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.