AO R4 - Andy v Fernando Verdasco

Drew · Jan 28, 2009

RE: AO R4 - Andy v Fernando Verdasco

indiana · Tennis legend

Drew wrote:

Mr V took care of Tsonga fairly well...look out Rafa !

I'd put big money on Nadal ( well, I would if I could actually afford to lose it because I guess you never know ).

Remember we seemed agreed that it was a very strange below par performance from Andy, and still Verdasco only just beat him, so...

Vandenburg · Futures level

Rafa in straight sets

i still think verdasco is 11-15 in world at best, and beat murray in a fluke
all this davis cup final bollocks is pissing me off too... he aint that good.

jamatthews · Strong Club Player

Given the surprise finalists of recent years, I'd almost be shocked if Verdasco DIDN'T beat Nadal.

goldfish · Futures qualifying

Can't believe how well Verdasco is playing against Rafa today. The 4th set tie-break was just magnificent from him. Don't know if he'll win but he's certainly given his all and been courageous when necessary.

Wish I'd recorded the Murray match now so I could replay it and see if he was really that good against Andy.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

Fed must be loving this tho. An extra day off and the winner being pushed all the way.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

wow. What a match. 5 hours 14 minutes.

Nando has become a contender

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Makes an under-the-weather Andy losing to him less of a disaster.

I said he was a different animal since the DC Final. To paraphrase Dinara Safina, it is at though somebody had slapped him around the head hard and all the loose wires had come together in the right order!

Vandenburg · Futures level

yeh just like tsonga last year too.

jamatthews · Strong Club Player

Count Zero wrote:

Fed must be loving this tho. An extra day off and the winner being pushed all the way.

I'm sure he was delighted...

-- Edited by jamatthews at 14:12, 2009-02-01

indiana · Tennis legend

Madeline wrote:

Makes an under-the-weather Andy losing to him less of a disaster.

I said he was a different animal since the DC Final. To paraphrase Dinara Safina, it is at though somebody had slapped him around the head hard and all the loose wires had come together in the right order!

I still don't think Andy played anything like as well as he could of.

He could and should of beaten Verdasco, even although I have no doubt that Verdasco si much improved and more together. In actual fact I think that overall he played better against Nadal.

I sensed and mentioned before a new presence that Andy seemed to have even in the couple of months since the end of last year, but at times that evaporated against Verdasco.

indiana · Tennis legend

jamatthews wrote:

Count Zero wrote:

Fed must be loving this tho. An extra day off and the winner being pushed all the way.

I'm sure he was delighted...

-- Edited by jamatthews at 14:12, 2009-02-01

But the duracell tennis player just kept on going

However, I do think there is a case for having both semis on the Friday.

Give the half that's a day ahead one more day between their quarter and semi, and just play the women's semis on the Thursday.

At leat still a better schedule than the US Open

indiana · Tennis legend

Thinking a bit more, presuming they wouldn't start one semi in the potential heat of the day ( again a potential disadvantage for later ) , it might mean a very late finsih for one semi, still possibly better though.

goldfish · Futures qualifying

In these days of recordable programmes, they could actually put both matches on at the same time on different courts. It would allow more spectators to watch them live, be fairer to the players rather than the viewers and as they are televised anyway, you can still watch them both. Guess the problem would be trying not to find out the result until you've watched the 2nd match.

However, the scheduling still didn't work in Fed's favour this time so he can have no complaints.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

The other problem would be that the players playing on Hisense would be disadvantaged because the conditions are not the same there, so the players on RLA would have the benefit of being more used to the surface and surroundings used in the final.

I think it is pretty well impossible to be fair to both sets of semi-finalists as long as the AO is played in such blistering heat.