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.