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.