Arena Federer/Nadal/Djokovic Era - Now 1/3rd Over

Wawrinka!

 

The wheels are coming off for Dimitrov right now. He has looked alternately terrific and downright awful at times while I've been watching this match. I get the feeling that Nadal's long experience will see him through this match. Dimitrov is a force, though.

Edit: Dimitrov came right back and now needs 5-4 in the third set.

 

The streaming connection cut out just as Dimitrov was serving for the third set. It didn't return, so I missed Nadal's coming back to win.

 

Federer wins in 4 sets.

 

I agree. I think this is it for Federer, and I bet he pulls out a win. Nadal hasn't looked great and is playing through a bad blister on his hand. If this were clay, it would still be Federer walking into defeat, but not in Melbourne.

There will be 30 grand slam titles on the court when they meet, which is an exceptionally high number, particularly for men.

 

When players get older, they need some breaks to go all the way. Federer's breaks here are that Djokovic is out and that Nadal is weakened from a blister, along with just not playing his best.

The intangibles will be pretty great. Players of their caliber in tennis history rarely meet at a high level at this point in their careers. If Nadal wins the title, he would match Australian Rod Laver's feat of winning every Grand Slam title at least twice. If Federer wins it all, it would be his 18th (matching him, incidentally, with Jack Nicklaus).

 

really excited for the match. i give a slight edge to nadal, but only if the blister isn't a big factor.

 

I give Fed the edge…I think he's on a mission.

I agree about Bouchard, it would be fun to see her become something great.

 

Bouchard just got schooled by one of the best. I'm still proud of her though. This will go a long way for her. The experience alone will make her better.

 

Cibulkova takes the first set 6-1

Radwanska looks kind of deflated. Probably physically exhausted from her match yesterday?

 

For sure. This is a straight sets win. Cibulkova is looking really good here.

 

The pocket rocket prevails!

It will be a flashy final on Saturday no doubt but I would put money on Li Na if I was a betting man.

 

The nature of the schedule is such that at some stage one half of the draw needs to play 2 days in a row instead of every second day...

On one hand they are professional athletes so they should be able to handle it.
But on the other hand does it have to be the quarters and semis, where the back-to-back occurs?

At Wimbledon they don't play on the middle Sunday, correct? So playing back-to-backs there is in middle of the tournament.
Not sure about the other grand slams

 

Considering they are 1 and 3 on the all time list, I don't think any other match would be even close.

The 1986 women's French final had Evert (17) and Navratilova (13) for a total of 30 as well...if they played in any matches later in their career that would be the highest surely. When Graf and Court hit their massive numbers they didn't have anyone else around with 10+ victories.