Rome Masters - Day 5 thread (QF)

[lydian]

First topic message reminder :

Some great matches:

CENTRALE
Not Before 1:30 PM
[7] Tomas Berdych (CZE) v [2] Rafael Nadal (ESP)...Nadal will clip the BerdMan's feathers today, straights 7-5 6-4 type score.

Not Before 4:00 PM
[1] Novak Djokovic (SRB) v Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) ...Nole to tame Ali today to prove "he's the greatest!", similar score to Rafa

Not Before 9:00 PM
Roger Federer (SUI) v Andreas Seppi (ITA) ...The Swiss will roll over the plucky Italian...6-2 6-2

SUPERTENNIS ARENA 12:00 noon
[6] David Ferrer (ESP) v [16] Richard Gasquet (FRA) ...Reeshard will have woken up today stiffer than David Cameron's shirt collars, Ferret will destroy him with metronomic precision! 6-4 6-2

[laverfan]

Nice BH OH put away.

[invisiblecoolers]

Good article lydian - as always I tend to agree with your picks, but to be different, I'll go for Berd-brain, J-Willy, Reeeshard and TMF.

Controversial? Hell yes!!

Did invisiblecoolers beat me to it further up the thread? Hell yes!

Woohooo Reco, I predicted the upset before you to make you upset , but you should'nt be upset now coz my upset predictions upset me as they all faied

[laverfan]

Tsonga wheels have come off.

[lydian]

Tsonga may be visiting the boulangerie at this rate....

[invisiblecoolers]

Tsonga is not the kinda guy who gives up, but strange today he is giving up just coz he failed the first set at crucial moment.

[bogbrush]

I think he just gets disheartened on a court where he knows he is toothless.

[LuvSports!]

how is novak playing?

[Josiah Maiestas]

Played well in 2nd set, not so good in 1st, was less passive after he won the 1st but this is only Tsonga, different kettle of fish for the next round (or two).

[LuvSports!]

i just want novak to put a string of good matches together ala 2011!

[lydian]

The question is was 2011 the new norm for Djokovic or a purple patch he cant hit again...?

[barrystar]

Don't we already know the answer to that? Djoko can't repeat the sustained form of the first half of 2011, but he seems to be able to know how to dig the highlights out when he wants them.

[lydian]

Yes we know the answer barry in reality - I guess it was almost a rhetorical question. Many of these top guys have stellar individual seasons, the key test is being able to repeat them and stay at the very top. Federer and Nadal (Fed more so) have had more than 1 season winning more than 1 slam, we'll see how Novak fares this year with added expectation...particularly as he goes into RG where the 4 in a row exepctation from the press will be huge!
Clearly Novak has come off to a certain extent that incredible high he was on and other players are more focussed on their strategies to counter him. It will be interesting to see how Federer and Nadal (if he beats Federer) fare against him here at Rome and RG. He's still an incredibly tough player to beat but you feel both Federer and Nadal are in generally better form than last year (Nadal mentally much more so), and Novak has to handle the expectation and weight of being the player everyone is now chasing/hunting. In the meantime, I dont see Federer missing much sleep tonight...the 9.00pm start seems ridiculously late given Novak/Tsonga were over ages ago.

[barrystar]

Well Djoko won Aus a few months after the last decent match he played, he repeated a similar feat at Miami, and he's facing a showdown in the next couple of days after which we'll know a bit more about his ability to raise his game.

I don't know how important the MC match was. I think it was more important for Nadal not to lose than Djoko to win.

I think winning Rome is quite important for Djoko going into RG, especially given that his last two big matches on clay were defeats by his main rivals, but we'll see won't we?

[LuvSports!]

is tipsy one of his main rivals? or are we not counting tiriac's smurf clay?

[barrystar]

@Luvsports - unless they used to chase after the same girl, no

Djoko he has two main rivals on clay - Fed and Nadal, and three main rivals on every other surface, Fed, Nadal, Murray.

The rest range from guys who can beat him on a very good day and/or a disinterested/bad one for him to pure fodder. None of them are rivals, let alone main rivals.

[Tropicalfruiter]

Hey lydian - spot on with with your scoreline prediction (just have to switch the order of sets around, but that would be nitpicking ....!!)

Cheers lags! (sorry I had to dash off after that last post...)
Please dont ask me for 6 lottery numbers though!

Pretty damn good that predicition. It has to be said that that is true Birdman score-line, however! Keep it up.

[LuvSports!]

so you are referring to MC against rafa and feds at the french last year right.
tipsy would hate you for saying that.

[lydian]

Fair points Barry...tomorrow (vs Fed) and RG will indeed show us much.

Luvsports...I wouldnt count the performances by Nvak or Nadal at Madrid both were clearly mentally AWOL to some extent, particularly Novak actually. Nadal somehow flipped his lid at 5-2 up...I'll still never understand what happened in his mind...and losing to Verdasco of all people! Rome is where we'll see much more where they're actually at...especially if they face each other but I have a nagging feeling that Fed will beat Novak tomorrow. Agree with Barry that Tipsy isnt a rival to Novak - although I do think Novak doesnt like the match-up against Tipsy, and playing against Novak seems to elevate Tipsy too - maybe its a Serbian rivalry thing.

[LuvSports!]

i know tipsy isn't a rival and i think you are even too generous to him.
i was just alluding to the fact that his last two clay court losses included one against tipsy, now some may construe that losing to him was a big loss as he had a lot of points to defend. I don't but still.

[lydian]

I just think the Madrid surface undermined his game completely (and Nadal). I suspect he and Nadal didnt worry about it too much once they flew out of Madrid.

Who's your pick for Rome luvsports?

[LuvSports!]

well lydian every single clay tournament i put rafa to win (i know right crazy with my predictions :O ) and that hasn't changed. u?

[Henman Bill]

Does anyone remember a WUM who used to go on about Seppi. Was if the same person who posted that Sampras had never won Rome? Can anyone remember the gist of it? Can anyone find any of the articles. I've tried, without success so far.

[Henman Bill]

on the old 606...

[Guest]

Is it raining in Rome?

Why is Fed not on?

The scheduling here is terrible. Even if Fed wins and plays Novak, the way the scheduling is, th winner will have no time to recover to play against Rafa.

[bogbrush]

As expected, the Italian crowd is warm to the foreigner.

[bogbrush]

This could be brutal.

[Guest]

Feels like a massacre already

[Jahu]

Fed 3:0 up. Djoko crying at his Hotel room at the prospect of losing tomorrow. He is going to fold for Fed and avoid a loss to Nadal.

[bogbrush]

Come on Seppi!

Not nice to be crushed in front of your home crowd. I feel for the guy.

[Guest]

This is brutal, poor Seppi. 5-0 in 11 mins and he's only won 3 points

[luciusmann]

Jeeee, this is domination. This is the the sort of scoreline you see with Nadal on clay!

[Jahu]

5;0 in 12 minutes.

[Jahu]

Seppi on fire, finally.

[bogbrush]

Great game Seppi! Well played!!!

[bogbrush]

Jeeee, this is domination. This is the the sort of scoreline you see with Nadal on clay!

Except he'd still take 45 minutes to get there.

[Tropicalfruiter]

5-0. That last game was like Federer sqeezing a zit. It carried about as much sense of occasion as an arse-scratching non-scoring Sunday morning 9.00am practice session.
5-1. Seppi holds. The fires are lit, indeed.
OMG Fed pays for his arrogance with a juice game and break-point...

[laverfan]

Seppi must have been asleep for the first 12 minutes thinking it was a warm-up.

[laverfan]

Should I expect two TB sets now?

[laverfan]

Beautiful point construction. 15-15.

[bogbrush]

Usual lax start after a big first set by Fed.

[Tropicalfruiter]

Time for the world´s favourite sports personality to indulge in his mid-match fantasy of sharing a hot-top with Mirka, sipping champagne on the deck of an alpine chalet... and then fight back to save the set.

[laverfan]

Two Deuce games on Federer's serve.

[Tropicalfruiter]

Two Deuce games on Federer's serve.

As foreseen.

[laverfan]

Wasted BPs.

[laverfan]

Seppi has done well. Will Federer regret the lax games?

[bogbrush]

Seppi's actually playing great.

[Tropicalfruiter]

Wasted BPs.

But at last a competitive feeling game. Both players playing some exibition shots. Time for Fed to start thinking about making it boring and just win the match.

[laverfan]

Federer needs to close this in straight sets and get some rest.

[LuvSports!]

this match may be a mirror image of yesterday

[Guest]

Clinic from Federer in the first set. Starting to relax a bit and take his foot off the gas.

Saw the Nadal and Berdych encounter. Brutal hitting from both men. Have to say Berdy and Ferrero have impressed me this week stepping up to the plate and taking the game to Nadal and Federer respectively.

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