CAMELOT FANTASIES

nole is on fire. he snatches his 27th match in a row.

congrats to nole and his fans.

berdych is shaking and baking. wins 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.



could he be the big story of this first slam of 2014?

He is looking  very good. He's getting more confident. He said so in his in the studio interview. He said he's ready to take the next step and he's playing like it.

I'd like Cornet to remove Sharapova from facilities.

Robert just bagled Klizan  in the first set.

Quote from: Emma on January 17, 2014, 12:44:38 pm

So Jerzy is out and in straight sets to Mayer. Well better him, an experienced player, than Jerzy and Mayer has a much better record against Ferrer too. 

Not surprised Robredo won. Just so you know, Wawrinka will find his hands full against Robredo as he leads Stan a whopping 6-1 in the H2H. So Nole's chances are getting better and better to make the final without much trouble. And Querrey couldn't take a set off Fognini so that even make things better for Nole.

Berdych's draw looks good too now that Anderson had to come off a 5 setter. In this heat, I am not sure how much is left in the tank.

I keep telling you this but you are only now just realizing it:

nole is the hottest player on the planet and he is also on his best surface. nole has now won 27 matches in a row.



its nadal who has the toughest draw and nadal is NOT on his best surface.


still I am sticking to my guns: I am picking nadal over nole in the final should that final take place.

and I am calling it an upset.



anyway I think you are right about robredo: he is tough as nails against wawrinka. robredo is just amazing as he is pushing32.

he is the one who removed Federer from the facilities at flushing meadows.

so robredo still has some magic left.

You've got to be kidding me, herc. Nole isn't the hottest player in the world and Nadal doesn't have the toughest paper.

Nole is always ruthless to these lesser ranked players but once he meets his match - be it Andy or Nadal, he's a different player - especially lately And he then lacks both confidence and consistency. I mean this is a fact. All you have to do is look at the previous Slams and see who beat whom to win those.

And Nadal's draw is and was only hard on papers. In reality it all fizzled out a bit too quickly- all that fuss - he didn't even play the whole match against Tomic.

Chances are, Nole will  meet Wawrinka in the QTR,, Andy will meet either Tsogna or Federer in his QTR if he survives today and Ferrer would meet with Berdcy, while Nadal would meet either Raonic or Dimitrov - or even Paire if Raonic and Dimitrov get into a marathon match. And that will leave Nadal's QTR as the weakest one. And then there are other possibilities. For instance, Murray might not even make the semi and if that happens then Nadal is having a cakewalk to the final and that's the reality of it. Who cares about what the draw was when one didn't even get to play any one of the worthy opponents, right. Not me. 

If you count Murray as the contender then from qtr final on, he will have the toughest draw as he will have to play Tsonga/Federer, Nadal and then Nole.

If things go accordingly then Nadal will play Raonic/Dimitrov/Paire, followed by Murray/Federer/Tsonga, and then Nole.

Nole will have to go through Wawrinka/Robredo, Ferrer/Berdych, and the most likely scenario is Nadal.

So you pick. Which one do you think is the toughest and easiest. I personally feel they all have tricky opponents and some of the opponents probably won't even make it, but perhaps Nole is the person who's going to handle most of his opponents the best. He is only vulnerable to Nadal and Murray. He has lost last 4 of the 5 Slams to both Nadal and Murray if I am to point.

This also tells me one thing. If Noel makes the final, he will be very tough to beat. I am sure it took him long to forget about those losses and this AO is his holy grail, so rest assured, he will be on it as if there's no tomorrow. 

So did I, but Cibulkova hopefully will do it.

it is going to be interesting emma. that is for sure.


so much history is at stake. and none other that the great Pistol is handing out the trophy.



nadal's level has dropped off significantly since the u.s. open while nole has taken his game to another level.

nadal's movement looks less fluid and he is not returning well. that was something he was doing rather well in montreal, cincy, and at flushing meadows.


by two biggest worries for nadal:


1. the return
2. the backhand


if he can get those cooking then he will be difficult to deal with.


nole, on the other hand, is doing everything a little too well. he is hitting his stride now.

Nadal's level has dropped since the Open I agree but you know, at least, he had a break and Andy too had a break. And Federer had a very nice schedule all year long so he had more than enough rest. It's Nole who's been playing non-top tennis since 2011 so I'd like to be fair to him. I mean we can call  him machine but he's human too and his level has dropped at times too. I mean he lost 3 very important matches just last year and that must have crushed him but he picked up and moved on. What a player really.

Anyway, speaking more to your post, I think Nadal's backhand might be a bit of suspect but he's got a great mental game and it's incredibly tough to beat him there.