A blockbuster semifinal lineup is on the schedule for Friday in Doha, with world No. 1 Andy Murray and world No. 2 Novak Djokovic both in action. Murray is facing Tomas Berdych, while Djokovic is going up against Fernando Verdasco.
(1) Andy Murray vs. (3) Tomas Berdych
Murray and Berdych will be facing each other for the 17th time in their careers when they collide in the semifinals of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open on Friday. The head-to-head series stands at 10-6 in favor of Murray, who has won six matches in a row at Berdych’s expense since losing a pair of 2013 encounters. They most recently met this past fall on the indoor hard courts of Paris, where the Scot prevailed 7-6(9), 7-5 to extend his sets streak against the Czech to 14.
Berdych’s Paris loss to Murray ended what was a relatively disappointing season that saw him miss the World Tour Finals and almost drop out of the top 10. The 31-year-old, though, is off to a strong start in 2017 with Doha victories over Alessandro Giannessi, Jiri Vesely, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Murray, who has won eight of his last 10 tournaments, is through to the last four following straight-set defeats of Jeremy Chardy, Gerald Melzer, and Nicolas Almagro. Nothing suggests that Berdych will suddenly turn back the clock to his more successful days against an opponent who is now No. 1 in the world.
Pick: Murray in 2
[polldaddy poll=9627655]
Fernando Verdasco vs. (2) Novak Djokovic
Djokovic and Verdasco will be squaring off for the 13th time in their careers and for a second straight year in Doha when they meet again on Friday. They most recently clashed at this same event in 2016, when Djokovic dominated 6-2, 6-2 during second-round action. The second-ranked Serb leads the overall head-to-head series and has won three in a row at the Spaniard’s expense since losing a pair of contests in 2010. Djokovic is 5-1 against Verdasco on hard courts, including 5-0 since dropping their first-ever showdown at the 2005 U.S. Open.
This week’s No. 2 seed is looking to get back on track in 2017 after slumping–at least by his lofty standards–throughout the second half of last season. He is off to a strong start in Doha with straight-set victories over Jan-Lennard Struff, Horacio Zeballos, and Radek Stepanek. Verdasco also has not dropped a single set in defeats of Vasek Pospisil, David Goffin, and Ivo Karlovic. The 42nd-ranked Spaniard is extremely dangerous when he is confident, but Djokovic’s defense will likely once again force Verdasco to hit too many shots for his liking.
Pick: Djokovic in 2 losing 8-10 games
[polldaddy poll=9627143]
who ya got?
Nando wins more than 10 games and loses in three. Murray over Berdych in three.
Murray in two tight sets.
Nole in two sets ,one tight one easy
It seems to me that none of the big four is playing well at the moment. Murray wasn’t impressive so far, toiling to beat his opponents; Djoko was lack lustre beating some lesser opponents. It’s still early days I know but it looks like the big four are really aging (not helped by the mileage on their legs/bodies); perhaps Raonic will win his first slam this year, starting at the AO?
i doubt that very much. murray will up his game at the ao. raonic has way too many flaws in his ground game.
Amy,
I agree with you. Murray will get himself into form for the AO. It’s not unusual for the top players to not be at their best in the warm up tournaments for the AO.
I am not about to write off either Murray or Novak before the AO.
Raonic at #3 will be in a good position at the AO. I don’t know if he’s poised to finally win a slam yet. But he could have a shot.
thanks nny. i see andy as the overwhelming fave for ao. this tourney ie ao ought to be a gimme for nole given his record there but he hasn’t played well since he won rg. remember the truly appalling performance against andy at the wtf?? he could easily go out before the final. andy is such a better player than raonic that i don’t see milos beating him unless andy beats himself.
but you never know, i thought andy would win the us and then nishi really stepped up.
This could very well happen but I don’t think Rafa and Roger are actually that out of form. Rafa barely lost to Raonic in Brisbane but in best of 5 I would give him a good shot at revenge plus he’s played well to start this season. And Rogers last match against gasquet at Hopman cup he was on fire. Andy may have struggled to get to the semis but did take down Berdych pretty easily. Djoker is the one who is really struggling in my opinion. Down 1-5 first round to Struff wins in straights but nonetheless not a great match from him. Then beats Zeballos 3 and 4 and obviously Zeballos didn’t think he could win I mean he took a selfie with Novak after the match like “can I have a selfie it’s an honor to play u you’re too good” then he beat stepanek who is ancient now and has lost to djoker a bunch recently so probably didn’t believe he could win that one. Then of course the Verdasco choke. Again it’s not like Murray has played pretty tennis to get to the Doha final but he did have a comfortable win over Berdych which shows he’s finding some form again. I think Murray was rusty early but is rounding into form while djoker is rusty and still doesn’t have that top dog confidence he formerly had. Plus Murray is still on a 28 match win streak if u disclude the exhibition loss to Goffin in Abu Dhabi. So the Brit should still be confident as ever heading into his match with Novak which I think he’ll take.
Verdasco is just so hopeless! To think that Rafa lost to such a guy at a slam!
Just as I feared. Nando will probably lose after choking in three sets. Damnit. Come on Verdasco find a way to bounce back and win!!
A Combination of great returning by Novak, whos arguably the best returner in the game ever, but also Dasco has choked big time here ….
choking is nando’s speciality. courtesy of the house menu….
Yeah hi Amy 😉
Ive always like Dasco, ever since that epic 2009 AO match, which he shouldve won TBH, shame he never did recover from that, and easy on the eye too 😉
Why he should have won? He no doubt had so many winners but he also had plenty of UEs, so why he should have won? Rafa was holding serve in the fifth set and Verdasco was the one who cracked first, with DFs. The match was pretty even and Verdasco served plenty of aces (counted as winners) but Rafa managed to defuse Verdasco’s aggression with his own defense/offense game.
Wow. Nole saved FIVE match points against Stundo!
Fed with an expected traditional easy draw and mostly night matches is my early pre-draw upset dark horse pick for Australia.
And yes, anyone who hasn’t won a slam in almost five years qualifies as a dark horse!
Wow. Didn’t realize Stundo had QUADRUPLE match point up 6-2 in the TB.
LOL.
#MentalMidget
Watch Season 1 of Stundo is the New DimDim out on Netflix today!
Come on Murray 😉
Im afraid i dont quite understand your sense of humour Elina sorry no offence ….
That’s ok alison. She was banned on TX because of it.
Crap the choke from Verdasco is real. Good week for him but could’ve been absolutely huge for him.
Hawkeye was she / were you ?, IMO its unfair to ban anyone for having a sense of humour, even if i dont get it, and i never did, it just confuses me ….
Sean thinks so. Haha!
This is where Elina got into trouble with Sean after which point her posts were banned (according to legend).
http://www.tennis-x.com/xblog/2016-10-19/24471.php#comment-704142
Now, as Ricky would say, back to tennis!
A Year ago when Dasco beat Rafa at the AO, i was really pulling for him to go deep, but i just dont think he ever recovered from losing that epic in 2009, and was never the same player, even if he had beaten Novak today, i doubt he would be able to back it up with another great win, with these lesser players they always lose in the next round so tamely, after one amazing win ….
Still it would’ve been a run to the final which would’ve given him the belief he used to have in his at times amazing game.
At same time u are probably right. Still sad he couldn’t pull it out.
I did not see the end of the match with Nando and Novak. I was really surprised to see him win the first set and he was up a break I think, when I had to leave.
It’s too bad that he couldn’t get this win. I do think that Nando was never the same player after that loss to Rafa at the 2009 AO.
Berdych has his right ankle heavily wrapped. MTO after the 1st set:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C1gcZF3WEAAbq8i.jpg
Berdych losing here means Rafa holding on to his no.9 position in the rankings, after losing 105 points from Doha finalist last year to QF at Brisbane this year. I hope Rafa doesn’t drop out of top ten, with so many points to defend from now to Miami. With the way he’s losing matches, he may not get to SF at IW or Rotterdam (replacing Rio) and Acapulco.
What is Rafa defending from now to Miami? He lost early at the AO last year. He did not do well in the South American clay court tournaments last year.
I thought he didn’t have many points to defend until the clay season when he started playing so well last year.
I forgot about being a finalist at Doha last year. The frustrating part of getting knocked out after only three matches, is that Rafa can’t get himself going.
I sure don’t want to see him fall out of the top ten.
Just watched nole vs Nando highlights. Djoker just friggin spun it short when Nando had match points. Just the one winner at 6-5 on an easy backhand. Overall Verdasco just choked. I’m not convinced nole will win Australian open at all. I highly doubt he will. I think Murray will beat him tomorrow. Just too solid right now and a better performance against Berdych to win pretty comfortably. Damn this should be a Verdasco Murray final. I’d be a lot more intrigued if that was the case. And wouldn’t be rooting for Murray lol.
i don’t think nole will win ao. don’t think he’ll beat murray tomorrow either. his game has been all over the place since rg. don’t know what’s wrong but he hasn’t put it right.
Also can’t help but be annoyed at Djokovic in this match. This is why I respect him but will never be a fan. At 4-4 in the second Verdasco fires one way long and Novak just starts doing a windmill with his arms to get the crowd pumped up but he did it for like five to ten seconds with a mixed reception of boos and cheers. Sorry but when he does these things he just comes across as a pompous jerk. Ripping shirts off when he wins epic matches is something he used to do a lot which is also annoying. I just think it’s kinda bullshit when he does that. Never ever would Rafa Roger or Andy swing their arms back and forth after an opponents wild mistake to get the crowd pumped and keep doing it for many seconds too not just once he did it like five times then five seconds later did it again one more time just for good measure. Then apologizes for the noise which he caused. Lol a little late for that. And the rally was a very long one but still a come on or a roar would’ve been fine I feel like he’s just overdoing it and showboating. Sometimes Stan does that to pump up the crowd but he usually does it after a winner of his own and he only does it for like two seconds as in he doesn’t overdo it or do it in such a brash way. To make it clear though I don’t hate Novak I respect the awesome stuff he’s done but I just don’t care for that quality of his.