Australian Open 2012 - Day 6

This is where it happening...

Amazing scoring from Djokovic thus far. He cuts through the draw like Borg did in the 70s on clay versus an amateurish field!

Glad Gasquet is showing some consistence! impressive win over Tsip, the man in form.

Tsonga physique making little work of tiny Gil.

Ferrer beats Chela convincingly and Nishikori wins Benneteau in 4 but was only a few points to lose in 3.

Murray breaks early first set

Monfils launches a comeback!

Seen some of the Djoker's match last night and it was simply monstrous. Murray also seems to be playing the tennis of a lifetime. There is probably an epic semis in the making in that part of the draw, as I don't think Murray will hanl over that match without a fight.

Must be scary for the rest of the field. I have not watched Djoko yet but Murray had 2 points to be broken back by talented Llodra but came up with solid shots.

Versus Djoko it's not close but I agree that things could change if a player suddenly make those top guys work.

Llodra playing very well and rushes Murray in all corners but we know he is going to tire very quickly!

Llodra giving himself another 3 break back points in the following game....and misses them again.

Yes very scary! Looks like the Djoker is stronger, move faster and hit the ball with more power than last year!

Great to watch Llodra, variety and excitement.

Jeremy_Kyle wrote:Yes very scary! Looks like the Djoker is stronger, move faster and hit the ball with more power than last year!

Oh yeah. I expected that! You may read my posts about it when people thugh he could not reproduce last year's form, that it took to much out of him. Never believed that.

bogbrush wrote:Great to watch Llodra, variety and excitement.

Yes and if both were playing with natural gut strings, my money would be on Lldra, no doubt...at least for the 1st 2 sets.

Just for fun, I'd love to see a tournament where they have to play with old equipment. I wonder what game many of them would have?

The strings are so important! With natural gut (which seems to be what Llodra uses) the passing become much riskier. But what kills the volleyer is that ball dipping which woudl not be with natural strings.

Completely different dynamics.

I would like to see them play with same racquets...but old strings. We would have a very different ranking I am sure,

Tenez wrote:

Jeremy_Kyle wrote:Yes very scary! Looks like the Djoker is stronger, move faster and hit the ball with more power than last year!

Oh yeah. I expected that! You may read my posts about it when people thugh he could not reproduce last year's form, that it took to much out of him. Never believed that.

Trust me, he is playing a couple of notches above his best last year. That's a very bed news for the Nadull: should he ever pass through to the final he wuold be literally eaten alive. (Can't wait for it, should the meet in the final!!)

But I don't think he will pass through......

Amazing shots from Llodra but they all come back! must be so depressing!

Lendl docet!!

Jeremy_Kyle wrote:Trust me, he is playing a couple of notches above his best last year. That's a very bed news for the Nadull: should he ever pass through to the final he wuold be literally eaten alive. (Can't wait for it, should the meet in the final!!)

I am scared to watch how good is Djoko!

Fed's only hope..if he gets there too...is if Murray and Djoko kill each other in the semi..but even that is unlikely.

Yes Fed's is really the only one who stands a chance, as he makes the ball travel fast rather than himself......

Jeremy_Kyle wrote:Yes Fed's is really the only one who stands a chance, as he makes the ball travel fast rather than himself......

Nice way to put it.

I should try and catch the rest of Novak's matches. Maybe it's time to take him seriously as a contender for the title.

Hurts to see a player with so much talent as Llodra being ridiculed because at 32 he belongs to those players who learnt tennis with completely different dynamics than today.

In a way those guys were robbed cause as they matured, the game completely changed and what they were good at is completely obslete nowadays.

He grew up having Edberg as an idol. He chose the wrong horse I am afraid! Chang would have been more helpful! But then again, difficult to be inspired by Chang.

Jeremy_Kyle wrote:Yes very scary! Looks like the Djoker is stronger, move faster and hit the ball with more power than last year!

I think before anyone starts to get too scared they should bare in mind that Djokovic's opponant was Mahut. An injured Mahut who should really have retired at that...

I'm sure Kukushkin has made many here on 606v2 very happy today.

hawkeye wrote:

Jeremy_Kyle wrote:Yes very scary! Looks like the Djoker is stronger, move faster and hit the ball with more power than last year!

I think before anyone starts to get too scared they should bare in mind that Djokovic's opponant was Mahut. An injured Mahut who should really have retired at that...

Ah! thanks for the details. didn't know.



I actually think Raonic is going to hurt Djoko.

hawkeye wrote:I'm sure Kukushkin has made many here on 606v2 very happy today.

Why so? Is it the lack of love for Monfils, the absence of Monfils fans - or is this a similar case to how the whole of 606 (and now 606v2) championed Horacio Zeballos for a couple of years!

Didn't really mean to make the fangirls overworried with my account.....But please don't worry to much, there's still a chance if Nole gets injured in the process....

Jeremy_Kyle

Just don't want the Nole "fangirls" getting over excited.

I think the only one around left sometimes ago, hope she'll be back soon anyway ......

Tenez wrote:

Jeremy_Kyle wrote:Yes Fed's is really the only one who stands a chance, as he makes the ball travel fast rather than himself......

Nice way to put it.

Very nice way to put it!

Hello



So this is where you've all been hiding; I thought i was going crazy



emancipator

Is anyone watching raonic-Hewitt? I think this could be a good one. Unfortunately Hewitt just doesn't have the wheels anymore but he's still a fighter.

I was watching it but can't get enough bandwidth at the moment. From the few points I saw, Hewitt's got his work cut out for him.

Yep, age has blunted Hewitt's best weapon - his movement.

From what I've seen so far, Raonic will be destroyed by the Djoker

Some good rallies in this one. Good atmosphere too

Raonic seemed to be getting winners off of both sides fairly frequently. Hewitt's other weapons included his return. He should do the standard thing against someone that big and just slice low and perhaps volley as I don't think he'll win from the baseline.

Raonic has big FH, generates easy power, but is too erratic with it. To beat Djoker you need a degree of consistency from the baseline since he gets more balls back than just about anyone on tour.

But definitely, imo, Raonic has the biggest potential of all the youngsters at just 20yrs old.

I actually think the young Hewitt would have won this fairly comfortably

Woooohoooooo Hewitt breaks and will serve for the second set.

Only the third time Raonic has been broken this year .

I have to get back to that match asap.

This looks like it could go to five sets.

Hewitt levels at 1-1

Raonic's legs look so long and his torso so small. A male Sharapova?

"Raonic was voted newcomer of the year by his fellow players"

I can imagine Verdasco wasn't 1 of his voters you know.

Oh dear, 5live talking about how exciting the Murray-Llodra 1 sider was, British journalists are really blinkered when it comes to Murray.

Not watching the match but always felt this was a match Hewitt could win. He has always been a feisty competitor and with home support behind him, difficult to beat.

Josiah Maiestas wrote:Oh dear, 5live talking about how exciting the Murray-Llodra 1 sider was, British journalists are really blinkered when it comes to Murray.

They need to look over their shoulders and see how one sided the other top 4 players' matches were before getting carried away.

You would've thought Murray had invented a new style to this tour or something, when really he's just a taller and harder serving version of Michael Chang, with a weaker mentality.

Great break from Hewitt.

To be fair on Murray JM he looked pretty impressive today. The bits I saw towards the end of the third set though resembled an exhibition match rather than a slam one.

Easy to play that way when the pressure's off but when Tsonga's dancing around like Ali on the other side of the court we'll see if Andy got the stomach for a fight or not.

Murray did bring something new to the tour in 2008 but he gave that up so he could just try and loop the ball endlessly. Hopefully Lendl will talk some sense into him.

I believe Murray will struggle more against Kukushkin than Tsonga sadly, Tsonga's ground game is pretty poor, when you take his serve away he might be looking at a ranking outside the top 25.