Australian Open

[eliomelma]

Hope in Vlad...

[TWM-Fox]

Pretty amazing performance from both players. I guess with all his Grand Slam runs Elias could have the title of Marathon Man lool

[VMoe86]

@Carlos : don't neglect the player behind Davydenko ! I mean Vlad can really be in fire sometimes, he beat me at Shanghai first round with an awesome level.
Even if he seems extremely irregular in his results, that can explain why he did a lot of winners.

I remember having a practice set with Vlad before I played my first tour match at Kremlin Cup against him. There he was using accelerations pretty much all the time and thus was prone to making errors on deep counters. I gave him some tips in chat and then in the Kremlin Cup match, it was a better performance (he still made some errors which he could have avoided, but he learned something). In the Valencia Open SF he actually should have won the first set against me, but mental aspects also play a role. So, yes, he can play great at times, but totally destroy his chances with errors.

My opinion stays indeed the same here : it's not always the character who explains the results, but the guy behind.
People like Clog, AlexJasmins and so on who used Nadal have the level to be successfull with other characters.
Maybe less, maybe more who knows

It's not that the character wins the match alone, everyone will agree on this. If player A is beating player B 7-6, 6-4 (or losing 4-6, 3-6) when both are using Djokovic and player A can win 6-1, 6-3 without much trouble when using Nadal while player B remains on Djokovic, what does that tell us? Maybe player A is more used to Nadal and it adds to his game, but it could also mean that the character is making it too easy for player A. Then of course player A asks player B to switch roles, player A as Djokovic and player B as Nadal: Player A wins 6-2, 6-3. So even without having mastered the character, player B can annoy a couple of games out of player A, who used Djokovic before.

[Felipe.M]

QF: FelipeM (Djokovic) def Vlad (Davydenko) 6-1 6-3 6-1

I felt really good in this game, moving chips as I like it, and feeling dominant most part of the match.

The first set started very even, there was a key game, serving the 0-1, there was a fairly long and tight game, which end up winning. I think that was the key to grab momentum throughout the first set.

In the second set, he started very well, with a 2-0 lead, playing at a high level ... The next game on his serve, I went back to the game mentally, break and got back. This part of the match was undoubtedly the high quality and high level of both. From back to get into the set, went up in confidence and taking me finish the set.

In the third set, I guess it was a hard blow for vlad, being two sets down, but I could not loosen, or give a starting point for that to mess back to the match. So start with everything and achieve break in and stretch my advantage to take the set and the match.

My sincere congratulations to Vlad for the great tournament that made, the previous round match he played, was incredible, he is a great fighter. Good luck for the rest of the season.

Finally, I am very happy to be in SF in my first tournament of GS, and more still one of my favorites.

[Clog]

QF : Clog (Nadal) def. Fox (Murray) 6/4 6/4 6/3

What a match. Hum...
First of all, as I told him after the match, congratulations to Fox, and thanks a lot. I had a lot of pleasure playing this match, and it hadn't happened to me for a long time. Usually I'm a little nervous during matches, but a few minutes before we started, I just realized that I wasn't even expecting to reach QF in the tournament. So I decided to have as much pleasure as I could, and it worked. There are days you play great, and days you have no good feeling. That was a great day today. Almost everything I tried worked, even shots I usually avoid since I know I'm not good at it. But God was with me I guess. ^^
Anyway, that was "only" a 3-sets match but that was pretty tough for me. I have a lot of trouble trying to remember the key moments, but I guess I just played a little better than him on important points, that's probably the only difference there was between us.
I just tried to be strong on my serve, and I wanted to put as much preasure as I could on his. On every sets, I had break points and concluded it at the right time, that's it. We only played three sets which I all won, but considering the ridiculously small difference there was between his level and mine, it totally could have been a five sets match. But I'm not sure I would have won it if it had been longer. Fox has a mental strength we all know here. He was, and still is, a Champion.

[C4iLL]

The two great brothers Kyuuji and Fox are out of the tournament in 3 sets, hope they will come back stronger !

[Clog]

The two great brothers Kyuuji and Fox are out of the tournament in 3 sets, hope they will come back stronger !

I hope so too ! We need great players to stop this "newcomers from Managames" domination which started a few weeks (actually, months now) ago. ^^

[Dakra]

Vlad Elias 5-7 6-2 2-6 6-4 13-11

Good match. anyone knows what is the record in Grandslams in TE?:D

[TWM-Fox]

QF : Clog (Nadal) def. Fox (Murray) 6/4 6/4 6/3

What a match. Hum...
First of all, as I told him after the match, congratulations to Fox, and thanks a lot. I had a lot of pleasure playing this match, and it hadn't happened to me for a long time. Usually I'm a little nervous during matches, but a few minutes before we started, I just realized that I wasn't even expecting to reach QF in the tournament. So I decided to have as much pleasure as I could, and it worked. There are days you play great, and days you have no good feeling. That was a great day today. Almost everything I tried worked, even shots I usually avoid since I know I'm not good at it. But God was with me I guess. ^^
Anyway, that was "only" a 3-sets match but that was pretty tough for me. I have a lot of trouble trying to remember the key moments, but I guess I just played a little better than him on important points, that's probably the only difference there was between us.
I just tried to be strong on my serve, and I wanted to put as much preasure as I could on his. On every sets, I had break points and concluded it at the right time, that's it. We only played three sets which I all won, but considering the ridiculously small difference there was between his level and mine, it totally could have been a five sets match. But I'm not sure I would have won it if it had been longer. Fox has a mental strength we all know here. He was, and still is, a Champion.

Well not much to add. Level was pretty equal and as anyone could expect it, it was a battle of long rallies, two big defenders with less opportunity to hit winners. The one who won was simply the best physically and mentally. He managed to keep a good level in exchanges he made the difference on important point and got the match. The score give him the win in three set, indeed we spend some time on the court.

I could not expect more especially Murray is less accurate than before. Trying to play a good offensive game with him is much harder and morever since short cross balls his harder to hit.
I tried some offensive sequences which worked pretty well, but didn't have enough stamina to engage more of those sequences and Clog was simply on every balls so i was pretty limited from begining to end.
I think with what i saw, bringing more speed with a more offensive character would have worked against him but definitly i haven't got the tactic and neither the weapons to hurt him on every plans of the game.

Anyhow indeed i was glad to play against Clog who his a great guy, it was nice to talk to him. Been a long time i haven't spoken that much to a member of the tour. Leaving with no regrets, i think i've somehow made a good run with two big matchs.

See you all in a near future ! And good luck for the left participant

[VMoe86]

VMoe86 (Davydenko) defeats Ugadalou (Murray) 6-4, 6-2, 6-3

Well, the last time we played against each other was in the RR Stage of WTF, where I won pretty comfortably. However, I noticed his remaining matches at WTF and looking at them, he showed a better level there than against me and back then I was using Nadal. So, I was expecting a closer match than last time. However, I also went into the match that I'm kind of a bad match-up for Ugadalou.

We started both by holding serve, he maybe more comfortably than me, but at 1-1 I had a really good return game and got the early break. I could not consolidate it, though, got down 0-40 on serve quickly, saved on BP, but he converted the second one. From then on it was all about holding serve, which then worked better for me and in the rallies I was managing stamina better since I used a couple of more b1 shots in order to control depth. I also tried not to use too many accelerations on second serves -- in particular it was effective to return body serves with b1 or b1+down to Murray's FH. Thus, in the long rallies, I had a bit more left on Instant Energy and I haven't used all my good accelerations until that point and was able to finish points with low Instant Energy (also made some errors there, but not when it mattered ). At 4-4, he then cracked a second time on serve and I had no trouble serving it out.

Second set I honestly don't remember much, because my game here was clicking -- my BH cross court worked very well, opened up the court nicely so that I could go down the line. So, I could manage to win this set by playing very well, Uga tried to be more aggressive, but made too many errors. At 5-2, he got to 0-30, I managed to close this set out.

In the third set, I was starting a bit slowly and he held his first two service games to love, while he held one break point in my first service game and two or three in the second one. On all of these, I either played very well or he gave me an easy ball to gain control of the point. I definitely did not want to let it go to a fourth set, so holding both those games was quite crucial. In the next game, as it is when you don't take your own chances, Uga got broken and I consolidated the break. I wanted a second break, though, which I did not manage at 4-2 up, but at 5-3 when serving to stay in the match, he kind of played a loose game (not believing in turning it around anymore) and it was over then.

We both also tried to attack the net, however Ugadalou knows how to make the opponent hit errors on volleys (those low balls are a pain in the ***). Then, if you don't win the point on the first volley, it is getting really tough with Davydenko: Wingspan not great, no jump bonus, average volley stats -- just picking a side and hoping for the best then (or hope for a lob, because these can be caught quite well in TE, still difficult to put them away if you don't manage it on the first smash). Since Davydenko has less Spin, I gave him a bit easier balls to volley from, but he also fooled me in some points nicely and all I could do was to applaud then.

Overall, an enjoyable match where both looked to attack, however I overall managed it better. It was a good match Uga except for a few too many errors!

Now I have to go to the drawing board, because a big challenge is awaiting me: Nadal in the hands of Clog. With my volleying performance from tonight it will be close to impossible, because I have to finish points before my stamina is finished -- it would be a fault trying to out-Nadal Nadal with Davydenko. I may be more experienced than Clog, but this match-up is not favourable for Davydenko. Difficult to judge what has more weight here (experience <-> match-up), hopefully it evens out and we are in for a great fight -- in any case we will have someone in AO Final who did not play on MG Tour!

Stats against Ugadalou

[AlexJasmins]

AlexJasmins def Cerji- 6/2 6/1 6/2

I just did the match of my life, I played incredibly well, we had amazing rallies one of them was 117 Strikes(INSANE), and we were both playign all round the court. I was more versatile, i did dropshots, i opened angles,came to the net i guess that surprised him a bit cause I changed my style a lot. He's anamazing player and one fo the best, and I'm so happy and glad i won it. I wish him the best for 2013

[eliomelma]

117 shots! i posted a video with 101 shots rallies of elias vs Kyuuji! Hope that you have the replay!

[AlexJasmins]

Cerjii said he had the .dmo cause i forgot to save it :S He said he would post it

[eliomelma]

For the semifinalists...please upload your Dmo files in media section, it will be helpful for a video!

[AlexJasmins]

I will save from now on my friend and u ahve AMAZING rallies from our match ull like it