Tennis: All Purpose Tennis Thread XII

[kihei]

After zooming off to a dominant 3-love start in the second set, Gael gets nervous and loses the thread, 4-3 Roger to serve,

 

[kihei]

Somehow Gael wins the second set, 6-4--I mean, a very, very odd set.

 

[Tuggy]

Fed looking done.

 

[kihei]

Curiouser and curiouser. Gael again takes a 3-love lead in the deciding set.

 

[kihei]

With the end in sight at 4-1, Gael again becomes his own worst enemy, 4-all, just like in the second set, but I don't think Roger is going to immediately allow another break this time.

 

[Tuggy]

Thiem will eat either of these two for lunch.

 

[kihei]

Roger saves two match points to get to the breaker. Tense, tense, tense.

 

[kihei]

Roger won the breaker and the match. Today he looked a step slow moving laterally on both sides and he piled up an awful lot of forehand errors. But he beat, albeit luckily, a pretty decent clay court player and has one more match under his belt. Like everybody else, I like Thiem a ton tomorrow.

 

[kihei]

Many of these matches, including big ones, are without announcers on the ATP site. I'm in heaven.

 

[MsMeow]

I'm watching now after PVRing it. I am shocked it went 3.

 

[Tuggy]

Nice lineup for the QF's tomorrow.

 

[MsMeow]

Djokovic won over Cilic in a walkover. Food poisoning.

 

[kihei]

Well, I wasn't expecting this. Roger dominating a tentative Thiem, 4-1. I see a sizeable chunk of vcash flying out the window.

 

[kihei]

So Federer steps on clay after, what, a three year absence, and immediately looks like the 2nd best clay court player in the world. Extraordinary.

 

[kihei]

The first set is over 6-3 in less than a half hour. Fed lost four points on serve that set total.

 

[Beau Knows]

I think Federer probably needed that TB, I don't like his chances in the 3rd set.

 

[kihei]

Superb second set of subtle tactical tennis from both players (especially Fed) which Thiem wins in an electrifying tie breaker 13--11. Feels like the match should be over but we have another set.

 

[Tuggy]

Well that was quite the TB. Honestly I expected Thiem to take this in 2.

Should be an interesting 3rd set, but I agree, Fed likely needed that.

 

[kihei]

I think Federer probably needed that TB, I don't like his chances in the 3rd set.

I don't know. Roger has been finding ways to take Thiem out of his comfort zone, especially on the backhand, so I think there is hope.

 

[kihei]

This is definitely a match between equals now. Thiem has come of age.

 

[Tuggy]

There's the break for Thiem finally.

 

[kihei]

Wonderful recovery for Thiem on serve to make it 3-1.

 

[kihei]

The Magic Man--Roger evens the deciding set 4 all.

But thenThiem breaks right back as Fed can't quite recover from love-40.

 

[JetsWillFly4Ever]

Damn , what a match. Nice result for Fed after so long off clay. So close to a big win !

 

[kihei]

Thiem wins.

Excellent match.