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The 2016 Australian Open |OT| 18th January - 31st January

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Kotetsu534

Member
Lovely match between Aga and McHale there. Okay, purists will moan about their awful 2nd serve % points won stats and all the breaks, but that was largely because both of them were determined to attack every 2nd serve and kept nailing the returns. McHale's inside out forehand is a real weapon. Touch of real genius from Aga at 1-1 15-15 in the second set, a little no-look flick on the run that left McHale stranded at net. McHale went through a long stretch of sublime tennis in the 2nd set and pulled back to 3-3, before missing a crucial put away smash at Deuce in that game. Aga seized the opportunity, held serve, broke quickly and finished off with the most authoritative hold of the match. The biggest difference between them was in the mind - 6-2, 6-3 makes it look much more one-sided than it was because Aga kept winning the important points.

Aga will need to cut down on the backhand UEs (which frustrated her into smacking her racquet against her hand, as near to a tantrum as you're ever likely to see from her) and get the 1st serve % up. Good win against an opponent who played above their ranking all the same though.
 
L

LuuKyK

Member
Wozniacki is such an awful player. Its hilarious to watch her trying to moonball these players to death. Her opponent is smaller than Cibulkova. lmao

Kotetsu534 said:
Lovely match between Aga and McHale there. Okay, purists will moan about their awful 2nd serve % points won stats and all the breaks, but that was largely because both of them were determined to attack every 2nd serve and kept nailing the returns. McHale's inside out forehand is a real weapon. Touch of real genius from Aga at 1-1 15-15 in the second set, a little no-look flick on the run that left McHale stranded at net. McHale went through a long stretch of sublime tennis in the 2nd set and pulled back to 3-3, before missing a crucial put away smash at Deuce in that game. Aga seized the opportunity, held serve, broke quickly and finished off with the most authoritative hold of the match. The biggest difference between them was in the mind - 6-2, 6-3 makes it look much more one-sided than it was because Aga kept winning the important points.

Aga will need to cut down on the backhand UEs (which frustrated her into smacking her racquet against her hand, as near to a tantrum as you're ever likely to see from her) and get the 1st serve % up. Good win against an opponent who played above their ranking all the same though.
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lol no, it was an awful match. I have no idea why I forced myself to watch that. McHale missed everything besides that 3 few games where she played decently.
 
K

Kotetsu534

Member
Eh, it might not have been great, but awful is going too far. McHale missed a lot towards the end though, true, but that's always Aga's game, to tempt her opponents into overhitting.

Whatever happens in the rest of the match, hats off to #328 19-year old Noah Rubin on taking a set off Benoit Paire in his first GS match, zipping around the court like a gazelle. Paire looked like he didn't expect such speed from him and went for too much in the tie-break after going 2-0 up. Love his intense demeanour too, comes off mature.
 
P

perfectchaos007

Member
Kotetsu534 said:
Eh, it might not have been great, but awful is going too far. McHale missed a lot towards the end though, true, but that's always Aga's game, to tempt her opponents into overhitting.

Whatever happens in the rest of the match, hats off to #328 19-year old Noah Rubin on taking a set off Benoit Paire in his first GS match, zipping around the court like a gazelle. Paire looked like he didn't expect such speed from him and went for too much in the tie-break after going 2-0 up. Love his intense demeanour too, comes off mature.
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I don't follow Paire that often, but how usual is it of him to hit so many forehand slices in concession? You don't see too many forehand slices, but Paire is hitting 4 in a row on some points

edit: He's not moving too well either. I think he's ill. Reminds me of Sloane Stephens demeanor earlier
 
L

leng jai

Member
That was woeful from Wozniacki. The amount times she failed finish points was absurd. What's the point of being aggressive only to loop it back to neutral when you get the pathway ball? For someone with such little power she seems to have pretty bad touch as well, constantly getting owned by terrible decisions and out moon balled. She didn't even hit the ball badly, just continually wasted putaways and errors against the drop shot spam.
 
K

Kotetsu534

Member
The little Kazakh who could, does. What an effort from her to come back after getting ran over in the first set and play a match like that. Wozniacki though... beaten at her own game by a 5 foor 4 newcomer has to hurt. Biggest win of Putintseva's life and I enjoyed her celebration.

And Rubin toughts out another dramatic tie-break to go up two sets to love. Paire is such a headcase, he throws in a DF in a TB, hits an outrageous lob winner to get the mini-break back, then throws in another DF. Rubin stayed solid and played his game.
 
P

Peru

Member
"Not a good player, but I was very bad today...Yes, he's not a very good player. I was worse than him today" -Benoit Paire on Rubin.
 
K

Kotetsu534

Member
Peru said:
"Not a good player, but I was very bad today...Yes, he's not a very good player. I was worse than him today" -Benoit Paire on Rubin.
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Absolutely classless. You got beat by a young man playing in the biggest match of his life and you turn around and say he's bad.
 
D

Diamond

Member
Kotetsu534 said:
Absolutely classless. You got beat by a young man playing in the biggest match of his life and you turn around and say he's bad.
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Paire can be a little weird and rude in his interviews, he has lost quite a bit of support in France because of this. That said, it's also true a guy who is 18th in the world and on the rise should never be beaten by the 335th, even if the guy is young and a future good player. But yeah, there's a way to say it. I think Paire just doesn't care.
 
Y

YoshiStrife

Member
Caught the recording of Aga vs. McHale (bloody Oz vs. UK time zone lol). A more consistent hitter would have punished Aga today, I think, but was signs of her getting back to her usual self with that swift final game and a few slick shots. I think I'll put it down to the slight recovery time she took after Shenzhen. Hopefully she'll ease into her game better the more she plays.

I've noticed her service game has upped dramatically since WTA Finals - epsecially at Shenzhen - and think that could be the difference between her getting a Slam this year if she can get her 1st serves in. Some wicked placement and improved power from what I have seen over last few weeks, but we didn't get to see much of that today with her 1st serve failure rate, and the second serve is punishable.

Aga vs. Bouchard in Round Two. Still expect Aga to come through that one.
 
R

Rafa=FedKilla

Banned
Jay Sosa said:
This comes as no surprise, there's hardly any other sport where you can fix a match more easily.

Especially these days where you can bet on every fucking point in a freaking ITF match.
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Precisely. You get this brahs in webbed at the ITF and Challenger level when the fall money is worth more than a week's prize money. It's hard to see the bigger picture and then get out of it. That's why Cilic has to blatantly throw matches like the 2015 US Open semifinal.


Pospisil should be ashamed of himself, what a disgrace. Wilting in the sun two slams in a row after he swore it would never happen again.
 
P

Peru

Member
perfectchaos007 said:
How did Stosur ever win a slam? Boggles my mind
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She's a loose cannon, though, her style is all about that. When she hits, she hits, when she doesn't, she sets a new standard for shanking. Slammin', shankin' Sam Stosur. But there's a special elite tier to her nervy tics when she's on Australian soil. No sane person would bet on her on home turf.
 
B

BubbleBobble

Banned
Niraj said:
Looks like 11 PM Eastern tomorrow
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ah crud, I thought I remembered you saying 8 PM eastern for whatever reason

this'll prob be harder for me to catch since I'm on the east coast

then again, is he just kinda slated to win this round?

I can't trust Nadal anymore because I think he lost really early in one of the slams last year, right? :p
 
P

PedroPanache

Member
Rafa=FedKilla said:
Precisely. You get this brahs in webbed at the ITF and Challenger level when the fall money is worth more than a week's prize money. It's hard to see the bigger picture and then get out of it. That's why Cilic has to blatantly throw matches like the 2015 US Open semifinal.


Pospisil should be ashamed of himself, what a disgrace. Wilting in the sun two slams in a row after he swore it would never happen again.
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For the journeymen, it's just a job, for the most part, so you have to have real integrity at that level to knock back an offer of 50k or so to fix a match. It's easy to subtly throw a game of tennis, but betting data does not lie and, at the very least, lampshades matches that have been thrown. I hope they do something about it, but it seems like there's an air of too many high profile players involved for tennis to really clean house. Like athletics, it's easier to sweep under the rug and ignore than deal with an endemic problem within the game.
 
R

Ricker

Member
perfectchaos007 said:
I'm not surprised to hear a Canadian struggles with the heat.
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lol...Well we get 2 months of summer...well we get last 2 weeks of July and early 2 of August really lol,guess you are right ;)

Watched a rebroadcast of Bouchard/Krunic this afternoon(match was live at 3 AM here so I was fast asleep) and Genie will have to play much better to even hope beating Aga...her service is better and all but there is still something missing and her body language is still weird,like she gets upset at every mistake she makes,slouches etc etc...
 
N

Niraj

I shot people I like more for less.
Peru said:
No sane person would bet on her on home turf.
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Truer words never spoken.

BubbleBobble said:
ah crud, I thought I remembered you saying 8 PM eastern for whatever reason

this'll prob be harder for me to catch since I'm on the east coast

then again, is he just kinda slated to win this round?

I can't trust Nadal anymore because I think he lost really early in one of the slams last year, right? :p
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Verdasco isn't the easiest first round, but I'm guessing he will win. Not sure how simple it will be though.
 
Ozzy Onya A2Z

Ozzy Onya A2Z

Member
So many Aussie ladies and gents singles matches today. I can't watch them all...actually I probably could turn all my monitors into a tennis video wall :)
 
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