Today was a day that featured a mixed quality of matches, one that I considered to be a disappointing day of tennis until later in the day when I witnessed the match between Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Ivan Ljubicic which was easily the best match that I’ve seen so far this Australian Open.
He’s got flat groundstrokes off both sides, particularly off the forehand side and generates some good pace on it. He surprised me numerous times in the beginning how Melzer would be trying to build up a rally with slice backhands and keeping relatively good depth but Beck would just ignore it and go right ahead with trying to blast a winner quickly to end the point. And so it worked for a while, but with shots as flat as that, it was inevitable that he was going to throw in some poor service games as well. So the key for Beck was to try to get the most out of his serve, and he won a lot of points early on with fast, deep serving, although its accuracy in terms of its width was hardly impressive.
Melzer soon started to realize what Beck was doing himself and suitably adjusted his game, to start to play more first-strike tennis, following up shots better on his own serve and adopting a more aggressive game himself. Incidentally the game he was starting to play was a very similar style to Beck’s, so it was like trying to beat him at his own game. Implementing the big, flat shots and following them into the net. Except that Melzer clearly has more flair than Beck and can implement a greater variety of play especially on defense.
The big problem about this match was the inconsistency of both players and the outcome of the match being overly reliant on simply who could execute their game better. Both players were capable of playing consecutively poor points and they often made too many errors off the follow-up shot, the shot straight after the serve which should be a relatively easy putaway shot at times. So in short, it was a match that featured flashes of brilliance, but not at a regular rate.
What was most engaging about the match was the sheer unpredictability of the match and the closely contested nature for the first three sets, which is why I lost interest as soon as Melzer had taken the lead in the fourth set. Beck had his chances to take a two sets to love lead after leading in the second set tie-break, but that was when the momentum switched to Melzer who ended up winning the fourth set comfortably 6-2 to take the match.
I had contemplated at the time as to whether I should have searched for another match to watch but I was simply not interested in watching only one set of tennis. The live scores suggested that most of the men’s matches at the time were already near their closing stages into potentially the final third set, when the outcome of the match itself was not in doubt.
At first I could see that Koubek was doing well in using the full dimensions of the court to patiently move around Monfils. Monfils started off slowly himself, so the start of the match was slow paced, compared to what I’m usually used to watching. But as soon as Monfils started to implement more changes of pace on the forehand and backhand sides, which occurred with more frequency as the match went on, Koubek could no longer match him. Midway in the first set was when Monfils converted his first break of serve.
To make matters worse, Koubek knowing what he was up against would try to implement some more aggressive play which just often led to tame errors on his side. Having Monfils, primarily a defensive player play against someone like Koubek does not bring the best out of him, in terms of the spectacle, and subsequently Monfils wasn’t particularly animated either. In terms of the match, it’s good for him because he’s better in all departments but he isn’t given the opportunity to hit those amazing shots on the stretch. In fact, because Koubek plays a slow-burning kind of game, he never even looked like he had to show exceptional movement around the court.
Even though Koubek had gone up an early break in the third set, it definitely looked like nothing more than a lapse of concentration from Monfils, and so I continued to be bored. Then in one of the changeovers, the live scoring popped up for Court 13. Radek Stepanek had taken the first two sets comfortably but Michael Berrer had won the third and was up a break in the fourth. I was originally reluctant on it given the distance between Hisense Arena and most of the other showcourts, especially if I was planning on coming back relatively soon for the following match, but I rushed over there anyway.
From where I was sitting, I was surrounded with people shouting out German comments to Berrer, and maybe some Czech thrown in there as well, if I knew what Czech sounded like. I liked how the tension and drama in the match was particularly emphasised by the loud grunting of both players after they hit a shot. At one point, Stepanek did a fist pump in Berrer’s face which drew a smile out of Berrer, an interesting and refreshing reaction I thought. Stepanek hit quite a few dropshots and touch shots which are the kind of shots that I like to see him play and when I find him to be most enjoyable. It looked like it was some good all-court tennis from both, although I definitely shouldn’t be judging given how little I watched.
Ljubicic’s groundstrokes look better in real life than they do on TV, more penetrating than it looks and he gets quite a bit of work on the ball. This must have been the best match he has played in a while, at a similar level to when he was at his peak around 2006. His forehand in recent years had been a declining and error-prone shot and early on, I was expecting him to make some tame errors on it but it held up well for the majority of the match, a sign of how well he was playing.
What I like most about Ljubicic’s game is the variety of his game, which didn’t allow Tsonga to take control of the match. He made good use of the slice backhand in particular to mix up the play which allowed him to stay in rallies and turn defense into offense on a number of occasions. Not allowing Tsonga to take control with a single forehand, which I mentioned earlier as one of his strengths, and also implementing a nice all-court game.
It was a display of good shotmaking from both sides, and that Ljubicic was able to generate almost as many winners as Tsonga, one of the most explosive shotmakers on tour was yet another sign of his good form. I liked in particular how both players were able to elevate their games even further under pressure, especially in the tie-breaks.
The atmosphere was electric in Hisense Arena, with the crowd sensing that maybe Tsonga needed some help. Ljubicic must have been devastated in the third set tie-break, how he did everything right on his end to take a 6-3 lead, only for Tsonga to elevate his game to amazing heights to make a comeback and take the third set. Then Tsonga ran away with the fourth set, hitting aggressive returns and passing shots, helped by the declining quality of the Ljubicic serve.
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