Hey all!

Cant believe you guys picked Isner over Muzz; but my picks are still worse than yours so I wont nag about it! Davydenko is playing brilliant isnt he; I would love to see him go all the way as Im a vodka guy myself

Yes, I imagine that Ricky and I are going to be hearing about that pick for a long time. :D

eh, it's nowhere near as bad as my Monfils over Isner pick. That was just dumb.

i knew by picking isner, you guys would jinx it :P

you can redeem yourselves by picking Rafa over Andy :)

noo... pick andy over rafa. then rafa will win :P

I think andy will win no matter who they pick :o

hmmm... i dunno. i think it's too close to call

i think Nadal will win even if I pick him. But he will have a better chance if i dont pick him.

haha, good to hear ricky. i will now feel reassured no matter who you pick tomorrow :P

also, is there a problem with this site? it just took me about ten minutes to get on this page because apparently there was an internal server error

if nadal cant beat murray, then its time for rafa to retire.
his decline is too great to overcome. when was the last time nadal beat a top 8 player?

its a sad sight, but rafa is a mere shadow of his former great self, slow to move, struggling with passing shots, looks so skinny, lost his massive arse that generated all the power, struggling to beat top 10 players, losing finals.
its like a death by a thousand cuts.
his reputation is slowly rotting away.
very sad sight.

i just hope he gives this year a good run and if he doesnt win any big title, then just leave the sport for good and preserve his reputation before it gets destroyed further.
go out on top.

he is gone from a dominating and intimidating beast to just another tennis player scrapping over the bread crumbs.

"i just hope he gives this year a good run and if he doesnt win any big title, then just leave the sport for good and preserve his reputation before it gets destroyed further. go out on top. top."

Hey, doofus: If Rafa doesn't win at all and then retires, he won't be going out on top.

And why won't you respond to my kind offer?

atr: i generally don't pay attention to your rants. but i'm genuinely interested... how did rafa generate the power from his arse? he doesn't play tennis with his arse. he plays left handed

oh, and for what it's worth: he's not lost his "massive arse". not at all ;). not that i've been looking at it whilst he's waiting to return serve or anything...

if Nadal can't beat Murray, he should not retire.... just keep trying, same thing with federer, when he could not beat nadal, he tried and tried... he did not retire.... Nadal is still younger than Federer, so he should not retire until his body gives up... he always reaches quarter and semi.... only view people can do it... Nadal really fears someone here so he wants Nadal retires... so coward...

also, seriously atr, don't start writing rafa off until we get to the clay court season. if he loses all 5 (or 4 if he cuts barca or madrid. or 3 if both) then you may have a point. but until then, you can't judge yet. if you compare his 2009 results after wimby to 2008 results after wimby (barring olympics because well... it's only every 4 years) then he did equally as well if not better in most of the tournaments. how else would he have gotten #2 spot back? and that was whilst carrying a stomach injury

and at the moment, he's done better than he had done this time last year. won the exo. final of doha (almost, almost winning it). and now he's in the 1/4s of the ao. ok, so he's dropped a couple of sets, but that doesn't matter. it's not the wtf, so amount of sets lost don't come into it at all. there is absolutely no reason as to why he should give up. and before you argue he hasn't beaten any top ten players: he's only played 5. and beaten 2 of them, albeit soderling was at an exo

Rafa is not finished by all means. Even if he doesnt win this AO, he'll get back to his top form in FO and then carries the momentum to WImby. Rafa has always had trouble in HC season expect 2008 so this is nothing new for him. And yes, he did well in most tournaments in HC this timealtho he didnt win titles or beat top8 players.

Fed had a similiar spell in 2008 and came back. Rafa will do it too.

I agree with torres... besides he starts 2010 tour quite convincing compared with last year... by winning 1 exhi and runner up. If he keeps loosing against top players, it does not matter, unless he keeps loosing against not sided players... then I agree he should retire...

I really wish atr would change the channel or something. It's beginning to sound like a broken record, the same thing over and over and over.

Boring!!!

I'm kind of confused about ATR's stance. He/she seems to be a hardcore Fed supporter at first, but now has greatly change his/her song with 'FED WON'T WIN AO, BOOKMARK IT'. His/her constant digs and jabs at Rafa seems to suggest that he/she is a closet Nadal fan at heart.

And also...if you think attacking tennis rules, HOW can you root for Tomic!? If Rafa is a "defensive moonballer", Tomic is about fifty times that.

i support different players at different times.

and having a big arse gives u more power. its been proven scientifically.
there is more force generated from ur entire body rather than just ur upper body, and nadal is a muscle player whereas federer is a timing player, nadal needs more lower body power transferred into upper body.
its like using just the upper body vs using the lower and upper body to gain power.

almagro leveled to 2 both.

Wow, turn out the Tsonga/Almagro match is much better than the Davy/Verdasco match.

What I miss this whole tournament is the battle that's going on in the rankings at the moment within the Top 4:

Federer can still lose his #1 ranking to Djokovic, the others can't catch him anymore. If he makes the semis, he's save.

Nadal is virtually #3 in the ranking and will only keep his #2 Ranking if he wins the AO or If he finishes runner up and Djokovic is eliminated in the QF.

Murray can overtake Nadal if he finishes runner up or wins the AO. He overtakes Djokovic if he wins the tournament en Djokovic is eliminated in the QF.

All of Djokovic scenario's are written down above.

So after the AO Djokovic can become #1, #2 or #3.
Fed stays on top or will be #2.
Nadal can be #2, #3 or #4.
Murray can be #2, #3, #4.

Very exciting and it shows how close these guys are in the ranking.
Hopefully Fed can keep his #1!

bonker, interesting information above. fed has been no.1 for 266 weeks plus so far, so let's see if he can keep this going. Plus, yes. as a federer fan, it is all very close right now between the top 4.Am I wrong though in saying that Andy is no. 5 here? or is he No.4?, and does davy come into the mix with the wins that he has had at this tournament (in terms of being able to make it to no. 5?). I dont know.

Andy is no.4 now as Delpo will drop 180 points, since he only reaches the fourth round this year (last yr he reached QF), so Delpo will have 6,355 points. Murray, with his reaching the QF, now has at least 6,960 points. Davy, if he wins the title, will at most get to 6,910 points, so at best he can get to no.5.

thanks luckystar.

Hewitt putting up more of a fight in third set. expected.

Should Davydenko win the AO, he will be the new #5. Murray is safe at #4.

If Roddick wins and Davydenko doesn't make it to the finals, Roddick will overtake him. Otherwise Davydenko can't be overtaken.

Soderling can be overtaken by Cilic en Tsonga If one of them makes is to the final or better.

Verdasco will drop out of the top 10, he's already overtaken by Gonzalez en Tsonga. Should Cilic advance to the semis or better, Verdasco will also be overtaken by Cilic.

Cilic will also overtake Gonzalez if he moves into the semis and will overtake Tsonga if he advances one round further than Tsonga does. Should Cilic win the AO, he will be the new #7 in the world.

How the top 10 will look after the AO is still a big riddle. After the QF, I will send an update. At this point there are to many things possible. Quite exciting, I didn't think the AO could cause such a shift in the top of the rankings!

Incredible! Thanks Roger! Through to the QF's! it's tougher from now on.

Roger's forehand and backhand today were just incredible.every shot in the book and he showed it! such fun watching him, his movement was sleek and precise. loved the match.

Wow, the predictions by some of us come true, as Fed/Davy/Nole/Tsonga and Cilic/Roddick/Rafa/Murray are through to the quarters; just that some of us didn't foresee a tough match for Tsonga today. Almagro plays really well today, hopefully he can carry on from here and does well for 2010. Fed looks master class today, certainly much better than his first round match.

absolutely luckystar - masterclass -

federer was DEVASTATING today.if he plays like this he wil be very tough to stop, u need some1 who can disrupt his rhythm becoz when he is in such rhythm he is at times unplayable

After things going very much according to expectations unfortunately we do not have much drama among our competitors. The standings are as follows:

1.Vincent:23 points (doing enough to hold on to the 'shared' top spot
1. Ricky:23 points (continues his reign on top)
3.Cheryl:22 points (patiently waiting for her chances to break the duopoly at the top)
4.Kelli:21 points (the feisty competitor is definitely still in contention for winning the event)

* A much trickier day awaits our tennis experts to show their forecasting skills.kelli demario sustains her firm hold over the prestigious golden racquet :P, can any of her rivals snatch it from her??? ONLY TIME WILL TELL.

Good luck experts.
VAMOS kelli ( u are getting closer and closer , and plz pick rafa LOL) :D

Nadal vs. Murray, Roddick vs. Cilic - http://www.tennistalk.com/en/blog/Ricky_Dimon/20100125/Tuesday_Matches _of_the_Day,_Expert_Picks