Tennis!

[Mongrel]

He's had a great couple of weeks. Youzhny is the type of player who can get beaten when he's not on, but Raonic has been really impressive. Would be surprised if he gets past Ferrer, though.

Murray is looking the goods to win here. Nadal doesn't look right at the moment and Federer was poor against Robredo, while Murray is cruising and beating a very good player at the moment. Söderling losing to Dolgopolov really helps him as well.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

My interest in tennis has died this last year. Not that I was ever a HUGE fan although I used to play club tennis.

There need to be more shouty, angry characters. It's just same old same old right now.

[sahyder1]

Reading on twitter that this Raonic match is not live in Canada? Who has the TV coverage for Australian Open? Do you guys just get the American feed? I don't remember how it used to be when I was there.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

TSN's taking the US feed from ESPN, yeah. TSN's website has streaming of every court though.

Raonic takes the first set. Incredible.

[sahyder1]

TSN's taking the US feed from ESPN, yeah. TSN's website has streaming of every court though.

Raonic takes the first set. Incredible.

ESPN2 was showing it earlier. Don't know if they still are. Thankfully they have this bonus coverage agreement with DirecTV that I mentioned earlier in the thread. This is one of the matches they are letting us choose from. Looking good so far.

[Starvinho]

Murray was awesome this morning, I'm really starting to think he can win the whole thing now. He's got the unseeded Alexandr Dolgopolov in the Quarter Finals now, a bit of a wildcard match but I'm sure Murray will come through on top.

[Hornswoggle4PM]

Murray smashed Meltzer, Dolgopolov over Soderling in 5, Ferrer beats Raonic and Nadal crushed Cilic in 3. But I think the winner of Berdych/Djokovic is the real dark horse to win the Open this year. Mainly because I'm in denial on whether Murray or Nadal can win it though.

Clijsters, Radwanska, Kvitova and Zvonareva all through to the quarters on the womens side. But since no-one else here seems interested in that, I'll have to say that almost anyone on the women's side could win this, but Clijsters is still the local favourite.

Edited January 24, 2011 by Hornswoggle4PM

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Raonic really impressed me. It's obvious he only got as far as he did on a really, really good serve, good timing as to when to run up to the net, and the fact that nobody has seen much of him before.

Give him a couple years to work on some of the holes in his game (being able to break a few serves once in a while would be nice) and this kid's gonna be a force to be reckoned with, I think.

[Hornswoggle4PM]

An interesting thing I heard in an on-court interview Jim Courier had with Dolgopolov just after he beat Soderling. I think I heard that his father coached Medvedev, and as a young kid Dolgopolov had a hit with some of the other players at the French Open a few times. Courier was incredibly impressed with him then and apparently saw him as a future star. Courier asked him if he remembered who he was, and Dolgopolov replied that he did, but not the first time as he was only 3 years old at that stage, but did a few years later. If that's true, then the kid must have been really good from an early stage, and perhaps the exposure to the game from early in his life was what caused that.

Anyway, Federer beat Wawrinka, Djokovic beat Berdych, Li Na beat Petkovic and Wozniacki fought back to beat Schiavone.

[Starvinho]

Federer vs Djokovic will be an awesome semi, I wouldn't want to call it really. The final I'd like to see at this point is Murray vs Federer though.

[Hornswoggle4PM]

Nadal injured and beaten by Ferrer in 3, Murray beat Dolgopolov. Clijsters and Zvonareva also won through, and will play each other tomorrow.

Really hoping that Ferrer can at least take a set off Murray as Dolgopolov did. The guy's been around the top for so long, and to my knowledge has never made a Slam final.

[Lineker]

Justine Henin retires from tennis due to an elbow injury, Reuters are reporting.

[gunnar hendershow]

I've always said in "Nadal vs. Federer" arguments that Rafa would never be considered greater because he is too injury prone, and thus his body of work won't be as successful. Tonight helped confirm that. It's a shame for the guy, but it was building up all week and I think all of us were just waiting for the levee to break.

Final has to be Murray vs. Federer, this is the best shot Murray will get at winning a Grand Slam but the Roger hurdle is still a massive hurdle.

[Starvinho]

Final has to be Murray vs. Federer, this is the best shot Murray will get at winning a Grand Slam but the Roger hurdle is still a massive hurdle.

That would be the dream final, but the Federer vs Djokovic match isn't a foregone conclusion. I do fancy Djokovic making the final to be honest, but if Federer pulls out one of those magical performances, there will be no stopping him. As for Murray vs Ferrer, I think Murray will come through easily aslong as he continues his current form, but Ferrer is a very good player too.

I think if Murray does get the final he'll be hoping it's not against Federer as he's already lost two grandslam finals against him, even though Murray has an excellent head-to-head record against Federer, Federer has had his number in grandslam finals.

[Katsuya]

Henin retiring doesn't really surprise me, to be honest, but I'd argue it's not just the elbow injury. Clijsters has far, far outperformed her since they returned and Henin has pretty much wallowed, which for someone like Henin would be a tough pill to swallow, I reckon.

[naiwf]

I was pretty excited to hear that Nadal lost while I was asleep, but then found out that Henin retired and that pretty much ruined my Nadal free high

If Wozniacki and Murray don't win the whole thing here, the whispers about them not being able to win "the big one" will stop being whispers as they'll be entering into the Safina full fledged choker zone. Whether that's fair or not is up for debate, but I could just as easily see both of them winning multiple Slams or never winning any just based on how things have gone.

[Katsuya]

I dunno. I think a lot of people want Wozniacki to succeed because she's a really sweet girl and she can actually play some damn good tennis when she wants. Safina was one of the least charismatic people to ever play tennis and she was pretty shocking. She only stayed number one for so long because everyone else kept fucking up and Venus & Serena weren't playing enough at the time. Wozniacki will win a major (she's only 20, after all), but I'll agree that she has a very good shot here. Li Na is playing incredibly though so you can't count her out.

Murray's also a bit different because he's sort of coming in with the least amount of pressure he's had in a long time. Being bumped down to 5th seed might have fired him up a bit, although chances of him overtaking Soderling are slim given that this is the best Soderling's ever done in the Australian Open. He's got a good shot against Ferrer but he needs to hope against hope that Djoko beats Federer, because he has a better shot then at winning the title.

[naiwf]

I dunno. I think a lot of people want Wozniacki to succeed because she's a really sweet girl and she can actually play some damn good tennis when she wants. Safina was one of the least charismatic people to ever play tennis and she was pretty shocking. She only stayed number one for so long because everyone else kept fucking up and Venus & Serena weren't playing enough at the time. Wozniacki will win a major (she's only 20, after all), but I'll agree that she has a very good shot here. Li Na is playing incredibly though so you can't count her out.

Murray's also a bit different because he's sort of coming in with the least amount of pressure he's had in a long time. Being bumped down to 5th seed might have fired him up a bit, although chances of him overtaking Soderling are slim given that this is the best Soderling's ever done in the Australian Open. He's got a good shot against Ferrer but he needs to hope against hope that Djoko beats Federer, because he has a better shot then at winning the title.

I agree with all of that. However, Safina made 3 GS Finals in a stretch of 5 and won a total of zero sets in those matches. Murray has made 2 GS Finals against Fed and been swept in both of those, so that's why I think he almost has to win here. I don't ever see him winning the French, and the pressure he must feel at Wimbledon is almost unfathomable. The US Open is a crap shoot, and he'll be 24 this year. He's still got at least 4 more years before he starts to hit the downswing of his career, but given that Nadal is out and either Fed or Djokovic will be eliminated in the other SF, he's got to beat Ferrer and then take the title or it will be that much harder for him.

As far as Wozniacki is concerned, she lost in straights in her 1 GS Final appearance and you can tell she is already getting tired of being asked when she's finally going to win a Slam/justify her ranking. If she doesn't do it when Serena didn't enter the draw and Venus, Henin and Sharapova all lost early, she's in danger of possibly becoming Safina/Jankovic although she also has a chance of joining the Clijsters/Mauresmo camp of people who hit #1 and then won a major. She's incredibly young but she also plays a little too much, her 254 matches in the last 3 years is more than Serena has played in the last 6. I still expect the Zvonareva/Clijsters winner to take the trophy home though since Wozniacki and Li would be facing tremendous pressure.

[naiwf]

Wozniacki choked again. She served for the match at 5-4 in the 2nd, blew a match point, then lost three straight games to drop the set. Li Na then went on to win the 3rd set 6-3 to become the first player from China to ever make a GS Final. For the entire match Woz had 10 winners in 199 points, and that's why I don't know that she's capable of ever winning a major.

Li Na's postmatch interview was AWESOME, she blamed her slow start on her husband's snoring keeping her up all night, said that "prize money" was a motivation for coming back to win the last two sets, wasn't sure if her anniversary was today or in a couple of days (the media guide had it wrong and said today) and said that her mom prefers not to watch her play because she gets nervous and "has her own life". That was probably better than the match itself.

[Hornswoggle4PM]

Li Na wins after a very tough three set match. I think what Wozniacki is lacking is enough power at the moment to get a Grand Slam when compared to the other top players, but definitely is in great shape for the future.