Gollum Posted January 30 Posted January 30 (edited) Can't believe what I just witnessed. Nole is gonna turn 39 in 3 months time. Him beating a future GOAT like Sinner (2x defending champ in AO) must rank as one of the most unbelieveable results in tennis history. @putrevus King is King, nobody greater than Novak, in any individual sport. PS: unbelievable baseline play from both guys, brutal hitting. Reminded me of some of the mid-2010s Wawrinka-Djokovic epics at the same venue. Edited February 1 by Gollum velu 1
Gollum Posted January 30 Author Posted January 30 Djokovic vs Alcaraz final on Sunday. Missed the first SF but it took the Spaniard 5 sets to down Zverev.
Gollum Posted January 30 Author Posted January 30 (edited) Once again, Nole won a big match despite winning less points. Also he literally becomes a God in 5th sets !!!!! Nobody (team or player) plays big points/moments like Nole. Think of Aussie team in ODI WC, but a much scarier version. Sinner had 8 BPs in 5th set, 0 converted. Nole struggled throughout that set, just 1 BP and he converted that. Federer. Nadal had to deal with such otherworldly clutchness throughout their careers. Sinner is 14 years younger to Nole, Alcaraz 16. Edited January 30 by Gollum
Gollum Posted January 30 Author Posted January 30 (edited) Have been honoured to have followed the careers of many greats but the dominance of these 4 stands out Novak Djokovic Usain Bolt Michael Phelps Magnus Carlsen Doubt even Jordan was that dominant. Edited January 30 by Gollum putrevus 1
Gollum Posted January 30 Author Posted January 30 (edited) Sinner won 152 points today, Djokovic 140 Sinner BP conversion 2/18 Nole BP conversion 3/8 This despite Sinner serving bombs today, 26 aces to Nole's 12, at 75% first serve, higher than Nole's 70%. When was the last time you saw Sinner losing despite 75% first serves? Must be deja vu for Nole haters, all their lives they saw their idols, Federer and Nadal on the receiving end of such numbers. Today, Sinner. Almost get a feeling Nole does it purposely, to break the will of his opponents. Edited January 30 by Gollum
putrevus Posted January 30 Posted January 30 (edited) 1 hour ago, Gollum said: Can't believe what I just witnessed. Nole is gonna turn 39 in 3 months time. Him beating a future GOAT like Sinner (2x defending champ in AO) must rank as one of the most unbelieveable results in tennis history. @putrevus King is King, nobody greater than Novak, in any individual sport. PS: unbelievable baseline play from both guys, brutal hitting. Reminded me of some of the mid-2010s Wawrinka-Djokovic epics at the same venue. It was one of finest matches I have seen from Novak in recent years, you can clearly see Novak was being outgunned by both these guys last two years. But today you could see not just talent but also ability of Novak to problem solve on the court.He played brilliant tactical match,as you said Sinner still won more points than Novak. Honestly I am astonished by Sinner's ability to move so well on the court for such a tall guy.The effortless power he generates is something else. Novak is clearly underdog, hope he gets to sink his teeth in the match like today in finals. Edited January 30 by putrevus Gollum 1
Gollum Posted January 30 Author Posted January 30 (edited) 10 minutes ago, putrevus said: It was one of finest matches I have seen from Novak in recent years, you can clearly see Novak was being outgunned by both these guys last two years. But today you could see not just talent but also ability of Novak to problem solve on the court.He played brilliant tactical match,as you said Sinner still won more points than Novak. Honestly I am astonished by Sinner's ability to move so well on the court for such a tall guy.The effortless power he generates is something else. Novak is clearly underdog, hope he gets to sink his teeth in the match like today in finals. After the recent USO, Nole said in the PC that he can't hang with Sinner and Alcaraz any more. Last year he wasn't able to win one set against Sinner anywhere. You could see how emotional he was today, in the post-match interview on court. Don't think even he expected today's result in his wildest dreams. Have to say he deserved the win 100%, just his ability to peak in big points should be a lesson to these kids. I think this win makes him the oldest GS finalist in the modern era. I know Rosewall made the USO final at the age of 39, but that was a long long time back (almost 6 decades back) when tennis was a much different sport, and less competitive. Edited January 30 by Gollum putrevus 1
Gollum Posted January 30 Author Posted January 30 (edited) When 35 year old Agassi pushed Federer to 4 sets in 2005 USO final (previous year QF between these 2 was a classic 5 setter), I was awe-struck, thought we would never see something like that repeated. Then I saw Federer of 2017-19....his run in 2017 AO followed by Indian Wells and Miami (Sunshine Double) being my favorite phase of his career. His OHBH was a thing of beauty, finally he figured out how to play Nadal !!!!! Even more impressive was 35 yo Nadal winning AO and RG in 2022. Just because of how physical his game was and the state of his knees. Then came Djokovic, winning 3 majors at 36, then going on to beat Alcaraz on his favorite surface in the Olympic gold medal match and knocking out future GOAT, Sinner, in SF at his favorite venue. Edited January 30 by Gollum diga 1
AKane Posted January 30 Posted January 30 1 hour ago, Gollum said: This despite Sinner serving bombs today, 26 aces to Nole's 12, at 75% first serve, higher than Nole's 70%. When was the last time you saw Sinner losing despite 75% first serves? Sinner was not serving bombs - Djokovic does not expend energy where the serve is hard to reach. He just lets it be an ace. He is conserving energy for vital pts. Sinner served at max serve speed of 203 kmph and average 188 kmph with second serve average speed of 160 kmph. He had 26 aces. Zverev served at max speed of 216 kmph and average 200 kmph with second serve speed of 167 kmph. He had 17 aces. Alcaraz even with the vomiting and cramps was reaching for the serves unlike Djokovic who was playing smarter.
Gollum Posted January 30 Author Posted January 30 British media still lumps Sir Andy Murray with Djokovic and Fedal. This is worse than their Stokes chalisa @Lord Wawrinka still going ok at the age of 40, reached 3rd round here. But never received 1% of the hype that Murray got. Lord 1
AKane Posted January 30 Posted January 30 Djokovic has never lost an AO final. Alcaraz has never lost a match leading 2 sets to 0. He is something like 60-0 or whatever in those matches. People thought at Zverev serving 5-3 that this would be defeat number one ..... but then Zverev happened.
Gollum Posted January 30 Author Posted January 30 3 minutes ago, AKane said: Sinner was not serving bombs - Djokovic does not expend energy where the serve is hard to reach. He just lets it be an ace. He is conserving energy for vital pts. Sinner served at max serve speed of 203 kmph and average 188 kmph with second serve average speed of 160 kmph. He had 26 aces. Zverev served at max speed of 216 kmph and average 200 kmph with second serve speed of 167 kmph. He had 17 aces. Alcaraz even with the vomiting and cramps was reaching for the serves unlike Djokovic who was playing smarter. For a guy like Sinner, 75% first serves is a guaranteed win. Fastest serve isn't necessarily the best, Federer with his precision and disguise was tougher to return than most giants serving 20-30 kph faster. Not just about aces but how you set up points after that, if you watch his service games in 5th set, he had Nole on the mats every time by his 2nd shot, except that one time where he got broke. From ATP website, serve leader of last 1 year Serve Leaders Return Leaders Under Pressure Leaders Versus All PlayersVersus Top 10 PlayersVersus Top 20 PlayersVersus Top 50 Players 52 WeeksCareer20252024202320222021202020192018201720162015201420132012201120102009200820072006200520042003200220012000199919981997199619951994199319921991 All SurfacesClayGrassHard Player Serve Rating % 1st Serve % 1st Serve Points Won % 2st Serve Points Won % Service Games Won Avg. Aces/ Match Avg. Double Faults/Match 1 Jannik Sinner 297.4 61.9% 79.5% 59.1% 92.0% 6.3 1.4 2 Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 296.5 67.7% 77.6% 52.9% 88.2% 13.9 3.8 3 Taylor Fritz 296.2 63.9% 79.4% 54.0% 89.0% 11.9 2.0 4 Reilly Opelka 294.8 63.4% 79.0% 50.6% 88.6% 17.3 4.1 5 Matteo Berrettini 293.6 68.2% 75.7% 53.8% 87.0% 10.5 1.6 6 Novak Djokovic 293.0 66.5% 76.8% 55.2% 88.3% 8.3 2.1 7 Alexander Zverev 291.8 72.3% 73.7% 53.8% 86.5% 7.3 1.8 8 Felix Auger-Aliassime 289.1 67.0% 76.7% 52.2% 86.0% 10.3 3.1 9 Ben Shelton 287.3 64.4% 75.3% 54.3% 86.9% 9.5 3.1 10 Carlos Alcaraz 285.8 64.2% 74.1% 56.8% 87.6% 5.8 2.7 11 Jack Draper 285.3 63.2% 75.6% 54.7% 86.1% 8.3 2.6
Gollum Posted January 30 Author Posted January 30 Hope Kohli also peaks like this in 27 WC, just one last time before he permanently walks away from the sport.
Gollum Posted January 30 Author Posted January 30 #1 Sabalenka vs #3 Rybakina final in the women's section, that should also be good. Rybakina is one rare player who always pushes both Sabalenka and Swiatek hard. 6-8 career H2H vs Sabalenka, 6-6 vs Iga. About time she becomes a multiple slam winner. Both these women met in the 23 AO final, with the Belarusian winning a tight 3-setter. Boring AO initially but final stages have the potential to make it a memorable one.
AKane Posted January 30 Posted January 30 I was just talking aces - the 26 aces was because Djokovic was not bothering with hard to reach but reachable serves esp on points like 40-0 or 40-15. Else Sinner would have had 10 or 12 aces in the match like Alcaraz or Djokovic had with similar serve speeds.
AKane Posted January 30 Posted January 30 Before his own SF, Djokovic congratulates Alcaraz on his SF win https://twitter.com/i/status/2017174255985664332
putrevus Posted January 30 Posted January 30 Novak's formula today was like Sampras's formula thruout his career making most of break points on opponent's serve.Once he got the break set was over. Sampras and his opponents knew he had the best serve in the game even 0-40 never bothered him, he simply would blast 4 aces or unreturnable serves, he picked games where he would go all out to get one break then cruise rest of the way with his serve. Opponents had more break points but Sampras had more breaks.
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