GO AndyR!

January 8th, 2011 at 8:27 pm

Go Andy!

January 8th, 2011 at 10:41 pm

Yep Soda with set one 6-3 … not good news for Andy M. :( or Andy R. :(

And I like Soda, but want Andy M seeded #4 and Andy R to defend his title too.

January 8th, 2011 at 11:05 pm

jane: Andy M was seeded 5 last year. He didn’t have to play Novak just (just..!) Raf and Rog., so I’m not especially worried about him being 5. Much more worried that he still has no coach to help sort out
1) his head
2) his serve, was 55% in one Hopman match.
He’s not going to win any slam unless those two things are sorted.
However, Fed looks extra sharp, brimming with confidence and raring to go, so who on earth is going to take him out, unless it’s a fully recovered Raf who, no doubt, will be totally fired up with prospect of history?

January 9th, 2011 at 3:03 am

Yes, if Roddick continues in this vein he should retain his title.

I agree with Margot about Andy M.

Christian
The Tennis Emporium

January 9th, 2011 at 5:20 am

margot, I read on Murray’s World that he plans to remain in the same coaching situation “with Alex Corretja and Dani Vallverdu” until the middle of this year. I guess they are waiting / looking for the right person. I think Cahill was a possibility but he can’t be full time.

As for Fed, yes, it sounds like he is on song; I missed the Doha matches, so can’t comment too much, but at WTF he was unbeatable, although Rafa over 5 is still very much a contender against Roger. Other than that, it may be more repetition. I still have some hope that someone else besides R & R will win a slam, but feeling a little bleak. Soderling looked strong last night, but he flubbed some net plays, perhaps predicatably. He’s so much better from the back. His service games were untouchable and he did a pretty good job getting back some of Roddick’s serves too. Delpo could upset someone early, but likely not in this slam. We’ll know more maybe after Sydney.

X-man has a break in the second set but I still suspect “beefy boy” will win. Sigh.

January 9th, 2011 at 8:10 am

jane! good afternoon here! Do u think Malisse is dressed in Federer yellow in order to put beefy boy off? :) In this second set Malisse is playing some delightful tennis isn’t he? Making BB look a tad clumsy.
I feel bleak too :( We shall just have to do some virtual comfort eating together to get us through yet another forgone conclusion year.

January 9th, 2011 at 8:23 am

And the second set to Malisse. Hooray! What a beautiful graceful mover he is. All my favourites share this amazing, effortless fluidity about the court.

January 9th, 2011 at 8:32 am

Yeah, X-man is an all-round good player, who moves well. But, well, I feel he might not win. It’s way too early here, was up so checked scores. Need to get more sleep.

Okay margot, virtual comfort eating and chatting will be our remedy if “routine bites hard”. And we could always talk film on dead threads too. ;)

January 9th, 2011 at 8:39 am

malisse winning this will be great. he hasnt won a title since…..

c;mon mallise! love the ponytail. wawa is pumped up to win it speaking of cilic..lots of points to defend at the AO.

January 9th, 2011 at 8:44 am

jane hmm :( BB breaks early and will win, I feel. Yes! Films will cheer us up! Wonder where we can lurk? Going to see “Broken Embraces” this week. Like Almodavar very much and “Woman on verge..” could be in my top 20. There immediately cheered by the thought :)

January 9th, 2011 at 8:44 am

kimmi: hi! I love him too but he looks about 65 doesn’t he?

January 9th, 2011 at 8:45 am

early break says it all, malisee have no chance. :(

but great to see wawa doing great here. always in the shadow of “you know who”. maybe he wants to reverse things this year..

January 9th, 2011 at 8:46 am

margot – hi margot. BB, why you call wawa BB? another break chance for wawa..

duece..malisse on the board in the third.

he does look old with that pony tail, i agree. but it suits him. reminds of those bad boys in a gaster movie :)

January 9th, 2011 at 8:51 am

kimmi, “beefy” is slang here, it means being kind of …solid, if I can put it politely ;) We have rather tough, well built cricketer here, whose nickname was “beefy.” Kind if suits Stan, I feel.

January 9th, 2011 at 8:56 am

hmmm, looks like malisse will be fed a bread stick for dinner!

January 9th, 2011 at 8:59 am

unfortunately, didn’t catch the Rod/Sod match. The result, and the manner of it judging by the posts, has resolved a question in my mind. I wasn’t convinced that a hot Sod cld beat a hot Rod – thought a bit of luck came into these things – but now there can be no doubt. Soderling is a worthy #5 – that is, unlike with the #4 spot, there is no contention. Although Davydenko, and of course del Potro, can certainly come back and stir the pot. But for Roddick and Berdych contending for top 5 – goodbye. Nobody else in sight.

The fact that Sod has not got so many titles as Murray and Djokovic is not as telling as it looks – quite simply, Soderling is a late developer. The fact that he doesn’t have as long left as the other two will, I suspect, lend some urgency to his ambitions. He is now absolutely in the mix – for instance, how would you call a Sod/Djokovic encounter at the AO? Personally, I wouldn’t be so bold, might as well toss a coin. So we have 5 genuine contenders at the AO, with others (like Davydenko) capable of acting as brutal stirrers. Should be good.

January 9th, 2011 at 9:02 am

Aahh.. Federer yellow shirt tactic didn’t work :(
kimmi, jane enjoy rest of weekend. Gorgeous day here so just off for heavenly Winter walk. See you soon :)

January 9th, 2011 at 9:03 am

ha ha beefy!! well, congrats to wawa for winning chennai. malisse no chance today. wawa just too good.

great start to the year. just like his friend roger :) good luck to him at the AO. no one would like to see wawa early on in their draw.

January 9th, 2011 at 9:03 am

dunbar – djoko/soda at the AO? i will lean towards djoko anytime. soderling problems are his movement. these top guys know how to utilise that. unfortunately for roddick, he could not hurt soderling AT ALL. apart from the serve,nothing else worked. As soon as there is a long points from the back of the court.. you could as well give a point to soda. roddick groundies were weak..no bite and that is not going to cut it.

January 9th, 2011 at 9:17 am

If Andy continues in this vein, he should reteain his title.

I agree with Margot about AM.

Christian
The Tennis Emporium

January 9th, 2011 at 10:29 am

Kimmi – you are right about movement, but it isn’t everything. Sod’s matches with Federer, for instance, tend to be very close indeed, alright, not Fed at his very best, but no one can live with that.
Why were Roddick groundies weak (I didn’t see match)? Fact is, Roddick groundies are usually excellent, and Roddick can generally live with Djokovic from back of the court. One possible explanation – but I’ll leave you to decide, since I’m not in a position to – is that Soderling was just too powerful for Roddick. Sometimes, very simple explanations are the best. Soderling is an uncomplicated player, and he can overpower other players – however good – just like that.
Still, Djokovic and of course Murray definitely have more options than Sod, so for Soderling to beat Djokovic, everything’s got to be going well for him (assuming Djokovic is on). So he’s operating within fairly limited margins.

In this sense, I was wrong – without having any info on where either player is at, you’d have to go for Djokovic as the more rounded player. Also, Soderling can (of the top players)least afford to have a bad match against toppish competition. But if he can maintain very good form throughout AO, I’d have thought his chances of winning were quite good.

January 9th, 2011 at 12:08 pm

malisse has always had a ponytail, b.t.w. he’s a beautiful player, but there’s something about ponytails on men, actually even on women come to think of it, that irritates me. Not sure why.
Beefy Botham. Yes, I can see it for Wa Wa, he’s a player of great power. No other similarities. Wa Wa is reserved off court (so I’m told) and – shall we say – contained on court, although he has an irritating way of signalling approval when he wins an important point. Botham, on the other hand, was and remains a compulsive exhibitionist. Also he was, for my money, the most flamboyantly brilliant cricketer England’s ever produced. Sort of unEnglish, in a way. Wawrinka seems quite English – very competent, tough, a little bit boring….

January 9th, 2011 at 1:12 pm

Yeah, maybe Sod overpowered Rod. However, i found Rod to be a little too defense in the match. He let Sod be the aggressor, maybe hoping he’d miss. But 9 times out of 10 Sod didn’t miss. And his serves were meteors. Rod is not one of the best returners anyhow but he couldn’t do much. He did well to fight off as many break points as he did. Against a lesser server, Soda would’ve dominated even more.

A begrudging congrats to BB or WaWa.

margot, have you seen Black Swan? I liked All about my mother. Have taught it and students always enjoy it. Hope broken embraces is good – and your walk, which i think i need too. Nothing like moving through space to cheer one up.

January 9th, 2011 at 1:15 pm

“Why were Roddick groundies weak (I didn’t see match)?”

he seem overpowered by soderling. jane could be right. maybe because roddick was too defensive. you could see that roddick groundies were allowing soda to crank up his forehand and he did a lot of times.

January 9th, 2011 at 1:57 pm

Against big servers, Roddick tends to try to outserve his opponent instead of concentrating on his return game. I think it’s a bit of a pride thing: he wants to prove his serve is better than the other guy’s serve.

For opponents like Soderling and Del Potro, who serve big and have very powerful groundstrokes, this is a losing game plan. They can hold serve easily if he doesn’t return well, and they can break him eventually no matter how well he serves.

In some ways Roddick lacks the natural court sense that, say, Federer or Murray have. I think he has to very carefully organize his tactics before the match, instead of adjusting naturally midmatch. It’s a little harder for him to go with the flow, and he tends to revert to his usual MO if he doesn’t make a conscious effort to stick to his prearranged gameplan.

January 9th, 2011 at 5:24 pm