Australian Open Day 10-14 - Djokurray! And others! :P

First topic message reminder :

Well some of you hardcore mob will no doubt be up watching the first round matches and even up first thing if your boarding the Fed Express. I will be utilising the power of Sky+!

So we have Federer, Nadal, Murray, Berdych, Gulbis and Dimitov all in action on the men's side.

On the ladies we have Halep, Sharapova, Bouchard, Ivanovic, Kerber and young gun Bencic.

Should be an action packed day.

Murray wins 6-3 6-4 7-6. A comfortable win but will need to up his levels from here. I hope we see more of Bhambri - liked his game.

Andy does it; time to check if my Laver feed is back on.

Set point Rafa

summerblues wrote:Andy does it; time to check if my Laver feed is back on.

If you really want, I can inbox you a link.

Nice one Rafa

Easy first set for Rafa.

Nadal wins the first set 6-3. That should be a confidence booster.

It Must Be Love wrote:

summerblues wrote:Andy does it; time to check if my Laver feed is back on.

If you really want, I can inbox you a link.

Thanks but no need. We actually get free streaming on ESPN here in the States. It is just that their stream was for some reason broken earlier in the set, but it seems to be back on now.

Dont know about him but it is for me

Amri must be horrified. Rafa looks fit and Youzny not the goat level player amri made him out to be! Nadal MIGHT win this 1st round match

O God dont say that... Im running out of eggs

My stream is still iffy. Maybe it is trying to tell me to give up on this match as this will not have a happy ending

Good set so far, this second one.

summerblues wrote:My stream is still iffy.  Maybe it is trying to tell me to give up on this match as this will not have a happy ending

Its suffice to say Rafa is 3 love up and Mikael has yet to win a point

Stunning stuff from the Eurosport commentators this.

Welcome back Rafa

An appendix is proving to be a rather overrated part of the human anatomy.

Its a part of the anatomy that is obsolete..none of us need it and in particular Rafa!!!

Good play from Rafa.

Great matches going on with Tomic, Rosol fighting too 2:1 down on sets.

Baghdatis wins in 5 sets.

I didn't see Rafa's match. Can IMBL confirm that Rafa played in a wheelchair as he is no longer capable of able-bodied tennis?

Coric, Bencic belied my expectations.

Gulbis bagelled in second set

laverfan wrote:Coric, Bencic belied my expectations.

Gulbis bagelled in second set

I agree. Very surprised Bencic lost in straights.

Coric, just wow. A set up and totally unravelled.

not a great start for the young brigade.

happy for nadal, he needs some more wins to be considered an option.

Easy break for Bouchard, as Friedsam goes long, and to serve for the match.

Gulbis at 4:1 in third set, while Bouchard wins. Expect more of Friedsam in the future, methinks.

"Genie, marry my BF..." , OMG.

Kokkinakis has DF on SP. Gulbis now 2:1 sets. Another youngster overawed by the occasion, perhaps.

Enough pressure from the Old Man, and Lu is broken, with two nice drops shots.

Federer through in straight sets in just under two hours. Gulbis back in control (but for how long) and Juan Monaco in a spot of bother against Bolelli.

CaledonianCraig wrote:.. and Juan Monaco in a spot of bother against Bolelli.

Bolelli beats Monaco with a fourth set bread-stick. He has played pretty well after his injury-layoff was nominated for comeback-player.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2014/Moet-ATP-Awards/2014-ATP-Awards-Comeback-Player-Nominees.aspx

JuliusHMarx wrote:I didn't see Rafa's match. Can IMBL confirm that Rafa played in a wheelchair as he is no longer capable of able-bodied tennis?

All I can tell you is that the Eurosport commentary was superb.
Mats and Chris kept analysing Nadal's press conferences, just incredible to hear.

JuliusHMarx wrote:I didn't see Rafa's match. Can IMBL confirm that Rafa played in a wheelchair as he is no longer capable of able-bodied tennis?

I can confirm that Nadal had made a stop off in Japan, and was playing tennis is a mechanised Gundam.
Great forehand, dodgy backhand, but a lot of power. The style however, was robotic, so clearly it had no skill or talent in tennis and was just using its reactor core to hit the ball properly.

Very strange Kokkinakis v Gulbis see-saw. Gulbis had MPs in fourth set.

Gutsy for Kokkinakis. One more Young Aussie on the horizon.

5 MPs saved all told, continues the trend we've seen recently. Fantastic win for the youngster

Krygios also through in five, and Duckworth put up a good fight too. Good first day for Oz!

Youzhny was a huge let down, he completely panicked after the 1st set and didn't turnup for the most part of the match, it was a decent outing for Rafa.

Didn't see Fed-Lu match it was too late for me.

Murray- Bhambri match was interesting, Yuki showed a lot of talent and guts but was very inconsistent through out the match, should have easily nicked the 3rd set, Murray looked decent on his first outing.

DirectView2 wrote:Youzhny was a huge let down, he completely panicked after the 1st set and didn't turnup for the most part of the match,

DirectView2 wrote:it was a
decent outing for Rafa.
Didn't see Fed-Lu match it was too late for me.

Murray- Bhambri match was interesting, Yuki showed a lot of talent and guts but was very inconsistent through out the match, should have easily nicked the 3rd set, Murray looked decent on his first outing.

It didn't have anything to do with the fact that Rafa didn't let him did it by any chance ???? Look at Rafa's stats in that match .. he didn't do much wrong .. conceding only 8 points on his serve.. I would suggest that Youzhny was somewhat overwhelmed rather than panicked.

Fed has come out at the Net, every 4,5 points today, which is a record for a HC match of his. Eurosport quote.

Just watching the Murray match. So tentative on that FH thus far. Grrrr

Best shot of the tournament so far zummaaagooddddd
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKjM6t16G98

???

Quality shot   backhand around the net is usually Murray's shot!

And Day 2 hath commenced. I've just noticed Watson was lucky in not drawing a seed, but talk about a nightmarish unseeded opponent.

Lopez looking iffy against Kudla right now, and Kei has opened his campaign.

Day 2 really has been a bit dull hasn't it?

Poor Novak - no one cares about his half.

Born Slippy wrote:Day 2 really has been a bit dull hasn't it?

Poor Novak - no one cares about his half.

I did smile that Day 2 hasn't even merited a thread.

I reckon Novak will be happy enough though. Nobody caring about his half means that the top players are all in the other half!

Weird that in 5 of the mens matches today that the player who took the first set went on and lost in 4!

What happened to Dolgo??

A disappointing day for the Brits. Heather Watson lost in straight sets, Kyle Edmund lost in straight sets and James Ward lost in four sets to Fernando Verdasco.

upset alert!

up-and-coming Frenchman Pouille into a two sets lead over compatriot Monfils.

LaMonf claws back. Deciding set time

Pouille's shorts are pretty nice. Probably my obligatory acquisition of tennis equipment for the season in the hope of it kickstarting a willingness to play tennis again

Back to back brain fades from Pouille, and Monfils is serving got the match.

Pity that as Monfils gets on my male Bristols a lot the time with his shenanigans. Monfils wins - don't get me wrong he is a cracking player but he does things that really annoy me.