Since this is as good time as any to bring these reports back to life and then now all of them will be updated and that can only be good.
This is from the 2005 Aus Open starting at the Kooyong exho and the first day of qualies.
The organisers did the right thing, by changing the schedule and making the Federer/Gaudio match second for which I was thankful for.
Good advantage of travelling light as I don't have to wait for the luggage, though there was a foible to this and more later.
I got there at the end of the Agassi vs.. Massu match. I only saw the tiebreaker and Massu seemed to be playing alright, but Agassi is very tough on this surface and doesn't seem to miss a beat when he plays here.
Then onto the match that I wanted to see Federer vs.. Gaudio. On the whole the match wasn't great, then again being an exhibition that can happen, as they both seemed to be sluggish.
They started trading breaks and Federer was definitely attacking more and coming to the net more than usual which made sense and Gaston was missing a lot of passes, then he decided to vary his shots with a few lobs and changed the speed of shot.
At 5-5 Gaston saved his set point with a forehand winner and then on Federer's next service game, he used the lob when Roger moved forward and he hit a short shot for Gaston to hit a dtl backhand to break serve.
Then he managed to hold his serve to love and Roger was getting slightly annoyed.
Second set Federer starts hitting more touch shots and his game is getting in the groove and Gaston isn't as focused as previously, but Roger has lifted his game especially in the last 2 games.
The 3rd set then they actually started playing some good tennis as they were trying to outdo each other in the finesse stakes. Federer hits this short volley to Gaston's forehand, then all of a sudden he hits a crosscourt winner through his legs and Roger just laughs.
Both are playing well Gaston is hitting good length and Federer is using his forehand very well and knocking off the volley. They are going comfortably on serve and then Gaston at 3-3 threw in a bad game and was punished by that. He served 2 foot faults and one of them was a double, then Federer got a lucky net cord. The last chance he had was at 30-30 on Roger's serve, and then he hits a forehand that hits the line.
Roger served it out and Gaston played quite well in patches, and there was plenty of good feelings and mutual respect during the match. Gaston and Roger both signed plenty of autographs as well.
Nalbandian/Henman well this performance you could tell it was David's first match of the year and he will only get better. I am not really sure how Henman played as David made plenty of schoolboy errors, especially in the 1st set and 6-1 was justified.
The second set was better and he had so many break point opportunities, but he refused to take them and when Tim was serving for the match at 5-4, then David decides to serve 3 double faults in his service game just because he is charitable.
Nalbandian will have to improve for sure and Henman now plays Federer in the semis, while Gaston and Nalbandian play tomorrow.
Roddick was efficient in his match and he didn't seem to go that hard and Ljubicic wasn't much chop today and at least in the 2nd set he was semi-competitive, in the 1st set Duckboy didn't have to get out of neutral.
Thursday
This will have to be done in two parts as it will take too long and the first day of the qualies might have to wait.
I went and saw the first match between Gaudio and Nalbandian and for the 1st set it was quite a good match. David seemed to be more serious about it, but he needed to be after his first match against Henman.
Gaston started serving and had his footfaultitis again, but he started off well with 2 big backhand winners. The thing I noticed from the first 3 games was the clear improvement from yesterday, even though it was fucking hot already at 11am and of course I was out in the sun frying away, but managing to keep cool enough.
The first break for Nalle was for 2-3. It was funny Gaston hits a bad dropshot, Nalle hits a worse reply, but then he settles down and is moving well and being aggressive and showing he is better on this surface than Gaston. Gaston misses a sitter to make it to deuce.
The next service game had a very cool moment as Nalle gets back to deuce with some good play, he hits a top drop volley that is back spinning towards the net, Gaston makes it and but David puts it away and then they end up on the same side of the net and shake hands.
Gaston is serving/volleying more than usual and that is usually a sign in itself . He was volleying well and hitting some good winners, but I was impressed with Nalle's forehand and he was getting some very good angles and Gaston's volleying was very good in these stages, though he managed to blow easy chances at the wrong moments.
One very funny moment was a 1st serve from Gaston it was such a fault it missed the court and it went 6 rows back before bouncing, you can only laugh at such stuff like that, and then he lost serve.
Nalle is continuing on and playing very well and Gaston seemed a bit disinterested, he didn't tank at all, but a bit disinterested. He didn't hold a serve in the second set and Nalle was focused and wasn't going to let him off the hook.
It was a good and fun first set, but the 2nd one was a combination of Nalle's consistency and a bit of disinterest from Gaston, but it was good to see them play.
The right man won and the result was fair enough maybe the 1st set could have been 6-4 or 7-5 as it was fairly close, but I always felt David was in control.
Afterwards I went for a wander in the shade as it was very warm for sure and I couldn't be bothered about Roddick and Agassi, then I see Agassi walking towards me. He couldn't be bothered and it was an alleged hip problem. He has had enough practice and is probably ready to play.
I went down to the qualies afterward and I will do a combined Day 1/2 report and maybe do it later.
I saw Seppi, Baghdatis, Ryderstedt, Prpic, Marc Lopez, and Ancic training.
Since the men's doesn't start until noon at the earliest I will have it already before the start of play tomorrow.
There was plenty of activity going on with matches and I only saw a few matches in full and parts of others, due to them clashing and other annoying factors.
I saw a bit of the De Chaunac vs.Minar match it wasn't that good and De Chaunac for some reason I keep calling him "Cyrano" should have won it a lot earlier than he managed to and after the match he smashed his racquet and that was after he won.
These ones are not in order and sadly I missed the 'psychotic clown' Daniel Koellerer but fortunately for me he won and I can see him today. This guy is an absolute jerk and got suspended from the tour for a few months at the end of the season because of his arsehole behaviour and the argument he had with Luzzi at a challenger. The best bit was Koellerer's mother told these two German guys he had a back problem, but when I told them the truth, they found it very funny.
I saw the last set of the Rydsterdt vs. Sabau match and that was the set to watch. Mikael was hitting the ball well and I think he will qualify and could do quite well in the future.
Christophe Rochus has a beard and what an interesting growth it has and it helped him maybe not get burnt and there is photographic evidence of this beard.
I saw the last bit of the Seppi/Robert match once he had won the 1st set, he wasn't in much trouble. I don't mind Seppi's game and he seems to have a good attitude and I would like him to qualify for the main draw and haven't seen his section yet.
I saw the Di Pasquale match and it wasn't pretty. He really should have won this match in two as he was better than Schukin who wasn't too impressed with. He called for the trainer again and he seemed to be cramping again as he seems to do a lot sadly. I am disappointed that injuries have wrecked his career and I find it hard to see that he can make it back, but I hope to be proven wrong.
I wanted to see Sa vs. Wawrinka, but I didn't get around to it, but Stani won and that is cool as I don't mind him off the court, though on it he can be a bit of a pain, but I will watch him today.
Prpic vs. Bourgeois well Filip had this match in control the whole way through, he was moving quite well and I would like to see him go up the ranking, he has a good demeanour on court and off the court as well. It's hard to say how he played as he never seemed to be in trouble at all and it will be interesting to see his match today.
Two more matches I saw were Marc Lopez vs. Golmard. This was quite close initially and Lopez had to call the trainer for a stomach problem which restricted his serves to slice serves and ones at the body and Golmard made a lot of errors. Lopez was very consistent and hit some very good length on his hots and kept his errors down and that is what got him home. I hope he can get some treatment as the serves weren't very fast and Golmard was absolutely cut at losing this match. Mantilla was there as well for a while, so I was happy with that and the result of this match.
The last match was the Baghdatis vs. Gabashvili. I thought this would be straight forward for Marcos and it was, but there were some problems as he has difficulties with this player. Gabash is an all-forehand player with a big serve and plenty of acne and likes the ball to be hit hard.
Here is the thing that Marcos has tennis elbow and had to get treatment before the match as he wasn't able to be as aggressive as usual and was more reactive as he had some problems swinging through his shots, so he had to place them more effectively. It's a good sign that he was able to win while not playing well, he plays Sarstrand today.
Well this one was a long one and I think it will stay here as there aren't many stars around on this day.
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