Match Commentary Thread

[Born Slippy]

First topic message reminder :

A thread to provide commentary on matches at tournaments which don't have their own threads (as I'm watching Ferrer v Murray).

[summerblues]

Pretty solid from Nole; pretty poor from Nishi.

[CaledonianCraig]

A flat sort of performance from Nishi - perhaps he felt his work was done now that he was assured a WTF spot. Anyway Novak was solid and unruffled and came through comfortably.

[laverfan]

Pretty solid from Nole; pretty poor from Nishi.

This is what I meant about Djokovic. The first set could easily been a breadstick for the Ninja, and double breadstick in the second.

IMBL may be sharpening his knives to insist that Nishikori will never be #1 either.

[Jahu]

LF, please confirm (secretly & modestly) your support for Milo tomorrow.

Will make Waffles tomorrow for Raonić

[laverfan]

LF, please confirm (secretly & modestly) your support for Milo tomorrow.

Would you be very cross with me if I supported both?   (Say 60% Raonic, 40% Djokovic).

I would love to see a new MS winner, but Djokovic has the bit between his teeth, IMO.

Will make Waffles tomorrow for Raonić

The last time you made them with a little post-it note besides them, they "tasted" very good. Sunday breakfast with Jahu's Waffles is a very intriguing prospect.  If Raonic continues the way he has played so far, he is a threat for /to many at O2. i

iC thinks Raonic's personality has less polish than a brass door knob.

I wish the sugar-solution (have a faint recollection of a Gunter Grass character named Mhalke who applies it to maintain his coiffured mane) would look less obvious.

[Jahu]

LF, yes of course, split the fan love between them

So, no waffles today, Iron playing a little.

Changed to: Franklin D Roosevelt's Berliner pfannkuchen (doughnuts) with Djoko's son added to my drawing masterpiece  

Recipe here: http://gu.com/p/4xgc8

[It Must Be Love]

Pretty solid from Nole; pretty poor from Nishi.

This is what I meant about Djokovic. The first set could easily been a breadstick for the Ninja, and double breadstick in the second.

IMBL may be sharpening his knives to insist that Nishikori will never be #1 either.

Hmmm. Actually I rate Nishi a lot above Dimitrov.

The only worry I have for him is fitness, he gets injured often. As we've seen with Nadal- injuries can stop you form achieving a lot more. If Kei gets over his injury problems, I see him getting to number 1 for sustained periods.

[laverfan]

LF, yes of course, split the fan love between them
So, no waffles today, Iron playing a little.

Thanks, Jahu for the early morning Breakfast, and I was up an hour earlier than usual, as the US clocks switched to Standard time from Daylight Time at 2am local. If I may, you seem to love your Kitchen (as much as you love Djokovic ). Is this something you also do professionally?

Hopefully your Iron gets fixed before O2?

[laverfan]

Hmmm. Actually I rate Nishi a lot above Dimitrov.

Raonic, Cilic and Nishikori are good additions to O2. The "old" is still reluctant to abdicate, though.

The only worry I have for him is fitness, he gets injured often. As we've seen with Nadal- injuries can stop you form achieving a lot more. If Kei gets over his injury problems, I see him getting to number 1 for sustained periods.

Repeated injuries, congenital or otherwise, also tell me that there is a lack of understanding and awareness of your own physical body.

Ferrer has been around for a along time, and only now, at 33, is getting injured a bit. He is the most physical player I know in the current top 10. Physical injuries are just one dimension to defining a career of achievements, but not the only one.

The hypothesis that no injury equates to better trophy collection is somewhat over-simplified, no matter which player you consider. What-if questions make a good pub discussion platform, though!

Connors, Rosewall and many others are examples of longevity and careers that had wonderful achievements.

[Jahu]

LF, yes of course, split the fan love between them
So, no waffles today, Iron playing a little.

Thanks, Jahu for the early morning Breakfast, and I was up an hour earlier than usual, as the US clocks switched to Standard time from Daylight Time at 2am local. If I may, you seem to love your Kitchen (as much as you love Djokovic ). Is this something you also do professionally?

Hopefully your Iron gets fixed before O2?

Not now, but I used to work at some top London Restaurants, not in kitchen, but loved watching Kitchen staff

[summerblues]

For once, I expect to be relatively neutral today.  On one hand, I do want to start seeing the young(er) generation do well, but on the other hand, I find Raonic's game more boring than Nole's.

[CaledonianCraig]

I will confidently predict a straight sets win for Novak. His excellent return of serve will apply too much pressure to Raonic who if his serve is broken doesn't have a good enough return himself to recover the situation.

[summerblues]

Nole made it look rather easy.

[summerblues]

LOL, Rao outrallies Nole. That must be a once-in-a-lifetime event.

[summerblues]

Very easy first set.  If I am not mistaken, Nole was threatening on every one of Rao's service games.  He made returning those serves look so easy.

[summerblues]

This was the first Rao's service game where Nole did not get to a BP at least.

[summerblues]

Very quiet here.  I know this is not the most exciting of match-ups, but is nobody watching?

I wonder what will happen to this site after Andy retires.

[CaledonianCraig]

Err I have been posting and am a Murray fan so quite an odd remark given that the majority are Federer fans.

Anyway as I predicted Novak runs out a comfortable winner in straight sets.

[summerblues]

Easy enough, Nole looked very solid.

[summerblues]

Err I have been posting and am a Murray fan so quite an odd remark given that the majority are Federer fans.

Why odd?  There are plenty of Andy fans here and Andy is younger than Fed so likely to retire later.  Even if there are more Fed fans here (not sure about it), Andy fans will presumably stay after Fed retires.  But who will stay after Andy goes?  It was very very quiet here today.

[HM Murdock]

Great result for Novak and one which makes him the very strong favourite for YE#1.

How will fatherhood affect Novak's form? A Masters title without dropping a set is a pretty good start!

A strange year from Novak in some ways. It has included some of his worst performances in a long time but has also yielded a Wimbledon title and 4 Masters titles.

Novak now stands alone as 4th in all time Masters (or equivalent) titles with 20. If he can overtake Lendl (22), the top three most successful at this level will be Nadal, Federer and Djokovic.

[CaledonianCraig]

Odd that it seems to implicate Murray fans only post when Murray is around and my presence here just now proves that wrong. As for who will stay after Andy goes then we can ask the same of who will stay after Federer goes or Rafa goes.

[CaledonianCraig]

Great result for Novak and one which makes him the very strong favourite for YE#1.

How will fatherhood affect Novak's form? A Masters title without dropping a set is a pretty good start!

A strange year from Novak in some ways. It has included some of his worst performances in a long time but has also yielded a Wimbledon title and 4 Masters titles.

Novak now stands alone as 4th in all time Masters (or equivalent) titles with 20. If he can overtake Lendl (22), the top three most successful at this level will be Nadal, Federer and Djokovic.

Novak has looked very comfortable and relaxed this week despite the threat of losing the No.1 slot hanging over him. Only Monfils and Murray have really threatened him in just one set and this win (I think) re-inforces his position as world No.1 and the man everyone has to beat to win the big prizes. Well done to him.

[Calder106]

Well done to Djokovic. Looks like those who hoped that he would lose a bit of focus now he has become a father are going to be disappointed.

[Fonteyn22]

I didn't see the match, although the score was much as I expected.

What is the verdict from those that did watch? Did Raonic run out of steam, play poorly, or just come against someone who is much better at returning serves than the majority. The score suggests a routine win for Novak.

Having said that, Federer is no slouch at returning serves, so what on earth happened to him? I really was quite surprised by his loss.

[CaledonianCraig]

We all know Novak is one of the very best returners of serve in the world and so that negates a massive part of Raonic's game. I wouldn't say Milos was tired or anything as so many of his matches are so short owing to the short nature of rallies in his matches.

As to what happened to Roger I'd put his loss against Raonic down to a few reasons. Roger is a great returner of serve but wouldn't put him in the same league as Novak but also I'd say Milos Raonic really played above himself with his own returning and ground strokes which he wasn't allowed to do today.

[Fonteyn22]

As to what happened to Roger I'd put his loss against Raonic down to a few reasons. Roger is a great returner of serve but wouldn't put him in the same league as Novak but also I'd say Milos Raonic really played above himself with his own returning and ground strokes which he wasn't allowed to do today.

No, I wouldn't put Roger in that league either. But normally, he doesn't need to be, his own service game is usually so good he puts pressure on the server just by being on the other side of the net.

Well, I've seen it before, one of the youngsters will play out of their skin to beat one of the Big Four, and then discover there is at least one other waiting for them where they will have to repeat that performance. And they can't!

[HM Murdock]

What is the verdict from those that did watch?  Did Raonic run out of steam, play poorly, or just come against someone who is much better at returning serves than the majority.  The score suggests a routine win for Novak.   

I thought Raonic was a bit nervous and didn't play at his best.

Djokovic's performance was good but he was able to play totally within himself. On the rare occasions he found himself in trouble, he was able to get out of it.

A very comfortable win.

It's the first time I've seen Djokovic comfortably deal with Raonic's serve. He's struggled against it in previous meetings but he was all over it today.

[Guest]

Superb tournament for Djokovic.

Have to say that despite his performances coming into question in recent years his record since 2011 has been impressive to say the least.

6 out of 16 Slams
15 out of 36 Masters 1000
2 out of 3 WTF

A mini dominance I feel.

[HM Murdock]

^
Yes, he has been very consistent.

He is leading the YTD rankings by over 1300 points but has played fewer tournaments than anyone in the top 100!

[The Special Juan]

On a slow court against Djokovic, Raonic was always guarateed a hiding.  I didn't watch it but the scoreline suggests it wasn't competitive. Rosy times for Djokovic fans. I wonder how long he can keep it up?

The order I think the Big 4 will retire in is:

Murray
Nadal
Federer
Djokovic

[HM Murdock]

 Rosy times for Djokovic fans.

Both of us are very happy.

[laverfan]

I didn't see the match, although the score was much as I expected.

Very glad to have you here.

[laverfan]

 Rosy times for Djokovic fans.

Both of us are very happy.

I am a 40% fan too, Jahu is my witness.

Djokovic's dismantling of Murray has been the most impressive in Paris 2014.

[Jahu]

Yes yes, even I added a 10% to Djoko, since he has become a daddy

[The Special Juan]

 Rosy times for Djokovic fans.

Both of us are very happy.

I am a 40% fan too, Jahu is my witness.

Djokovic's dismantling of Murray has been the most impressive in Paris 2014.

[Jahu]

I hope the boxing kicks are for DJoko?

[Fonteyn22]

Djokovic's dismantling of Murray has been the most impressive in Paris 2014.

Hiya laverfan

I think it was a match too far for Murray, who has surprised me with the way in which he has clawed his way back up the rankings.

Fingers crossed he can work on his fitness, and be a real contender for the Aussie title.

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