“But I’d be way more disappointed winning the Australian Open and not being at the birth of the child”.
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Rafa unfortunately lost to Novak in the Qatar finals, 6-1, 6-2, which the article said a “thorough beating”.
Roger Federer of Switzerland serves the ball during a practice session of the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 15 January 2016. “So it’s OK. I have missed much more important tournaments in my career compared to [Djokovic] and [Federer] because they didn’t miss nothing during their careers”.
Despite his heroics, the Serb just failed to achieve a calendar-year Grand Slam, when he lost in the Roland Garros final for the third time.
Djokovic had one of the finest seasons in history in 2015.
Prior to a highly-anticipated semifinal clash against Djokovic, Federer would have to navigate a hard path. The 34-year-old Swiss could run into Alexandr Dolgopolov in round two, Grigor Dimitrov in the last 32, and either Dominic Thiem or David Goffin for a spot in the quarters. In Doha this month, he won his first title of the year without dropping a set and beat two more top-10 opponents, including long-time rival Nadal in the final.
The Scot is a victor, but he’s usually unable to defeat Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in the major matches, at least since 2013.
The Manacor native has not won the Australian Open in six years.
Tennis Australia CEO, Craig Tiley, said, “Kia makes an incredible contribution to the running of the Australian Open and I’m again very pleased to accept the key to the 100-plus fleet of Kia courtesy vehicles”.
I will say there are a lot of great matches early on, plus it will be nice to see these young kids like Chung and Zverev get to show their potential on the biggest of stages. And he has more variety than Djokovic; he can pull off pretty much any shot in the book and a few that are in the endnotes.
Seeing Djokovic on the other side of the net is, as the numbers tell us, bad news for Nadal. In the end, Nadal won just three games, despite playing far from a awful match.
A sixth Australian Open would appear a formality and, at 4/6, pretty valueless – instead, why not back the world number one to take the title without dropping a set at 11/1?
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Last week he beat Federer in the Brisbane final, and after his 2015 was beset by injuries, the No. 13 seed is due to play Federer’s countryman, Wawrinka, in the fourth round should their seeds hold. Federer used to dominate like this, and seemed likely to win at least 20 Grand Slam singles titles in his career. A round three meeting for the fourth seed with Jack Sock, the No. 21 seed, would be a must-watch, pitting arguably the best backhand in the men’s game against one of the best forehands. “I am going to take a week in preparation, which means going there earlier, and becoming used to those conditions”. Djokovic trumped Williams, however, by playing in all four grand slam finals.
