Australian Open

[costiiforzaa]

G.Dimitrov (BUL) def. Martan (Fish) 7/6(3) 4/6 6/3 6/3
I was little frustrated about this match, because I was going to play vs Fish and I really have bad memories from Ugadalou playing with Fish.

I really don't remember really good the first two sets were played two days ago and because of the high temperature the match was delayed, but I remember that we played some AWESOME points on the net (he on the net, me from the baseline). But I was the more experienced player from the two so I won the first set in the tiebreak 7/3. Second set he broke me early, then I rebroke, but then he broke me again and tied the sets. So then, because of the high temperature the match was delayed. Here are some stats from this day: winners/errors : +19 for me and +15 for him, 4 aces from me and 10 aces from him (he was serving great!), net appr : 17/28=61% for me and 22/39=56% for him.

Today we continue our match, but we two wasn't on our best play so the match wasn't as good as on Friday.

In the 3rd and the 4th sets I broke him early and keep my serve with great serves and net rushing. We two were making more errors that we had to do. And we two wasn't so good on the net (hit very easy balls in out, while we just had to hit the slice button to win the point ). So here are the most important stats from today: 1st serve: me: 72% ; he: 73 %. 12 aces by me ( I was serving like Isner in this match!) and 5 for him. Net rushing : 20/28=71 % for me and 17/30=57 % for him. BPC : 3/7 for me and 0 for him. Return points won : 44% for me and 21% for him.

It was a good match. I wish Martan all good and good luck. When I see how the other guys in the R64 are winning their matches with giving only 1-2 games to their opponents, I'm just thinking : "Oh my god, where am I going"

[MarkNL]

MarkNL (Haas) def. Tome83 (Nadal) 6-4 3-6 4-6 6-2 9-7
Wow, this was for sure the hardest match I ever played

I won the 1st game easily and I thought, oh, perhaps this could be a quick match. I still thought, I could win in 3 after the 1st set. But then I got broken halfway the 2nd and I saw the match slipping away. Tome served extremely well and I couldn't get a hold on his serve. After I lost the 3rd I got very frustrated because I felt like we were pretty equal but still I was down 2 sets to 1. Then in the 4th I got a quick break and at the end of the set I broke again for a 6-2 win in the 4th set. The 5th set was a mighty struggle. I don't remember exactly but I think the only break in the whole set came in the last game. Throughout the set we both had some breakpoint opportunities but everytime the server would pull out the game. At 8-7* 40-30 I got my 1st matchpoint and I converted it right away after Tome hit the ball long. I think all in all we played 2,5 real life hours and I'm really happy I managed to win. It could have gone either way though, huge credits to Tome83 as well because he played an amazing match.

[VMoe86]

I've added the poll to this thread and as help for making a decision one can watch this video of eliomelma:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x607o7l1Ouk

Someone using Djokovic or Murray will win.

EDIT: Those who voted in the previous thread have to vote here again.

[Clog]

I voted for Cerji, but I have to say I used a coinflip to decide between Cerji and Florian. I think that seeing these two guys meeting in an early R32 is pretty sad, I think this would have been a great final.

[C4iLL]

Huge work Elio for the video !! The match point played between Florian and Alex really looked AO final 2012 in real life ^^

[VMoe86]

Whoever voted for me has to check if he has not made a mistake. It's not just that Davydenko has no chance, it's kind of destiny. Davydenko won Shanghai and WTF in 2009, just to lose from a set and break up against Federer in the QF of AO 2010 (after Federer took a toilet break) -- this is kind of my ITST TE Tour story (three years later) and then a wrist injury will sideline me for quite some time.

[AlexJasmins]

Congrats for the amazing video u did man And for ur Jasmine --' LOL

[Elias]

MarkNL (Haas) def. Tome83 (Nadal) 6-4 3-6 4-6 6-2 9-7
Wow, this was for sure the hardest match I ever played

I won the 1st game easily and I thought, oh, perhaps this could be a quick match. I still thought, I could win in 3 after the 1st set. But then I got broken halfway the 2nd and I saw the match slipping away. Tome served extremely well and I couldn't get a hold on his serve. After I lost the 3rd I got very frustrated because I felt like we were pretty equal but still I was down 2 sets to 1. Then in the 4th I got a quick break and at the end of the set I broke again for a 6-2 win in the 4th set. The 5th set was a mighty struggle. I don't remember exactly but I think the only break in the whole set came in the last game. Throughout the set we both had some breakpoint opportunities but everytime the server would pull out the game. At 8-7* 40-30 I got my 1st matchpoint and I converted it right away after Tome hit the ball long. I think all in all we played 2,5 real life hours and I'm really happy I managed to win. It could have gone either way though, huge credits to Tome83 as well because he played an amazing match.

Nice one Any comment about the stamina management in this long match ? Did the stamina depleted too fast, or is it acceptable, etc ? Manutoo tweaked (lowered a bit) the general stamina recovery in between games/sets (main bar) in the last builds, but we also scaled down a bit our stamina stats lately so it also depletes a bit faster during the rallies. Thus it's important to have your feedback on this one, 'cause we are currently playing on a slow surface, and clay is coming next.

About AO winner, i would have bet on Vmoe without much hesitation if he picked Nadal, Djoker or Murray. But he likes to gimp himself and picked Davydenko so it'll be nice if he can make it to the SF or Final with , though i think the crown will be too far to reach.

Cerji, Florian, AlexJ are probably the ones who can make it. Kyuuji doesn't like slow surfaces. I think AlexJ can do well with Murray along with his playstyle, so he got my vote here.

Watch out some outsiders though, Nadal is still ... strong, and Clog can do very well with him, and seeing Butcher defeated him recently using Federer (on indoors though), i guess he can be pretty dangerous as well, Fox and Uga using Murray can be though opponents as well.

[Robbin92]

Robbin92 (ferrer) def. Pigrosofo (gulbis) 6-0 5-7 6-2 6-0

After two months of rest, without any preparations I started the season pretty good in one of the strangest matches I ever played on here. Maybe due to the fact he was using Gulbis ^^.
In the first set I played good and he was having diffuculties with the latency so it was a quick walkover.
In the second set I proceeded as before and got to a 5-2 lead, with closer games than before but still relatively confortable.
At this point Ihe changed his gameplan a bit (hit a lot of lines) and I couldn't adjust to it and lost 5 games in a row.
After that we decided to rehost and we had a perfect connection now (though we had around 5 desyncs in my first servicegame). I could raise my level again and he started making more and more errors as I put him under more pressure.
Thanks for the match Pigrosofo and I'm sure you will make some nice result in the challenger circuit soon.

Now up for my match against Clog with Nadal, which will be a very hard match for me.
Seemingly I should have the upper hand as the number 8 seeded, but I know better as I'm playing against a better caracter with probably an user who is in a better form than I.
Though I'm prepared to fight and looking forward to the match.

[Algo4]

Algo4 (Wawrinka) d ddotson (Delpo) 6/1 6/2 3/6 6/4
I really feel a little off with my game, like no player really suits me, mainly on service. Anyway, good game and good luck for next tournaments

[Rogael Naderer]

Rogael Naderer (Djoker) - El Croato (Federer) 4-6 6-4 7-6 6-7 6-4

I dont recall much really except the 5th set where i was 5-1 double break up and had 1-2 mps on his serve. He saved them. I had chance to serve it out at 5*-2 but he broke me twice. But I broke him at 5-4* to win the final set 6-4.

Quite a topsy turvy match really. I think we broke each other maybe 15-17 times or so each. I dont think I have served so atrociously ever. For 2 sets almost every other sliced second serve resulted in a DF that i started using no direction button for second serve . Somehow it was back to normal in set 3. My ground game wasn't impressive but wasn't bad as well, apart from failing to putaway no shot mid court loopers, it was quite fine. Good thing for me was return was going well. He played well, I was surprised how well he struck his one handed backhand and changed direction. I really thought he hit it better than his FH. He was a break down in 4th set as well but played some good shots to come back.

Enjoyable match but surely I could have made it less painful for myself Good luck for the rest of the season El Croato.

[C4iLL]

Rahh Croato, one day I'm sure you will explode !
Defeat in 3 sets of Indiantonike as well, beware of Butcher !

[El Croato]

I would also like to write a little bit about the match between Naderer and myself. This AO second round actually turned out to be my Final. Of course, I am disappointed to be already out after the second round, but I am very happy with my performance. I think that for now, I cannot play better than I did against Naderer, especially during the last two sets of the match where I made shots I would never have suspected to be able to make.

Like Naderer already said, there were a lot of breaks in this match. To give you a telling example, I think that we systematically broke each other until 4-4 in the first set. In the first three sets, I would say that we played some decent points, but nothing out of the extraordinary, but then came the final two sets, which were literally epic given the magnificent rallies we had to play. Both of us needed smart strategy throughout that part of the match to win each point of the match, which was closely fought.

The fourth set tie-break was one of the strangest I have ever played. With Naderer leading 2-1, I succeeded in getting back to level with a weird shot I remember very well. Actually, I was defending the most part of the point as my opponent was hitting me out of the court with very powerful backhands and forehands; at a certain point, I unwittingly hit a very weak shot and the ball bounced right after the net. Naderer actually wanted to volley it, but instead of doing so, he struck a very powerful forehand into the net and instantly threw his racket, which made me laugh out loud. I didn't know why but I couldn't stop laughing, maybe I needed to let off steam. The fact remains – however – that he quickly won the next two points. At 4-2 for him, I managed to recover from my laughter and tried to get myself motivated while saying to myself : « Come on, man! If you ever want to achieve a great result at a major tournament of the ITST tour, you do have to win this tie-break; otherwise, you will always remain a mere onlooker on the tour. It is now or never, buddy! » Right after this motivation session, my level started to go up and I finally snatched the tie-break.

I was extremely happy that I was back in the game and had the opportunity to win it. Well, my optimism seemed to be quickly dying out as Naderer was running straight to victory, leading 5-1.
I am sure that if I had played this match last season, I would have lost it by 6-1, but now is a different story. I can rely more on my mental strength and feel that I don't give up and admit defeat too rapidly, as I often did last season. I began to play the best (virtual) tennis of my life and got my way back to 5-4; furthermore, I was on serve with an opportunity to level at 5-5. Unfortunately, I inexplicably cracked up although I strongly believed that I could snatch a win there. However, I have to say that my opponent played awesome tennis as well and that his victory is well-deserved. No need to say that he showed fair-play throughout our match. Also, I noticed that he perfectly masters the short accelerations, which hurt me very much during our match. I would like to congratulate him on his victory once again and wish him the best of luck in this tournament as well as in the whole 2013 season.

As for me, I don't know if I could perform at such level ever again. I think that if I want to improve, I will be forced to spend more time on playing TE, but I fear that I won't have that time. I have to admit that my goal here is to win a major tournament, but with all the new rising stars and great players out there, I just have to accept it: I will always be consigned to outsider status at Grand Slams and other major tournaments. So all I can do in my next matches is playing with the following philosophy: always giving my all to make it as difficult as possible for my future opponents to win matches against me.

[eliomelma]

R32 Eliomelma (Federer) def Napalm (Del Potro) 6-4 7-6 6-3

After my last December 6 Match and with few matches played in last months, i returned to Tennis Elbow and in last days training a lot to have a good form in Australian Open. After round 64 won aganist Didine ( very sportmanship player)today i won against Napalm.Before the match i felt that will lose because i saw highest Elo and my opponent that played moe than 1000 matches while i played only about 240 matches, so i was a bit worried for this match.
So in the first set i broke him early and went to 2-0. But in a bit he rebroke me and 2-2 was the score. I made in first set many unforced errors but could broke him again on 3-3 and went to 4-3.On 5-4 for me Napalm had 4 break point but i was able to escape and win first set 6-4. In the second Napalm Broke me on led on 2-0 but i could rebroke him for 2-2. My opponent was very fairplay man because on important point , points that i won and after this there was a Desync, he left me to score an ace to regive me the point . we arrived on 5-4 and napalm had one set point, but i could save it and arrive to tie break. My opponent in first 2 set made me craxy with backhand short accelerations on my backhand! In tie break i was able to win it 7-2 playing a good level. After tiebreak lost Napalm was demoralized and in third set i won the set 6-3 and the match. I think that the difference was on the bad day on serve of Napalm, Del Potro's serves never surpassed 200 km/h, and this was the key of the match. Moreover in this match i was helped 4-5 times by the net and my opponent remained calm, in his place i would have broken many raquet. So good luck to rest of the season Napalm, very sportmanship player! For me, i think that my run will be stopped in R16 by Carlos or Felipe, i need more regularity and i can reach this with many trainig matches, but i will try to play a great R16

[Martan]

G.Dimitrov (BUL) def. Martan (Fish) 7/6(3) 4/6 6/3 6/3

It was a good match. I wish Martan all good and good luck. When I see how the other guys in the R64 are winning their matches with giving only 1-2 games to their opponents, I'm just thinking : "Oh my god, where am I going"

Don't worry, you played with very strong opponent instead of others who played with newbies