The Tennis Thread 2012

[GirlySports]

Schedule is out.. indeed Raonic-Hewitt is the 2nd night match,

TSN at 2:30am Saturday.

[Mango]

Wohoo! Fourth round for Clijsters She was great in a straight sets win over Hantuchova.

[fundmark19]

For anyone who missed out on Davis cup tickets they are releasing 500 more for each day of the event on Monday at 10 am pst 11 our time on ticketmaster

[fundmark19]

Anyone else stay up? Both guys are holding serve 3 2 Hewitt right now

[FiftyBelow]

Raonic has served the top 5 fastest serves of the tournament so far (all in this match)... I believe 226, 227 and 228 km/h are the top 3. Definitely makes up from some of wild forehands that he sometimes hits.

[fundmark19]

Starting to get some fun rallies going in this second set. Looks like who ever is able to break serve is going to take set. With both guys holding so well

[fundmark19]

Milos loses serve. The crowd is really getting into it now. Let's see if he can battle back down 3 -5


Set Hewitt 1-1 heading to 3. Let's see how raonic can keep his cool and start dominating with his serve again

Raonic loses serve again early in third set. Making way to many unforced errors. Hopefully he can keep it together

Well that was quick broke Hewitt right away all tied up at 3

Tough tie breaker loss. Milos down 2-1 going into 4th lets hope he can push it to 5

[flames_1987]

Ahhh such a tough tie breaker loss! Hopefully he can battle back

[fundmark19]

Another break for Hewitt. Milos is looking like the old guy in the match instead of Hewitt. I think this is the end of the line for our hero down 3 1 in 4th

[fundmark19]

Hewitt with upset bed time

[Kidder]

I love the way Raonic composes himself. Cool and collected.

So many tennis players are prima donnas, tantrums and over celebrating. In the second set we saw Raonic come unglued a bit, more than usual for him, and I think it was his undoing tonight. A marathon match favored him, and after he captured the first set he was in great shape. But when his serve and groundstroke started failing him he let it get to him instead of slowing everything down and regrouping, and that's when it started to unravel. You could really see the anxiety on the third set point in the 3rd set. He had 6-6 on his strings, and the pressure cracked him.

Understandable playing in Rod Laver under the lights and the whole stadium against you.

A couple points that are extremely encouraging moving forward.

Raonic was able to recompose himself, and despite not having his best stuff he hung in there.

Match game. Would have been easy to fold in the tent. But he battled and almost got the set back on serve. 3 match points and he played superbly, going for his shots and making them comfortably. That shows the true mettle of a player. The pressure got to him a bit tonight, but he shows signs he could be a player that rises above it and play his best tennis with the pressure is really on. And that's a characteristic of any champion.

He wasn't going to get by Djokovic, but it's too bad he didn't make it. He needs to get beaten around by the top seeds a bit so he can learn and grow. Getting controlled by Djokovic back on the main court would have been great experience.

And his ranking will drop slightly with the 3rd round exit. It's likely by the end of February he'll fall out of the top 32, but if he stays healthy he'll rocket up later in the year and could even be challenging for top 10 by year's end.

Congrats to Hewitt. Reminiscent of Andre Agassi's last great run at the U.S Open in 2006.

[Mango]

A learning experience for Raonic. His post-game press conference is one of the best I've ever seen. He's very thoughtful in his answers. Impressive.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Yeah, I love his comments. Seems like quite a mature 21 year old, which should bode very well for him in the future. No whining or freaking out, just taking it in stride and saying all the right things. Good for him.

[GirlySports]

Tough loss but Hewitt showed his experience and why he was #1 once.
Raonic needs better footwork and more weapons than just a serve.

[Matty81]

I guess he plays a higher risk game but I thought Milos beat himself last night, hitting the ball long and into the net on most of Hewitts points, and not on real scrambing rallies where hewitt hit good shots. I think Djokovic would rip either of thema new one if they play like that again sunday.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Matty81

I guess he plays a higher risk game but I thought Milos beat himself last night, hitting the ball long and into the net on most of Hewitts points, and not on real scrambing rallies where hewitt hit good shots. I think Djokovic would rip either of thema new one if they play like that again sunday.

Lleyton's scrambling got to Milos' head. He needed to hit more balls harder because Hewitt was getting more balls back as the match wore on and as a result hit more errors.

Remember, Hewitt is/was the best returner and baseliner of his generation.

[Inglewood Jack]

well in a sport that's 80% mental, I guess the guy who's played this tourney 16 times is going to have the edge at crunch time, even if his body is old and creaky. Milos didn't have to do anything extreme to win, he has enough raw power to just pound Hewitt off the court, great returner or not. But once his first serve started going away, so did the rest of his groundstrokes. It took Djoker years on tour before he matured mentally, so no big rush for Milos.

Another must-see tonight with Fed and Tomic...Bernie's quirky style works against a lot of guys, but don't think Fed's one of them. I say the Maestro in 4 exciting sets.

[Mango]

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

Another must-see tonight with Fed and Tomic...Bernie's quirky style works against a lot of guys, but don't think Fed's one of them. I say the Maestro in 4 exciting sets.

I agree - It's going to be a fantastic match. Tomic is going to be a special pretty player, but Roger is Roger.

[GirlySports]

Clijsters just saved 4 set point in the 2nd set tiebreak, off to a 3rd set!

[Mango]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Clijsters just saved 4 set point in the 2nd set tiebreak, off to a 3rd set!

Atta girl