Tennis - ATP/WTA

AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2013
FEDERER, MURRAY IN SAME AUSTRALIAN OPEN HALF; DJOKOVIC OPENS WITH MATHIEU
Melbourne, Australia
by ATP Staff | 11.01.2013

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic will begin his quest to become the first man to win three consecutive Australian Open titles in the Open Era against Paul-Henri Mathieu, while World No. 2 Roger Federer and third-ranked Andy Murray have been drawn in the bottom half.

Djokovic, the top seed, will make his season debut after finishing as the year-end No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings for the second year in a row. Last year at Melbourne Park, Djokovic won back-to-back five-set thrillers, edging Murray in the semi-finals and outlasting Rafael Nadal in the longest major final on record to lift his fifth Grand Slam trophy.

The Serbian holds a 4-1 lead against Mathieu in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. The top quarter includes the two leaders of the 2012 Davis Cup champion Czech Republic, fifth seed Tomas Berdych and 31st seed Radek Stepanek, 11th seed Juan Monaco, 15th seed Stanislas Wawrinka and 22nd seed Fernando Verdasco, a semi-finalist in 2009.

Fourth seed David Ferrer headlines the second quarter. Ferrer, the 2012 ATP World Tour titles and match wins leader, faces Olivier Rochus in his opener. At the bottom is a blockbuster first-round match-up between eighth seed Janko Tipsarevic and home favourite Lleyton Hewitt, who will contest his 17th straight Australian Open. Ferrer’s quarter also includes 10th-seeded Nicolas Almagro, 2012 quarter-finalist Kei Nishikori (16th seed), 24th seed Jerzy Janowicz, 2006 finalist Marcos Baghdatis (28th seed) and unseeded Grigor Dimitrov.

In the third quarter, third seed Murray starts his bid for back-to-back Grand Slam titles against Robin Haase. Murray finished runner-up in 2010 (l. to Federer) and 2011 (l. to Djokovic) and enters on the back of a successful title defence at the Brisbane International (d. Dimitrov).

In the quarter-finals, Murray could clash with sixth seed Juan Martin del Potro, who plays a qualifier yet to be determined. In perhaps the most intriguing first-round meeting, 18th seed Alexandr Dolgopolov takes on Gael Monfils. Twelfth seed and 2010 semi-finalist Marin Cilic and 14th seed Gilles Simon also feature.

Placed in the final slot of the draw, second-seeded Federer aims to capture his 18th major title and Open Era record fifth Australian Open crown, but has a tough road to the final. The Swiss meets Benoit Paire in the first round, a tall order for the Frenchman. Federer has advanced to 34 consecutive major quarter-finals and has never lost before the third round in Melbourne.

At the top of Federer’s quarter, seventh seed and 2008 finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga squares off against countryman Michael Llodra, his silver medal winning doubles partner at the London 2012 Olympics. Ninth seed Richard Gasquet, 13th seed Milos Raonic, 17th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber, and a pair of unseeded floaters, Russian Nikolay Davydenko and Australian Bernard Tomic, are among the players looking to prevent Federer from reaching his 10th semi-final in a row at this event.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2013/01/2/Australian-Open-Preview-Federer-Murray-Same-Half-Of-Draw.aspx

Roger Federer
Current tournament:Australian Open (Men's Singles)
2

R. Federer
6 6 6
1st Round

B. Paire
2 4 1
Jan 15, Completed

Roger Federer beats Nikolay Davydenko 63 64 64, while Juan Martín del Potro hit four straight aces to close out victory over Benjamin Becker at the Australian Open. Who impressed you the most?



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Photo: Getty Images

Jeremy Chardy holds on to oust No. 6 seed Juan Martin del Potro 63 63 67(3) 36 63 in the Australian Open third round. Is this Chardy’s best win to date? Photo: AFP/Getty Images

ATP World Tour
‎Roger Federer sets a fourth-round clash with Milos Raonic after beating Aussie hope Bernard Tomic 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-1. Has Roger impressed you the most in week one? Photo: Getty Images

Warinka / Djokovic into 5th set. Camaan my swiss cheese

N. Djokovic
1 7 6 6 4

S. Wawrinka
6 5 4 7 4

M.Raonic [13] 4 5

Federer [2] 6 6

Going on now.

35th consecutive QF in Grand Slams. kamaan thalai .

openinglAm nallA dhAn irukku...

Fed into 5th set against Tsonga. Flum, chatterjee not working .

Ennaththa chatterjee mukherjee. Djoker vs Murray final. idhukku NadalE thEvala

Match started. kaali, kandippa jeyiche aaganum.

ayyayyo, Fed has already been broken.

 Finally some good news for RF fans. Over the last year or so, I have reconciled myself to the fact that his GS record is probably going to be broken by Nadal. And I have also started rethinking my vote for him as the GOAT player. He clearly has a mental block against Nadal and I am not sure a player with such an abysmal record against his main rival ( even with the argument that he is about 5 years younger and therefore hit his peak as RF was on a decline)  can be called GOAT. Most versatile, elegant, classy player ever? No question in my mind, but these days I am reluctant to unquestioningly  hand him the GOAT tag.

The GOAT is still Rod Laver.  Most slams - if you add up amateur, pro and open era - and completed the REAL GRAND SLAM (as Amritraj likes to say every year during the Slams) in all three eras as well.  Chanceless.  And if the players then looked slow and less superhuman, it's also because they played with tiny wooden racquets.

Nadal has been having an injury problem so overtaking Fed doesn't look such a certainty as it did say in 2010 when he won three slams and all very convincingly.  He MAY have a dope problem as well, I am hoping nothing unpleasant turns up once tennis moves to the biological clock concept for testing later this year.  For it will be devastating for tennis if he does a Lance on the sport. But his recurring absences from tennis and ability to come back strongly every time either testifies to an indomitable spirit or raises a stink.  I hope it remains the former until the end. 

Another thing is they made the balls heavier and heavier and introduced more and more friction on the hard courts until Nadal could finally play his heavy top spin game there too.  At his peak, Fed didn't even have to take care of Nadal on hard courts.  He usually lost en route to the likes of Kohlschrieber, Blake or even Gonzalez.  They did the same when Sampras began to run too far ahead of the game, which is what eventually opened the door for Fed against power hitters by the way, and they did it with Fed.  Fair enough, people need to be entertained but it's not an accurate reflection of where the players stand, other things remaining the same.

Some great volleys in Dubai by Fed by the way, quite Edberg-like.  He is already having an impact. 

Re: Laver, I haven't seen him play at all, so wouldn't like to comment. In any case, to repeat a (true) cliche comparing players across vastly different eras is a futile exercise. There are too many variables - racquets, courts (grass courts have got slower since even Sampras days), style of play, opposition, rigorous training, nutrition - just too many factors. Same way, I am not at all amused by relentless anglo-saxon propaganda to talk up Bradman as the undisputed GOAT and question the wisdom of anyone who espouse a contrary viewpoint. According to them, King Viv, Sobers, Sachin etc can only ever stake a claim to Pos 2 to 5 of GOATs. Bradman is THE undisputed GOAT and to suggest otherwise is daft and suggests a lack of understanding of the game. As if it were some mathematical axiom or truism. Subtle Anglo-Saxon supremacist attitude is what it is.

Some of Nadal's physical feats over the years have appeared unreal to the point of appearing suspect. I can't say I would be entirely surprised by a Lance-like turn of events, but I doubt it. Are there any noises to be heard in the tennis circuit about him? I haven't been following, so I don't know. In the case of Lance, doping claims have been hurled at him him for years and years...

Of course you can't compare across eras.  But the stats and the fact that Laver was able to dominate the field for a long time stake his claim.  Perhaps Laver with his short, small stature would be blown off the court in today's tennis but what would Rafa, especially, do in 60s Wimbledon?  How about moonballing with those racquets on a court full of bad bounce?  Would love to see him serve volley to Laver's returns, which were reputed to be among the best, if not THE, of the time.  Laver was 31 in 1969 when he won all four slams in the year...for the third time in his career.  No male player in the open era could achieve it and Graf did it only once in her career.  

If somebody else in his era or at least on either sides of it had come close to Laver's feats, I would discount it as reflective of the era.  But nobody has.  In the history of tennis going back all the way to the early 20th century, no player has achieved a Calendar Slam twice.  Only one other male player in singles ever achieved a Calendar Slam...Don Budge way back in 1938. Three women achieved it in singles, each only once - Connolly (1953), Court (1970) and of course Graf.  If there is any 'modern' tennis player whose achievements compare to Laver's, it's Graf.  But none of the males.  If I had to name a male, I would place Borg first in the list because he managed the French-Wimbledon double thrice and put together won 11 (and none of the other two slams).  Laver's slams too were won grass and clay, not hard, so it's an appropriate comparison imo.  Borg cunningly retired the moment he found his bete noir so he did not have to suffer the fate that Fed has at the hands of Nadal.

fring151 wrote:Some of Nadal's physical feats over the years have appeared unreal to the point of appearing suspect. I can't say I would be entirely surprised by a Lance-like turn of events, but I doubt it. Are there any noises to be heard in the tennis circuit about him? I haven't been following, so I don't know. In the case of Lance, doping claims have been hurled at him him for years and years...

On the surface, no reason to, simply because he has never been found guilty.  But he has been less than welcoming of ATP's measures to tighten drug testing, unlike Fed.  Fed is exceptionally fit and has a wiry build just like Djoko or Murray and just like many tennis players of the past. 

There have been whispers among people who follow tennis closely about it.  But none of it is based on evidence so it's difficult to know where the truth lies.  I wouldn't be surprised indeed if he turns out to be one but it would be terrible for the game and shame on ATP if they have knowingly done a wink-wink-nod-nod.

By the by, I presume the discussion is on singles only.  Overall, there is no player like Navratilova.  The longevity and the sheer mountain of slams, singles and doubles put together, is unmatched.

While this is a tennis thread, I am tempted to consider Greg Chappell for greatest batsman.  Guru Greg found a way against the feared West Indies attack.  Even in 1979 when WI had Roberts, Garner, Croft and Holding, he was able to hit a century at Brisbane.  Sure, Sunny did it as well in Delhi (the fact that Vengsarkar also did so is conveniently forgotten today), but Brisbane was like home conditions for WI, lol.  Kim Hughes also struck a century in that match and had he not gone out in tears, was widely tipped to be one of the all time great batsmen.  

WI in the late 70s through to early 90s had the best bowling attack in the game, period.  Therefore, the batsmen who fared best against them ought to be at least given consideration, especially if they are also greats in their own right anyway.  No attack that Tendulkar or Lara faced approached the sheer pressure of four pace terrors breathing fire. Richards faced some of that heat, albeit not consistently for a long period, from Lillee, Thomson and Pascoe.  Mitchell Johnson has brought back memories of what those bowlers bowling in favourable conditions must have been like so facing four of them for a day is unbelievably frightening.  Don't think any attack England fielded to Bradman came close.