Puppet Master
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How in the world did Andy just disappear in the last set? This is even worse than losing in 4 sets.
2015 French Open Semifinal: Djokovic v. Murray
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TennisFanatic7
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Kirijax said:
Murray pretty much 'tanked' two of those. He's beginning to get closer to Nole. He lost in four in Australia, straights in Indian Wells, Miami he actually looked capable of winning but Nole took control early in the decider and it became a blow out, today he pushed it to five sets on the surface where Nole has the biggest advantage over him.
If they meet at Wimbledon and this trend continues there and throughout the faster hard courts later in the year, then progress is no longer being made.
Fiero425
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Puppet Master said:
I'm starting to think Nole's choreographing his matches! Had a tight 4th finish, then got bored and closed this out neatly in the 5th! He does love serving bagels and breadsticks these days! :clap :angel: :dodgy:
Puppet Master said:
I think both these guys feel the pressure more than Roger and Rafa, for whatever reason.
Nole has had huge dips over the years and lost ones who could have won.
Andy, this time played really strong and then it just seemed he hit that wall again.
Kieran
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Puppet Master said:
Perseverance is a great quality, indispensable if you want to win majors. Novak has it but Andy is a bit of a fader at the moment. Just when he needs to rise, he fades. Nole rose to the challenge. This is a tough sport. There's no moral victory that gains you a spot in the final because you fight back from two down. After this, the fifth set is where you need to scrap like a giant ape to get through, and Nole is able for that. It'll come back for Andy but at the moment, he's not up to it...
Mile
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The mustard Muzzard ! Camerman was just waiting focused on Muzzard mouth after badly lost points.
It didnt take long, big F was into 5-6th minute. Now i get, why he is among Big 4.
OK, breadstick No.2 or 3 this year.
It didnt take long, big F was into 5-6th minute. Now i get, why he is among Big 4.
OK, breadstick No.2 or 3 this year.
Puppet Master
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Kieran said:
I feel sorry for Andy, no matter what he does, on slow courts he just gets obliterated by Djokovic. Their 2014 USO meeting wasn't any different either. If only he had a bit more penetrating forehand. I really think that on average his backhands are faster than his rally forehand. If he could somehow work this out, he could do some real damage for sure.
[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLj4RoxLsyM[/video]
[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGD3whQeQrM[/video]
[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGD3whQeQrM[/video]
Fiero425
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Getting to watch the end of the match now on NBC after the women's trophy presentation! Opened with Murray serving for the 4th 6-5! He accomplished his goal, but he was suckin' wind! Nole must have already softened him up in those few other games starting at 3 all! Murray must have had a restless night thinking about what would happen if he perchance actually got this to a 5th; "will I eat a bagel or breadstick?" 
:ras: :nono :angel:
:ras: :nono :angel:
Fiero425
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I guess I need to go check, but am I correct in thinking that Nole is the first to win AO with a potential to equal feat done by Courier in '92? uzzled :nono :angel: :dodgy:
uzzled :nono :angel: :dodgy:
Good article on the match (especially if you like Novak):
Andy Murray ran into the 'one-man army' that is Novak Djokovic at the French Open
By Simon Barnes
We all know what it's like to have an off day. Or a dodgy 10 minutes. A period when we fall below our usual standards and make a mistake or two. It's part of being human. Or so we like to think.
Perhaps the thing about great champions is that they don't do off days. They maintain standards. They have a baseline of excellence and seldom fall below it. Perhaps one of the ways we define champions is as people who have fewer off days than the rest of us.
They don't just have higher peaks; they have fewer if any troughs. And such troughs as they have are still of a dizzyingly high altitude. Certainly that's the conclusion to draw from watching Novak Djokovic at the French Open in Paris this week. Today he spent his lunch hour snuffing out the challenge of Andy Murray. And Murray was brilliant. Intermittently.
The story of the match is that unrelenting excellence beat intermittent brilliance. Murray's best was better than anything Djokovic managed in the course of this five-set match played over two days. The problem was that Murray's worst was way below the lowest of Djokovic's troughs.
The match stopped last night in the middle of Murray's frenzied resurgence. It finished today with Djokovic in full control. He won 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 5-7, 6-1 -- and at his best he was so good that he scrambled the mind of his opponent. It wasn't the level he was able to reach, it was the way he sustained that level. And that has made all the difference.
For most of the match Murray seemed to be facing an opponent with too many ultra-reliable weapons. That's Djokovic for you. The one-man army of tennis. A man with a thousand weapons in one racket -- each of them equally reliable. You can only beat him via the Victoria Cross route of suicidal bravery. Murray tried that and fell short.
The one thing you can't afford is an off game. And that's always been a problem with Murray. Every now and then he'll go on a bit of a wander. Piece of advice: never take a stroll when there's a man with seven kinds of weapons waiting for you on the stairs.
If you have an off game against Djokovic it's almost impossible to find a way back. That's the level of consistency Djokovic has reached this year. A couple of errors and that's the set. An hour of your life you've just wasted. That's what happened in the first set and then the second set when the match began on Friday.
This kind of multi-weaponed consistency was too much for Rafael Nadal when he played Djokovic in the quarterfinals. The best clay-courter of all time was outgunned, and ended by running up the white flag.
And there was Murray in the clay-court form of his life, and it still wasn't enough. There was a glorious passage when Murray turned it round last night and carried on into today. Murray's golden period began with a ludicrous cross-court winner that he hit with his back to the court while chasing a lob.
He was on a hot streak, unplayable, when they came off court Friday night at 3-3 in the fourth set with a storm forecast. Djokovic was visibly eager to get off court. It was to Murray's huge credit that he was able to take things up again today. He played some inspired defence before turning to attack in the classic clay-court manner to take that fourth set.
And then guess what? An off game. While inevitably Djokovic kept his own level of play as high as ever, so he just rode away with the match. Getting back on level terms had taken everything that Murray had to offer.
The usual thing here -- at least among Brits -- is to blame Murray for those treacherous off games, for failing to sustain a level, for being beaten by a man he has ousted twice in grand slam finals. But I'm more inclined to wonder about the person on the other side of the net.
We know that Djokovic is one of the greats. The argument now is about his place among the greatest. We've been going through perhaps the finest era in the history of men's tennis in the past decade, with Roger Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. The argument has always been about whether Fed is better than Rafa; whether genius is a finer thing that inspired effort.
It's a terrific argument, but we should put it on hold now. This is the time of Nole. Djokovic has won one slam already this year; on Sunday he plays Stan Wawrinka in the final of another. By early evening Sunday he could be halfway to a calendar year grand slam. No one's done that since Rod Laver.
And when you bring the name of Laver into a tennis argument, you know you're talking about greatness rather than mere excellence. How did Murray, did Nadal, make those errors against Djokovic? Because Djokovic's extraordinary sustained level of excellence forces opponents to look for too much. Djokovic, more than any player I have ever seen, has the capacity to force the unforced errors from his opponent. Djokovic has the power to extort despair.
It's still a little early to go crazy, but don't take your eye off Djokovic. This could yet be one of the great years of tennis. We talk of Federer's time of utter supremacy, of Nadal's dominance in Paris. We might be one day talking about 2015 as the year of Nole. One-man army.
http://espn.go.com/tennis/story/_/id/13022898/andy-murray-ran-one-man-army-novak-djokovic-french-open-writes-simon-barnes
Andy Murray ran into the 'one-man army' that is Novak Djokovic at the French Open
By Simon Barnes
We all know what it's like to have an off day. Or a dodgy 10 minutes. A period when we fall below our usual standards and make a mistake or two. It's part of being human. Or so we like to think.
Perhaps the thing about great champions is that they don't do off days. They maintain standards. They have a baseline of excellence and seldom fall below it. Perhaps one of the ways we define champions is as people who have fewer off days than the rest of us.
They don't just have higher peaks; they have fewer if any troughs. And such troughs as they have are still of a dizzyingly high altitude. Certainly that's the conclusion to draw from watching Novak Djokovic at the French Open in Paris this week. Today he spent his lunch hour snuffing out the challenge of Andy Murray. And Murray was brilliant. Intermittently.
The story of the match is that unrelenting excellence beat intermittent brilliance. Murray's best was better than anything Djokovic managed in the course of this five-set match played over two days. The problem was that Murray's worst was way below the lowest of Djokovic's troughs.
The match stopped last night in the middle of Murray's frenzied resurgence. It finished today with Djokovic in full control. He won 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 5-7, 6-1 -- and at his best he was so good that he scrambled the mind of his opponent. It wasn't the level he was able to reach, it was the way he sustained that level. And that has made all the difference.
For most of the match Murray seemed to be facing an opponent with too many ultra-reliable weapons. That's Djokovic for you. The one-man army of tennis. A man with a thousand weapons in one racket -- each of them equally reliable. You can only beat him via the Victoria Cross route of suicidal bravery. Murray tried that and fell short.
The one thing you can't afford is an off game. And that's always been a problem with Murray. Every now and then he'll go on a bit of a wander. Piece of advice: never take a stroll when there's a man with seven kinds of weapons waiting for you on the stairs.
If you have an off game against Djokovic it's almost impossible to find a way back. That's the level of consistency Djokovic has reached this year. A couple of errors and that's the set. An hour of your life you've just wasted. That's what happened in the first set and then the second set when the match began on Friday.
This kind of multi-weaponed consistency was too much for Rafael Nadal when he played Djokovic in the quarterfinals. The best clay-courter of all time was outgunned, and ended by running up the white flag.
And there was Murray in the clay-court form of his life, and it still wasn't enough. There was a glorious passage when Murray turned it round last night and carried on into today. Murray's golden period began with a ludicrous cross-court winner that he hit with his back to the court while chasing a lob.
He was on a hot streak, unplayable, when they came off court Friday night at 3-3 in the fourth set with a storm forecast. Djokovic was visibly eager to get off court. It was to Murray's huge credit that he was able to take things up again today. He played some inspired defence before turning to attack in the classic clay-court manner to take that fourth set.
And then guess what? An off game. While inevitably Djokovic kept his own level of play as high as ever, so he just rode away with the match. Getting back on level terms had taken everything that Murray had to offer.
The usual thing here -- at least among Brits -- is to blame Murray for those treacherous off games, for failing to sustain a level, for being beaten by a man he has ousted twice in grand slam finals. But I'm more inclined to wonder about the person on the other side of the net.
We know that Djokovic is one of the greats. The argument now is about his place among the greatest. We've been going through perhaps the finest era in the history of men's tennis in the past decade, with Roger Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. The argument has always been about whether Fed is better than Rafa; whether genius is a finer thing that inspired effort.
It's a terrific argument, but we should put it on hold now. This is the time of Nole. Djokovic has won one slam already this year; on Sunday he plays Stan Wawrinka in the final of another. By early evening Sunday he could be halfway to a calendar year grand slam. No one's done that since Rod Laver.
And when you bring the name of Laver into a tennis argument, you know you're talking about greatness rather than mere excellence. How did Murray, did Nadal, make those errors against Djokovic? Because Djokovic's extraordinary sustained level of excellence forces opponents to look for too much. Djokovic, more than any player I have ever seen, has the capacity to force the unforced errors from his opponent. Djokovic has the power to extort despair.
It's still a little early to go crazy, but don't take your eye off Djokovic. This could yet be one of the great years of tennis. We talk of Federer's time of utter supremacy, of Nadal's dominance in Paris. We might be one day talking about 2015 as the year of Nole. One-man army.
http://espn.go.com/tennis/story/_/id/13022898/andy-murray-ran-one-man-army-novak-djokovic-french-open-writes-simon-barnes
GameSetAndMath
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Kieran said:
Actually, I beg to differ. There is moral victory, in the sense that Andy managed to win a game in the final set unlike couple of other times this year against Novak. :snicker
Kirijax
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Murray feeds Djokovic so many bagels and breadsticks, we now know where Novak gets his supply of gluten.
GameSetAndMath
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nehmeth said:
Good article, but unnecessary exaggeration. In the point that is being referred to in the above paragraph Andy ran chasing the lob, but did hit the shot with his front facing the court and not the back. I usually like Simon Barnes's article. But, I don't know why he feels the needs to exaggerate.
Anyone who has seen the highlights video or the match knows it.
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brokenshoelace
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I guess we could give credit to Andy for softening up Nole's confidence, taking him to 5 sets and 2 days to knock him off in the semi! IMO it's his own fault having a walkabout near the end of set 3! This is still his time, but his detractors will have one more piece of ammunition to detract from his record and accomplishments! :nono :angel: :cover :dodgy: