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.