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Deleted member 77403
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don't buy this narrative, sorry.
I don't think Nadal-Djokovic are that fragile to let one intense 3-setter take them out for the rest of the season.
In 2009 , Murray had won Doha, made the finals of IW (beat Federer in the semi and lost in a heavy windy final to Nadal), won Miami (beating Delpo and Djokovic). He just continued his best form on Bo3 on HC, winning Canada, making the semi of Cincy(losing to federer). then won Valencia , got bounced out of Paris early (rare early Bo3 loss) and then got trolled out of the YEC semi by fed-del potro. (of course he did well at wimby too, making the semi and wasn't that good on clay back then)
Federer finally got rid of not having rhythm on serve due to back problems by the time of Madrid and served like a monster from Madrid upto the semifinal vs Djokovic at the USO. The rest of his game was also boosted by that serving. So he went on a tear winning 31/32 matches from madrid 09 to USO 2009 SF.
Djokovic was just surprised by Kohlscreiber at the FO, not expecting such a performance from him early on and hence lost in straights in a below par performance.
then made final in Halle, QF in Wimbledon -- both losses to Haas. But then Haas has been troublesome to djokovic in general. Not great form by djokovic, but not poor either.
then loss to roddick in canada (loss in itself was not bad, but perf. from djoko was not good), then made final at cincy beating Nadal in a great perf in the semi, made the semi at the USO and was playing well, but federer was too good for him in the semi. Then won Beijing beating Verdasco, Soderling, Cilic. lost in semi of Shanghai to an in-form davydenko, won Basel beating federer in his own backyard, won Paris beating Soderling, Nadal and Monfils. Then at the YEC, an intense tournament, won 2 matches and lost 1, could not make the semi.
As far as Nadal goes, he had the best run of his career from clay season 2008 to clay season 2009. the loss to Soderling at RG was a big blow.
and his form went down after that. His parents divorce also played some part in that I assume.
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As far as Doha 2017 is concerned, come on, 35.5 year old fed can get through 2 intense 3-setters vs Berdych, Kyrgios and beat Nadal in straights in the final (this after having won IW just a few days before), you expect 29.5-30 yr old Djoko/Murray to be fine.
Djoko has been inconsistent since last year's Wimbledon. He didn't put up a great performance in the semi vs Verdasco and should've lost, but surivived and put a great perf. in the final.
He didn't play great at the AO vs Istomin, but wasn't awful either (unlike the Simon match in 16). His aura of indoors 14 to mid-2016 wasn't there. That enabled Istomin to be fearless and play the big points well -- which was highly crucial in that match.
Murray used to be very good vs SnVers, but maybe his reactions have declined a bit now and he lost to an in-form Mischa Zverev playing great tennis on a fast AO surface...Murray was also was probably burnt out by the run he had in the 2nd half of 2016 to get to#1. It wasn't the Doha match.
Hey don't worry about it, no need to apologize. Difference of opinion is cool.
Just to let you know though, I didn't read any of your post after that first line, just not going there if that is OK with you.