Catching Up: Tense Tiebreaks and Murray Madness
Today we're catching up on everything besides Novak Djokovic, from insane match point saves in tiebreaks to the continued resurgence of Andy Murray.
What a week day it’s been and the Australian Open hasn’t bloody started yet!
With all the Djokovic-commotion going on, I wanted to make sure nobody missed the insanely high level on-court today over the shambolic proceedings taking place in court.
Let me talk you through everything you may have missed today…
(Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten - I’ll be posting a predictions podcast episode based on the Australian Open draw later tonight!)
Tense Tiebreaks
In three of the eight Tour-main-draw singles matches played today, we were treated to a tiebreak that lasted at least 22 points.
ALL THREE featured match point saves…
Thanasi Kokkinakis defeats Marin Cilic in Adelaide
After reaching the semifinals in his first Adelaide event last week, Thanasi Kokkinakis went one better this week, defeating Marin Cilic in the semifinals and saving two match points in the third-set tiebreak (won it 12-10).
The Aussie has been struggling to get consistently back to playing matches the last three years or so following shoulder, groin, pectoral and elbow problems. He had even considered retiring less than five years into his pro career so this win is a fantastic step in the right direction for him. A win over Arthur Rinderknech in the final would see him back in the top-100.
Kokkinakis plays qualifier Yannick Hanfmann at the Australian Open.
Aslan Karatsev defeats Dan Evans in Sydney
Dan Evans was on a five-match winning streak, having won three matches at the ATP Cup and two at the Sydney Tennis Classic. It took a barrage of Aslan Karatev’s massive returns to down the tenacious Brit.
Though Karatsev eventually triumped, Evo was able to keep the match alive with a clutch second-set tiebreak (won it 15-13).
All three of the match points against Evans were saved in rallies over nine shots, showcasing the guy’s phenomenal rally temperament and insanely acute all-court awareness.
Barring a slow start to the third-set having been irked by a lengthy toilet-break from Karatsev, Evans was outstanding. He should be the heavy favourite against an under-par David Goffin at the Australian Open.
Barbora Krejcikova defeats Anett Kontaveit in Sydney
Listen to me now before you make a fool of yourself in the future, for this is gospel - Barbora Krejcikova is as cool as a cucumber under pressure.
Last year, she saved a higher percentage of break points than any of her top-10 peers, one of which was a serve and backhand drive volley to save a match point against her in her 2021 French Open semifinal.
Today, she saved one, two, three…. seven match points (!) against Anett Kontaveit to reach her sixth tour-level final (won 14-12 in the third-set tiebreak). Here’s the most impressive of the lot.
We didn’t actually see Kontaveit under pressure too much last year so maybe she wasn’t put to the test enough. Her backhand certainly lacked some of the bite it has had in ordinary play recently so maybe that’s the wing to exploit when things get squeaky?
Either way, seven match points saved is no mean feat. Barbora Krejcikova should not be underestimated in Melbourne.
She plays Andrea Petkovic in the first-round.
Murray Madness
After a dodgy loss to Facundo Bagnis in Melbourne, I thought Andy Murray wouldn’t be back to his best for a while.
Bagnis is the kind of player Andy should have beat in his sleep (no top-100 wins on hard-court, lefty, clay-court specialist) yet he was very erratic. I chalked it down to his new bigger racket (98 square in.), spraying forehands and missing first-serves as he got used to his new weapon of choice.
Give him a couple of months I said. Him, his racket and De Witt need to some time to get acquainted.
Well, the grace period required happened to be less than a week and now here we are - two and a half years after winning in Antwerp, Andy Murray is contesting the 69th final of his career, looking to add #47 to the trophy cabinet.
It’s phenomenal. It’s outstanding. And it’s well and truly deserved.
Here’s how he defeated the American giant Reilly Opelka.
Serving
Rule #1 of serving against a big-server: take care of your own serve!
After dropping a tight first set, Andy put his foot down - enough was enough.
The Scot placed his serve impeccably, out-serving a man eight inches taller than him.
In the second set, 15 of Andy’s 21 serves went unreturned. He dropped one point on serve and aced Opelka seven times.
There was a drop off in the third set as Opelka started to read Murray’s wide serve but the former world #1 will likely be satisfied with his overall serving performance.
There was one break point opportunity that Opelka was unable to convert…
Returning
Players that use aces to win cheap points have historically fared poorly against the former world #1. In fact, the top-20 active players with the most aces per service point played are a combined 14-74 against Murray (16% win-rate for the acers).
And against players taller than 6 ft 10 in… Murray is flawless 16-0.
It was no different against Opelka, generally opting to block his first-serves back into play, winning a respectable 24% of points on first-serve return (Opelka hadn’t dipped below 14% first-serve points lost this year and hadn’t been broken this year).
Rallying
And finally, my tactic of the day, a real Murray-special…
Murray used sliced short balls to great effect. Keep the ball short yet low and the big boy will struggle to dig them out, especially on that forehand (it’s huge but doesn’t have a lot of spin on it).
This is why we saw Andy drop-shotting Opelka frequently to his forehand side…
Classy, classy match Andy Murray! You can find my prediction for Andy vs Karatsev here if you’re interested (don’t worry - do you really think I’d link if it I didn’t support Andy?)!
Andy Murray plays Nikoloz Basilashvili in the first-round of the Australian Open.
Moral of the Story
Whether he’s playing or not, this Djokovic business is probably going to leak into the start of the tournament.
That’s a real shame because some of the less committed can easily forget amidst the drama - tennis is always available to be watched the Australian Open is begging for viewers this year.
Please don’t get caught up in the gossip and watch some tennis!
Oh, also, any Brits that hung around for the Andy analysis - Harriet Dart and Liam Broady qualified for the Australian Open (the latter beating ATP Cup standout Roman Safiullin).
Oh and this cracked me up from Andy…
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