Day 2 the Day of King Oscar Hernandez as the man makes history

Day 2 of the Aus Open was a special one indeed, for a few reasons, there was Michael Russell's first win in a Slam for ages and even more significant was that Oscar Hernandez after going 0-17 on hardcourts, was able to win his 1st match on the surface and it was a historical day to mark down in the calendar.

These will be done in random order and some of these matches were watched by known associates Jimbo, Sammy and others and they will get credit for their work.

Santoro vs. Isner : I didn't see much of this match, but what I did see was hilarious. Isner was poor and was moving slower than a Jamaican ambulance with a driver stoned on 20kg of pot. The rallies were so slow and Isner's volleys were junior standard and Santoro was breaking at will, he got bored and lost a service game in the 3rd set, then broke again to make it count and put Isner out of his misery. Sammy and Jimbo loved this result and a good triumph for artistry over serving.

Monaco vs. Berlocq: This was a comfortable match for Pico Monaco and his lovely other half is here as well. Berlocq surprised me, he actually played well for parts of the match and hitting some good backhand down the line winners and in the second set he served for it at 5-4, but it was always on the cards that Monaco would break back and therefore he did so and then stepped it up to run away with the 3rd set. Will need to improve his serving in the next match against Delic.

Nalbandian vs. Smeets : Smeets had said the player he didn't want to draw was Nalbandian and sadly his wish didn't come true.

Not really much to say about this match, except that Nalle was in total control moving the ball around easily and breaking serve at will leading 6-1 6-1. The 3rd set well it was just an extended training run and he won the breaker easily enough, it will help his back and he doesn't need to have too many hard matches early in the event.

Luczak vs. Zabaleta : This was one of those matches that I couldn't really lose as I happen to like both players. It was good that it went to a 4th set, but Luczak winning was expected. He is at home, he is fit and has match practice something that Zabala is lacking a lot of at the moment.

Luczak started strongly in the 1st set, then Mariano fought back with some strong serving and good forehands and took the breaker. Then Luczak was making his mark with the drop shots especially on the backhand side and was grinding well took the 3rd easily and lead 5-1 in the 4th, but Zabala showed his fighting spirit to make it 6-4, but it wasn't enough and now Luczak has to play Nalbandian in the next round.

Gremelmayr vs. Roitman : This match was an exercise in frustration and the end result was a clear expression of this.

Gremelmayr hasn't played well for years, well since the last time at the AO when he made the 3rd round. He just started swinging with his eyes closed and wins the 1st set 6-1 and then when he opens them the 2nd set was 0-6.

The match settles down in the 3rd and there was some quality hitting from both players, the Escopeta (shotgun) forehand of Roitman was firing well at times, though he did go for some silly shots as he can do now and then. Gremelmayr was running hard and making lots of huge winners from tough positions was able to take the 3rd set after a loose service game from Roitman.

The 4th continued on the same path with Roitman getting more and more pissed off with one his mistakes at crucial points and two Gremelmayr saving 15-30 or bps with unreturnable serves or clean winners. They swapped breaks until 5-5. After a big extended rally with Roitman running "the Gremlin" side to side, then he attacks the net and Gremelmayr at full stretch on the fence hits a slice backhand that floats in over Roitman's backhand and he breaks.

At 15-15 Roitman is trying to hit a forehand, but the linesperson gets in the way and it becomes 30-15 and Sergio gets pissed off even more. Gremelmayr serves it out and then Roitman absolutely smashes the racquet after the match.

Russell vs. Fognini: This match started out comfortably enough with Russell getting a 5-0 lead and Fognini looking like he wanted to be somewhere else even more than usual.

After an easy 1st set, the 2nd set was a much closer affair with Fognini cutting down the errors and showing his outstanding court speed, which can match Russell's though the way they move is very different. Fognini starts going for more shots and they go in and was able to break once to level the match at 1 set all.

Russ seizes the initiative again and is able to hit the ball well to the corners and Fognini's manner is still the same "I don't give a shit look", at the same time he is just randomly slapping winners now and then from difficult positions. After Mike takes the 3rd set easily, then Fognini is making less errors from the ground and running lots of shots down and Russell is a bit sluggish, which he takes advantage of and levels the match at 2 sets a piece.

The dreaded 5th set, the feeling of watching a 5 set match with a player you like at the end it's either great joy or emptiness depending on the perspective and result.

Fognini takes a 3-1 lead and Russell is feeling sluggish, but he has the superior heart and fitness to Fognini, so he was always a chance as long as he believed in himself. With a solid support group Mike cut down on the errors and was moving better and was able to get it back to 3-3, then Fognini's flashy play wasn't working under pressure, the opportunity at 5-3 to serve it out for Russell was there. In the final game he led 40-0 couldn't buy a first serve and missed an easy smash at 40-15, but was able to come through and win his 1st match at a Slam for a very long time and what a relief it was.

Oscar Hernandez vs. Minar : This was the match and the result of the day without a doubt. The man who is 0-17 on hardcourts finally wins a hardcourt match and plays very good tennis to do so as well.

Oscar couldn't hit a thing in at all in the 1st set and it went very quickly, looked like the same pattern as always on this surface. He did say it wasn't so quick and I thought that would have had to have helped his confidence that he could play his game and maybe do Ok here.

The second set was the key here and Minar had chances to take it, but Oscar served well and placed it well and he was fighting with himself as always and is a great source of Catalan expressions. Once they got it to the tiebreaker, he dug his heels in and was not going to miss from the back and force Minar to hit through him which he was unable to and then the King took the 2nd set.

This was the turning point of the match and Oscar got very confident and was playing from quite close to the baseline and not 5km behind it. He was able to dictate the rallies on his serve using the angles to open the court up and hitting heavy forehands and Minar looked like he was in the pub after 3 games in the 3rd set, getting run ragged. The King ran to a 4-0 lead and was able to win the set 6-2 and the confidence was growing.

The 4th set started the same way as the 3rd set with Oscar getting everything back and the length was very hard to attack off for Minar, who in the heat didn't have the style or the patience to last with Hernandez in the baseline rallies and the King showed some good volleying skills as well to run to a 5-0 lead. The majority of the crowd wanted a bagel, but Oscar was generous and allowed Minar a game before serving it out with no problems.

After the match, there were many youngsters who became fans of the King and he signed for all of them and he was elated that on the small court there was a good turnout to watch the talent and also see the piece of history that was created on this day. Does it matter that he will more than likely lose to Berdych, no not really.

This day was all about King Oscar Hernandez.