Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer will headline Day 1 action at the Australian Open. The former champions are set for respective openers on Monday against Mikhail Youzhny and Yen-Hsun Lu.
Mikhail Youzhny vs. Rafael Nadal
Nadal will be facing a familiar foe on the other side of the net when the third-ranked Spaniard kicks off his Australian Open campaign on Monday afternoon. Youzhny has toppled Nadal on four previous occasions and was once considered a thorn in the side of the 14-time Grand Slam champion. They split their first six meetings at three wins apiece between 2004 and 2007 before Youzhny also picked up a win in the 2008 Chennai final. That 6-0, 6-1 result, however, can be attributed entirely to the fact that Nadal had battled Carlos Moya for three hours and 54 minutes one day earlier.
Head-to-head: Nadal 11-4
Fast forward to 2015 and this is not the same Youzhny. The former world No. 8 compiled an 18-23 record last season that has him ranked 49th. He lost his Doha opener two weeks ago in easy straight sets to Nikoloz Basilashvili. Nadal did the same in Doha, where he was stunned by Michael Berrer 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. Thus questions remain in the wake of disappointing second half of 2014 that was plagued by a wrist injury and appendicitis. The good news for the 2009 winner in Melbourne is that Youzhny has a lost both a step in foot speed and sizzle on his groundstrokes. The 32-year-old will no longer be able keep Nadal on the defensive and far behind the baseline with his flat, punishing shots.
Pick: Nadal in 3 losing 11-14 games
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Yen-Hsun Lu vs. (2) Roger Federer
Federer and Lu will be squaring off for the third time in their careers when the two veterans are featured during Monday’s night session at Melbourne Park. They were supposed to meet a third time last summer in Halle, but Lu handed Federer a walkover. The 33-year-old Swiss has won both of their previous encounters without dropping a set. He prevailed 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 in the 2009 Wimbledon first round and 6-3, 7-5 at the 2012 Shanghai Masters.
Head-to-head: Federer 2-0
Like Youzhny, Lu is not exactly the easiest of first-round opponents. Chinese Taipei’s top player registers at 47th in the world and he has already won three matches this year–two in Chennai and one in Auckland. Maintaining momentum from an outstanding fall, Federer’s preparation for the Happy Slam was just about ideal. The four-time Australian Open champion captured the Brisbane title with respective semi and final wins over Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic before taking this past week off. Federer generally heats up in majors after a few rounds so Lu could hang around for a while, but the favorite should not be seriously troubled.
Pick: Federer in 3 losing 11-14 games
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https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B7pIBuzCMAAqyri.png
Oh, la la!! So pretty in pink!!! Welcome back, Rafa!!!
wow what a forehand!
Rafa looks good!!!! Everything was firing today, serves and all!!!! This should be a great AO!!! Welcome back, Rafa!!!
I think Youzhny would beat Berrer. Might be close. Not that tennis is mathmatically transitive. That said, if Rafa was so inconsistent as to lose to Berrer, he can lose to anyone.
No fun predicting this match with no idea whatsoever where Rafa’s game will be come tonight.
Same reason for boot picking a tournament bracket for me.
Two favourites are Nole and Fed for AO. Can’t believe I’m saying this in 2015.
Unless Rafa gets to the semis. Then Rafa is the favourite.
Rafa in 4 over Youzhny.
#OneAtATime
Agree. Rafa in 4. 2 very tight sets and then he will cruise in 3rd and 4th set.
almost all in top 100 would beat Berrer but not Rafa on that day…he was way too predictable and a bit slow to execute his shots thus making a lot of UEs…and the break points conversion rate was disastrous…then again, most of the players would lose to Fed but not Rafa…so I would not be pessimistic just because Rafa lost that match in Doha…Rafa may not be ready for this AO and if so, it will be only because he still has doubts…I only wish he starts believing in himself…I wish he does not go defensive and rather attacks on every occasion…and I wish him to be stronger and more focused on break points…he has all the weapons to win…he just needs some confidence to implement it!
Rafa in 3 with two competitive sets…
Vamos Rafa!
Youzhny lost to Basilashvili. Who is way worse than Berrer at this point.
I can’t make a prediction for Rafa’s first match. He’s too much of a question mark. Youzhny may not be the player he once was, but he may still come out gunning to try and get the upset win against a Rafa who is nowhere near ready at this point. At least seeing Rafa play will give us some sense of where he’s at now.
Youzhny is not winning a set
youzhny might not win a set but rafa might well lose a set 😛 that’s how it is. I am also picking rafa in 3 sets but there is definitely a big dark cloud of uncertainty and doubt
Okay, ESPN is now showing Rafa’s match, his first service game.
Vamos Rafa!
Rafa gets the early break!
i thought Rafa was playing well. then I saw who I thought was him hit 2 aggressive returns in a row so I realized I must be watching a different match
Break Rafa!
#(EmptySeats)
forehand cooking
Youzhny’s serve has been pretty crappy. His game really has degraded. But I think Rafa is looking pretty good for his first match so far.
Nice to see Rafa get that break and hold his serve.
Rafa breaks to win the first set 6-3!
Well done!
at work so cannot see. Updates on rafa’s game will be really appreciated ! Looks like he is doing a fine job
moving great and playing well
forehand is grooving
vamosrafa,
Ricky is right. Rafa’s movement has been better than I expected and his shots are deep and accurate. He is feeling the forehand. Rafa’s really taken over in the second set.
Nice to see!
most encouraging is the returns
granted Youzhny is a horrendous server
Youzhny could barely get a first serve in throughout the match. Really awful serving from him. But I guess that gave Rafa the confidence to step up to just inside the baseline and hit some ROS winners. That was very good to see.
They interviewed Rafa after his match and he gave a pretty succinct analysis of what was working with his game – serve, ROS and forehand.
This was the ideal match for Rafa. He got a guy who was able to get into some rallies and help him get that rhythm and timing going. It wasn’t really competitive, but for his first match that’s fine with me. Rafa just needed to get out there and get the feel of the court and gain some confidence from getting the win. We know it’s not going to be easy going forward, but it was nice to see some great shots from Rafa. Flashes of vintage Rafa.
draw is wide open now, too. well, it already was. but it’s more open to the Nadal of old than the Nadal of Doha.
Fed gets a nice evening match as I predticted and on Day 1 as predicted.
#DoYou?
Rafa looks well, i think he will do well. Andy also looks good too, but he really needs to stop talking to himself!!!!
Interesting that Fed is in Rafa’s half…………….lol……….why did they do that to Fed?!!
he’s wondering the same
“They” did it to make the stanislaw Nole SF possible. It was the only way.
wow…unreal!!!
Vamos Rafa!!!
Rafa breezed into the second round!
Vamoos!!
http://www.sherv.net/cm/emoticons/hand-gestures/clapping-happy-smiley-emoticon.gif
Bravo Rafa!
I am so proud of his performance today…great improvement! ROS working way better…moving well and serving well…great indeed…
Keep improving Rafa and enjoy your tennis!
Vamos Rafa!
Yeah, the return was great, maybe its bcos I have not seen Rafa in 7 months, but wow!!!! Like Ricky said, Yuz is not that great a server, but Rafa ROS was still impressive!! The commentators can’t stop saying how great it is to have Rafa back! I thought it was only me, tennis to me was in hibernation while Rafa was away….lol!
Anyway, off to bed folks………it 2 am back home in the Caribbean and there’s work t’row……..night night!
I was pleased to her Chris Fowler and JMac saying over and over how great it was to have Rafa back. At one point Chris Fowler said that when Rafa’s out of a slam it’s just not the same. They were full of appreciation for him and it’s about time they said something like that!
My mood is so good now, just because I got to see Rafa play! I don’t know how any of us manage when he is gone for so long. You could tell that he was happy to get that win.
On to the second round!
Mats Wilander also said he loves seeing Rafa in tournaments that it’s just not the same without him.
Who’s next?
Smeech
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Federer walked onto a court 1/3 full.
I decided to check.
Empty seats:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B7s1zORIUAA_w29.png
wow that is so great to hear! Ricky and NNY, thanks for the updates. I look forward to watching a repeat telecast. This is s fantastic win for rafa, vamos!
Fed also has bling on his shorts.
Have you guys read this? Seems cool to exactly analyse your play and immediately after the match.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/rafael-nadals-racket-comes-power-switch-130645899–ten.html
Very good highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xay6dA337BI
Fantastic performance by rafa! The ROS was surely the best part. I don’t think I have ever seen rafa return serve with this much confidence in the first round of a slam. Agreed that youzhny’s serve was crappy but it was more about rafa’s intent,it really was there as he was continually trying to step up.
The forehand got better and more aggressive as teh match went on but there is surely a couple more gears to go up. He was not flattening it out as much as he was capable of when needed and the most important thing ,which rafa should and will get in the next matches , is the ability to improve the depth on his forehands when counterpunching or defending. Given it was his first match,i would say this was a very very good performance in all areas. The court positioning when hitting backhands was also impressive and it was great to see rafa not retreating to hit backhands. He was willing to pull the trigger on backhand DTL shot as well (I believe this will become a key shot in the future for rafa).
My hopes have really been lifted by this performance and I am sure it is the case with all rafa fans! vamos
vamosrafa,
So I guess you got to see the match. I agree with you about the ROS. When I saw Rafa stepping into the court to hit a few ROS winners, that was just a beautiful thing! Of course, Youzhny’s serving was just horrendous. But at least it gave Rafa the chance to test out his ROS.
There were a few shots that were just a joy to watch. Rafa’s still got it! He is so electric on the court. I was just so pleased to hear all of the wonderful words from the commentators on ESPN. I guess it takes Rafa being gone for many to realize just how special he is and how much the game needs him.
Youzhny really didn’t seem to have his head in the game at all. But that was just what Rafa needed. He had to get his feet under him and also get into some good rallies to get his groundstrokes going. A win is always good for confidence and Rafa didn’t have to exert himself too much.
We know there are challenges ahead, but I was just so pleased seeing Rafa come out and play this way.
electric is indeed the word , NNY! rafa is so full of energy and life. You are right that it takes rafa being gone for many to realize how special he is and how tennis needs him.
Youzhny did not test him much so yes a lot of challenges await him. Rafa is aware of that and he will be ready.
vamosrafa,
I thought you might be interested in this interview that Rafa did with Mats Wilander right after the match. We always assume (at least I do) that when Rafa isn’t confident, he stays way back to return the serve instead of stepping forward. At about the 1:22 mark in this video, he explains that in this match anyway, it was just the opposite. Rafa says he needs confidence to be far behind the baseline because he needs to feel that he can accurately hit the long high returns. Because he does not yet have that full confidence, he said that he moved forward to return. His response to the question was quite unexpected.
http://youtu.be/IkC2YCiY0Vk
Thanks a lot for sharing JPACNW! this is very interesting. While it is true that rafa always slowly gains the confidence of hitting long returns from deep behind the baseline, it is surprising that he said he stepped forward because he is not fully prepared to return from deep back . So he prefers to do that on hard courts too! He is very effective when he is able to do that i.e hit deep returns from far behind the baseline but he can be perhaps even more dangerous when he mixes up the positioning. Rafa sometimes returns from a deep position in the ad court but steps up on the deuce court.
Anyway,he tinkers with his return positioning depending on the situation and he has beaten every single player by standing deep behind the baseline so its all about him feeling the ball his own way
So what I have inferred is that rafa stepped forward because he thinks the feel is not quite there so obtaining good length from deep behind the baseline would not have been possible on a regular basis. It does not ,however, mean that returning from deep is clearly his preferred choice in all scenarios even when he is 100% confident.I think his return positioning will continue to be determined by i) his confidence , ii) the type of strategy he chooses to employ against a specific opponent.
Kudos to Wilander for asking a good ,insightful questions. Generally the questions asked are very routine and get boring,
That interview was interesting. So that’s why Rafa was stepping up to the baseline to take the returns early. I think we’ve seen Rafa move around a bit with his ROS position in matches. Sometimes he will move up on the second serve. It may well depend on the opponent, the court surface and in this case, getting a better feel for the ball. Youzhny’s serving was so poor that it was smart for Rafa to move up and take advantage of it.
Rafa’s comprehensive knowledge of where all aspects of his game are at isn’t surprising, but still impressive. His tennis brain is quite something! We may see him trying to make adjustments in the early rounds as he works to play himself into decent form.
These qualifiers also make me nervous. But after seeing Rafa in his first match, I think he can handle this one.
https://twitter.com/cjzero/status/557050046676365312
https://twitter.com/ESPNTennis/status/557056202937733121