2016 Australian Open Tennis Championships

[stotty]

Stumped...

If only Novak's serve would fall off just a tad. He is so darned good at placing it and controlling his service game. His control of his service game is maybe one of the most underrated or not talked about strengths of his game.

It's perhaps true of his whole game....placement. His positional play and ball placement are quite incredible. Players have tried everything; hitting straight down the middle, slow-balling, mixing things up. To date the only thing that has truly worked in a five setter is blasting him off.

Like you say, he serves so well, but then he follows up with deep, penetrating ground shots, which then negates the tactical possibilities.

His second serve has also greatly improved. He puts a lot work on the ball and it seems to rolls up at opponents, so more often than not no inroads can be made here either.

[stotty]

I am just watching the replay of the match. It's the first time I have seen Federer so constantly rushed. Djokovic must have been hitting the ball very hard in those first two sets.

The bottomline is previous experience of playing Roger has reshaped Djokovic's DNA. He's now instinctively primed to lock into high-alert when he plays Roger. It's riveting to watch.....

[bman]

My cursory observations:

Roger's strategy to start the match was: Grind.

What separates Novak from Roger is the depth of his shots.

Roger needs to stop running around so many backhands. His forehand is not big anymore and his backhand is way steadier than it used to be.

The only thing that seemed to work a little is the slice backhand wide and short to get him off the court, and also just the slice in general.

Novak loves it when Roger gives him pace. Fed should slice at least 50% of backhands.

Roger needs to stop donating return points by running into the alley to slap forehand errors on the ad side (second serves).

A little more serve and volley would have been nice.

[don_budge]

Andy Murray vs. Milos Raonic…2016 Australian Open semi-finals

I beginning to wonder if it's me but are these two guy about as drab as characters that there can possibly be in the realm of professional tennis. Both are borderline annoying…and that is being generous.

Andy Murray has been for years on the world stage yet he is unable to conjure up some sort of public image that would appear to be at least semi-intriguing. Raonic for his part has been "lumbering" on the outer fringes of the elite players and he too is about as interesting as watching grass grow.

Murray and Raonic start off this match evenly matched at three wins each head to head. Murray lost his serve to open the match and Raonic got down 0-40 before righting the ship and pulling out his initial service game. Despite the lack of personality this matchup does have some potential to become interesting. Raonic is up against one of the great backboards of the modern era and the question is will he be able to sustain his net attacking tactics that he has exhibited thus far in the tournament.

Stay tuned…and try to stay awake.

[stotty]

Raonic versus pretty women...

Lumberjacks are my least favourite players. It's all about waiting for those windows to break serve and sometimes the bits between dead boring. I watched Karlovic played Roger at Wimbledon once...even Roger couldn't make that match pretty.

Stotty is off to the club to coach a pretty lady with a lust for life and whose only request is to have a reliable backhand so she can defeat the tubby little lady she loses to every year in the club singles. I must do my duty. Coaching pretty women with fun personalities tops most other lessons in my view....

Murray is 3-4 down...won't see the rest unless it's still on in a hour and half.

[stroke]

I am just watching the replay of the match. It's the first time I have seen Federer so constantly rushed. Djokovic must have been hitting the ball very hard in those first two sets.

The bottomline is previous experience of playing Roger has reshaped Djokovic's DNA. He's now instinctively primed to lock into high-alert when he plays Roger. It's riveting to watch.....

This is so true. Roger has played the biggest part in taking Novaks game to its current unprecedented level. What Novak did to Roger out there was, one could sense the constant rush Roger was feeling. It was much different than what Nadal did to Roger in Nadals win vs him. I think to that Boris has played a big part in shaping Novaks attitude out there on the court vs Roger. I used to get the sense that the overwhelming crowd love for Roger really bothered Novak, and he would get surly out there in periods of the match when things were not going his way. No more, seems to be totally comfortable with what is coming when he plays Roger.

[stroke]

Lumberjacks are my least favourite players. It's all about waiting for those windows to break serve and sometimes the bits between dead boring. I watched Karlovic played Roger at Wimbledon once...even Roger couldn't make that match pretty.

Stotty is off to the club to coach a pretty lady with a lust for life and whose only request is to have a reliable backhand so she can defeat the tubby little lady she loses to every year in the club singles. I must do my duty. Coaching pretty women with fun personalities tops most other lessons in my view....

Murray is 3-4 down...won't see the rest unless it's still on in a hour and half.

I think it is going to take a lumberjack type to beat Novak at this time, at his current level. I guess there are only 3, Raonic, Karlovic, and Isner. Karlovic and Isner, at about 6' 11", are not ever going to be able to do the other things to beat Novak 3 out of 5 sets I do not think. Raonic, at 6' 5", is just a normal tall guy height by todays standards, and to me does everything else better, and I actually even like his serve more. Of course, Stan at FO final last year was Stan at his absolute best. He did beat Novak last year.

[stroke]

I wonder who would win a 40 yard dash between Novak and Murray?

[tennis_chiro]

I watched quite a bit of the match. It's the first time in a long time that I've had a good look at Raonic. He always seemed a little too laconic in his movement for me. Yes, the serve was great, but his statistics on return of serve and breaking serve were right there with Isner, well away from where it needed to be for him to have any real chance to penetrate the top 5 (and yet he reached 4 last spring).

But last night, I saw a different Raonic than I had seen before. He had a real spring to his step and the serve seemed even bigger than I remembered. He was routinely hitting 140 mph first serves when he needed them and the 130 mph second serves were, of course, ridiculous.

There is a certain rhythm to the proper execution of serve and volley tennis that is mostly lost on today's players. You simply can't develop that rhythm unless you make the move 1000's of times and today's occasional serve-and-volleyers simply never perform the necessary reps. But I saw that rhythm in Raonic's movement last night and a level of spring that I had previously felt was sadly lacking. On top of that, he was hitting his groundstokes and even his backhand with authority, including when he had to move to the ball.

I remember reading when Ljubicic took over coaching how they were talking about how much strength and fitness and I assume mobility and flexibility training they were doing with him; and how he was getting so strong. Sometimes it takes a lot longer for that kind of work to manifest itself in comfortable, improved movement on the court. Perhaps Ljubicic should have hung in there a little longer. We all know Raonic is a big man, but he always has appeared a little too gangly, apparently much slighter than Berdych for example. But the fact is, Raonic is listed at 217, 17 lbs more than Berdych (19 less than Isner and 17 more than the taller Janowicz). I wonder what those statistics really mean. I only have the 2012 ATP media guide for comparison, but he was listed at 22 lbs less at that point! He still looks a little bit like Daddy Longlegs, but he must be awfully strong and his movement and ball striking seem to bear that out. On top of that, his technique on his low volleys was reminiscent of another age. He was carving low backhand volleys into the corners with a level of ease and control that I haven't seen from anyone in a long time. The additional strength may be giving him the explosiveness that I saw lacking in what I thought was "laconic" movement.

In other words, I saw a lot more than a Raonic who was going to the net a little more. If he comes through with that kind of play against Monfils, he's showing me he is ready to take his place among the top three or four players in the world, at least on hard courts and grass.

Anybody else see this stark difference?

don

I was really disappointed no one else picked up on the theme of Raonic actually implementing a technique very different and almost completely absent in the modern pro game. It's much more than just a tactical decision to go to the net a little more. Credit Piatti because this kind of proficiency can only be developed over a period of years, not just weeks or months. So I had the following comments to make tonight.

Volleys and Mouth guards

The way Raonic is standing his ground at the net in extended rallies is much more than just a willingness to go forward a little bit more; it is a manifestation of superior net play execution that is totally lacking in the modern game as demonstrated by the vast majority of top modern singles players. Furthermore, I see very little evidence that the speed or spin of Murray’s (or Wawrinka’s or Monfils’) passing shots is too much for a volleyer to handle. Roanic is demonstrating superior classic volley technique, but I doubt anyone would suggest he is one of the quickest guys out there. However, he has clearly put in the reps to build adequate volleying proficiency to enable him to deal with tough returns; nobody is doing that anymore. As a result, Raonic presents a unique challenge for the rest of the players, not just because of the fact that he routinely serves upwards of 140 mph. The break by Murray for the second set was a result of unforced errors on the volley, but not because of balls that were too tough to handle with a volley.

As for the mouth guard, the work I do as a chiropractor is assisting another chiropractor whose specialty is working with TMD (temporo-mandibular joint disorder). A lot of the work actually takes place in dental offices. We work closely with dentists who usually end up prescribing and molding dental orthotics to be worn during the day, at night, or both; in fact, the dentist usually wants the patient to wear the orthotic mouth guard while eating, one of the most unpleasant requirements of the treatment. As noted by Fowler and Cahill on ESPN, grinding is one of the principal features of TMD, but it is not the root cause; rather it is one of the symptoms. The underlying cause is malfunction or malposition of the temporal-mandibular joint which has a major effect on the entire skeleton. Some of the common associated problems include vertigo, migraine headaches, back pain; it’s much more a question of neurology than just simple anatomic malposition of the jaw.

I’m surprised that Gilbert didn’t chime in to note that the NFL got involved in orthotic mouthguard for TMD problems just a few years ago. The New Orleans Saints got a lot of notoriety when they arranged for the devices (treatment protocols generally run to nearly $5000 for a simple case and are often not covered by regular health insurance) for a lot of their players. Jon Gruden on Monday Night Football was raving about the effectiveness of the mouthguard as a performance enhance so much that we thought our business would really take off, but it didn’t happen. As for measurable performance enhancements, it is considerable. We would see differences like a 25% improvement almost immediately in maximum bench press. I went through the protocol about 10 years ago and continue to use the daytime mouthguard when I do any heavy lifting or workouts and I usually sleep with the night guard to this day.

don

5-5 in the third as I post this

[tennis_chiro]

All that doesn't matter if Raonic can't break. Murray is just much better on mobility, return of serve and ground strokes. And experience.

don

[stotty]

I have just rejoined the match at the end of the fourth...now two sets all. The commentators say Raonic is injured.

Interesting comments from tennis_chiro about the Raonic volley. I haven't watched any of Raonic's matches this year. What are his volleys like below the height of the net? For the most part I only seen him play bread and butter stuff behind that booming game of his.

Murray is one of the best volleyers - if not the best - on the tour. He can deal with lower volleys with aplomb. If he makes the final, he will need to incorporate some kind of net strategy if he to have a chance of winning.

2-0 Murray in the fifth...

[stroke]

Yes, Raonic is dealing with some kind of leg injury

[stotty]

Very high standard from Murray in the fifth. He's missing almost nothing. Meanwhile Raonic's whole game is collapsing....

4-0 Murray....

[tennis_chiro]

Very high standard from Murray in the fifth. He's missing almost nothing. Meanwhile Raonic's whole game is collapsing....

4-0 Murray....

Cmon, Stotty. Just a little sympathy for the Canadian. Don't you remember what it is like to try to play with a pulled groin?!

don

[klacr]

Credit to Raonic for embracing the net, hitting volleys and not being disheartened by passing shots or misses.
Neither player really excites me but Murray's defense is solid and Raonic's newfound confidence and technique up at net is respectable.

I was drifting in and out of sleep during this match. The result was inevitable. Murray just more solid. Wonder what his game plan will be against The buzzsaw of Djokovic. Sadly, not a lot of net play in the finals between these two...unless Murray wants to make an impact

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton