Brisbane 2012

Murray easily defeats Bagdhatis 62 62
Tomic dispatches Istomin 63 76(4)

The semi between those 2 should be quite interesting. I see Tomic as a similar version of Murray but with a good FH. Maybe too young for now but soon will be up there at the very top.

It will be an interesting encounter that match.

PS why the hell I thought it was Adelaide I will never know!

legendkillar wrote:It will be an interesting encounter that match.

PS why the hell I thought it was Adelaide I will never know!

Down under....somewhere.

Tomic will crush him without breaking a sweat.

Josiah Maiestas wrote:Tomic will crush him without breaking a sweat.

Last year I watched some highlights of Brisbane and it looked one of the fastest of the year? Is it the same this year? I did see Tomic play last year in Australia and at Wimbledon a little, does he have a fairly hard hitting game well suited to a fast court?

Anyway, Murray is the favourite for the tournament and even if Tomic beats him 6-3 6-2 would still be the favourite the next time they meet as well, but still an interesting match.

I've watched a bit HB and it seems reasonably quick, not sure I'd rank it one of the quickest though. Murray has to be heavy favourite for the tournament, he made heavy weather of his first two matches (very sluggish start) but seems to be into his stride now...

Josiah Maiestas wrote:Tomic will crush him without breaking a sweat.

Wrong on all accounts eh? Never mind there is always tomorrow for you. Tomic seems like he could be one for the future. Whilst he remains a bit raw he is improving and is the pick of the crop of youngsters coming through as reaching an ATP semi proves.

Murray cruises to a 6-3 6-2 win over Tomic and dare I say it- never broke sweat.

CaledonianCraig wrote:

Josiah Maiestas wrote:Tomic will crush him without breaking a sweat.

Wrong on all accounts eh? Never mind there is always tomorrow for you. Tomic seems like he could be one for the future. Whilst he remains a bit raw he is improving and is the pick of the crop of youngsters coming through as reaching an ATP semi proves.

Just watching Raonic. He is very impressive and think that with his big serves and groundstrokes, he is my pick of the crop of youngsters. Raonic leads by a set in the Chennai Semis against Almagro

Obviously, Raonic is another of the top up and coming youngsters of that there is little doubt. The next year or two will be key to where their career will head.

Fedex_the_best wrote:
Just watching Raonic. He is very impressive and think that with his big serves and groundstrokes, he is my pick of the crop of youngsters. Raonic leads by a set in the Chennai Semis against Almagro

Raonic wins. His injuries in such a young career are very significant.

No great shocks here for several reasons, one of which is both Andy (and Novak) are acutely aware, that just as they might be getting the better of the big two, after four long years of being the nearly men (obviously Nole is there now) - they sure don't want some young upstart crashing the party

They are acutely aware, that if they keep themselves together, they could dominate the next five years. Hence expect these youngsters to get 'special attention', when either of them play against them

Indeed, if anyone needed any further reminding about how good the World No. 1 and 4 are, they just have to look at their head to heads against players younger than them, particularly those within two years of them

As for the youngsters, I don't see them being ranked above Nole, Rafa, Andy or Jo-Wilfried any time during the next four years - unless of course injury or something else affects these great players

banbrotam

I can understand why you might think that Novak has got the better of Rafa (I disagree but I definately understand). What makes you believe that Andy is "acutely aware" that he might be getting the better of Rafa and Roger or that Novak has got the better of Roger?

I do agree that there is an unusual lack of new young players breaking through. Are any players of 25 and over intimidated by younger players? I put Novak and Andy in that older group. They are only weeks away.

hawkeye wrote:banbrotam

I can understand why you might think that Novak has got the better of Rafa (I disagree but I definately understand). What makes you believe that Andy is "acutely aware" that he might be getting the better of Rafa and Roger or that Novak has got the better of Roger?

I do agree that there is an unusual lack of new young players breaking through. Are any players of 25 and over intimidated by younger players? I put Novak and Andy in that older group. They are only weeks away.

I'm talking about during the next five years, not this year. But if we're talking about now, I think there is now very little difference between the Top 4 - with Nole being the best. Fed's not managed to beat two of his rivals at the same event, for something like two years. And you forget what an impact that successive final loses has on a 'great' - go look at McEnroe in 1985 or Becker a few years later, when they got a rival who consistently caused them problems. Nadal, is starting to look like a lost kid - who knows what that brutal US Open final did to him? Imagine! You're on court for more than three hours, yet future historians glancing at the scorecard - will assume it was a Nole rout. Nadal's often said that he doesn't think that he's as good as the others and hence he's more driven to compensate for this with his intensity. What happens when that intensity is blunted? Do you think that Nole's US Open triumph followed by Murray's 6-0 demolition has no affect? Doesn't chip away at the confidence in some way? The niggles start to hurt a bit more? The injuries talked about a lot more?

We cannot go on what happened in 2008 or even 2010. Murray and Nole will continue to improve and that, I think, will be enough for them to be occupants of the Top 3, for the next four or five years - barring injuries. Incidentally, Nadal will still be the man on hard courts in my opinion

The beauty is, none of us know - so let's wait and see who is correct

Congratulations to Andy Murray on bagging his 22nd ATP title. He has cruised to a comfortable 6-1 6-3 win over Alexandr Dolgopolov in his final tournament prior to the Australian Open. Onwards and upwards Andy.

CaledonianCraig wrote:Congratulations to Andy Murray on bagging his 22nd ATP title. He has cruised to a comfortable 6-1 6-3 win over Alexandr Dolgopolov in his final tournament prior to the Australian Open. Onwards and upwards Andy.

Well said.

Andy

One gripe about Andy. His post-match comments aren't what I'd like to hear or are what you would have heard from the far more ruthless Federer in these type of situations. Just to clarify - Dolgopolov played with a leg injury and Andy apologised to Dolgo and laboured on about his injury. Sorry but you have to be more selfish and ruthless Andy. He should have just said yes Dolgopolov had an injury but that he felt so good he was confident of winning whatever Dolgopolov's condition or something like that. In my opinion all he did was give a little boost to Dolgo's morale and that is something the likes of Fed never does. In other words when you have an edge over your opponent physically and mentally you don't console them to make them feel better that is that own player's responsibilty to do that. In short Andy be ruthless like a wolf not nice like a kitten in victory.

One gripe about CC: His last post his pathetic.

Do you mind adding to that Tenez - something like in your opinion.

CaledonianCraig

Only a true fan would describe Andy as "nice like a kitten"!

I wouldn't worry about what Murray said after the match. I can remember when Murray beat Nadal who was playing on one leg in Rotterdam. He was very honest in his speach after the match and acknowledged that Nadal was unable to play. What else could he do as he was talking to a crowd who had watched what happened. He soon "forgot" though and still uses that match to talk up his chances of beating Nadal on hardcourt.

Why did you have to pick a player to compare Murray's interview? And why Federer?

I have no problem recognising Federer can be arrogant but ruthless in post match interviews? and not giving his opponent credit or not acknowledging his opponent injuries?

That's your fiction!

One difference for sure is that when Federer was dominating it did not make much difference whether his opponents were injured or not. The result was the same. Murray hasn't reached that stage yet.

I personally think it's very nice of Murray to say something about Dolgo's injury. If anything that makes him closer to Federer!

Well I can never recall Fed ever saying he felt bad for an opponent after beating him. That is what Andy said today instead of just commiserating quickly then going on to the positives of another title win. You (Tenez) are misinterpreting my comments as an attack on Federer which it wasn't - it was a compliment of sorts. I have seen Fed in press conferences and he gets it right - not too much over concern for his opponent and more focussed on his own game and where it is/was heading at that time. That helps not to surrender the psychological high ground in my opinion and keeps you with a mental edge over opponents that is all I am saying.

Players should feel free to give their comiserations to an opponent in the winner's speech, as long as they beat them convincingly on court!!

Murray is considered to be one of the nicest players on the tour and gets on well with most of the other players, not much love lost between him and Soderling but haven't heard anything recently. Critics often talk about his lack of a killer instinct including not going in for the kill enough against injured players. Mind you, the one time he did the crowd whinged in true panto style! I'm glad he commiserated with Dolgo.. Dolga...Dolgi his opponent today as he won easily - he does maybe need to be careful not to give the impression that he wouldn't have won but for the injury which is where others maybe strike a better balance.

Regarding Rotterdam, I have never heard him say "I beat him in Rotterdam so I will beat him now". He may talk about having beaten him on hard court which he has on four other occasions - including one where Nadal sustained an injury in the second set tie break while trailing a set. He repeatedly acknowledges Nadals positive head to head so I don't see what more he could do to be considered "nice".

Is anybody watching Raonic-Tipsy? Raonic has hit over 30 aces.... Match almost 3 hours and no break of serve yet. Yet, not a serve slugfest but good quality from both players. Absolutely enjoying the match....

well it's another title for Murray, and once he got into gear after a tricky first couple of matches it all looked rather straightforward . Didn't see the final, but it seems Dolgo may have been hampered by a leg issue which is a shame.

Regarding Murray's game, I saw signs that he was trying to be more aggressive with the FH up the line, which is his biggest weakness IMO (along with the second serve, but I've rather given up hoping for improvements there), so that's positive, and he'll go into the AO with a tournament win under his belt, which can't hurt.

CaledonianCraig wrote:Well I can never recall Fed ever saying he felt bad for an opponent after beating him. That is what Andy said today instead of just commiserating quickly then going on to the positives of another title win. You (Tenez) are misinterpreting my comments as an attack on Federer which it wasn't - it was a compliment of sorts. I have seen Fed in press conferences and he gets it right - not too much over concern for his opponent and more focussed on his own game and where it is/was heading at that time. That helps not to surrender the psychological high ground in my opinion and keeps you with a mental edge over opponents that is all I am saying.

Well it certainly reads very rude about Federer. I have multiple interviews where he felt sorry his opponent was not 100% so I am not sure what you say is right. One I can remember straight away is in a very similar situation when Davydenko retired in the final of Estoril.

He has been elected multiple times as the players favorite players if he was ruthless in his post match interview it woudl certainly annoy many of them.

Of course he would have felt sorry but did he ever apologise for winning a title? I wouldn't have thought so and that is a good thing. That is what I am trying to say - apologising for winning a title? I don't get the point myself. Sure Andy could have referred to the injury and quickly moved on and point out he felt very strong etc and paint things much better for himself. All top sportsmen realise the psychological edge is crucial and gives them an edge stepping onto court and so Andy has made Dolgopolov feel better for their next match by full heartedly agreeing that an injury won him the match instead of drilling home the win by saying he felt super confident he would have won no matter what. That is my take on things - rightly or wrongly.

CaledonianCraig wrote:Of course he would have felt sorry but did he ever apologise for winning a title? I wouldn't have thought so and that is a good thing. That is what I am trying to say - apologising for winning a title? I don't get the point myself. Sure Andy could have referred to the injury and quickly moved on and point out he felt very strong etc and paint things much better for himself. All top sportsmen realise the psychological edge is crucial and gives them an edge stepping onto court and so Andy has made Dolgopolov feel better for their next match by full heartedly agreeing that an injury won him the match instead of drilling home the win by saying he felt super confident he would have won no matter what. That is my take on things - rightly or wrongly.

Apologising in that case is just a way of saying "feeling sorry". I don't think he meant it. I think you are looking too much into it. It;s just a nice word from Andy and I am pretty sure it affects his will to win in any way. We know how much he hates losing. We do not need more clue.

Nice words are all very well but it doesn't win him favours. Okay it makes him popular with fellow pros but does it give him a mental edge for their next match? I don't think so.

What gives him the mental edge for the next match is the scoreline.

You're reading too much into a few throwaway remarks.

Dolgo is hardly going to be thinking, 'Isn't Andy such a nice guy, I thought he would beat me next time but now I know he's so nice, I'm not so sure' is he?

Perhaps I am reading too much into it but Andy's comments leave Delgo surely feeling not so bad and deflated about his defeat than perhaps he would have been had Andy chose his words better.

CaledonianCraig wrote:Perhaps I am reading too much into it but Andy's comments leave Delgo surely feeling not so bad and deflated about his defeat than perhaps he would have been had Andy chose his words better.

They know their respective strength. That's all they care about.

If Dolgo needs other players to be nice to him in order for him to believe in himself, he's not going to go very far, is he?

Perhaps Andy should have gone right up to Dolgo and put his hand on his head in a L-Shape and shouted 'Looooooooooser' very loudly in his face. That would have left him in little doubt, and surely would mean Andy wins at least for the next 7 encounters.

I dont think Dolgo will be too unhappy with this week...he's going to be a player to watch through 2012, lets hope he's ok for AO as he's a good player to watch. Also hope the injury isnt off the back of his more serious underlying condition.

Well done to Murray...he always seems to start the year really well and take that form into the AO. He's obviously got to be a fave for the title...but you feel the test comes with him when its the SF or F against the top 4, be interesting to then see the influence of Ivan.