Australian Open 1st semifinal preview: The battle of the Machines

It’s winter time and scientifically, nights are longer than days, we are told. But in a well-lit adorable sporting theatre in Melbourne Park, nights are much longer and brighter by virtue of the stars that turn up. A host of brave men chasing history or making it, ready to brave the rising temperatures and risen legends to script a place of their own in the pages of the sport’s classics. Two weeks of sacrificing everything in return for attaining the one thing that needs to be held, both the serve and an elusive Grand Slam title!

After ten days of intense battle, an occasional surprise, few breath-taking moments of awe and a countless number of mundane rallies, we are set to unveil the final four who have a shot at the final glory for the 2013 Australian Open. One look at the draw and it seems like more than 85% of the world would’ve predicted the same even before the first shot was hit. As expected or rather rightly desired, all the top 4 seeds have lined up for the honors in the semi-final.

Although rational expression demands that we label them as two exhilarating contests, an astute analyst would treat them more aptly as a semifinal and a half, as demanded by the virtue of a cruel draw. If a little extravagance could be tolerated, I’d say it’s the ‘game of three and a half men!’ Not that the promising kid is to blame, but a certain valiant fighter named Rafael Nadal, who has made his absence badly felt.

Coming to the line-ups that shall take the courts:

#1 NOVAK DJOKOVIC [1] Vs DAVID FERRER [4]: David Vs Goliath, The battle of machines.

DAVID FERRER

A player with 7 titles, the highest in the previous season, including a Masters trophy, is seldom brushed aside with scorn as an under-achiever, unless that player happens to be a certain lion-hearted lamb called David Ferrer. The disdain is reinforced by the fact that he’s yet to make to a Grand Slam final in his life. This Spaniard is today perhaps what his opponent was years ago – a participant who helped complete most semifinal draws!

Ferrer is probably content living in the shadow of the rest. And if he isn’t that player that his determination might suggest, he is probably destined to remain a legacy of the promising but unfinished monument emperors.

Before my contemptuous barrage upon this valiant fighter is mistaken as a mindless grudge, let me make it clear that it is but a reflection of his performances in this tournament.

The first round against a weak Rochus was a straight set affair. But amongst the final four, he is the only one to have lost a set right in his second against a hard-serving Smyczek. That said, his next round against a threatening former Australian Open finalist Baghdatis was resounding and admirable, as much as his fourth against an equally formidable unpredictable Nishikori, both of which he won in straight sets.

Ironically though, as against the desired enhancement in the performances on nearing the summit, his game has thoroughly fallen apart. His latest quarterfinal victory against Almagro wasn’t exactly convincing – his victory came about more a result of his opponent’s mental and physical fatigue. How often do you see a 10th-seeded player of appreciable calibre forfeit 3 chances to serve for the match, oncee as early as the 3rd set? Indeed, it was quite appropriately summed by the ‘Independent’ as a miraculous escape for the tireless Spanish machine.

On the gaming front, Ferrer hasn’t quite put anything on display to prove his growing stature or rebuff any claims of his insipid play. He’s developed a good serve, and as always he looks fit to run and retrieve, but it remains to be seen if he can match the wiser machine across!

NOVAK DJOKOVIC

Being the top seed is a source of pressure in itself, but there exists a league of extraordinary men unto whom pressure is a daily breath. Men, rather machines, like Djokovic seldom bother about opponents – they are too busy fighting the expectations of their own past.

Right at the start, this unparalleled gladiator was the most primed to pick his 3rd consecutive Australian Open title. But it remains to be seen if he can evade the curse haunting this Open right from 1968 that’s not allowed a single hat-trick, even to the legend Roger in his prime.

Novak’s odyssey to this position too has had an uncharacteristic tale. He’s had to face a draw of unexpected opponents right from round one, with each of them capable of pulling off an upset. Probably, in the big attention to the minefield for Roger, few bothered to notice the Djoker’s tryst with adventure.

Starting off with a straight sets victory over Roger’s Wimbledon surprise Paul-Henri Mathieu, Novak subdued the big serving Harrison, albeit with a discomfort that the score-line of 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 wouldn’t suggest. Up next against Stepanek, the minor chinks in Novak’s game were exposed, although their frequent meetings meant that the Serb went ahead unscathed with a calculated performance. On a personal note, that was the match I enjoyed most this year.

Unlike the Spaniard though, Novak’s tests came earlier, as early as in the 4th round against a spirited 15th-seeded Swiss. It was a 5 hour marathon, with a lot of mundane tennis sprinkled with magnificence. Clearly, the top seed seemed ruffled, though he went to bed on the preferred side without his T-shirt.

But surprisingly, any fears of an exhausted Nole getting subdued by a powerful Berdych were silenced with ease, so much so that one was forced to wonder which one of them had played a 5 hour match the other night.

The Serb’s game has been torn apart more than once in the last week, although he’s still managed to get this far. His phenomenal serve seems to have improved, as has his precision with his cross-court forehand, which complements his untouchable backhand. Thankfully, he’s lost nothing save his energy and perhaps a few ounces. If anything, he is probably now more certain of his untiring mental stamina!

HEAD TO HEAD

Having said it all, Ferrer now finds himself roaring to confront Djokovic for the 17th time across the net, in the 5th semi-final of his career. Novak leads the head-to-head 11-5, having won the last five of them, with the 5 wins that Ferrer has managed majorly being scripted on clay in ’07. As a respite for the Ferrer fans though (and the anti-Nole, Fed fans) the last time Ferrer beat Novak, it was on the hardcourts in 2011 at the London Masters, even if that was followed by a five-match unbeaten streak on the same surface.

With all the said drama at stake, it remains to be seen as to who will defy the curse. Will Ferrer triumph over his personal curse and enter his 1st final, or will Novak master the curse of the place!

PREDICTION

We caught up with our (promising yet doubtable) ORACLE (read Namrata Suri) and this is what she has to predict: Djokovic to win in four sets!