Hello folks. Hope all is well with you. Looks like Novak will take another one here after beating Murray in straights. Andy wore that weird little smile again, like he knew he had no chance.
It sure has been unfortunate to have Rafa out all this time, and then for him to come back and lose to qualifier Klizan was disappointing. Klizan was inconsistent in the match, definitely in the zone in the third set, but Rafa was up a set and a break and should not have let it get to that point to that caliber player once ahead. To me, he simply seems not to be fit, running out of gas by the second set. Not only against Klizan, but he did the same against Gojowzcyk, but was fortunate it didn't cost him that match. That is worrying to me, because, it was only his right wrist that was injured, used only in his two handed backhand. Other than his right wrist, he should have been monster fit with almost 3 months off to train. Instead he looked overweight, even more than he was early in the year. His intensity was good for the first set and a half, but after he got beaten in the second set, he just looked too tired to raise his game to contend with Klizan.
Without Nadal and Federer to challenge Novak, Murray seemingly without a top gear, and with guys like Cilic and Wawrinka so inconsistent, there really is nobody to challenge him. We need all of these players healthy, fit, and competing well to have good battles, we need the guys like Cilic, Wawrinka, Berdych, Ferrer, Nishikori, Raonic to play more consistently, otherwise it becomes all too predictable.
Let's see what happens in Shanghai.
Respectfully,
masterclass