Australian Open 2012

amolbhatia100 said:
Regarding federer's exit, its the kind of performance I've gotten used to now. He can't keep his level up for prolonged periods in the big grandslama matches anymore. He'll have a set here and there of utter brilliance and then follow it up with some horrible tennis. He has these spells where he loses his touch completely. It happened against Tsonga as well where after a point there was very little tennis left in him on the day. Same against djokovic at the us open. And against the top players or indeed players good enough to make the semis, you simply can't do that.

I really hope he can break this pattern soon but its hard to see it happening. Seems to have become part of his game now. It's really very strange to see such a low bottom level from such a great player and that too fairly consistently.
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Could've almost written all of that about Tendulkar
 
The first set is key. Nadal always starts matches slowly but against Djokovic he can't do that. He needs to win this first set if he wants to win the match imo.
 
amolbhatia100 said:
Regarding federer's exit, its the kind of performance I've gotten used to now. He can't keep his level up for prolonged periods in the big grandslama matches anymore. He'll have a set here and there of utter brilliance and then follow it up with some horrible tennis. He has these spells where he loses his touch completely. It happened against Tsonga as well where after a point there was very little tennis left in him on the day. Same against djokovic at the us open. And against the top players or indeed players good enough to make the semis, you simply can't do that.

I really hope he can break this pattern soon but its hard to see it happening. Seems to have become part of his game now. It's really very strange to see such a low bottom level from such a great player and that too fairly consistently.
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I think Federer was very good through most of the USO semi final vs Djokovic. They both had their poor moments in the match and apart for a couple of points at the end he played well enough to win that match. But I agree that he just can't sustain his level throughout matches against the best of players now..
 
Nadal goes up 0-30 and then resorts to hitting short again. I just hate that Djokovic down the line forehand. :mad:
 
Please please consolidate. Last few meetings he's rarely consolidated the break. Come on!
 
Gone are the days of the serve and volley. Sampras would have been done with this set by now. I can't believe people nowadays are finding it so hard to serve aces and hold their own service game.
 
Nadal 4-3 up with the break. He played a very good first 5 games but now he's become a bit passive again. Time to get back on the attack and hold serve twice!
 
Novak still looks a little stiff from the long game he had. Rafa needs to take advantage of that and he ain't exactly doing that.
 
Very poor stuff by Nadal. Can't see him winning this set at all and that game might just have set him back mentally as well.
 
Djoko breaks back for 4-4 and that's been coming. Absolutely horrendous game by Nadal and it's just like the previous matches where he tamely gives up his break.
 
I've never seen such negativity in body language and lack of self belief from Nadal. He should be wrapping up this first set with ease but instead will lose it.
 
Set Rafa. Yessssss! And finally he manages to win a first set against Novak in these Slam finals.
 
80 min set .. ridiculous :lol: If it goe to 5, they could end up clocking 6 hours even

Must say win or lose this match, mentally Novak has got to be one of the strongest Tennis player I have seen. They way he digs in even when he is down two or even three game/set/match points is amazing. Loads just sort of give up at such stages.
 
So 2 more sets to go. This will be a nervous few hours. Come on Nadal!
 
Nadal is 133-1 in Slams when winning the first set. I hope that stat improves today.
 
In a way I dont think Djokovic 'would mind' finally losing a final to Nadal. It's becoming a burden winning every single final agains Rafa just like his winning series last year started putting too much pressure of having to continue the run no matter what.
 
Hugely important service hold from Nadal after being 2 BP's down. And 204kmph serve :eek:
 
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