Australian Open '14

[Ali-Iqb93]

Federer was impressive. Especially his bh. I haven't seen him playing this well in a long time. Hope he beats Murray

[Vieira151]

Couldn't watch Federer because of work. Just read ATP site that he displayed a "vintage performance". Faced only one break point which he saved.

He has been using a larger Wilson racket since 2014?

Yeah, he is using a larger racquet this year. It's that weird black prototype I think he tested last year too.

[Coolhand Texas]

Got up at 3am over here to watch the fed match. Fed was pretty impressive, I can't remember the last time I didn't see a ton of shanks from him. It was nice to see him attack the net, won 34% of all his points up at the net. That's a nice chunk. It was also nice to see him coming over the backhand consistently.

That being said tsonga never really got into it till down 4-2 0-40 in the third when he smashed a ball out of the stands and let out a scream but too late by then.

The match vs Murray should be interesting, fed won't get any cheap points from Murray's backhand like tsonga.

[Corbon]

Some damn good shots

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NHKq5Kwh3Q

BTW 7 of the top 8 seeds are in the QF now, Dimitrov is tbe black sheep.

[Moralspain]

Can't believe he can even hold his racquet with such a blister

[BrushedBigJJ]

Can't believe he can even hold his racquet with such a blister

I'm with you moral, how the hell does he do what he does with his hand like that?

Several years ago I tried to get more spin in real life on my forehand so of course I tried to copy rafa in some way humanly possible for me. The thing I noticed I could copy was the fact he doesn't hold a fist on his forehand. He holds the racket with only his 3 bottom fingers and his thumb. His index finger is seperated and points up and raps around the handle diagonally.

I did it and it worked for me. Of course it only works with small size handles. In the beginning I had a hard time gripping the racket(understandably). My index finger got some scraps at the beginning but then I learned through experience how to avoid that.

Long story short one day I ripped the bottom of my ring finger's skin. It was disconnected on 3 sides and I could flop it back in place or let it hang the opposite side, it was gross. I did figure out afterward I put on a new overgrip which really did it's job not allowing the racket to slip. Also that day I swung a little harder. The skin ripped on just one hard shot.

Rafa hits thousands of balls, the ball is being hit much harder at him, he can of course swing way harder than me, his overgrips are always new and have virtually no slip, and he's using that 10.5 oz racket. How does he have any skin on the inside of his left hand? The magic of finger tape . But there is so much friction he gets blisters through the tape. And how he got it in the middle of his hand I don't know. A new place for finger tape.

P.S. I use finger tape on my middle and ring finger now just to be safe

[djarvik]

Stay Safe.

[Coolhand Texas]

is anybody enjoying the beautiful match going on between ivanovic and bouchard? I could literally watch these two all day

[Cro Morgan]

In the looks department, Bouchard definitely gives Ana a run for her money.



Slight edge to Ana.

[Corbon]

Funny how no one knew who Genie was when she was featured up in Top Spin 4

Now she's in the Semi.

[Murderface84]

Cro I'd give the edge to Eugenie...as a man who is five foot eight I find women over 6 feet tall to be rather repulsive

[Corbon]

Berdych beats Ferrer, now that's a surprise.

[BrushedBigJJ]

"Easy draw Wawrinka" got tired of hearing about. Up against Novak for the third time in a row at a slam. Now can he finish.

[Pepe Bradock]

I'm unfortunately not in front tv, but following the game score on the web, it seems that once again, a Djoko-Waw' match is just great ! Your opinion ? (For the ones watching that game)

[Pepe Bradock]

In the looks department, Bouchard definitely gives Ana a run for her money.



Slight edge to Ana.

Advantage with photo is that you don't hear her accent ...