Australian Open

[Rogael Naderer]

Richie1308 (Djoker) def Rogael Naderer (Djoker) 3-6 6-1 6-3 7-6

Well what I can say. I had good feeling going into the match as I had beaten him in our last encounter (although he used Ferrer). I took the first set 6-3 without much problems. In the second set, I dropped my intensity just a tad bit and he was all over me.

He changed his tactics a bit and started lulling me into long rallies where he got the better of me. I started feeling I was playing against a 2.0 version of me. I was absolutely stunned by his use of short accelerations/short cross. I have never seen anyone playing that shot so well. He hit that shot on the run as well. Even when stamina was over, he managed to hit short cross winners on half volleys after 30-35 shot rally . He easily took the second set 6-1 and went 2 breaks up in 3rd. I got 1 back and had 4-5 bps to get the second break back but he didnt let me and took the 3rd set 6-3.

4th set followed a similar pattern. He went 5*-1 up serving for the match. I had given up by this time and started going for broke on every shot without any thought process. They started dropping in for some reason and within 10 mins it was 6-6 in 4th. But he was mentally stronger than me in tie break and didn't let the match go to 5 sets.

I am happy with my performance and don't think I could have played any better today. He was just better. Congrats to him and good luck for the next match vs Clog. You will need it

[C4iLL]

Great to read your reports guys
It seems Croatia will have a very though team for Davis cup with a very solid Woowhat in terms of mental !

And it also seems Richie keeps progressing ! The match vs Clog will be interesting

[Richie1308]

Thank you mate ! Really well played too, if I hadn't been able to find the defensive strategy it would have been really complicated. Some rallies were epic with sometimes more than 30 shots in a point. In the 4th set I lost some concentration when serving for the match and here you made excellent winners close the line to come back ! I was fortunate to avoid the 5th set with the tie-break. Good luck for your tournaments in the future, you're good enough to succeed !

Now the match with Clog, while Fox and Vramvrim meet, the low part of the draw is full of French !

[Florian]

Cerji def. Florian 7-6 6-3 6-0 Well i'm afraid i've seen the limits of that game right here, that first set was so long and we both defended well so all those long rallies killed our stamina (4 units left in the general stamina, none on the upper one), i was hoping a better recover of it in the 2nd set but after the first couple games it was back to crippled chars. I don't know how much of manutoo's last update changed the stamina evolution but it simply made the whole match uninteresting so from the end of the 2nd set i didn't want to try anymore, and played lots of points at the net since there isn't any pace on most shots where you attack and since a late-get while defending will mostly produce a long mishit shot and kill your plans if you wanted to move forward. I hope Cerji will post the .dmo so that some ppl can see how boring that was. At least on MG there was always a way to finish the point even if it was unrealistic, here i was just trying to play faster and faster, and even some rallies where we both covered the whole court and the guy attacking was painting the lines, it wasn't enough.

I hope there will be soon enough a way to make attacking more interesting in that game, or clay will be a disaster

Anyway congrats to Jerome because he was the better player there. GL for the rest of the tournie

[Cerji]

Cerji defeats Florian 7/6(1) 6/3 6/0

I pulled off an upset
The first set was really close,I got really lucky to win it. He had a lot of BPs but only managed tu use one out of 6 opportunitys. Whereas I only had 1 chance and took it.
Then he tried to be much more offensive by going to the net and taking the ball early, he did a lot of great shots but it didn't work out in the end. It looks like he didn't have enough patience to go into long rallies everytime which i totally understand

And I agree with Florian i think the stamina goes down too fast and that it gets super hard to do winners.
Thanks and GL in future
Apparently the dmo is too heavy so i' guess i'll figure something out and post it later.
Edit: Ok I compressed it so you can find it in the TE media center

[costiiforzaa]

Cerji def. Florian 7-6 6-3 6-0 Well i'm afraid i've seen the limits of that game right here, that first set was so long and we both defended well so all those long rallies killed our stamina (4 units left in the general stamina, none on the upper one), i was hoping a better recover of it in the 2nd set but after the first couple games it was back to crippled chars. I don't know how much of manutoo's last update changed the stamina evolution but it simply made the whole match uninteresting so from the end of the 2nd set i didn't want to try anymore, and played lots of points at the net since there isn't any pace on most shots where you attack and since a late-get while defending will mostly produce a long mishit shot and kill your plans if you wanted to move forward. I hope Cerji will post the .dmo so that some ppl can see how boring that was. At least on MG there was always a way to finish the point even if it was unrealistic, here i was just trying to play faster and faster, and even some rallies where we both covered the whole court and the guy attacking was painting the lines, it wasn't enough.

I hope there will be soon enough a way to make attacking more interesting in that game, or clay will be a disaster

Anyway congrats to Jerome because he was the better player there. GL for the rest of the tournie

I was caught in the same situation on my match vs Elias which I lost 4/6 6/3 6/3. In the last game of the second set after 0/15 my recovery for the next point was just 1 bar. The rallies before the third set was average 10-12 shots on his service and 3-4 on my service(I'm going very often on the net and playing S&V). But I felt in the start of the second set that I have lack of stamina, so I started in the second set 90 % of the points on my service I was going on the net and 80 % I was playing S&V and again I hadn't no stamina in the last games. Third set was worse. I haven't stamina from the middle of the set (1 or 2 stamina bars after RECOVERY). And you must have in mind that there was no tiebreaks and the match was just 3 sets. If I play 4th set with playing before of it 1-2 tiebreaks I just don't want to think what will happen All this came from that the stamina in the roster was lowered and manutoo lowered the recovery after point,game and set. I really didn't play 2013 already, but I think it will me worse for the stamina when I read the new things about the gameplay. I don't think that it is normal to don't have stamina in the end of the second set! It may happen on women's match, but its not normal in a men's tour where they play two 5 sets matches in 3-4 days.

[Clog]

Clog (Nadal) def. Richie1308 (Djokovic) 6/0 6/7(5) 7/5 6/3

Definitely the hardest match I've ever had to win. For some reason, I felt a little nervous before the match and I understood why from the beginning of the second set to the very end of the match.
I have to say a huge, really huge Congratulations to Richie which I had beaten "easily" a few months ago in a practice set, while he truly made me believe it was gonna be my last match in the tournament today.

I don't have enough time to write the entire report right now, but I'll edit this post to write it because I really want to, since this match teached me a lot. Once again, I'm sure Richie has a great future in front of him.

EDIT :
Well clearly Richie is too humble to tell everything about the match. I was totally dominating in the first set. Actually, I felt really happy to see how offensive I could be, because I'm not sure I've ever been so offensive before.
Mark my words : after winning the first set, I didn't think that the match was already won. Considering the match he played against Rogael (and this is just an example !), I knew Richie was able to come back when he had difficulties. Nevertheless, as he said, he completely changed his strategy, and went for a full-risk gamestyle. He could have made a lot of errors and give me the match, but he played so great that I started to be absolutely unable to attack. All I could do was running, being as reactive as I could, and hoping his ball was out. That was really exausting on the mental aspect. He finally could lead 4/0 in the second set. I didn't want to give up, so even if I don't know how, I finally came back so we could play a tie-break. After I saved two set points (6/3 and 6/4), he finally won the second set after a great cross court BH. The match just began.
The most incredible part of the match started. Once again, I didn't want to give up. Actually, I've never given up, and my mental clearly made me win since my level did not. But he kept on playing incredible, I was completely dominated. I thought my only chance was that he started to feel a little tired and lost his patience. As he said, I think the fact he started to lose stamina helped me. He led 5/1, I kept on fighting, and finally won 7/5. I knew I made a huge step to the victory, but had difficulties to win the 4th set anyway. I had a break opportunity, I was leading 4/2 and (if I remember) I had game points to lead 5/2, but he came back to 4/3. A few minutes later, I finally won 6/3.

I don't know if his strategy is "the one" because you really need to focus from the beginning to the very end since not making unforced errors is quite difficult when you stay stuck to your baseline as he did. But the idea is great.
Congratulations to Richie, I'm still a little tired from yesterday. I think your 2013 season will be a great year.

[Richie1308]

Clog (Nadal) def Richie(Djokovic) : 6-0/6-7/7-5/6-3

Big match with Clog ! Completely dominated in the first set, no idea of what I could do. Then I go for a "full risk" tactic which brings me to 4-0 in the second before he comes back, but I finally win the tie-break. Then I lead 5-1 in the third set but I have no chance to conclude and get beaten 7-5 in this set, and then I am dominated in the fourth set that he gets 6-3.
I really enjoyed to play, I had to keep attacking everywhere I could and I found the solution to get the lead of the match for a while. However, even though I absolutely don't find Nadal cheated, stamina was still a huge problem : at this end of the 3rd set I started suffering from that and without playing bad I took 6 games in the row before trying all I could in the final set, without really hoping for a success since my shots were too slow.. So a bit frustrated at this end by the stamina.
Anyway really well played Clog, I really enjoyed the match and hope you'll do great in the rest of the tournament !

[C4iLL]

Leading 5-1 to loose 7-5 wow

[Richie1308]

I've posted the replay.

[C4iLL]

R32 : AlexJasmins (Murray) vs C4iLL (Gasquet) = 6-2, 6-1, 0-6, 6-4

Well, this a two parts match ! Unfortunately I began to play at a the top level after two sets down...

First & Second set : Alex played at a great level since the beginning, hiting awesome passing and lobs everywhere on the court. He was offensive, and I didn't expect him at such a level against my net play.
On my side I played at an average level, which would have been sufficient to beat a lot of people here, but not to disturbe Alex.

Third set : as soon as this set began, I increase a lot my level, return far better, variate a lot between cross court acceleration, huge spins and net approaches. This result in a very hard battle at the beginning of the set on his service.
Battle I finally won after several 40-a... I told myself "a new match begins, you can come back".

As it was very hard to win my service since beginning, I thought it was very important to get a second break to have a chance to win the set. And I managed to get it to lead 4-0 and 5-0. On his service, he just let it go and then the score was 6-0.

Fourth set : I don't know why as I was dominating, but my fingers began to shake, first time I see that in my itst career !
Result of that : I won my first service game with a lot of energy deployed (it was like 5 times 40-a), and he won his own very easily, which put even more pressure on me.

He then logically broke me two times in a row, to lead 5-2. At that moment, all my stress left, I broke him back to come back 5-4 and I really thought I could come back as I dominated a bit. But with some good tactics, he led 40-15. I saved one match point... The second was crazy : I saved a shot almost on the public, he thought the point was finished so he stopped playing but the ball was in, so he played it, and I think I finally miss the ball after several very stressful exchanges.

Conclusion : globally he deserves the victory. I'm disappointed anyway because I found too late my top level and the right tactical answer. Gran Slam matches in TE is definitely the best tennis experience you can have with a tennis game

[eliomelma]

Great !Curious to see this match point ! What about Te 2013?
P.s. My friend, wait for me in the Ade... I will come soon...

[Woowhat]

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

Good report. I was on the ropes many times and if buther had won it would be deserved. This was my first serious match in this game that went over 5 sets and I must say it was something completely different. Many doubts during match, when butcher was serving for 2-0 I thought he is simple better that day and didn't belive i can turn things around, same happened when i lost the 3rd and start feeling a little tired with the match. But then i decided to just go point by point and somehow everything went better.
Stamina was not a issue for me because unlike my opponent I was hitting my backhands with a lot of topspin while he was constantly going for accelerations, especially short ones out wide. Like he said we played very aggresive with lots of short points so at the end the energy bars were decent like you can see in the picture.
If we were only hitting from the baseline I can imagine our Federer's going dead after 2 or 3 sets. Thats a problem I guess, baseliners are fast and must hit strong all the time because unlike in real tennis players rarely make errors if not pushed so when 2 good baseliners play like a wall its just a matter of time when it will become painful to finish the point.
At the end I must also thank butcher because a couple of days before match after talking with him I realized that I was playing too passive with Fed. I changed that and it helped me greatly to win. Next time be more careful who you give advices
GG and I hope we will have a remach in Zagreb.

[Richie1308]

You did really great with Richard C4ill ! Great job, even though you weren't able to go all the way !

[spencercarlos]

Felipe def Spencercarlos 60 60 63

Not much i can say, Felipe is playing great.

But as for the game as it is now, its incredibly flawed with this stamina feature, its simply outrageous that you hit 3,4 straight hard shots on the line, and Nole (in this case) not only chases them down, but gives me NO short balls at all, he defends them with hight topspin back on the baseline, the point starts over, and he is actually full on stamina (in comparisson to me) so all i can do is pray he misses my eventual sitter because there is no way you can defend with Federer. Neither is a good idea to play the points with full accelerations from the start because you may end up winning a few points, but next thing you know is that you have no stamina for the next couple of points so you are pretty much toasted.

So for now no more Federer for me, sadly.

Good luck the rest Felipe.