re: The Unofficial 2018 Australian Open Thread

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Fed's forward style is just amazing

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It really is. We all know that Fed can be ground down and out by the top guys, and clearly Fed knows this as well, because he's just not allowing it to happen. Apologies in advance for using a phrase that announcers -- Paul Annacone, especially -- have just driven into the ground the last couple years, but he takes all your time away from the first strike and pretty much just suffocates you. And then, of course, he's always always looking to end the point. The latter part has always been true, but the way he gets on top of you from the jump is the recent addition.

Cilic actually didn't play bad from what I saw. To counter Fed's strategy you have to throw the attacking style right back at him. Make him have to run to get that first rally ball. And, most importantly, you have to serve well. That was the difference in the match. Cilic, when he was rolling, was dong the former but not the latter.

A guy with a one-handed backand isn't doing himself any favors standing a foot inside the baseline on the ROS unless he's seeing a lot of second serves or he's playing in the women's final. Cilic let him see way too many second serves, and he was sticking them right back at his feet (a la novak) djokovic).

That's my attempt at a match analysis, but since I watched less than half of it, tifwiw.

Doesn't matter what the draw looks like when a player takes home a GS crown in men's tennis contesting best of five sets. I mean you outlast the rest of the field, and that's all it is to it. Not the player's fault who goes out before he does. That being said, I will bet Rafa and Roger both felt at least a little squeeze in each of the last two slams because they were prohibitive favorites going into the finals.

I will say one thing - and I'm an unabashed Fed fan (also a big Rafa fan fwiw). It sure as heck didn't hurt that he played almost all of his matches at night given the brutal conditions of this tourney (pretty sure 6 of the 7 were in nighttime hours).

I merely replied to a Nadal fan who gratuitously made a subtle jab at Federer's winning his 20th grand slam. No obsession here.

Those gifs and that shot...SMH.

I'm not sure if the casual fan realizes this, but anyone who has played any amount of tennis, even high level juniors etc., knows how extremely difficult that shot was. Amazing even.

Fed's ability to take balls on the rise/short hop like this, especially with a one-handed backhand, is simply incredible. Maybe he's not the quickest, fastest, hardest hitter, etc. (although he's obviously in the top 1% of the best at those even), but his feet and hand eye coordination have to be the best. And mentally, in a sport where so many of the top players even display their negativity openly to their own detriment, he is ridiculously calm and even keeled.

Did anyone else notice that Federer switched rackets when he was up 3-1 in the fourth. After that he proceeded to miss almost everything long and couldn't hit a first serve to save his life and lost the next five games in a row.

Wonder why he switched rackets after everything was going perfectly?

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I mean Nadal didn't play a single top 20 player in his run to the US open title last year. Has that ever been done before?

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All you can do is beat the people you play against. Not his fault if the other top players don't make it to that round for one reason or another.

You can definitely say it was easier, but for anyone to argue it diminishes the title at all is ridiculous to me.