Australian Open 2012 - 1/4 Final - Day 10

First topic message reminder :

It all happens here with 2 straight forward matches...or so should they be.

Djoko v Ferrer - Djoko win at 100% bar injury of course

Murray v Nikishori - Murray win at 70%



So I don;t expect much surprise but I somehow see a tougher match for Murray.

Oh so there is choking now? Funny how Federer fans get emotionally when he is rightly called a "choker".

I bet the whole of The Nadull's village is praying for Djokovic to lose

Didn't know Federer was playing now?

legendkillar wrote:This old fart of a commentator is a bafoon. First he was saying Ferrer was going to win when Djokovic was a bit puffed out, and now he says it is a frame of mind? Ferrer gifted the last 3 games!! Djokovic has seen sense and Ferrer hasn't. Ferrer is not going to outlast a Djokovic. Djokovic is shortening the points. Something Ferrer should've done in the 1st set.

Completely agree. It's Frew Macmillan. He is also dull and monotonous. He does say the stupidest things

Simple_Analyst wrote:Oh so there is choking now? Funny how Federer fans get emotionally when he is rightly called a "choker".

It's a shame you cannot see teh difference between choking and over -relaxing. They are at the opposite of the spectrum.

Ferrer hasn;t got a match point, has he? when it gets tough and need to hold his nerves, he cannot. When Federer and Djoko were both facing those situations, It Djoko who cracked first, 3 times in fact in that USO semi.

Of course you don;t want to see the difference, but it's huge. To let the match slip to MP is weakness. Letting a MP go can be seen as relaxing to early...but also it was seriously helped by Djoko finally swinging freely (cause there was no point choking anymore) and a bit of luck turned it around.

I know you don't like it...but that's what it is.

emancipator wrote:

legendkillar wrote:This old fart of a commentator is a bafoon. First he was saying Ferrer was going to win when Djokovic was a bit puffed out, and now he says it is a frame of mind? Ferrer gifted the last 3 games!! Djokovic has seen sense and Ferrer hasn't. Ferrer is not going to outlast a Djokovic. Djokovic is shortening the points. Something Ferrer should've done in the 1st set.

Completely agree. It's Frew Macmillan. He is also dull and monotonous. He does say the stupidest things

Someone should retire him for the sake of ratings!!

His tone belongs at a Snooker match or Bowls event!!

I am sure he has autocue cards stashed.

emancipator wrote:

legendkillar wrote:This old fart of a commentator is a bafoon. First he was saying Ferrer was going to win when Djokovic was a bit puffed out, and now he says it is a frame of mind? Ferrer gifted the last 3 games!! Djokovic has seen sense and Ferrer hasn't. Ferrer is not going to outlast a Djokovic. Djokovic is shortening the points. Something Ferrer should've done in the 1st set.

Completely agree. It's Frew Macmillan. He is also dull and monotonous. He does say the stupidest things

Are you sure it's not David Mercer? I must say it's difficult to comment a match like that where you see Djoko ailing, puffing and limping, and then suddenly getting back to his old self.

Tough call!

Is Ferrer the fittest tennis player ever? He does an amazing amount of running but never looks out of breath or tired. Remember last December DC final?

And more importantly, unlike the other physical players he is not "cyclical".

Ferrer is not a top 10 player in my eyes. Yes he could run the legs of a centipede, but the guy cannot play inside the baseline worth a sh!t.

Djokovic has time to have a moan and chat to his box and still win in 3. Should not happen during a quarter final of a Slam.

David Mercer is English, this guy is Austrailian.

When he gets together with Simon Reed

This match is over

Novak does seem to be able to raise his level when the chips are down. He becomes more aggressive, especially with his FH. If he took that approach with Nadal right from the start I think he'd blow him off the court.

legendkillar wrote:Ferrer is not a top 10 player in my eyes. Yes he could run the legs of a centipede, but the guy cannot play inside the baseline worth a sh!t.

Well he has so important quality nowadays that is fitness. And this explains that.

emancipator wrote:David Mercer is English, this guy is Austrailian.

When he gets together with Simon Reed

Ouch! Glad I have Eurosport!

Poor poor match.

Djokovic could've had a picnic on the baseline and still win. Ferrer not enough depth on the groundstrokes.

Out of the 4 semi-finalists only Nadal and Federer look in any reasonable form and one of them will go out.

I've heard that Lleyton is a good commentator, I've never heard him though

Hewitt's post match interviews are usually pretty good and insightful, so I woudl not be surprised by that.

Yeah, I heard Robbie Koiening say that Lleyton is his favourite current commentator, and Robbie of course is excellent

In fact I think Robbie and Jason Goodhall on tennischannel are the best duo

emancipator wrote:In fact I think Robbie and Jason Goodhall on tennischannel are the best duo

Agree with that...But besides WIlander strange comment, I find him very good too....and entertaining.

I wasn't a big fan of Wilander (I think I judged him without actually listening to him) but this year I've heard him quite a bit and I think he is excellent, especially his anlaysis of shots and technique. He can spot what went wrong in a stroke or a rally immediately. I'm also very impressed by how well he speaks English considering it's not his first language.

I think like tennis players, commentators also improve with age!

That maybe the case of Wilander too. I also thought Cash was crap but now he has also a good analysis of the game and I really think he has improved.

Simond Reed? well...He certainly needs to grow much older.

Aside from the poor commentary, Djokovic and Murray didn't set the tournament alight with their respective performances. Federer coasted, yes there was some poor play by Del Potro, but Federer was looking in impervious form. His point construction was superb. Nadal looked rugged. Still he was able to get inside Berdych's head in that 2nd set tiebreak and after that I could only see one winner.

May the Semi's bring something special.

Tenez wrote:

Nore Staat wrote:The tennis balls are pressurised to begin with. They slowly lose their pressure after removal from their pressurised cannisters and this is the reason why the balls are changed after every seven / nine games of play. However the internal pressure depends on temperature - the greater the temperature the greater the internal pressure. It is this internal pressure that is key to the balls bounce - the greater the internal pressure the greater the bounce. Hence the greater the temperature, the greater the internal pressurisation and hence the greater the bounce or "ping".

There are a few other factors to consider but the above is the main one.

That's correct. The second factor is the travelling through the air. hot air means thin air and the ball flies faster.

Advantage for Federer are it gives him a better serve. The disadvantage is that it makes is timing tougher and over the distance is likely to have his BH broken.

A cooler conds will give him lower bounce, not as good a serve and his BH will lose some power meaning he might see the ball coming back more on this side...but he will have an extra split sec to get a better timing and pick his spots better.

My view is v Nadal he is better off on lower/slower bounce courts....versus anybody else (Djoko, Murray) teh faster, the better.

Thanks both for highly interesting and educating comments.

When the balls first come out, are they
a) faster/bouncier in both hot/cold conditions but then slow down faster in cooler conditions meaning the hot/cold difference is minimal with new balls, maximised just before a change
b) react quickly to temperature when released from the cannister and assume a certain springiness, meaning that the hot/cold difference on the balls is seen equally at all times
c) you don't know

Ignore the question of the direct effect of the air for now or other effects, to keep this question from being complex.
Also I am not talking about ball bounciness changing over time so much as RELATIVE change over time due to temperature, so the natural reduction in bounciness over time at a constant temp is not a factor here. Hope that's clear.

Difficult to know but from my experience, We open new cans of balls every week all year round and they do get ambiant temperature pretty quickly (within a min I guess) meaning not very bouncy in teh winter and pretty bouncy in the summer.

MAybe NS understands the second paragraph...I don't.

Thank you Tenez. You have answered the question.

The second paragraph was to make sure you wouldn't answer it the wrong way, but you didn't.