Tennis

At first it seemed like Federer would cruise past Raonic. The canadian did not serve well, could not hit a backhand to save his life and was unable to make a decent volley. 6-1 Federer in the first set. The level of the swiss dropped a tad in the second, Raonic finally started to play better and with the help of some line painting even had opportunities to break the Federer serve. The swiss saved the break points he faced, but, as the tie break started, things seemed nicely poised to go the distance. Well... seven points later Federer had won the match! Yep. 7-0 in the breaker (a Chardy as I like to call it - homage to the french player who is the first I remember seeing losing a breaker on that score line). Federer played the breaker very well, but Raonic also proved very cooperative with unforced errors and a double fault.

So it will be Federer vs Nishikori and Murray vs Raonic on Tuesday. Wawrinka vs Berdych and Djokovic vs Cilic tomorrow.

Wawrinka played a pretty good game against Berdych, a bit of a surprise considering he lost a lot of matches as of late. Even more surprising, Berdych played a terrible match. End result 6-1 6-1.

Djokovic also started the event playing very well, so he made mincemeat of a Cilic who did not feel 100% healthy. 6-1 6-1 too and Ferrer better start warming up for Wednesday.


I am not going to lie: these first four matches have been pretty lame considering these are supposed to be the top eight players in the sport. Let's hope things pick up tomorrow with that Federer vs Nishikori match.

Another day at the O2 another round of pretty crappy matches...

Federer served well but played rather poorly by his lofty standards. Luckily for him, Nishikori played even more poorly. He might be hindered by a right wrist injury (not being able to impart spin on serve would explain the huge number of double faults).

I have not seen the Murray vs Raonic match, but by all account Murray played ok and Raonic played poorly.

As is stands, no one is qualified and no one is out. All is left to play for, but it would take some very strange results for Federer to not go through.


6 matches played, 9 to go and we are still waiting for the first good match. I must say I am optimistic for tomorrow where we might even have 2 good matches with Cilic vs Berdyck and Djokovic vs Wawrinka.

So yeah... the Berdych vs Cilic match was vaguely decent a time, but Cilic played as poorly as in his first match. I did not see the Wawrinka vs Djokovic match, but it started with the swiss rushing to a 2-0 lead, but then Djokovic decided to give nothing which frustrated and the despaired Wawrinka who made tons of unforced errors and won just a single game.

WTF is this Masters' Cup? So many matches with Top 8 guys playing poorly is pretty lame, but to add insult to injury, the organizers managed to make a court that is both low bouncing and dreadfully slow. With a slow high bouncing court, you can use top spin to force your opponents back and try to make them miss or make them play short balls that open the angles for you. With a fast low bouncing court, you can rush opponents and play through them or hit volley winners. Both these strategies are severely hindered by a slow low bouncing court. As a result, people who try to attack have a choice between taking additional risks (trying to find great depth with the top spin shots or trying to play with extreme angles when attempting to rush opponents) which will result in more unforced errors or playing it safe and be exposed to counter-punches. Basically, this court is Djokovic's wet dream and would also have been Murray's if he played better. At this point I am ready to bet Djokovic will win the event without losing more than 4 games in a set.

Rape

Federer/Murray was the shortest professional tennis match I've ever seen.

Things started out nicely today with the first genuinely good match of the tournament, courtesy of Ferrer replacing Raonic to play against Nishikori. Some great rallies, some great shot making and a hard fought match that went the distance. Conclusion: it's really a shame that Ferrer did not qualify. He might not have won enough matches to go through the semi, but at least he would have played and competed a lot better than most of the people we have ssen in action this week.

The second match was a strange beast. Federer won 2 and 3 against a sub par Nishikori while playing so-so tennis but serving very well. Today, he played brilliant tennis with so-so serving against a sub-par Murray. The scot really allowed the swiss to shine and boy oh boy did he shine! He found ways to play some very aggressive tennis on a court ill-suited for it. It just meant building the point a little more, accepting that you might need another forehand and another volley to seal the deal. That worked against a not so good Murray who was unable to counter-punch or make good passing-shots with any kind of regularity and it might not work as well against a Djokovic for instance. Still, that was great fun to see Federer play in what I call his bloodbath mode. A mode during which he does just about everything he wants, making him unplayable.

An example of bloodbath match was against Del Potro at the AO in 2009 (6-3 6-0 6-0).

Berdych played an ok match and even tried different things when his usual Plan A did not work, but that was not enough against a very solid Djokovic. The serb gave nothing, returned well, served well, covered his ground well, and seemingly put the ball wherever he wanted. For good measure, he even went to the net more than usual and with good success. 6-2 6-2. By winning, Djokovic is now sure to end the year as N?1.

I have not seen the Cilic vs Wawrinka match, but anyway the swiss had to win 3 games to go through and he won the match in 3 sets. I'll catch up on it to see if it was a case of one playing better than the other or one playing worse than the other.


So... semi finals: Djokovic vs Nishikori and Federer vs Wawrinka. Seeing the performances of all four, it seems the inevitable Djokovic vs Federer will take place, but the swiss duels are also strange mind games and Nishikori stands at 2:2 in his head to head with Djokovic. He recently lost clearly in Paris, but he also won pretty convincingly at the US Open. Still, his wrist making it difficult for him to impart spin to his 2nd serve makes a japanese victory pretty unlikely.

PS: After 12 matches, we have yet to see an upset. Three matches are left and my gut feeling is that we will not see an upset in those either.

Nishikori played pretty well in his first set against Djokovic. In fact, you will have a tough time finding an example of someone playing better while still being at the receiving end of a 6-1 scoreline. Djokovic was in full flow during the first set, serving well, returning well, covering the court perfectly and effortlessly hitting targets that were consistently within a foot of the lines. When a guy hits the line, it's easy to feel like he went for much and got lucky, but hit every single shot near the lines it feels like he is a demi-god in total control. To make matters worse, Djokovic did all that with an unusually aggressive game plan, ending a number of rallies at the net. The serb broke Nishikori in the first game of the 2nd set and it really felt like we were going straight to a 50ish minute victory, but somehow Djokovic went off script.

He played a poor game to confirm the break, ended on an unforced error (a double fault maybe?) and as the crowd roared in satisfaction (both because it gave them hope to see a longer match and because the japanese flags outnumbered the serbian flags 3 to 1), Djokovic sarcastically clapped at the crowed and showed signs of extreme nervousness that is pretty difficult to understand when your opponent of the day just scored his second game and you have been walking on water. This strange event allowed the japanese player to open his shoulders as Djokovic's level dropped slightly from demi-god to (slightly pissed off) human. That lead to a very high quality 2nd set, with Nishikori taking the ball early, counter punching, spreading the court and that culminated in a break late in the second set during which the japanese played Djokovic like a fiddle.

Sadly, the decider was not from the same barrel - as the french saying goes - Nishikori missed some early break opportunities, played a poor service game behind it and then a poor return game and it suddenly was 3-0 for Djokovic with a clear sense that a huge opportunity had came and went for Nishikori. A second break sealed the deal and then Nishikori went through the motions, but could not avoid the bagel.


If the first two sets of the first semi-final gave us some of the best tennis of the week, the other semi provided us with a nail bitter of epic proportion. The ebbs and flow of the game were a little too complexe to summarize, but let's just say Wawrinka played a very good match, but got a little tight when leading and made a couple costly unforced errors. Federer on the other hand played a so-so match, not finding the exact balance between patience and offence and not being allowed to get comfortable by an opponent hitting big and with purpose. For the longest time it looked like Wawrinka would win, but Federer found a way to steal the second set at the last moment only to be the victim of a terrible call early in the third that was instrumental in providing Wawrinka with a break. At the latest of time, Federer found a way to force a breaker after saving several match points, saved another match point in said breaker only to win on his first opportunity with one of the most ugly chip-and-charge in the history of tennis (a deep but floaty slice with a lot of side spin that gave Wawrinka a lot of time to think about the importance of producing a good passing shot: he failed to do so and was punished by a drop volley).

It felt very very cruel and really gave mixed feelings to a Swiss Davis Cup supporter like me. Pro: both played some great tennis at times, Federer showed how good a competitor he still is. Con: that's a bitter pill for Wawrinka to swallow and he only has a week to do so, Federer was not at his best (and a similar performance against Djokovic is likely to be punished), Wawrinka could not close a match he dominated...



PS1: Still no upset: 14/14 with just one match left to play.


PS2: The webmaster of the world tour finals has a good sense of humor:

The great final we were waiting for did not happen because... Federer withdrew from the event. He hurt his back during the semi final, hoped to be in good enough shape to play against Djokovic, but in the end decided not to. It's a shame for this Masters' Cup that has been the absolute worst I can think of. It could have been redeemed with a great final after two good semi finals, but has not.

That also put a big question mark on the Davis Cup Final that starts Friday. If Federer can't play it, it would be a huge disappointment and it would dramatically reduce the swiss' chances (Wawrinka would still be the favorite in his two single matches, but where could the third point come from other than the double?). On a personal note I would be rather pissed because a $1000 trip to see an easy french victory would be super lame.

Worst of all is the possibility of a 2015 that is just like 2013 for Federer. That would really be super tough for him to have come so close to the N?1 spot, the year end N?1, the Masters Cup, the Davis Cup and in the span of two weeks lose everything because of an injury. So let's hope it's a slight problem, that could not be resolved in the 18 hours between his semi and the final, but that can be fixed in three or four days. Fingers crossed, knock on wood, etc.

'La Coupe!
Davis!
Est Rouge et Blanc!'
- Supporter song, Lille 2014

The Davis Cup is red and white.

In case you missed it:

Day 1: Wawrinka curbstomped Tsonga in a soccer stadium turned into a 28k indoor tennis court. Monfils answered for the french team by curbstomping Federer.

Day2: The Federer/Wawrinka duo dominated in straight sets the experimental pairing of Benneteau with Gasquet (Tsonga was supposed to play with Gasquet, but the forearm injury that made him miss the end of the regual season flared back - that said Benneteau played a very good match, but could not carry a nervous Gasquet).

Day 3: Federer smothered and outplayed Gasquet through and through for a straight set victory that painted the Davis Cup in red and white.


Random facts:

- It was played in France, but there was a lot of swiss supporters and they were well placed and dramatically better organised than their french counterparts (everyone in red and white, a lot of chanting and cheering) to the point the home advantage was almost negated.

- Monfils and Benneteau really exploded, but Tsonga's injury, Monfils total inability to play the double and Benneteau's inability to be competitive in single on clay really turned a tough ask into an impossible mission.

- Friday night, the swiss fans were pretty nervous, but Federer's press conference and then the quality of his play on Saturday turned the nervousness into elation as the path for a french victory was narrow with the double's point, but almost nonexistent without it.

- The venue was great, the atmosphere was great and the rivalry between the supporter was kept lighthearted. The city itself is pleasant and the locals were also very friendly to the thousands of singing, face-painted and bell caring weirdos that invaded for the week-end.

Hard to believe the Aussie Open is almost upon us!

As the first points are being fought in Melbourne, let's do a quick run down of the draw:


DJOKOVICbrings some question marks with him to the AO has he was sick last week and got ousted in the 3rd round in Doha against an inspired Karlovic (who ended up being the only one to break in the match, with a running forehand passing-shot down the line!). He still is the favorite though.

R128:Bedene(who played well before the AO reaching the final in Chennai but heh)
R64:Kuznetsov/Ramos-Vinolas.
R32:Verdasco. dangerous in theory, but he hardly beat any top 20 players in 2014 and there is nothing to indicate 2015 will be any better.
R16:Bautista-AgutorIsner(very much in form and big servingMulleris also in this part of the draw as is austrian youngsterThiem).

Unless Isner or Muller find their god-mode on serve or someone manages to outlast Djokovic in a marathon grind under a scalding sun, I don't see how the serbian would not reach the quarter finals.


RAONICreached the final in Brisbane after defeating Nishikori in three tie-break sets. Only a surprisingly gritty Federer prevented him to lift the trophy.

R128:Marchenko
R64:Young
R32: The seed isBenneteaubutHewittis there as well.
R16:LopezandMonfilsare the top seeds here, but the in form frenchmenMannarinoandPouilleare in this part of the draw as well asJanowicz.

Obviously Raonic is the favorite to go through, but considering how poorly he returns and how much pressure he has when the opponent start to read and return his serve, I can see him drop in the R32 or R16.


WAWRINKAjust won in Chennai without dropping a set. The opponents were not extremely prestigious, but he showed a good level of play and winning never hurts!

R128:Ilhan.
R64:Andujar/Copil
R32:Cuevas/Nieminen/Golubev
R16:FogniniandDolgopolovare the seed.Pospisilis in this part of the draw also.

It's hard to know how much self-inflicted pressure Wawrinka, as the defender, will be under, but on paper he should reach the quarter with relative ease (unless one of his opponents decides to play an amazing match).


NISHIKORIplayed extremely well in Brisbane and was only stopped by a very good Raonic. I maintain that when the japanese player is healthy, he is extremely tough to beat.

R128:Almagroa former top 10 as first round is tricky, but there is no sign that Almagro does not deserve his current ranking.
R64:Dodig
R32:Giraldois the seed.
R16:FerrerorSimon.

Unless Almagro somehow catches Nishikori by surprise, the man from Japan should reach the quarter as he won all four of his meetings with the spaniard in 2014 (4 close matches though).



BERDYCHdestroyed everyone in his path in Doha before falling to Ferrer in the final.

R128:Fallahas a flat counter-punching game that could be tricky.
R64:Meltzer/Estrella Burgos.
R32:L.Mayeris the seed, butVeselyandTroickiare in this part of the draw, both lifting trophies last week (pro: they are in form. con: they might be tired).
R16:GulbisandKohlschreiberare the seeds, but australian youngstersTomicandKokkinakiswill try to shine at home.

Berdych is the favorite, but there is a number of tricky players in his part of the draw that have the potential to cause an upset.


NADALalso arrives in Melbourn with a big question mark over his head. He played some good exhibition matches, but he also lost in the first round in Doha to veteran journeyman Berrer. The german redlined his game and had some success, but Nadal also made a lot of unforced errors.

R128:Youzhnyscored some wins against Nadal in the past, but luckily for the spaniard, the russian is not playing so well lately.
R64: Australian youngsterSaville(a top junior a couple years back) with the help of home support could be tricky.
R32:Rosolis the seed, but is not the most reliable of players. YoungsterStruffand french ace machineDe Scheppercould come through.
R16:AndersonorGasquet. The frenchman has a 0-13 head to head with Nadal and Anderson played him just the once and lost, but his limited and stereotyped game should not be a huge problem for Nadal.

I can see Nadal playing himself into form on his path to the quarters and I suspect he is not overly worried about facing Berdych and then Federer to reach the final like last year.


MURRAYplayed some Hopman Cup and exhibitions as a warm up for the AO. I beleive he was not 100% healthy during those, so it's not very clear what kind of Murray we can expect.

R128:Bhambri
R64:Matosevic
R32:Klizanis a good player who under-performed in previous years.
R16:DimitrovandGoffinare the seeds. The bulgarian got spanked by Federer in Brisbane, but still, he is playing better and better and could prove very tricky for Murray.

We'll see how fit Murray is. If he is not well and unable to play anywhere close to his best tennis, he could very well fall in the R32 or R16.


FEDERERstarted a bit gingerly against australian wild card Millman in Brisbane, but after that played three high quality matches, including a super gritty final against Raonic that he almost let slip, but managed to reel back in for a 1000th career win (only Connors and Lendl passed the mark before) and a 83rd single title (guaranteeing him a 15th year in a row with a tournament win).

R128:Luis a giant slayer but he never had much success against Federer.
R64:Monaco/Bolelli. The italian played a good match against the swiss in Davis Cup last year, so he could be tricky.
R32:Chardyis the seed and he beat Federer in the past. He had to play a super match to do so though and it was in a best of 3 format. Best of five? That would be a big surprise if he manages to maintain a high quality super aggressive game plan for that long.
R16:RobredoandKarlovicare the seeds.Kyrgiosis in this part of the draw too. It is worth noting that Karlovic is playing very well at the moment. The heat and match length could be taxing for the 35 year old though.

There are some quality players in there, but in the grand scheme of things, that's a pretty tame draw for Federer and it would be a surprise if he does not reach the quarter finals.



It should be noted thatDel Potroplayed a bit before the AO and decided to withdraw has his wrist is still hurting him.

Querrey is not the most charismatic guy on a tennis court and his style of play is not exactly super exciting


Seedicide watch after the first round:

Raonic sector:

- Benneteau [25] downed by Becker.

Wawrinka sector:

- Cuevas [27] downed by Bachinger.
- Dolgopolov [21] downed by Lorenzi in straight sets.
- Fognini [16] downed by Gonzalez (the colombian was solid, but Fognini really played poorly).

Berdych sector:

- Gulbis [11] downed by Kokkinakis. The young australian played an ok match with a style that is a bit like a less retarded version of his pal Kyrgios, but Gulbis could not hit a forehand and could not serve and it still went to 8-6 in the fifth! (side note: Australians are really the most obnoxious tennis fans in the world).

Federer sector:

- Robredo [15] retired after 5 games against Roger-Vasselin.


The top seeds all won in pretty clean straight set matches (two breakers for Raonic against Marchenko though).

Monfils was almost upset today. He was taken to 5 sets!

We have our 3rd round:

Djokovic has been impressive so far.
vs
Verdasco made good on his 31st seed.

Isner
vs
Muller upset 13th seed Bautista-Agut to get into this big serving duel.

Lopez dodged a bullet in the 1st round and dodged a bullet in the 2nd as Mannarino retired sick when leading two sets to one.
vs
Janowicz took full benefit of the fact Monfils let him play to upset the 17th seed in 5 sets.

Becker beat 25th seed Benneteau and back that up by beating Hewitt from 2 sets down!
vs
Raonic has yet to drop a set but played 3 breakers.

Wawrinka found himself in a tricky battle against big hitting Copil, but still managed to escape in straight sets.
vs
Nieminen will provide a wholly different challenge.

Pospisil edged past Lorenzi after 2 close sets.
vs
Garcia-Lopez made light work of giant slayer Gonzalez

Ferrer dropped the first set against Stakhovsky
vs
Simon played two solid first rounds and will try to upset Ferrer like he did at the last US Open.

Johnson cleanly upset 30th seed Giraldo
vs
Nishikori got tested by Dodig but won the fourth sets.


Berdych got through with ease.
vs
Troicki still in good form beat 26th seed Mayer in 4.

Tomic upset 22th seed Kohlschreiber in a very close contest (3 breakers in 4 sets).
vs
Groth beat compatriot giant slayer Kokkinakis in 5 sets.

Anderson sailed through.
vs
Gasquet is playing well.

Sela upset 28th seed Rosol.
vs
Nadal is glad to see Sela next, because it took him 5 sets of error prone tennis to go through journeyman Smyczek (who played a super match though).

Murray was untroubled by wild dog Matosevic.
vs
Sousa benefited from 32nd seed Klizan's retirement.

Baghdatis showed once again he is at home at the AO by upsetting 20th seed Goffin.
vs
Dimitrov is still around.

Jaziri pulled through in 5 sets against Roger-Vasselin.
vs
Kyrgios managed to win in 4 sets against 23rd seed Karlovic.

Seppi proved too constant for 29th seed Chardy.
vs
Federer dropped the 1st set against an inspered Bolelli, but then order was restored.

The 3rd round in the bottom half of the draw saw just the single upset. Dimitrov was really tested by a very good Baghdatis, but the bulgarian managed to break early in the 5th to avoid a very tricky match ending. No such luck for Federer against Seppi as the swiss did not even reach the fifth. Seppi having a great day, very consistent from the back, remarkably efficient on serve and cool as a cucumber when come time to fire passing shots on key points, just happened to be when Federer had a bad day, making a lot of unforced errors, unable because of it to implement his aggressive game plan and periodically abandoned by his first serve. In spite of all that, the swiss lead in the 2nd set breaker, had opportunities early in the 4th set and lead in its breaker... but could not force a fifth, Seppi converting his first match point on a prefect 'Hail Mary' passing shot.

That was Seppi's first win against Federer in 11 matches (actually he had won just the 1 set prior), and it's the first time since 2003(!) that Federer does not reach the semi at the Australian Open. This opens the draw nicely for australian hope Kyrgios.