The Tennis Thread

Miami final between Murray and Djokovic at 6pm. Last tennis we’ll see on a decent paced court for a couple of months as the clay court shite will be kicking in for a while after this.

Clay courts if where the top dogs hang out. Looking forward to watching the gallant Fabio Fognini in the coming months.

Local girl Agnieszka Radwanska won the ATP tourney in Miami beating Maria “shoulders” Sharapova. Her career has really taken off since I celeb spotted her last autumn.

Odd kind of a match. Murray was hanging in there for most of the second set, Djokovic had plenty of chances to break him but couldn’t convert any. Djokovic wasn’t at his best, but comfortably the better player. Murray will have to be very disappointed with his performance. Looks like he hasn’t made any instant progression through working with Lendl anyway.

I see Conor Niland has had to retire from tennis due a persistent hip injury.
Disappointing for him after all the gains he made last year.

First big showdown of the clay court season today. Nadal and Djokovic facing off in the final at Monte Carlo. Nadal aiming to win this title for the eighth time in a row. Almost unbelievable really. Djokovic has had an emotional week. His grandfather, whom he was very close to, died on Wednesday I think it was. He played a few hours later and looked a complete wreck apparently as he lost the first set, but rallied to victory.

Starts at 1pm. Think I’ll record it and watch it later as it will be clashing with the United game and the hurling.

Fed didn’t compete this week, and Murray lost in the QF to Berdych.

Rafa took the Barcelona Open against Ferrer today in straight sets to make it two titles in two weeks, neither Federer or Djokovic competed in this event. Murray was knocked out in the quarters by Raonic - he doesn’t seem to have made any progress under Ledl so far.

Andy Murray with yet another early exit from what has been a terrible 2012 thus far. Djokovic, Nadal and Federer have all progressed to the quarters, thus far.

Nadal and Ferrer into the semis. Djokovic on course to after taking the first set against Tsonga, Federer faces Italian Andreas Seppi later.

Rafa strolls into the final with a straight sets victory over Ferrer, Federer and Djokovic up later.

Djokovic beats Federer in straight sets.

Final pushed to tomorrow afternoon because of rain.

This final has just started going it server 2-1 to Djokovic, Nadal serving.

Vamos Rafa!

Watching the rerun of this now. Rafa playing really aggressively which is great to see. Also wonderful to see Francesco Totti there to watch the King of the clay courts.

I see Andy Murray was knocked out of Queens yesterday. This lad is a joke of a tennis player. Is his no.4 ranking now under threat?

Nadal well beaten by [font=arial]Kohlschreiber in straight sets in Halle today. [/font]

[font=arial]Has Nadal managed to win a tournament other than on the dirt since the US Open 2010?[/font]

Tsonga is a big doubt for Wimbledon with a finger injury.

Grigor Dimitrov has qualified for the semi finals at Queens, good to see this lad finally start to do something with his potential, 3 or 4 years ago he was being touted as the next big thing.

[quote=“Jeffrey, post: 54295”]Nadal well beaten by [font=arial]Kohlschreiber in straight sets in Halle today. [/font]

[font=arial]Has Nadal managed to win a tournament other than on the dirt since the US Open 2010?[/font][/quote]

Nadal finds it difficult to bore opponents into submission on a quicker surface you see. When the ball doesn’t bounce as high it’s more difficult to chip the ball back to your opponent.