Dubai/Acapulco 500

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Lots of tennis action today with Federer, Djokovic and Murray all in action today. Come on posters lets he having you!

Djokovic pegged back from 40-0. He manages to hold on to his serve. 2-1 Federer

As usual the GOAT is revelling in some of the fastest conditions on the current tour

Of bebyyyyyyyyy 4:1 Fed to serve

Yessssssss

Fed beats Djokovic and Becker

VINTAGE  Fed well played Roger   the last set was a piece of 

Haddie-nuff wrote:VINTAGE  Fed well played Roger   the last set was a piece of 

He was willing to chase balls as well. The BH is still a liability though. Lots of BH slicing, but a  wonderful BH DTL, when he really needed it. Well played, Old Man.

17-15 instead of 16-16.

PS: Berdych is a tough cookie.

The Goat strikes back!

Born Slippy wrote:

The Special Juan wrote:So the Fed plays Djokovic...  This is one of the most interesting matches in a while.  It's a good chance for Federer to gauge where he's at against an opponent he's had the upper hand against for most of his career.  Bookies make Novak the clear favourite.

Don't really agree with that. Since Novak turned 20 he has had an edge on Federer, albeit they have been relatively evenly matched.

Out of the big 4 match-ups, I can count on one hand the number of matches I've seen between the 2 so I was shocked to learn it was their 32nd!! The ones I've seen have gone the way of the Fed fairly comfortable so I just assumed he had a decent H2H. I'll do my research next time!!

Way to go Feds. Still some magic in those hands of his

The Special Juan wrote: I'll do my research next time!!  

First win for Federer in 18 months.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2014/02/9/Dubai-Friday-Djokovic-Federer.aspx

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Media/Videos/Uploaded/2014/2/28/Dubai-2014-Hot-Shot-Federer.aspx#ooid=JtazN4azoUcDdnWGRH8wnKhP4eGjZ-z6

Federer, even at this age, is always one good day away from beating anyone not named Nadal

That said, team Noris, or Bovak, or Beckervic, or... uh... Djoker does not seek a great fit.

Watching Dimitrov v Gulbis. Proving to be a good match.

I give Gulbis his due. Break point down and he loses the point after swearing at the crowd. He then breaks Dimitrov the next game.

Great result for Dimitrov. Rasheed seems to have got him more fitter. Gulbis just needs to hold it together in those crucial points. Bring on Murray v Dimitrov!!

Well done to Roger.  I saw he lost the first set and thought the match was done.

Also, good luck Grigor for tonight.

I just checked Roger vs Nole H2H and this is the first time Roger came back after losing the first set.  That is nice too.  Hopefully he can build some confidence now.

Dimi-Murray 1 set each and Dimi breaks in third, 2:1, Dimi to serve and Murray looks a little knackered.

Dimi serving for the match.

And he gets it on TB. Wel deserved for Dimi, will pkay Anderson in a few hours.

Murray suffers his first loss against Dimitrov in three tight sets. Murray still has work to do to return to tournament winning levels as he was missing too many shots you'd expect him to make. Credit though to Gregory as he battled through some tricky situations to end up a deserved winner and his consistency is improving. For Murray he can grab some solace that his work in Acapulco has sent him climbing back up the rankings but he would have hoped for more.

Yeah, Murray is hitting it ok but his match sharpness just isn't there and I'd question whether he is fully fit. Very frustrating that he got back from 3-5 to 6-5 in the third set and then seemed to completely lose focus due to some problem with his shoe. I think he lost every point in the TB on unforced errors.

As for Dimitrov, he has clearly massively improved his movement and his serve and forehand look strong. However, the backhand looks a real weakness. He is probably a bit old to do so now but moving to a two-hander would make a real difference to him.

Glad to see Grigor beating Andy. A rising star beating an aging one past his prime?

I am really hopeful for Grigor this year. Defo expect him to make top 10 this year, perhaps even make some nice ground within top 10.

Great match, simply for the game of tennis

I think that Dimi, might finally have arrived - but remember last year here had a similar result (was it against Nole?) and didn't kick on

As for Andy, yes he's mentaly sluggish at the moment - probably because he's not quite physically correct. You can see this as his return game lacks the normal sharpness. It is though, very much two steps forward rather than one back

Never saw Murray as been back to his best, until the grass court season and could actually benefit a lot from other tired legs, later in the year

The Dimi-Murray match could have gone the other way.

@SB... glad to see Dimitrov put in hard work under Rasheed which is bringing him better results. I have reservations about Rasheed helping Dimi Tennis-wise, though, even if fitness-wise Rasheed is a very good coach.

banbrotam wrote:I think that Dimi, might finally have arrived - but remember last year here had a similar result (was it against Nole?) and didn't kick on

I think this may be a bit harsh on Dimitrov. He's been improving in terms of fitness and mental strength slowly but surely. He did win a title last year - from a set down against Ferrer which is no small acheivement, he's played the big names much closer and got the QF of a slam. Not too shabby.

YT: agree, I have been quite impressed with Grigor's progress the last 12+ months. He has really been focusing on improving his weaknesses. The results will follow I think.

LF: For better or worse, I think fitness is crucial in current game, even at the expense of traditional tennis skills. I would prefer a little bit different conditions that would move balance more in the traditional direction, but it is what it is, and Grigor needed to focus on making himself fit.

Roger

Come on Fedddddddd. He's gifting this match.

Federer made only 40% of his first serves in that set. Errors even (8), Fed with 6 winners, Berd with 5.

Second set to the Fed. A bit of a nightmare for Berdych as he was a break up.

Yeah now 76% first serve. Go Fed goooo

Who ever wins, poorest final of the year. Downtown club quality.

I completely forgot the match was on!! Well done Roger, a fine win even if the match wasn't the best.

Fed does it. He definatly needs 2 breaks up to be to win big matches this year.

The Old Man has #78. Edges past McEnroe in Singles titles.

summerblues wrote:LF: For better or worse, I think fitness is crucial in current game, even at the expense of traditional tennis skills.  I would prefer a little bit different conditions that would move balance more in the traditional direction, but it is what it is, and Grigor needed to focus on making himself fit.

Quite agree. Lacoste and Laver concur saying that Athlete first, game-specific skills later. I am happy to see Federer's alter-ego make progress towards better results.

Not only has Federer equalled his titles for last year but he's also equalled his four wins over top ten players

Just finished watching the Murray and Dimitrov match. I am sure Andy will rue the match for not being more aggressive in rallies on the Dimitrov serve. I think he just expected Dimitrov to make more errors and Andy followed suit and made some awful UE's.

Superb for Dimitrov and great gut check to hang with Murray over 3 sets in humid conditions.

Great result for Federer btw

Lionel Hutz wrote:Not only has Federer equalled his titles for last year but he's also equalled his four wins over top ten players

Ah, I was just counting the same and see you beat me to it.  Last year, he went 4-10 vs top 10 players, with three of those wins coming in the last two tournaments of the season - up until then he was 1-7.

He is 4-1 so far this year, with the obligatory loss to Rafa being the only one.

Dimi gets his second title. Tight but a good match.

Perfect weekend for senior and junior Fed.

Biggest win of Grigor's career so far.  He will reach a career-best ranking at #16.  Good to see him making steady progress.  While he yet again had trouble finishing his match against Andy, he also showed some toughness this week - both mentally and physically.  He had three hard fought matches back-to-back, yet he emerged victorious from them all, and he looked fresh enough all the way through the 3rd set TB last night.

interesting indian wells ahead

naxroy wrote:interesting indian wells ahead

Nadal has the toughest draw on paper.

hello folks, RJI here

yes hello Laverfan it is indeed me, how you getting on processing those sugars?  

cannot reply by PM as my post count is too low

thanks for the message!

Rightjugeiam wrote:hello folks, RJI here

yes hello Laverfan it is indeed me, how you getting on processing those sugars?  

cannot reply by PM as my post count is too low

thanks for the message!

RJI... Very happy to see you here. Please come visit this Tennis corner of v2 when you can.

I most definitely will, I have been bereft of a decent forum to chat tennis and racing for ages

and I see there are lots of members on here

the last time I spoke to anyone from the BBC board, Murray had not yet won a GS title but I remember writing a thread that predicted he had at least 96% chance of winning at least one

do you remember that?

Rightjugeiam wrote:I most definitely will, I have been bereft of a decent forum to chat tennis and racing for ages

and I see there are lots of members on here

the last time I spoke to anyone from the BBC board, Murray had not yet won a GS title but I remember writing a thread that predicted he had at least 96% chance of winning at least one

do you remember that?

Yes, I do. It has been a rocky road for Murray fans, but they have been vindicated. I am looking forward to Grass this year because of the expanded tourney set. Hopefully he has enough matches now under his belt and push forward at IW (hoping he plays Nadal).

I have to tell you that I don't expect him to reach full performance until 12 months has passed from the date of the surgery which eludes me for the moment but it was after USO

so he won't be back at the previous level til 2015 in my opinion as a Physical Therapist (the estimate being 3 x the length of absence i.e 3 x 4 months = a year)

Welcome to the site!

I think Andy missed 2 months of tennis (surgery at end Sept and back training in December). He clearly is still short of his best in terms of fitness and match toughness but I think the prospects look reasonable he could find that sharpness for the grass court season.