2007 Aus Open Ist Round Qualies Part 1

DISCLAIMER: Don’t use these reports or portions of these reports anywhere else without asking my permission to post them.

I am in report mode, so if you don't like the matches and the players I have written about, then you can either complain to me or get lost, as to what is preferable, well that depends on the individual.

Well finally the tennis has started and on today was definitely a busy one as it always is when there are that many matches around and of course that means I can’t see every point of every match, so I got some help with this report and these people who helped me will be named and appreciated for their work.

One of the few Americans I like and one of the players in form at the moment Michael Russell who won the New Caledonia Challenger for the loss of around 20 games, had a very interesting problem getting from New Caledonia to Melbourne, as they were overbooked and this meant they were stuck there and had to go to Auckland and then to Melbourne and arrived on Tuesday night.

1000 thanks to Imran for helping me with this report as he saw the 1st set as I could only get there for the 2nd set, so this will be a combination report. He was playing Larsi Burgsmuller in the 1st round and that match could have been harder than it needed to be and in this case it was a case of Russ starting slowly and being down 3-1. Then Larsi started charging the net more than he normally does and Russ was being aggressive though missing more than he has been of late. Then once Russell got the break back, then he was able to control the points and stretch Burgsmuller from side to side and was able to take the set 6-4 once he found the range and used good changes of pace.

Russell got an early break and while leading 4-2 had a lapse in concentration and then Burgi broke back to take the lead 5-4 and had 2 set points which Russell duly saved and then got back on track and showed his superiority and was running Burgi ragged and he had to take chances as Russell wasn’t missing much and had to dig in and fight hard and was able to do so.

In homage to the Brad Gilbert book “Winning Ugly”, this was not a performance of beauty, but it got the job done and that is what counts in the end. If it came down to looking pwetty (pretty) then Feliciano “LaLo” Lopez would have won a multitude of Grand Slam titles.

Pavel vs. Troicki

This was always going to be a tough one for Pavel and especially since he has had time off through injuries and Troicki does have potential to be a reasonable player. In retrospect I should have stayed away and not watched the 2nd and 3rd set of this match, as this was the one I went to after the Russell match.

It was clear to see that Pavel was lacking in match condition and Troicki broke early in the 2nd set and then Pavel broke back and took the lead, but wasn’t able to consolidate his chances and Troicki took the 2nd set.

The question was whether Pavel would be able to use his experience to be able to come through this situation or whether Troicki with the Serbian posse of Djokovic, Tipsarevic, Zimonjic watching would be able to continue on. Troicki kept the pressure on and was able to continue his aggressive play and went to a 5-1 lead before Pavel made a minor fightback and fortunately Troicki had an insurance break and was able to close the match at his second attempt. This was a combination of Pavel lacking matches and Troicki playing some good aggressive tennis.

Monroe vs. Chardy

This was on another court opposite to a match as I watching, but decided to have a look anyway. Chardy started off very well and was dominating with his forehand and took the 1st set. After this the youngster Monroe decided to change his game and incorporated the chip and charge tactics and this threw off Chardy who wasn’t able to get rhythm and since he isn’t the greatest mover his backhand or lack of was exposed and he was getting pissed off with the umpire as well and lost the last 2 sets only winning 1 game in the process.

Monroe’s dad is his coach and he seems to be a very good man and I spoke to him about racism in tennis and how it has changed over a period of time. We agreed that maybe it’s lesser than before or it’s just better hidden these days.

Snobel vs. Summerer

It’s a sad day in paradise as the Snobel permullet (image) has disappeared for the moment and maybe forever. It has now been replaced by a big mop of frizzy hair that would work in an 80s band, but not as cool as the mullet was on the Snobel. Snobel was striking the ball very clean and his main weaknesses apart from the hair are a lack of power, but he was getting some good angle on his shots. It was disappointing that he had to retire at 3-3 in the 3rd set.

Wang vs. Marc Lopez

This one had the potential to be a sleeper match of the 1st round and it was a high quality match. There was some good hitting from both guys, albeit in different ways. Wang has the typical Asian game with good stroke production with little spin and Lopez was hitting a very heavy forehand and running around his backhand to hit off-forehands.

Wang had his Taiwanese fanbase there cheering for everything and it was only myself and these 2 others that were cheering for Lopez. The main difference in this match was that Lopez played the big points better and was fighting very hard to get the extra ball back into play and it worked for him.

On a sidenote all seems to be well with Felix Mantilla these days, but Lopez doesn’t believe that his friend will make a comeback to tennis.

Alves vs. De Voest

It was the 1st time that I saw Alves play live and he isn’t a bad player and could exist in between the 80-100 section at best. This was a poor tactical match from Alves and he wasn’t originally going to play in the qualies and he only signed in as an alternate, then only played when Vinciguerra sadly withdrew with some knee trouble again.

De Voest like most South Africans has a solid serve, good volleys and is comfortable on the surface. The South Americans aren’t used to the serve/volleyers and Alves didn’t return well and it’s not like de Voest is a dangerous on serve, but Thiago couldn’t hit enough returns to get them into court. When he did he was better from the baseline and de Voest was just hitting them back and Alves didn’t use enough of the angles to open up the slower De Voest. After a close 1st set, it was not surprising that Alves checked out mentally in the 2nd set.

Silva vs. Haase

Thanks to Sammy and Joe for this one as I was only able to see bits of this match. From what I saw and was reported it was every entertaining and went down to 13-11 in the 3rd. As much as Silva does look like a monkey, the buffoon Pashanski was out of line with his racist comments, but that’s another story. There were some good rallies and some sneaky gamesmanship where Silva called for the trainer and took a time out at 30-30 late in the 3rd set and Haase thought he might as well take one while he had the chance to do so.

Haase has talent for sure, but the question for him is to see whether he will be able to step up and make the top 40 or be someone with good results but lacks consistency.

Peya vs. Behrend

Not sure why I chose to watch this. Yes, I know the reason, it was cause of the man known as Tomas Ugo Behrend and yes he is the PMA “Poor Mans Acasuso” and slower at that as well.

He had the bright blue shoes and the overgrunting was still there as usual, but the former surprise result isn’t there and it’s only a surprise when he wins in singles these days. The sad thing about this match was that Peya won 1 and 2 and wasn’t exactly playing well.

One highlight for Behrend was when he hit an excellent backhand towards the end. He screamed out “finally when I am match point down then I hit a good backhand” and that was the main thing in this match was that Behrend made too many errors.

After the match Peya and Behrend were walking off together and just talking about everything as if they have just finished a village warm up tournament. As bad as it was in the singles, the man known as Behrend will be playing doubles with Vik.