DUBAI 2012 Draw and Matches live!

First topic message reminder :

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Scores/Tournament-Draws.aspx

I always liked Dubai as a tournament. Lots of money at stake and to me it;s the equivalent of a TMS.

The draw is interesting:

It's Djoko / MUrray on the same half (looking forward to a revenge there.

And It's Federer v Llodra first round. I am sure, you can bet on this that the are going to make Llodra play early Monday...Tuesday at the latest to give Federer max chance of winning that one.

The top draw is certainly the toughest with Berdych and Davydenko on top of Nole and Andy.

Just realised that Federer has Delpo again....but I am sure Delpo will start to feel it in the legs.

yep some cracking games tomorrow, Federer vs Youzhny looks the most predictable to me (I think Fed does everything Youzhny does but better), Tsonga vs Del Potro probably the hardest to call.

Tsonga may beat DelPo this time.

Law of averages may catchup with Federer and the 11-0 h2h may become 11-1 (interesting number). Youzhny has won 3 sets in 10 matches so far. Youzhny did take out Fish.

I can't see Youzhny beating Fed. Tsonga v Delpo might be closer but I doubt he will beat Delpo.

Look forward to Murray Bird. Most unpredictable one for me.

Unfortunatley will have to go to the gym during Fed Youzhny, but look forward to Delpo Tsonga.

noleisthebest wrote:Look forward to Murray Bird.

I think I saw a Murray Bird in my garden the other day, until my cat chased it away.

JuliusHMarx wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:Look forward to Murray Bird.

I think I saw a Murray Bird in my garden the other day, until my cat chased it away.

I've never seen one, that's why I look forward to it...

http://www.trevorsbirding.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/img_3569a.jpg

Layani is such a character and a real treasure

Berdych vs Murray is hard to predict. Berdych leads the head to head 4-1!! I think if berdych brings his A game, Murray will struggle. If they both play average, murray would probably edge it. Murray doesn't seem to relis that match up. Fed to beat youzhny, tsonga to edge del potro in a tight one

Seems the court is flying too fast for Bird at the moment

Shame the stands are almost empty

that's a good hold from Murray saving three BPs along the way

What is it with Adidas and their obsession with orange colour....

Murray's forehand looking better these days

noleisthebest wrote:Murray's forehand looking better these days

yeah it's improved over the last couple of years.

Murray takes the first set 6-3. Rock solid on the important points.

And Murray has half the job done!

Poor play going on. All almost points ending in a UE.

3/4 with the break

Whatever is being done on court is by Berdy. he is hitting winners or making silly errors. Murray is just watching him.

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:Poor play going on. All almost points ending in a UE.

Yes lots of waste from all players. Clearly not used to playing under such conditions. They woudl be called normal conds 7 years ago....but not anymore.

I would like a Murray Djoko semi anyway.

Berdych hasn't got quick hands an shoudl go out.

Good win by Murray, some sublime counter-punching. Vintage Murray in EVERY way

Really enjoyed Bird's forehand today.

Weird call from teh referee giving Murray a winning serve despite a call from a line judge. I like layiani but he can have the weirdest of calls at times.

excellent win for Murray, he seems to struggle with Berdych, so to get the job done in straight sets is a decent effort.

It's good to see a very substantial post Aus Open improvement from 2011 and 2010, Murray seems to have struggled to win this match which is probably fair enough given that Berdych has been a bit of a bogy opponent.

Perhaps of more note is the difficulties Murray had defending his 2nd serve in the 2nd set.

As ever, plenty to work on....

Tipsy will get his usual "gift" from Djoko, so an interesting Djoko-Murray match.

Murray looked good today, seems on a fighting spirit.

Jahu wrote:Tipsy will get his usual "gift" from Djoko, so an interesting Djoko-Murray match.

Are you sure you mean it this way around?

It's quite an important match for Tipsarevic because on my reading of the complex ranking permutations 8th seed at IW is on the line in these QF's and that may be well worth having.

Maybe tournaments should finetune the rules of the draws at bit, so that e.g. following quarter-final matches can be avoided:
Nadal-Lopez/Ferrer
Djokovic-Tipsarevic
Federer-Wawrinka

barrystar wrote:

Jahu wrote:Tipsy will get his usual "gift" from Djoko, so an interesting Djoko-Murray match.

Are you sure you mean it this way around?

It's quite an important match for Tipsarevic because on my reading of the complex ranking permutations 8th seed at IW is on the line in these QF's and that may be well worth having.

I am sure. Djoko has to do all he can to win this, after spending on his brothers wild card.

I misunderstood - you are suggesting that the 'gift' will change hands away from the Court, I thought you meant it would be given on the court.

You got it right. Envelopes are exchanged in hotels.

True story this one.....

barrystar wrote:It's quite an important match for Tipsarevic because on my reading of the complex ranking permutations 8th seed at IW is on the line in these QF's and that may be well worth having.

Indian Wells folllows the drawing logic that the numbers 1-4 play numbers 13-16 in the 4th round. Numbers 5-8 will be matched up with numbers 9-12. With current rankings this would mean:

Djokovic-Nadal-Federer-Murray vs. Simon-Monfils-Lopez-Gasquet
and
Tsonga-Ferrer-Berdych-Fish vs. Tipsarevic-Del Potro-Isner-Almagro

The only important movement could be Del Potro moving up to #8 if he beats Tsonga.
While this doens't help Delpo himself too much, I'm sure Tsonga, Berdych and even Ferrer would be very happy if this happens!
For the top 4, it has no impact.

barrystar wrote:It's good to see a very substantial post Aus Open improvement from 2011 and 2010, Murray seems to have struggled to win this match which is probably fair enough given that Berdych has been a bit of a bogy opponent.

Perhaps of more note is the difficulties Murray had defending his 2nd serve in the 2nd set.

As ever, plenty to work on....

Yes. It was a typical average Murray performance. The kind, where at times I'm scratching my head wondering what he's doing in the Top 20, never mind competing with Berdy, winning 20-odd singles titles and being in the Top 10 of post open era in a few lists of note

But as ever Murray finds a way and if you note, that for most of the big points he looked like a Slam contender a lot of the remaining time he looked out of sorts

However, given the opponent, mustn't grumble!!

If anyone wanted to know why there is such a gap between the 4 and the rest (what is it 82-2 in matches against others outside the Top 4??) then they only need to watch this

An average performance from the Top 4 is good enough to beat the rest 90% of the time. Whether that's a reflection of how good the Fab 4 are or how poor the rest is, is open to debate!!

Berdy is a real bird brain. He showed so much promise when he emerged as a young player, but just hasn't transformed that skill and talent into application.

He was too lost today, serves not working right, forehand missing every now and then, returned poor, gave all easy points. Murray just had to show up. Scoreline shows a st. sets win, but thats it was hardly anything like a good performance.

I hope a good match will be Djo vs Murray. But I had high hoped even the AO semis.

Lets see..

banbrotam wrote:Yes. It was a typical average Murray performance. The kind, where at times I'm scratching my head wondering what he's doing in the Top 20, never mind competing with Berdy, winning 20-odd singles titles and being in the Top 10 of post open era in a few lists of note

But as ever Murray finds a way and if you note, that for most of the big points he looked like a Slam contender a lot of the remaining time he looked out of sorts

However, given the opponent, mustn't grumble!!

If anyone wanted to know why there is such a gap between the 4 and the rest (what is it 82-2 in matches against others outside the Top 4??) then they only need to watch this

An average performance from the Top 4 is good enough to beat the rest 90% of the time. Whether that's a reflection of how good the Fab 4 are or how poor the rest is, is open to debate!!

Only watched the first set, and it's true, Murray upped his level significantly for the big points. It's a remarkable ability to have. As for the last paragraph, I personally think it's a little bit of both.

Federer cruising against Youzhny

r-of-the-lost-ark
"Scoreline shows a st. sets win, but it was hardly anything like a good performance."

Well, you know whats it's like when you're playing someone who is making a lot of UEs. You tend to push the ball back and wait for the mistakes. Afterwards you reckon you've played poorly but may be won comfortably score-wise.
In contrast, sometimes you play really well - only to end up losing. You do what you must to get the job done. As for the big four, they've figured out ways of winning when they are not at their best. You can't play really well in every match.

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Federer cruising against Youzhny

There's a shocker

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:Berdy is a real bird brain. He showed so much promise when he emerged as a young player, but just hasn't transformed that skill and talent into application.

He was too lost today, serves not working right, forehand missing every now and then, returned poor, gave all easy points. Murray just had to show up. Scoreline shows a st. sets win, but thats it was hardly anything like a good performance.

I hope a good match will be Djo vs Murray. But I had high hoped even the AO semis.

Lets see..

I half agree - but maybe Berdy knows that when he's playing the Top 4 that he has to be at his very best to beat them and hence will make far more errors in trying to do this

Some on these boards (not saying you!!) will scoff at Andy's ability - believe me the likes of Tsonga, Berdy, Fererer and Del Potro do not!!

I'd argue that Andy has rarely played 'out of this world' tennis against these (i.e. like he did against Nadal twice in Slams, Nole at Miami 09 or Fed in those two Masters finals) but as he has a win ratio of around 4:1 maybe we should just give him credit

i think it's good that Murray gets another chance to play with Novak so soon after the AO semi finals, even if he loses the semi in Dubai with Novak, atleast he can find out more about Novak's patterns of play, remember Novak was losing close matches to Nadal on all surfaces but he learned what was working tomake it close and went on from there to go on a 7-0 streak. Not saying Murray is as good as Novak to do it, but he could learn from these defeats the same way Novak has.

We are not used to seeing so many UEs but that is clearly down to the ball keeping it's pace towards the baseline. Ususally it drags down so much that player have all the time in the world to hit it cleanly and teh retrievers to chase them.

There is no stamina issue on those courts which is good but certainly having more courts like that would help the players cut down on those UEs and teh more talented woudl have a better chance.

0 break points concede thus far by Federrors, no mono today then lolz.

Youzhny woken up on these 3-4 last games, much better tennis.

Fed wins it 6:3 6:4, Tsonga next in SF, Murray-Fed final.

Wonder who Fed would rather meet in the semi. To me, the court looks perfect for the JWT game. He's played really well against Rog in recent matches without being able to get across the line.

I think Federer would rather play Del Potro too.

walk in the park for kingFed. Delpony might aswell book that flight back to tandil and save some zzz's.

Del boy for a number of reasons. The surface is more suited to Tsonga, Fed has had more difficulty recently playing Tsonga, and it is Del boy's third week in a row of playing, he'd be playing his 13th match on the trot.

Nice to see Del Boy and Tsonga playing each other so soon after their match in Marseille.

banbrotam wrote:

I half agree - but maybe Berdy knows that when he's playing the Top 4 that he has to be at his very best to beat them and hence will make far more errors in trying to do this

I think berdych wasn't relaxed on court today, He felt the pressure to win against a player with whom he has a slight better h2h. He was trying too hard maybe. Murray as expected played solid.

banbrotam wrote: Some on these boards (not saying you!!) will scoff at Andy's ability - believe me the likes of Tsonga, Berdy, Fererer and Del Potro do not!!

I have no question on Murray's ability to win. He has been very consistent through many years now and I appreciate that. But I just can't enjoy any 'win'. I want to see great tennis. I want to see risktakers going for tramlines and pulling great winners. I want to see someone pulling huge serves when break points down. I want to see great defenses, brilliant return, great disguise in drop shots, super slices, massive forehands. I can't sit through a match were the winner just won because he he played solid, low risk tennis and was watching what the opponent did ( who either hit winners or missed sitters ). So this match wasn't much joy for me. I hope for a better one if it comes to Djo vs murray.

banbrotam wrote: I'd argue that Andy has rarely played 'out of this world' tennis against these (i.e. like he did against Nadal twice in Slams, Nole at Miami 09 or Fed in those two Masters finals) but as he has a win ratio of around 4:1 maybe we should just give him credit

Its not only Murray, I never expect any 'out of the world' tennis from any counter puncher defensive player. Their main game is based on low risk solid play, trying to make less errors. There is nothing 'out of the world' about it. Murray gets credit for being a #4 player. But I can't do much more than that. I can give him credit for wins, but I can't give him credit for great tennis. In my opinion his tennis is ugly.

I gave up with Dubai this week after watching Tsonga yesterday. Painful first set and despite being 5-0 he nearly blew the first set.

Dolgopolov had me screaming in anger after his defeat to Del Potro. Less DF's and more focus and he could easily be a top 10er.