the first set she managed to steady her ship and become the aggressor more often. As Muguruza got bullied, she started to make unforced errors and to become more and more predictable, almost never changing the direction of the ball (forgetting that she dominated in the first set because she moved Sharapova around and attacked the open court). Sharapova prevailed in a tight second set, but then clearly dominated the third. It should be noted that Muguruza, with her very compact swings is able to take the ball very early and use the pace of her opponents against them. I suspect she is significantly less dangerous against players that don't feed her pace.
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BOUCHARDwas behind in all three sets of her quarter, but it seems Suarez-Navarro managed to choke well enough to lose the first and third sets.

The question is: who will be able to be the aggressor first? Sharapova's unreliable serve could come betray her.


Fun French Open fact: Raonic lost today and, on the WTA side, Kerber lost the other day. The thing is they were doomed from the start because they were the 8th seeds. Through all the years there never was a French Open champion, man or woman, that was the 8th seed!

We'll know soon enough! But a Nadal that can't get as many free points on serve as usual against a Ferrer that won their last meeting seems like a tough proposition to me. Nadal is still the favorite though, but not by a large margin.

I noticed a little something that might play a part in the Ferrer vs Nadal quarter: it will be played on the Suzanne Lengen, the second court, not on the Philippe Chatrier, the center court. That's because Monfils is playing in the other quarter and, since he is the last frenchman in the draw, he gets the biggest court. The Chatrier is a very particular court because there is a lot more room behind the baselines and on the sides than there is on the other courts. As a result, people that rarely play on it tend to find it difficult to play on. Nadal almost exclusively plays on the Chatrier (this year he only played his first round match on the Lenglen), while Ferrer played a single match on center court, two on Lenglen and one on court N?1.

Other than proportions, different courts have different speed. The Lenglen is known to be faster than the Chatrier, but in all fairness it is possible that it is a JBoot and patch day thing... Any minute difference in speed will be negated with another factor: tomorrow will be a damp day. Nadal's favorite weather conditions are bright sunny day, because the court becomes fast and the balls lively (read: bouncing high). Heavy conditions kill the hop that he imparts on his shots with the heavy top spin, making his forehand significantly less dangerous. That said, heavy conditions do not necessarily favor Ferrer, because it becomes that much more difficult for him to hit shots past Nadal or get poor returns behind his serve.

Gael Monfils, the most frustrating tennis player of all time.

The only thing I saw today was the end of the third set in the Murray vs Monfils and then the end of the match from the end of the fourth set. For those, who, unlike Bob Book, saw nothing, Murray cruised 6-4 6-1 in the first two sets, but Monfils managed to keep things close in the third and play a super aggressive return game at 5-4 to get the set. A big boost for the frenchman and a big source of frustration for the Scot who was very close from wrapping things in three neat sets. As a result, Monfils dominated the fourth. At the beginning of the fifth, Monfils was making inroads on the Murray serve, patiently retrieving every ball. Murray was seemingly not in a state of mind that allowed him to play the well constructed offensive points needed to thwart Monfils' ultra defensive game plan and as a result, getting impatient, went for too much on the wrong balls. Murray managed to do just enough to save his serve and undoubtedly his neck and then... Monfils decided out of the blue to go for some super aggressive game plan, rushing between points, making unforced error after unforced error, not realizing that it was time to be super cagey and give precious nothing to put pressure on Murray. Fastest 6-0 fifth set you will ever see! Murray will have two days to try and stop laughing.

That being said, there is a reason why someone with the athletic abilities of Monfils has such a tiny trophy cabinet (a grand total of 5 titles, all at ATP 250 level). The guy is a certified retard. Totally unable to manage his efforts in a season/tournament/match (resulting in him almost never being 100% fit), zero idea of what to do when on a tennis court and seemingly immune to any kind of advice from his coaching staff. That puts him pretty high on the frustrating scale indeed.

Being fan of choke artists like Dementieva, Stosur or Safina is also highly frustrating. So are the highly talented that follow their inspirations and never look like they try hard: Patty Schnyder comes to mind (She also had a strong 'WTF ARE YOU DOING!!???" effect, like Monfils). The players with a great game but who are just not good enough are also frustrating (Stakhovsky, Zheng, Shvedova). And so are those made of glass (Nishikori, Haas, Hampton).



In a match I did not see at all, Ferrer won the first set, was competitive in the second and then faded away in the third and fourth.

NADAL vs MURRAY!How original! They played in Rome recently (1-6 6-3 7-5 for Nadal) and surprisingly that was the first time they played in almost three years! What is not surprising though is that Nadal never lost to Murray on clay.


WTA: Petkovic and Halep both won 6-2 6-2 against, respectively, former finalist Erani and former champion Kuznetsova. My prognostics were not good!

It was WTA day with the semis. I only got to see the Shapova vs Bouchard match. The canadian youngster started very well, staying close to her baseline, dominating most rallies by taking the ball early, keeping good depth of shots and by being the first to go down the lines. The fact she hardly missed anything also helped greatly! Sharapova was a little shaky, not moving so well, forced to defend which is certainly not her forte. 6-4 Bouchard.

Things got closer in the second set. Sharapova managed to play closer from her line and to find more depth. As a result it really became a question of who would be able to do damage first in the rally, as who managed to do that usually kept the upper hand and won the point. Bouchard started to miss a little, Sharapova served some double, so the quality dropped a little, but the uncertainty and tension certainly shot up. Bouchard recovered from a break down as Sharapova served for the set, but was sadly unable to force a breaker. 7-5 Sharapova.

The tall russian got crushed by Muguruza in their first set, but won in three. Got crushed by Stosur in their first set, but won in three. There is a pattern there, and I am sure that if we go through a year of Sharapova matches we could find dozen of such scenarii. The thing is that Sharapova keeps a very high level of intensity through a match. Even if she misses, you can still feel the threat she represent. Even if she is outplayed, you need to sustain a very high standard of play to outplay her through a whole match. Once again, her never say die attitude and her willingness to be the aggressor paid off as Bouchard's level slightly dropped in the third, allowing Sharapova to consistently be the one dictating play, making it an almost one sided affair. 6-2 Sharapova.


In a match I did not see, Halep easily dominated Petkovic in the first set, helped by a german who simply could not find her best tennis for this momentous occasion. Petkovic rebelled in the second just as Halep got a little nervous to have her first Grand Slam final in sight. Still, the romanian managed to prevail in a breaker. She has yet to lose a set in the tournament!

I saw some highlights of the match and saw a show that analysed her play style: Halep does not have a strong dominating shot in her arsenal. She plays some serious, no non-sense tennis, is very athletic and as a result covers a lot of ground and manages to have strong anchoring to hit her shots. Also, she has a serious winning habit: she was 50ish last year in the rankings, after the tournement she will be ranked N?3 at most...

Very lame day of semis today, but we have our final.

NADALplayed well with the return of the sun. Since Murray knew from the start that he had no chance to compete because of the time he spent on court to reach this stage and his ailments, there was no fight at all from the scott who was summarily discarded. I mean, when Murray is not happy with his level of play you usually see him get agitated or shout at his box, but there was none of that today. He just knew his body would not allow him to play good tennis and he just went through the motions.
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DJOKOVICwas also helped by the sun. The sudden change in condition did not sit well at all with Gulbis, who basically spent the better of two sets trying to find the the right string tension to handle the livelier conditions. The latvian is known for some high risk aggressive tennis that is by nature a source of unforced errors (the whole point being avoiding clusters of errors and having more winners than errors), but today he also missed a number of rally shots, making things easy for Djokovic. Gulbis managed to stay afloat in the third and steal the set when Djokovic suddenly had a drop in level. This lead to a very strange fourth set where it was obvious something was bothering Djokovic (maybe he was a bit sick? Maybe he suffered from the sudden heat? He started to play with a cap which he rarely does anymore...), but at the same time Gulbis was obviously in pain, bothered by a lower back issue... in the battle of the sick versus the injured, the sick prevailed in this strange and disappointing match. Even more so that here and there we got to see glimpses of the brillance that could have been on consistant display if both were fit and Gulbis did not start the match fighting both his equipment and his opponent.


If Djokovic's issue was just a light heatstroke, he should be fit to play on Sunday. If it's something else, let's just hope it's not something draining such as a digestive problem, so we get to see a high quality final and not an execution.

Very good hard fought final between Sharapova and Halep. Surprisingly, the first 3 set final in more than a decade and, at slightly more than 3 hours, almost the longest women final in the tournament's history! The quality of play was often very high and both players showed really good ability to bounce back and reel back in the opponent. That being said, it felt like Sharapova held the keys to the match and that it was just a matter of her being able to execute well enough, because Halep spent most of the match defending and having a hard time finding the depth in her shots that could allow her to turn defense into attack. The pugnacity of the young romanian as well as some rare moments when she managed to be the aggressor extended the match just as much as Sharapova's untimely double faults. Halep was very very close to break first in the third, but Shapaova held tight and then made a final push at 4-4 winning 8 points in a row to bag her 5th Grand Slam title! 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2014... next stop 2016?

Fun fact: on the first point on Halep's serve at 4-4 in the third, the romanian hit with the frame a deep shot by Sharapova. The ball was called out. The chair umpire went and check the mark and it clipped the line (which was to be expected as the awkward bounce when the ball hits the line is usually the cause for miss timed shots). Halep hoped that the point would be replayed, but, rightfully so, as the 'out' call was late, the umpire gave the point to Sharapova. Did it mess with Halep's mind? Anyway she did not score another point in the final.

Well, that was fun while it lasted. Time to go do something else I suppose.