Ricky Dimon of the Grandstand and Pete Ziebron of Tennis Acumen preview and pick the two men’s singles matches on Tuesday at the Australian Open. Tomas Berdych is looking to upset nemesis Rafael Nadal while Nick Kyrgios hopes to continue his magical run at the expense of Andy Murray.
(7) Tomas Berdych vs. (3) Rafael Nadal
Ricky: How many people are going to fall into the trap and pick this one to be extremely competitive–if not pick Berdych to win altogether? I already know a lot of people are…and I’m expecting more and more to do so before the match starts. The Czech’s style is one that should trouble Nadal and his form at this Australian Open has been scary. But…but…we’ve seen this story before and we know how the story ends. Berdych is 0-17 in his last 17 matches against Nadal and on more than a few occasions he was playing incredible tennis prior to meeting the Spaniard. The best among a plethora of examples is Wimbledon in 2010, when Berdych took Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer to the woodshed in consecutive rounds then promptly lost to Nadal in straights in the championship. It doesn’t help the underdog that Nadal has dominated two matches since his second-round scare against Tim Smyczek. Berdych knows he can’t beat Nadal. HOW MANY TIMES must Nadal beat him before everyone else figures out the same thing? Nadal 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
Pete: Berdych, my pre-tournament dark horse selection, comes into his quarterfinal match against Nadal having not dropped a set through the first four rounds. Berdych is appearing in his fifth consecutive Australian Open quarterfinal and he hopes to at least equal last year’s semifinal berth with a win. However, the Czech has dropped 17 consecutive matches to Nadal and has only managed to win three of 40 sets played in those contests. Nadal’s five-set, second-round thriller against Smyczek seems like long ago and now the Spaniard will seek to continue the form he showed against Kevin Anderson in the round of 16, when he cruised to a straight-set win. Berdych will manage to stay with Nadal early on and have opportunities to do damage, but it will be business as usual once again for Nadal in this lopsided matchup. Nadal 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.
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(6) Andy Murray vs. Nick Kyrgios
Ricky: Murray and Kyrgios have no such extensive head-to-head history, of course, since the Aussie is really in just his second season on tour. In their only previous encounter, Kyrgios was still in a twilight zone after Wimbledon and got clobbered by Murray 6-2, 6-2 in Toronto. It won’t be so lopsided this time around with the youngster in outstanding form and enjoying circus-like crowd support. But Kyrgios has been tested physically throughout this tournament and mentally he has had plenty to think about (minor controversy over his on-court antics, for example). His awesome run this fortnight has been predicated on winning free points in the most important moments. He won’t win many of those against the Scot. Murray 7-6(6), 7-5, 6-1.
Pete: At the ripe age of 19, Kyrgios finds himself in his second quarterfinal in the last three majors. The Aussie has been able to meander his way through a tricky draw, finally steadying his game late in his first-round match and then escaping yet again in the round of 16 as he staged a dramatic, five-set victories in both. Murray, a three-time Australian Open finalist, has taken a much more efficient route into this quarterfinal. The Brit had not been threatened in the tournament until the fourth round, when Dimitrov nearly took him to a fifth set. The battle-tested Kyrgios will feed off of the boisterous crowd at Rod Laver Arena, but it will certainly not be nearly enough against the experience and craftiness of Murray, who will relish this particular challenge and gladly play the villain role. Murray 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4.
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🙁
Done and dusted. Thank you Tomas, now just do your duty and get to the final.
Our boy fought well at the end. No injury hopefully. Just a horrendous day at the office
Rafa just didn’t show up for the first 2 sets but Berdych was up for it and played well. If Rafa is not at the top of his game I don’t want him playing the likes of Krygios at this point. Rafa tried to get something going but his game simply wasn’t there today.
Never ever say someone will lose the match before stepping on court
Beedych wanted this and got this
I see berdych going to final and losing to Novak
And please no injury he just got creamed
I hope this year turns out like 2010 bad ao qtr final loss n then Monte Carlo onwards ripped the field
Sanju,
I was the one who said that and I stand by it. That’s been the problem for Berdy in all those seventeen straight losses. He didn’t believe that he could win.
So please don’t use this as a reason not to say it. This time Berdy had a new coach, new tactics, a lot of preparation, but he also had a Rafa who was just not able to play well at all. This was too much for him coming back after such a long layoff. That’s not an excuse and it takes nothing away from Berdy.
This time Berdy did find the belief with some help from his new coach. But Rafa helped him more than anything and you know it. That was not the real Rafa out there, the Rafa who has played him and beaten him all those times.
Oh and I was the one who took nothing for granted. I thought it would be a tough match this time. But if Rafa was okay and match ready, he would still have prevailed.
You make statements at times like they are absolute facts and that is not the case. We are giving opinions here.
Berdych wants a slam, he deserves one much more than Cilic and Stan and I hope he does it here.
no he doesn’t. if he deserved one more than them, he wouldn’t have lost to Stan in last year’s final and he wouldn’t have gotten blown out by Cilic every time they played each other.
Ricky,
Well said! It’s not about who deserves anything. It’s about going out there and playing well enough to get it done.
he showed some fight in the end ! saved match pnts and almost pulled off a comeback in the TB. Rafa will be back to his best. He needs a potion . The name of the potion is red clay. He will restore his confidence there!
just did not expect rafa to show up like this today. Perhaps its too much to ask to play at a high level throughout a grand slam when you have hardly played matches in the last 7 months
start was a disaster. he handed Berdych belief on a silver platter.
I don’t think there was any injury….
he took one of the magic pills and it was gone
Heartbreaking to see Nadal struggling like that 🙁
The only consolation – I’d rather see him lose to Berdy than be annihilated by the wretched Curious.
I still believe it was more than a bad day at the office: that was not a fully fit Rafa out there today.
was in the 3rd set
It was too late by then. Down two sets, Rafa wasn’t going to be able to win three sets in a row.
Berdych was on his game, its the start of the year, he has a new coach, and plenty of reasons therefore to believe. Nadal’s game plays into the tall big flat hitters when they are on song; which is not often considering that such games are also prone to being erratic. Nadal was below par, but Berdych playing below the level he did today wouldn’t have put him away.
right. matchup wise it SHOULD be a good one for Berdych. Just never has been because of the mental block.
ed,
I agree with you. It does hurt my heart to see Rafa struggling like that. It’s just so hard to watch. I told myself that it was better to lose now to Berdy than to lose in the semis to Kyrgios (God forbid!) or Murray or Novak. He’s just not ready now.
I also think you are spot on in saying that this was not a fully fit Rafa out there. Again, that takes nothing away from Berdy’s effort, but he’s played well against Rafa in the past and didn’t get the win. Rafa was not himself and something was wrong.
I woke up late and Rafa was already two sets down…I so much underestimated Berdych…from what I have seen from the fifth Berdych was on fire and Rafa was hitting short and made it easy for Berdych…27 points won more than Rafa…Rafa was clearly outplayed today…
I was fooled by Rafa’s performance against Anderson…I should have known better…was Rafa injured? if he took a pill he probably was…but we should take nothing form Berdych…he deserved the win..
This never happened to me to fail to wake up on time to watch Rafa….but it spared me from suffering even more…right now I don’t know what to expect from Rafa…I hope it’s his fitness level and lack of match play and not another injury…how much more can we take…
Did Rafa take a pill? Nothing has been mentioned about injury on British Eurosport. Even if he wasn’t feeling well, I think he should keep it to himself this time otherwise he’ll look like a sore loser.
I’d love to hear Rafa’s explanation. I think he’s just not at the top of his game yet. His rhythm seems to come and go and the more he loses the more belief everyone has against him. I don’t believe he’s injured, I sincerely hope he is not, I can’t last another injury. He didn’t seem to have a lot of vroom right from the start and no feel for the ball.
Vamos Rafa!
This has happened to Rafa before, folks:
RT @ESPNStatsInfo : “Rafael Nadal won 8 games vs Tomas Berdych, his worst showing since 2009 U.S. Open (lost 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 to Juan Martin Del Potro in semis).”
His loss to Delpo that year came after a long injury lay-off. I am hoping it’s the same pattern here.
I admit I did not see much of Berdych at this AO and I may as well be wrong but I think Berdych stands no chance against Murray…this Rafa would have been blown of the court by anyone from the top 10…I would sure like Berdych to reach the finals and win the whole thing considering his confidence level at this point and the fact that he is well rested given that Rafa did not even make him break a sweat…but it is so unlikely…
^^
+1 @nats!
I have a feeling Berdy’s adrenaline was sky high for this match and he may suffer a let-down against Muzza. In fact I am convinced he will have an adrenaline crash.
I do like Berdy and also believe he deserves a Slam more than Wawa and Cilic. Unfortunately for him, I do not see him beating Rafa, Muzza and Djokovic to win it.
Commies Rafans, our boy is still on the road to recovery fitness wise. I am crossing my fingers like mad that he has no injury worries, that he was just outplayed.
Oh, well, there goes my calendar slam prediction! He is now going to sweep all from the French then, 🙂
Seriously though, considering this was his first competitive tournament (Doha doesn’t even count………………), getting into the quarters was a good showing. Rafa needs matches, preferably on clay. He will be fine. Vamos!
Kudos to Berdy for taking his chances. No question, this was it: if he could not get past a Rafa with little match play he would have been shattered and gone into a tailspin. Berdy is good for the game, we need him around.
Muzza-time!!!
Berdy has always been a tough matchup for Murray, so it’s not a given that he can’t beat him. I have seen some of Berdy’s matches and realized that he was playing great tennis. But he’s played great against Rafa and still lost in the past. He couldn’t close it out. He had Rafa on the ropes in the 2012 AO quarterfinals. That time Rafa was match ready and fit enough to fight back and manage to win the second set. He won the match in four sets. But it was a tough battle.
I give Berdy credit for getting a new coach and for working hard to get fitter and even better. It paid off for him, but that was not the real Rafa out there. If it’s an injury, then I hope it’s not something serious. But it was always going to be tough trying to play a slam after being off for so long. Things can go wrong as we saw in his second round match where he was very sick. Rafa did well to make it to the quarterfinals. He’s just not ready to go deeper in a slam now. He needs to get stronger and play more matches. It takes time when he’s been off for so long. He’s also getting older and that makes it even harder.
Berd will lose to Murray. He’d have a chance vs. Nick.
Murray vs. Berdych H2H is 4-6. Berdych is playing very well. Besides, Murray seems to struggle against Berdych more often than not. Murray is still not where he needs to be to beat Berdych in this form. So, I would say Berdych has a better chance of reaching the final.
Regarding Rafa’s lopsided loss to Delpo in the 2009 USO, he suffered a stomach tear and could barely serve in that match. So there was an obvious reason for that loss. It’s worth noting that when he met Delpo after that, he was able to get the better of him.
It’s a pity Rafa had to start his comeback trail on hard courts. Can’t fault him for that though, can’t see how he could have avoided playing Oz if he was well.
Let’s just hope and pray for our boy to be healthy, his game will come.
Vamos!!
On VB forum member toffee posted this from Rafa on twitter.
From AO twitter
“I’m feeling ok. Just was not my day. It was a day that my opponent played better than me.”
“Before the third set, I didn’t play with the right confidence, the right intensity, losing court, playing very short.”
“This is just the beginning of the season. I need to be ready to accept all the possible situations.”
^^
Thanks @nny. Good to hear this!
Vamos!!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8Vj_WyCMAEjv0j.png
RT @BackSwings: “I must say I didn’t expect Rafa to get that deep into the tournament – not a bad showing for him, considering. But MAN good job, Berdych.”
+1