Finally the 2013 Australian Open has come to an end. From a betting point of view it was a poor tournament and I am the first to admit that. That might seem hard to get the head around considering every single top seed won outright in both mens' and womens' singles and doubles. Of all the winners, Djokovic was probably the most likely to have been tipped beforehand but I think just a shade over even money to win 7 matches in a row is a bit too low and I couldn't tip that given the standard of men's tennis right now. Having said that, if this tournament has proven anything, it is that Djokovic is beyond doubt the greatest tennis player alive today. He is inpenetrable. He did not find his A game until the end of the second set against Murray, but once he did, it was curtains. In fact, his hardest, stiffest test of the entire tournament came against Stanislas Wawrinka (pictured above) who played almost the perfect game against the Serb.
My criticism of Murray, (and I am slow to criticise a player of his standard and ability), is that he didn't come into the net nearly enough against Djokovic. It was incredibly frustrating. He thought he could beat the Serb from the back of the court, and even when he was being so obviously outplayed in the third and fourth sets, he still stubbornly refused to change it up. Look back at the Wawrinka stats - in his match against Djokovic, he approached the net 58 times. Murray came in 15 times! That says absolutely everything for me. Murray was, at times, hitting balls deep and hard to the very corners of the court, and, with Djokovic stretched to his absolute limits just to barely slice the ball over the net back into play, Murray still didn't approach the net to take the prize he had earned, seemingly content to allow Djokovic to regroup and for the rally to become neutral once again. That is madness. I am surprised and disappointed at that and I hope himself and Lendl figure it out pretty quickly. They saw how Wawrinka hurt Djokovic. They had the opportunity to listen to what Radek Stepanek said in the second round after pushing Djokovic close in 2 of their 3 sets. He said that the only way to threaten him was to come into the net and change things up. He said that if you engage in baseline rallies with him, no matter who you are, "he will get you eventually"! It is not rocket science. Hit the ball hard and deep to the corners, and follow it in!
Anyway, we won't worry about the losses we endured. It is a long season and there are about 48 weeks of it left! Next up is Davis Cup next weekend so I will do a blog on that tomorrow or the day after. In the meantime, congratulations to Djokovic and his camp. He truly is the best around right now. I am pretty sure he will win the French this year to complete his career Grand Slam and is available at 2.84 to do so. He won't be that price by the time the tournament begins!
Talk soon, TB.
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