Tennis: Australian Open 2023

[kihei]

Andy is at it again. He loses the first set to RBA convincingly 6-1, takes the second set to a breaker and falls behind 2-5. And then turns on the magic to take the breaker 9-7. This guy just will not give up.

3rd set: RBA, back to his neat and tidy self, takes the set 6-3.

4th set: Improbably, Andy breaks for 2-love....but he is a spent force, though he hangs on to 4-all. Then he loses a service game in which he is forced to serve at half speed. RBA closes it out for the victory.

 

[Filppula]

Shelton wow.

And Novak is just the greatest, can’t tell me otherwise.

 

[kihei]

Some very intriguing match-ups tonight. We could see an upset or two.

 

[kihei]

And right off the bat we get an upset, a great big one. Rybakina over Swiatek 4 and 4. Rybakina served better, returned better, and stayed calm and focused throughout the match. About as straightforward a win against Iga as you are going to see.

Big upset #2: Ostapenko blows away Gauff in straight sets, 5 and 3. This one is a bit less surprising as Jelena has been playing like a demon all week. In this match, she was incredibly clutch, hit winner after winner and took advantage of Coco's still vulnerable forehand.

 

[Say Hey Kid]

And right off the bat we get an upset, a great big one. Rybakina over Swiatek 4 and 4. Rybakina served better, returned better, and stayed calm and focused throughout the match. About as straightforward a win against Iga as you are going to see. ...

Elena's first match was played on tiny Court 13. Disrespect

 

[kihei]

Lehecka versus FAA: this one makes me really nervous for Felix. Any lengthy lapses will be poison against this kid.

 

[Filppula]

Korda 3-3 in the 5th. Yikes. Hard to say who pulls through this.

FAA one set all. Lehecka looks very good.

 

[Cloned]

I sat through the entire Shapo match yesterday and he is easily the most frustrating player to watch.

So much talent and shot making ability but he will never grow out of his immature decision making. He’d win so many more matches if he was just a bit more patient.

 

[Brock Boeser Laser Show]

Felix just makes too many unforced errors to win a major.

 

[kihei]

Upset #3: 29th seeded Korda takes out #10 seeded Hurkacz in a fifth set breaker. More of an upset on paper as the smart money was on Seb. The guy is an atrociously bad front runner, though, and his nerves nearly cost him the match. But he gutted it out with some clutch tennis late in the deciding breaker.

 

[Filppula]

That match tiebreaker was awful. Standard of tennis subpar. Yes a lot up for grabs but geez.

Meanwhile Lehecka up 2-1. He is a beautiful striker of the ball, can defend exceptionally well, plus he can volley which is a rarity these days.

 

[kihei]

Lehecka is up two sets to one, having taken the third set breaker. Jiri is playing very well, but FAA is an unforced error machine once again.

 

[Hossa]

Frustrating loss for Felix. Too many unforced errors, too little variety. That fourth set tiebreak summed it up - if you're going to rigidly stick to your game, you can't miss when you set yourself up by playing it.

 

[kihei]

Big upset #4: Lehecka, ranked #71, stays cool as a cucumber, keeps the pressure on and wins two straight breakers for the match. Key stat: points that go five shots or over, Lehecka dominated 48 to 24. Great win for the youngster, fully deserved, but as for Felix fans, we have seen this movie way too many times before.

 

[Filppula]

Really impressive performance by Lehecka. I throughly enjoy watching him, has a complete game. Beautiful clean, aggressive groundstrokes with good net clearance and also able to finish points off at net. I think he’s going to go a long way in his career.

FAA…well, he’s making a habit of losing matches he could win, and squandering chances at tournaments. I don’t know what to make of his future. A stylish player, but is that enough? Got serious doubts.

And now for the main event, Sinner/Tsitsipas. No offence to the 3 players remaining in the top half, but I think the winner of this match reaches the final, and with how things are on the bottom half, wins the tournament.

 

[kihei]

Sinner comes back from two sets down to even the match. Jannick beginning to get the better of Tsitsipas on longer points and he is pounding Stef's backhand mercilessly, But I sure wouldn't want to count Tsitsipas out just yet.

In the fourth game, Jannick recovers from love-40. The match is a toss-up at the moment.

Though he is shanking the occasional shot, Tsitsipas' nerves seem the steadier of the two.

Again, Sinner goes down love-40, but this time he can't make it all the way back, 4-2.

Stefanos serves it out. Great win for him, the second heartbreaking loss in a row in a Slam for Sinner.

 

[Filppula]

Sinner comes back from two sets down to even the match. Jannick beginning to get the better of Tsitsipas on longer points and he is pounding Stef's backhand mercilessly, But I sure wouldn't want to count Tsitsipas out just yet.

In the fourth game, Jannick recovers from love-40. The match is a toss-up at the moment.

Though he is shanking the occasional shot, Tsitsipas' nerves seem the steadier of the two.

Again, Sinner goes down love-40, but this time he can't make it all the way back, 4-2.

Stefanos serves it out. Great win for him, the second heartbreaking loss in a row in a Slam for Sinner.

Third! He really has blown some glorious opportunities. He was comfortably the better player in sets 3 and 4, and blew chances in sets 1 and 2. The BP conversion was really awful, mixed between bad errors and Stefanos’ clutch serving. All in all, a very entertainment match but I can’t help but feel it’s another one that got away from Sinner.

 

[kihei]

Third! He really has blown some glorious opportunities. He was comfortably the better player in sets 3 and 4, and blew chances in sets 1 and 2. The BP conversion was really awful, mixed between bad errors and Stefanos’ clutch serving. All in all, a very entertainment match but I can’t help but feel it’s another one that got away from Sinner.

Correct. I forgot about the Djokovic comeback from two sets down at Wimbledon.

 

[kihei]

The Netflix Curse: Netflix new and promising tennis series is just under way and already 9 of the 10 players they chose to focus on are out of the tournament. FELIX IS THE ONLY ONE LEFT.

....and then there were none.

 

[BMOK33]

And right off the bat we get an upset, a great big one. Rybakina over Swiatek 4 and 4. Rybakina served better, returned better, and stayed calm and focused throughout the match. About as straightforward a win against Iga as you are going to see.

Big upset #2: Ostapenko blows away Gauff in straight sets, 5 and 3. This one is a bit less surprising as Jelena has been playing like a demon all week. In this match, she was incredibly clutch, hit winner after winner and took advantage of Coco's still vulnerable forehand.

Swiatek is a weird gal. I think she’s too intelligent for what she does and she has tourneys where she just mentally isn’t invested and plays horribly. Had she even played at like a 7 out of 10 level yesterday I think she at minimum forces a third set. I do not see her as a player who is going to hang around very long in the sport. She’ll probably try to win the AO/Wimbledon for 2-3 years more but I sense if she wins gold in Paris there’s a damn good chance she’s going to walk away

 

[Hadoop]

Swiatek is a weird gal. I think she’s too intelligent for what she does and she has tourneys where she just mentally isn’t invested and plays horribly. Had she even played at like a 7 out of 10 level yesterday I think she at minimum forces a third set. I do not see her as a player who is going to hang around very long in the sport. She’ll probably try to win the AO/Wimbledon for 2-3 years more but I sense if she wins gold in Paris there’s a damn good chance she’s going to walk away

She did say in the post-match presser that she felt the pressure, and that she had been playing not to lose instead of playing to win. Let's see how the rest of this year pans out for her, particularly as she has 4 WTA 1000 titles and the French Open to 'defend' within the next 5 months.

 

[17futurecap]

I’m sure he will grow out of it, but Rune comes off as so obnoxious telling his box to shut up, get out etc….

I like Rublev, but the second serve and mental side for him is a tough watch.

That was a really nice comeback in the ten point tiebreaker, with some great luck on match point.

Shelton/Wolf was long, but pretty boring. Props to Shelton for being in game shape though, those Florida summers probably really help.

 

[kihei]

I’m sure he will grow out of it, but Rune comes off as so obnoxious telling his box to shut up, get out etc….

I like Rublev, but the second serve and mental side for him is a tough watch.

That was a really nice comeback in the ten point tiebreaker, with some great luck on match point.

Shelton/Wolf was long, but pretty boring. Props to Shelton for being in game shape though, those Florida summers probably really help.

Rublev is working on the mental side, so he is at least able to see that it is an impediment. Huge win for him against a player I didn't expect him to beat this fortnight.

 

[kihei]

Nole, moving well, beats an utterly uninspired De Minaur 6-2 in the first set. Bit of a limp right at the end of the deciding game, but if he doesn't have to exert himself any more than he did in the first set, he should be okay. with the proviso that such injuries can turn on a dime.

4-love in the second set. De Minaur is wasting a huge crowd advantage with his struggles.

 

[kihei]

Fine four-set win for Paul over RBA. Great to see him in the quarters, love to watch him play.