Wimbledon 2014 |OT| Best Sport on Grass

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Watching Tomic throw this away has been painful. None of Australia's players seem to have any sort of killer instinct. You see some real bolshy shots and stunning winners when they're behind, then they move ahead or make a tie-break and everything goes out of the window. Makes me pine for the days of prime Hewitt.
 
Crab, you have to consider that Dimitrov is a player who only recently, I would say, have started to come into his own. Yeah, he hasn't done well on grass before, but then he rarely did well most anywhere until late 2013 when he finally won his first title, except for flashes of brilliances here and there.

Given Dimitrov's current ranking and the fact that he has won three titles this year, one on grass even, I think it would be a massive hyperbole to say that he has exceeded expectation by beating opponents he is expected to beat. I would even say that he is definitively the favorite for the next two rounds, against opponents like Dolgopolov, Mayer or Kuznetsov. I think thats fair enough, given that he currently doing much better than any of those.

Now, one could still argue that Dimitrov has been overrated in the past with great expectations on his shoulder since his junior days to win slams left and right. And that is what it is. Dimitrov does, as many can attest to, have an exciting and inspiring game. Maybe it did him no favors to have such pressure on him, but what can he do? He is where he is now, and I think you would do well to judge him on his own merit and not some flawed observation of what other players have accomplished in the past at the same age.
 
Crab said:
I mean, if he apparently does have this game, why have his results been so poor? If we take a brief sample of the top few players at Wimbledon and look at their early careers, they all did much better - Murray made the QF by his third appearance, Djokovic made the SF by his third appearance, Nadal made the final by his third appearance, Federer made the QF by his third appearance, Berdych made 4R by his third appearance, Tsonga made the QF by his third appearance, and so on. This is Dimitrov's fifth try, and it's the first time he's made 3R. He's tracking behind basically every player to have made at least the QF of Wimbledon in the last few years except del Potro.
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Wawrinka didn't reach the QF until his 23rd appearance in a slam. Exceptions exist.
 
Stepanek just won 6 straight points in the third set tiebreaker to win the 3rd set. Djokovic was up in the tiebreak 5-1 until Stepanek ran off 6 straight points.
 
perfectchaos007 said:
Stepanek just won 6 straight points in the third set tiebreaker to win the 3rd set. Djokovic was up in the tiebreak 5-1 until Stepanek ran off 6 straight points.
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Sexypanek back in action!
Alternatively, compulsory Djokovic choke when about to win a set.
 
Wow, that was a great point in the Azarenka match. I thought that was going out at the end there.
 
Reyne said:
I would even say that he is definitively the favorite for the next two rounds, against opponents like Dolgopolov, Mayer or Kuznetsov. I think thats fair enough, given that he currently doing much better than any of those.
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i wouldn't be surprised if he lost to dolgopolov. if he serves 45+ aces like today dimitrov's return game being crap won't make things easy.
 
John Dunbar said:
i wouldn't be surprised if he lost to dolgopolov. if he serves 45+ aces like today dimitrov's return game being crap won't make things easy.
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Oh for sure, I wouldn't be either. The Dog is a tricky opponent for anyone and if he serves well then its anyone's game. Though on paper I would still say that Dimitrov is the favorite and I hope he lives up to it.
 
John Dunbar said:
has he, though? he's 29 and it was not like he was a serial slam finalist in his prime. they can't all be nadals.
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Between Wimbledon 2011 and the French Open 2012, he had two really good seasons where he could be relied on to be a strong contender at pretty much every slam and he notched up a decent head count out of other members of the top ten. Since then, his ranking has just been terminally sliding and I can't even remember the last time he had a top 20 win without checking. I mean, I'm not saying the decline was unexpected, you're right Nadal is exceptional in that respect, but it is still sad to see. He shouldn't be losing to a mug like Querrey on grass.
 
The fact that Stepanek's 35 years old and he's a fit as almost anyone on the tour should give Fed fans some hope that he can still go all the way in a couple GS's for years to come.
 
i doubt stepanek could pull off an upset here, especially from two sets down, but would be nice to see him take djokovic to a fifth set.
 
This will give Djokovic good practice for Murray - lot of backhand slice coming from Stepanek.
 
Djokovic is an incredible sportsman. I can't think of many other players who would be so fair in such a situation.
 
perfectchaos007 said:
Can someone detail what nice gesture Djokovic did?
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Stepanek hit a fantastic shot, went very deep, Djokovic mishit it into the net. Ball was given a late out call. Stepanek challenged. Ball was indeed in. Umpire said to replay the point. Crowd got upset because it was clear Djokovic wouldn't have been able to hit it anyway. Djokovic gifted the point. It was A-40 to Djokovic when he gave it up.
 
Crab said:
Stepanek hit a fantastic shot, went very deep, Djokovic mishit it into the net. Ball was given a late out call. Stepanek challenged. Ball was indeed in. Umpire said to replay the point. Crowd got upset because it was clear Djokovic wouldn't have been able to hit it anyway. Djokovic gifted the point. It was A-40 to Djokovic when he gave it up.
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Thanks
 
Niraj said:
Lauren Davis wins in straights. Rafa=FedKilla can sleep soundly tonight.
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Yeah and Lauren is the last American Woman on the bottom half of the draw. Glad she upset Flavia Panera bread


Querry hit an amazing shot at the net to get himself match point but could not convert. Its 6-6 in the 5th set.
 
Play was going to be suspended at 8-8, but Tsonga and Querrey want to keep going, so they're doing 2 more games.
 
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