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Sydney 2009: 10th title - why easy when it can be achieved in a hard way

6K views 167 replies 20 participants last post by  camilia 
#1 · (Edited)
Here is the draw:

1st Quarter
(WC) Novak DJOKOVIC (SRB) vs Bye
Andreas SEPPI (ITA) vs Paul-Henri MATHIEU (FRA)
Mario ANCIC (CRO) vs Xavier MALISSE (BEL)
Jurgen MELZER (AUT) vs Tommy ROBREDO (ESP)

2nd Quarter
Jo-Wilfried TSONGA (FRA) vs Bye
Simone BOLELLI (ITA) vs Rainer SCHUETTLER (GER)
Jarkko NIEMINEN (FIN) vs Feliciano LOPEZ (ESP)
(WC) Chris GUCCIONE (AUS) vs Tomas BERDYCH (CZE)

3rd Quarter
Mardy FISH (USA) vs Janko TIPSAREVIC (SRB)
Julien BENNETTEAU (FRA) vs (WC) Lleyton HEWITT (AUS)
Denis GREMELMAYR (GER) vs Michael LLODRA (FRA)
Bye vs David NALBANDIAN (ARG)

4th Quarter
Igor ANDREEV (RUS) vs Frank DANCEVIC (CAN)
Jeremy CHARDY (FRA) vs Radek STEPANEK (CZE)
Dmitry TURSUNOV (RUS) vs Richard GASQUET (FRA)
Bye vs Gilles SIMON (FRA)

I would love the see a QF against Hewitt.
 
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#8 ·
Re: Sydney 2009: A warm up for AO

I am a little bit concerned because he is going to play with a new racket RDIS 100 MP(if it is not just a pj on a RDS 001 MP). Not many changes in specs but still a bit on technology. Hope he will get used to it by AO.
 
#12 ·
Re: Sydney 2009: A warm up for AO

wow, he never played against Mika before? it will be interesting to see how he will play against a serve-volleyer.
He has done quite well in the past against S&V players. Sometimes he struggles if he can not read the 1st serve but so far he was always able to punish weaker second ones severe (especially if they try to charge the net on those ones). Lodar is a hell of a volleyer when he gets to the net but he will have to serve his ass off if David is in a decent form.
 
#17 ·
Re: Sydney 2009: A warm up for AO

Anyone having a luck to watch the match? I don't think that court 2 is televised anyway :sad: Anyway David wraped up the first set 6-1 in about a half an hour.
 
#19 ·
Re: Sydney 2009: A warm up for AO

No luck. No cameras on that court.
But so far, the scoreboard looks pretty good to me. :)
:yeah: More than good, he finished the job in 57 minutes. 6-1 6-3. Good start of the year. Next one might be tricky. If it is Hewitt he was always a bad match up, Tipsy can cause a lot of troubles on a given day too.
 
#20 ·
Re: Sydney 2009: A warm up for AO

Yeah, great start into the tournament and the new season. :D

But the next match will indeed be tricky. He only played Tipsarevic once, AO 2007. That match went to five sets (with Tipsarevic retiring early in the fifth). And Hewitt... At first I wasn't sure whether I'd want that match to happen. But I think I do. :devil:
 
#21 ·
Re: Sydney 2009: A warm up for AO

Yeah, great start into the tournament and the new season. :D

But the next match will indeed be tricky. He only played Tipsarevic once, AO 2007. That match went to five sets (with Tipsarevic retiring early in the fifth). And Hewitt... At first I wasn't sure whether I'd want that match to happen. But I think I do. :devil:
That was some match, David was down 2 sets to 0 and Janko served for the match in the third. David saved a lot of MPs if I remember correctly.
 
#30 ·
Re: Sydney 2009: A warm up for AO

A little something to read while waiting for the match against Hewitt.
Yesterday's press conference:


D. NALBANDIAN/M. Llodra
6-1, 6-3


THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You've had, I think, more time on court than anyone today in today's hot weather. How did you find it?
DAVID NALBANDIAN: Yeah, it was pretty hot. I think it was worse maybe in the morning, and then it was a little bit more windy so it's a little bit better.
It was tough. I don't know how much degrees it was, but it was pretty tough to play, to breathe, to everything. So it's better to get used to it before the Australian Open, so it's better.

Q. How much time have you had here to prepare?
DAVID NALBANDIAN: I arrive on Thursday night.

Q. So do you feel acclimatized yet?
DAVID NALBANDIAN: Yeah, pretty much.

Q. It's been quite some time since you last played Lleyton. Looking forward to it?
DAVID NALBANDIAN: It's going to be -- I mean, Lleyton is a great player, former No. 1. I mean, he wins a lot of titles. Great player. It's going to be a tough one, like everybody else. He got injured last year. So I don't know how he is now, if he's 100% fit or not. Always a tough match play against him.

Q. You've had some famous matches with him. I think early on you said some things that annoyed him and he played better in that circumstance, but the last time you played you beat him. Do you think he's easier to play if you don't annoy him before the match?
DAVID NALBANDIAN: No, of course if you know the opponent it's much better than playing with somebody that you never play before. But like I say, all the matches that we play was tight for both. It was hard for both, too.
So it's going to be tough. A little different that he's playing in his own country, so nothing special, just tough one.

Q. How do you feel your form is right now? Are you in peak form?
DAVID NALBANDIAN: Yeah, I'm feeling pretty good. Today was my first match officially in the year, but I think match after match will be better and better. I hope will be better and better.
But I'm feeling that I played good today. I hope -- I will try to improve some things for tomorrow and play better.

Q. What you do you think you need to improve?
DAVID NALBANDIAN: Well, the match of today was short. I mean, was serve and volleying, and tomorrow is completely different. I just hit a few shots from the baseline, and tomorrow I will need to be playing more. So I just thinking about try to hit better from the baseline or more time from the baseline.
So it's going to be a different -- completely different match than today.

Q. Do you take for granted that you understand how everyone plays, or do you do research to prepare for that particular player?
DAVID NALBANDIAN: For tomorrow, or...

Q. Each person you're going to play, tomorrow and others.
DAVID NALBANDIAN: I just try to do something at the warmup the same day as I play. For example, today was this guy serve and volley, and I practice a little bit more returns than normally. Tomorrow it's going to be like a normal match, so I don't needed to nothing special.
Anyway, you have the match in your mind all the time, so you know what to do and how it's going to be. Sometimes they surprise you or the opponent surprise you and play better than you thought or whatever, but it's going to be like a normal match.

Q. You had a great year last year except maybe at the Grand Slams. Is your goal to do better at the Grand Slams this year? Is that one of your goals?
DAVID NALBANDIAN: Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah. 100%.

Q. Do you have other goals for this year, too?
DAVID NALBANDIAN: Davis Cup.

Q. Winning the Davis Cup?
DAVID NALBANDIAN: Yeah.
 
#31 ·
Re: Sydney 2009: A warm up for AO

Q. You've had some famous matches with him. I think early on you said some things that annoyed him and he played better in that circumstance, but the last time you played you beat him. Do you think he's easier to play if you don't annoy him before the match?
is that talking about the their AO match in 2005? after Hewitt played agaist Chela, and Nadal, many people accused him including David.

It's interesting to know that he trained differently to the different coming opponents. I heard that the players ususally train their advantage shoots rather than their fragile ones just before the match, but in normal daily training, it's more balanced.
 
#33 ·
Re: Sydney 2009: A warm up for AO

krystlel said:
Did you manage to stay up for the match? I'm guessing not...
I did. :)
Though I don't seem to remember all that much. :lol:
So thanks for the summary. What I do remember are his attempts to serve out the set and then the match. And how I could I forget that... The only good thing about that was the way he recovered from those re-breaks. The last return winner was very nice but I also liked the angled backhand that won him the tiebreak. (I think.)

So Gasquet up next. True, their last match was close. But I'm still just that little bit less nervous when David is up against him. Tradition, I guess.
 
#37 ·
Re: Sydney 2009: A warm up for AO

Heretic, I don't know how you managed to do that (36 hours without sleep). I can manage to sleep very little pretty well but not consecutively like that. I would have fallen asleep in front of my computer. I agree that the match would have been better without the wind. I was a little bit nervous about it because I remember that commentators used to say that Hewitt loved playing in windy conditions because he knew he could handle it better than his opponents.

I did. :)
Though I don't seem to remember all that much. :lol:
So thanks for the summary. What I do remember are his attempts to serve out the set and then the match. And how I could I forget that... The only good thing about that was the way he recovered from those re-breaks. The last return winner was very nice but I also liked the angled backhand that won him the tiebreak. (I think.)

So Gasquet up next. True, their last match was close. But I'm still just that little bit less nervous when David is up against him. Tradition, I guess.
Not surprisingly. :lol: I agree that he recovered well, I particularly remember that set point down in the first set when he missed a couple of forehands then he hits a nicely placed serve, followed up by a well-struck off-forehand right into the corner. As for the second set, it was almost like he completely forgot about that one bad game.
 
#34 ·
Re: Sydney 2009: A warm up for AO

So did I, 36 hours and counting without any sleep(I am about to collapse any moment). Don't have the endurance as I used to stay up for couple of days.
However, it was a good match and it would have been even better if there was no wind on the court. I kinda awaited this match for a couple of years. David played on patches, he was worse after 5-3 in the first set when he allowed Lleyton to even get to a set point. What I found most curious was that almost all of his mistakes did not come when he was going for points but when he was trying to play safe ?! That tells that his game is pretty much on, but he had some decision making conflicts. Plus he was gasping for air few times when Hewitt made him run forward and backward, but on the other hand that is understandable in such a weater and humidity. He should do just fine against Gasquet.
 
#38 ·
Re: Sydney 2009: A warm up for AO

Just in time before the Gasquet match: David's press conference from yesterday.


D. NALBANDIAN/L. Hewitt
7-6, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. A good win but a fairly frustrating kind of day?
DAVID NALBANDIAN: Yeah, it was very tough for both. We couldn't play a good tennis, so it was -- for me it was a bad match. I mean, no good quality on the shots.
Not much you can do. So windy you can try to hit close to the lines. It was ugly one.

Q. What do you take out of that kind of game? I suppose that kind of game is a little help.
DAVID NALBANDIAN: Of course you try to play matches, try to win, of course. But like match like today, you go off the court and you don't know if you played good or bad. So that's the worse thing of this match.
But winning always is good. I think I should have win before, or easily both sets. I was break up in both sets, so I couldn't made it in the first one, even in the second one.
A little complicated both sets, but I win, so that's important.

Q. What did you think when you woke up and it was 40 degrees, beautiful day, and you had a rain delay, wind, there was everything today?
DAVID NALBANDIAN: Yeah, it was a very strange day. We warm up with 40. It was so hot we couldn't breathe. Then one minute from another it was completely different: cold, windy, so windy, cloudy. Two tournaments completely different.

Q. And the storms.
DAVID NALBANDIAN: And the storms. Thanks.

Q. What's worse, do you think, playing in the heat or the wind is worse?
DAVID NALBANDIAN: You never know, because in the morning it was so hot. It was very heat, but you could play. I mean, you can do your shots you want, so it's more normal. Just heat.
But today you couldn't do anything. I mean, it was better with the weather, but you couldn't serve, it's tough to return, to hit the ball. You go to the net and the ball is coming, I don't know. It's moving around all the time, so it's tough. I don't know what is worse.

Q. Do you look forward to the matchup in the next rounds for you?
DAVID NALBANDIAN: Well, I played a lot of time with Richard. I think he's a young player, very talented. He's a very tough, so it will be tough, like these both matches.
But I don't know how it's going to be tomorrow. If it's going to be windy, heat, you never know, so let's try to play my best. If I do, I feel I have a lot of chance.

Q. Richard is sort of the is serve and volleyer.
DAVID NALBANDIAN: He's doing that?

Q. He's more traditionally a serve and volleyer than a lot of other guys on the tour. You don't agree?
DAVID NALBANDIAN: I don't think so.

Q. I was thinking, would you prepare for him different than someone like Lleyton, who's as baseline player?
DAVID NALBANDIAN: Llodra do much more serve and volley than him.

Q. What do you feel is going to help your game tomorrow? Do you think you have to work on something, take it as it comes?
DAVID NALBANDIAN: I think always when I serve good all my game it's improving, so it's good. I have to try to be focus on that.
 
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