2016 Australian Open Final - [1] Djokovic vs. [2] Murray

[stringertom]

Interesting live interview on ESPN now with Djokovic. He claims he started with equal intensity as his SF win. That's wrong...Murray had a BP in the very first game. Thursday was redlining, leaving Federer helpless. Tonight, Murray imploded after that one game with absolutely horrible tennis that gifted the first set. Credit Murray for rebounding to make things interesting for a bit until the critical 11th game giveaway from 40-0 up.

 

[Doflamingo]

Isn't it marvellous? It feels like the sky's the limit for King Novak right now!

You see Becker tearing up at the end? That was HUGE, like...WOW. Never expected that to happen but he just let it all out, was so flustered and couldn't hold it in ​

 

[Meles]

I did not see post-match ceremony! Did Murray cry or what?

The ceremony was quite a let down compared to the ladies. Murray was a bit flat, but tinged with emotion with all that has gone on. Made mention of being on first flight home to Kim and he seemed a bit choked up about it (the emotional high point of both speeches.) Murray can give a really flat speech, but Nole seemed to top him. Very predictable stuff except for one thing. Djoko's ignorance of tennis history had him praising amateur era great Roy Emerson to the skies (6 Auz and 12 slams overall, one more than Nole) who was not in the stadium and then makes no mention of Rosewall (on the podium), but does mention Laver (of course and who does show up at a lot of tournaments.) In an Open era with all the top pros competing its debatable whether Emerson would have won any slams. Rosewall is up there with Laver (much longer career, longer than Connors) and to completely ignore "Muscles" was an ignorant snub by the champ (and I thought I could see the hurt in Rosewall's eyes.)

Can't comment on the match as I was semi-comatous through out. (And still a touch groggy for the speech.)

 

[Cortana]

7 slams ago I thought Novak wouldn't even get to 10 slams by the end of his career.

Crazy how fast things can change in 2 years.

 

[reaper]

Murray played very well from the 6th game of the 1st set until 6-6 in the 3rd. He played with more (aggression than I've seen from him previously in that period. Even when he got broken from 40-0 up at 5-5 in the second, it was fantastic play from Djokovic rather than really poor from Murray. The other positive is that it's crystal clear what he has to do...improve the forehand. It's not that hard to do either. There were stats shown during the broadcast that he hit the ball 5kph faster on the forehand side when Lendl was coaching him than before or after. The solution is right in front of him and he's capable of implementing it.

 

[pound cat]

Murray played very well from the 6th game of the 1st set until 6-6 in the 3rd. He played with more (aggression than I've seen from him previously in that period. Even when he got broken from 40-0 up at 5-5 in the second, it was fantastic play from Djokovic rather than really poor from Murray. The other positive is that it's crystal clear what he has to do...improve the forehand. It's not that hard to do either. There were stats shown during the broadcast that he hit the ball 5kph faster on the forehand side when Lendl was coaching him than before or after. The solution is right in front of him and he's capable of implementing it.

Good highlights...

 

[Djokovic2011]

In the last three weeks Novak has scored his 24th win over Nadal, his 23rd over Federer and his 22nd over Murray.

 

[Noleberic123]

In the last three weeks Novak has scored his 24th win over Nadal, his 23rd over Federer and his 22nd over Murray.

Destiny

 

[Tennis_Hands]

Murray played very well from the 6th game of the 1st set until 6-6 in the 3rd. He played with more (aggression than I've seen from him previously in that period. Even when he got broken from 40-0 up at 5-5 in the second, it was fantastic play from Djokovic rather than really poor from Murray. The other positive is that it's crystal clear what he has to do...improve the forehand. It's not that hard to do either. There were stats shown during the broadcast that he hit the ball 5kph faster on the forehand side when Lendl was coaching him than before or after. The solution is right in front of him and he's capable of implementing it.

In that game 40-0 Murray was clocking 175 km/h first serves and 140 km/h second serves.

GOAT serving.

For comparison, Djokovic was regularly serving above 190km/h when it really mattered. At some point he was taking off some heat from his first serves for more slice ... resulting in above 180km/h first serves.

 

[batz]

Congrats to Novak and all his fans - he is utterly dominant.

 

[tennisdad65]

He won 35% of second serves. No surprise that he wanted to make sure he got his first serve in. He really needs to improve his second serve to beat Novak.

Muzziah was hitting 175 km/h first serves in crucial moments.

 

[Tennis_Hands]

He won 35% of second serves. No surprise that he wanted to make sure he got his first serve in. He really needs to improve his second serve to beat Novak.

The way to improving his second serve is not by making his first serve weaker, so that the gap between them is smaller.

 

[Djokovic2011]

Congrats to Novak and all his fans - he is utterly dominant.

Commiserations mate. But I still feel that Murray will win another major this year and I think he has a great chance of winning the AO over the next couple of years. It would be such a shame if his great consistency there isn't rewarded.

 

[jm1980]

The King of Plexicushion reigns again

 

[ACE of Hearts]

Interesting live interview on ESPN now with Djokovic. He claims he started with equal intensity as his SF win. That's wrong...Murray had a BP in the very first game. Thursday was redlining, leaving Federer helpless. Tonight, Murray imploded after that one game with absolutely horrible tennis that gifted the first set. Credit Murray for rebounding to make things interesting for a bit until the critical 11th game giveaway from 40-0 up.

Federer was lousy. His serve was lousy. Murray
couldn't even take a set. Novak's clearly in his head even more now

 

[Doctor/Lawyer Red Devil]

@123456789 Where is your avatar of Djokovic holding the trophy?

 

[mickeyrs]

One other big impression, that I forgot, was Andy's end of speech where he almost broke down. You can see that he's such a good guy, unfortunately, he's playing in wrong/Novak era... just like Ferrer and Berdych.

 

[3fees]

Congrats to Djokovic, blnt Murray

Cheers
3Fees

 

[Deleted member 688153]

My best congratulations to Novak on his equal-record sixth Australian Open title.
Fully deserved and convincingly won.

That's some serious history there really.

Also I feel great for his good and reasonable fans and wish both Novak and you guys the best.

My flight home is tomorrow - until next year.

 

[CYGS]

@123456789 Where is your avatar of Djokovic holding the trophy?

Yes, time to live up to his promise.

 

[Ironwood]

The ceremony was quite a let down compared to the ladies. Murray was a bit flat, but tinged with emotion with all that has gone on. Made mention of being on first flight home to Kim and he seemed a bit choked up about it (the emotional high point of both speeches.) Murray can give a really flat speech, but Nole seemed to top him. Very predictable stuff except for one thing. Djoko's ignorance of tennis history had him praising amateur era great Roy Emerson to the skies (6 Auz and 12 slams overall, one more than Nole) who was not in the stadium and then makes no mention of Rosewall (on the podium), but does mention Laver (of course and who does show up at a lot of tournaments.) In an Open era with all the top pros competing its debatable whether Emerson would have won any slams. Rosewall is up there with Laver (much longer career, longer than Connors) and to completely ignore "Muscles" was an ignorant snub by the champ (and I thought I could see the hurt in Rosewall's eyes.)

Can't comment on the match as I was semi-comatous through out. (And still a touch groggy for the speech.)

Murray has often been a terrible interview following losses over the years, and comes across mumbling, unfocused and unable to find the right words to express himself. He's an intelligent guy I'm sure, but it just must be his personality.

 

[Doflamingo]

 

[Mainad]

Some interesting match stats:

Murray hit 40 winners to Djokovic's 31 (I thought Murray was supposed to be the less aggressive player?), served 12 aces to Djokovic's 7, won 68% of 1 st serve points to 74% for Djokovic but won only 35% of his 2nd serve points to Djokovic's 53% and made 65 UEs to Djokovic's 41.

So while he was obviously trying to play more aggressively (spot on tactic) his 2nd serve let him down again coupled with too many UEs. Clearly he still needs to work on getting this balance right when facing the likes of Djokovic and Federer.

 

[mightyrick]

Federer was lousy. His serve was lousy. Murray
couldn't even take a set. Novak's clearly in his head even more now

Well, Murray will have to deal with it.

I said it in another thread about Serena Williams. This is how it is with all-time greats who are in form who play against another player that is NOT an all-time great who is in form. You cannot beat them. They either beat themselves and they lose. Or they beat you and you lose. The latter happens a lot more than the former.

Superman either flies or he doesn't. Lois Lane can't ever fly unless Superman helps her.

 

[Mainad]

Murray has often been a terrible interview following losses over the years, and comes across mumbling, unfocused and unable to find the right words to express himself. He's an intelligent guy I'm sure, but it just must be his personality.

Are you talking about his on-court speeches following a loss or his post match interview with the journalists? His on-court speeches are mostly clear, coherent and moving but his interviews with the journos are quite often like you describe. It seems he is prepared for what to say on-court but has little patience or interest in answering the journos' questions, something he probably needs to work on.

 

[Mainad]

Well, Murray will have to deal with it.

I said it in another thread about Serena Williams. This is how it is with all-time greats who are in form who play against another player that is NOT an all-time great who is in form. You cannot beat them. They either beat themselves and they lose. Or they beat you and you lose. The latter happens a lot more than the former.

Superman either flies or he doesn't. Lois Lane can't ever fly unless Superman helps her.

Right...so should a non-ATG player contact an ATG player before their match and ask if he/she is going to be in form or not because, if they are, then there is no point in the non-ATG showing up is there? Might as well as save everybody a bit of time!

Maybe there should be separate tournaments for ATGs and non-ATGs? What do you think?

 

[Sentinel]

Right...so should a non-ATG player contact an ATG player before their match and ask if he/she is going to be in form or not because, if they are, then there is no point in the non-ATG showing up is there? Might as well as save everybody a bit of time!

Maybe there should be separate tournaments for ATGs and non-ATGs? What do you think?

So what are your views on Amelie ?

 

[West Coast Ace]

He won 35% of second serves. No surprise that he wanted to make sure he got his first serve in. He really needs to improve his second serve to beat Novak.

Yes. That spinner 2nd might have been ok to start points when he was a teen studying in Spain on clay; not going to cut it at the top of the mens tour.

The consistency of depth of shot from Djokovic was incredible.

I wanted to someone force Djokovic to come to net, not on his own terms; no one on tour, except for the occasional Stan GOAT performance, can out hit him from the baseline. If they don't - or the ATP/ITF don't really speed things up, he's going to be on top, completely unchallenged, for many years.

 

[Adv. Edberg]

Well, Murray will have to deal with it.

I said it in another thread about Serena Williams. This is how it is with all-time greats who are in form who play against another player that is NOT an all-time great who is in form. You cannot beat them. They either beat themselves and they lose. Or they beat you and you lose. The latter happens a lot more than the former.

Superman either flies or he doesn't. Lois Lane can't ever fly unless Superman helps her.

Sure you can beat them. But Novack probably won this match during the warm up. If you don't believe you can win then you never will.

Probably Kyrgios is the only one who believe he can beat Djock but then he probably lack other skills that will make him but still.

 

[Mainad]

So what are your views on Amelie ?

I've already said many times that I don't think she will help Andy to get Slams like Lendl did. She's a nice person who obviously exercises a steadying influence on Andy and he is obviously devoted to her but that doesn't necessarily work out at an increased Slam count and unfortunately we are seeing the evidence. Andy has to decide whether he wants to be a serious contender for the Big Ones again and find someone like Lendl who can push him all the way or just settle for a nice, cosy relationship with Amelie and settle for winning a few Masters here or there. For instance, I was upset that he parted with Bjorkman when Mauresmo returned from maternity leave. Why did he do that? Jonas had helped him win his first 2 claycourt titles last year. He could have kept him on as a valued back-up in the team in the same way Djokovic still keeps Vajda after appointing Becker.

I feel he is too emotionally involved with Mauresmo (in a strictly platonic way of course) and needs to think long and hard about whether she is really the one who can see him over the finishing line at Slam finals again.

 

[abmk]

One of my best decisions - not to get up late in the night to watch this live

 

[fps]

I've already said many times that I don't think she will help Andy to get Slams like Lendl did. She's a nice person who obviously exercises a steadying influence on Andy and he is obviously devoted to her but that doesn't necessarily work out at an increased Slam count and unfortunately we are seeing the evidence. Andy has to decide whether he wants to be a serious contender for the Big Ones again and find someone like Lendl who can push him all the way or just settle for a nice, cosy relationship with Amelie and settle for winning a few Masters here or there. For instance, I was upset that he parted with Bjorkman when Mauresmo returned from maternity leave. Why did he do that? Jonas had helped him win his first 2 claycourt titles last year. He could have kept him on as a valued back-up in the team in the same way Djokovic still keeps Vajda after appointing Becker.

I feel he is too emotionally involved with Mauresmo (in a strictly platonic way of course) and needs to think long and hard about whether she is really the one who can see him over the finishing line at Slam finals again.

100%. There's no evidence that anything has happened except that the gap between him and Novak has got much bigger, while other gains are based on regression in Nadal's game especially and Federer's game incrementally.

 

[sbengte]

Is Murray's presser out ? Wonder what he had to say.

Djokernaut rolls on with no signs of slowing down. Simply too good, too consistent.

 

[PHS_10]

Congrats Djoko, very well deserved. So happy for him. Classy speech and celebration. Hope he wins the FO this year too. Andy did up his game in the second and third sets, but oh well good luck next time..

 

[Meles]

Wow another boring interview. This is approaching Dominic Thiem territory. I've seen Novak give much better interviews.

 

[123456789]

Are you talking about his on-court speeches following a loss or his post match interview with the journalists? His on-court speeches are mostly clear, coherent and moving but his interviews with the journos are quite often like you describe. It seems he is prepared for what to say on-court but has little patience or interest in answering the journos' questions, something he probably needs to work on.

Is Murray's presser out ? Wonder what he had to say.

Djokernaut rolls on with no signs of slowing down. Simply too good, too consistent.

nah Murray just played terribly on the points that mattered. His forehand was so bad that he couldn't even contest the long rallies. When the rallies were shorter he was able to use his backhand and whip it cross court. I think he has the best attacking backhand in the game but his current forehand negates it. Djokovic played above average but all he really had to do was hit it to Murrays forehand in the long points.

 

[GabeT]

I too feel sorry for Andy.

Poor Andy, what has he got?

After all he's only a millionaire with a beautiful wife and the first Brit in decades to win Wimbledon.

But other than that? Poor guy.

 

[veroniquem]

I doubt it. Too much Carpet in the 80's while Agassi had that 2 year lapse. Don't think Sampras did either.

Also Novak has now 8 slam titles on hard. He's one away from tying Fed's 9 and one above Sampras' count (7)
A number of Sampras' titles were on carpet. Djoko is a much better hard court player than Sampras.
The hard court GOAT prize is being disputed between Fed and Djoko.
Exciting times! (Djoko is 1 WTF title away from Fed as well)
I say Djoko would deserve to end up with it and I suspect he will.

 

[Tennis_Hands]

Also l want to pretend that I know things, so you will have to endure my endless drivel without any value.

 

[Tennis_Hands]

Let us face it.

Andy's serve is a liability that costs him being competitive against Novac.

He serves (both first and second) are subpar for a guy of his height and ability.

 

[Doflamingo]

Nole's press conference:

Andy's press conference:

​

 

[veroniquem]

In the last three weeks Novak has scored his 24th win over Nadal, his 23rd over Federer and his 22nd over Murray.

Djoko is owning the big 3 at the moment: last 10 encounters:

9-1 vs Nadal (the one Nadal win was at RG 2014)
9-1 vs Murray(the one Murray win was at Canada 2015)
6-4 vs Federer (4 Fed wins were: WTF 2015, Cincy 2015, Dubai 2015, Shanghai 2014)

Fed is officially the one of the big 3 who is the most competitive vs Novak but at almost 35, how long can he still hang on?

 

[Djokovic2011]

Djoko is owning the big 3 at the moment: last 10 encounters:

9-1 vs Nadal (the one Nadal win was at RG 2014)
9-1 vs Murray(the one Murray win was at Canada 2015)
6-4 vs Federer (4 Fed wins were: WTF 2015, Cincy 2015, Dubai 2015, Shanghai 2014)

Fed is officially the one of the big 3 who is the most competitive vs Novak but at almost 35, how long can he still hang on?

I read before that it's the fourth time Novak has beaten two of the Big 4 players to win a slam. Nadal has also done it four times, Federer twice, Murray zero. Do you know which tournaments these were vero?

 

[Gary Duane]

One of my best decisions - not to get up late in the night to watch this live

Same here. I did suffer through the first set but then I went to bed.

But I watched the rest today. I already knew the score, and I wanted to see what happened. The 2nd set was a nail biter. Murray had the set, then lost a game after being up 40/0. It sounds like he simply choked, but Novak was returning insanely. The match was closer than the score indicates. Watching Murray double fault twice in the TB was pretty much the most painful thing.

There were a lot of long points, but it was Pong. Pong on steroids, but still Pong. Almost no net play. Neither guy could get to the net.

I felt totally frustrated watching the match, not because Novak won but because it is tedious watching this kind of play. There is no contrast. It's the opposite of two servebots playing.

 

[veroniquem]

Djokovic's hard court awesomeness:

MOST TITLES:
1- Federer: 60
2- Connors: 49
3- Djokovic: 47
4- Agassi: 46
5- Sampras: 36
6- Lendl: 31

MOST SLAMS:
1- Federer: 9
2- Djokovic: 8
3- Sampras: 7
4- Agassi: 6
5- Lendl: 5

MOST WTFs:
1- Federer: 6
2- Djokovic: 5

MOST MASTERS:
1- Djokovic: 19
2- Federer: 18
3- Agassi: 14
4- Lendl: 10

 

[Tennis_Hands]

Some people just want to wake up one day and see their life being spent on useless things.

Or is what we are seeing now born out of the realization, that there is not enough quality to be put into action?

 

[ThunderSnap]

One other big impression, that I forgot, was Andy's end of speech where he almost broke down. You can see that he's such a good guy, unfortunately, he's playing in wrong/Novak era... just like Ferrer and Berdych.

If it wasn't novak, rafa, or Roger, it'd be someone else. No excuses

 

[ACE of Hearts]

Yes. That spinner 2nd might have been ok to start points when he was a teen studying in Spain on clay; not going to cut it at the top of the mens tour.

The consistency of depth of shot from Djokovic was incredible.

I wanted to someone force Djokovic to come to net, not on his own terms; no one on tour, except for the occasional Stan GOAT performance, can out hit him from the baseline. If they don't - or the ATP/ITF don't really speed things up, he's going to be on top, completely unchallenged, for many years.

He killed feddy on the second serve as well.

 

[veroniquem]

I read before that it's the fourth time Novak has beaten two of the Big 4 players to win a slam. Nadal has also done it four times, Federer twice, Murray zero. Do you know which tournaments these were vero?

Yes!
AO 2016: Federer/Murray
AO 2012: Murray/Nadal
USO 2011: Federer/Nadal
AO 2011: Federer/Murray

 

[Doctor/Lawyer Red Devil]

I read before that it's the fourth time Novak has beaten two of the Big 4 players to win a slam. Nadal has also done it four times, Federer twice, Murray zero. Do you know which tournaments these were vero?

Even better thing is that he won all his Slams after beating at least one of the Big 4 players.