Australian Open 2018

[brenden]

Federer’s been playing lemons. He’s never seen a player the likes of Chung!

#speed #defense #eyesight

[Aaron]

Chung out in 4 i reckon

(hope I get proven wrong, would love to see someone different in the final)

[Sine]

off-topic

for anyone intersted in sports + politics the Politics in Tennis (Sandgren) posts have been split

As for the final 4 players in each draw. Mens I really don't mind any of fed/cilic/chung winning, hopefully fed though since he is closer to retirement and chung will likely have plently more of these chances (hopefully). Women's I think wozniacki.

[Aaron]

Eh... well that was an .... interesting semi-final.

[tashhhaaa]

I'm really disappointed with the way that turned out, bad luck Chung

I feel like Chung didn't want to play on while injured because he would have lost anyway

[zhen]

It’s really sad and surprising how the semi-final ended. Hopefully, he recovers and has an amazing season, cause it’d be nice for the younger players to start challenging Federer and Nadal in grand slams. Hopefully, we have a competitive final that we can enjoy. It’d be weird if Federer ends up winning the Australian open without losing a set given his age even if he did it in Wimbledon last year.

[Aaron]

It’d be weird if Federer ends up winning the Australian open without losing a set given his age

He's had a pretty decent draw too. However not dropping a set is wonderful.

Hopefully, we have a competitive final that we can enjoy

Ditto. As much as I feel for Chung, that match was nearly unbearable to watch. Fed was walking all over him, but clearly due to injury. You expect semis to be hard-fought competitive battles and when they aren't, you gasp.

I wouldn't want to have been one of the spectators who paid top dollar to view that (as I'm sure many of you who have gone to a finals match of the AO know, the tickets aren't cheap).

[jamonwindeyer]

I wouldn't want to have been one of the spectators who paid top dollar to view that (as I'm sure many of you who have gone to a finals match of the AO know, the tickets aren't cheap).

I was thinking this the whole time, feel for Chung foremost, but feel also for the fans who paid for a seat expecting something on the level of Djokovic v Federer (which was a possibility, nay, probability, a week ago) and got this instead. Complete schooling

Cilic v Federer should be a decent match. It will be interesting though, as Cilic has just gotten through two matches against two opponents who weren't 100% (granted, one of them was Nadal), and Federer has just had a breeze of a semi-final after breezing through all his earlier matches anyway. Neither got truly tested in their semis, Federer arguably hasn't been tested at all, and although Cilic has had one five setter this tournament, the latter sets of that match weren't against a competitive Nadal. They'll both be, by a pretty large margin, the biggest test the other has faced.

This said, predicting Federer in four sets (four, purely because I want a somwhat-decent final to make up for the lacklustre semis)

[appleandbee]

Wozniacki vs. Halep will be great, given their strengths, there will be many long rallies 

[quinn_03]

yeah... that was anticlimatic. would not have liked to be one of those guys in rod laver who only got to watch 1 1/2 sets of chung being steamrolled.
fed in 4!!!

[Aaron]

Regardless of the impact of a crappy semi-final, have a look at this and you'll see that the retirement was justified (in a way):

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-27/heres-why-hyeon-chung-was-forced-to-retire-aus-open-semi-final/9366730

Jeeeeeeeeeeez. Imagine trying to play with that!

[appleandbee]

I still think that with very underwhelming quarter-final, semi or final matches, when you buy an evening ticket, but there is usually only one match that night, that ticket holders should at least be partially refunded.

[Sine]

Such a good match! both looked mentally shot towards the end but happy with the result   

[plsbegentle]

No one could hold serve lol, thought either player were gonna win when they broke...nek minut

[appleandbee]

I going to bet that the mens final will be shorter than the womens.