Australian Open

[Robbin92]

Clog (Nadal) def. 6-1 6-1 6-2 Robbin (Ferrer)

In my opinion the scoreline is a bitt harsh as I felt I had some chances in the second and third set.
The match lasted for about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Imagine how long it had been if the scoreline was closer!
For me, this match exactly showed why I lost a bit of my interest in the game.
It was almost impossible to hit winners, at least for me and I think also for him.
The first point was a 50+ rally and after three games (1-2 30-15 from my stand) the game froze and I noticed I only had 7 out of 11 life bars open.
We had to restart with full stamina and I lost my focus, got broken and let the set go.
In the second set we played many long points leading to a empty top stamina bar and from game four or so we were on the lowest life stamina possible (I suppose 4 bars) which meant we both had 1 or 2 accels to finish of points which was nearly impossible.
Highlight (actually laughable bad) was a 113! shot rally which I lost, just as many of the long rallies (I think we had more than 15 times a 40+ shot rallies this set) due to the fact my wings were slightly less good than Nadals.
In the third set I managed to win some more of the long rallies, which led to a rebreak on my side after I was broken in the first game after being 40-15 up. Clog took over again and I still had some break opportunities to come back but some air swings (lack of rhythm) and good play of him destroyed the opportunities and he steamrolled to his well deserved victory.
Good luck in the rest of the tournament to my opponent and if someone got 1h20 of his life spare, I will post the .dmo in the media section.

[Clog]

Clog (Nadal) def. Robbin92 (Ferrer) 6/1 6/1 6/2

As a few matches I played in Doha, the score seems to show i was much stronger than Robbin, but I wasn't. The match was pretty long, I couldn't imagine how tiring it would have been if we had to play longer or more sets but considering our defenders caracters and the way we both play (watching Robbin playing was like looking in a mirror for me considering the gamestyle). The rallies were long and stressful, as the 113 strikes (!) we played at 4/1 in the second set.
So I have difficulties to analyze the match in order to tell what made me win. At first, I thought it was the fact I used a stronger caracter, but I don't think that's true considering the fact that he had more stamina than me during almost the entire match. So finally, I think this is due to two things : luck and patience. Maybe Robbin lost his patience a little bit too much during important points, considering he tried difficult and risky shots to end the point while I was trying to keep the ball in the court as I had no stamina left.

Anyway, I have to say that I remember something C4iLL said about the "playing too much" thing. I honestly think that playing a lot of matches and like all the time can be a really bad thing on the long term considering the exaustion it brings. Now that I won this match and considering that I have a little time left until I know who will be my next opponent, I will rest, cuz I clearly need it.
That was a great match from Robbin who is still a top player to me, considering the game he produced without preparation.

[VMoe86]

Good luck in the rest of the tournament to my opponent and if someone got 1h20 of his life spare, I will post the .dmo in the media section.

I have watched the first set and the first two games of the second set and there is still one hour to go for the rest of the match. Maybe I'll watch the rest, but I think I've seen it all.

just as many of the long rallies (I think we had more than 15 times a 40+ shot rallies this set) due to the fact my wings were slightly less good than Nadals

Ferrer's wings are not just slightly less good, the difference is quite a margin (it won't stay that way in 1.13, that's for sure). In addition, that serve is a liability and due to his height (10cm smaller than Nadal) he has less reach.

[Robbin92]

I have watched the first set and the first two games of the second set and there is still one hour to go for the rest of the match. Maybe I'll watch the rest, but I think I've seen it all.

You shouldn't have watched first set, as I said after the break I tried some things and basically gave the set away
Though respect that you can watch such an (in my eyes boring ) match. If you want to watch some more watch the third set.
Like Clog said he had more patience than me, as I saw that if I didn't took some risk at some point in the rally every rally would go 60+ strikes.

[Ugadalou]

For me, this match exactly showed why I lost a bit of my interest in the game.
It was almost impossible to hit winners.

If hitting winners was your tactic, then picking Ferrer didn't help you much,did it?

That's not something irrealistic, he simply doesn't possess a weapon to do that on a regular basis.Against Novak it looked impossible for Ferrer to hit a winner, he finished the match with just 10!

[inseedious]

Richie (Djokovic) vs inseedious (Federer) 7-6(4) 7-5 2-6 7-6(4).
It was not my best match. I was not in my best condition cause I had 3 exams in the last 9 days and I also had internet issues that made me unable to play till yesterday. It was the first match I played on TE2013 and I knew that he was starting with an advantage also because he was using Nole, a very big problem for Fed users. In fact, I was overhelmed when I tried to keep some rythm and his crosscourt short accels were unreachable most of the time.

I can call this the "twilight" match, cause it was an alternation of light and darkness, with lots of blackouts from both parts. Lots of breaks and we often scored streaks of games, instead of a head to head.
I scored more points than him, so I'm very frustated after this defeat, also because I was annoyed a lot by his luck (he won about 5-6 points with the net and other 10 thanks to impossibile reach shots that landed on deep lines or wide accelerations touching just a piece of line), especially because most of these points were scored in very important situations. I felt very uncomfortable also because I couldn't change a lot the rythm cause short slices are changed since yesterday and I discovered this after a set and however it was hard to hit them cause I wasn't used to it.

I think I served for all sets but he was good at coming back into the game in most important situations and he was also helped by his luck. I have a lot to recriminate to myself cause I could win in straight set without lots of problems, but I also clearly saw the limits of this game, or at least the difficulties of its balance: he was just able to hit lines with short accels whenever he wanted and even on difficult balls, and sometimes he was able to hit the ball just a moment after the bounce and to still hit a good accel (it's a Nole's feature in this game). On the other side, my Fed's winners were 50% on fh and 50% on bh, cause I wasn't comfortable hitting inside out cause I think Fed need more accuracy with fh cause inside out preparation is very short. So it was better to charge a bit more the bh than moving to hit a fh.

However it was a good experience overall cause I'll try to become better to take a revenge!

[Robbin92]

For me, this match exactly showed why I lost a bit of my interest in the game.
It was almost impossible to hit winners.

If hitting winners was your tactic, then picking Ferrer didn't help you much,did it?

That's not something irrealistic, he simply doesn't possess a weapon to do that on a regular basis.Against Novak it looked impossible for Ferrer to hit a winner, he finished the match with just 10!

In the end hitting winners is always my tactic as a skilled opponent will never make enough faults to let me win the match.
For example Clog hits around 4-6 forced errors and 0-2 unforced errors a set.
The facts were we played 21 short, 28 medium and 68(!) long rallies, so I certainly didn't played a all out attack winner tactic.
My errors were often B1 or top spin shots which I aimed between the lines, but went out due to a lack of stamina.
I don't want this game which has so much potential to become a riskfree just hit the ball back game.
That is what I felt in this match and I fear for the gravel season as the court will become even slower.
And that's why I made the statement about losing interest in the game.

[Algo4]

For me, this match exactly showed why I lost a bit of my interest in the game.
It was almost impossible to hit winners.

If hitting winners was your tactic, then picking Ferrer didn't help you much,did it?

That's not something irrealistic, he simply doesn't possess a weapon to do that on a regular basis.Against Novak it looked impossible for Ferrer to hit a winner, he finished the match with just 10!

In the end hitting winners is always my tactic as a skilled opponent will never make enough faults to let me win the match.
For example Clog hits around 4-6 forced errors and 0-2 unforced errors a set.
The facts were we played 21 short, 28 medium and 68(!) long rallies, so I certainly didn't played a all out attack winner tactic.
My errors were often B1 or top spin shots which I aimed between the lines, but went out due to a lack of stamina.
I don't want this game which has so much potential to become a riskfree just hit the ball back game.
That is what I felt in this match and I fear for the gravel season as the court will become even slower.
And that's why I made the statement about losing interest in the game.

that's what elite is for. I think it deserved at least a longer tryout.

[C4iLL]

The problem is perhaps not that complicated : the wings power/precision were too much lowered in comparaison to the slight speed decrease. This results in a real enability to score winners with tier2 characters vs the top guys and therefore far long rallies than before.

This is just logical : the fastest characters of the roster are still very fast, and guys from tier 2 got some -6 in wings sometimes.

Thus, I really think we don't need Elite : it just make the matches less creative, unplayable at the net and just very restrictive in temrs of tactics. By the way, the stats matchs of most ITST 2012 big matches 2012 were realistic in terms of ratio "winners / errors".
And I don't even talk about the service percentage and aces which are perfectly realistic for several months now due to the work of the staff.

[Algo4]

Yeah, that's another way to put it, I played some Wawrinka (me) vs Nadal matchs and I think I didn't do more than 10 winners and it is true that problem there is Nadal's speed (or its speed in relation to other players wings)

[Marco_Theo_81]

kyuuji ( Novak Djokovic ) def. Marco_Theo_81 ( Ruggerio Federizzi ) 6:2 6:3 7:6 (4)


Not much to say. I started so very bad in the game. Was very nervous facing the nr. 1. Had my opportunities, but didn't realized the big points. Last set i focussed as much I was able to. He played great, the third set. Nothing against the first two sets kyuuji, but I felt at the end of both sets, there was more for me in these sets. Did some really stupid errors. But again, you deserved 100% the win, no discussion about this!!
Well, good luck kyuuji for the next round. Hard oppononents are waiting.

Here some stats:

kyuuji // Marco

First serve: 61 / 103 = 59% // 66 / 92 = 72%
Aces: 16 // 8
Winners: 63 // 50
Errors: 32 // 27
Net attacks: 13 / 17 = 76% // 11 / 17 = 65%
Breaks: 3 / 13 = 23% // 0 / 5 = 0%
Points total: 106 // 89


ciao ragazzi

Ruggerio

[C4iLL]

Good performance Marco anyway, I'm sure you won't retire after that !

[butcher]

butcher - Woowhat 7-6(8) 6-7(3) 6-4 3-6 3-6



Great match between two croats.

First set was very though. No one had a single break point. I was leading 6-2 in tie break and almost lost it. Woowhat had 7-6 but i managed to win 10-8.
I was leading 5-2 in second set and was serving for set (5-4), but Woowhat broke me and we reached tie break again. He was better in this tie break and won 7-3. A shame for me, losing this set. It would be hard for him to win after 0-2. Another thing that was bad for me was that i had a lot less stamina than him. Don't have any experience in these kind of matches and I'm pretty bad at managing the stamina. This is the thing I should improve. Very though set again. Total points almost equal (42-41).
Third set was pretty different then first two. I broke Woowhat and lead 3-1 but he rebroke me on 4-4. Luckily for me, i broke him right after, did well on my serve and won the set.
In forth set Woowhat was better and he deserved the set. He broke me and was doing pretty good on his serve. This is the set when desync started to appear pretty often and it was annoying. There were times when we played 15 shots or more in one rally and then desync...
I had no chance in fifth set. Woowhat outplayed me completely. I was leading 2-0 but lost service game 3 times. My confidence was pretty low after he first rebroke me. He was starting to play better and better and my level in this set was too low to beat him. He had 7 break chances.

Deserved victory for Woowhat. We were both playing very attackive tennis. Lots of volleying on both sides, especially mine. Very though match and almost equal total points won in the end.

Beware of the Woowhat. He is very dangerous

[eliomelma]

3h46 min?!?!???!!maybe simulated?

[butcher]

3h46 min?!?!???!!maybe simulated?

yep. 1h and 46 min is the real duration