I still can't get over the fact of how disrespectful we Australians are when people get injured at this tournament Tomic, Nadal and a few others.. even booing in the Gran Slam Final the worst thing we could ever do. What have we come to. It has to be greatly addressed that's for sure.
The 2014 Australian Open Tennis Championships (Jan. 13-26) |OT|
- Thread starter szaromir
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Diprosalic
Banned
But there would be no Stan or Federer without immigration
Stan the man! Now win a Masters!
Also, no Hingis or the team that got us to the world cup.
You and I know how hypocritical the SVP is, i wonder why the SP never thought about using them as poster boys.
WTA still use it in 90's and early 200x?
But there would be no Stan or Federer without immigration
Stan the man! Now win a Masters!
500 is a good start
Martina Hingisová, Stanislas Wawrinka, Belinda Bencic... It would work true wonders for the Swiss tennisLol, even the political party SVP (there will be vote in 2 weeks. They want to build a wall around Switzerland and stop immigration) congratulates Stan
D
Deleted member 231381
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No, I meant the ATP still had it until the late '80s. No idea when the WTA got rid of it.
PedroPanache
Member
Having watched and enjoyed tennis in the 80's, it matters to me still, because it was part of the sports tradition and I liked the fact that you'd have the best grass court player seeded one, even if he wasn't the world number one. Even with surface homogenisation, there's enough of a difference, even though there are less specialists about. Murray absolutely doesn't deserve as a good seeding as his world ranking on clay courts.
It actually keeps the sport interesting, and I don't see it as confusing. Though, I accept the point that it's no longer as important as it once was. So, is it really worth it?
Diprosalic
Banned
Martina Hingisová, Stanislas Wawrinka, Belinda Bencic... It would work true wonders for the Swiss tennis
.. or any sport that isn't on ice or snow
Diprosalic
Banned
i always wonder what kind of people come up with this shit. How are you even aware of that? The player who played world no. 24 in a final, 4 weeks before a GS always lost in the first round!!!
Watch 1st set, skip 2nd & 3rd, and watch the last 4 games in 4th set.
John Dunbar
correct about everything
please be in nadal's half at the french to put it to a real test.
WTF is this shit? xD
PedroPanache
Member
There's a narrative of distrust built around injuries in sport. So many players do look for an edge when losing and MTO's have been used as a tactic that it's kind of understandable. You have horrific instances, like Serena Williams at Indian Wells, when the crowd is almost baying for blood. They paid their money and that's all there is to it. The main problem there was the way in which Venus pulled out 20 minutes before the match. It allowed them to construct a narrative that somehow the matches between the sisters were fixed and they were being conned. They took that out on Serena in the worst possible way during her match with Kim Clijsters. Shit happens in sport.
It's a funny coincidence, the sort of that's bound to happen and stick out like a sort thumb if you ask a computer based database all sorts of queries. Nothing to get angry about.
D
Deleted member 231381
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This is good advice. Take it.
Don't skip 2nd set. Watch the first 3 games and skip.
I read somewhere that reading/watching Mandela's biography made Serena realize that she needs to put that incident in the past and she's on the entry list in Indian Wells. Any truth to it?
PedroPanache
Member
Yeah, that's been doing the rounds. I think her name is on the entry list, so that's pretty definitive isn't it. I've never seen such a hostile crowd, it must have been upsetting and unsettling. Not even the worst of the French Open crowd had anything on what happened at Indian Wells that day.
I guess the Mandela thing would act as an inspiration to move past it. Only they would know whether it was time to put it all in the past. It's always patronising to read people say they should just get over it, like they have some obligation to.
oipic
Member
As a Melburnian, this is one of my favourite fortnights of the year, and there's always a lull and sense of 'what now?' when it's over.
I'm ashamed and embarrassed by those that felt compelled to boo Nadal when he returned to the court after his treatment, but given the final is attended by fewer real tennis fans than the rest of the tournament (due to more corporate invitees and whatnot), I'll attribute it to that... or something. Shameful stuff, Rafa has more than enough runs on the board to deserve far better than that. He handled it with typical class when asked about it at his presser.
Congrats to Stan (and Li Na), and thanks to all of you TennisGAF faithful for being companions throughout. Cheers!
I'm ashamed and embarrassed by those that felt compelled to boo Nadal when he returned to the court after his treatment, but given the final is attended by fewer real tennis fans than the rest of the tournament (due to more corporate invitees and whatnot), I'll attribute it to that... or something. Shameful stuff, Rafa has more than enough runs on the board to deserve far better than that. He handled it with typical class when asked about it at his presser.
Congrats to Stan (and Li Na), and thanks to all of you TennisGAF faithful for being companions throughout. Cheers!
D
Deleted member 231381
Unconfirmed Member
To be honest, I'm pretty damn happy with both winners. Li and Stan, who'da thunk it?
Well Nadal has a history of medical timeouts to change the pace in the game. In Hamburg for example on clay, Federer destroyed him in the first set. Nadal took a medical timeout and won afterwards.
It is because of those tactical maneuvers, people are getting so critical maybe even a little bit unfair, but Nadal did it several times, so did Djokovic. People used to accept MTOs but as soon as players start to use it as a tactical game, every MTO will be suspicious.
PedroPanache
Member
Yup, my fave winners so far, but hate the final matches
Yeah, good winners and good for the game. I usually just root for a good match, but I have a soft spot for Nadal and Murray. However, I'd take a Federer 5 set epic victory over Nadal than a boring procession in which Nadal dismantles him routinely in 3 sets. I just want to witness a little bit of iconic sporting history. They don't come around too often, but when they do, they're seismic.
That's a hilariously odd piece of trivia. It's almost too bizarre to be true, but it is. Who spots this kind of thing? It's Silent Hill/Kindergarten Cop all over again.
Imagine it would happen xD
I know what you mean, I love experiencing epic matches. I've watched the fifth set of Rosol-Nadal like 20 times by now. The greatest ballstriking I've ever seen.
edit: sometimes it's OK to watch a 60 61 win if it's a flawless performance of one of the players though.
PedroPanache
Member
Matches like that are strange for me, in that you want your guy to come through, but you also want to see this momentous once-in-a-lifetime upset. I was conflicted with Federer/Stakhovsky, but that guy just played the most beautiful grass court tennis that you've ever seen on a modern grass court that couldn't help but root for him a tiny bit. You also want the top guys to lose in the right way, and not in the way that Sampras did on a strange, small court not befitting his legend.
Anyway, it's been fun shooting the breeze about tennis. Until Roland Garros, it's back to the vidya games and the really important stuff. 30fps vs. 60fps - which is more cinematic?
John Dunbar
correct about everything
del potro is great, but i feel bad about that because it was probably the best chance federer had to win all four slams in a row.
of course, had he won that us open, he might have crumbled at the aussie open. i love fed, but he's not exactly a mental giant.
TrumanBurbank
Member
PedroPanache
Member
That final was one of those matches were you got to find out what a player was really made of. Federer schooled him in that first set and was well on his way in the second. Somehow, DelPo just found something from somewhere and that forehand of his caught on fire, and his balls grew to the size of melons and the rest is history. Not only that, but all this is in the context of Federer pasting him in three straight sets at the Australian Open earlier the year. You want to talk about dominant performances? That was the king of them that year.
Ever since that final I've been a huge Del Potro fan.
If you liked that Fed/Stakhovsky match, you should keep an eye for Mahut's matches on grass, he produces some wonderful stuff (though he doesn't serve and volley on every point, obviously).
I don't like Nadal, but on the flipside, due to the nature of his game - extremely quick and a lot of margin for error - it takes one hell of a performance to take him down in the best of five format, so when it does happen the memory of it stays with me (Tsonga AO08, Murray USO 08, del Potro 09, Soderking 2010, Rosol 2012). I regret missing Darcis-Nadal, that must have been something.
PedroPanache
Member
szaromir, you monster! Just looked at your first post of your
OT and saw that gif of Nadal missing that backhand at the net. That hurts everytime I see that one. Everytime.
fantastically well put together
D
Deleted member 231381
Unconfirmed Member
Darcis-Nadal was actually super underwhelming. It wasn't like Rosol's 5th set the previous year which was one of the most incredible displays of ballstriking I've ever seen, Nadal just came out and played really badly the whole match. It was really unsurprising after about a set and a half he was going to lose, and very uncharacteristic of Nadal. Probably the worst match of his I can remember, off the top of my head.
PedroPanache
Member
I had such a surreal experience that day. I'd been out for most of the day, missed the tennis and not been in a position to look at the results until the evening. I stopped by at a friends before heading home and took control of his TV to look at the results on the information service. Brought up the men's results and literally had to do a double take. But there it was in black and white; Darcis def. Nadal 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (10-8) 6-4. It was a bizarre way to find out that Nadal had been knocked out in the first round in three straight sets. It was a bit of a downer as I thought he could go far into the draw. That said, it opened it up for Murray to progress to the final. He's always had something of a problem with Nadal at Wimbledon.
If I get to make the RG'14 OP, you'll find some consolation there
Ah, shame, the highlights reel didn't seem so bad but I never bothered to watch the full match knowing the score. It's also a shame Darcis got injured towards the end and couldn't use the match as a sort of springboard in his career like Soderling and to lesser extent Rosol did.
PhantomZone
Member
The booing of Tomic was warranted based on his bad boy reputation.
Rafa=FedKilla
Banned
Stan won that outright, you can't use the medical excuse for Mowgli. This isn't Mauresmo-Henin AO final.
Tomoc deserved to get booed. He is letting the sport pass him by. He has at the event horizon of never having a stable career....
Tomoc deserved to get booed. He is letting the sport pass him by. He has at the event horizon of never having a stable career....
Loser no more. He beat Djoker and Nadal to win his first grand slam. That's a hell of way to get there.
PS3GamerKyle
Member
Just waking up and WOW, can't believe Wawrinka pulled it out.
So when I watch the replay, I watch the first set, first few games of the second, and the last few games of the fourth?
So when I watch the replay, I watch the first set, first few games of the second, and the last few games of the fourth?
D
Deleted member 231381
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Yep. The middle bit is awful, it's Nadal being crippled and then Wawrinka having a head injury.
It can be really hard playing someone who is hurt.
D
Deleted member 231381
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I meant awful more as in it's quite difficult to watch, I was certainly pretty uncomfortable for much of the 2nd set.
Coldnoodle
Member
MIMIC AM CRY
Tears of joy.
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