Australian Open: Day Four - 2014

http://www.ausopen.com/en_AU/scores/schedule/schedule9.html

Kokkinakis v Nadal, with the assumption that the second AUS will put up a better match than Tomic.

JwT can get in trouble against Bellucci.

Kavcic has more experience than Duckworth and may take a set of the Old Man.

Kyrgios Sock v Monfils should be entertaining (IMO).

Paire v Krygios. Would love to see Krygios go further.

MoTD - Verdasco v Gabashvili (anyone recall his [Gabashvili, not Nando's 2009 AO] match against Nadal @ USO?)

Of those you list laver fan I think Nadal will win in straight sets for the loss of no more than seven games.

Tsonga to win in four sets against Bellucci.

Federer to beat Kavcic in straight sets for the loss of no more than 10 games.

Monfils to win in four sets.

Verdasco to win in five sets.

Murray will be delighted with the night match, looked especially unlikely as he's playing a bloke ranked about 250 or so. A bit odd TBH, considering Nadal is playing some Australian bloke too (admittedly one I've never heard of, and Nadal already played a night match in his first round, but still...).

I'm even more delighted, as that means I'll be able to watch

The weather is really damaging this AO, the seats are practically empty in the outside courts. Tough 5 set loss for the Colonel Youzhny and Ernie lays an egg against Querrey. Ernie has to do something with his forehand frankly I have seen club players with technically more sound FHs than his. It becomes especially atrocious when he gets pulled wide and doesn't have time for that odd take back.

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Murray will be delighted with the night match, looked especially unlikely as he's playing a bloke ranked about 250 or so. A bit odd TBH, considering Nadal is playing some Australian bloke too (admittedly one I've never heard of, and Nadal already played a night match in his first round, but still...).

I'm even more delighted, as that means I'll be able to watch

Arguably though it means he is likely to face F-Lo in the heat in R3, which nearly finished him at the US Open 2012. I would prefer him to be playing the qualifier in the day. This is the spot Evans should probably have taken in the draw which is frustrating.

Do we know yet which side of the draw will be playing on which days next week? I asked this in another thread yesterday, but was ignored as if I arrived dressed as Nalbandian at a line judge fancy dress party.

I want to book off the days of the Murray Rafa half you see.

Is it safe to assume Novak will always play the day before from here on in?

I wasn't ignoring you out of spite, I just have no idea how scheduling works outside of Wimbledon. I assume Nadal will be playing on the Friday as Murray did against Djokovic in 2011 and against Federer last year.

Danny - in previous years the Australian has followed a simple alternate day structure. Unless there has been any change (and I can't see why there would be) Murray/Nadal will be playing QF and SF on Wednesday and Friday.

Yes Danny I would agree with Born Slippy and TSJ. Murray's schedule will more than likely be:-

3rd Round - Saturday
4th Round - Monday
QF - Next Wednesday
SF - Next Friday
Final - A week on Sunday

That would be the projected schedule presuming he got that far I reckon.

It is good to see Murray back and healthy the game needs him at this stage of proceedings. We need Del Po or Berdy to step up and become quality 4th men on tour. Right now there is too big a drop off between Nadal, Djoko, and Murray and the next guy. Federer right now in my mind in most matches would be a big underdog against any of the top 3 guys.

Have to say I am happy with Jerzy's performance he bounced back from losing the first two sets and he should be favored against Fl. Mayer although Mayer is a tricky and quality opponent. The question will remain can he beat Ferrer if he gets through to the 4th round that will really show progress because Ferrer will get into some return games and do a good job to neutralize the serve enough to make Janowicz have to back up his performance with more than his serve. He has spent a lot of time on court though and is coming off a surgery in Dec. so he is not completely fit and also had to take some treatment on the court in his second round match.

Can't see JJ beating Ferrer in this tournament. Getting that far will be a good result though given his injuries. Who does he face in R3?

socal1976 wrote:The weather is really damaging this AO, the seats are practically empty in the outside courts..........................................

Well you're absolutely right about the weather socal.

I am here in Australia for the duration of the Open and was at Melbourne Park for several hours on Tuesday.

Got to watch both Djokovic and Nadal in their afternoon practice sessions (though not practising together, I hasten to add .....  ) and just caught the tail end of Murray's workout too. They all drew very big crowds for the sessions, but I'd say Novak probably had the largest. They helpfully put a schedule up on the board each day, saying who will be practising at what time and on which court.

I then watched parts of a number of matches on outside courts (didn't have a ticket for either of the big arenas) and generally enjoyed the very lively atmosphere around the grounds, including the giant screen of course.

Back there today, in a just a few hours from now, this time to get myself onto Hisense.

One of the reasons you have been seeing so many empty seats on open courts is that - quite apart from the somewhat extreme ambient temperatures - the plastic seats are (as I discovered the hard way !) like sitting on top of a radiator that has been on full power all day. The trick is to try to wait until someone leaves their seat, and then grab it whilst it's still relatively cool, ie following their occupancy.

Free drinking water from fountains dotted around the grounds is very welcome, and not surprisingly there can be queues whilst we all top up our plastic bottles.

A high of 44c is the official forecast here for later today. Glad I'm watching rather than playing - doubt I would last much more than ten minutes on court before they carried me off ........

Ignore that - not concentrating. Mayer is a 50-50 match.

Well that is a shame lags I can understand about the seats I don't know what there is to do about it, I hear that Aussies want to build 2 more retractable roof stadiums. That would be a big help, personally I think they need to close the roof on center and crank up the AC when they know the weather is going to be like this. It is inhuman for fans and much worse for the players.

BS, the JJ match v. Mayer will be tough but if he wants to make a push as a top ten player he is got to start winning those matches. I have been very impressed with his competitive instincts a lot of players would have folded down two sets in that heat in the opener. I think he will get by Mayer but it won't be easy and then Ferrer should beat him. One thing that is hampering him is that he is recovering from surgery and does not look like he is completely fit and to top that off has already spent a lot of time on the court in this heat.

Yeah, Mayer is also not an ideal match up with his quirky shots. If pushed I would edge towards Mayer in 4. No massive harm to JJ if he were to lose given he is clearly still recovering.

Going through what I thought was a heatwave in Johannesburg - only to find out it starts tomorrow... There is nothing normal about playing in these conditions (at least in jo'burg, when it rains there is normally respite in the form of a property-destroying thundershower)... I'd think there is a temperate threshold to be adhered and if so, they must be really close to exceeding it.

This half of the draw is so much better than the bottom half. Not only are there more star names but it also seems to contain most of the promising youngsters. Raonic should come through easily. I think Dimitrov may find Lu tough.

Of the non seeds:

Krygios to beat Paire in 4
Kokkinakis to lose in 3 to Rafa
Sock to lose to Monfils in 4

My predictions -
Nadal d Kokkinakis in three - The guy gets energised by the sun... he must be in super sayian mode out there. Going with a double bagel.
Monfils to sneak through Krygios in four tight enough sets.
Verdasco to see Garb of in four
Tsonga in straights
Fed to beat Kavcic in three

Thanks for the schedule best guesses guys. I assumed it would work out like that, but wanted to be a bit more sure before booking off.

Now I am more sure, and also have a few people to blame if it's wrong!

I'd be surprised if Dimitrov beats Lu to be honest - might stick some money on that online if I can find some odds. At 2.58, think I'm putting some money on Lu.

Socal - there are certainly big plans for yet another stage of redevelopment. As I approached the entrance to Melbourne Park on Tuesday, I saw a large sign outlining plans for a major refurbishment/extension to a total value of Aus $338m.

There's a lot of money in tennis these days .......  

Yes lags that is wonderful news. In some ways the AO has benefitted by being the 4th slam and all this talk about moving the AO to asia etc. This sort of talk seems to have energized them and forced them out of any complacency. They seem to be continually investing in the tournament and the experience in order to earn their standing.

Was the first slam to have a roof i think.

kingraf wrote:My predictions -
Nadal d Kokkinakis in three - The guy gets energised by the sun... he must be in super sayian mode out there. Going with a double bagel.
Monfils to sneak through Krygios in four tight enough sets.
Verdasco to see Garb of in four
Tsonga in straights  
Fed to beat Kavcic in three

As far as I can see, Monfils is playing Sock and Krygios faces Paire...

My mistake - was just taking cue from the OP.

Monfils d Sock in four (three if he suppresses the need to wait for a Jumping-Double-Helix-Forehand-From-Ten-Metres-Back before unleashing the forehand)
Paire vs Krygios - Paire in five.

Good night to you all I am awake and time for updates.

kingraf wrote:My mistake - was just taking cue from the OP.

Please excuse my error.

PS: Corrected.

Seppi threw away the first set with too many errors.

Andreas Seppi is making it tough for himself again. Stretched to five gruelling sets by Hewitt in the 1st Round he has now dropped the first set to Donald Young but is a break up in the second set. Nishikori cruising along against a qualifier leads 6-1 6-1 after less than 50 minutes. Impressive.

Seppi now into his stride and leads 4-1 in the second set but still trails 4-6 4-1. Nishikori on serve in the third set at 2-2.

Seppi back level at one set all at 4-6 6-2. Looks like the winner of this match will play Kei Nishikori who leads 6-1 6-1 3-4.

Lepchenko being treated by medics on the court as the heat has got to her. She leads 6-4 0-5.

Lepchenko continues but loses the second set to love. Nishikori having to work harder now leading Lajovic 6-1 6-1 5-5.

Sharapova droops the second set against Knap and level at 1-1 the heat rule means they can now have a 10 minute break in the locker room.

Nishikori/Lajovic goes to a third set tie-break.

Seppi should be trying to push Young, but it seems to be the other way now.

Nishikori takes the tie-break 7-3 and wins 6-1 6-1 7-6 in just over 1 hour 45 minutes. He will play the winner of the Seppi/Young match which looks like it could be another 3 hours plus match for Seppi should he win. Seppi and Young level at one set all and Young leads 4-3 (on serve) on the third set.

Lepchenko really toiling now and has lost nine games on the bounce and trails the seeded Halep 6-4 0-6 0-3.

laverfan wrote:Seppi should be trying to push Young, but it seems to be the other way now.

Agreed. He needs to assert itself and fast. He has now lost the third set 6-3. Meanwhile Tsonga and Bellucci under way and 1-1 in first set.

Born Slippy wrote:Krygios to beat Paire in 4

Would love Kyrgios to win but I am doubtful.  I am surprised how many of you even think he can give Paire a good fight.  The guy is barely inside top 200 and is a few months shy of 19; not many of those have been making it to the 3rd rounds of slams lately.

The first time I saw him play was in his first round match.  Some big strokes and he can be quite good down the road, but he was also pretty erratic.

Anyway, hopefully you are correct.

The torture is over for Lepchenko who loses 6-4 0-6 1-6. Another victim of the heat. Young now in real control against Seppi leads by two sets to one and has a break of serve in the fourth set. Tsonga in early control leads 4-1 against Bellucci.

Like Bellucci (very nice FH when it is timed well), but Tsonga is much more consistent then him. Will Tsonga give up the break?

Bellucci breaks back to trail 4-3 but back on serve.

Martin Klizan (potential 4th Round opponent for Murray) leads qualifier Rola 6-4 2-0. Seppi breaks back against Young and they are back on serve in the fourth.

Bellucci and Tsonga level at 5-5 in the first set.

Bellucci and Tsonga goes to a first set tie-break.

Very well played TB from Tsonga so far.

... I hope I did not jinx him.