Australian Open '14 Point by Point Coverage

[roseha]

Won, Stan won and I missed it? Congratulations to him!

[lt]

I really feel for Stan--he played so well in the first set and, while I have clue if he could have kept it up, every headline says something in the lines of "Wawrinka wins over injured Nadal." Stan was winning fair and square pre-injury and ended up losing that 3rd set because he was looking across the net (as PMac said) instead of playing his own game. I agree with Brad--beware the wounded bear. I loved Stan hitting his own head when he served for the match, gotta keep his head in it especially with Rafa playing so much better. You could really tell when the pain killers kicked in (just like Darren said--boy, I was agreeing with all of the commentators today. . . )

Really not happy that ESPN2 didn't show the trophy ceremony in the repeat. Very nice of them re-playing the women's final but I'm now going to have to track down the ceremony for the men.

But, speaking of the women, so happy for Li Na but I like that Cibulkova a lot. I know Li was having UE issues in the first set but Cibulkova was playing so well. That second set was a disappointment. I hated hearing how hard Carlos has to work to keep Li Na in a good headspace. Back to what skyz said the other day about Roger and Djoker needing a sports psychologist--instead of the coaches doing that work it should really be a pro and I think every player would benefit whether the psychologist was someone on their team or someone the tournaments made available at their sites.

FYI: if you're looking for the ceremony and you have WatchESPN (ESPN3) you can go to the replay and fast-forward to 4:18.

[harry24]

I hated hearing how hard Carlos has to work to keep Li Na in a good head space.

I was glad, though, that Chris E. mentioned in the broadcast what I read in that NYT bio of Li from a few months ago: that her coaches in China never said one positive thing to her. I mean, how does one become a top ten player with that kind of "coaching?", to say nothing of a multiple Grand Slam winner? I've often suspected that a lot of Russians coached in a similar style, leading to some of those spectacular Russian head cases like the Safin/Safina kids, Myskina, Zvonareva, Petrova et al.

Very happy with both the winners. Stan has become my second favorite player, edging past Tsonga into the (distant) number two spot behind Roger. I just love Stan's game. I find it aesthetically so pleasing with his powerful, clean groundstrokes. And I continue to find it heartening when older players can raise their levels in such dramatic fashion, seeing themselves as a whole different kind of player. Speaking of coaching, I nominate Magnus Norman as Coach of the 21st Century so far, bringing both Soderling and now Wawrinka along that same difficult path from Top 20 player to Grand Slam contender/winner. Really, really impressive. And I'd love to be a fly on the wall during their coaching sessions (assuming that I was a fly who spoke whatever language they converse in.)