Weeks 3-4 - Australian Open (men's)

Drew · Jan 23, 2013

RE: Weeks 3-4 - Australian Open (men's)

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Madeline wrote:
Bob beat me to it. I type too slowly.

It's more likely because I am an hour ahead here in Spain confuse

RJA · Hall of fame

Bob in Spain wrote:
Madeline wrote:
Bob beat me to it. I type too slowly.
It's more likely because I am an hour ahead here in Spain

Yes Bob, we know that you are in sunny Spain while we are in snowy Britain. You don't have to run it in evertime you post wink

philwrig · Hall of fame

Just like I predicted haha !

Going to be a super exciting hopefully couple of days, looking very good.

indiana · Tennis legend

Fed needs to be losing this SF to get back on top on his own as Andy's most conquered opponent.

Simon now caught up in being beaten 10 times by Andy. Andy currently 10 - 9 up in matches vs Fed and a slightly more overwhelming 10 - 1 up vs Simon.

I've a reasonable amount of confidence that Fed can achieve this noble aim smile

steven · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Fed needs to be losing this SF to get back on top on his own as Andy's most conquered opponent.
Simon now caught up in being beaten 10 times by Andy. Andy currently 10 - 9 up in matches vs Fed and a slightly more overwhelming 10 - 1 up vs Simon.
I've a reasonable amount of confidence that Fed can achieve this noble aim

Hopefully being equalled by a Frenchman will fire his competitive instincts - after all, we know how much the Fed likes holding records outright

Armchair · County player

Apart from really wanting Andy to win I'd dearly love to see Fed lose.
Sorry, that's very mean spirited I know, but I find his attitude towards other players unacceptable at times.
And what he seems to think of as gracious I just find unbearably smug.

alex03maccy · Grand Slam Champion

Armchair wrote:
Apart from really wanting Andy to win I'd dearly love to see Fed lose.
Sorry, that's very mean spirited I know, but I find his attitude towards other players unacceptable at times.
And what he seems to think of as gracious I just find unbearably smug.

Agreed!

RJA · Hall of fame

Armchair wrote:
Apart from really wanting Andy to win I'd dearly love to see Fed lose.
Sorry, that's very mean spirited I know, but I find his attitude towards other players unacceptable at times.
And what he seems to think of as gracious I just find unbearably smug.

I do find Federer to be annoying at times but I much prefer him to Djokovic who I really dislike.

eblunt · Club Coach

I always think there's always a certain amount of luck involved in winning a slam. At the USO, Andy was lucky, 1) not to play another Big 4 player until the final , and 2) Having an extra days rest. This time he's got to do it the hard way, with Djok getting an easy SF win and an extra days rest. Hopefully the way the draw has panned out for Andy up until the SF means that he should have plenty in the tank still, since I think he's going to need it.

steven · Tennis legend

eblunt wrote:
I always think there's always a certain amount of luck involved in winning a slam. At the USO, Andy was lucky, 1) not to play another Big 4 player until the final , and 2) Having an extra days rest. This time he's got to do it the hard way, with Djok getting an easy SF win and an extra days rest. Hopefully the way the draw has panned out for Andy up until the SF means that he should have plenty in the tank still, since I think he's going to need it.

Yes, there certainly is a fair bit of luck involved. I think it's unfortunate that Fed has played 4 night matches on Laver already while Andy has had none, but in a way that's because Andy has had an easier draw and I can understand why they felt they had to make Fed-Tsonga the feature QF out of the two in the bottom half.

What does seem ridiculous about the scheduling though (since as far as I know, they don't have a reigning men's champion on day 1 rule like Wimbledon) is that the half that was far more likely to have a close-fought semi-final didn't start first so that the winner of that semi would be the one who got the extra day's rest.

eblunt · Club Coach

steven wrote:
What does seem ridiculous about the scheduling though (since as far as I know, they don't have a reigning men's champion on day 1 rule like Wimbledon) is that the half that was far more likely to have a close-fought semi-final didn't start first so that the winner of that semi would be the one who got the extra day's rest.

More generically, I think it's absurd that any one finalist gets an extra days rest based on the toss of a coin (or however they decide it). Both womens semsi were on the same day. With 5 set matches, the overall tiredness side is a big factor ... look at how Simon was cooked against Murray after his 5 setter, and how Tipsy retired with two long 5 setters being a factor I'm sure.

philwrig · Hall of fame

If anything Djoker may be undercooked having spent so little time on court today and having two days off. As long as Andy's wins and it doesn't last 4 hours I think he'll be fine.

indiana · Tennis legend

To my mind it would be surely most sensible to play both semi finals on Friday. Everyone in the same half is treated similarly and then both finalists have a day off before the final.

However if you go with the current format and there us no predetermined way of deciding which half plays first ( eg. defending champion or top seed's half ) then it certainly should be determined randomly such as by toss of a coin.

No way should the decision be made on how the draw has panned out and in particular looking at the half that is likely to produce the most close fought semi final.

While the men's semi finalists are probably more preductable than in any other era shocks still do happen and even with the semis we have Djokovic v Ferrer might have been the more competitive.

Anywsy I'm just fundamentally opposed to the judgement call Steven appears to suggest. Toss a coin for ne is better and fairer or better still change the schedule !

I do in the end think though that 2 days or 3 matters much less to the top 3 whatever as against say Simon.

steven · Tennis legend

Just to clarify, I think playing both men's SFs on the same day would be the best option, though a quick look at the relative prices on the open market of 2nd week Wimbledon debentures for the men's and women's days (see e.g. http://www.wimbledondebentureholders.com/?gclid=CKzIv6jEgbUCFcjKtAod4X4AJw ) makes it clear why the two hard court slams prefer to have men's semis on two days instead of one.

The point I was trying to make about which half went first (where again, some kind of convention, as at Wimbledon, or the toss of a coin would doubtless be best) is that if there is no convention and they won't do it randomly, picking the half most likely to have the more competitive semi-final to go second has to be the worst of all the bad options.

I agree that there was never any guarantee that the semis would line up the way they did (or that Nole would thrash Ferrer), but the BOTB pick %s (Nole 97% to reach the semis and 94% to reach the Final c.f. Andy & Fed 88% & 83% to reach the semis then 67% v 26% to reach the Final) and the bookies' odds (which told a similar story except that Andy and Fed were even closer in the finalist betting) both suggest a high probability that the 2nd semi was going to be a closer affair than the 1st.