Aussie Open mens semis

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

RE: Aussie Open mens semis

johnnylad · Tennis legend

6-1 6-3 4-1 so far

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Gonzo wins 6-1 6-3 6-1

Well done to him...stunning tennis..hope he can keep it up and give Federer a good match.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Yes, a stunning display from Gonzo.

I know his H2H against Fed is pretty awful, something like 0-9, but that was the old hit-'em-and-hope Gonzo. I haven't been a particular fan of Stefanki after what he did to Henman's serve, but he certainly seems to have transformed Gonzales.

I'm looking forward to a good final on Sunday, and if Gonzo plays like he has in the last couple of rounds, we should get it.

(Though with Fed to win of course, I'm still hoping for that Grand Slam!)

Sheddie · administrator

That performance from Gonzo today was just awesome, even better than Fed's imo. Some of those forehands were just unbelievable, he hit them leaning backwards and behind the baseline and they still went for clean winners ! That running forehand passing winner in the 3rd set which he curled round Haas at the net has to be a candidate for point of the tournament.

I was disappointed with Haas though, Gonzo completely outplayed him but I was hoping that Haas would show a bit more fight considering it was a slam semi. As the commentators said, he seemed to give up. Maybe he was tight or something but apart from a few backhands down the line he didn't seem to have anything to hurt Gonzo with and his forehand was poor. Didn't help aswell that Gonzo was reading his serve like a book. I think Gonzo only made something like 6 ues today which is staggering over 3 sets considering the shots he went for.

Hopefully the final will be really close as the semis have been a bit disappointing drama-wise. I definately think it will be a good one, the way Gonzo has been playing. The worry is that Fed beat him twice in the autumn in Basel and Madrid when Gonzo was also playing great tennis but I think that Gonzo is playing even better now then he was then

Sheddie · administrator

Madeline wrote:
I haven't been a particular fan of Stefanki after what he did to Henman's serve, but he certainly seems to have transformed Gonzales.

Same here, when I first heard that Henman would be working with Stefanki I thought it was great news given what he did with Rios and Kafelnikov. However, the whole issue with Henman's serve really mucked him up for 2 years while Henman was at his prime. I never was able to really see the point of it. Henman doesn't have a particularly huge serve as it is and to beat the top players of the time in 2002-2003 like Hewitt he needed to be serving full out given the quality of Hewitt's returning, not taking the pace off !

It was a real shame as in 2001 pre-Stefanki, Henman played the best tennis of his career to date. In 2002 he got to no 4 but maybe if he'd kept his serve as it was he could have got higher and maybe made a slam final.

I'm still surprised though that Stefanki wasn't contacted for 2 years post-Henman. Shows that the rest of the tour didn't partcularly rate what he did with Henman's game.

Sheddie · administrator

imoen wrote:
I agree, much as I love Roddick (and I really do ) he seems unable to change his game plan mid-match in a way he needs to against players like Federer. The passing shots Federer came up with today were amazing, they always made Roddick look silly and in the wrong place which I know wasn't always the case.

I think Roddick will beat Federer one day, he seems to have made it a personal crusade, in a good way (some may argue in a bad way) and I had hoped today would be that day but I guess not. Hopefully the form he's shown this week continues for the year, if so I think Roddick will be knocking on the door of Nadal in time, unless he (Nadal) remembers how to win tournaments away from the red stuff.

As for Roddick's post-match comments, the guy never fails to make me laugh.

Yeah as has happened several times in his matches v Fed, Roddick seemed to get stuck in the mindset that he had to just throw the kitchen sink at Fed and go at him with all-out power. Problem is that Fed seems to read him like a book and when Roddick does that he becomes rather one-dimensional and what he needs is variety. At times he was charging towards the net like a headless chicken.

I'm not sure whether Roddick will beat Fed anytime soon, the 1-13 record he has against Fed is quite a psychological obstacle to overcome. For his sake, hopefully Connors can instil some of the mentality which he had against Borg - that he would follow Borg till the end of the earth and keep playing him till he won !

I agree with you about Nadal though, the next 6 months is going to be very interesting to see whether he can adapt as the big hitters really seem to have worked him out on hard courts. I think that Rafa needs to be more aggressive from the back of the court, particularly on the backhand side. The top players have begun to realise that they can just target that side and work the rallies till they open up the court

Sheddie · administrator

john wrote:
Not quite sure why you guys think that. Federer has a 9-0 record over Gonzo, all of them since 2004, including 4 matches last year in which Gonzo only took 1 set. Overall, Gonzo has taken 2 sets off Federer in 9 matches. One was 5-7 and the other was a tiebreak.

Haas also has a bad losing record against Federer. 7-2 with his last win coming in 2002. However, and these are they key points:

2002 Australian Open Australia Hard R16 Haas 7-6(3) 4-6 3-6 6-4 8-6

2006 Australian Open Australia Hard R16 Federer 6-4 6-0 3-6 4-6 6-2

Yes, that's right. Australian Open last year, Haas took Fed to 6-6 in the 5th set at this very tournament. One of his wins over Federer was also at this very tournament. Haas's other win over Federer was back in 2000, so maybe slightly irrelevant but guess where it was. Yep, Australia. At the Sydney Olympics though, no idea on the surface.

So in summary, Fed and Haas have met 4 times in Australia, Haas winning in 2000 in Sydney, 2002 at Aus Open, 2006 at Kooyong and lost in 5 very close sets only 12 months ago at Aus Open.

Gonzo has met Fed 9 times winning only 2 sets in all of those matches.

Why would Gonzo give Fed a better game than Haas????

-- Edited by john at 22:18, 2007-01-25

I thought that Gonzo would give Fed a better match than Haas as he has more in his game to trouble Fed. Haas has got a good solid all-court game and he's beaten Fed several times on rebound ace but he hasn't got the brute power of Gonzo on serve or off the ground. The times when he beat Fed were when Fed was a lot younger and a lot more inconsistent. When he beat Fed in Kooyong last year, it was just an exhibition match and I don't think Fed was going full out