2023 Australian Open SF: [4] Novak Djokovic vs Tommy Paul

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Who will put himself in the final?


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  • Poll closed .
To me the final will depend on what Novak turns up.

If Novak plays like he did in 4th round against De Minaur or in Q/F against Rublev, then i think he will win.

If he starts like today then i think Tsitsipas has a great chance as i think he is really focussed and wants this badly.
 
Okay, Djokovic somehow won in 3. Good luck doing that vs peak Tsitsipas.
If you look at their h2h you'd think Djokovic was 24 and Tsitsipas 35.
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There is some nice effortless vibe with Paul, mostly with the movement/court coverage. The gap in overall quality was quite significant and obvious today. For what it's worth I thought he would approach the net more. Then again Novak's returning skills might have made him reluctant which didn't help at all.

Not much to say than hoping Djokovic goes one step further...
 
All of these except 2 are BO3 and those 2 BO5 were close, we had Stefanos go 2-0 up in one of those, this means BO5 will be a good close match for sure.
And surface doesn't matter, right? Those 2 Bo5 were on clay, on Sunday it's Novak's own backyard. Most likely with the roof closed to add insult to injury
 
And surface doesn't matter, right? Those 2 Bo5 were on clay, on Sunday it's Novak's own backyard. Most likely with the roof closed to add insult to injury

Djokovic is older than he was in 2020/2021 and he is injured in his hamstring as well.

So it is kinda nullified.
 
I agree i think this will be a very hard match for Novak.

Stefanos leads outdoor h2h 2-1 and in the 2 best of 5 set matches they had they both went to a final set.

I honestly think if Novak is favourite it is not by much.
If you truly believe that, you should bet on Stefanos. Bookies: 1.22 for Djoko, 4.50 return on every dollar for Stefanos.
 
Djokovic is older than he was in 2020/2021 and he is injured in his hamstring as well.

So it is kinda nullified.
Kinda nullified?? 9-0 gets nullified due to age (that doesn't show in his game) and an injury (that doesn't show in his game). Well, agree to disagree sir
 
Kinda nullified?? 9-0 gets nullified due to age (that doesn't show in his game) and an injury (that doesn't show in his game). Well, agree to disagree sir

Well at least I am not writing Stefanos off.
9-0 is only as good as our present fitness sir.
Nadal is 14-0 at RG but today if he plays Alcaraz in a RG final then Nadal will have to be at his best, the previous 14-0 won't help him if he is unfit.
 
Well at least I am not writing Stefanos off.
9-0 is only as good as our present fitness sir.
Nadal is 14-0 at RG but today if he plays Alcaraz in a RG final then Nadal will have to be at his best, the previous 14-0 won't help him if he is unfit.
9-0 was confusing, sorry. Didn't mean Novak's titles but their last 9 matches. Alcaraz and Rafa split their 2 matches last year. Alcaraz has won a slam final. Alcaraz has a 6-2 finals record, Stef has a 9-15. Incomparable.

And a huge difference from Stef going into the final with a 0-9 history in recent memory. And losing his 2-0 lead vs. Novak as his only slam final memory.
I haven't seen anything in Novak's last 9 sets to indicate fitness should be a huge problem for him (if at all) in the final.

I think he has a better chance than Ruud did vs. Rafa (Stef does have some belief), but it's very much an uphill battle
 
It wasn't a blowout though. Very competitive first set, deceptive scoreline in the second. Only the third set felt like a blowout

i missed the match but the scoreline was just a little surprising...paul is i think better than he gets credit for and while i didn't think he'd win i was anticipating a somewhat-to-surprisingly competitive match. good to hear it was maybe closer than the score indicated?
 
At least Tommy gave us ONE moment of "maybe this won't be a blowout" when he rallied from 2-5 to 5-5 in the first set. I think at 5-2 we thought absolute beatdown. It basically ended up being that anyway, but at least we had a moment of doubt and genuine intrigue, even if it lasted briefly.
 
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