Woeful. Next!

No composure shown by Andy at all today. Terrible performance.

Finally he focuses ....and hey ho....

He won't be winning his 1 st Australian open playing like this..... thats for sure.

It's like watching a 1st round match....not the best quality...full of errors. Not surprised so many have gone off to watch Fed practice instead.

Many thanks for the article Ruthie.  Very interesting indeed.  There's no doubt that the old, often rather frightening, intensity has gone, and in his match against Istomin the comms were talking about his lack of spark.  I can't say I noticed all that much about his body or his arms, but then I wasn't really paying much, if any, intention to those, although one thing I did notice was that he wasn't sliding on the court nearly as much as he used to.  I wonder if he still skis, because, if so, I'd have thought that that would help maintain the flexibility in his hips, legs and ankles.

He did say at the end of last season though that he was no longer prioritising winning Slams because he preferred to focus on his family - which might not come as a surprise if his alleged marital problems were indeed the cause of his 'off-court issues' in the spring/summer of last year.  Quite a bit of a change though from when he was boasting about how fatherhood had made him a better player, although as I think Andy is finding out, it is possible to be a good father, and a good player, without the need to be at home most of the time.  On the other hand, it could be simply that he's burnt himself out mentally and physically through trying to be at the top for so long, so might be content to take things a little easier, at least for a while.  However from the amount of racquet smashing he's still into, as well as hitting balls at people he shouldn't (I haven't noticed any shirt-ripping), then it seems clear that that competitiveness is still there because it's so much ingrained in him, so by the same token, so will the frustration when things don't go well, along, unfortunately, with the tendency to indulge in a bit of play-acting with the intention of distracting his opponent.

I doubt he'll ever get the love he so dearly wants from the crowds no matter how (cringeworthy) hard he tries because he just doesn't have that natural appeal, that little extra which can endear players to spectators.

Djoko's form ...Lack of interest or lack of available performance enhancers...hmm

My apologies because I didn't hear that about the crackling.  No wonder he was saying to himself that 'this doesn't sound good'!

Anyway he's just been interviewed on Eurosport.  Says ankle was a bit sore and stiff this morning but that that wore off after he'd been practising for a while.

Thats good to hear. Will be interesting if he plays with strapping next match...which he says he doesn't like compared with supports.

.At least he never said anything about hearing noises, just what I posted above at 01:04pm.  Also he's been interviewed by the BBC since then and says it's a bit sore and stiff but that regular icing and elevation when possible will be the answer for the next few days.  Fortunately a day off tomorrow should help.  No doubt Querrey will try to take full advantage of the situation but Andy played through something similiar at RG 2011.

Unfortunately he did hear some noise from his ankle....
to quote Andy in the press...
“Well, it was [worrying],” he said after having about an hour of ice treatment on the ankle. “I heard a few sort of little crackles and it was sore. It was throbbing for the rest of the match. I was moving fine on it, though. It was just sore.

“You’re thinking about it because you have a little bit of pain when you’re moving around and when you’re moving into certain positions on the court, you don’t want to do the same movement again. But I was moving fine towards the end of the match.”

Much better performance from Andy this round...without doing the spectacular..did the job. 1st round was all over the place.
Ankle rolls can go either way... you never know until next day or so the extent of damage. Fingers crossed it was just a slight roll.... hearing noises when it happens is often bad tho....

Superb from Andy. Huge win. No doubt No 1 now.

Djoko looked good in this tournament largely due to lack of testing opponent...as soon as he came up against Andy his game fell to pieces.

No doubt large part of Djoko's game plan. Focus on the serve... keep his own games short....and Andy's long. Wear him down physically.

Looks a tough draw  for Andy .... guys he can beat...but also lose against. He's top dog now tho...should be confident going in. He's the guy to beat now.

A Djoko 1 year ago would have cruised his draw...but for whatever reason seems unable to cruise anything other than the Med at the moment....And his missus banned him from that.. allegedly.

Now then - controversial…  Maybe bloated Boris folded on that front.

Maybe Djoko's form dipping around Sharapova ban no coincidence??

Good chance for Andy to sustain number 1 slot ...as Djoko searches the world for a new performance enhancer that isn't on the banned list.

Hopefully he can go on and win this comp and the WTF.... that would really cement his place as no.1