Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Crazy Dani Koellerer Disqualified in the Fun and Sun in Acapulco with Michelle

















Crazy Dani Disqualified in the fun and sun in Acapulco

This is where the first of my guest bloggers has a platform to promote their experiences at the tennis and hopefully they take advantage of this. If they know how to load pictures then I’d be very happy as well.

This will be a brief overview of what has happened so far at the tournament. The highlight so far was in the qualies. The guy I like to call the “Psychotic Clown” or he is also known as “Crazy Dani” Daniel Koellerer was disqualified from the last round of the qualifications in his match against the animated Spaniard Nico Almagro and they met last week in qualies and this had potential to get fiery.

At 3-5 15-30, from what reports say it was a disputed call in favour of Almagro, who then made a gesture towards Koellerer. Dani who has been known to pull every dirty trick possible got pissed off and then calls Almagro “a son of a bitch” in Spanish, so Almagro could hear him and then the umpire decided to default the nutcase and it was match to Almagro.

Dani isn’t the most popular guy around and there is a petition to kick him out of the tour. I think that’s a bit far, but the guy is entertaining in a car crash way and I am shattered that he didn’t play down here. What they do with him after this incident will be interesting.

Onto 1st round matches so far completed. Gaudio won in straight sets over the 2000 Hamburg champion and fan of the movie Titanic Albert Portas and that fact alone makes me suspicious about him. He played last week when he shouldn’t have and only hope he can get through without too many problems with his shoulder.

Buenos Aires and Acapulco king Moya had a 3 setter against Gallardo Valles and won 7-5 in the 3rd Moya must have been having a lot of fun at the beach or at the parties and not focused on the job, but he showed his extra pedigree and got through the match.

Other matches well the big Brazilian Tomas Behrend won a match and good for him, got to love the huge eyebrows and he is multilingual as well. I think he only plays for Germany as it was better for him financially, but he will be the big Brazilian to me. Just the hope the 3rd greatest German player of all time Karsten Braasch is doing some work with him like he was in Australia.

Starace lost to Sabau, maybe the heat was a factor or he was distracted. Daniel won a match and maybe he can have another meeting with Massu who plays Berlocq and the winner plays Daniel in the next round.

Hope to hear from our special correspondent soon.

Not Enough Appearance Money Dubai and Viva Las Vegas

Not Enough Appearance Money Dubai and Viva Las Vegas Tournament and Discussion

Apologies for starting late on this entry, had some things that I needed to do and as for Acapulco that will have a separate thread as we have the wonderful Michelle who is there at the moment having fun and have offered her to write about her experiences.

Onto Dubai what a surprise that Agassi has managed to make it to Dubai after all the injury problem. It would be cynical to say that the ball park figure of $ 500 000 appearance money wasn’t a factor.

The results well after a very close first set which Agassi won in a tiebreaker then he wiped the floor with Rusedski 6-0 in the last set and it seems for his large fee, he actually takes this tournament seriously, especially now there is one in his hometown that he forego cause of the therapeutic qualities of Dubai, he knows plays the winner of Phau and Galimberti.

Tim Henman with a crook back in all was still good for the prancing showpony known as Feliciano Lopez in straight sets. While I am far from a Henman fan, I don’t like seeing players struggling with injuries, but it showed he still had more than enough class for LaLo, who is going through a bad patch at the moment and if he doesn’t improve soon, he is heading south rather quickly.

Rainer Schüttler won a match for the first time in a long time against David Ferrer in 3 sets and even after having two breaks in the 3rd set, there was a chance he could throw it away. Ferrer who hasn’t been in much form at the moment either after his strong Aus Open showing and will need to get it together soon.

Blogger favourite Andy Seppi lost another close match as he has done a few times recently. He lost a tight 3 setter to Djokovic last week in Rotterdam and this week he lost to nemesis Igor Andreev in 3 sets again 7-6 (5) 1-6 6-4. That is a tough loss for him and maybe Seppi needs to develop a slice backhand and make Andreev hit low balls with that extreme grip he has.

Onto Viva Las Vegas a place that even by the standards of the tennis world would be called tacky. The big Russian Yevgeni Kafelnikov must be disappointed that there wasn’t a tournament in Las Vegas when he was playing. The question in this case is whether he would have spent more time at the casino or the training courts.

Not as many matches but little Lleyton Hewitt struggled to win in 3 sets over the geeky German Florian Mayer. I wonder if he will win the tournament this week as it’s not a strong field and Tommy Haas who was his section and has seemed to taken over the mantle of cleaning up in the American smaller tournaments away from Roddick, has pulled out of Vegas with a shoulder problem.

Other results were Jonas Björkman beating Monfils in straight sets and I look forward to seeing the sort of year Monfils has after his impact in 2005, he will be marked for sure and whatever happens will happen.

Phillip Kohlschreiber who hits a good ball, but not much in the tactical sense managed to beat the eternally frustrating Fernando Verdasco, this guy has a lot of talent, but he is more erratic than a Scandinavian summer and one can marvel at how many ways he can lose a match.

Hope for some good results in the week and any talk about these tournaments just use the comments section on this particular post.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Brazil, Rotterdam and Memphis Tournaments

This is my first attempt at this. So after this post, it would be appreciated that all comments relating to any of tournaments kept in the comments thread and hopefully it can engage in a good discussion.

First of all congratulations to Arnaud Clement, Carlos Moya and the young Scot Andy Murray for winning their respective tournaments and especially for Murray as it's his first ever tournament win and won't be his last and now onto the this weeks tournaments.

Costa do Sauipe in Brazil is the first place that will be previewed. Carlos Moya has decided to miss this tournament after his win in Buenos Aires and he is probably still partying on the beach or still going in the clubs and that's not a bad thing.

Defending champion Nadal is not back in the sun of Brazil this year and Gaston Gaudio is the number 1 seed here after his compatriots Nalle and Coria withdrew from the tournament and among the other withdrawals are the form horse Acasuso who needed a break to refresh his batteries after playing a lot of tennis recently and Calleri who has had some problems in Brazil before, but seemed to have some problems with his groin in the Volandri match, though his brain probaly cramped as well.

Hopefully this tournament sees a successful return of Gustavo Kuerten the greatest player ever to come out of Brazil and arguably South America, he has had two false starts so far pulling out of Vina del Mar and Buenos Aires. I just hope he can return to the tour and it would be great for the Brazilian people to be able to see him again. He has drawn a local wildcard and has a good opportunity to make the second round.

The draw isn't lopsided clearly as one side isn't any stronger than the other. Gaudio who didn't play in Buenos Aires cause of a financial dispute loses his points from last year, but with a win here he'd get them back and has drawn a qualifier. Just hope for him the qualifier isn't the young talent from Argentina Juan Martin del Potro who has a very big future ahead of him and is only 17 and is doing well at the moment.

For Gaston there is a potential second round match with his closest friend on tour Mariano Zabaleta who have known each other since they were kids and Zabaleta was part of the generation that the Argentine federation didn't think would amount to match. Mariano has had the gastro virus which forced him out of Buenos Aires and he has had a lot of bad luck recently with injuries after coming into form last year during Monte Carlo and the second half of the year besides Kizbuhel was disappointing for him. He has a winnable match against Sabau and hopefully he can get back on track in his career.

Other matches in the 1st round that are of interest to myself though maybe not to others.

Behrend vs Pashanski : The big Brazilian playing for Germany is in his hometown against the Serbian challenger king Pashanski. Both of these guys lost to Volandri last week and Behrend was up a set and 3-0 in the second with 2 breaks and managed to find a way to lose this match, whereas Pashanski repeated his quarter final performance last week and lost handily to Volandri. This one could be close and would fancy either to beat Cheech Marin or Mello Yellow.

Horna vs Martin: As per usual there are usually matches where a fan likes both players and would like them both to progress, but that won't happen. At the same time there tends be a whole collection of shit players or players that piss you off all grouped together.

Beto has just come back to tennis after the sudden death of his mother and there could be a period of inconsistency with his tennis as he comes to terms with the death. Lucho on the other hand is inconsistent and should be ranked better than he is, but he is so up and down, a good performance in Australia followed by a donkey performance in Chile and he needs some good results as they both do. The last time they met on clay Beto lost only 4 games.

Saretta vs Ferrero and Massu vs Daniel Part 3: Now this is time for revenge Flavio as he is now the hometown boy and maybe he might learn something from the 3 set loss last time, but it's not an easy match up for him it seems. Hopefully Oncins has done some work with Flavio and got him to work a bit harder than before.

Nico Massu and Marcos Daniel are meeting for the 3rd week in a row and in Acapulco lets make it 4. This time Daniel will have the Brazilian public behind him and he might lift to a victory over Massu, but I think Massu's extra class will get him over the line again. El Vampiro (The Vampire) is a player who needs a lot of matches to get back into form and could do very well in the bottom half of the draw.

Vicente is against Berlocq, all I can say is vinga Vicente here is a chance for a win in the main draw. Well since the warrior Felix Mantilla is still injured, it's up to Vicente to provide me with entertainment and maybe pull off the odd good result, though he doesn't win 2 in a row very often these days.

Nicolas Almagro vs Dani Koellerer: Normally a qualifying match wouldn't get a write up, but this one has good potential for some funny shenanigans. Nico Almagro as some have called him is a poor mans "Fernando Gonzalez". He does have a lot of talent and shotmaking ability, but at the same time he can play some classic meathead tennis and loses some very poor matches.

Koellerer is one guy if you get an opportunity to see play, then do it. This guy is one of the most hated players on the circuit and is always getting fined and having sponsors paying the fines for him. The guy does everything bullies ball kids, throws his racquet, taunts the officials with regularity and he heckles his opponents as well. I mean he got punched by Luzzi another idiot and that has to say something about him. He is a bit like a bad car crash, in the way it's not best to look at it, but one can't help it. He is so bad they are trying to kick him off the tour, though that is a bit drastic. A straitjacket fit could be an option.

The rest of qualifiers left have some interesting names. Albert Portas the bolter that won Hamburg as a qualifier and nothing else since is famous for his drop shots and the fact he likes the movie "Titanic". It's always a worry if a man likes Titanic and he plays del Potro, so hope the youngster is up for the challenge.


Rotterdam

This is usually one of the strongest events outside of the Slams and the Masters event, but this time around the tournament has been hit with a huge amount of withdrawals and it's not good for Richard Krajicek the tournament director who has done a good job with the tournament.

It's time for some fans as a tennis friend Emilita calls them not to be one dimensional tennis fans or the other term "star fuckers". Just cause some stars aren't playing doesn't mean the tournament will be shit. More people need to use some initiative and watch the game and it's very enjoyable to see players before they become stars.

This is the list of players that have pulled out Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Richard Gasquet, Ivan Ljubicic Dominik Hrbaty, Gael Monfils, Marat Safin, Peter Wessels, Martin Verkerk, Sjeng Schalken, Sebastian Grosjean and Marcos Baghdatis. That is a very extensive list and it would be expected more at the end of the season than the start, but among the injuries and the tiredness this week. There will be a remarkable recovery by Dubai with all the $$$ on offer there and also it's a better preparation for the hardcourt events in Indian Wells and Miami.

As for the tournament itself, it is very open now with all the withdrawals and both Federer and Ljubicic the winner and finalist aren't playing. It's never easy predicting what the immensly talented young Czech Tomas Berdych will do. In theory he should be able to waltz through this section of ther draw, but he could lose just as easily as well. Indoors is the best for his game, as the elements like the sun and wind are taken away, but he does have some issues with consistency not everyone can be super consistent like Nadal.

Also in the top half of the draw is the Marseille finalist Mario Ancic. He will play well when it doesn't count and he is playing the blogger favourite Nieminen who apart from his Stockholm final years ago has not done well indoors. This is probably the best match of the top half in the first round and there are some players like Dent and Melzer who are struggling at the moment, but can have a good run from nowhere, then there is Srichaphan one of the maestros of brainless hitting, but looks good when it goes in.

The bottom half looks stronger and has some intriguing first round matches in this section. The all French battle between Paul Henri Mathieu and Fabrice Santoro, this one I think will be ugly with Santoro winning as it seems Paulo apart from choking has problems playing his fellow countrymen and Fabrice has shown some good form in singles and will be looking to take some positives from losing a tough matches against Clement in Marseille.

Henman and Thomas Johansson a first round match seems a bit rude especially with some of what's on offer as first round matches and as the saying goes it's the luck of the draw. I hope Henman's back is getting better and although far from a fan, it's not good to see players that are injured irrespective of what ranking. Henman gets a hard time from the British press, in reality he has done as well as he could with the game he has and the ludicrous pressure that he is under to win Wimbledon.

Blogger favourite Andreas Seppi is up against Nole Djokovic in the first round and as much as I would like Seppi to win, it would not be a surprise if he doesn't manage to do so as playing indoors is not his strength, but Djokovic has a lot of talent and has not played too much which is a good thing.

Well this is not the field that they expected in Rotterdam, but there will be some good tennis played there for sure, just too many people have narrow visions when it comes to tennis.


Memphis

The home of Elvis Presley and usually the weakest of the ISG events, which for those who don't know are the level of events in between the The Masters Events and the IS events. For once the field in Memphis is reasonable and compares favourably with Rotterdam this time around.

Big Dane Kenneth Carlsen is the defending titleholder in this event and interestingly is the only one of the three titleholders that is back trying to defend their title and in a twist Max Mirnyi the man he beat in the final is a possible second round opponent.

American Mickey Mouse title king Andy Roddick needs a tournament win and this is the environment where he thrives winning smaller tournaments in the US where the competition isn't as strong as other events, in recent times this has not been as fruitful as before, but he is not a player to be written off. He plays his best friend and bitch Mardy Fish in the 1st round, who is coming back from injuries and shouldn't be a serious test for the Duck. Wayne Arthurs is a potential danger if he serves well, what I am saying that is Arthurs game the serve, the only difference between he and Roddick is that Roddick has a very good hardcourt forehand.

Also in the top half Ginepri vs Tursunov match could be interesting as Ginepri or as he is known to some people Gineprick hasn't been in form and Tursunov is hilariously erratic and achieved the notable feat of losing serve to Arthurs 4 times in a 3 set match, something not to be proud of. As long as big Dim can get through the year injury free that will be a bonus and just hope both of these players don't have a bad day, as it could get very ugly, though not as ugly as the WTA.

There are some players here who need to get on track like Pavel who can't seem to string 2 wins together at the moment and Luczak who has got in the draw as a Lucky Loser and plays Carlsen, it will be difficult for Peter as he is not at his best on this surface, but at the same time it's a winnable match for him.

Bjørkman and Kiefer should be a close match as they have played 11 times and Kiefer leads 6-5 and he leads 5-3 on the hardcourts. Jonas has saved his singles career with that win in Vietnam last year and maybe he can play for a few more years in singles, it would be good to see Jonas to continue for a little while.

The winner will play the winner of Murray and Schuettler and that looks like Murray at the moment. He is in the great position of nothing to defend in the way of points until Wimbledon and he has the capabilities of going quite high in the rankings in a short time, doesn't necessarily mean that it will be a good thing and the only reason he is succeeded so far was cause he was in Spain and not in the UK for his important development years.



Friday, February 17, 2006

Blog Update

It's ok I have not forgot about the blog at all, just trying to find the right way to do this that is suitable to myself.

Here is what I plan to do as I can't be bothered writing something every day especially in normal tournament weeks. The plan will be to do the tournament previews at the start of the week and then keep adding updates from matches in the comments section. It is mainly to save time and also since people are from different parts of the world, then they can describe matches from the respective tournament that the rest of us have not seen, which personally I think will be good.

At the same time I have some interviews and articles that need translating and they will definitely have seperate entries for those. Some of them are older than others, but they still should be worth reading and for the other events like the Slams or TMS events, well the good thing about TMS events is that there aren't any womens matches that I have to watch.

Any suggestions would be welcomed.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Davis Cup: Germany vs France and Netherlands vs Russia

Germany vs France

This tie has been racked by internal problems from French between Captain Guy Forget and Fabrice Santoro. These two have had a history of pissing each other off and it continues here with Forget not selecting Santoro for the team and using a lame excuse to justify it.

What happened was that Santoro on the Saturday just gone was to play an exhibition against Nadal and then come back on the night, but that was not good enough for Forget. In this case Forget decided he was out of the team and tried to paint Santoro as a total mercenary and then the rest of the team turned on him and made some not so nice comments.

The interesting thing is that somehow Arnaud Clement made the team and it is a mystery as to how he did. There could be a few reasons. These include he is good in bed, he plays the lackey role and unlike Santoro doesn’t express his own views. It must be a contract stipulation that Clement must clean Forget’s boots and wipe his arse and if he does that then he is selected.


Here it is Santoro is in form and one of the best doubles players going around and it’s not a beauty or popularity contest, they are there to win and should pick the best side.

The Germans will be tough as Kiefer and Haas are in excellent form and are comfortable on Rebound Ace as the French are, but as much as Kiefer and Haas aren’t the best of friends, they are professional enough to play together and German captain Patrick Kuhnen isn’t trying to be the big star and just is doing what he needs to help his team win.

Grosjean vs Kiefer the rematch of the quarter final in Melbourne, well there should be an edge to this match as there isn’t a lot of love there and Kiefer won’t get away with those antics like he did in Melbourne a tough one.

Haas and Gasquet, well one is in good form and that would be Haas against the greatly hyped Gasquet, will be interesting to see whether Gasquet can turn around his slump. It would be good if Germans won, mainly to get Forget sacked and maybe learn a few lessons.


Netherlands vs Russia:

If the Dutch had Sjeng Schalken and Martin Verkerk available to play along with Sluiter, then this would be a very close tie to call.

The Russians have greater overall depth and are giving blogger favourite Dmitry Tursunov a run in the singles and Andreev is only playing doubles as the PMK is the main player now while Safin is out injured.

This one should be quite an easy win for the Russians, anything else would be a surprise, but surprises happen in Davis Cup.

Davis Cup : Belarus vs Spain and Switzerland vs Australia

Belarus vs Spain:

On pedigree Spain should win this tie, but these ties aren’t won on pedigree. This one will be a very tough one for the Spanish to win.

Max Mirnyi the number 1 for Belarus is one of those players who plays very well for his country and two this surface is going to be like playing on a ice rink and it might be a carpet court in theory, but the combination of the big serving “Beast” and lightning quick conditions give an advantage to Belarus.

Spain are missing Rafael Nadal and Juan Carlos Ferrero, through various reasons. Nadal has been injured for a while and it wouldn’t be a wise choice to select him for Davis Cup after not playing since October and as for Ferrero, well he asked to be excused so he can chase the cash in South America and try and get his career back on track, but I doubt he will be back to his former days.

The team they have is Tommy Boredo and David Ferrer and Robredo starts off against the Beast and will be under pressure to get a good result. Ferrer who has improved his record off clay in 2005 has a huge test to see how much he has improved. Vladimir Voltchkov is someone who is just around for Davis Cup these days and rises to the occasion and beats players he normally wouldn’t get close to in normal tournaments, but if Mirnyi gets the Belarussians to a 1-0 lead, then big bad Vlad will have the freedom to play without fear on a surface he is familiar with and put the pressure on Ferrer.

LaLo and Verdasco are the doubles team and there is a chance that the Spanish could be eliminated by Day 2 of the tie. If this is to happen, at least the Spanish players would win the best looking title and maybe LaLo can give some of the local ladies some beauty tips. At the same time it could be down to them to keep them in the tie and maybe one of the doubles guys could play a role in the singles.


Switzerland vs Australia:

The Swiss looked like a big special in this tie as they are playing the Aussies who apart from Peter Luczak are claycourt clowns. This scenario changed when Roger Federer ruled himself out with injury and in his case it seems more legitimate than Lleyton Hewitt.

Hewitt who is continuously having a bitch at someone or something is having problems with Tennis Australia. I mean TA aren’t the most competent organissation around, but Hewitt goes on with is just petty shit a lot of the time. The courts at Melbourne aren’t suited to him and they should make them quicker, just for him. Yes, the Australian Open is an international event and he made the final when it was meant to be slow.

The best one is that he pulls out of this tie citing injury, then he is magically cured enough to play in San Jose on the Monday. This is interesting, but at the same time it gives the young Aussies an opportunity.

Switzerland will be lead by Stani Wawrinka who is at his best on clay and has improved quite a bit and is the best player in this tie and Michael Lammer is the number 2 and they are up against Peter Luczak and Chris “Ronald McDonald” Guccione who is like Wayne Arthurs except with a forehand.

This tie could very close as well and the Aussies have the advantage in the doubles with Paul Hanley and Arthurs, though the Swiss with Yves Allegro and Bastl are experienced in this atmosphere, so the Aussies will need the doubles if they have hopes of winning this tie. I don’t see the number ones losing their matches on the first day, but with Luczak as the only capable Aussie on clay, the Swiss will be slight favourites for this.

The question is did Hewitt pull out cause he was afraid of a potential arse kicking from Federer on clay.

Davis Cup : Austria vs Croatia and Argentina vs Sweden

This is Davis Cup weekend and there are some interesting ties for sure and personally I love Davis Cup though some people don’t and more on that later.

I have decided to separate this in 4 different entries. Here is a brief preview of the 8 ties, some will be longer than others, so skip the ones that aren’t worth reading. These will be done in order as in the draw. The home team are indicated first. If possible with the comments, if I get any, then leave them in the relevant preview thread.


Austria vs Croatia in Graz on the clay.

This one for me has the potential to be the closest tie of the weekend. The Croats who are defending Davis Cup champions and if they manage to get through this tie, then they have the advantage of playing at home for the rest of their matches.

The Austrians did the right thing and select clay as the surface and it will be interesting to see how slow the court will be. This will be the worst surface for the Croats and the best chance for the Austrians to win, even though Thomas Muster is still a better claycourt player than Jurgen Melzer.

Ivan Ljubicic is the undoubted star of the Croats and he carried the team to the Davis Cup in 2005 and how he handles the responsibility as captain while having to play 3 matches will be a huge test for him. He is vulnerable against Stefan Koubek on Day 1. Last week he handled Koubek easily and he was at home and playing on his favourite indoor hard surface. Koubek is now at home and on the clay where he has a better chance of negating Ljubo’s power and take advantage of his movement weaknesses on the clay and can repeat his RG defeat of him.

Mario Ancic and Jurgen Melzer are the problem children in their teams, both of them struggle in Davis Cup. Ancic won the final match to win the Davis Cup, but to be fair to win the Davis Cup and Michal Mertinak was your opponent that would be considered a total dream and now the onus is on Ancic to see whether he can step up. Melzer is another individual with a shocking record, and he was the one that got Austria into the World Group while Koubek was struggling with all his issues in 2005. Their match on the first day is vital for the tie, as the doubles will be close as Melzer/Knowle aren’t muppets as doubles players.

Assuming the tie is alive, when the reverse singles are played the Austrians will be in a better position if it is Koubek to play Ancic, than for Melzer to beat Ljubicic and the worst thing is that I don’t get to see the Austrian DC captain Muster with his fiery brand of leadership and also how Ljubo will balance his role as team captain and vital part of the playing staff.


Argentina vs Sweden:

Years ago this would have been a great tie with the Swedes and their great tradition on clay and Argentina as well, but times have changed for Swedish tennis and not for the better either.

The Argentines will prepare the slowest and heaviest court possible and there might even be a bit over extra water overnight, just to make sure the courts are just right. In spite of having some injury problems the Argentines do have a strong team with David Nalbandian and my favourite player who looks stoned on the court Jose Acasuso who is making his debut after the best week of his life winning singles and doubles in Vina Del Mar as the second singles player.

Yes, Gaudio and Coria are out for various reasons. Gaudio with a shoulder problem and Coria is lacking form at the moment and as much as I think he is a weasel and whiny bitch, when he concentrates on playing tennis, then he has plenty to add to the Argentine team. Maybe the fact that Nalle and most of the other Argentines can’t stand him, at the same time W is the only result that counts at the end of the match.

The Swedes well their best 2 players on clay are Andreas Vinciguerra and Mats Wilander, but Mats is a bit old and Vinci is a bit injured. They will have Robin “The Toad” Soderling and Thomas Johansson as their singles players. ToJo is solid, but he is not a real threat on clay to these guys and as for the Toad, well hopefully he is on his best behaviour, as this guy does have a real attitude problem and isn’t even very popular among his fellow countrymen and that says something.

Argentina should win this tie comfortably and the Swedes best chance for a victory is in the doubles or scoring with the beautiful ladies in Buenos Aires.


Monday, February 06, 2006

The Australian Open Recap, Read It !!!!!!!

Yes, I have been a bit lazy and haven't updated this in a while.

The Australian Open was very enjoyable this year and unlike many people I don't cry when big stars are injured. Sure, it is disappointing when players like Nadal and Safin are out injured and they bring something to the tournament, but at the same time it gives other people an opportunity and more importantly for fans to go out and discover other players besides the stars.

It was a fun event, got to meet some old friends and some new people as well and enjoyed that. The Aus Open has a carnival and party atmosphere that the other Slams could not reach, even with free alcohol thrown in. It's great to watch the tennis and not have shitty TV coverage to worry about and one moment there at the scoreboard was great a Norwegian, Argentine, Serb, Croat and an Austrian just there chatting away, checking out the women and talking about different things in a friendly atmosphere.

Wimbledon is too staid and many people think the tennis season lasts only for 2 weeks, basically they use the word tradition to justify that they are special, when most of the facilities are outdated and many of the attitudes to tennis.

Roland Garros is great because it's the clay Slam and it's different, plus the crowd like to get involved in their own particular way. The thing is that the ticketing is a real problem there and the people aren't as jovial and are too smartly dressed and as for the US Open, well that will be another blog entry on that subject.

It's a transition time and now Baghdatis has graduated and from no one covering him to everyone loving him, the wheel has turned. So this part will be some of the stuff I couldn't find to put anywhere else.

- Santoro the quirky Frenchman with his unorthodox game was entertaining, as was his honesty and have to say he has a very hot wife and a beautiful daughter.

- Seppi the Italian from the former Austrian part, he is moving into the favourite unfashionable players list and that's good. Though the coach and his wife who is Andy's physical trainer have these two beautiful daughters. When he lost, they cried for about 10 minutes solid and it was sad to watch, but it was a tough match.

- The mad Russian Tursunov, a very interesting individual. He has a lot of talent in his game and the Henman and Robredo matches were pretty much the way he is. Though got to see the quirky side of him as well. His friend Andreev and Kirilenko were playing mixed doubles against Djokovic/Ivanovic in the evening out on one of the smaller courts. There were some Serbian fans sitting opposite him and "Tursy" was writing things on a towel at the back of the stand showing them to Igor and also heckling the Serb fans and it was good bi play between them.

- For those who remember from last year the funny incident with an online newspaper saying that Filippo Volandri had defeated Igor Andreev in the final of Palermo. The thing was that the match was still going when it was released online and they used the same scores of the semi final and quarter final for Volandri.

Finally thanks to someone reminding me of the article I found it and printed it and showed it to Andreev and he didn't get it initially. As he read on a bit more, he realised what was going and just shook his head at how stupid people are and we were joking about it. Then Tursunov says can you find an article like that for me that says I won a tournament, the only sad thing is that we couldn't find the journalist in particular.

- Chela getting a lot of support from Australians before the match against Hewitt and how a friend of mine Peta found him so attractive all of a sudden, but chubby Chela is alright and he had a good tournament as did Kiefer and Ferrer.

- The Chileans weren't around for as long, then again when all your players lose in the 1st round then it's not going to be happening for you.

- Peter Luczak had a fine tournament and just hope he can finally breakthrough to the top 100 and he is almost a Scandinavian, he has a Swedish girlfriend who is pregnant and spends a lot of time in Sweden as well. Have to love an Aussie that likes playing on clay.

- Seeing Mats Wilander and yes he is gentleman around the place along with Pat Rafter and Alex Corretja they are good as well, but Jim Courier, he was an arsehole as a player and he is still a dickhead. Next time I should try and get one of my gay friends to hit on him and see what happens.

All in all, it was a great time and will take some good memories from this trip.