I was just reading the reports on The Ferrer/Murray Vienna Open final and it reminded me that I no sold the latter stages of this event (The U.S Open 2014).
What a tournament! Jesus!
The parts I caught of Murray/Djokovic were encouraging for Murray, I thought he played well. I thought he was unlucky in the first and could have conceivably been two sets up. I still think he would have lost from there. Murray was good but didn't have enough fitness and strength to hang with Djokovic. He didn't quite look at 100% yet. He would have needed to win in straight sets and he wasn't playing well enough and Djokovic wasn't under par enough to do that. A good showing, something to build on, it looked like.
Djokovic was good and after getting past Murray, Nishikori knocking Wawrinka out, Monfils over Dimitrov and Cilic over Berdych I thought it was a straight shootout between Federer and Djokovic in the final. I would have backed Djokovic because he looked to be playing better and had made an easier run then I expected. First Monfils went two sets up against Federer! But I was watching that live and still thought Federer would make it hard from there taking it to 4 or 5 sets.
But then Djokovic V Nishikori and Federer V Cilic! Jesus!
I wanted to claim great analytical powers in Djokovic getting knocked out but I couldn't. I would have bet the shirt off my back on him winning that (injury free). I would have put a lot of money on Federer too, nowhere near as much as Djokovic because Cilic has power and a good serve, things that can beat a top guy. But Nishikori beating Djokovic at his own game? Wow.
I heavily fancied Cilic in the final, unfortunately. It's always nice to get a new guy breakthrough but I've never been a fan of Cilic. The worst part was that I didn't catch any of the Semis because I thought they were foregone conclusions in the case of Djokovic/Nishikori and unappealing in the case of Federer/Cilic (and to a lesser extent the final).
I've forgotten what happened in the women's side of the draw already. I looked it up and yes, Serena beat Wozniacki who had a good tournament.
Getting back to Murray, he's been having a real go at qualifying for the season ending World Tour finals and has made a decent stab at it. He won the Shenzhen Open, beat the U.S Open Champion easily on his way to getting knocked out by Djokovic at the China Open. He then lost to David Ferrer in three in Shanghai, a little disappointing, he would have expected to get past that and get to Djokovic in the quarters at least but Ferrer's a guy even top players will lose to now and then. Then we had the Vienna Open which concluded today. Murray took this on as an extra event to earn some points. He cruised through to the final as he should have. I couldn't find any live coverage so I was keeping my eye on the text commentary and it was a tight game. Ferrer won the first and was the better player. I was a little curious because Tsonga (a couple of times) is the only top-10 player Murray's beaten this season since his injury problems (and Cilic in the previous tournament). So he could really use a win over Ferrer. He pulled it off though, in quite a big way, coming back from a break down twice in the final set, including when Ferrer was serving for it. Hopefully he can build on that and get back to the top tier of the game. There's two more tournaments before the World Tour finals, he'll need a couple of good performances to qualify.
I was just reading the reports on The Ferrer/Murray Vienna Open final and it reminded me that I no sold the latter stages of this event (The U.S Open 2014).
What a tournament! Jesus!
The parts I caught of Murray/Djokovic were encouraging for Murray, I thought he played well. I thought he was unlucky in the first and could have conceivably been two sets up. I still think he would have lost from there. Murray was good but didn't have enough fitness and strength to hang with Djokovic. He didn't quite look at 100% yet. He would have needed to win in straight sets and he wasn't playing well enough and Djokovic wasn't under par enough to do that. A good showing, something to build on, it looked like.
Djokovic was good and after getting past Murray, Nishikori knocking Wawrinka out, Monfils over Dimitrov and Cilic over Berdych I thought it was a straight shootout between Federer and Djokovic in the final. I would have backed Djokovic because he looked to be playing better and had made an easier run then I expected. First Monfils went two sets up against Federer! But I was watching that live and still thought Federer would make it hard from there taking it to 4 or 5 sets.
But then Djokovic V Nishikori and Federer V Cilic! Jesus!
I wanted to claim great analytical powers in Djokovic getting knocked out but I couldn't. I would have bet the shirt off my back on him winning that (injury free). I would have put a lot of money on Federer too, nowhere near as much as Djokovic because Cilic has power and a good serve, things that can beat a top guy. But Nishikori beating Djokovic at his own game? Wow.
I heavily fancied Cilic in the final, unfortunately. It's always nice to get a new guy breakthrough but I've never been a fan of Cilic. The worst part was that I didn't catch any of the Semis because I thought they were foregone conclusions in the case of Djokovic/Nishikori and unappealing in the case of Federer/Cilic (and to a lesser extent the final).
I've forgotten what happened in the women's side of the draw already. I looked it up and yes, Serena beat Wozniacki who had a good tournament.
Getting back to Murray, he's been having a real go at qualifying for the season ending World Tour finals and has made a decent stab at it. He won the Shenzhen Open, beat the U.S Open Champion easily on his way to getting knocked out by Djokovic at the China Open. He then lost to David Ferrer in three in Shanghai, a little disappointing, he would have expected to get past that and get to Djokovic in the quarters at least but Ferrer's a guy even top players will lose to now and then. Then we had the Vienna Open which concluded today. Murray took this on as an extra event to earn some points. He cruised through to the final as he should have. I couldn't find any live coverage so I was keeping my eye on the text commentary and it was a tight game. Ferrer won the first and was the better player. I was a little curious because Tsonga (a couple of times) is the only top-10 player Murray's beaten this season since his injury problems (and Cilic in the previous tournament). So he could really use a win over Ferrer. He pulled it off though, in quite a big way, coming back from a break down twice in the final set, including when Ferrer was serving for it. Hopefully he can build on that and get back to the top tier of the game. There's two more tournaments before the World Tour finals, he'll need a couple of good performances to qualify.
Edited by bigmatt
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