Aussie Open 2009

[Thiele]

Willams took the first set 6-0

[Thiele]

Williams lead 5-1 in the second set

[Thiele]

Willams wins 6-0, 6-2

[hearts on fire]

What a sad, sad, sad final.

Williams is just to big, too strong, too good.

[FD88]

Really hope we're not on a half hour delay again. There's no good reason for it.

[Thiele]

Really hope we're not on a half hour delay again. There's no good reason for it.

We are live tonight

[Thiele]

Nadlal took the first set 7-5, Federer takes the second set 6-3

[hearts on fire]

What a game, best game of tennis i have ever seen!!

[bayman]

What a game, best game of tennis i have ever seen!!

you never saw mal v mt79 then

[JK]

What a game, best game of tennis i have ever seen!!

Must admit I think it's the best I can remember seeing

[Dirko]

Nadal looking the goods here.....

[Interceptor]

Federer too conservative for most of the match.
Third set should have never been a tie-break.

Nadal really has his number and Federer's tactics have to be questioned.

[Interceptor]

Nadal wins as Federer surrenders the 5th set and fails again to his nemesis.

[JK]

Federer too conservative for most of the match.
Third set should have never been a tie-break.

Nadal really has his number and Federer's tactics have to be questioned.

Def agree there (although fully admit Im no expert) .. Also reckon Rafa should look at incorporating the net a bit more into his play, he let Fedex back into quite a few points by not doing so.

All that said, Rafa appears to own Fed at the moment and u get the feeling RF knows it.

Great effort by two of the games greatest ever

[Dutchy]

Go Rafa

How ******* annoying was Courier tonight -

"Oh Ive never seen Nadal kick his leg out like that, must be getting heavy legs"
"This cant go to 5 sets and Nadal knows he cant win it in 5"
and it went on and on and on

FFS he had 1 tough match for the whole fortnight and these blokes are some of the fittest athletes in the world

[Gozu]

I watch a lot of tennis and I can say that the Channel 7 team is abysmal. They should just call it Team Federer. JA (or whatever he's called) acts like Federer is his son, Courier is too overbearing and Roger Rasheed looks like a fool (yes, it's a rug). It's a bit like the cricket, the Channel 9 team are terrible too.

It was a pretty good match but given how badly Federer capitulated in the 5th it wouldn't be in their top five encounters. Wimbledon was easily their best match and I admit the best match I've ever seen. But it was a good Aussie Open final. Nadal's just on another level to Federer but they are both great players and whenever they meet it's a must watch for me.

[hearts on fire]

Greatest match I have seen, really feel sorry for Federer though. I still think he has it in him to become number 1 again, but if he is to do this, he needs to work out a way to beat his arch nemesis Nadal.

[Dutchy]

I didnt think it was much of a match to be honest, Fed was off the boil last night, some unforced errors he made he would have never made in the past

the Gasquet/Gonzalez game was 10 times better and one I wont forget for a long long time

[Dirko]

I didnt think it was much of a match to be honest, Fed was off the boil last night, some unforced errors he made he would have never made in the past

the Gasquet/Gonzalez game was 10 times better and one I wont forget for a long long time

Correct. Fed made too many errors that he'd normally nail. If he got them in chances are he could've smashed Nadal last night. He just wasn't there in the mind, and played at the baseline too much.

Against Nadal you need to eliminate the angle, so play as often as you can down the centre. This way the court doesn't open up for those fantastic top spin cross court shots.
Also Nadal was standing 2 - 3 metres off the baseline thus eliminating a lot of the power and angle Fed gets on his serve. So you top spin the serve at the body. Get the ball to bounce up at Nadal and try and cramp him up. Way too many times especially on the second did Nadal have time to step around, open up and hit the corners.
Federer also should have sliced his backhands more. He went for the power over slice, and that suits Rafa down to the ground. Low speed slice backhand landing mid to deep court, means Rafa needs to work his shots more to get his power up and thus creates more of a chance to force errors.

Rafa too good on the night. And yep the commentating was shite.....

[silicone skyline]

Federer: Crying shame.