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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Smiling His Way Through to the Final Pame Marcos Baghdatis

This was the only semi final that I was interested in watching live and fortunately for myself I was able to get a ticket to watch the Nalbandian/Baghdatis match and enjoy the spectacle.

At the same time it was quite difficult to cheer for anyone in this match as I happen to enjoy both of their games and hoped that either one of them will win the final on Sunday, that would be a perfect way to end this tournament. So I was going for Nalle as I thought he had a better chance of winning and all the while cheering Marcos's great shots, so it went down pretty easily in this regard.

Initially both players were pretty nervous, but Nalle settled down a bit quicker and was controlling the play very well and that down the line backhand was the foundation for his early success in this match and he was handling the occasion better than Marcos was, who seemed very heavy legged like he was running around in quicksand and the smiling face wasn't there as much, but he was not going to give it away easily.

Nalle takes the first set and is still in control of the second set with two breaks, though he seems to have pointed to his stomach or something, but he loses his breaks and then breaks again and holds on the second set, but Marcos is still in the match and that was a good thing as I wanted to see some good tennis.

Third set is tight and Marcos starts to move better as he has nothing to lose and is cutting the down the errors and the Greek fans cheering constantly though scattered are helping him and he manages to get the break of serve to take the 3rd set and now we have a match, but at the time I still thought Nalle would come through in 4 sets and at this time I was grateful that Marcos won a set and didn't disgrace himself.

The fourth set Marcos stepped it up and is improving his length of shots and is hitting backhand winners of returns and moving Nalle around and takes it to the decider. There was a momentum shift for sure and Marcos has never lost a 5 setter and there is the saying there is always a first time and at the back of my mind I thought this was it, however Marcos had it and wasn't going to lose it.

Nalle breaks serve and then loses it again and both are bit nervy as the stakes are very high and that backhand that was working so well wasn't and he was lifting up a lot on his forehand. Marcos was just fighting and fighting and manouvering the ball around very well, but the little weakness he does have, is when he fits a very good shot and he gets a floater, he gets a bit passive and doesn't move in to the kill the ball, if he can do that and get fitter then all the better.

Marcos gets the break at 5-4 and 15 all and then it decides to rain. I just laughed and this Belgian/Moroccan guy next to me, we started dancing and making a close the roof gesture and this was tough for both players, especially as Marcos has to serve out the match, but the atmosphere was festive and it was great to be there. After the resumption of play Nalle hits two cheap unforced errors on the return and then those magic words Game Set Match Baghdatis and then the crowd went off.

The kid pulls off another surprise, he has beaten three top 10 players in this tournament and so has every right to make the final and the Greek fans are loving it and Nalle gets a standing ovation as well and he must be gutted with an opportunity like this that was blown to make a Slam final, but he only has himself to blame as he might have relaxed a bit, he made too many errors and Marcos took the initiative and that's great for him and he is in the final. The essential stat was once again the break point conversions Nalle had more chances, but Marcos did better with them and needs to do the same on Sunday.

This has Euro 2004 overtones when the Greeks won the championship, just hope the result is the same come Sunday night. I mean I know the Greeks are very superstitious and hopefully in this case it works. After the match was a great atmosphere, singing and dancing in the stadium, people on the phone to family and friends in Cyprus and there was plenty of celebrating to be had later in the evening.

One funny scenario was one of my Greek friends was at a wedding and he and 10 others when there was a power cut, ran outside as one of them had a hand held TV trying to get reception of the match when it was in the 5th set, they disappeared and people were wondering where they were and there were passers by trying to get the score and visualisation of these guys screaming "Fuck" after the time he lost a point is endlessly hilarious, and if I was there, no doubt I'd have been involved in that sort of thing.

Marcos's father Christos will come out for the event and if the rumour is true his second father Yiannos the godfather of Cypriot tennis will be around as well and I hope this is the case. These two men have had a huge influence on his career, especially Yiannos as he had a place at the National Centre in Nicosia and Marcos is from Limassol and Marcos lived there and did everything to get him to the level where Marcos was able to go somewhere to further his tennis and lucky he found a sponsor when he did. It would be good for him to have two of his founding influences there on his biggest day.

After the match, there was plenty of chanting outside the stadium and they made their way to the closest pub to Tennis Centre called the Depot which is a shithole, but when the Greeks turned it up, it was fun and I rang my friend the one at the wedding and told the Greeks to give him a cheer and it radiated very loudly through his phone and venue, too bad the women in the place were hideous and not even the amount of alcohol made it any better and there were a lot of us there as well, imagine if he wins on Sunday.

Quirky Quarter Finals

It has worked out quite well that the two quarter finals that I was most interesting in watching happened to be both on the same day, which worked out well, one in the day and one in the evening.

The first one was the Nalbandian vs Santoro match: This one I thought Nalle would win as long as he could remain patient and focused for long enough, then he would win this match, but not getting frustrated with Santoro if playing against him isn't the easiest thing to do.

Nalle has to get over the Aus Open quarter final jinx and this is Santoro's first ever quarter final, so the first set was the key to this match. It was a tight and tough first set, but once Nalle had got it with 7-5 and it was a strategic battle, not just mindless and brainless power that is so commonplace and Nalle was patient and took his chances.

Then the next two sets was an exhibition of Nalle's talents and this in addition to Santoro losing the 1st set, then the tiredness got to him and he was run ragged and if Santoro got the 1st set, then he would have found the extra energy, but it wasn't to be and Nalle mixed up the play very well and exposed the lack of movement from Santoro and while Fab tried, he had played too many matches and it told on him in the end.

One thing that pissed me off was that they began the interview with Nalle on court before Santoro had left and I thought that was ordinary that they did this. It's more than likely going to be the last time he plays on a stage like this in singles and he deserved a proper ovation and I know the people I was with appreciated his tournament and were a bit sad with the ending, but that's pro sport and more on Fab later.

Now Nalle has the beaten the QF jinx, he has to step up and be ready to take it to the next level and win a Slam that his talent deserves. I mean the main thing I dislike about him is that he benefitted from money given to him by the Argentine Federation, where they didn't give a crap about the other players like Chela, Cañas, Gaudio, Zabaleta and Acasuso, but that's not solely his fault.

The second quarter the Ljubicic/Baghdatis match. Personally I have nothing against Ljubo and I have some respect for him, but I was firmly in the Baghdatis corner in this match and the build up was pretty funny at times. I had plenty of time to kill and met up with some people went to have a few beers. Just like Gravity the great MTF moderator who was too good to drink with the masses, love you man, a hero to us all.

Saw a bit of the Screecharova match on TV, man that was fucking garbage tennis, it's just Petrova's rubbish was worse than Sharapova's rubbish and gives me more reason to dislike the WTA. Come to think of it there are only a few I can tolerate and there is a reason for this and I admire the guys who coach the female players, it's hard work.

As the Marcos match was starting late, the Baghdatis fans came to the beer garden and were having fun and then some Croats decided to show up as well and they were outnumbered inititally and of course there was a security presence there, but it wasn't overbearing a tall.

The Greeks started chanting, some of it was political and a bit cheeky as well. I mean when the Croatians started chanting Turkey and Macedonia, then the Greeks chanted Serbia and there were some chants about Cyprus as well, but most of it was in a festive spirit and that was good.

Marcos opened up very well and both players were playing quite well with Marcos being slightly more aggressive and was returning well again and was able to take the 1st set and then the second set was fantastic from Marcos, he was on fire, only made 2 unforced errors and was serving well as well as dominating from the baseline and that forehand was working very well and takes the second easily.

Ljubo digs in and keeps fighting and has to be a bit more aggressive and Marcos can't keep that level of tennis up and starts to make some errors into the net on shots he wasn't missing before, which suggests he isn't moving his feet as well as before, but Ljubo finally gives the Croat fans something to sing about by taking the next 2 sets and they congregate together as people leave to form a block just above the Ljubo Players Box. The irony is the Greeks are above them and they are going chant for chant, and while some of the people are getting pissed off, it gives the place some atmosphere and that's good.

The last set well Ljubo doesn't have a good record in them and every Marcos 5 setter I have watched live, he has won and hopefully he could keep that good record up. Marcos starts feeling it again and moving well and taking control of the play and as for Ljubo he wasn't playing that badly, though I know my man Sammy will disagree. Marcos gets the break and the Greeks are just making so much noise now and he rides the wave home and continues the great run into the semis.

This was a lost opportunity for Ljubo, but he has shown something for future in the Slams, this where he needs to step it up a level and perform at these events on a consistent basis.

Some people have seen this already, but since it's my blog I am going to post this observation on Baghdatis.

Yes, there is a bandwagon for him and that is something I can't do anything about.

The simple version is I remember last year when he had the elbow problem after the AO, then he had to have some more work done as the bone was growing the wrong way and it had to be detected when it was or a very long time out of tennis.Basically, there was hardly anyone around when he was going through the problems and struggling when he came back and yes the ones that were know who they are, but now he is winning, people want to know about him, when nothing in reality has changed, except he is winning more matches now.Still the same cheeky player he was then, just older.

Fun Fun in the Fourth Round

Kiefer/Chela : This was a very good standard match from both players and Kiefer is showing some of his old form from when he was a top 10 player after his very impressive performance against Ferrero, which he proved wasn't a fluke in this match against Chela.

The first set was very tight with Kiefer making most of the play and Chela was very solid from the baseline and Chela was up in the breaker, but he missed a few first serves and then Kiefer took the initiative and was able to take the set, with good all court tennis and some changes of pace.

After the first set, in which there were no breaks, then the second set had 4 breaks of serve in a row and this was what cost Chela in this match. I mean when he had the break, then he lost it straight away and a violation of one of the golden rules and Keifer then showed his greater versatility, he was rallying well, then a change up and hit some excellent dropshots to expose Chela's forward movement which isn't the best. Kiefer usually won the point on the dropshot, or a volleying error from Chela or a passing shot.

While Chela was battling hard, the essential differences were that Chela didn't confirm his breaks of serve in the second set and Kiefer was playing at a very high level and had the greater variety of shot and this told in this match and it was a very good match to watch.

Hrbaty/Davydenko: Another potentially long match and this potentially was the case, though the fact Hrbaty lost a 5 setter was very surprising especially after leading 2 sets to love.

Hrbaty started very well and was in control and handled everything and was just hitting very good length and bossing the points and the PMK was getting run around and lost the first two sets comfortably. Then Hrbaty gets a break in the 3rd set and there was the possibility of something strange happening as in a three set win for Hrbaty.

After he was a break down the PMK decided to step up the pace and was going for a bit more and it was working and Hrbaty just dropped his level a bit and it was enough for the PMK to get the next 2 sets back, though even in the back of mind I thought Hrbaty would win and when he took an early break in the 5th, it was something that I thought would happen.

Too his credit the PMK mixed it up a bit and hit some short shots to get Dom out of his comfort zone and it worked and was able to keep going ahead and served it out to make the quarter finals again. Dom could get away with it by playing poorly against Dick Norman, but it wasn't good enough against a better opponent.

Nalbandian/Robredo : From all reports thanks Jimbo and Sammy this was an excellent performance from Nalle especially the first 2 sets as he was showing his talent in moving the ball so effortlessly and making Boredo do a multitude of running and defensive work and the points ended in Nalle passing shots or errors from Boredo who was being outplayed clearly.

He had a lapse in the third set, but when it came down to business in the fourth set, Nalle got focused and tough and ran through Boredo easily and showed his superior talent, just hope that he can get over his AO quarter final block and do some justice to his talents.

Baghdatis/Roddick: This was a very interesting match, well moreso before this match. I spoke to my boys from last year and we were feeling very relaxed about this match, almost confident about the result of this, it was a rare feeling. I mean Marcos had nothing to lose in this match and he isn't scared of playing the top players and has a tactical brain unlike his opponent.

The first set began and Roddick was like the big bad wolf, he came in huffing and puffing and hitting his big serves and Marcos was his languid self as usual and he had a very good strategy of blocking and chipping a lot of the returns and then getting into the rallies from where he was in the better position to win it and then when he has a break point in the 1st set, he takes it and holds for the set.

Roddick starts firing up and Marcos had a lapse and runs through second set easily, but even then there wasn't any panic and Marcos is playing his game returning so well and outrallying Roddick from the back of the court, hitting to his forehand and then making him backhand passes and he is not going to make many of those in pressure situations and this came through.

Marcos is varying the speed of the shots some high ones and low ones and moving the ball around very well and that outstanding forehand with the big acceleration was coming into play as was his backhand, plus Marcos in difficult situations served so well and ended up outacing Roddick in the end.

The bemused look on Roddick's face was great and what was even better when the dickhead abused the people in the Baghdatis Player Box in the 4th set. He missed a first serve and one of the uncles said yes, but he didn't clap and then Marcos wins the point and breaks and they start cheering and then Roddick hand over the mouth looks up at the them and lets rip with a few words that had fuck in them, see what a gracious guy he is under pressure, got to love that Roddick.

The Greek and Cypriot fans were fantastic in this match and they were singing all the time and Marcos was singing along with them as well when he was waiting to receive the serve and was very relaxed and the atmosphere was carnival like from the Marcos fans and the Ducks were just stunned and it was beautiful, they took him lightly and didn't expect that Baghdatis could win and that made it better. Jim "Dickhead" Courier with his after match interview got put in his place with some cheeky comments from Baghdatis.

After the match it was a great atmosphere, with plenty of singing and dancing and caught up with some of the guys afterwards at one of the Greek restaurants in town and there was a lot of fun to be had and great times to be had.

Santoro/Ferrer : What a contrast in styles this was and a great performance from Fabrice. He was just running everything down and giving no pace to Ferrer, who was hitting the ball well, but was pressing too much and Santoro's junk was too much for Ferrer who made a lot of errors and was up breaks of serve and I thought he would win this match, but alas it wasn't to be.

This is great for Santoro and he is so unique and there will never be another like him and he won't be around for a while and I will miss him. The dropshots, the sneaky spins, the volleys and he even looks like something besides a tennis player.

More updates tomorrow, this one has taken too long.

Fabrice "the Gnome" Santoro, What a Player, and causing torment Third Round Report

Trying to get these reports done isn't easy, though I am not about to fail to deliver something.

Gaudio vs Santoro : This match had a lot of potential to be something good and it didn't disappoint and the only thing that was disappointing was the end result and there is a very simple reason as to why Santoro won this match and it isn't rocket science as to why.

Both players were hitting the ball very well, albeit very differently as no one is like Santoro and the full variety of junk, slice and spin was revelling and Gaudio was there doing it differently. The games were close initially and Gaston had some break points, but he was not able to convert and Santoro was able to do it and was in control with winning the first 2 sets and having a break in the 3rd.

The interesting thing about this match was that even though Gaudio was behind, he didn't seem to be tanking and was interested in playing to the end and had every reason to be, as he was far from being out of this match and was in a lot of the rallies, just not converting.

It was a very entertaining match for sure and the angles and defence that Santoro was producing was outstanding and Gaudio has improved his forehand for sure and he decided to be more aggressive with his shots and forehand as well and was able to take the next 2 sets with his excellent play.

There were many memorable shots in this match and two in particular stand out and one for Gaudio and the other for Santoro. The Gaudio one was off a great rally between them that had dropshots, angles, lobs and then two "hotdog" shots and then Gaudio pulls off the no look drop volley going the other way and then Fab bowed to him.

The next one was even better, though very cheeky. Gaston hits a short second serve and then Santoro gets on one leg, takes his hand off the racquet and then hits a backspinning dropshot that bounces once and then hits the net and he wins the point.

Coming into the last set Gaudio gets the early break and is being aggressive and then afterwards, he retreats in his shell and then Santoro decides to make more of the play and gets the break back and then after all the break points that Gaudio has had, he all of a sudden can't get close to Santoro's serve and Gaudio has to fight so hard to hold serve.

While serving to stay in the match at 4-5 down, he gets tentative and hardly makes a first serve into court and on hardcourt his second serve is fairly weak and can get attacked and he can't live off this and Santoro makes him pay for being tenative when it counts and takes out the victory in this highly entertaining match.

The basic lessons are in tennis are these 3 things.

1. Only the W or L counts in the results.
2. Once a player breaks serve, it's not a break unless it's held.
3. Though shall take advantage of break point opportunities.

In this match number 3 was very important, especially as Santoro had 8/14 and Gaudio had 7/25 that's the essential difference.

Ancic/Ferrer: For this match big Sammy was the reporter and as a Croatian unlike most of the others he has realistic expectations for Ancic and doesn't expect him to be the next Ivaniseic unlike many others. Ferrer was very solid and it's clear that he has improved from what I have seen already, especially on the backhand side and the work ethic is something that is never in doubt with him.

Tactically Ancic was at a loss here, he didn't seem to know which particular one to use unlike the Calleri match. He wasn't being as aggressive as he could be and he can't outplay from Ferrer from the baseline especially when Froggy is in the groove and he wasn't getting into the net as much as he should. There is a touch of Henman about Ancic, he is a nice enough guy, but the hopes in him could be unrealistic and at times he seems to passive to win the big points and big matches, but this was a very good win for Ferrer and he makes the 4th round for the first time in a hardcourt Slam.

Nieminen/Nalbandian : Nalle and the Shark don't have easy one sided matches and this one was no different. When I saw this draw, this one had the potential 5 setter written all over it. At the same time I felt disappointed for Jarkko as I would like to see have seen him gone further, though Nalle has a better chance in the tournament, so that's why I wanted Nalle to win.

The first set Nieminen was playing very well and hopefully he can continue to be more aggressive now, as this adds to his very good tennis brain and also his excellent defensive skills. He took it easily 6-2 and had a break at 2-0, then Nalle digs in and in their matches there is always going to be a lot of service breaks, especially as they are both good on the return, it's just when they happen that is the key.

Nalle lifts his game and starts to dominate the rallies from the back and is moving around the Shark and takes the next 2 sets quite easily and then Jarkko steps it up in the 4th set and gets the break and thinking here we go time for a 5 setter between these two and at least I can cheer for both guys which makes it easier. There was one game that had at least 15 deuces and then Nalle gets the break back and was able to break again and then serve out the match, he is ready to take this title, it's just a question of whether he can maintain it for 7 matches.

Ljubicic/ FLopez : The best thing about this match was that Ljubo gave dickhead LaLo a bagel and as a match per se it wasn't that great. LaLo served well this is true for the first two sets, but Ljubo was better all round and all he had to do was play his game and that would have been good enough to win and it was.

The best thing was the fans giving it to LaLo in the last set and he is such a pretty boy and a prick, but great to see him lose a set to love. After the match point when he went off the court, he looked at these group of fans and gave him "the son of a bitch' insult in Spanish at least twice, you look so pretty when you pout LaLo.

Mathieu/Horna : Lucho started out very well in the heat and had total control of this match, that is why this result is so surprising. He was hitting very well and keeping good length and controlling the rallies and takes a 5-2 lead with two breaks and then plays an Acasuso game and then gets broken again and ends up in a tiebreaker. It shouldn't happen in mens tennis leading with 2 breaks in a set and end up losing, but Paulo played with freedom and stepped it up and Lucho was making the errors.

After belting ball out of court, then Lucho continues in the same way as in the first set, he was dominating the rallies with the forehand and running Paulo around and then the same thing happens as in the 1st set, a combination of meathead play from Horna and Paulo going for it more, he got the break back and ended up in the tiebreaker again. In this tiebreaker Horna had a set point, but Paulo saved it. The turning point in this one was at 7 all and they were having a big rally and then Paulo hits a great dropshot and then forehand pass and wins the set.

Lucho calls for the trainer at the start of the 3rd, but if he won those 2 sets, then there would be no trainer there at all, this Paulo gets inspired and only hits 2 unforced errors in the set and runs away with the match. All in all a good tournament for Lucho, though this result is disappointing and as for Paulo he came into this tournament with nothing in the way of performances and made the 4th round at worst.

Hrbaty/Andreev: The Dominator and Andreev this one had 5 setter written all over it. Didn't get to see all of this match, but basically what it came down to is that the Dominator's superior conditoning got him over the line in the extreme heat and there were plenty of punishing rallies in this match and this told on Andreev in the end. The thing I noticed that Igor was more backhands than usual and this is a sign of tiredness as he didn't have the energy to run into the corner to hit those heavy forehands.

In the 5th set, he had a huge chance to go 5-1 up after having a break point, but couldn't convert it and then Hrbaty just focused and used his superior fitness against a tiring and wilting Andreev and was keeping Igor running around and at the end, the match point was a letdown as Dom just served one down the middle and Igor couldn't move and another fine win for Hrbaty, this is all good physical fitness training for him.

Healey/Davydenko: Plenty of pissed Aussies in the crowd gave this one a bit of atmosphere and PMK was a bit irritated with it, but he just did what he needed to do to win. Healey was trying to match it from the baseline and he had no chance of winning from there, but the question for him was whether he could get to the net on anything good and couldn't do that often enough, as for the PMK, he just keeps going on and on, he hasn't been near his best, but he is getting the job done and will be tough for Hrbaty.

Gremelmayr Rocks the Second Round

Due to some difficulties the reports have dried up, but now they will come back in full force.

The second round festivities were interesting to say the least, like anything threre was some good results and some crap ones, but this is life as we know it.

Gaudio vs Burgsmuller: Nothing really to say here, except that Gaudio should be beating people like Burgy in straight sets and it was a solid performance and that's all it was and he really needs to step it up, he has shown his talent, but at the same time with him it depends on the mood and it would great if the arseclowns of the world understand that people are wired differently.

Baghdatis vs Stepanek: This was a match that when I saw the draw thought Marcos had a huge chance of winning and it was on first and the best thing is that it was on an outside court, when it could have been easily put on the Vodafone arena at least, but it works out better as the Greek and Cypriot fans could make more noise and sit together and they were a factor in this match for sure.

Marcos started very well and was getting the forehand going and it was very warm and Radek is a very crafty player and had the dropshot going a lot of the time, even more than usual as it was a tactic to try and tire Marcos out. Marcos takes the first 2 sets with some excellent shots, but Stepanek looks quite fresh and won't go away in the heat. Then Stepanek steps the level and Marcos gets a bit lazy with the footwork as can happen when a bit tired from the heat and in the 4th set Stepanek starts stepping into the ball more and is hitting very clean from the baseline and moving to the net to finish the point well.

Come to the 5th set, this was when Marcos needed his fan group and boy did they step it up, every point they were cheering hard and managed to irritate Stepanek to an extent. Marcos gets a break and then loses it, but the standard of play is very good and one thing I have to say about Stepanek, he is of the school when the other player is at the net, drill it hard at them and there isn't anything wrong with this. It is a direct contrast to Baghdatis who is very respectful on court when it comes to that and maybe it was the stress of the situation, but there weren't many hip gyrations from the Stepanek and that was disappointing to say the least.

The Greek fans and these 2 guys that I know that were with him last year are getting very excited when he broke Stepanek and they were encouraging him so much and if it was not for them, then Marcos would have lost this match as he did have some heat stress. It is interesting to see how different people react in match situations, especially the ones watching, but when Marcos won the match, it was great, the big smile was there and went straight over to the fans and did the mini wave and both players got a standing ovation and Stepanek thanked the Greek fans who did applaud him at the end, but there were a few dickheads who tried to boo, but a good result for Marcos and it's always fun to see him play.

Gremelmayr vs Ginepri: Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, this proves what a fool Ginepri he is and if he was called a knucklehead, that would be a compliment. The only bad thing about this match was that I couldn't see it, though it was on the court next to me, this reporter chose to over the Baghdatis match.

At the same time there were some definite things about this match. One, someone who is ranked in the top 20 when leading 2 sets to love and 4-1 in the 3rd set against a qualifier should not be losing in 5 sets. It was difficult as I could see the score on the other court and could only celebrate inwardly as the Baghdatis match was on and it would be the height of absurdity to scream out and cheer while the match you are watching is going on and is at a tense moment. When the words game, set and match came Gremelmayr over the speaker, it was like jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, that piece of rubbish has been knocked out of the tournament and done in such a way that it was comical to the extreme.

Oli Rochus vs Luczak: An excellent performance from the likeable Aussie and he won a 5 setter and all the extra training proved to be worth it as it was his superior fitness against a tiring opponent and the fact he took his chances got him over the line in this one and a 3rd round showing here, has got him up to about # 115 in the rankings and just hope he can make that next step into the top 100.

Luczak was in all the sets and only lost the tiebreaks, which he has been playing a lot of them recently, but nothing against Oli at all, Luczak needed the win and hope this can be a springboard for him. He plays Haas who absolutely smashed Goldstein, which makes Nole's performance a lot worse than it was and it was a shocker.

Hrbaty v Norman: Another 5 setter for the big Hrbaty, but this is just a training run for him when it comes to fitness and in the heat he was always going to be the better player. Didn't get to see all of this match, but from what I was told from good sources that he was handling it all quite well, then he starts overhitting in the 3rd and 4th sets, plus big Dick Norman was hitting great serves and saving break points and got it to 5 sets and the Dom had the sexy shirt with the holes in it and with his small but vocal Slovak support they and his superior fitness carried him through his match and Norman put up an excellent performance, but the feeling of coming back from 2 sets down and then losing in the 5th must be pretty hollow, as it is shitty in the village level tennis that I play, magnify that as to what is at stake here and maybe the effect is minimally 50 000 times worse.

After the match Hrbaty comes down to the Heineken beer tent and buys about 16 fans drinks and he waited in line like everyone else and it was good to see the hardcore Hrbaty fans as always. Glenn the man who wears the afro wig, he has a high pain threshold if it's 15 degrees or 42 degrees he wears it and with Hrbaty matches they are minimal 3 and half hours, got to be hot in there. The family Hrbaty stays with are very nice and down to earth people and he gets looked after very well I imagine. When Miloslav Mecir used to play he stayed with the same Slovak family.

Nieminen v Wang: Just had a quick look at this one and the Shark was never in trouble here at all, he had too many guns for Wang who plays a similar game to Nieminen, except with less ability and once again he faces Nalle and I am disappointed that this is a third round match as these guys never ever have easy matches, just wished Nieminen could go further. By the way Kristen, if you are reading this Jarkko got the card and appreciated it and this comes from a very reliable source.

Simon v Berdych: Oh boy what a performance this was from Berdych. He served very poorly and is someone who needs a roof as the wind can't effect his serve. This plus the fact the footwork needs to be even better than usual in the wind and he was so upright in his shots and wasn't bending zi (the) knees at all, just contributed to a wretched performance and showed why at times he can be the Berdbrain.

Simon played very smartly and used the wind to his advantage and was totally changing his shots and accelerated through the ball at times leaving Berdych flatfooted and then later on he managed a few excellent topspin lobs over Berdych's head, but the Berdman is going to be up and down at this moment, but this was a bad loss for him in a match he should have won. I saw Jaroslav Navratil later on and he just shook his head, and at one time when Berdych was down to 32 per cent of first serves in and that will be lucky to be winning the Penguin challenger in Antarctica, let alone a second round of a Grand Slam match. There is still time for Berdych, it is not like the Mensa society who think after one match, he is a hero and then a dud.

Horna vs Phau: An excellent and outstanding performance from Lucho and clearly deserved to be in the 3rd round. He was serving well and just dominating with his forehand and wrongfooting Phau regularly and showed some of his ability and Phau didn't compete that well, the best thing about Phau was the legend Karsten Braasch was there and big Behrend as well and Katze has a lot of work to do, though it's only a short term thing.

Horna was being patient again and once he doesn't get too pissed off with himself, he has a good game and heavy forehand and will be a fun match with Mathieu. Paulo showed no form then beats that annoying prick Clement and Bogomolov. Yes, Becca Tulasne is the man, he is a different kind of cool to the Mr Deblicker, but I don't mind Thierry actually. If Mathieu wins it won't be a bad thing, just want Lucho to win though.

Tursunov v Robredo: Mad Tursunov well the erratic one blew this match, up a break in the 1st set and loses in the breaker, then wins the 2nd and plays some dumb points and gets done in the 3rd set. The first 3 sets were more on Tursunov's racquet, he is such an excellent ball striker and Boredo was just defending well, but once Boredo got the 3rd set, then he got confident and played an excellent last set, by hitting very good length and also attacking as well which is something he wasn't doing earlier, he was almost at the fence defending, but Tursunov was missing the shots. It will be interesting to see how he performs for the rest of the year, he has managed to get a coach who knows about strategy something Tursy isn' t the best on.

Horna and Chela Lay the Smackdown Tuesday report

This won't be in any particular order of the matches that were seen, but overall it wasn't a bad day.

The first match was Luis Horna and Gael Monfils. I missed the first set of this due to the usual problems with idiots at ticket collection, it's not difficult to spell my name correctly, but these idiots seem to stuff it up regularly.

Got there at the start of the second set and the Lucho was moving well and hitting some very good length on his shots and Monfils was metres behind the baseline and he really seemed a bit sluggish and Lucho is good enough to take advantage of this. It was more Lucho being the aggressor, but he was using his brains and being patient waiting for the opportunity to attack with his forehand and keeping good length with his backhand and he was moving to the net quite a lot as well on some high Monfils shots and while making a few errors he was able to make some good volleys.

After throwing away his service game at 5-4 serving for the set, they held serve and then Lucho broke Monfils to win 7-5 and if he kept his head and played the same game, he was into the next round and was good enough to do this. Monfils was trying, but Lucho was too strong and getting heaps of spin with his forehand and pinned him back and wrongfooted him a few times. Just hope he can actually think somehow and win his next match against Phau.

Juan Monaco against Lisnard, who is as bad as I remember him and he is lucky he has a competent backhand and that kept him in the match. Monaco was nervous at the start and then the wind picked up, but then he was able to show his superior skill and able to remain focused for long enough to beat this dickhead Lisnard and he had some very good support for this match and these are matches he needs to win and now plays Grosjean, he has nothing to lose in this match and just hope the team can keep him in a good frame of mind for this match.

Novak Djokovic v Goldstein: Well here is a lesson children, Christmas comes only once a year in theory and for today as Goldstein is Jewish, this is the equivalent of Hannukah. Djokovic played very poorly and Goldstein is a scrapper and did what he needed to and Nole gave away so many presents it wasn't funny, error after error was coming from his racquet and it was a poor performance in a match that he should have won, everything was on his racquet and the thing was coming from his racquet was errors. If a player wants to hit 70 unforced errors, at least be somewhere near that on the winner tally, which something he didn't do. It was more of those shake your head performance in amazement at not the amount of winners, more the amount of poor play, but Goldstein did what was necessary.

Karlovic v Dayvdenko: I didn't see this match, but from my co-reporter Sammy told me that Ivo played quite well and was able to break serve as there were no breakers in this 5 set match and Ivo's junk, high no pace slice backhand was pissing the PMK off to the extreme and him netting the ball, but Ivo dropped his guard at the start of the 5th and got broken straight away and PMK was strong enough to hold on and should do well in this tournament.

Seppi vs Tipsarevic: At the time I didn't realise this, but during the warm up Seppi had some problems with his back, but he needs to get a lot stronger to take it to the next level. This was a frustrating loss for Seppi, though this one didn't piss me off as much as the Acasuso one for some reason, maybe cause Andy was favoured to win or something.

There was a bit of needle there with Janko defending well and questioning a lot of calls and many of them with good reason and as for Seppi, it was similar to what happened to Nole. Seppi has the better game, but was pulling off the ball and making a lot of errors which is not the Seppi style and if he is doing that, then there is a huge chance he will lose. The Serbian fans were cheering loud for Janko and he fought very hard and deserved his win. I mean it's disappointing as Seppi had more chances of winning against Ferrero, but this is an improvement from 2005.

Great result by Mathieu, taking out that annoying piece of crap Clement and now he mustn't lose to Bogomolov Jr. Sammy is a huge fan of Mathieu and we saw Thierry Tulasne and Sammy told him he has high hopes for Paulo and won't give up on him and he is the man to take him up the rankings. I have to say he seems like a good guy and part of me wants a good result from him here.

Luczak is through and hope he can play out of his tree and beat Oli Rochus, he needs a breakthrough as well. Kiefer was too intelligent for the Srich and won going away. Björkman is getting better and he had a bad stomach bug, hence his shocking performance in the singles. Alberto Mancini is here and Zabaleta was watching the Monaco match.

The Bogomolov Jr/Gonzalez match well this was highly entertaining and humorous as well for a lot of reasons. I didn't get to see all this, but Feña was having some problems with his body and even served underarm at one stage, he was hitting a lot of dropshots and Bogo was fighting very hard and the Chileans made plenty of noise and were giving to Bogo.

Then in the 5th set, Bogo after winning a huge point gave it the big "come on" and Feña gave him a big glare and the crowd loved it for sure and they were getting into it. At the change of ends, Gonzo went over and had words with Bogo and Pacal Maria had to get down and step in.

Gonzo got tight and missed a forehand wide and Bogo won the match and a dejected Feña walked off and at least he waved to his fans and there was a standing ovation. After the match Alex throws his shirt in the crowd and towels. He went to the throw one in the Chilean direction and then he baulked and laughed.

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.