Friday, January 27, 2006

Smiling His Way Through to the Final Pame Marcos Baghdatis

This was the only semi final that I was interested in watching live and fortunately for myself I was able to get a ticket to watch the Nalbandian/Baghdatis match and enjoy the spectacle.

At the same time it was quite difficult to cheer for anyone in this match as I happen to enjoy both of their games and hoped that either one of them will win the final on Sunday, that would be a perfect way to end this tournament. So I was going for Nalle as I thought he had a better chance of winning and all the while cheering Marcos's great shots, so it went down pretty easily in this regard.

Initially both players were pretty nervous, but Nalle settled down a bit quicker and was controlling the play very well and that down the line backhand was the foundation for his early success in this match and he was handling the occasion better than Marcos was, who seemed very heavy legged like he was running around in quicksand and the smiling face wasn't there as much, but he was not going to give it away easily.

Nalle takes the first set and is still in control of the second set with two breaks, though he seems to have pointed to his stomach or something, but he loses his breaks and then breaks again and holds on the second set, but Marcos is still in the match and that was a good thing as I wanted to see some good tennis.

Third set is tight and Marcos starts to move better as he has nothing to lose and is cutting the down the errors and the Greek fans cheering constantly though scattered are helping him and he manages to get the break of serve to take the 3rd set and now we have a match, but at the time I still thought Nalle would come through in 4 sets and at this time I was grateful that Marcos won a set and didn't disgrace himself.

The fourth set Marcos stepped it up and is improving his length of shots and is hitting backhand winners of returns and moving Nalle around and takes it to the decider. There was a momentum shift for sure and Marcos has never lost a 5 setter and there is the saying there is always a first time and at the back of my mind I thought this was it, however Marcos had it and wasn't going to lose it.

Nalle breaks serve and then loses it again and both are bit nervy as the stakes are very high and that backhand that was working so well wasn't and he was lifting up a lot on his forehand. Marcos was just fighting and fighting and manouvering the ball around very well, but the little weakness he does have, is when he fits a very good shot and he gets a floater, he gets a bit passive and doesn't move in to the kill the ball, if he can do that and get fitter then all the better.

Marcos gets the break at 5-4 and 15 all and then it decides to rain. I just laughed and this Belgian/Moroccan guy next to me, we started dancing and making a close the roof gesture and this was tough for both players, especially as Marcos has to serve out the match, but the atmosphere was festive and it was great to be there. After the resumption of play Nalle hits two cheap unforced errors on the return and then those magic words Game Set Match Baghdatis and then the crowd went off.

The kid pulls off another surprise, he has beaten three top 10 players in this tournament and so has every right to make the final and the Greek fans are loving it and Nalle gets a standing ovation as well and he must be gutted with an opportunity like this that was blown to make a Slam final, but he only has himself to blame as he might have relaxed a bit, he made too many errors and Marcos took the initiative and that's great for him and he is in the final. The essential stat was once again the break point conversions Nalle had more chances, but Marcos did better with them and needs to do the same on Sunday.

This has Euro 2004 overtones when the Greeks won the championship, just hope the result is the same come Sunday night. I mean I know the Greeks are very superstitious and hopefully in this case it works. After the match was a great atmosphere, singing and dancing in the stadium, people on the phone to family and friends in Cyprus and there was plenty of celebrating to be had later in the evening.

One funny scenario was one of my Greek friends was at a wedding and he and 10 others when there was a power cut, ran outside as one of them had a hand held TV trying to get reception of the match when it was in the 5th set, they disappeared and people were wondering where they were and there were passers by trying to get the score and visualisation of these guys screaming "Fuck" after the time he lost a point is endlessly hilarious, and if I was there, no doubt I'd have been involved in that sort of thing.

Marcos's father Christos will come out for the event and if the rumour is true his second father Yiannos the godfather of Cypriot tennis will be around as well and I hope this is the case. These two men have had a huge influence on his career, especially Yiannos as he had a place at the National Centre in Nicosia and Marcos is from Limassol and Marcos lived there and did everything to get him to the level where Marcos was able to go somewhere to further his tennis and lucky he found a sponsor when he did. It would be good for him to have two of his founding influences there on his biggest day.

After the match, there was plenty of chanting outside the stadium and they made their way to the closest pub to Tennis Centre called the Depot which is a shithole, but when the Greeks turned it up, it was fun and I rang my friend the one at the wedding and told the Greeks to give him a cheer and it radiated very loudly through his phone and venue, too bad the women in the place were hideous and not even the amount of alcohol made it any better and there were a lot of us there as well, imagine if he wins on Sunday.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Quirky Quarter Finals

It has worked out quite well that the two quarter finals that I was most interesting in watching happened to be both on the same day, which worked out well, one in the day and one in the evening.

The first one was the Nalbandian vs Santoro match: This one I thought Nalle would win as long as he could remain patient and focused for long enough, then he would win this match, but not getting frustrated with Santoro if playing against him isn't the easiest thing to do.

Nalle has to get over the Aus Open quarter final jinx and this is Santoro's first ever quarter final, so the first set was the key to this match. It was a tight and tough first set, but once Nalle had got it with 7-5 and it was a strategic battle, not just mindless and brainless power that is so commonplace and Nalle was patient and took his chances.

Then the next two sets was an exhibition of Nalle's talents and this in addition to Santoro losing the 1st set, then the tiredness got to him and he was run ragged and if Santoro got the 1st set, then he would have found the extra energy, but it wasn't to be and Nalle mixed up the play very well and exposed the lack of movement from Santoro and while Fab tried, he had played too many matches and it told on him in the end.

One thing that pissed me off was that they began the interview with Nalle on court before Santoro had left and I thought that was ordinary that they did this. It's more than likely going to be the last time he plays on a stage like this in singles and he deserved a proper ovation and I know the people I was with appreciated his tournament and were a bit sad with the ending, but that's pro sport and more on Fab later.

Now Nalle has the beaten the QF jinx, he has to step up and be ready to take it to the next level and win a Slam that his talent deserves. I mean the main thing I dislike about him is that he benefitted from money given to him by the Argentine Federation, where they didn't give a crap about the other players like Chela, Cañas, Gaudio, Zabaleta and Acasuso, but that's not solely his fault.

The second quarter the Ljubicic/Baghdatis match. Personally I have nothing against Ljubo and I have some respect for him, but I was firmly in the Baghdatis corner in this match and the build up was pretty funny at times. I had plenty of time to kill and met up with some people went to have a few beers. Just like Gravity the great MTF moderator who was too good to drink with the masses, love you man, a hero to us all.

Saw a bit of the Screecharova match on TV, man that was fucking garbage tennis, it's just Petrova's rubbish was worse than Sharapova's rubbish and gives me more reason to dislike the WTA. Come to think of it there are only a few I can tolerate and there is a reason for this and I admire the guys who coach the female players, it's hard work.

As the Marcos match was starting late, the Baghdatis fans came to the beer garden and were having fun and then some Croats decided to show up as well and they were outnumbered inititally and of course there was a security presence there, but it wasn't overbearing a tall.

The Greeks started chanting, some of it was political and a bit cheeky as well. I mean when the Croatians started chanting Turkey and Macedonia, then the Greeks chanted Serbia and there were some chants about Cyprus as well, but most of it was in a festive spirit and that was good.


Marcos opened up very well and both players were playing quite well with Marcos being slightly more aggressive and was returning well again and was able to take the 1st set and then the second set was fantastic from Marcos, he was on fire, only made 2 unforced errors and was serving well as well as dominating from the baseline and that forehand was working very well and takes the second easily.

Ljubo digs in and keeps fighting and has to be a bit more aggressive and Marcos can't keep that level of tennis up and starts to make some errors into the net on shots he wasn't missing before, which suggests he isn't moving his feet as well as before, but Ljubo finally gives the Croat fans something to sing about by taking the next 2 sets and they congregate together as people leave to form a block just above the Ljubo Players Box. The irony is the Greeks are above them and they are going chant for chant, and while some of the people are getting pissed off, it gives the place some atmosphere and that's good.

The last set well Ljubo doesn't have a good record in them and every Marcos 5 setter I have watched live, he has won and hopefully he could keep that good record up. Marcos starts feeling it again and moving well and taking control of the play and as for Ljubo he wasn't playing that badly, though I know my man Sammy will disagree. Marcos gets the break and the Greeks are just making so much noise now and he rides the wave home and continues the great run into the semis.

This was a lost opportunity for Ljubo, but he has shown something for future in the Slams, this where he needs to step it up a level and perform at these events on a consistent basis.

Some people have seen this already, but since it's my blog I am going to post this observation on Baghdatis.

Yes, there is a bandwagon for him and that is something I can't do anything about.

The simple version is I remember last year when he had the elbow problem after the AO, then he had to have some more work done as the bone was growing the wrong way and it had to be detected when it was or a very long time out of tennis.Basically, there was hardly anyone around when he was going through the problems and struggling when he came back and yes the ones that were know who they are, but now he is winning, people want to know about him, when nothing in reality has changed, except he is winning more matches now.Still the same cheeky player he was then, just older.

Monday, January 23, 2006

Fun Fun in the Fourth Round

Kiefer/Chela : This was a very good standard match from both players and Kiefer is showing some of his old form from when he was a top 10 player after his very impressive performance against Ferrero, which he proved wasn't a fluke in this match against Chela.

The first set was very tight with Kiefer making most of the play and Chela was very solid from the baseline and Chela was up in the breaker, but he missed a few first serves and then Kiefer took the initiative and was able to take the set, with good all court tennis and some changes of pace.

After the first set, in which there were no breaks, then the second set had 4 breaks of serve in a row and this was what cost Chela in this match. I mean when he had the break, then he lost it straight away and a violation of one of the golden rules and Keifer then showed his greater versatility, he was rallying well, then a change up and hit some excellent dropshots to expose Chela's forward movement which isn't the best. Kiefer usually won the point on the dropshot, or a volleying error from Chela or a passing shot.

While Chela was battling hard, the essential differences were that Chela didn't confirm his breaks of serve in the second set and Kiefer was playing at a very high level and had the greater variety of shot and this told in this match and it was a very good match to watch.

Hrbaty/Davydenko: Another potentially long match and this potentially was the case, though the fact Hrbaty lost a 5 setter was very surprising especially after leading 2 sets to love.

Hrbaty started very well and was in control and handled everything and was just hitting very good length and bossing the points and the PMK was getting run around and lost the first two sets comfortably. Then Hrbaty gets a break in the 3rd set and there was the possibility of something strange happening as in a three set win for Hrbaty.

After he was a break down the PMK decided to step up the pace and was going for a bit more and it was working and Hrbaty just dropped his level a bit and it was enough for the PMK to get the next 2 sets back, though even in the back of mind I thought Hrbaty would win and when he took an early break in the 5th, it was something that I thought would happen.

Too his credit the PMK mixed it up a bit and hit some short shots to get Dom out of his comfort zone and it worked and was able to keep going ahead and served it out to make the quarter finals again. Dom could get away with it by playing poorly against Dick Norman, but it wasn't good enough against a better opponent.

Nalbandian/Robredo : From all reports thanks Jimbo and Sammy this was an excellent performance from Nalle especially the first 2 sets as he was showing his talent in moving the ball so effortlessly and making Boredo do a multitude of running and defensive work and the points ended in Nalle passing shots or errors from Boredo who was being outplayed clearly.

He had a lapse in the third set, but when it came down to business in the fourth set, Nalle got focused and tough and ran through Boredo easily and showed his superior talent, just hope that he can get over his AO quarter final block and do some justice to his talents.

Baghdatis/Roddick: This was a very interesting match, well moreso before this match. I spoke to my boys from last year and we were feeling very relaxed about this match, almost confident about the result of this, it was a rare feeling. I mean Marcos had nothing to lose in this match and he isn't scared of playing the top players and has a tactical brain unlike his opponent.

The first set began and Roddick was like the big bad wolf, he came in huffing and puffing and hitting his big serves and Marcos was his languid self as usual and he had a very good strategy of blocking and chipping a lot of the returns and then getting into the rallies from where he was in the better position to win it and then when he has a break point in the 1st set, he takes it and holds for the set.

Roddick starts firing up and Marcos had a lapse and runs through second set easily, but even then there wasn't any panic and Marcos is playing his game returning so well and outrallying Roddick from the back of the court, hitting to his forehand and then making him backhand passes and he is not going to make many of those in pressure situations and this came through.

Marcos is varying the speed of the shots some high ones and low ones and moving the ball around very well and that outstanding forehand with the big acceleration was coming into play as was his backhand, plus Marcos in difficult situations served so well and ended up outacing Roddick in the end.

The bemused look on Roddick's face was great and what was even better when the dickhead abused the people in the Baghdatis Player Box in the 4th set. He missed a first serve and one of the uncles said yes, but he didn't clap and then Marcos wins the point and breaks and they start cheering and then Roddick hand over the mouth looks up at the them and lets rip with a few words that had fuck in them, see what a gracious guy he is under pressure, got to love that Roddick.

The Greek and Cypriot fans were fantastic in this match and they were singing all the time and Marcos was singing along with them as well when he was waiting to receive the serve and was very relaxed and the atmosphere was carnival like from the Marcos fans and the Ducks were just stunned and it was beautiful, they took him lightly and didn't expect that Baghdatis could win and that made it better. Jim "Dickhead" Courier with his after match interview got put in his place with some cheeky comments from Baghdatis.

After the match it was a great atmosphere, with plenty of singing and dancing and caught up with some of the guys afterwards at one of the Greek restaurants in town and there was a lot of fun to be had and great times to be had.

Santoro/Ferrer : What a contrast in styles this was and a great performance from Fabrice. He was just running everything down and giving no pace to Ferrer, who was hitting the ball well, but was pressing too much and Santoro's junk was too much for Ferrer who made a lot of errors and was up breaks of serve and I thought he would win this match, but alas it wasn't to be.


This is great for Santoro and he is so unique and there will never be another like him and he won't be around for a while and I will miss him. The dropshots, the sneaky spins, the volleys and he even looks like something besides a tennis player.

More updates tomorrow, this one has taken too long.




Fabrice "the Gnome" Santoro, What a Player, and causing torment Third Round Report

Trying to get these reports done isn't easy, though I am not about to fail to deliver something.

Gaudio vs Santoro : This match had a lot of potential to be something good and it didn't disappoint and the only thing that was disappointing was the end result and there is a very simple reason as to why Santoro won this match and it isn't rocket science as to why.

Both players were hitting the ball very well, albeit very differently as no one is like Santoro and the full variety of junk, slice and spin was revelling and Gaudio was there doing it differently. The games were close initially and Gaston had some break points, but he was not able to convert and Santoro was able to do it and was in control with winning the first 2 sets and having a break in the 3rd.

The interesting thing about this match was that even though Gaudio was behind, he didn't seem to be tanking and was interested in playing to the end and had every reason to be, as he was far from being out of this match and was in a lot of the rallies, just not converting.

It was a very entertaining match for sure and the angles and defence that Santoro was producing was outstanding and Gaudio has improved his forehand for sure and he decided to be more aggressive with his shots and forehand as well and was able to take the next 2 sets with his excellent play.

There were many memorable shots in this match and two in particular stand out and one for Gaudio and the other for Santoro. The Gaudio one was off a great rally between them that had dropshots, angles, lobs and then two "hotdog" shots and then Gaudio pulls off the no look drop volley going the other way and then Fab bowed to him.

The next one was even better, though very cheeky. Gaston hits a short second serve and then Santoro gets on one leg, takes his hand off the racquet and then hits a backspinning dropshot that bounces once and then hits the net and he wins the point.

Coming into the last set Gaudio gets the early break and is being aggressive and then afterwards, he retreats in his shell and then Santoro decides to make more of the play and gets the break back and then after all the break points that Gaudio has had, he all of a sudden can't get close to Santoro's serve and Gaudio has to fight so hard to hold serve.

While serving to stay in the match at 4-5 down, he gets tentative and hardly makes a first serve into court and on hardcourt his second serve is fairly weak and can get attacked and he can't live off this and Santoro makes him pay for being tenative when it counts and takes out the victory in this highly entertaining match.

The basic lessons are in tennis are these 3 things.

1. Only the W or L counts in the results.
2. Once a player breaks serve, it's not a break unless it's held.
3. Though shall take advantage of break point opportunities.

In this match number 3 was very important, especially as Santoro had 8/14 and Gaudio had 7/25 that's the essential difference.

Ancic/Ferrer: For this match big Sammy was the reporter and as a Croatian unlike most of the others he has realistic expectations for Ancic and doesn't expect him to be the next Ivaniseic unlike many others. Ferrer was very solid and it's clear that he has improved from what I have seen already, especially on the backhand side and the work ethic is something that is never in doubt with him.

Tactically Ancic was at a loss here, he didn't seem to know which particular one to use unlike the Calleri match. He wasn't being as aggressive as he could be and he can't outplay from Ferrer from the baseline especially when Froggy is in the groove and he wasn't getting into the net as much as he should. There is a touch of Henman about Ancic, he is a nice enough guy, but the hopes in him could be unrealistic and at times he seems to passive to win the big points and big matches, but this was a very good win for Ferrer and he makes the 4th round for the first time in a hardcourt Slam.

Nieminen/Nalbandian : Nalle and the Shark don't have easy one sided matches and this one was no different. When I saw this draw, this one had the potential 5 setter written all over it. At the same time I felt disappointed for Jarkko as I would like to see have seen him gone further, though Nalle has a better chance in the tournament, so that's why I wanted Nalle to win.

The first set Nieminen was playing very well and hopefully he can continue to be more aggressive now, as this adds to his very good tennis brain and also his excellent defensive skills. He took it easily 6-2 and had a break at 2-0, then Nalle digs in and in their matches there is always going to be a lot of service breaks, especially as they are both good on the return, it's just when they happen that is the key.

Nalle lifts his game and starts to dominate the rallies from the back and is moving around the Shark and takes the next 2 sets quite easily and then Jarkko steps it up in the 4th set and gets the break and thinking here we go time for a 5 setter between these two and at least I can cheer for both guys which makes it easier. There was one game that had at least 15 deuces and then Nalle gets the break back and was able to break again and then serve out the match, he is ready to take this title, it's just a question of whether he can maintain it for 7 matches.

Ljubicic/ FLopez : The best thing about this match was that Ljubo gave dickhead LaLo a bagel and as a match per se it wasn't that great. LaLo served well this is true for the first two sets, but Ljubo was better all round and all he had to do was play his game and that would have been good enough to win and it was.

The best thing was the fans giving it to LaLo in the last set and he is such a pretty boy and a prick, but great to see him lose a set to love. After the match point when he went off the court, he looked at these group of fans and gave him "the son of a bitch' insult in Spanish at least twice, you look so pretty when you pout LaLo.

Mathieu/Horna : Lucho started out very well in the heat and had total control of this match, that is why this result is so surprising. He was hitting very well and keeping good length and controlling the rallies and takes a 5-2 lead with two breaks and then plays an Acasuso game and then gets broken again and ends up in a tiebreaker. It shouldn't happen in mens tennis leading with 2 breaks in a set and end up losing, but Paulo played with freedom and stepped it up and Lucho was making the errors.


After belting ball out of court, then Lucho continues in the same way as in the first set, he was dominating the rallies with the forehand and running Paulo around and then the same thing happens as in the 1st set, a combination of meathead play from Horna and Paulo going for it more, he got the break back and ended up in the tiebreaker again. In this tiebreaker Horna had a set point, but Paulo saved it. The turning point in this one was at 7 all and they were having a big rally and then Paulo hits a great dropshot and then forehand pass and wins the set.

Lucho calls for the trainer at the start of the 3rd, but if he won those 2 sets, then there would be no trainer there at all, this Paulo gets inspired and only hits 2 unforced errors in the set and runs away with the match. All in all a good tournament for Lucho, though this result is disappointing and as for Paulo he came into this tournament with nothing in the way of performances and made the 4th round at worst.

Hrbaty/Andreev: The Dominator and Andreev this one had 5 setter written all over it. Didn't get to see all of this match, but basically what it came down to is that the Dominator's superior conditoning got him over the line in the extreme heat and there were plenty of punishing rallies in this match and this told on Andreev in the end. The thing I noticed that Igor was more backhands than usual and this is a sign of tiredness as he didn't have the energy to run into the corner to hit those heavy forehands.


In the 5th set, he had a huge chance to go 5-1 up after having a break point, but couldn't convert it and then Hrbaty just focused and used his superior fitness against a tiring and wilting Andreev and was keeping Igor running around and at the end, the match point was a letdown as Dom just served one down the middle and Igor couldn't move and another fine win for Hrbaty, this is all good physical fitness training for him.

Healey/Davydenko: Plenty of pissed Aussies in the crowd gave this one a bit of atmosphere and PMK was a bit irritated with it, but he just did what he needed to do to win. Healey was trying to match it from the baseline and he had no chance of winning from there, but the question for him was whether he could get to the net on anything good and couldn't do that often enough, as for the PMK, he just keeps going on and on, he hasn't been near his best, but he is getting the job done and will be tough for Hrbaty.

Friday, January 20, 2006

Gremelmayr Rocks the Second Round

Due to some difficulties the reports have dried up, but now they will come back in full force.

The second round festivities were interesting to say the least, like anything threre was some good results and some crap ones, but this is life as we know it.

Gaudio vs Burgsmuller: Nothing really to say here, except that Gaudio should be beating people like Burgy in straight sets and it was a solid performance and that's all it was and he really needs to step it up, he has shown his talent, but at the same time with him it depends on the mood and it would great if the arseclowns of the world understand that people are wired differently.

Baghdatis vs Stepanek: This was a match that when I saw the draw thought Marcos had a huge chance of winning and it was on first and the best thing is that it was on an outside court, when it could have been easily put on the Vodafone arena at least, but it works out better as the Greek and Cypriot fans could make more noise and sit together and they were a factor in this match for sure.

Marcos started very well and was getting the forehand going and it was very warm and Radek is a very crafty player and had the dropshot going a lot of the time, even more than usual as it was a tactic to try and tire Marcos out. Marcos takes the first 2 sets with some excellent shots, but Stepanek looks quite fresh and won't go away in the heat. Then Stepanek steps the level and Marcos gets a bit lazy with the footwork as can happen when a bit tired from the heat and in the 4th set Stepanek starts stepping into the ball more and is hitting very clean from the baseline and moving to the net to finish the point well.

Come to the 5th set, this was when Marcos needed his fan group and boy did they step it up, every point they were cheering hard and managed to irritate Stepanek to an extent. Marcos gets a break and then loses it, but the standard of play is very good and one thing I have to say about Stepanek, he is of the school when the other player is at the net, drill it hard at them and there isn't anything wrong with this. It is a direct contrast to Baghdatis who is very respectful on court when it comes to that and maybe it was the stress of the situation, but there weren't many hip gyrations from the Stepanek and that was disappointing to say the least.

The Greek fans and these 2 guys that I know that were with him last year are getting very excited when he broke Stepanek and they were encouraging him so much and if it was not for them, then Marcos would have lost this match as he did have some heat stress. It is interesting to see how different people react in match situations, especially the ones watching, but when Marcos won the match, it was great, the big smile was there and went straight over to the fans and did the mini wave and both players got a standing ovation and Stepanek thanked the Greek fans who did applaud him at the end, but there were a few dickheads who tried to boo, but a good result for Marcos and it's always fun to see him play.

Gremelmayr vs Ginepri: Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, this proves what a fool Ginepri he is and if he was called a knucklehead, that would be a compliment. The only bad thing about this match was that I couldn't see it, though it was on the court next to me, this reporter chose to over the Baghdatis match.

At the same time there were some definite things about this match. One, someone who is ranked in the top 20 when leading 2 sets to love and 4-1 in the 3rd set against a qualifier should not be losing in 5 sets. It was difficult as I could see the score on the other court and could only celebrate inwardly as the Baghdatis match was on and it would be the height of absurdity to scream out and cheer while the match you are watching is going on and is at a tense moment. When the words game, set and match came Gremelmayr over the speaker, it was like jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, that piece of rubbish has been knocked out of the tournament and done in such a way that it was comical to the extreme.

Oli Rochus vs Luczak: An excellent performance from the likeable Aussie and he won a 5 setter and all the extra training proved to be worth it as it was his superior fitness against a tiring opponent and the fact he took his chances got him over the line in this one and a 3rd round showing here, has got him up to about # 115 in the rankings and just hope he can make that next step into the top 100.

Luczak was in all the sets and only lost the tiebreaks, which he has been playing a lot of them recently, but nothing against Oli at all, Luczak needed the win and hope this can be a springboard for him. He plays Haas who absolutely smashed Goldstein, which makes Nole's performance a lot worse than it was and it was a shocker.

Hrbaty v Norman: Another 5 setter for the big Hrbaty, but this is just a training run for him when it comes to fitness and in the heat he was always going to be the better player. Didn't get to see all of this match, but from what I was told from good sources that he was handling it all quite well, then he starts overhitting in the 3rd and 4th sets, plus big Dick Norman was hitting great serves and saving break points and got it to 5 sets and the Dom had the sexy shirt with the holes in it and with his small but vocal Slovak support they and his superior fitness carried him through his match and Norman put up an excellent performance, but the feeling of coming back from 2 sets down and then losing in the 5th must be pretty hollow, as it is shitty in the village level tennis that I play, magnify that as to what is at stake here and maybe the effect is minimally 50 000 times worse.

After the match Hrbaty comes down to the Heineken beer tent and buys about 16 fans drinks and he waited in line like everyone else and it was good to see the hardcore Hrbaty fans as always. Glenn the man who wears the afro wig, he has a high pain threshold if it's 15 degrees or 42 degrees he wears it and with Hrbaty matches they are minimal 3 and half hours, got to be hot in there. The family Hrbaty stays with are very nice and down to earth people and he gets looked after very well I imagine. When Miloslav Mecir used to play he stayed with the same Slovak family.

Nieminen v Wang: Just had a quick look at this one and the Shark was never in trouble here at all, he had too many guns for Wang who plays a similar game to Nieminen, except with less ability and once again he faces Nalle and I am disappointed that this is a third round match as these guys never ever have easy matches, just wished Nieminen could go further. By the way Kristen, if you are reading this Jarkko got the card and appreciated it and this comes from a very reliable source.

Simon v Berdych: Oh boy what a performance this was from Berdych. He served very poorly and is someone who needs a roof as the wind can't effect his serve. This plus the fact the footwork needs to be even better than usual in the wind and he was so upright in his shots and wasn't bending zi (the) knees at all, just contributed to a wretched performance and showed why at times he can be the Berdbrain.


Simon played very smartly and used the wind to his advantage and was totally changing his shots and accelerated through the ball at times leaving Berdych flatfooted and then later on he managed a few excellent topspin lobs over Berdych's head, but the Berdman is going to be up and down at this moment, but this was a bad loss for him in a match he should have won. I saw Jaroslav Navratil later on and he just shook his head, and at one time when Berdych was down to 32 per cent of first serves in and that will be lucky to be winning the Penguin challenger in Antarctica, let alone a second round of a Grand Slam match. There is still time for Berdych, it is not like the Mensa society who think after one match, he is a hero and then a dud.

Horna vs Phau: An excellent and outstanding performance from Lucho and clearly deserved to be in the 3rd round. He was serving well and just dominating with his forehand and wrongfooting Phau regularly and showed some of his ability and Phau didn't compete that well, the best thing about Phau was the legend Karsten Braasch was there and big Behrend as well and Katze has a lot of work to do, though it's only a short term thing.

Horna was being patient again and once he doesn't get too pissed off with himself, he has a good game and heavy forehand and will be a fun match with Mathieu. Paulo showed no form then beats that annoying prick Clement and Bogomolov. Yes, Becca Tulasne is the man, he is a different kind of cool to the Mr Deblicker, but I don't mind Thierry actually. If Mathieu wins it won't be a bad thing, just want Lucho to win though.

Tursunov v Robredo: Mad Tursunov well the erratic one blew this match, up a break in the 1st set and loses in the breaker, then wins the 2nd and plays some dumb points and gets done in the 3rd set. The first 3 sets were more on Tursunov's racquet, he is such an excellent ball striker and Boredo was just defending well, but once Boredo got the 3rd set, then he got confident and played an excellent last set, by hitting very good length and also attacking as well which is something he wasn't doing earlier, he was almost at the fence defending, but Tursunov was missing the shots. It will be interesting to see how he performs for the rest of the year, he has managed to get a coach who knows about strategy something Tursy isn' t the best on.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Horna and Chela Lay the Smackdown Tuesday report

This won't be in any particular order of the matches that were seen, but overall it wasn't a bad day.

The first match was Luis Horna and Gael Monfils. I missed the first set of this due to the usual problems with idiots at ticket collection, it's not difficult to spell my name correctly, but these idiots seem to stuff it up regularly.

Got there at the start of the second set and the Lucho was moving well and hitting some very good length on his shots and Monfils was metres behind the baseline and he really seemed a bit sluggish and Lucho is good enough to take advantage of this. It was more Lucho being the aggressor, but he was using his brains and being patient waiting for the opportunity to attack with his forehand and keeping good length with his backhand and he was moving to the net quite a lot as well on some high Monfils shots and while making a few errors he was able to make some good volleys.

After throwing away his service game at 5-4 serving for the set, they held serve and then Lucho broke Monfils to win 7-5 and if he kept his head and played the same game, he was into the next round and was good enough to do this. Monfils was trying, but Lucho was too strong and getting heaps of spin with his forehand and pinned him back and wrongfooted him a few times. Just hope he can actually think somehow and win his next match against Phau.

Juan Monaco against Lisnard, who is as bad as I remember him and he is lucky he has a competent backhand and that kept him in the match. Monaco was nervous at the start and then the wind picked up, but then he was able to show his superior skill and able to remain focused for long enough to beat this dickhead Lisnard and he had some very good support for this match and these are matches he needs to win and now plays Grosjean, he has nothing to lose in this match and just hope the team can keep him in a good frame of mind for this match.

Novak Djokovic v Goldstein: Well here is a lesson children, Christmas comes only once a year in theory and for today as Goldstein is Jewish, this is the equivalent of Hannukah. Djokovic played very poorly and Goldstein is a scrapper and did what he needed to and Nole gave away so many presents it wasn't funny, error after error was coming from his racquet and it was a poor performance in a match that he should have won, everything was on his racquet and the thing was coming from his racquet was errors. If a player wants to hit 70 unforced errors, at least be somewhere near that on the winner tally, which something he didn't do. It was more of those shake your head performance in amazement at not the amount of winners, more the amount of poor play, but Goldstein did what was necessary.

Karlovic v Dayvdenko: I didn't see this match, but from my co-reporter Sammy told me that Ivo played quite well and was able to break serve as there were no breakers in this 5 set match and Ivo's junk, high no pace slice backhand was pissing the PMK off to the extreme and him netting the ball, but Ivo dropped his guard at the start of the 5th and got broken straight away and PMK was strong enough to hold on and should do well in this tournament.

Seppi vs Tipsarevic: At the time I didn't realise this, but during the warm up Seppi had some problems with his back, but he needs to get a lot stronger to take it to the next level. This was a frustrating loss for Seppi, though this one didn't piss me off as much as the Acasuso one for some reason, maybe cause Andy was favoured to win or something.

There was a bit of needle there with Janko defending well and questioning a lot of calls and many of them with good reason and as for Seppi, it was similar to what happened to Nole. Seppi has the better game, but was pulling off the ball and making a lot of errors which is not the Seppi style and if he is doing that, then there is a huge chance he will lose. The Serbian fans were cheering loud for Janko and he fought very hard and deserved his win. I mean it's disappointing as Seppi had more chances of winning against Ferrero, but this is an improvement from 2005.

Great result by Mathieu, taking out that annoying piece of crap Clement and now he mustn't lose to Bogomolov Jr. Sammy is a huge fan of Mathieu and we saw Thierry Tulasne and Sammy told him he has high hopes for Paulo and won't give up on him and he is the man to take him up the rankings. I have to say he seems like a good guy and part of me wants a good result from him here.

Luczak is through and hope he can play out of his tree and beat Oli Rochus, he needs a breakthrough as well. Kiefer was too intelligent for the Srich and won going away. Björkman is getting better and he had a bad stomach bug, hence his shocking performance in the singles. Alberto Mancini is here and Zabaleta was watching the Monaco match.

The Bogomolov Jr/Gonzalez match well this was highly entertaining and humorous as well for a lot of reasons. I didn't get to see all this, but Feña was having some problems with his body and even served underarm at one stage, he was hitting a lot of dropshots and Bogo was fighting very hard and the Chileans made plenty of noise and were giving to Bogo.

Then in the 5th set, Bogo after winning a huge point gave it the big "come on" and Feña gave him a big glare and the crowd loved it for sure and they were getting into it. At the change of ends, Gonzo went over and had words with Bogo and Pacal Maria had to get down and step in.

Gonzo got tight and missed a forehand wide and Bogo won the match and a dejected Feña walked off and at least he waved to his fans and there was a standing ovation. After the match Alex throws his shirt in the crowd and towels. He went to the throw one in the Chilean direction and then he baulked and laughed.

Tursunov Saves the Day

As I said before if anyone wants to use any part of these reports, please ask the blogger.

Dmitry Tursunov Saved the Day

Well after the fun of qualies, it was time to get down to business and start watching some first round matches and naturally for me that meant going to see Gaston Gaudio's first match against Razvan Sabau, in reality this should not have been a difficult match, but with Gaudio one can never tell and luckily it was not a difficult match for Gaston.

This was the perfect first round for him and he played quite well, though it is hard to gauge against an opponent who is playing their first match of the year and was struggling for timing and as Joel said Sabau's backhand was quite solid, but his forehand was erratic and Gaudio was playing within himself and hit some good dropshots and showed some of his classic backhand and took the first set 6-2 and not long after Sabau called for the trainer and wasn't bothered to play really and then after the end of the second set decided he had enough for the day and helped Gaston saved some energy.

As this finished early needed something to fill in and decided to watch the grumpy Spaniard Fernando Vicente play Jan Hernych and expected a Vicente 5 set special as he seems to do in an early round on the AO. It was one set all and Vicente had a break in the 3rd and thought to myself he will get this, then he plays a sloppy game and somehow manages to get broken with a combo f stupid play and solid stuff from Hernych and then the poor mans Kucera wins a breaker and Vicente gets grumpier and goes down.

The joys of Grand Slam tennis are the draws. It seems Agustin Calleri has pissed a lot of people off in Australia. First of all he gets Berdych in Adelaide in the first round and loses a close match, then gets Davydenko in Sydney and then draws Ancic here. The common theme is that Calleri didn't play that badly in all of these matches and comes out a loser, then there is a first round match between Harel Levy and Kevin Kim which should be played Antarctica and not worthy of a first round at a Slam.

The Calleri/Ancic match was a very high standard match with more winners than errors and I didn't see all of this match, but saw enough of it, plus of course having reliable people in there as well (yes that's you Sammy), to help fill in the blanks. Ancic served well and was moving forward when he had the opportunity and Calleri was quite strong from the baseline and was hitting some good winners, not many people can hit a one hander down the line off heavy spin with one foot in the air for winners and he was doing that. Ancic took the 1st set was a good combination of aggression and defence.

Calleri in the second set didn't make as many errors and lead 5-1 at one stage, but Ancic stepped it up and it wasn't case of Calleri choking and then he got the break in the 3rd and in the 4th set, excellent rallies and Ancic changed it up and was able to come forward and finish the point, but Calleri's serving let him down and nearly every game he was down 0-40, but at 4 all he couldn't on and then Ancic held serve for the match, he just had that little bit more than Calleri and was able to serve better and while Calleri isn't the mentally toughest, he played well in an enjoyable match.

Mariano Zabaleta vs Wang: Well there isn't that much to say about this except, that it was obvious it was Zabaleta's first match of the season and his backhand was shocking in this case and I ran into an old friend of mine who was an excellent junior who played in the Orange Bowl Under 12s and is a Zab fan, but he was just shaking his head about all the errors and as for Wang, can't say much about him except he is consistent, fast and has no weapons and was easily in command and as for Mariano retiring. I don't think it was serious, maybe just a calf strain or a bad cramp and wasn't too interested in being out there. He should be able to play doubles later in the tournament.

Baghdatis v Gimelknob: Marcos was sleeping and lost his opening serve to love and there was a large Greek audience and they were giving Marcos loud support and Gimelknob was getting frustrated in the last set. Only saw parts of this match as I don't think he really needed my support to get past this guy and from what I heard thanks to Dimi, he was only at 60 per cent for the first two sets and was missing a lot of shots, then when I turned up again he decides to wake up and play some tennis and is playing quite well in the last set, the result of this was never in doubt, just like the Nieminen and Berdych matches which I didn't need to see.

Wawrinka/Montañes: Stani got off to a slow start in this, but after losing that 1st set he was able to get into some rhythm and just get through this match and was hitting them quite well at the end and he will have to lift his game to give it to Nalbandian, though Nalle went to 5, he will be better for the match.

Acasuso/Blake: What a match this was the last set is an example of why I like Chucho and how the fuck he frustrates the hell out of me at the same time.

Yes, Chucho still looks as stoned as ever and plays a crap set to lose 6-2, but Blake was serving well and then the second set is a bit closer and it was a slugfest, but at the same time it was quite a good match and there were more winners than errors and Blake was closing his eyes and hitting for him and they were going in and yes my opinion of him as a dumb player is true, then again Chucho isn't the brightest either, though he is more lazy, but Blake is the better player and wins the second set.

Come the third Chucho starts serving a bit better and cuts down on the errors and is getting into Blake's service game and is hitting great length and some very good winners from the forehand side and a few on the backhand side as well and breaks for 5-3 and serves for it and loses his break straight away, but managed to break for 6-4.
Then the fourth set Chucho has the momentum and is giving it to Blake who is getting frustrated and Chucho breaks for 4-2 and then what does he do, he decides to lose his next service game to love and this now known as Chucho, when a player breaks serve and then loses it to love. Then Blake is serving at 5-4 under the hammer from Chucho who has 2 set points and Blake saves the first one and then on the second one a nothing second serve and Chucho runs around the forehand and misses it by 3 metres long and I just shook my head and he then throws his racquet and I am thinking he can't blow any more chances, then I realised this is Chucho and he lost a lead in the breaker and loses the match. The perfect words on this day to describe the two players. Blake = fortunate and Chucho = frustrating.


Massu/Simon: Only saw the 5th set of this and Massu was up 3-1 with a break and I expected him to win and while Simon's body was going down and Massu looked like he could run for ages, it was Simon that was able to win this match and his anticipation was excellent and he played a very smart match with good touch at the net and wrongfooting shots and Massu was just seething inside and he knows that this was a huge match and he managed to blow it. Simon couldn't walk after the match and had to be helped back to the locker room by two people and his court was one of the furthest ones away from it.

Muller/Mello: This was a huge dogfight for four sets between the two lefties. Mello was just getting the ball back and Muller was making so many shocking forehand errors, just hitting everything into the net on that side and Muller was making a lot of errors, but once he got the fourth set, then it was easy.

Henman/Tursunov: This was a gimmie for Tursunov and knew that he was not going to lose this match under any circumstances, except his own stupidity. I got there at there at the 2nd set and saw that Tursunov lost the first set after having enough set points.

Sitting behind me were these annoying English fans and that made going for Tursunov so much fun and he was his erratic but talented self and managed to show his greater shotmaking abilities and when Henman was hitting mid court crap and Tursunov was creaming them, the line "that's how you treat the rubbish" came out and these yuppies didn't like it, though there were a group who decided to cheer him on who came in the 4th set and even 1-5 down, had a feeling of calmness and he played very intelligently just waited for the short ball and belted it and the half volley winner on the angle was a great shot and congrats to the big man for saving the day.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

The End of Qualifying

The end of qualies is here and now the tournament will move forward and tomorrow I can do all the annoying stuff that needs to be done and at least this blog will be up to date and that has to be something. So in the interest I decided to combine the two days into one, so there have been some disappointments and some good moments as well.

Second round of qualies was two good results and one bad result. First match was the only American I like Michael Russell playing against the Dutch guy John van Lottum who is Guillermo Cañas's best friend. When I got there he was down 4-1 in the 1st set and Russell was just making error after error and van Lottum was teeing off on the short shots and easily won the 1st set.

Once I got there, he started playing better and cutting down the errors and at one point a security was walking and wanted to sit down somewhere, but van Lottum was waiting and then yelled at him "sit down" and he was just get more and more pissed off and it was great to see. Then it became a grinding exhibition and Russell wasn't missing too much and van Lottum got tired and Mike ground out the win, it was far from pretty but effective.

Alex Bogomolov Jr and Frederic Niemeyer was the battle between the American and the Canadian and it went down to the wire and there were quite a few players watching this one from the challenger circuit and it wasn't a bad match, Niemeyer broke and served for the match and then Bogomolov broke back. Then Bogo breaks for the match and wins it 12-10 and afterwards, then Niemeyer throws his racquet at the scoreboard above and hits his name right in the middle of the above scoreboard.

I wanted to see if Prpic could beat Levy, but Harel was too tough and looks good to make the main draw. Then the great Czech with the poodle mullet Snobel won again and thankfully Peta took pics of this guy, as he really needs to be seen to be believed.

Speaking of hair the MTF favourite Chadaj lost to Benneteau in 3 sets and he had some chances in the 3rd, sad he lost, but the hair still looks good.

Koubek blew his match against former junior star Björn Rehnquist. Koubi won the first set and had a break in the second, but got very lazy with his footwork and Björn just kept running and running and defending well and pissing off Koubi. Then Koubek had a battle with the French umpire Pascal Maria and he got a warning and Koubi was going crazy, then after the match which he lost, he just sat there head in his hands and just called Maria a wanker in German and not so many other good things, he blew a huge chance to make the main draw.

Last match of the day was the feisty Austrian Oli Marach against Soeda Go from Japan. Marach wasn't at his best for the whole match, but he fought very hard against a gutsy opponent who just runs and runs and the Marach has a lot of fans, many Austrians plus other fans and not Kristen, as he is a fun player to watch and he goes a bit mad at times, especially when he gets footfaulted. He got a couple of bad calls and then comes out and says "This is the worst Australian Open ever" and then gets a warning for it, but managed to hold his nerve and won and plays another Japanese guy.

Made it to the courts early for a change and was primed to see Michael Russell get through and in the beginning it seemed he was doing fine, then he lost his way sadly and his opponent Michael Lammer was defending well and Russell seemed a bit sluggish and made a lot of errors when he wasn't pressing for any winners and that is what really killed him and he just has to keep fighting and as long as his knees can hold up, he can make some progress.

Then saw Marach beat another Japanese player Motomura and he started off very well and was hitting the ball hard and deep and went to a 5-1 lead, though he got a bit sidetracked and almost lost the set and saved break points for 5-5 and managed to win 6-4 and the second set was alot closer and the standard of play was quite good and plenty of hard fought points and it was more a question of whether Marach could hold his serve as he had a match point and couldn't take it and then it went to a breaker and was down 3-5 in the breaker, but was mentally tough and won the breaker 7-5 and pleased his fans.

The atmosphere is changing around the venue, there are more people coming and there were plenty of people practicing around. I ran into some crazy South American friends of mine and they are always good for a laugh and they quite liked Dulko, as they should and I saw sexy Sveta and of course she was good to the fans as is Petrova. Last WTA thing for now I have to say Rainer the coach and husband of Patty Schynder is a funny one. My friend was at Sydney and Patty was whining about something and he said to her "Shut up and don't be a baby" in English and she got mad again said something in German and he made fun of her in English and he just looks like not a tennis guy.

Random sightings of players training at different times were
- Zabaleta twice and he was as friendly as ever.
- Acasuso looking as stoned as usual.
- Sanguinetti his usual self.
- Volandri was his egotistic self.
- Massu was there grunting in his usual style and his brother was there again as was Gaby Markus, one for Tiff to enjoy.
- Gonzalez and de la Peña. Once Gonzo finished training, he just goes to an ATM not the first thing that comes to mind.
- Alberto Martin still looking like Matt Dillon working hard and some kid recognised him and he was an Aussie, there is hope yet.
- Hanescu was lurking around, but he is alright.
- Djokovic and crazy coach having a good time and watching all the Serbian matches, Nole was always accomodating with the fans.
- Chela was around as he trained twice and Peta commented he looks better in person.
- Monaco was working hard and having a good laugh as well.
- Vicente the warrior was around as well and he does look like Maxi Lopez and he was fine with the fans today.
- Lucho Horna was hitting them well and he got a shocking draw as he got Monfils, but with him one can never tell.
- Boris "the clay challenger" king Pashanski was there and he loves clay and Båstad and that's good.
- Peter Luczak was training in the Vodafone arena and had to walk around as the gate was locked where he wanted to go and was very cool about it, but he would be as he is a cruisy guy and needs some success this year.
- LaLo had a training session that was closed, but people could see through the holes in the gate and these South Americans were just giving him crap, then again he deserves it. It was not all about his backhand either.

Need the free day tomorrow, so I can be prepared for Monday.

Friday, January 13, 2006

Qualifying in Melbourne

Made down to Melbourne and the flight wasn't that bad, though at the start there was a bit of shaking as it took off in bad weather and there was an annoying little kid crying all the time, though the adult was worse. Once the plane takes off, and it hasn't crashed I think it's going to be alright.

Had a friend of a friend go with me today for a few hours. He wants to come to the tennis during the week and it was best to show him around when there wasn't people around and get the hang of the venue and it was the first time he saw live tennis and appreciated it and now Michael Russell has two fans.

First match was the only American that I can cheer for Michael Russell against Aldi who was seeded in this section and beat Froggy Ferrer in Palermo last year. I got there as Russell was losing and this was a claycourt match on a hardcourt and we enjoyed this of course. It's great to see Russell back on the tour, he is a friendly guy and gets on with the job and he has had so many problems with his knees and came back to tennis in September and thankfully for me, he won a challenger in Florida, so that he can play here.

There were plenty of breaks of serve in the 1st set and once Russell got the final break and served it out to hold for 5-4 and after a racquet change, he then started hitting the ball deeper and used some good angles and wore down Aldi in the end and ran through him 6-1 in the second set.

Vinciguerra is back on court and sadly he lost to Meffert, who has these big tattooes and just closes his eyes and swings and hopes for the best and it worked for him. Vinci fought hard, but he was a bit slow and needs his footspeed a lot and this match showed there is a lot to go. It's not like the WTA, where a player can come back after 3 years and start doing well. Just hope no more injuries and use this is a springboard to relaunch his career.

Adam Chadaj was awesome in his match and his afro was awesome and he might even get used to the fact he has fans. Then Koubek was on and it wasn't a good performance, he had so many break points and the guy he played wasn't much chop and if Koubi didn't beat him in straight sets, then he should have a good look at himself, luckily he didn't do that.

Filip Prpic the Croatian Swede played a very good match against oui oui Dupuis and hardly made any unforced errors and oui oui was getting pissed off and lost this match easily in the end. Ilja Bozoljac and Tabara had a huge battle that went down to 13-11 in the 3rd set and Bozo got a dead netcord on his break point and after the match Tabara went apeshit with his racquet.

Last match of the day was Oli Marach over Cecil Mamit. Marach was toying with him and hitting very well, though he doesn't like linespeople taking the piss out of them when they made a call on his footfaults and Mamit was crying like a bitch at the end of the match with an overrule that hit the line. Oli done well and really should qualify for the main draw.

Good solid day and should be fun for the next 2 days.

Last Dance in Sydney

Last day in Sydney and it was good to leave the shitty weather and the humidity, though not the sexy Swedish ice cream seller and the crazy religious midget who was actually cute in an odd way.

First of all was Arnaud Clement against Juan Monaco. This was a very winnable match for Monaco, but at the same time it could end in an annoying defeat. Sadly for myself it was the second of those two options.

Clement was being his usual dickhead self giving the ballboys crap and being a turd and in the second game of the match, he was crying like a bitch about the traffic. Court 5 is next to a motorway exist and this clown expects traffic to be quiet for him and the umpire just laughed at him, even a dickhead like Norm Chryst realised what a fool Clement was being. Next one at 2-1, he asks the umpire for some old balls and tries to hit this bird that was making noise, he is such a fool on court.

As for the match it self it wasn't bad, but a bit disappointing as Monaco was in the match and was winning the longer rallies, though he did make some bad tactical choices at times and had a very bad first serve percentage which cost him in the tiebreaker and he got down 4-0 in a hurry and wasn't able to come back from that. The annoying Clement was serving well and moving into the net and was making the most of his chances and Monaco was a bit passive and didn't impose himself on the match, but that will come with time, though he needs to win these kinds of matches.

Then went and saw Peter Luczak my favourite Aussie player and Igor Andreev. This was a very tight match and very good quality baseline play, both were trying to dominate with their forehands and were successful, with Luczak winning the first tiebreaker and then Igor winning the second. At 5-4 in the 3rd set, play was suspended as there was a huge thunderstorm impending and when they came back big Luczak had matchpoints and wasn't able to convert as Igor hit some very good serves and forehands, then it came down to the breaker and Luczak lost and that was disappointing as he needs a big breakthrough soon.

Before I had to leave there was the Calleri vs Davydenko match, which had potential to be a good one, though they had to do some court maintenance as part of it came apart and that's not a good look. Missed the Seppi match as that was moved inside and it was good to see him win a match in straight sets for a change, makes a difference when it can be done easier

Sydney 1st Round

At the start of the day I was divided between two matches, so it worked out well in the end, as I decided to watch Juan Monaco and Fernando Verdasco, it was a smaller court and easier to get a seat, while my friend watched the Igor Andreev and Richard Gasquet match. This worked out very well and both results went the right way.

Monaco played very well in his match, he served well and his service action has changed a bit, so it's going to take time for the benefits to be seen. The good thing about this match was while Verdasco seemed to be a bit flat, it was very warm or might have had something wrong with him. Monaco was able to keep the rallies long and moved his opponent around well and moved forward into the net when the opportunity arose and this with a combination of Verdasco's errors contributed to a clear and easy victory.

On the other court I managed to see the last part of the Andreev/Gasquet match and Igor was handling him quite easily. At the start of the match Igor was just getting such kick of his serve and was moving it around and it threw out Gasquet's timing and then dominating with his forehand and Richey looked lost. Then as soon as I got there, Igor then broke back to level it and then broke again and served for the match and took it easily. It was a good win for Andreev and he will definitely play his 39 tournaments a year.

Then went to watch my favourite Aussie Peter Luczak play against Malisse. Luczak lost in Adelaide, but was able to turn the tide here and was hitting some very good length and he battled well in the heat, the thing with Malisse even when he is winning, he looks very disinterested in what's going on until a linesperson pisses him off. There were plenty of rumours going around that he was going to default this match or pull out, but he played it and fair play to Luczak for getting the job done, it will be tough for him against Andreev.

Back onto court 3 which is good as there is shade from the tents on one side of the court and that makes it more pleasurable to watch the matches. It was Seppi time yet again and he go to play "The Flea" Vliegen who just came from Chennai. It wasn't the greatest match and someone had hopes for this being a straight sets win and it should have been. Seppi was controlling the match and won the 1st set easily enough, there were a few breaks in the second set, then it got to a tiebreaker and Seppi made some sloppy errors in the breaker and lost it easily. Luckily Seppi woke up and took his chances in the 3rd set and the Flea was getting more irritable and the combination of jetlag and the heat got to him and Seppi drove him his advantage and he loves the 3 setters, he should match tough by now.

Saw the 1st set of Blake and Sanguinetti and that was a fun set of tennis. The wily Sanguinetti used to be a big fan of Miloslav Mecir and for that alone he has gone up in my estimations. Davide plays an old fashioned game and the contrast with Blake is stark. I mean Blake is one of the dumbest tennis players on the ATP in a tennis and not an intellectual sense, he just hits the ball without any thought and runs well. Blake was just hitting forehand after forehand and the old fox was just getting them back deep and frustrating the hell out of him.

Sanguinetti was serving for the set at 5-3, but lost his serve and then got into the tiebreaker and got a dud call and went over the linesman who had sunglasses on and it was a bit dark and grabbed them and made fun of the eyesight, there are always some form of shenaningans when he is on court.

Berdych and Davydenko. It seems the PMK is a bit of a bogeyman for him, though initially it didn't seem the case. Berdych was playing very well, hitting hard and deep and using good angles and he got a break at 5-3 and was serving for the set and then showed his Berdbrain tendencies and threw it away with a poor game and then he had a set point on PMK's serve and then blew that and went to the tiebreaker and PMK was solid, but Berdych was making silly errors. The last set continued along those lines, it was solid play from PMK and elementary errors from Berdych.

One of the funny things from this match was the bugs and moths that come from the floodlights, these were really bothering Berdych and he let himself get distracted against a opponent that is difficult to beat. This is the third time that Berdych has had the advantage over PMK and managed to blow it, he did it in Rotterdam and in Montreal, just hope he is ready for a big AO campaign.

Last day in Sydney and 1st round of the AO qualies coming later today.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Main Draw Day 1 in Sydney Town

Today, was a quiet day in respect to matches being watched and ended up seeing more training matches, though in between there were some interesting moments and there was a sexy older Swedish women there, who knows I like chocolate ice cream and it was rather funny having a convo with her and also it is a sad indication of Swedish tennis that they have more players in the qualifying than in the main draw of the Australian Open.

The weather decided to play up and be very irritating, it started out rainy and cloudy, then cleared up and it kept changing every 5 minutes, the constant was that it was very humid and humidity is something that I find irritating. The rain ended up working quite well to our advantage as we got there a bit late, and it didn't effect the matches I wanted to see.

Calleri vs Mathieu: Luckily for myself I had someone there who could report on the first three games and Calleri was playing well and had 2 breaks and was hitting some good strokes. Then as soon as I turn up to watch then he starts making errors and loses his break of serve, which was more his mistakes than good play from Mathieu. Calleri takes the first set and he even hit a winning dropshot and as Mathieu kept dropping the ball short and Calleri was punishing the short balls effectively.

Calleri breaks in the opening game and he showed some very court speed for the big man and that was a pleasant sight to see and they must have been doing some good off season work on this aspect. There were two very memorable points which were a combination of defence and attack. Mathieu was dominating the point and then hits a hard forehand down the line and Calleri is 3 metres behind the baseline and rifles the ball at the net and Mathieu digs a shoelace volley out and it ends in the forehand corner and Calleri has to recover from being against the fence, and then runs the forehand down and whips it crosscourt for a winner.

The set continued on a similar pattern with Mathieu behind the baseline and not being that aggressive and Calleri punishing the short balls and then losing his break of serve through some inconsistent play. Calleri then broke serve for 4-3 with an excellent backhand down the line off a big kick serve. It was a very good performance from Calleri and he managed to move forward quite well and frustrated Mathieu with a mixture of power shots and good changes of pace and a very solid performance, he would only lose this match if he was stupid.

It was a big break to the next matches, so it was just a case of walking around and seeing who was about. The practice guru Andreev was about of course and only saw him twice, then there was Hanescu and Sanguinetti who had matches later in the day. Koubek was training with ToJo and Koubi has a new fan in Kristen who appreciates his down to earth manner and there didn't seem to be a problem with ToJo, though later he has decided to withdraw from the tournament.

Verdasco, Gasquet, Deblicker, Grosjean some of the WTA players, Llodra and the MTF favourite Chadaj were all around at some point. Berdych was there with Boredo and seeing the two together is an interesting sight as Boredo looks like he is hitting hard, whereas Berdych is hitting the ball very easily and smoothly and definitely travels at a greater pace.

There was one thing as Seppi was finishing training and had his trainer with him, who has these two very nice kids and are very energetic. She was making sure he wasn't too stiff and doing all these exercises and I was talking to this person and then all of a sudden, Seppi lets rip with this almighty anguish and I almost choked on the apple I was eating and the person I was talking to is about 1,5m and she ended up being almost 20cm higher than before.

Decided to check out the Hanescu vs Karlovic match for a while and big Ivo showed that playing qualies is a real advantage and saw the end of the first set which was 9-7 in the breaker to Karlovic, then somehow Hanescu broke serve and won the 2nd set, then went for a walk around and saw big Vicente training and he does look like the Argentine footballer Maxi Lopez. Came back and then saw big Ivo broke and then he held onto his serve and won the match and saw a forehand winner in the flesh and seeing him in person, he is such a giant and he was very popular with the fans after the match and not just the Croat ones either.

Went back down to where Vicente was training with Garcia-Lopez and then saw Monaco was walking towards the other court and thought this is OK, he must be getting in some more practice and then it was later that it was found out that he got the Lucky Loser spot as ToJo withdrew and the coach of Monaco needs a bit of a tan, then again they can't all look like Deblicker or Pablo Martin, Calleri's trainer.

While waiting for them to get warmed up, there were a group of Italians around with the big tennis balls for autographs and one guy came up to me and asked me who they were. I realised he asked in Italian and told them who they were and among the sign language, somehow I managed with my 3 words of Spanish to work out he was Italian and then told him about the Sanguinetti match with Blake. It was quite strange, he'd ask me a question in Italian and then I'd answer it in English and got it, though my accent was a bit funny for him. It was a funny moment, but he worked who was who and the players were good and I figured he was visiting from Italy, as a few of the group lived here in Australia and we ended up having a conversation about fishing and football. It worked well as it killed time before the Sanguinetti and Blake match.

Sanguinetti vs Blake: This was a good contrast and the old Sanguinetti, he might be a cantankerous bastard on court and yes I know there was a certain blogger who has heckled him in the past, but it was fun watching him play Blake. Sure Blake is intellectually very bright, but on a tennis court, he is a bit simple and just hits hard with no thought process whereas Sanguinetti still has a continental grip and doesn't hit the ball hard and he uses the opponents pace .

Sanguinetti had a break and was frustrating the hell out of Blake in the early stages, he was leading 5-4 with the break and serving for the set and then he made some errors and Blake broke back and the old Sanguinetti antics were in force, angry with himself and the stereotypical Italian gestures and then the linesman made an average call and there wasn't much sun and this guy had sunglasses and Sanguinetti took them off him and cleaned them. Blake managed to get through in the breaker and was able to hold his game for long enough to make it through to the next round.

Just wandering around and saw Monaco training and he was close to finishing and from what I see, he is a very pleasant and likeable individual and personally this is someone I would like to see succeed in the game and he needs to get his confidence up and some more self-belief, and the whole get fitter and stronger and he has a good game and with the right training could make top 20. If a clown like Ginepri can make it, then it has to show players with some ability what can be done.

It's a win-win situation for him as he gets more matches on Rebound Ace and is in the situation where he has nothing to lose against Verdasco, who is as unpredictable as they come and I will be at that match at some point in the day tomorrow.

Tuesday is a good day tennis wise and will be the last one in Sydney going to the tennis, then the circus will begin again on Thursday.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Qualies Part 2 and 3

The second round of qualies began with the funny but grumpy Fernando Vicente playing Simon Greul of Germany. I didn't see this match in great detail and only saw parts of it, but it was enough to see Greul who hits the ball hard, but is just a ball basher in reality and it was giving Vicente the shits and he couldn't keep his length at all and Greul was taking advantage of the short balls and handed a Vicente a clear defeat.

Later in the day Stefan Koubek played Arnaud Clement and these two have played a few times, but Clement has been in Australia for longer and over any jetlag, though this match was a toss up and it was a close one and had some very good shots. Koubi started very well with a 4-0 lead in the 1st set, then he started to lapse mentally and was missing too many first serves and Clement was getting some rhythm, but Stefan was good enough to take the first set.

The little annoying midget lifts his game and is hitting the ball well and Koubi was struggling with his movement and even though Clement was getting the better of the exchanges, he was definitely going past the 20 secs between points and his treatment of the ballkids is shocking. I mean he is like Agassi with them, didn't like the way the ball was thrown to him, abusing them for not being in position, this arsehole suffers from short person syndrome in a big way.

Third set begins and there are many deuce games and they exchange breaks, there were some very good points and Koubi hits an excellent running one backhand crosscourt winner. The theme was pretty similar in that Koubi was hitting and moving the ball very well, but he didn't hit behind Clement enough and failed to follow the basic rule in converting break chances and the annoying midget with SPS syndrome to his credit was excellent in this field and was able to get the match, as Koubi was struggling with his footwork and made many errors while he was on top. Clement what a guy, changing his shirt so many times, thinking he is so great and his excellent treatment of ballkids have made a fan for life.

Juan Monaco played Cippola an Italian guy, who contributed to one of the funnier moments of the day. Marcos Daniel lost 7-5 in the 3rd against him and really should have won the match, then as he was walking off with Behrend after the match, he walks over to the bin and just kicks it and then tries to belt the gate, but the gate is locked in and won't move, still funny. Monaco had a lapse in the second set and the weather changed and got warmer, but once he woke up, he just showed his class and won the last 6-1.

Andreas Seppi played the late match against Canadian Frank Dancevic, who has a good serve and a good afro and is a feisty guy who doesn't mind talking to the officials about their job and how well they are not doing it. Seppi was his steady self initially and won the 1st set and then things were going along well in the 2nd on serve, then he decides to serve like crap and Dancevic with some good play takes the 2nd set, but all this meant was that Seppi was going to win in 3 sets as I didn't see a way he would lose this match, though Behrend shouldn't have lost to Kadir in theory. Seppi steadied himself and managed to play well enough to win the last set easily.

The only match on Sunday I saw was the match between Seppi and Monaco, why is it out of 3 guys that I want to qualify in the tournament that 2 have to play each other. Clement and Vinny Ice are playing local guys, but such is life and at least they are going to play in the Aus Open main draw.

Missed the 1st set of this match, but from one of the guys I know who was there that Monaco was hitting some good length and Seppi was making a lot of errors. Got there in the 2nd set and then Seppi reversed it with a 6-2 win and there were some very good rallies. In the 3rd set Monaco got an early break and lead 3-1 at one stage, then after playing some very good claycourt points with good angles and excellent construction of points Seppi broke back and then the match was at 4-3 with Seppi getting a break and despite of Monaco's best efforts and some short second serving he managed to hold onto win. So in 2 days of tennis, he has played 9 sets, so he could be deemed as match tough.

As for the random moments as this blogger doesn't watch WTA matches, so there were some good sighting opportunities.
- Calleri was training with Melzer on day 1 and his coach Pablo Martin does as little as possible it seems.
- Hanescu was lurking around and had to congratulate him for his performance in the Zabaleta show.
- Chela has been walking around, but have missed his sessions, though it's impossible to miss Igor Andreev, the guy just loves playing tennis, he had 3 sessions today, the first one with Mathieu, then he had one with Verdasco and the other one I forgot who it was with.
- Gasquet was around training his serves and volleys with Deblicker who is a funny guy and is so enthusiastic.
- The challenger king Boris Pashanski was training with the great Polish hope and afro otherwise known as Adam Chadaj and the afro is still there and he needs to qualify for the AO, come into a larger stage for his mercurial talents.
- Berdych was there and he was quite relaxed and his coach does look like Patrick Duffy according to a friend of mine and yes Peta you are right.

Tomorrow I am going to see Calleri beat Mathieu, though it seems most of the mens matches are on Tuesday, I will be there as well and the silly reports will continue.

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Viva Sydney

This report or any partial shall not appear on any other forum or website without the consent of the blogger.

Well today decided to go to Sydney and check out some of this event, even though I was more interested in what is happening in Auckland, then again this blogger's aversion to WTA is very well known.

The weather was a bit up and down, but managed to see plenty of matches unlike tomorrow, which will consist of maybe one match and the rest training.

The qualies here have 2 rounds played on the same day, then the qualifying round tomorrow which is annoying, but it's the same for all players and they have to finish the tournament on a Saturday and then down to the big one.

First match I saw was Fernando Vicente beat Dick Norman, it wasn't a great match, though Vicente's antics were quite funny and was showing his skill as a footballer, at times he was getting a bit gnarly with the ball kids, though not to the level of Arnaud Clement and he is a repeat offender.

When Vicente played this match, the conditions were windy and overcast and Vicente won the first set with some good play and was able to keep Norman pinned on the baseline, then the second set he started to lose the length of his shots and was becoming increasingly pissed off and threw his racquet against the ad signs between the linesman and the ballkids and got a warning for it. He got back on track in the 3rd set and was able to do what he was doing in the 1st set and Norman was getting pissed off with the conditions. I saw one of the ballkids who did that match and Vicente won't be winning any prizes from them.


After that I went and saw the German Brazilian Tomas Behrend playing against a young Aussie Sadik Kadir and at the start of the match Behrend was absolutely woeful and that grunt is a wonderful thing, so long and he doesn't hit the ball as hard as he grunts, he just kept making errors and errors and Kadir who is a short guy, who moves well, but is not the most powerful was just consistent and getting the ball back and letting Behrend make the mistakes, which he did with great skill and managed to lose 6-2 6-4. On this performance it is easy to see why Behrend doesn't win many matches off the clay, though his shots aren't bad, but he should not be losing a match like this.

Stefan Koubek played his first match of the year and he was hitting the ball quite well considering he only arrived on Wednesday from Vienna. He seems to have done some good off court training and is fit and for those who care and others who don't, big Koubi had the navel ring and happening and this excited one particular fan in a very good way. His opponent Stakhovsky has some good potential, but didn't handle the conditions very well and in the second set he took a 3-0 lead, but Koubek woke up and took the next 6 games for a convincing win.

Juan Monaco played Ramon Delgado on the court next to Koubek and that was good for convenience reasons alone and didn't see all of this match, but the parts that were seen, it was Monaco who was moving well and hitting good length and moving forward to the net and making most of the volleys and he was too classy for Delgado.

Last match of the first round was Andreas Seppi against Justin Gimelclown and yes Gimelknob does have very skinny legs. This was a bit rough for Seppi, he makes the quarter finals in Adelaide and gets killed in 48 minutes against Malisse, then has to back up and play 2 matches in a day the next day. In the first set he was struggling and Gimelstob took it, then came back halfway through the second set and Seppi was moving his feet better and keeping better length and took the second set. The last set was pretty ugly tennis, though Seppi hit some good shots and Gimelclown was attacking the net when he could, but Seppi was too good in the end.