Federer, Djokovic Headline The Day In Miami; Defending Champion Murray On At Night

I can feel it coming in the air tonight.

Du-Du-Du-Du-Du-D-Du

March 21st, 2014 at 1:02 pm

Swiss ace take the toght first set.
He should now coast through the second one.

March 21st, 2014 at 2:52 pm

Fed is through.
Dr. Ivo always a tough out.

March 21st, 2014 at 3:32 pm

Good win, Fed is doing an excellent job in winning fast in 2 sets. He has to save all energy he has when the road gets tuff.
He is doing what was missing after his 2012 Wimb run, beating the players he is suppose to beat.

March 21st, 2014 at 3:34 pm

Federer outserves the big server, losing only three points on serve! Karlovic will probably rue double-faulting away that first game, he could have made it even tougher than it was–and it was tough, make no mistake.

Couple errors in the breaker from Karlovic was the difference in the second set. If Federer hadn’t served as well as he had, they could be in the third set.

March 21st, 2014 at 3:49 pm

Some very good defense in the 2nd set and a bit of luck in 2nd set tie break and 33 yr. old Albert Montanes’ experience wins over flashy young Dimitrov. Final set starts now…

Watch out. Albert not going to let this kid win this match too quickly. Montanes on a roll. Be very afraid, Grigor.

Novak Djokovic broke Jeremy Chardy in the 2nd set and was about to serve for the match but Chardy has an injury. Did not see how Jeremy got injured. Novak Djokovic wins.

Grigor breaks Montanes in the final set and held serve to lead 4-1.

March 21st, 2014 at 5:19 pm

Right after this Dimitrov/Montanes match will be the mighty #1 Latvian vs the awesome Julien Benneteau on Grandstand.

Grigor Dimitrov to serve for the match now at 5-3.

March 21st, 2014 at 5:27 pm

Lots of good matches on right now in Miami.

On Stadium court Agnieszka Radwanska vs Swiss player, Romina Romandi, is getting started.

And Kei Nishikori/Marinko Matusevic is getting underway.

Fernando Verdasco will now serve to stay in a match in which Thiemo de Bakker won the first set. Oh no, hold on Fernando – Thiemo de Bakker with a break point already…

March 21st, 2014 at 5:46 pm

Make that Romina Oprandi vs Aga Radwanska

March 21st, 2014 at 5:50 pm

greetings all, just returned from the day session, my second day at the tournament, although my first day was qualifying where I went with colin whose main interest was collecting as many autographs and photo opps as possible of which he got many.

So Colin got photos with the following: istomin, berdych, stosur, cibulkova, martina hingis, gulbis, dolgopolov, lisicki, safarova, McHale, davis, steve Johnson, of course he got autogrpahs from them all too.

Autographs from: Jankovic, Hewitt, Stakhovsky, Gasquet, Kuznetsova, Alamagro, Fognini and then the big one SERENA WILLIAMS.

Today I went with my USTA team and watched Federer’s match, was supposed to watch Li Na but she got a walkover, watched Hingis Lisicki in doubles, Pennetta in doubles (our captain wanted us to watch a lot of doubles for strategy lol) watched Petkovic Cornet, Djokovic, and watched Rafa practice, and watched Wawrinka practice.

I must say I had not seen Rafa play live in several years and this was only practice but the height of his ball astonishing. Also stunned at how hard he hits the ball, don’t normally think of him as a big hitter.

For the women, Serena and Lisicki pace stood out to me. Li Na was practicing and arguing with her husband. Berdych was practicing with Hewitt. Stosur with Cibulkova. Safarova with Kleybanova, Gublis with Dolgopolov, Gasquet with Fognini, Serena with her hitting partner, Sasha.

Sunburned and exhausted. My family went to the heat game, may be more tennis player run ins there!

March 21st, 2014 at 6:58 pm

Sounds awesome as hell, Kimberly. I’ve seen Rafa practice before, too, and yeah he really wallops the ball. A lot of them smack the ball like they’re trying to make it explode in practice. In matches it changes somewhat. How was watching the Karlovic serve live? I saw it long ago and he really does look like he’s in a tree IMO.

March 21st, 2014 at 8:08 pm

@Kimberly

Lucky you……I’m so jealous. Going to an honest to gosh live match is on my bucket list!!!

March 21st, 2014 at 9:14 pm

@Kimberly,
Mentioning all those players practicing simply brings me great memories of the US OPEN to which I have been twice. So far, I have seen everybody play in person except Joker and Rafa. I used to see a whole lot of them (at very close range) at the Washington DC tournament (Legg Mason, now Citi Open) which I used to go to years back. I even caught Marat Safin and Agassi (yes, some of the ‘weak era’ folks – supposedly – hi hi hi) before they disappeared from the scene. Yes, those were the years when Murray was having another coaching experience (Brad Gilbert). I have seen them all !! So much fun those days. It was all about the tennis !!

March 21st, 2014 at 9:58 pm

Play, Andy. Good luck.

March 21st, 2014 at 10:01 pm

My husband and son were at heat game now, and just a few seats away from Federer!

Ben serving from a tree is a completely accurate description if karlovic. However the rest of his game is really bad, much much worse than Isner who moved a lot better than I though when I saw him in delray. Couldn’t really judge Federer game as there were so few rallies.

March 21st, 2014 at 10:15 pm

One down….phew!
Didn’t see the match, but apparently there were glimpses of the old Murray magic, with JG saying one shot alone was “worth the admission fee.” Nice.
@kimberly
Really glad you’ve all had such a gr8 time :)

March 22nd, 2014 at 2:53 am

Have fun Kimberly, and thanks for the eyes on comments! Keep on feasting :).

March 22nd, 2014 at 5:20 am

@ margot: Apart from first set, Andy was very good!It looks like he is back but lets see him in QF-too early to talk about return.
On the other note, I notice that you, Hippy, Okiegal and metan been chatting a lot on Tennis X, it’s almost like a Girl Power thing! Obviously Girl Power was introduced by Spice Girls so I decide it to name you guys:
Hippy Chic-Baby Spice
Okiegal-Ginger Spice
metan- Sport Spice
and you with your posh name, have to be a Posh Spice… You are free to swap names between you guys.

March 22nd, 2014 at 5:43 am

@Margot – I stayed up for the whole thing. He had a sloppy start, as seems to be the norm these days, but sprang to life in the 2nd set. There were several vintage Murray passing shots and rallies.

He lost serve at the start of the 3rd set and roared a few choice words into his hand – it looked so odd. I figured out he did that because the boy with cancer from the Make-A-Wish foundation was there to watch his idol play. lol, we need a boy at every match because after shouting into his hand in disgust he stormed through the 3rd set. He looked close to the 2013 Murray at time during those last 2 sets. Encouraging.

March 22nd, 2014 at 8:18 am

@th DA Hooray!
Did u c this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO125n03qMs

@Courbon
U talkin’ to me boy, .about that posh babe?
;)

March 22nd, 2014 at 8:35 am

@ Margot – Yes I saw that. As always, he’s a good sport as poking fun at himself.

BTW, here’s one of the magical shots from last night:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP46ERLZpW8

March 22nd, 2014 at 8:56 am

Courbon lol i wouldve thought id be scarey spice,given im a northern nutter just like she is,but i do like baby spice better,so thanks for that,im looking forward to watchng some tennis now,had enough now of the Fedal GOAT talk,there is such a thing as overkill.

March 22nd, 2014 at 10:41 am

Talking to you girl, talking to you…

March 22nd, 2014 at 11:22 am

@ Hippy Chic:Ah, so Ginger spice is called Scary Spice? I forgot those important names in Pop History…silly me;
Back to tennis and football.Nadal is playing tonight and Liverpool are in fantastic form. Life is good for you, isn’it?

March 22nd, 2014 at 11:25 am

Courbon nah ginger spice and scary spice are two different gals,ginger was the one with the red hair and wore the union jack dress,scary was the black one that wore all things leopard print,and yorkshire gal who was a bit of a headcase,that why i thought she alluded more to me,baby was the nice blonde one,sporty was the only one with any talent,and posh is married to David Beckham,im sad i know but my niece was a massive fan when she was younger,anyway LVC have had a great week,and so has my other team,Rafas never won Miami so im not that hopefull,but then again he had never won Cincy either till last year,so you never know i suppose,i will just enjoy the tennis from now on,and let the chips fall wherever they may,rather than tying oneself up in knots worrying about it all the time,far more important things to worry about in the real world,good luck to Nole this week anyway,he looks to be in good form again.

March 22nd, 2014 at 1:23 pm

Ah Courbon, good to see you back ;)

March 22nd, 2014 at 1:33 pm

Harry ill second that,but good to see you back too,i really miss the pound for pounders,who are IMO the best set of fans on this forum,they all just want to talk tennis pure and simple,same with the Murray fans,the Fedal fans all seem to have an axe to grind with each other,that why its refreshing to see you and Courbon posting :))..

March 22nd, 2014 at 1:38 pm

@ HippyChic: Thanks :-) It is always a pleasure to see you posting… Lets keep our fingers crossed for a great tournament ;-)

March 22nd, 2014 at 1:57 pm

@Courbon

Yay, you’re back! Now we can have a little humor!
Why am I Ginger spice? Was there a bleached out blond? I know who the spice girls are but being from Okla and all I’m into country and western. If there is a blond, that would be me……all ditzy, dizzy, hair brained, receiver of blond jokes! LOL Nice to see you posting! Happy days are here again …We can discuss tennis in a civil manner…..and I am not being moderated anymore!! Yippy skippy!!

March 22nd, 2014 at 2:26 pm

Okiegal lol i wouldve put myself between baby and scary,i can be a bit of an airhead,but also on certain days a bit of a headcase too,anyway Rafa plays midnight here BST,im just gonna enjoying watching his tennis from here on in win or lose,without tying myself in knots over GOATDOM,im delighted with his career achievements overall,sad about Delpo,and Andy seems to be finding his groove now fingers crossed,Monflis is struggling against GGL.

March 22nd, 2014 at 3:01 pm

Thanks Harry you too :-)),and yeah im looking forward to this tourney,especialy if its anything like the last one..

March 22nd, 2014 at 3:09 pm

Me too, Chic. The match will be 7:00 for me. I hope his serve has gotten better……8 doubles against Radek…..grrr Don’t know why his serve was off kilter during IW…….hopefully fixed what troubled him…..but I’m ready!

March 22nd, 2014 at 3:19 pm

Happy to be Posh…just off for wafer thin cucumber sandwiches at Harrods, don’t you know…

March 22nd, 2014 at 3:39 pm

Ok, so lets do it all from begining.
Okiegal-Baby Spice ( Blonde and sweet!)
Hippy Chic-Scary Spice
Metan6 Sporty Spice and
Margot-Posh Spice

@ Margot:Darling, Harrods is these days for the plebs-don’t you know? You go to Heston Blumentals restaurant but instead of ordering great food he has,you ask for hot water with the lemon and three slices of asparagus…

@Okiegal: You can see that you got new name as you wished. Hip Hip Hooray!
@ Hippy Chic:Thanx for lesson in Spice Girls.Was Ginger that had Union Jack dress, right?
Rafa have not won Miami but I don’t see that as a big deal regarding his chances.It,s more anomaly that anything else.It’s a slow court, perfect for clay Master.Enjoy match tonight and speak later;

@ Harry: Nice to see you are around.I had self imposed exile for two months but I’m back.
So, what you think about Novak after Indian W? For me, it was very positive. I know he did not play amazing, still chocking at the times but whole battle-come- back and fight attitude, looks like is returning.And for me, that is the most important.Thats how he wins. So, still early to say but he looks like is on the good road to get mojo back… your thoughts?

March 22nd, 2014 at 8:02 pm

@Courbon

I’ll be fine with that one. My favorite quote is from the movie “Dirty Dancing”…….”Nobody puts Baby in the corner”……yeah, that’s me all right!! LOL

March 22nd, 2014 at 8:43 pm

@Courbon: Agree with you that he is not at his best; and yes, IW was really needed for his confidence — when I say this, I feel a bit strange because he did have a great finish to last year (which was, after all, only a couple of months back); and this year, he has only lost to Stan and Fed in close matches.

Are these losses due to a slight drop in his confidence levels or has there been a change in his game (perhaps also accompanied by a drop in confidence levels)?

I started looking at his performances from Jan to Miami over the last 4 years. SPW and RPW are his serve and return point win percentages:
year — win% — SPW% — RPW%
2011 — 100% — 69% — 46%
2012 — 88% — 68% — 45%
2013 — 94% — 72% — 43%
2014 — 87% — 71% — 42%

Looking at his win rates, while he is (obviously) not playing at his level in 2011, his level this year seems comparable to his other 3 years. But there is a trend — sure, he has improved his serve, but his performance in return games have dropped. Do you have any thoughts on that? May be just better contact lenses ;)?

March 22nd, 2014 at 11:31 pm

@ harry: Well, Novak is saying that is confidence but then-if he has trouble with some aspects of his game he would maybe not reveal to everybody?
Great chart.I never realised that his RPW are droping.Because procentage is small, every year a bit, to me looks like is age related.Slightly slower legs, eyes less sharp…or just plain lazy?Maybe in 2011 he was returning a balls that could get him injured and now he realised that’s not clever?
I hope is contacts, because I will buy him new ones if needed!! (-:

March 23rd, 2014 at 3:17 am

Wow. A tough audience here to be sure.

While both Indian Wells and Miami are slower than average, the court analysis below does support that Miami is historically faster than Indian Wells which I believe is all that the poster in question stated. This might help to explain why Nadal has never won there while having great success in Indian Wells.

http://heavytopspin.com/category/surface-speed/

March 23rd, 2014 at 9:47 am

Roger always maintains that these two courts are slow (as confirmed by the numbers) however Nadal disagrees.

http://www.tennis-x.com/xblog/2012-03-17/9099.php

“My feeling this court is not slower than most of the hard court courts from the rest of the season,” Nadal said. “That’s my feeling.
That the ball flies quick here. The ball is fast, my opinion, and the surface is normal hard court. Not quicker than the rest; not slower than the rest.

“I feel good. I like this court. I don’t know, maybe next year will be much faster if Roger says, no? I have already this week a lot of time violation. That’s the true.”

March 23rd, 2014 at 9:51 am

The fastest court on tour based on this Weighted Ace analysis is ironically Sao Paulo on clay due to the high altitude and ball used!

March 23rd, 2014 at 9:57 am

kimberly,

A two-time Miami champion (2005-06), Federer hit balls into the crowd at the end of the first quarter and then went into the lockerroom post match to meet with players including LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Ray Allen. He also met with head coach Eric Spoelstra and assistant coach Bob McAdoo.

After the game Federer tweeted, “Very cool to sit court side during a Miami Heat game, great athletes, great sport, thanks for the entertainment!”

Wade also took to social media to note Federer’s attendance, posting a photo with the 21-time ATP World Tour Masters 1000 champion.

He also wrote: ‘Hanging with the great @roger_federer_ after the game 2nite in our locker room. We have something in common. We’re both 32 and they love to call us old.#Champions #EnuffSaid #StillGettingitdone’

Cool or what?

March 23rd, 2014 at 1:48 pm

@courbon: thanks! Ajde ;)

March 23rd, 2014 at 3:39 pm