Calleri the 5 set Maestro

Today was definitely a long day and I got my quota of 5 setters in and I must say I was happy with my choices.

After the party last night I woke up feeling very very ordinary and I have to thank the Aus Open BBQ sausage with onions and other forms of something that looked like food that bought me back to reality and energised me to my normal self.

Yes, I saw the great Karlovic/Gaudio combination win their first round doubles against Mantilla/Lopez Moron. It was very strange seeing those two play and yes Gaudio serving and volleying, no that wouldn't have helped him against Hrbaty yesterday. I mean if Karlovic gets his serves in he doesn't need to do that much, it would be hard playing against him.

I witnessed the battle of Argentina with Calleri and Canas. I was looking forward to this match and it didn't disappoint I wanted Calleri to win, but I wasn't disappointed about Canas winning. Sammy and I knew this one would be going 5 sets, and Calleri was shattered when he was serving for the match at 5-4 in the 4th and played 2 forehands wide. Canas got a sniff and you know he isn't going to go away and Calleri was made to pay for his lack of mental toughness and lack of patience on big points and Calleri continues with his bad 5 set record. The match had Gaudio, Chela, Massu and Gonzo watching at different times, hopefully it's a 35 degree day when Henman plays Canas.

Then went to see Corretja and Ancic. It was hard for Sammy as he likes Corretja, but he is patriotic and wanted to Ancic to win just to have one more Cro still in the draw. Ancic was always attacking and the thing I have noticed most about Corretja is that he makes so many more unforced errors than he used to. There was a match point to Ancic and Corretja hits this great forehand pass down the line. Sammy comes up with the great comment where was that shot against Sampras at the US Open. When it got to the 5th Corretja looked strong and was going to come out victorious, Ancic came up with some big shots, but ultimately it was Alex who helped Ancic by giving away three unforced errors in his last service game. It was a good atmosphere, but not the result I was wanting.

However it got better as Costa came through against Arthurs. We both like Costa and there was only about 10 people going for Costa in the match. Arthurs just kept serving canons, but in the last game he threw in 2 doubles and then he went to for the slider out wide, and siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Costa smacked that trademark backhand up the line on match point to pull out the victory. He meets Arazi who was killing Saulnier after losing the first 2 sets then Saulnier retires and he only played just over 90 minutes.

Pavel was solid and didn't make many errors and he will need to do the same against Novak. He leads 3-2 in their head-to head that could be the sleeper match of the 3rd round. Rogi smashed that joke Morrison and there was no need to watch that, and now he needs to smash that little upstart Reid. I mean Sargsian apart from Roddick, he beats the players I like, but when I want to him a match he doesn't. Somehow he was cramping in the 5th which he shouldn't have as he wasn't sweating from the Björkman match.

Nadal was good in parts against Ascione and I think the boys should have come up with some tacitcs for Hewitt. I feel a night match is coming on for these two and hopefully Nadal can tire Hewitt out for the next match, I think he can win a set but probably not the match.Better go, I have another party to go to and I will try and write some more updates.