RE: TENNIS - 2014 AUSTRALIAN OPEN
RussyRover > 22/01/2014, 19:57
Ater the ladies entertaining us, we then had the blokes to contend with...
and first up was Rafa vs Grigor Dimitrov and Grigor is no stranger to taking sets off the Spaniard, and it was the first set he took today, and oh so very nearly could have taken the 2nd and/or the 3rd also, but Rafa held his ground and after a little over 3.5 hours he also secured his place in the Semi's with a 3-6, 7-6, 7-6, 6-2 win over the #22 seed....
and then we were down to one, one place left and it was up to Roger Federer and Andy Murray to do battle...
Now Roger has been working with Stefan Edberg in an effort to prolong his career, as last year there were visible signs he was slowing down and becoming less formidable... Well, Stefan has got him rejuvenated, especially with the old serve and volley and coming into the net more and it's working nicely, as Andy found out going 2 sets down without even having a break point given to him by RF.... and it seemed it took an almost contentious play by Federer with he did keep up and it didn't double bounce to turn Andy Murray into Angry Murray to put that extra effort in and get back that break of serve and come from behind in the tie-break to get it to 2-1...
Unfortunately it proved a task too far for Murray, who has had his back surgery to contend with and it seems he's not quite back to 100% yet as the Swiss maestro made yet another Semi with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 win...
So a split in the play for the men as we have Wawrinka vs Berdych who will be the first match of the evening on Thursday, and Stan's The Man as far as the bookies are concerned. You'll get him around 8/11 with the Czech at 11/10, and with the way Stan is playing, he's headed for the Final....
Then we have to wait for Friday morning for the 2nd Semi between Nadal and Federer, and no surprise that Nadal is 8/15, with RF at around 6/4... Nadal should be fitter than Murray was, but Roger looks determined as well, let's hope they serve us up another cracking match....