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Jan/17

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Qatar Chaos: Murray vs. Djokovic play the match of the decade

117 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Bios

Andy Murray vs. Novak Djokovic today in the Qatar Open final was one of the best matches I have ever seen. Wow. I will say it again. Wow. Both players fought like everything was at stake today – no 1 / the Australian Open / and who was actually the better (the best) player. It was nothing short of epic in how incredibly hard both players fought and played to win this little ATP 250 event. The quality of tennis was arguably the best I have ever witnessed – two titans flying all over the court and creating tennis genius over and over and over again. Murray was bending and was down the set and on the cliff’s edge in the second set but he refused death. Djokovic was serving for the match and was up 30-love but then double faulted and next thing you know Andy suddenly became unbeatable and won the second set. Djokovic didn’t do anything wrong except that he failed to answer Andy’s surge of superhero tennis. It was astonishing that both players were laying it all on the line with everything they could possibly muster. You saw the old Djokovic roaring like a lion with that obsessive craze in his eyes. And we saw cool Andy just fight and battle like the best player in the world he showed us he is last year. It was a titanic struggle and battle by two historical legends of tennis both desperately driven to prove he is the best. Both warriors looked like they were playing for their lives out there in the third set until finally Djokovic survived his ups and downs and fits of rage and was able to pull away at the end (barely) 63 57 64. They had a laugh at the net but that gesture looked like a disguise for what was really happening – the world’s two best gladiators who are now locked into a brutal spectacular and even bloody rivalry which will play out for the next few years. But going into the Australian Open it is Novak Djokovic who has regained the edge of the physical and psychological aspects of tennis warfare. This vicious battle today could very well have determined the outcomes of Australia/Roland Garros/Wimbledon/US Open finals and the final ATP No 1 ranking. Yes that is how important this match seemed. Andy Murray now knows the old Djokovic is back and he will need to change something (or a few things) to knock him off the perch the Serbian has taken seat on today. ร‚ย 

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117 comments

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 7, 2017 at 4:48 pm

    This one had everything – blood drawn – fists flying – Djokovic hitting his head on the court after a fall – two lions roaring and yelling at their boxes – just unbelievable action for nearly three hours – Andy and Nole are the head of the class and this rivalry is going to be a lot of fun to watch –

  • Hartt · January 7, 2017 at 5:11 pm

    Yes, it was an amazing match, wasn’t it? Do you think Novak is now the heavy favourite to win AO yet again?

    If these 2 continue to play like this against one another it will be a very exciting season.

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 7, 2017 at 5:31 pm

    No Hartt because it was too close to conclude that Djokovic is the heavy favorite – you have to respect Andy very much and how this painful loss will trigger his pride and honor and fighting spirit – Andy is very very close to Djokovic – Boris Becker had good quote Boris Becker รขโ‚ฌย@TheBorisBecker 8h8 hours ago I would never bet against defending champion @DjokerNole plus Nole has point to prove …

  • catherine bell · January 8, 2017 at 2:53 am

    Match of the Decade ? Come on, the decade’s not over yet. I’m sure there will be lots more Matches of the Decade before January is out.

    Tennis is certainly a sport high on hyperbole ๐Ÿ™‚

    And for me, an epic match has to be 5 sets.

  • Hartt · January 8, 2017 at 6:47 am

    Doubles news: Australian fans must be super excited that their guys, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Jordan Thompson, won the doubles title in Brisbane. It was their first tourney together and a last-minute decision to play together. They beat Querrey/Muller in the final. Also won over 2 excellent doubles teams – Herbert/Mahut (no. 1 seed) and Nestor/Roger-Vasselin.

    Kokkinakis gave a very gracious acceptance speech. Great to see him back after 15 months away because of his shoulder. He seems like an appealing young guy; hope his comeback is successful.

    And their reward for this victory? Thanasi and Jordan get to face off against each other in the first round in Sydney.

  • Hartt · January 8, 2017 at 8:20 am

    Just saw the Chennai final between Roberto Bautista Agut and 20-year-old Daniil Medvedev. RBA won in SS, but the youngster played well against a skilled, experienced opponent.

    So many of these up-and-coming youngsters are extremely tall. Medvedev is 6’6″ and very lanky. Off the top of my head can think of 3 others – Sascha Zverev and Karen Khachanov at 6’6″ and Kokkinakis at 6’5″. Looks like a trend.

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 8, 2017 at 9:02 am

    Catherine: This match was so unique and special – the two best players in the world battling it out in the first week of the season to establish which one is the best – This match was incredible and it will have consequences on the rest of the year in my opinion – I was awed by what I saw yesterday – some three setters are very special – I remember Pete and Andre once played the final of Los Angeles and that too was an incredible match –

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 8, 2017 at 9:05 am

    Remarkable return by Kokkinakkis who missed just about all of last year except the Olympics where he played just one match and endured another injury – Let’s all hope he stays healthy for years and years because he’s a great talent and could be better than Kyrgios –

  • Hartt · January 8, 2017 at 10:57 am

    I just read a piece where Kokkinakis talked about what it was like dealing with the surgery and all the other injuries. He was so depressed he did not want to go out because he would be faced with questions about his recovery. He wondered about giving up tennis. He also talked about how hard it was to see his peers progress when he could not.

    Apparently he is still not 100% so I hope he is fine soon and able to play whatever tourneys he wants to. It sounds like he is planning on doubles at the AO but is not certain about singles.

  • Hartt · January 8, 2017 at 11:07 am

    How’s this for gratitude? Bethanie Mattek-Sands wins the Brisbane doubles title with Sania Mirza and takes the No. 1 ranking that Sania has had for 91 weeks! Actually, in the press conference Sania seemed fine with it, she had been at No. 1 for so long. But she did say that while winning tourneys would be the most important thing for her she would aim to return to No. 1. Sania said it felt like handing over a Miss World crown. ๐Ÿ™‚

    They played together in Brisbane because their regular partners were not playing in that tourney, and they will be back with their usual ones for the upcoming tourneys. Bethanie said she is planning on playing in all 3 events at the AO, including mixed doubles with Mike Bryan. In an interesting twist, she said her singles had helped her with her doubles. (Info from WTA site)

  • Andrew Miller · January 8, 2017 at 12:13 pm

    Good match . First set was like watching two robots playing a preset programmed and almost predictable battle of attrition making me long for faster courts and Marc Rosset serving out of a tree to break up the monotony.
    Second set was great fight back from Murray who had made me doubt his tenure at the top in set1, showing some ridiculous versatility and I’d wager some of the chops that a Davis Cup title and a reunion with Lendl have brought to his methods these days. Djoker for his part unveiled so much of what keeps him at the top, unbridled aggression, a demolition of short balls, no fear when working the point in his favor, one of the best, most versatile backhands in history that, unlike so many players, he uses strategically because he can.

    Djoker raised his level to Murray second set level in the third, as Murray played out of his mind at the end of set two, he was due for a subtle pop of the balloon and Dkokovic raised his level to max Djoker.

    So good match but I think it really found the mark around the 5-3 point in set two.

    On form alone these two look formidable and Novak looks poised to regain top spot. But I really believe that’s not how tennis works, and these two aren’t necessarily going to even make it to the Australian open final. I believe that because Wawrimka opened a new era in tennis when he beat Djoker in Australia in 2014 and reminded the tennis world that the sport has an any given day dimension. Which is why Kerber is the top wta player and Dimitrov is the Brisbane champ.

    So I’d say very good match fantastic last 1.5 sets. And no real bearing on Australian Open as we already knew Murray and Novak enter the Australian in form, that was expected.

  • Andrew Miller · January 8, 2017 at 3:11 pm

    Straight up, Djoker has best two handed backhand in history to my eyes, topping Connors & Agassi, Nadal, Safim, Kafelnikov and Seles, Venus and Serena Williams, and Murray, who shows some of same capabilities with less oomph and flair. It will probably remain best all time two hander until someone hits the tour with two forehands and two backhands! But that player will be less Jensen Murphy than a circus act to me. That player would literally be insane.

  • Andrew Miller · January 8, 2017 at 3:16 pm

    Speaking of Sampras and next heir apparent among us players let me be first to cast doubt on Fritz as the next great us player. Jury is out on this until any of them get to top twenty and show some Raonic or Nishikori or Dimitrov mettle and win something. They are at least a year and a coaching staff away from their Canadian and European peers.

  • Andrew Miller · January 8, 2017 at 3:31 pm

    Caveat here is that the us fellas are one heck of a peer group and they are ambitious, talented and competitive and have Kyrgios like results in challengers outside of a few bigger name yet struggling former junior champs whether from injury or muddled prep and poor adjustments to the reqs and rigors of ATP life. Effectively they are so far excelling where some younger vets have failed, though most of them are still a long ways from even their us challenger brethren. Because us men’s games are so obviously incomplete in comparison to their European and Canadian peers, it’s hard to believe they’ll join Sock this tear in the top 25. But if a few adopt a strategic approach, confidence growing and results to boot, and they qualify and win some rounds at ATP tournaments like Fritz did (past tense) a good goal would be for at least two of them to get top 50 rankings and for us players overall to win ten ATP titles including a Masters title.

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 8, 2017 at 4:35 pm

    Andrew: Djokovic was down 2-3 and love 30 in third set and escaped that game and was smiling and joking with his box about something which was interesting to see a player behave so relaxed like that under such extreme duress – but it actually worked and he won the next two games – then he served for the title and he quickly was in a love 30 hole but dug out of it and won four straight points – Djokovic is fully back as this win and the win vs Verdasco saving five match points proved – I might even suggest that the very best of Djokovic is ahead – this win was that impressive –

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 8, 2017 at 4:38 pm

    Best two hander ever yes it’s Djokovic – Andy is pretty close though –

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 8, 2017 at 4:41 pm

    Sock kind of choked again in the Hopman final by blowing the match point vs Gasquet then he got broken the first two times he served in the mixed but he also had a game point on Gasquet’s serve in the first and hit a second serve out and then blew the deciding point – Sock still Lendling under pressure but if he can ever get over choking like Lendl eventually finally did then everyone better watch out for Sock because he is SOOOO close to being an ATP kingpin beast –

  • Dan Markowitz · January 8, 2017 at 9:19 pm

    Seriously, Scoop, comparing Jack Sock to Ivan Lendl! When Lendl was 24 or just turned 25, he won his first slam. Sock is lucky to get into a slam quarters. Sock’s won one title, Houston, in his whole career, at this stage in Lendl’s career he’d won 13. Please, don’t compare Lendl to Sock.

    I once tried to compare Lendl to myself when I was talking to Ivan in the locker room of a club I was a pro at in Port Chester, NY and Lendl used to practice at. He was telling me how his knee hurt and I said how my knee hurt, and Lendl actually had the nerve to say to me:

    “Are you comparing your knee injury to mine.” Never liked him much after he implied that my knee injury wasn’t as important as his.

  • catherine bell · January 9, 2017 at 3:43 am

    Dan –

    Sounds like Lendl.

    Oh you should have been around in the 80s to have heard some of the stories about his rapier-like ‘wit’ which most people just called arrogance. He really was widely disliked.

    He did mellow slightly in about a decade I gather ๐Ÿ™‚

  • Dan Markowitz · January 9, 2017 at 6:38 am

    The one thing about Lendl is he was approachable. Like that conversation I think with Johnny Mac would never have occurred because Lendl was interested in carrying forth conversations being as he was, a young man in a foreign country. So although he was conceited, he still had a need to open discourse because he liked practicing his English and his conversation skills. Only Arthur Ashe, who of course was a lot more verbal than Lendl, ever engaged me in lengthy discussion the way Lendl did and then later, of course, Vince Spadea, because even though Vince wasn’t an outsider because of his transplanted nationality, the way Lendl was, he was a true outsider with very good verbal skills because he came from the other side of the tracks.

    Tennis produces these type of people more than any other sport I think. When I was down at Canas’ Academy in Florida, I engaged this 17 year old Chinese player, who is no. 2 in China in the 18’s even though he missed all last year with a wrist injury. And we exchanged phone numbers and he was very eager about having me text him. He saw that I had a talented kid who is half-Chinese so maybe that was the connection, but even though he was practicing daily with Gabashvili, I think he was also just lonely. I asked him if he likes Chinese food because in Queens, where the US Open is, there’s some of the best Chinese food in New York, and he said yes, but he was quick to assure me he liked American food too, burgers, Chipotle, pizza. They get Americanized quickly living amidst the malls of Florida.

  • catherine bell · January 9, 2017 at 7:34 am

    Martina was bit like that when she first arrived – her type of accent, similar to Lendl’s, came across as abrupt and not too friendly – although she immersed herself quickly in US culture and her spoken English was really quite fluent very early on, she picked it up easily.

  • Hartt · January 9, 2017 at 9:31 am

    Dan, thank you for your comments about the young Chinese player. It’s easy to forget how difficult it must be for these youngsters being so far from home, having to navigate many different cultures, trying to cope with loneliness.

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 9, 2017 at 9:37 am

    I see a parallel between Lendl and Sock with the choking in certain big pressure situations although of course their on court demeaners could not be more different – I see Sock figuring out the problem and becoming a top ten or top five force –

  • Dan Markowitz · January 9, 2017 at 12:08 pm

    Sock has better teeth than Lendl. Scoop, I’ll tell you why Sock won’t be top 10 or 5. Remember sitting with me on Thames Street in Newport a couple of years ago. It was either you or another friend of mine. We had just gotten gelatos and were hanging out and Sock walked by and went in and got a gelato. You can’t be eating gelatos the day before a match, even if it’s in Newport.

    When I see Isner in Newport, it’s in the health food store buying lots of stuff like coconut water. That guy took his career seriously and that’s why he got to Top 10. To me, Sock is like a good-old boy, who definitely applies himself, like much more than who he will always be linked with, Harry, but he’s not doing what he has to do–staying off the gelatos–to make it big time.

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 9, 2017 at 7:04 pm

    Dan one gelato does not determine a career – but I do remember the old US Open locker room and dining area in the 90s and doing biofiles with Leconte and Forget one day during lunch and Forget ate a perfect meal of pasta and chicken with no junk food dessert while henri had a couple of brownies – Forget won eleven career singles titles and Henri won 9 – by the way Forget has a son Thibault who plays at USC –

  • Jg · January 9, 2017 at 7:43 pm

    Sock cannot get away with running around the backhand to the degree he does against the top players, the closest comparison is ( I think) Courier, but Courier was far dominant on that side at that time, Was Courier was in better shape or players couldn’t adjust, but he was dominant at the time, when Sock plays the top players he can’t get away with it, is it conditioning or just that it doesn’t work?

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 9, 2017 at 7:54 pm

    Jg: If Courier could do it why can’t Sock? Btw I interviewed both Courier and Johnnymac about facing Andy and they gave some pretty interesting answers about how they’d see that theoretical match going ๐Ÿ™‚ Sock will play Harrison second round in Auckland as Harrison just belted GGL 6162 – Harrison is now 4-0 head to head vs GGL – Sock vs Harrison will be very interesting –

  • Hartt · January 9, 2017 at 11:58 pm

    Daria Kasatkina just won in SS over Angie Kerber. A great win for the 19-year-old Russian.

  • catherine bell · January 10, 2017 at 3:22 am

    Hartt –

    Angie’s mind is still in 2016 – you can tell from the things she says.
    She’s still ‘living her dream’.It happens to players who came late to great years.

    My guess is that she will not arrive in 2017 for a while – so she’ll be out in AO and have to do some hard thinking. She’s a very emotional player under that controlled on-court exterior.

    Would be icing on the cake if she could peak in the summer, but I don’t know. Maybe my earlier prediction about Angie was right – she won’t hang around too long – can’t see her scrabbling around in the qualifying.

  • catherine bell · January 10, 2017 at 3:41 am

    I don’t exactly feel sorry for Kerber – she had her wonderful day in the sun, but it’s just another reminder of the fleeting nature of time and life and fame & etc so has its poignant side.

  • Hartt · January 10, 2017 at 7:31 am

    I only saw the last set of that match but Kerber was definitely off. Dasha played quite well but a “normal” Angie would have won.

    You are probably right that Kerber’s mind is still in 2016. With the AO fast approaching she had better get to 2017 pretty soon! I have no idea what to expect from Angie at the AO but do hope she manages to find her best tennis.

    In the meantime there are all those hungry youngsters. Kasatkina and Gavrilova (the 2 Dashas) won their doubles match later the same day. Here we have been talking about how playing doubles can help improve players’ singles and these 2 are giving that a try. Kasatkina plays Konta today and the 2 Dashas have another doubles match.

    In other news, Bouchard played well against Cibulkova, winning in SS. She is up against Pavlyuchenkova today.

  • catherine bell · January 10, 2017 at 7:53 am

    Finding the right preparation after the off season and before a big tournament is often a difficult decision to make.

    Angie probably barely touched a raquet and hasn’t done too well in warm-up events while Simona spent some time honing her skills and then lost 2nd round in China.

    Andy’s taken the training/ playing tourbnaments route this year so we’ll see.

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 10, 2017 at 1:14 pm

    Kerber is possibly enjoying appearance fee $ and saving her best for the Australian Open – Don’t bet against Kerber –

  • catherine bell · January 10, 2017 at 1:34 pm

    I certainly won’t bet against her and I’d like her to do well but she isn’t match tight yet, her serve isn’t working and time’s running out…

    Also – don’t think Angie needs appearance $$$ at this point – she’d prefer the title I’m sure ๐Ÿ™‚

    Quesion – Sharapova’s booked for Porsche Stuttgart – wonder if Angie, fellow Porsche driver, will turn up too ?

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 10, 2017 at 1:48 pm

    Kerber is the best player in the world and all the other players know it – she is a virtual lock for the second week of the Aus Open –

  • catherine bell · January 10, 2017 at 2:07 pm

    Scoop –

    It’s moot whether Angie is ‘the best player in the world’ – she’s still No 1 but after the 1st week of AO we can resume this coversation ๐Ÿ™‚

  • Hartt · January 10, 2017 at 3:03 pm

    I hope Karber does play Stuttgart – one can never have too many Porsches! ๐Ÿ™‚

  • Andrew Miller · January 10, 2017 at 4:37 pm

    Maybe Simona can hit the arcades a la Dimitrov. He mixed hard work and aimless fun and then destroyed Monaco’s second best player Milos Raonic and Kei “Wawrimkas got nothing on me! NISHIKORI.

  • Andrew Miller · January 10, 2017 at 4:48 pm

    Kerbers reign will be intact unless her coach Torben asks for a raise or Kerber switches racquet companies or other players like Simona or Keys listen to their coaches or Serena Williams serve is sizzling for a few months.

  • Hartt · January 10, 2017 at 8:02 pm

    Denis Shapovalov, the 17-year-old youngster, just beat Pierre-Hugues Herbert in their Canberra Challenger match. Herbert is ranked around No. 78 so this was a big win for Denis. It was extremely windy, so not great tennis from either player, but a win is a win! Am not sure where Denis plays after this tourney because he is not playing the AO juniors and obviously is not playing the qualies. Presumably he did not go all the way to Australia for 1 Challenger tourney.

  • Hartt · January 10, 2017 at 8:49 pm

    Youngsters watch: Tiafoe just defeated Marco Cecchinato in R1 of AO qualies. Tiafoe is the No. 2 seed; Cecchinato is ranked No. 188. This is especially interesting because last summer the Italian Tennis Federation suspended Cecchinato for 18 months for match fixing and gambling. Because he is playing in events outside Italy it appears he has not been charged by another regulatory body, although the evidence, including damning emails, produced by the Italian officials looks pretty conclusive.

  • catherine bell · January 11, 2017 at 3:47 am

    Hartt –

    Awful lot about match fixing around at present – they all seem to get suspensions and such but a spell in prison for a guilty person might send the right message – seemed to work in cricket (so far).

  • catherine bell · January 11, 2017 at 3:53 am

    Andrew –

    If Serena’s serve is sizzling then the rest of the top ten can slide their rankings down a notch or to ๐Ÿ™‚

  • Hartt · January 11, 2017 at 5:24 am

    I did not know that about cricket players going to jail for match fixing. For all the hand wringing about it in tennis I wonder if the powers that be are taking it seriously enough – a first step would be to double the budget for investigating match fixing. Also, they need to get access to email records etc. immediately, before the players and gamblers can erase the evidence.

  • catherine bell · January 11, 2017 at 5:46 am

    Hartt –

    A few years ago there was a ‘spot’ fixing scandal during a Pakistan tour of England and a couple of Pakistani players, one quite young, served prison sentences. They have been released for a while but the younger player’s career has never recovered.

    You might argue that this was a more serious case than the match fixing in tennis which seems to involve lowly ranked players and obscure matches but maybe a short sharp shock would help wipe this blot on the sport out altogether.

    Re my post above – I mean ‘notch or two’ ๐Ÿ™‚

  • Hartt · January 11, 2017 at 1:09 pm

    The tennis.com site has a piece on match-fixing. One player featured, Australian Nick Lindahl, was convicted last April and fined $35,000 by a criminal court in Australia. He was banned from tennis for 7 years, but had retired from tennis in 2013 when the allegations were made originally. So his tennis career was over at around age 25.

  • Dan Markowitz · January 11, 2017 at 2:45 pm

    Good first set I watched this morning between Jack Sock and Rhino Harrison. Harry came out with a purpose. His serve is so strong for a guy Tennis Channel announcer’s say is maybe “a smidge over 6-feet.” He gets so much power from his hips and shoulders.

    There were a lot of missed returns, especially on the backhand side. And in an interview, Troy Hahn said one of the things they worked on in the off-season with Sock was the second serve return. Anyway, Sock won 1 in the third, but for two sets it was a good match. Sock and Harry did not look too close or pal-sy on the court.

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 11, 2017 at 5:35 pm

    Lindahl was a hyped junior years ago but he didn’t pan out – I guess the authorities had the goods on Nick L –

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 11, 2017 at 5:42 pm

    I heard an interesting story about Sock and Harrison. Years ago when Harry was the top dog of young Americans Harry allegedly made a dismissive comment in private about Sock’s ability. I just cant remember who it was that told me. Somehow Sock found about it. Now look at Sock. I saw the two at Newport two years ago right after Sock won Wimbledon doubles and Harrison and Sock were on the porch area and Harrison went over and congratulated Sock for the huge epic win. Class move by Harrison.

  • Hartt · January 12, 2017 at 6:43 am

    So Sock beat Chardy and Johnson beat Isner to set up a SF between them in Aukland. Who do you think will win? I am going with Sock.

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