Very good draw for Andy, probably the easiest of the top 4. Although Im not counting my chickens yet, a few obstacles in the way especially tsonga ( if hes fit ), melzer, Nishikori and verdasco ( if hes on ) Main Draw
[1] Nadal vs C Rochus Serra vs Karanusic Schwank vs Haas Q vs [29] Tursunov [24] Gasquet vs Junqueira Spadea vs Istomin Canas vs Kiefer Hewitt vs [13] Gonzalez
[12] Monfils vs Vassallo Arguello Youzhny vs Koubek Golubev vs Fognini Massu vs [17] Almagro [25] Karlovic vs Gimeno-Traver Volandri vs Ancic Guccione vs Devilder Andujar vs [6] Simon
[4] Murray vs Pavel Gabashvili vs Granollers Q vs Ebelthite Nishikori vs [31] Melzer [22] Stepanek vs Lapentti Q vs Ball Stakhovsky vs Clement Mannarion vs [14] Verdasco
[9] Blake vs Q Q vs Darcis Montanes vs Gulbis Q vs [18] Andreev [30] Schuettler vs Q Hanescu vs Hernych Ljubicic vs Kunitsyn Monaco vs [5] Tsonga
[7] Roddick vs Q Q vs Llodra Ferrero vs Santoro Querrey vs [32] Kohlschreiber [21] Robredo vs Reynolds Martin vs Troicki Bellucci vs Lu Gicquel vs [10] Nalbandian
[16] Soderling vs Kendrick Benneteau vs Baghdatis Bolelli vs Vliegen Groth vs [23] Fish [28] Mathieu vs Nieminen Dent vs Q Chardy vs Daniel Q vs [3] Djokovic
[8] Del Potro vs Zverev Q vs Q Starace vs Tomic Muller vs [27] Lopez [19] Cilic vs Anderson Hernandez vs Tipsarevic Q vs Isner Gremelmayr vs [11] Ferrer [15] Wawrinka vs Minar Q vs Q Klein vs Dabul Petzschner vs [20] Berdych
[26] Safin vs Navarro Garcia-Lopez vs Calleri Q vs Moya Seppi vs [2] Federer
Short clip of Djokovic totally dismissing Andys tag as one of the favourites for the title!
Think hes very arrogant in his response..tho perhaps as bit riled at the way in which the question was worded! But nonetheless, hes won 1 slam, when Roger wasnt at his best having jus come back after having Glandular Fever. And given both there form since the US Open Murray wud defo be ahead of Nole, we'll soon see the rankings after the Aussie and see how much closer it gets! lol Then who'll be asking "who is ahead of who" lol
Rafa can recognise Murrays work over the las 6 months..and see's him as much of a contender as himself (a world no1 and 5 time grand slam winner) so djokovic needs lose this arrogance.
That was interesting to see. I'd read about it but not seen it,
I had the impression before that Federer and now Dojovic were maybe playing mindgames a bit with Andy in dismmissing his chances a bit. Maybe, but actually Dojokovic does seem genuinely annoyed in that clip, even though he is talking crap re rankings.
Answer re rankings is : right behind you, mate and take out last year's Aussie Open and he's getting pretty close on points, and is the best over the last 6 months, getting worried are you ?
I don't particularly enjoy Nadal's tennis compared to the rest of the top 4, particularly Roger and Andy, but as a person Rafa has always struck me as a top, genuine guy, whereas the other two have even before been known to say strange things.
Good interview, and i liked his other remarks quoted in the article.
Compare and contrast v Djokovic ( although I accept that Djokovic was under more pressurised questioning ), but he did seem to have Rafa Benitez disease, i.e. losing the plot a bit
Andy has always been said of to be in private a great guy. But he now also seem sto be coming across much better with the media.
I am assuming it's just pressure with Djokovic. Up until recently I've always thought he came across as a decent guy, rather like Nadal. But handling the media can be tricky, as Andy has found out. They'll sometimes ask stupid questions just to provoke an "interesting" response. They wound Djokovic up a bit and he took the bait. But he should have known better.
Andy really seems to have the hang of the media. When asked who's going to win and what he thinks of certainl people, he just smiles and says the other player is good and he's just focusing on his games.
But of all the top players, Nadal does seem the most grounded.
I fully understand why Djokovic made the comments he did - after all, he is the defending champion, he has won a Grand Slam unlike Murray, is higher ranked than him and still will be after this tournament, and in the last big tournament, Djokovic won the Masters Cup, and yet no-one is talking about him as a possible winner.
That said, I don't think Djokovic will win it, although he's got a better chance that a lot of people are giving him.
Just watching Gasquet/Gonzalez at the moment, which is full of fantastic shotmaking, as well as a rididulously hot crowd, all cheering for Gonzo, and this is turning into a great match.
Djokovic abandons his match re Roddick. That will help the point difference and will temper any comments about fitness. At least Andy played a whole match.
As the Australian Open site says, it is not excatly the first time that Djokovic has abandoned a Grand Slam match. I thougt for a moment he had a full Grand slam set, but two were at the French Open, he's missing the US Open :
"It is not the first time he has pulled up lame at a Grand Slam tournament. In 2005, he was a set to the good against Guillermo Coria at the French Open when he called it quits in the third set with breathing problems. Then against Rafael Nadal, he could not go on in the 2006 Roland Garros quarterfinal thanks to a bad back, and again in the 2007 Wimbledon semifinal due to an infected toe. With that sort of record and that sort of luck, the fact that he managed to keep body and soul together to win the title here last year seems all the more remarkable."
