2016 Aussie Open

[63dot]

On women's side the most interesting matchup can actually be the quarterfinals between 1 Serena Williams and 5 Maria Sharapova. The winner of this will likely win the whole tournament. There's no question that overall Serena has been better but at 34, her age could fail her against a still young 28 year old Maria. And if Serena wins this one, is it still realistic to consider this yet another year for a calendar grand slam?

On the men's side it could be yet another boring Australian Open from the best ever player of that tournament who may see 15 Grand Slam titles before it's all done. Could this be the year #2 Andy Murray upsets the top seeded Novak Djokovic? Could Murray put together a strong enough year to move to #1?

I am hoping for Sharapova and Murray to start this year off as an unpredictable one. Williams and Djokovic are arguably the best players of their gender, ever. Others were great in their prime, too but there's something monstrous about the way Williams has owned Sharapova of late (4 of 4 last two years) and Djokovic has owned Federer (5 of 7 last year) and Murray (6 of 7 last year) of late.

The safe thing to predict are Grand Slams for the two top seeded players, but how boring would that be?

 

[txa1265]

Well crap ... so much for Sharapova.

 

[63dot]

Well crap ... so much for Sharapova.

That wasn't the context I thought it could be. Serena still has it.

On the men's side Djokovic has to get past Federer to get into finals. The #2 Andy Murray has to get into semis first, win that, and then he will be in finals.

I want to see a showdown between #1 Djokovic who is in his prime, and #2 Andy Murray (who is at his best ranking at #2). This should be the first of several finals where it comes down to these two. If it wasn't for Djokovic, Murray would be the king of the tennis court. Of course all the finals won't be those two because you may have Federer meeting one of them in the semifinals in many matches. Nishikori could also be a threat in the semis, too.

There will come a day when it could be Nishikori and somebody else at the top, but these next few years will be a great, heated rivalry primarily between Djokovic and Murray, who are both still young at 28 and a week away from each other. The previous decade had it all about Federer going against Nadal as the premier rivalry in perhaps the best rivalry in men's tennis history which were the two best players of all time up to that point, and certainly up there with Connors-Borg, or McEnroe-Lendl.

The most perfect rivalry in history would have pitted all four of the "big four" players at their prime with a 20-something Federer going against Djokovic and Murray now, and an early-20s version of Nadal. My guess is that at their primes it would be today's version of Djokovic going against the early-20s version of Nadal. Nadal ruled Federer and Djokovic basically rules Murray now, so a dream in heaven Nadal-Djokovic rivalry does it for me on both clay and hard court. For grass I would make the exception and put Djokovic now going against a younger Federer.

All that being said, I don't think we will ever find a big four in men's tennis as dominant and as exciting as Murray, Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal.

From Wikipedia:

In tennis, the term Big Four refers to the quartet of men's singles players Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray. They reigned as the four best players in the world every season from 2008–2013.

.........

Between them, they have won 39 of the last 43 men's major singles titles, from the 2005 French Open through to the 2015 US Open (the only times they haven't won being at the 2009 US Open, the 2014 Australian Open, the 2014 US Open and the 2015 French Open); they have also won 11 of the previous 13 World Tour Finals (previously Tennis Masters Cup), with Federer winning six and Djokovic winning five.

 

[63dot]

As expected, Djokovic got into finals and will probably meet Andy Murray who has to win his semifinals tonight. I hope this can turn into the next big rivalry for men's tennis. Djokovic owns the head to head with the other three of the big four (Federer, Nadal, and Murray). Only Murray has improved greatly so I hope for a great Aussie finals.

I think Murray can ramp up to be as good as the other three and possibly be the next dominant singles player. He does well in Australia, overall. He's been to final four times and if he wins this, he has only the French Open to pull off a Golden Slam.

Serena on women's side should have this one and has a 5 to 1 head to head over Angelique Kerber.

 

[63dot]

Biggest upset in years on women's side! Kerber joins Sharapova and like her now has beat Serena and is #2.

Serena may now have a viable, regular rival besides Venus from the old days.

Women's tennis needs a rivalry. To make men's tennis get a rivalry, it would be nice to see Murray win tonight in Melbourne.

Last year Djokovic won three of four majors and garnered twice as many points as world #2 Murray so there was no competition. I hope 2016 is different as right now there's no real question anymore as to who is best of the big four.

The only way to remove Djokovic from undisputed best ever is to have Murray take him in head to head meetings over career hopefully starting with win tonight and many more to come.

In order to do this, Murray needs to get ground strokes more consistent to beat Djokovic.

 

[AFEPPL]

Hoping Murray Loses...

 

[fitshaced]

Just watching the men's final. A bit off topic what what I really hate about sports events these days is how they try to inject this super human atmosphere so that we all worship and idolise the champions of the sport. The backing music alone could have came from the movie Gladiator. Bloody hell, get on with it, let's have the tennis. No-one wants to feel like their supposed to cry tears of joy looking at the former greats walk to the court. The inspiration happens during gameplay, it does not come from the lighting/music director or God-like voice of the announcer on the microphone.

Anyway, go Murray!

 

[AFEPPL]

It's fantastic that murray lost...
Smiling ear to ear..

 

[63dot]

It's fantastic that murray lost...
Smiling ear to ear..

OK, so Murray had a split year in big clay tournaments.

He demolished Djokovic at Italian Open, but Djokovic showed he could finally win at the French Open completing career slam which was along with dominance in head to heads with Murray, Federer, and Nadal which is what people would look for in seeing who is the best of the big four.

Any argument against Djokovic always starts with the statement, "But Djokovic never won the French Open". Personally I think Djokovic was the best ever back in 2015 without any French Open, but with all of them now, 12 majors in an era with the big four, and leads in all the head to head matches, he's easily the best ever on the men's side.

The best argument that one could make for the other three is that:

1) Murray will get better and eventually dominate Djokovic on the head to heads, or
2) Federer and Nadal at their absolute peak portions of their careers were better than Djokovic is now in 2015-2016.

With a backhand and forehand that is the best in tennis, along with records throughout career, I don't think we have ever seen anybody like Djokovic like we are seeing him now in last couple of years.