-Speaking of a cake draw

[CrazyTennisFan]

Why is nobody talking about Nole's cake of a draw?

here is who he played/will play:
R1 Bedene (116)
R2 Kuznetsov (88 )
R3 Verdasco (31)
R4 Muller (42)


Rafa's draw:

R1 Youzhny (49)
R2 Smyszek (112)
R3 Sela (106)
R4 Anderson (14)


I think both draws are very comparable. It is interesting how this board is so focused on Rafa's every move but Novak goes undetected...

 

[swizzy]

very cake indeed

 

[Terenigma]

Verdasco -> Isner -> Raonic -> Wawrinka/Nishikori -> Final

Was originally harder than

Rosol -> Anderson -> Berdych -> Federer/Murray -> Final

 

[augustobt]

I can't decide which draw seems easier.

 

[SpinToWin]

Can somebody please posts Federer's draw (as long as it lasted) as a comparison? Just for all these guys saying that Fed always gets special treatment and a cake draw.

 

[jm1980]

Verdasco -> Isner -> Raonic -> Wawrinka/Nishikori -> Final

Was originally harder than

Rosol -> Anderson -> Berdych -> Federer/Murray -> Final

This.

/Thread

 

[augustobt]

Can somebody please posts Federer's draw (as long as it lasted) as a comparison? Just for all these guys saying that Fed always gets special treatment and a cake draw.

Lu -> Bolelli -> Seppi.

 

[jm1980]

Lu -> Bolelli -> Seppi.

Funny how their current rankings are:

46. Seppi
47. Lu
48. Bolelli

 

[The_Mental_Giant]

Verdasco -> Isner -> Raonic -> Wawrinka/Nishikori -> Final

Was originally harder than

Rosol -> Anderson -> Berdych -> Federer/Murray -> Final

People always love to underrate nadal.. Nole's draw was always the easier one....

Djoker would rather play Nishikori or even Wawrinka rather than Murray, let alone Federer.

Anderson could potentially be more dangerous for nole than Verdasco or even Raonic. The mugs nole beat in first two rounds are much inferior than Youznhy.


The easiest cakewalk is the draw of Nole.. followed by wawrinka up to QF..


Hardest draw is probably murray's one but again he isnt seeded top 4.

NAdal draw isnt easy by any means ..he could potentially go against..

Anderson-Berdych-Murray-Djokovic/Wawrinka.

sela and youzhny arent either easy draws for the first rounds..

 

[jm1980]

People always love to underrate nadal.. Nole's draw was always the easier one....

Djoker would rather play Nishikori or even Wawrinka rather than Murray, let alone Federer.

#1 seed can't play #2 seed. And considering Nole lost to Nishikori and Wawrinka in their last Slam meetings but beat Murray, I wouldn't be so sure about that.

Anderson could potentially be more dangerous for nole than Verdasco or even Raonic.

LOL, Anderson more dangerous than Raonic!? :lol: This is Verdasco's favorite slam. He almost beat Rafa himself here.

The mugs nole beat in first two rounds are much inferior than Youznhy.

Bedene beat Feliciano Lopez, GGL, and Bautista-Agut en route to a final in Chennai.
Youzhny hasn't done jack sh** in over a year, with numerous first round exits in many tournaments.

Bedene > Youzhny
Kuznetsov >> Smyczek
Verdasco >>> Sela, (Verdasco >> Rosol)
Anderson > Muller, (but Isner > Anderson)

Raonic > Berdych
Wawrinka/Nishikori ~= Murray

 

[easywin]

From what I read about the draw discussion that pops up time and time again, it doesnt really matter what is considered an easy draw since you can always bend the definition of the "toughest draw" towards your favorite player.

Here are some appropriate responses to make your favorite players achievements bigger than they are :
1. "He's just beating whats ahead of him - he would've beat everyone else as well"
2. "Its so much harder to play against a good player if you just had to beat mugs until then"
3. "This opponent is way better than his ranking shows. He beat [insert random once-in-a-lifetime win against a way better player] (bonus points for every time you can use the word "underrated" or "underappreciated")
4."Even though this opponent is pretty much unknown, he has nothing to loose and is very dangerous"
5."Bad matchups"

Here are some appropriate responses to make your least favorite players achievements smaller than they are :
1."He didn't prove himself - he's just playing competition like in a 500."
2."Even though his opponents ranking is good, he can't even hit [insert a shot - bonus points if you back up your opinion with a 20 minutes youtube clip and timestamp a point that confirms your claim]"
3."He just beat his opponent because his opponent was sick/injured"
4."Good matchups"

 

[jhhachamp]

Verdasco -> Isner -> Raonic -> Wawrinka/Nishikori -> Final

Was originally harder than

Rosol -> Anderson -> Berdych -> Federer/Murray -> Final

No, it was not.

 

[insideguy]

Yea its silly. Murray had a cake draw before last night as well. And even playing pretty boy is debatable if thats still not a cake draw.

 

[tacou]

siiigh. We are talking Novak and Rafa here. Come up with a "difficult" first three rounds for them. Isner is one of the few players who "troubles" Novak and guess what? He lost, badly. Draws cannot be helped.

 

[veroniquem]

Raonic > Berdych
Wawrinka/Nishikori ~= Murray

Raonic > Berdych?
In what universe
Neither in ranking nor achievements (Berd is a slam finalist at least)

Wawa/Nishi do not equal Murray: they are not multiple slam winners with a whole bunch of master titles to boot. But Wawa is the title holder, so I'll sort of let you off the hook there

The toughest draws at this AO are neither Djoko's nor Nadal's (Nishi, Fed probably are)
Imo, the easiest draws Nadal has ever had are USO 2010 and USO 2013. When the toughest opponent you get before final is Youzhny or Gasquet, you know that the tennis gods are on your side
Compared to these 2, Nadal's 2nd week at this AO is quite hard. Berd IS a legit top player, pigeon or not, and has some history of upsetting big names in slams + he seems in excellent shape right now. Murray is the 2nd favorite for AO title imo when considering both his record there and his current form.

Because of that, I disagree with the notion that Nadal's draw is "cake".

 

[jm1980]

Raonic > Berdych?
In what universe
Neither in ranking nor achievements (Berd is a slam finalist at least)

Raonic is at the moment better than Berdych. I think Novak would much rather face Berdych than Raonic, Rafa probably thinks the same thing.

Any slip up in your service games and you've lost the set. And often your best hope is to get to a TB and roll the dice. Nobody wants to play servebots.

 

[veroniquem]

Raonic is at the moment better than Berdych. I think Novak would much rather face Berdych than Raonic, Rafa probably thinks the same thing.

.

In terms of matchup, possibly. But Berd is ranked 7 and Raonic 8 and Berd is overall a much better/more experienced slam player than Raonic, especially on hard (he was semi-finalist at AO last year, Raonic's only SF was on grass)


ETA: Berd still has a better game outside of serve than Raonic

 

[Deleted member 77403]

Raonic is at the moment better than Berdych. I think Novak would much rather face Berdych than Raonic, Rafa probably thinks the same thing.

Any slip up in your service games and you've lost the set. And often your best hope is to get to a TB and roll the dice. Nobody wants to play servebots.

Raonic has been playing great tennis. I saw him play live in Brisbane at start of the year, that forehand is a sick weapon. He has a much more solid game...Berdych is the guy that nearly lost 6-0 6-0 to Djokovic in China Open final. Both Novak and Rafa would prefer Berdych...his lack of movement is easily exploited by these two.

As for Murray...yes he is now playing great tennis and rounding himself into great form. He will hopefully be full on for Nadal. But the last two players to beat Djokovic in a HC slam were Stan and Kei, and he will face one of them for sure in the semis...that is not going to be a walk in the park for Novak.

 

[Noelan]

In terms of matchup, possibly. But Berd is ranked 7 and Raonic 8 and Berd is overall a much better/more experienced slam player than Raonic, especially on hard (he was semi-finalist at AO last year, Raonic's only SF was on grass)


ETA: Berd still has a better game outside of serve than Raonic

Despite the facts that Raonic has less experience in slams, I think that on court he looks more calm and composed than some of the much more experienced top players including Berdych.
As for Novak I'm positive that he would prefer Berdych over Milos in QF.

 

[Bendex]

The higher your seeding, the easier your draw will be.

 

[Chanwan]

Bedene > Youzhny
Kuznetsov >> Smyczek
Verdasco >>> Sela, (Verdasco >> Rosol)
Anderson > Muller, (but Isner > Anderson)

Raonic > Berdych
Wawrinka/Nishikori ~= Murray

People always love to underrate nadal.. Nole's draw was always the easier one....

Djoker would rather play Nishikori or even Wawrinka rather than Murray, let alone Federer.

Anderson could potentially be more dangerous for nole than Verdasco or even Raonic. The mugs nole beat in first two rounds are much inferior than Youznhy.


The easiest cakewalk is the draw of Nole.. followed by wawrinka up to QF..


Hardest draw is probably murray's one but again he isnt seeded top 4.

NAdal draw isnt easy by any means ..he could potentially go against..

Anderson-Berdych-Murray-Djokovic/Wawrinka.

sela and youzhny arent either easy draws for the first rounds..

Don't let anyone fool you, the MTG has struck again!
As per Raonic/Birdman - needless to say, Birdman is both their pigeon, while Raonic hasn't folded just yet and seems in excellent form. I think both of them would prefer to play Berdych instead of Raonic, while at the same time feeling exceedingly lucky that they avoided Muzz/Nishi in the quarters.

From what I read about the draw discussion that pops up time and time again, it doesnt really matter what is considered an easy draw since you can always bend the definition of the "toughest draw" towards your favorite player.

Here are some appropriate responses to make your favorite players achievements bigger than they are :
1. "He's just beating whats ahead of him - he would've beat everyone else as well"
2. "Its so much harder to play against a good player if you just had to beat mugs until then"
3. "This opponent is way better than his ranking shows. He beat [insert random once-in-a-lifetime win against a way better player] (bonus points for every time you can use the word "underrated" or "underappreciated")
4."Even though this opponent is pretty much unknown, he has nothing to loose and is very dangerous"
5."Bad matchups"

Here are some appropriate responses to make your least favorite players achievements smaller than they are :
1."He didn't prove himself - he's just playing competition like in a 500."
2."Even though his opponents ranking is good, he can't even hit [insert a shot - bonus points if you back up your opinion with a 20 minutes youtube clip and timestamp a point that confirms your claim]"
3."He just beat his opponent because his opponent was sick/injured"
4."Good matchups"

Absolute gold!