Tennis 2019

Bojan11

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Serena and Roger will meet in mixed doubles for first time.

Sadly Del Potro has pulled out of the Aussie open.

Still question marks over the fitness of Murray, Wawrinka and Nadal. Nadal definitely shouldn’t play Miami or IW. He has them listed in his schedule but there’s no point before long clay season to play those events.
 

saivet

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Listening to the tennis podcast and the Australian Open will now have a final set tie break at 6-6 but a champions tiebreak (10 points rather than 7 in the standard tiebreak)
 

Bojan11

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So thoughts on Murray? He lost in second round and his probably picked up the second worst injury a tennis player can have after wrist which is hip surgery. Even for a normal person hip surgery is tough to come back from.

His performances even his wins have been hard. I do think he needs to sign up a coach. But out of the top four who have had injuries he has had the worst injury and I think he could go the way of Hewitt.
 

saivet

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I think Murray will be the first of the top players to retire. Hope he proves me wrong but it looks a long way back for him.
 

Brophs

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On Murray, yeah, I think this season, sadly, might end up being a farewell tour. The surgeon's comments weren't the sort of thing you hear from someone who thinks he's going to be back at it at the top level.

On this week's tennis, Djokovic getting stretched a bit might be the worst thing for the AO. I think the best chance someone had of taking him out or really making him sweat was if he went in a little undercooked. As thing stand, he's going to be battle hardened from day one, which doesn't bode well for the field.
 

Bojan11

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Could see Murray playing doubles. Him and his brother could make a good doubles team.

But obviously from going to challenging for grand slams to playing doubles might not be something Murray wants.

Nadal also pulled out of Brisbane with a slight thigh strain. But should be ok for AO. Still think he should skip Miami and Indian Wells.

Djokovic is looking good. But we saw at the back end of last season if the young players have a go at him then he can be beat. Hopefully Khachanov improves for next season.
 

InfiniteBoredom

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We’ve had a few 40+ days this year already with today reaching 43. I think this AO will be played in similar condition to last year at the very least, or more likely 2014 (the Wawrinka year, massive heatwave for most of the tour).

Will be interesting to see if they tweak the rules this year to avoid another Monfils Djoker debacle. Regardless of humidity no one should be playing noon time under 40C+ heat.
 

saivet

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Not watched any of Doha but kept track of results and Djokovic has been dropping sets all week in what I'd consider to be a much weaker draw than in Brisbane.
 

Mrs Smoker

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Some good stuff from Bautista, and deserved 2-1 win. Bravo.

Karlović is in final of Pune! Hah, nice, he's forty next month.

And looks like all doubles have tie break to 10 instead of third set...? At least three tournaments going on this week...
 

berbatrick

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Just saw Federer's highlights vs Tsitsipas. It looked like a tough match, both were playing at a decent level. T's serve was very good.
It was great to see Federer's forehand has some sting in it again, he was attacking and putting away any short balls with power instead of drop shots. Could do with some work on service returns and maybe passing shots, but he didn't look too bad overall.
 

berbatrick

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Saw the Fed vs Zverev highlights. Federer looking better than he has in about a year - serve, volleys, passing shots, groundstrokes - everything came right.
 

saivet

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Murray has a horrific draw unsurprisingly, with RBA in round 1
 

InfiniteBoredom

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Djokovic has the easiest draw on paper, but also the most likely to have someone causing an upset, follow by Nadal then Federer.

Fed would have done well to get to SF, anything beyond that is a bonus.
 

Bojan11

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Draws are fairly similar for the big three. Djokovic has tougher opening round matches but he could get Nishikori in the quarters who he’d swat away. Whilst Nadal could get Anderson which could be tricky on hard court, whilst Cilic will be another tricky opponent for Federer if he’s not right.
 

Wayne's World

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Can't see Murray going on much more after hearing latest reports on him. Anyone reckon he might just call it a day after Wimbledon this year?

Hard to believe he's only 31 too :eek:
 

Bojan11

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Can't see Murray going on much more after hearing latest reports on him. Anyone reckon he might just call it a day after Wimbledon this year?

Hard to believe he's only 31 too :eek:
He’d do well to get a set. I can see PCB winning with ease unless Murray has some massive turnaround that nobody has spotted.

With his hip he shouldn’t even bother with the clay season anymore.

I know Hewitt had problems after returning. But Murrays all round game is a lot better than his. Hewitts mistake was that he tried to play like how he was before the hip surgery. Hewitt was a great defender of the baseline and he’d run for days.

One of the reasons why Federer and Nadal even have been able to enjoy success in the last few years is because they keep points shorter. Even though Nadal can still do gruelling rallies but he prefers to keep points shorter and tends to go for more now. His serve is a lot bigger too.

If Murray wants to remain competitive on tour he’d be foolish not hiring a coach. As he needs to keep points shorter, stop being too safe with his forehand and improve his serve. He ain’t going to last if he thinks he is going to play like he’s 26 year old in prime shape. At his age he needs to go for shots more.

What set out the big four from the rest of the tour at their peaks was their fitness superiority over everybody. But now at their age they are obviously going to lose that and it’s going to be a more even playing field with the other players. Federers probably lost it since 2010 and still going strong. So even if Murray didn’t get his injury, his style of play wouldn’t have lasted long in his 30s unless he was more aggressive.
 

Sean_RedDevil

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Why, what is or was suspected to be wrong with him?
He had a hamstring injury in Adelaide.

And now he has foot injury.
Can't see Murray going on much more after hearing latest reports on him. Anyone reckon he might just call it a day after Wimbledon this year?

Hard to believe he's only 31 too :eek:
The "latest reports" are a bit false because he hasn't ended early the practice match against Djokovic.

But to beat Bautista Agut in the 1st Round will be very tough.
 

Sean_RedDevil

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Noooooooooooooooooooo :(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(


He probably wants to feel one more time that "match feeling" because otherwise i don't understand why he is still in Melbourne.....he can't put his shoes and socks on without pain :(
 
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jungledrums

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Very sad news - anyone know specifics behind his injury? Been following him his whole career but details on his hip have always been scarce.
 

saivet

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Sad news, but the signs were never good. I hope he takes a good amount of time off to be with his family.

I do hope he'll be involved with tennis again, whether as a pundit and or coach.
 

Balljy

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I can see him taking a role in one of the tennis associations and working his way through to a relatively high position. He's always been quite progressive and had opinions on the way tennis should go, advocated Women's tennis.
 

Brophs

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There was an interesting question on Twitter during the week. At this point, would you take either Djokovic or the rest of the field to win the Aussie. I’m really struggling to make a case for anyone other than Djokovic tbh. Federer might well make another Lazarus esque recovery but I’m not sure I see it. Nadal’s records on hard courts is pretty questionable now. Zverev has one slam QF to his name. I can see Anderson and Cilic doing some damage. Khachanov, Coric and Tsitsipas could all go far.
 

RORY65

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Probably just the rest of the field in that Federer looked good at the Hopman Cup, Nadal was consistently excellent last year when fit but that was nowhere near often enough to have much faith in him and I do think this is the year where some of the younger players will become more relevant at the slams (Djokovic's rare losses in the second half of last year were to the younger players) this season although there seem to be concerns around the form and fitness of a couple of them currently. Djokovic is the clear favourite and deservedly so but I'm not sure that he feels like such a cast-iron guarantee as he did in 2015 and the first half of 2016.
 

Bojan11

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Berdych destroying Edmunds. Looks like Evans is going to be only British male in second round.