2012 Australian Open [Tennis]

[blamb425]

Men's Bracket:

http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/scores/draws/ms/index.html

The competition is going to be fierce from here on out.

 

[mrrman]

Would love to be there...still going for Federer

 

[edro]

Should be another good Nadal/Joker final.

 

[SP33Demon]

Joker totally owns Nadal now... making him set the record for most consecutive Slam Finals lost in a row (3) in the Open era.
http://espn.go.com/tennis/aus12/sto...ovak-djokovic-now-brink-history?eleven=twelve

Just an all around epic effort from those guys setting the record for longest Open ever (and by 59 minutes longer), most amazing is Joker being able to pull that off after a 5 hour semi vs Andy Murray. Holy. Sht.

 

[edro]

That was pretty great. I stayed off the internet so it wouldn't spoil the ending.
We just got done watching the replay.

That was a great comeback by Nadal... but Joker had the momentum almost the entire match.

Some of those points were amazing. I keep seeing videos of the Murray v Llodra match calling it the "best tennis game ever". That game paled in comparison to most of the games in this Nadal v Djokovic final.

 

[blamb425]

Stayed up until 7AM this morning watching this game. Incredible grit from both players--I would have been happy to see either win for the way they both played. Great start to the 2012 season.

 

[Aikouka]

I just finished watching the replay on ESPN 3, and wow... I thought the game wasn't going to be that great after seeing the Murray v. Djokovic game last night, but I was wrong!

One thing I kept wondering at the beginning of the finals was how Nadal would just let balls go instead of how Murray went after almost anything. I can certainly see how letting balls go can be better if your opponent isn't close to winning a game/set, because you don't waste the energy on a possibly bad return. Although, I guess it just isn't nearly as much fun to watch!

EDIT:

Thinking about it again... I think it might be more evident when I recall how awfully tired Murray was at the end of his match last night.

 

[postmortemIA]

Tennis has to be most difficult sport to play - no other sport has points system such that your match could end up being 6 hours long.

 

[waggy]

Tennis has to be most difficult sport to play - no other sport has points system such that your match could end up being 6 hours long.

Yeah it can be a long sport.


i love playing tennis. but its reasons like this i can't watch it for long.

 

[Aikouka]

Tennis has to be most difficult sport to play - no other sport has points system such that your match could end up being 6 hours long.

I was talking to my brother while watching the match. He watches football at times, and I just mentioned, "hey, to score a single point, both players ran about as far as a single football field"

It would be interesting to see how many feet they moved for the entire game. It's so crazy to consider how small the court is, but how much you have to move for each game!

Although, one thing to note about game length is that the commentator's noted that the umpires weren't very picky about enforcing the time limit rules (time between points, etc.). That probably made the games a bit longer, but I don't think it's a terrible thing especially with how long the games last overall!

 

[ghoster]

Too many UEs. Nadal was playing way out of his comfort zone and Djokovic was too conservative due to the expectation to win. Should've been a landslide if Djok wasn't a headcase. Same with the match against Murray.

 

[z0mb13]

Too many UEs. Nadal was playing way out of his comfort zone and Djokovic was too conservative due to the expectation to win. Should've been a landslide if Djok wasn't a headcase. Same with the match against Murray.

If Djokovic could've served better it would've been a straight sets win

Its scary of how good he can be

 

[blamb425]

I was talking to my brother while watching the match. He watches football at times, and I just mentioned, "hey, to score a single point, both players ran about as far as a single football field"

It would be interesting to see how many feet they moved for the entire game. It's so crazy to consider how small the court is, but how much you have to move for each game!

Although, one thing to note about game length is that the commentator's noted that the umpires weren't very picky about enforcing the time limit rules (time between points, etc.). That probably made the games a bit longer, but I don't think it's a terrible thing especially with how long the games last overall!

They did show this at some point on ESPN, though I can't remember if it was at the end of the 4th set or somewhere in the 5th--either way, it was towards the end of the match. Djo had run about 15 miles, and Nadal 13--keep in mind, most of this is sprinting/fast-paced, so it's no ordinary half-marathon.

 

[edro]

It seemed to me that Nadal was the conservative one. Literally have of his shots were backhand slices, buying time to regroup.
Joker, on the other hand, seemed to be on the offensive most of the time.
Almost all of his shots were powerful winner-type shots.

 

[ThatsABigOne]

Victoria Azarenko won Women's Final. I feel proud!

On the Men's side, I do not have much interest.

 

[edro]

I'm glad Azarenko won. I like her demeanor (and looks ) much more than Sharapova.

 

[ghoster]

It seemed to me that Nadal was the conservative one. Literally have of his shots were backhand slices, buying time to regroup.
Joker, on the other hand, seemed to be on the offensive most of the time.
Almost all of his shots were powerful winner-type shots.

You are right about that but in this instance I am talking about with respect to how they normally play (I guess for Djokovic I'm referring to his dream run last year). Djokovic has more penetrating ground strokes but he was basically hitting down the middle and waiting for Nadal to construct points and take the risks. Too many long rallies ended with uninteresting UEs by Djok. It wasn't until he was losing that he turned on the aggression.

 

[endervalentine]

great match! bmmer! was hoping to see nadal get a win, there's always french though!

 

[thegimp03]

I woke up late and ended up watching the Men's final for 3 hours until it finished. It was a great match. I thought Nadal would win it after he got a 2 point lead in the 5th set. Djokovic really turned up the pressure when that won it.