2019 Australian Open...ATP 2000...Melbourne, Australia

[stroke]

Agassi certainly had a great return, but he certainly did not have the large complete range window of Novak. Agassi gave up some aces. Hard to believe that Novak would not be at least a co-favorite at the FO after than performance. I do not ever remember Nadal being just routined in a match like that.

[arturohernandez]

I am certain he is not as fast as he was in his 20's, but I just feel that is not the issue. Novak has hit a hard court level in
these last 2 matches to me that is that is new territory for tennis. He is looking every bit he 3rd(at least) best player in the history of tennis, and it looks like he has #15 here in the bag.

Like a rebirth of Agassi with the movement and serve of Sampras.

[stroke]

Does Nadal seem just a little bit less able to run down balls? Has he lost a 1/2 or 1/4 step?

I am certain he is not as fast as he was in his 20's, but I just feel that is not the issue. Novak has hit a hard court level in
these last 2 matches to me that is that is new territory for tennis. He is looking every bit the 3rd(at least) best player in the history of tennis, and it looks like he has #15 here in the bag.

[arturohernandez]

Nadal just looks vs Novak like he does vs no one else. He looks uncomfortable, as he is as Novak is giving him no options. Novak in form like this just treats the Nadal forehand like an average pro fh. And the Novak return of serve as McEnroe says is just the best ever. If Nadal cannot bully with his fh, which he can vs about anyone else, he is out of answers in seems.

Does Nadal seem just a little bit less able to run down balls? Has he lost a 1/2 or 1/4 step?

[stroke]

Nadal just looks vs Novak like he does vs no one else. He looks uncomfortable, as he is as Novak is giving him no options. Novak in form like this just treats the Nadal forehand like an average pro fh. And the Novak return of serve as McEnroe says is just the best ever. If Nadal cannot bully with his fh, which he can vs about anyone else, he is out of answers it seems.

[arturohernandez]

So far, it is a completely unbothered Novak, just looking so comfortable out there in all aspects. He is once again making Nadal look like no one else can. We will see.

Textbook Djokovic. Attacking Nadal's forehand. Nadal finally finding a rhythm. Starting to use slice effectively. But has to play lower percentage tennis.

[stroke]

So far, it is a completely unbothered Novak, just looking so comfortable out there in all aspects. He is once again making Nadal look like no one else can. We will see.

[stroke]

My bad on Novak's GS total. I lost my way on that one. He is of course tied with Sampras at 14. I would already give him the historical edge on Sampras as Novak has won all 4 majors.

[arturohernandez]

Novak is tied with Sampras now. They have 14 slams each. A win would see Novak pip Sampras with 15.

A lot of people are erring towards Nadal and I can understand why, but he hasn't played anyone like Novak yet. Stephanos underperformed and went away against Nadal, all the rest were easy fodder. So he hasn't really been tested yet.

Nadal's record against Novak since 2011 is identical to Roger's since 2011. Novak has played Nadal 29 times since 2011 and won 20. He's played Roger 29 times since 2011 and won 20. Identical.

I have never seen Nadal play as well as he did against Novak last year in their Wimbledon semi, yet he lost. He did everything right though and was only a centimetre away from winning.

His new serve won't help him. It's not enough and nowhere near as good as other players on the tour, all of which Novak handles with aplomb. For me, it's the return that's key for Nadal. He needs to stand right in when returning on the deuce side to avoid getting pulled wide at all costs. He needs to attack returns fiercely and take away Novak's time to stop him him patrolling the baseline with his control and movement. Most of all it's the forehand up the line that could make all the difference. Nadal cannot hurt Djokovic with his crosscourt forehand like he can others; Novak can't hurt Nadal that much either with his backhand (what makes Novak's backhand so great is it can deal with anything coming in), but if he can pull Novak cross court enough and then pull the trigger up the line, it could turn the tide. Nadal is hitting his forehand really well at the moment, better than ever maybe.

It's at tough call but I am still going with Novak. I just think he can meet anything Nadal can throw at him.

I'll miss the first set and a bit tomorrow. A summary from someone of what's happening would great.

Let's hope for a five setter....

I agree! Nadal has to play a different game. A tough ask in a five set match on hard courts. Novak in 4.

[stotty]

Copy leave. I would not have thought it possible to get back to the level of intrigue of last year's AO Final, but I think we are there. This is a massive match in a lot of ways and it is so great that both players are relatively rested and in such good form. Nadal should he win will be at 18 GS titles with the FO on tap. He would be the prohibitive favorite to make it 19 there, 1 behind Fed a that point. Novak could tie Sampras at 14 with a win, at is is certainly possible to see him making a run at the GS title record, though less likely than Nadal. Fed in all likelihood will have his last best chance for 1 more at Wimbledon this year. I have a feeling that Nadal will get #18 here.

Novak is tied with Sampras now. They have 14 slams each. A win would see Novak pip Sampras with 15.

A lot of people are erring towards Nadal and I can understand why, but he hasn't played anyone like Novak yet. Stephanos underperformed and went away against Nadal, all the rest were easy fodder. So he hasn't really been tested yet.

Nadal's record against Novak since 2011 is identical to Roger's since 2011. Novak has played Nadal 29 times since 2011 and won 20. He's played Roger 29 times since 2011 and won 20. Identical.

I have never seen Nadal play as well as he did against Novak last year in their Wimbledon semi, yet he lost. He did everything right though and was only a centimetre away from winning.

His new serve won't help him. It's not enough and nowhere near as good as other players on the tour, all of which Novak handles with aplomb. For me, it's the return that's key for Nadal. He needs to stand right in when returning on the deuce side to avoid getting pulled wide at all costs. He needs to attack returns fiercely and take away Novak's time to stop him him patrolling the baseline with his control and movement. Most of all it's the forehand up the line that could make all the difference. Nadal cannot hurt Djokovic with his crosscourt forehand like he can others; Novak can't hurt Nadal that much either with his backhand (what makes Novak's backhand so great is it can deal with anything coming in), but if he can pull Novak cross court enough and then pull the trigger up the line, it could turn the tide. Nadal is hitting his forehand really well at the moment, better than ever maybe.

It's at tough call but I am still going with Novak. I just think he can meet anything Nadal can throw at him.

I'll miss the first set and a bit tomorrow. A summary from someone of what's happening would great.

Let's hope for a five setter....

[don_budge]

Stefanos Tsitsipas...In His Own Words

ST: Yes...…he did surprise me. HIs serve is not...…it’'s not the biggest serve on the tour. It’'s a pretty average serve. It’'s annoying to not getting close to breaking him at all. He’'s just very aggressive from the baseline...…that’'s just pretty much it. But I’'m...…I mean…...I don’t know. I really can’'t think of something positive from that match. Probably the second set, which is the one that I got closer to. The rest...…it kind of felt in a way as if it wasn'’t tennis so much like the other matches I played. It felt like a different dimension of tennis completely. He gives you no rhythm. He plays...…just…...a different game style than the rest of the players and he has this talent that no other player...…I have never seen a player have this…...he makes you play bad. I would call that a talent.

ST: I probably say that the last time I felt like this...…good question…...in Paris Rolex Masters. I felt pretty much the same when I lost in the second round I think. I felt really not in the match. I felt like I was somewhere else. I was trying pump myself up a little bit…...just give a reason to be on the court but still couldn’'t find one. That was also a bad match that I played there. Actually I practiced with him...…I practiced with Rafa the day before I played Dhamir Dzumar...…and, I mean practice is different. But that was the tournament that Rafa had to pull out. We had the practice and after the practice he had to pull out...…the very next day...…I don’t know...…I felt…...I was playing horrible on the court. It wasn’'t me. That’s what I am thinking. That’'s what I said before.

"Nadal has a talent for making you play poorly."

“Grunting is one thing but there’s a bigger issue with Nadal and that’s the amount of time it takes him to play a tennis match.”-Marin Cilic

Stefanos Tsitsipas gave a very strange assessment as to how it felt to play Rafael Nadal. I have often wondered what his opponent must be thinking when he is going through his litany of ticks, distractions, obsessive, compulsive actions. Marin Cilic alluded to this after Nadal quit on him last year at the Australian Open. But Stefanos gave a better description just how it feels to be on the other side of the court.

His comment about Nadal when he said, "He gives you no rhythm" can be taken a couple of different ways and one of them might be his actual tennis. But I really think that when he is discussing the Nadal serve he is actually saying that the serve is pretty average but he is constantly fussing and fidgeting and then goes in to his long and obsessive preserve routine that by the time he finally gets around to serving the ball you feel like Stefanos describes feeling during the match.

He says that, "...…it kind of felt in a way as if it wasn'’t tennis so much like the other matches I played. It felt like a different dimension of tennis completely." All of the stalling and gamesmanship has an effect on the opponent and I have felt this all along. How can he take so long to get the ball in play on every single point. Then on second serves he goes through the whole darn thing again. You spend so much time waiting around you lose patience and when Tsitsipas also remarked about his own service it occurred to me how much this gamesmanship actually does effect the opponent.

So when we watch these two masters of the stalling and bouncing of the ball tomorrow. Try to imagine yourself trying to concentrate through all of the shenanigans. I know I couldn't. It impresses me as a cheating tactic to let the clock wind down to zero on every single point. He uses this on purpose. The opponent is watching the shot clock out of the corner of his eye and is wondering if he is going to get the darn thing off before it hits zero.

I think it's fine that a lot of you fellows like him. That you admire him. But I see him for what he is. He is a self absorbed skunk and he is a bully when it comes to dictating play. Stefanos said it was weird. He said it was strange. He had a look on his face that he was annoyed. He, in fact, did say that he was annoyed when playing on Nadal's serve. Nadal is so self absorbed I wouldn't trust him in regard to his using PED's either. His behaviour before the coin toss and the constant fiddling with the bottles, using the ball boys as his own personal cabana boys. It all adds up. I know that I am not alone either.

I'm not a big Novak Djokovic fan either. He does the very same thing on the service game. He takes so darn long that by the time the game is over you try to maintain the rhythm of your own service game and at the same time trying to deal with his uncanny ability...sort of like Nadal. He smashes racquet to smithereens. It all adds up to a total mind-fuck. If you know what I mean.

Heads up in the drama department. These are a couple of drama queens if you ask me. They are currently heads and shoulders over the rest of the lot but that illustrates one thing...a lack of depth on the tour. A lack of versatile game styles where a player adapts. Conditions that dictate the type of play as much as the players do. I will probably start out watching it but I really wonder how long I will last. Like Stefanos...I find it all kind of weird. Strange.

"The rest...…it kind of felt in a way as if it wasn'’t tennis so much like the other matches I played. It felt like a different dimension of tennis completely. He gives you no rhythm. He plays...…just…...a different game style than the rest of the players and he has this talent that no other player...…I have never seen a player have this…...he makes you play bad. I would call that a talent."

The Talented Mr. Nadal.

[bottle]

2019 Australian Open Ladies Final...Naomi Osaka vs. Petra Kvitova

I must admit that I have very little interest in the women's tennis.

So why do you appoint yourself to write about it? Couldn't you get one of your henchmen to do it for you? I might be a logical choice if I didn't wish to keep my job as a college Sports Information Director covering 40 sports far, far in the past.

Nevertheless, you did succeed in saying a few nice things about Naomi and Petra although you were completely off in your assessment of "no drama." It must have almost killed you to bend that far backward . Of course you let us know how you did it. You saw this as another chance to malign Serena. I imagine you'll still be doing that 40 years from now. What a waste of the precious store of malignity allotted to us all.

Two items of special interest: Naomi's parents are one from Japan, the other from Haiti. And Naomi's public speaking ability which she asserted was non-existent. But she was just fine when speaking with the gals at the television tables.

As far as addressing a huge stadium, she's already mastered the two items necessary to do it well, first, have a few notes prepared, second, lose them before you speak.

Now all she has to do is quit looking away from the microphone, lighten up, relax, be herself, show her natural charm.

As for two of the most notorious and revealing items in tennis history, the tennis of neither Monica Seles nor Petra Kivitova benefited from the champion's being knifed despite the romantic blather on this subject.

Am I saying that if Petra hadn't been knifed, she might have won the 2019 Australian Open? Sure, I'll say that. Someone has got to stand up against knifing women. And Petra was pretty good before.

[gzhpcu]

Great match between Osaka and Kvitova. Looked like Osaka woul win in two. Great fighting spirit from both.

[stroke]

Copy leave. I would not have thought it possible to get back to the level of intrigue of last year's AO Final, but I think we are there. This is a massive match in a lot of ways and it is so great that both players are relatively rested and in such good form. Nadal should he win will be at 18 GS titles with the FO on tap. He would be the prohibitive favorite to make it 19 there, 1 behind Fed a that point. Novak could tie Sampras at 14 with a win, at is is certainly possible to see him making a run at the GS title record, though less likely than Nadal. Fed in all likelihood will have his last best chance for 1 more at Wimbledon this year. I have a feeling that Nadal will get #18 here.

[don_budge]

2019 Australian Open Ladies Final...Naomi Osaka vs. Petra Kvitova

I must admit that I have very little interest in the women's tennis. But on the other hand the men play virtually the same style. Fortunately none of the ladies have the unseemly style of one you know who. Both of these gals look to be rather well behaved and I don't anticipate any unnecessary drama or unseemly behaviour. Behaviour that makes you cringe. Should women act like ladies?

I like both of these ladies and their stories. Naomi Osaka is apparently of Japanese and some form of African descent. In the video that was censored in a thread about Serena William's behaviour there was an interesting discussion about "racism" in Japan. Their own form of nationalism. Apparently Naomi is not the national hero she would be if her lineage was pure Japanese. Culture is an interesting phenomena. Particularly so in a real and ancient culture such as the Japanese that perhaps isn't so susceptible to the social engineering of modern Western cultures.

Petra Kvitova had her career derailed in a random crime. She fended off an attacker who had a knife with her tennis hand and sustained some rather horrific injuries and here she is all the way to the Australian Open Ladies final.

It's really nice to see two very nice women competitors going at it in a sportsperson like manner. Good luck to both.

Great play by Serena. Nice to see her comeback.

It's great that you think so. But it was even better to see her leave. Margaret Court Stadium.

I watched the first 45 minutes or so of Naomi Osaka vs. Petra Kvitova and it was very pleasant to watch without the obscene grunting and there wasn't a hint of drama. Great to see Osaka pull it out in the end. By the scores it looked like a close match. Both ladies deserved to win. But I sure am glad that Osaka got a chance to share the podium with someone who enhanced her win and not detracted from it.