Your Favourite Underdog moments of 2013?

To change the topics from Murray and Djokovic I thought lets discuss the other facets of Tennis, the Underdogs, while everybody have their favorite players the fans get equally delighted if an underdog rise to an occasion to beat the player's top rival, like in the case of Haas beating Djoko , I forgot the tournament  [I guess its Miami ] but remember the result  that much fun it gave me.

Lemme go through the lists in my memory without any ranking order

1] 3 wins of Robredo in FO , specifically the one against Almagro
2]Gulbis win over Berdych [sorry to say Berdych is the only player I really hated to watch in the current ATP tour, be his style of play  or his court behavior or anything related to his tennis talks].
3]Dimitrov win over Djokovic
4]Haas win over Djokovic
5]Jack Socks win over Garcia Lopez
6]Del Potro wins over Murray and Djokovic in Indian Wells [Sadly he couldn't do the triple with win over Rafa in the finals]
7]Darcis win over Rafa in Wimbledon 1st round
8]Sergy win over Federer in Wimbledon 2nd round

Closely missed ones
1]Del Po failing to cross the line against Djoko in Wim 2013 semi's
2]Verdasco failing to Murray after 2 set lead in the quarters
3]Stan the Man losing the match like 12-10 in the final set against Djoko
4]Del Po failing to win the title against Rafa in Indian Wells finals after leadin by a set and break at 3-0 in the 2nd set.
5]Almagro failing to win against Ferrer after having 2 sets and a break up at 5-4 in the 3rd, squandered like million attempts to serve out the match in every set.
6]Gulbis's inspired play yet fell short to Rafa in Rome
7]Ferrer's two close attempts to Fetch a win over Rafa after winning the 1st set.

So the one that gave me most fun was the Robredo win over Almagro from 2 sets down, it also earned me a huge money as well as crucial points in the PG, on the other hand Jack Socks inspired st.set win over a seeded player Garcia Lopez in clay was fantastic for a youngster. On the disappointments Del Po's and Stan failing to convert a win out of a great performance was huge disappointment.

Surely worth a mention for closely missed ones would have to be Stan Wawrinka's brave fight against Djokovic in the Australian Open?

CaledonianCraig wrote:Surely worth a mention for closely missed ones would have to be Stan Wawrinka's brave fight against Djokovic in the Australian Open?

Yup, everybody felt heart broken for him, between you didn't mention you favorite moments thou. 

Out of those on your list:-

Biggest shock had to be Stakhovsky beating Roger Federer on his own patch.

As for the closely missed ones then I'd go for:-

Del Potro V Djokovic in the semi at Wimbledon as it re-established him as a slam contender.

CaledonianCraig wrote:Out of those on your list:-

Biggest shock had to be Stakhovsky beating Roger Federer on his own patch.

We are not talking about the Shock factor alone but the fun factor, did you enjoy that win  , I guess surely you would have, coz that meant Andy's route to glory is more clear.  

Of course the bigger the shock the more the enjoyment and it came with other elements bringing to an end Fed's incredible Quarter-Final run at slams and his earliest defeat at Wimbledon for over a decade.

CaledonianCraig wrote:Of course the bigger the shock the more the enjoyment

I won't say thats the case always thou, coz it was a bigger shock but I didn't enjoy it  , same was the case of Chardy's win over Del Po in AO, it was a big shock but I didn't enjoy it, and Darcis case over Rafa is similar neither did I enjoy it eventhough it was a big shock. 

As I said it came with other elements as well. Besides barring Nadal's loss V Darcis I wouldn't say the others really captured my imagination as far as shocks go apart from Dimitrov's win over Djokovic as it gave a glimpse that the youngster may just have what it takes to win a slam one day.

Just noticed this thread - what a great idea.

No contest for me - Gael Monfils hanging in there for five sets and sending Tomas Berdych out of Roland Garros.

Anything featuring a player called Jack Sock has to go to the top of list of favourite events, regardless of any other factor  

I would say Murray winning the Wimbledon final - he was the underdog and I enjoyed it the most  

Some of the youngsters losing tamely makes we worry about the future. They have sparse wins against the current establishment. Stakhosvky and Darcis have been around for a while. I would prefer upsets coming from younger players.

Janowicz's run to the Wimbledon semis was impressive and completely unexpected. Stakhovsky's win over Federer was probably the biggest moment of the season so far though.

Nadal winning the French open.

2006 - Cincinnati - Andy Murray v Roger Federer ... 7-5 6-4

I really enjoyed Horacio Zeballos performance against Nadal. An underdog producing a brilliant serving performance and then 4 incredible shots in the final game.

Seeing the Belgian Barcis defeat the Spanish Moonballer at Wimbledon with the usage of the traditional style grass-court tennis (Net-rushing).

stan the man shudda won!

time please wrote:Just noticed this thread - what a great idea.

No contest for me - Gael Monfils hanging in there for five sets and sending Tomas Berdych out of Roland Garros.

 

ryan86 wrote:I really enjoyed Horacio Zeballos performance against Nadal. An underdog producing a brilliant serving performance and then 4 incredible shots in the final game.

How on earth I missed that, I enjoyed that win a lot as well, it was completely unexpected and Horacia played a great game without a choke to win.

laverfan wrote:Some of the youngsters losing tamely makes we worry about the future. They have sparse wins against the current establishment. Stakhosvky and Darcis have been around for a while. I would prefer upsets coming from younger players.

Actually the youngsters did do some upsets this year LF, like Jack Socks win over Garcia Lopez in the 1st round of FO, Dimitrov's win over Djoko etc,..

This article seems to focus on the men's side, but my favourite underdog moment of the season was in the women's game...

Lisicki battling and smiling her way to a win against Serena at Wimbledon was a great example of why you should never ever give up. I have no idea what the bookies odds were 3 or 4 games into the deciding set, but I doubt there was anyone but Lisicki who still believed she could win.

And to do it on centre court against such a great player... Not to mention the great interview afterwards with tears of joy and her winning (and gorgeous) smile.... Great moment for the women's game.

Danny_1982 wrote:This article seems to focus on the men's side, but my favourite underdog moment of the season was in the women's game...

Lisicki battling and smiling her way to a win against Serena at Wimbledon was a great example of why you should never ever give up. I have no idea what the bookies odds were 3 or 4 games into the deciding set, but I doubt there was anyone but Lisicki who still believed she could win.

And to do it on centre court against such a great player... Not to mention the great interview afterwards with tears of joy and her winning (and gorgeous) smile.... Great moment for the women's game.

Yea that was an exceptional match and great performance by underdog, but otherwise WTA in general sucks, I am sorry to say the quality of play and too many screeches kept me away from the game. I remember I use to be an avid WTA follower on the days of Graf's career tail end the followed by Hingis, Hennin etc,.. just not anymore.