Murray hammers Chardy 6-4 6-1 6-2 and marches into the semi-final where he'll face either Federer or Tsonga.
According to the commentary, (I never saw the match) Murray played with a steely determination which had been lacking thus far in the tournament. Could this be Andy's new found confidence coming to the fore? Keeping himself as fresh as possible for the business end of the tournament? Hope so, and he's got a decent record against both Fed and particularly Tsonga, who can be both brilliant or hopeless. (Tsonga that is)
Hope they wear 'emselves out lol. Federer never seems to even break out in a sweat but he is getting older now
Federer comes through in five sets. You're right about him lala and I suspect he'll be fully recovered by the time he plays Andy on Friday. The top players are so fit now that one five set match doesn't really affect them.
Well folks, we're down to the semis of both singles competitions. Here's how I see things going. For the men: Novak Djokovic v David Ferrer Novak, as we know, has become Mr Consistent and although he's not reached the dizzy heights of 2011, is playing much better than most of the guys below him. His supreme fitness and will to win has got him to the semis (particularly against Wawrinka). I'd put him down as favourite to lift the trophy on Sunday. However, there's only two guys good enough and have the belief to beat him and these are either Andy Murray or Roger Federer. David Ferrer is a really good player, a hard worker, with loads of determination, but I'm sorry, he does not have the tools to beat Djokovic. Heart and desire only go so far, but if you've not got the game to beat a better player, you won't, end of story. I'm afraid this is the case - Novak is a far better player than David. Novak in 4. Andy Murray v Roger Federer We all know how great Roger is - his record speaks for itself. Write off this man to your peril folks. Andy has improved leaps and bounds and that's down to his coach, Ivan Lendl. A few changes were made to his game and he's more aggressive. Also mentally Andy has become a beast and he won't give in. Andy has to be aggressive from the get-go and needs to show his mental strength to win this one. Forget the head-to-head record and the Olympics - the bad news is that Andy has not beaten Roger in a Grad Slam match - he has been hammered twice in finals and lost a 4-set heartbreaker at SW19 in the final. Roger has the edge in that aspect as well as experience on his side. The good news is that Roger has not been consistently at his best form for some time now and made mistakes against Tsonga that he wouldn't have made in his glory years of 2003-2007. Put it simply, if Roger hits his top form he will beat Andy and Novak in the final, end of story. His top form is just a cut above the rest. If Andy is at his best he's got a good shot - and if Roger makes the mistakes he did against Tsonga, Andy will win comfortably. However, if Roger is at his best and Andy is passive, Roger will dish out a straight sets pasting. Andy does have the tools to beat Roger, and I can see the match being close, but I think that their Grand Slam record is grim reading, so I have to lean towards a narrow Federer win. Roger in 5. For the women: Victoria Azarenka v Sloane Stephens Sloane is a promising young player who has done well to reach this stage and caused a huge upset by beating Serena Williams, albeit Serena was injured. Victoria has been doing her customary shrieking and destroying her opponents. I can't see Sloane causing a surprise here, in fact, Vika will swamp her as well. Vika in a two set thrashing. Maria Sharapova v Na Li Li has done well to reach the semis this time and shown why she is a top player. However, she is not playing as well as Maria, who like Vika, has also done her customary shrieking as well as dishing out several bagels along the way. Again can't see any other outcome apart from the "Shrieking Show" on Saturday. Maria to win convincingly in 2. Thoughts?
Well, well... one of my predictions for the women proved wrong... but it was a bit of a surprise as Maria was the higher seed. Must of been a combination of a good day for Li and a poor one for Maria. I can only see Vika winning the women's title, but stranger things have happened. Maybe my prediction for Andy could be proved wrong but we'll just have to see.
Delighted that "the gobby one" has been knocked out, who would've thought neither herself nor S Williams wouldn't make the final? Interesting developements. I agree thar Ferrer will be no match for Djokovic but not sure I agree about Fed v Murray. Andy Murray has played the least time on court to make it thus far and Fed will surely be feeling the effects of his 5 setter 1/4 final - yes he is super-fit but he isn't as young as he was wheras Andy is now surely at his peak and more confident after a great 2012 season. My opinion? It's either of the two's match for the taking.
Ferrer has simply played too much tennis over the last year or so and coming of the back of a five setter against Almagro, he never had a chance against Djokovic. Hopefully Murray v Federer is a competitive game.
Murray v Federer live on BBC2 from 8.15 this morning. Unfortunately, I wont be able to see it here's hoping Murray goes one better than last year.
This is, I think, the best site for keeping up with the latest tennis scores: http://www.flashscores.co.uk/tennis/ It's almost immediate unlike the BBC which drags 10 minutes behind.
Brilliant! Andy through to the Aussie Open final to face Djokovic. Murray beats Federer 6-4 6-7 6-3 6-7 6-2 This is the first time the Brit has beaten Fed in a major!
Got to say that as much as it pains me i think Federer's time is up. He never looked like winning that match. I expect Djokovic to dominate tennis in the immediate future.
[video=youtube;P-ms5k27DOY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-ms5k27DOY&list=PL2RR--XMozwWC-wypSROB74gJ8v2MLmTI&index=2[/video] I'm home from work sick atm so was able to watch it on Eurosport HD and what a match it was. Murray came out of the blocks full of confidence, he looked like he meant business and I think he always expected to win it - he had me believing anyway. As I said in my earlier post, the duration of the match (and perhaps his 1/4 5setter) took it's toll on the now 31yr old Roger Federer but write him off at your peril, he will be back. Well done Andy Murray..and now for the final.
