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.