ATP Masters Series: Indian Wells

[matt_897]

Ana won 6-2, 6-3. Zvonareva vs. Ivanovic final now.

 

[Drummond]

Djokovic was absolutely terrible today. Roddick played well but wasn’t even pushed at all; he didn’t even need to elevate his game. A year ago Djokovic was hitting the ball so cleanly, hitting winners off both wings and his defence was almost on a par with Nadal. I don’t know what’s happened for him to be playing so poorly but he needs to figure out how to turn it around. As you said matt he seems to be struggling mentally and his body language is always poor, dropping his head and showing very little fight. He ended the year poorly but the change of racquets doesn’t seem to be doing him any favours and if he continues to struggle then he needs to switch back or get a new coach. Something’s got to give because he’s in a major rut right now.

Del Potro is rubbish. All he does is pound the ball right down the middle and as soon as he comes up against anyone decent he gets shown up. He’s still young, moves well enough and obviously has good power but for a guy who has received as much hype as he has he’s really not that good. Nadal destroyed him today just as I expected.

Disappointed in Azarenka; those stats are horrible. Not sure what happened and how she could go from beating Safina to getting crunched by Vera. Although to be honest she has been a bit inconsistent this week and has struggled at times to find her best form. Hopefully she does just as well if not better at Miami.

Ivanovic should win the title and as soon as I saw her draw I knew she would stand a huge chance. That’s got to be one of the easiest draws in history.

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

The final will be shown 6am Monday morning. And if you're interested, replays of both Semi Finals will be shown at 4am today, well technically tomorrow. I kind of wish I had avoided the scores now.

 

[aaronm46]

Yeh I gave Del Potro the benefit of the doubt when he got smashed at the Aus Open, but i just cannot see him playing well against anybody above decent

 

[CHBench]

You sir are a legend.

Best match Ivanovic has played in a long while. Lets ignore the fact it was against a 17yo teen for now.
Her forehand was back to its best. Thanks to Pavs relatively weak 2nd serve, she waltzed around to the forehand side and punched it down the line countless times. Left Pav no room to breathe attacking her serve at every oppurtunity. Continually picked the right time to hit the shot. Missed a few of course, but the one's she did hit. Look out.
Was still having quite a bit of trouble with the ball toss. Pretty much every service game in the 2nd set, her throw was so off she had to stop and start again. But gee did she have a bit of luck landing some of those second serves in the box. Only 2 DF's the entire match.

Looking forward to this final. Even if it means getting up before school.
Not sure who has this. Zvonareva's yet to win a big tournament, and the consistent form she's in now she should account for Ivanovic who's slowly rising from her slump. But as i said Ivanovic is rising back up and if she plays like she did today, she will win it.
Really depends on Ana's ball toss.

I have NFI.

 

[matt_897]

Murray ended up beating Federer 6-3, 4-6, 6-1. Murray was a bit mor sharper than he was in his QF against Ljubicic but it's fairly obivous that this match was lost on Federer's racket. i believe Murray as well as Nadal has the complete mental edge over him. The first set Federer had a few bp chances but couldn't take them, after it seemed like it was going to go one way. The second set was closer, Federer lost an early break of serve he had but finally his timing seemed to get better as the got along and was able to be a bit more aggressive during the points. He had the momentum with the start of the third set but Murray fell over awkardly at 1-1 in the third. Showing the true sign of Fed's mental fragility at the moment, Roger became an UE machine. Couldn't hit a backhand to save his life and was missing fairly simple forehand as well. Ended up losing 16 of the next 18 points to get to 5-1. Close game to finish it off with Murray getting tight but really Federer needs to cut down those UE's. It really wasn't a performance that a guy with 13 grand slams should do. Murray was better in this match, good mixture of shot, he's a clever player against the top blokes, only needed to keep the ball in play in the third.

Rafa won the other SF 6-4, 7-6. Again, didn't seem like his normal self, hitting a lot of UE's off the forehand for someone of his ability. Andy probably didn't even serve near enough to what he could of (picked up during the latter parts of the 2nd set) and some of his approach shots were just suicide, really a problem with his game that approach shot and when to come in. Couldn't blame him for use of that strategy as a baseline rally with Nadal is very hard to win but needs to come in off better shots. His game has picked up a level this season, keeps it up, he'll gain more points (even though think he has SF in Miami and then Rome to defend)Rafa actually served for the match 6-4, 5-4 but lost his serve with some unusual errors. Anyway, that was an expected result in the end.

So the final is between Murray vs. Nadal at 8am tomorrow, I really see this as a 50-50 match, Nadal needs to cut down on the errors because Murray is a guy who can stay back and run down a lot of balls as well, of course same goes for Murray as well. I'm going to stick with my original pick of the tournament and say Nadal.

Women's final should be interesting too, Haven't be able to catch any of it, Zvonareva has really stepped her game to a higher level over the last 12 months. Should be close

 

[Kaan]

Damn, I was looking forward to another Rafa-Fed match but this one should be good too.

 

[Drummond]

Murray ended up beating Federer 6-3, 4-6, 6-1. Murray was a bit mor sharper than he was in his QF against Ljubicic but it's fairly obivous that this match was lost on Federer's racket. i believe Murray as well as Nadal has the complete mental edge over him. The first set Federer had a few bp chances but couldn't take them, after it seemed like it was going to go one way. The second set was closer, Federer lost an early break of serve he had but finally his timing seemed to get better as the got along and was able to be a bit more aggressive during the points. He had the momentum with the start of the third set but Murray fell over awkardly at 1-1 in the third. Showing the true sign of Fed's mental fragility at the moment, Roger became an UE machine. Couldn't hit a backhand to save his life and was missing fairly simple forehand as well. Ended up losing 16 of the next 18 points to get to 5-1. Close game to finish it off with Murray getting tight but really Federer needs to cut down those UE's. It really wasn't a performance that a guy with 13 grand slams should do. Murray was better in this match, good mixture of shot, he's a clever player against the top blokes, only needed to keep the ball in play in the third.

That was a weird match, real weird. Murray generally played quite well, in the first set he didn’t make many errors and kept targeting Federer’s backhand which paid off. Federer made far too many errors in the 1st and basically handed Murray the set without having to do anything special. In the second Federer clearly lifted his game, started coming to net more frequently and his forehand was on song. He was being aggressive on return and headed into the third set full of momentum and with the crowd support.

The third set was puzzling. After Murray fell, so did Federer’s game. He made error after error and was struggling to even get the ball back into the court. It’s hard to explain how he could go from playing so well to playing so poorly in less than 30 minutes. I think it’s fairly evident Murray is in Federer’s head just as much as Rafa is. He’s now beaten him in their past 4 encounters and surely if they were to meet again in a Slam the result would go in favour of Murray. Murray stood a mile behind the baseline tonight and probably played a defensive game but Federer didn’t make him pay. He just moves so well, anticipates better than anyone on tour and has the ability to hit winners when he needs to. He’s a great all round package.

I’ve been thinking though, how much does Federer care about anything other than the Slams? He obviously wanted to win today because these MS events are significant and he doesn’t want to lose to Murray again. But when you see him play you can’t help but notice he’s a different player to when he’s playing in the Slams. He doesn’t have the concentration, the patience, it’s almost as though he’s bored. How much does he want it, how much motivation is there these days at tournaments other than the Slams? He wants to equal and surpass Sampras’ record and to me nothing else holds much significance these days. You watch him play 3-4 years back and he was faultless, barely made a mistake and would destroy competitors. He still beats almost everyone but he doesn’t often wipe people off the court these days. Not only that but he makes far more errors than he ever did as his timing and footwork are on the decline.

Haven't had the chance to watch Nadal/Roddick yet but I know the result and should watch it later tonight. Can't wait for tomorrow's final, should be a great one. Neither are in superb form but I think Murray's got the slight edge so I'll tip him to win in 3. He seems to be able to crack Nadal's defenses and can think his way through proceedings.

Women's final should be interesting too, Haven't be able to catch any of it, Zvonareva has really stepped her game to a higher level over the last 12 months. Should be close

I watched the Semi Finals today. Azarenka/Zvonareva was one of the worst matches I have ever seen, both played absolutely pathetic. UE after UE, barely any winners and each had so many chances to hit winners and finish off points but on almost every occasion they hit an error. It was truly terrible tennis.

In the other Semi Ana played okay but Pavlyuchenkova was nervous and was flying balls all over the place. How Ana can make a final of a tournament this significant in this form is beyond me. I guess it goes to show how strong the WTA tour is these days, especially given the absence of the Williams sisters and Sharapova.

 

[CHBench]

Far out this wind is intense.

 

[CHBench]

Justice prevails in the end..
Zvonareva def. Ivanovic 7-6 6-2

Zvonareva reelled off 6 straight games in the last set.

 

[matt_897]

Nadal won easily 6-1, 6-2. Let's just say Nadal is a lot more mentally stronger than Murray. He get the ball in play as much as possible, using the slice very effectively and forcing Murray to make some errors. Murray's serve was pretty much muted by the wind, left him with a lot of rallys with Nadal that he struggled to win. Eventually he tried to come to the net a few times but that didn't work very well either. Great win for Nadal, really does have a stranglehold on that no.1 for a long, long time.

Well Done to Vera on winning, her first really big title i think. Might give her that confidence when it comes down to big matches at GS.

Now the wait for Miami, draws come out tomorrow. Please give Lleyton an easy draw.

 

[red+black]

Roddick beat Djokovic 6-3 6-2 (And Djokovic didn't retire!)

Heard someone on SEN say that if (and when) Djokovic retires from the US Open he will have a career soft-slam

 

[CHBench]

Weird match the final was. The wind reeked havoc.
You can't help but get the feeling if Ana took one of those 3 set points (all lost on UE) she would've taken the match.

She doesn't look the strongest of players mentally, losing 6 straight games to a player that hit only 5 winners for the entire match is not a good sign. But you gotta hand it to Vera she played a very, very smart match/tournament. Just made sure she got the ball in the court, and let Ana unravel all by herself. Ana had something like 24 winners to 44 UE's.

Not sure if Ana's approach to the conditions were right. Doesn't take a genius to realize gale force winds like that do not mesh well with an attacking game plan. Probably had to be more conservative with her shot selections.

 

[matt_897]

Not surprised to hear the wind compltely wreck havoc with Ana's forehand, she really does only know one way to keep playing, keeping hitting fore hand hard and attack. Very hard to do in the conditions, you have to leave room for errors omething that Ana doesn't do.

 

[Drummond]

Well, well, well...

Ana was unlucky IMO. She raced out to leads in both sets with a break of serve but both times allowed Zvonareva to get back into the set. The wind was absolutely unbelievable. That's probably the windiest I can recall a tennis match. I know they suspended play for a day in this years Davis Cup, how close was today to being suspended? The wind was so bad that the standard of tennis really took a hit. But I must say, even though it wasn't pretty (the tennis, not Ana) it was a real interesting match. The wind was causing havoc and the ball was flying everywhere so the players had to adjust on the spot and improvise. I liked what I saw of Ana at the net today. She controlled her volleys extremely well and she picked the right time to come forward. On one point she was at the net and had set up for a forehand but at the last minute was forced to hit a backhand smash because the wind had moved the ball so dramatically. Good reflexes on display for that point.

Ana had a LOT of chances to take the first set and overall I thought she was perhaps the better player even though she lost in straight sets. She lost but there were encouraging signs and her new coach looks to be implementing some good strategies already. I really liked it when I heard that he told her to try and set up the point from the return, not to kill the point. I’ve been highly critical of her return of serve for a long, long time now. And was it just me or did she look smokin' hot today?

Unfortunately the men’s final was terrible. Nadal thrived in the conditions whereas Murray faulted and had no answers. Early in the opening set during a point a bit of paper blew across the court but as it came from behind the umpire he had no way of seeing it. Murray lost the point and complained about the fact a let was not called. Basically he had a sook about it for the whole first se, he let it get to him and he had no answers for Rafa's game. Nadal played a really smart game with few errors and he wasn’t troubled by the wind. Massive let down, the conditions ruined what should have been a great conclusion to the tournament.