ATP Masters Series: Indian Wells

[CHBench]

Azarenka def. Safina 6-7 6-1 6-3

Surely Azarenka has this title in the bag.
It's hers to lose from here.

Edit - Oh and with that no number 1 ranking for Safina. As it should be.

 

[Kaan]

Looks like its goodbye Rafa. Great tennis from Nalbandian.

 

[CHBench]

Not over just yet. Break back Nadal.

6-3 5-5

 

[Kaan]

Looks like we're going 3 sets.

 

[Kaan]

Looks like its goodbye Nalbandian. Great tennis from Nadal.

 

[SBI]

Wow oh wow Nalbandian has blown this. Such a weak player mentally.

 

[Kaan]

Nalbandian is a joke he always chokes in games, beats the great players and loses to unknown players. Waste of talent, could of at least won a few slams IMO.

 

[aaronm46]

Looks like its goodbye Rafa. Great tennis from Nalbandian.

haha nice

 

[matt_897]

Azarenka in 3. Surely the tennis gods can't let Safina be number 1. Surely.

They've already let Jankovic be no.1, they can't save women's tennis, they've done enough.

Didn't think i would be able to get home to watch Nadal-Nalbandian but it was only 2-3 in the first set. Nice choke from Nalbandian there, he was smashing Nadal, his game suits Nalbandian perfectly, he really could be so much more if he doesn't do stuff like this. The 3rd set was an complete joke. Rafa will probably win the tournament now.

Another hilarious choke was Andreev with Ljubicic, watched the second set, Ljubo cracked it over a few line calls and wanted them to change umpires, contiunous arugements with Fergus Murphy (who really didn't handle it that great), looked like he was gone but Andreev somehow managed to lose it and eventually lost 4-6, 7-6, 7-6. Andreev had 4 MP's and supposedly had his fair share of bad calls in the third.

Didn't Djokovic or Roddick matches but the scorelines don't seen very convincing.

Tomorrow it's Ljubicic vs. Murray QF at 7am and Verdasco vs. Federer at 1.30pm. Murray should beat Ljubicic i would think. Verdasco vs. Federer is intruging, I haven't seen much from verdasco this week, the few games i saw against Gasquet were awesome but he lost a set to Kohlschreiber today. The other two semis (Roddick vs. Djokovic, Del Potro vs. Nadal) are on Saturday

The women has their two other QF's tomorrow, hope Ivanovic can win. And still thinking about Sam's close loss with Radwanska as she is now in the quarters. Haven't been able to find livestreams for the women at all, I'll try for the Ivanovic match tomorrow.

 

[Drummond]

I'm a fair bit behind now, which kills me. I hate not being able to read this thread or read the ATP site. But with tomorrow off I plan to catch up a heck of a lot.

BTW Azarenka you gun! Win this tournament please!

 

[CHBench]

Ivanovic through in walkover:

Ivanovic through to last four after Bammer withdraws

6 minutes ago

INDIAN WELLS, California, March 19 (Reuters) - Defending champion Ana Ivanovic reached the semi-finals of the WTA event in Indian Wells with a walkover on Thursday after Austria’s Sybille Bammer pulled out because of an injured left shoulder.

Bammer, the 23rd seed, had been due to play fifth-seeded Serb Ivanovic later in the day in the last of the women’s quarter-finals at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

World number seven Ivanovic will meet Russian teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the last four. (Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes, editing by Pritha Sarkar)

http://sports.yahoo.com/ten/news?slug=reu-womenindianbammer_pix&prov=reuters&type=lgns

Tough break for Bammer, in the middle of a purple patch, she had a genuine shot at beating Ivanovic.

N.Pavlyuchenkova def. [7]Radwanska 7-6 6-4

Semi's:
[4] Zvonareva vs [8] Azarenka
Pavlyuchenkova vs Ivanovic

 

[Kaan]

Murray into the semis beating Ljubicic

 

[matt_897]

Anyone see that hilarious Hawkeye mistake today, thought Ljubicic will call the supervisor again. Murray wasn't overly impressive today but got the job done.

 

[Kaan]

Federer takes the first set against Verdasco 6-3

 

[Kaan]

Federer in total control here leading 3-1 in the second... should take the game from here.

 

[Kaan]

And he takes it 6-3 7-6, will now face Murray in the semis.

 

[Subaru Impreza]

Anyone see that hilarious Hawkeye mistake today, thought Ljubicic will call the supervisor again. Murray wasn't overly impressive today but got the job done.

yep I saw that hawkeye error today. That ball was a bout 10 centimetres out. I was a fan of hawkeye and thought it was bullet proof before but now im starting to doubt how accurate this hawkeye technology really is.

 

[ashley12]

Nalbandian is a joke he always chokes in games, beats the great players and loses to unknown players. Waste of talent, could of at least won a few slams IMO.

Bit of a weird statement that, I think the correct thinking is Nalbandian, while having all the shots and good allround game, suffers from being able to pull through at the clutch moments. Not necessarily the skill of the opponent, just unable to kill off matches...

Agree he should have won a few more slams, though he did win the Masters Series Cup final a few years ago coming back from 2 sets down against Fed to win...

 

[Ricketts]

Zvonereva is having a pretty good year so far.

Top 4 men in the semis pls.

 

[Drummond]

I managed to catch up a lot today. I watched all the 4th Round matches today, some very good, some not so good.

Verdasco/Kohlschriber was a decent match; just a pity neither played their best tennis at the same time. Verdasco played pretty well in the first set before suffering a lull in the second and the German took advantage. You knew however that the class of Verdasco would rise to the top and that’s what happened. He took the 3rd comfortably to move through to face Federer but as I said I found out he lost which disappointed me. He looked so good against Gasquet but just couldn’t quite recapture that form in his 4th round match and obviously against Federer too, but I haven’t seen the score so maybe it was close.

Robredo retired down a set and a break against Murray. Not sure of the exact reason, a wrist problem I believe but looked to me as though he took the easy way out. Not sure what to make of Murray being on Court 2 though, would’ve though he was a permanent fixture on the Stadium court.

Ljubicic, aka Mr Boring, beat Andreev but again, I see he lost to Murray which is pleasing. Del Potro has had one of the easiest draws I have seen at a Masters Series event. Bye, Sweeting, Melzer, Isner and now Nadal. He hasn’t even cruised through where he really should have. Obviously Nadal will take care of this guy because he’s really not that good. I rate Cilic higher but he needs to cut down the UE’s.

I watched Djokovic/Wawrinka which, it has to be said, was a strange and for the most part rather uninteresting match. Novak raced out to a 3-0 lead with a chance to make it a double break but he then stumbled and allowed his opponent back into the match. First set becomes a massive struggle before he wins it in a tiebreak. The second is a similar story with Djokovic struggling to find his range, especially the backhand wing. He sprayed balls everywhere and it didn’t make for a pretty match. The standard finally lifted late in the second where Djokovic began to hit the ball more cleanly, something in which he should take confidence in heading into his QF against the in form Andy Roddick. On that performance I would tip Roddick to win but with Djokovic he could turn up in devastating form. I don’t get Novak, I’ve got unwavering faith in his ability and yet he always lets me down. I guess after seeing his scintillating run at the Australian Open last year I always expect so much. He just can’t seem to reach those heights again.

And finally Nadal/Nalbandian which was undoubtedly the match of the day. The first two sets were of terrific standard and the third was all one way traffic. Nalbandian came out firing and had a game plan that was giving Rafa fits. He was taking the ball early and had Nadal running from side to side with no answers. He had match points on Rafa’s serve at 5-3 in the second but failed. He then served for it and failed to close it out. From then on you knew it would be near impossible for him to win and when Rafa won the tiebreak they might as well have shook hands, she was done. Rafa’s fighting spirit continues to amaze and just when you think he’s done he fights back. On one match point in particular he had the courage to nail a shot down the line which caught paint, it was incredible. Although Nadal looked very beatable I doubt anyone will have a game plan and be able to execute it as well as Nalbandian did for him to be beaten here. I’m confident Del Potro won’t cause him too many difficulties because Rafa will get him moving and he won’t be able to get comfortable. If Djokovic wins he stands a chance. Federer seems to be picking up some steam and I honestly though Verdasco had enough momentum to beat him.

Djokovic v Roddick will be a beauty, can’t wait for it. I might just skip yesterday’s Quarter Finals and just concentrate on today’s.

Womens Semi's should be good:

Ana Ivanovic vs Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
Vera Zvonareva Vs Victoria Azarenka

I believe we get this final on Fox. An Ana/Vika final would be sweeet!

 

[CHBench]

^Hope your right. Not even 1 single WTA match on the box this season.

Bit of a let down...
[4] Zovonareva def. [8] Azarenka 6-3 6-3

OK didnt get to see the match. But from what i'm hearing it was terrible.
Vika was in all sorts, wasn't hitting shots, missing easy overheads.
Vera well she was bad too, but thanks to Vika's shitefullnes at taking oppurtunities she got by.

Stats don't tell the whole story, but gives a fair idea.

Zvonareva:- 11 winners to 28 UEs.
Azarenka:- 8 winners to 31 UEs.

If i got my maths right, Ivanovic/Pavlyuchenkova due to start at about 1:30 Melb/Syd time.
I'll post a stream if i find one.

 

[Kaan]

Roddick beat Djokovic 6-3 6-2(And Djokovic didn't retire!)
Nadal leads Del Potro 6-2 5-1 and should take it from here.

Semi Finals are: Roddick vs Nadal and Murray vs Federer

 

[matt_897]

Roddick won 6-3, 6-2. Djokovic is playing so badly right now, so many UE's, all roddick needed to do is play his normal game, didn't need to anything extra. Novak has seemed to be mentally down at the moment this year, not sure why, just not playing as smartly and not as consistant. Even though I'm not fussed if Novak is playing badly.

Del Potro was lucky to win 6 games against nadal, man that guy has such a one-dismensional game.

Hopefully Ivanovic's semi has a livestream, it's been a joke that livestreams have been impossible to find where tournaments like WTA Dubai had full week coverage.

Tomorrow Murray/Federer starts at 7am and then Nadal/Roddick after that. At the moment I'm leaning towards a Federer/Nadal final but if Murray can raise his game by a level (as he usually does against the top guys) that match will be close. I give Roddick a small chance against Nadal but that's because he hit too many UE's in today's match against Del Potro (again showing how pathetic Del Potro is)

 

[CHBench]

There's livestreaming of the match on the WTA site but it's unavailable here in Australia due to copyright laws.

WTF?
Fox dont even show WTA. No one does.

Edit: Found one.

http://sports.cctv.com/live/04/index.shtml
Only for IE.
Install activex control, then restart IE.

 

[Subaru Impreza]

comfortable win for rafa in the morning. del potro's game style doesnt match well against nadal's.

semi finals should be good game, im leaning towards another Rafa V Fed final though