It’s Monday in Australia, and the first round started a little while ago. Here’s the men’s singles draw and the women’s singles draw. Things are as confusing ever on the women’s side, and for the men Djokovic has to be a big favorite - but there’s some buzz around Tsonga right now. He may be pulling his game together. Federer could meet Del Potro in the fourth round and Nadal in the semis, either or both of which could be great.
For the first time since 2005, Nadal and Federer can not meet in the final. I almost think Federer would prefer Nadal in the semis to Djokovic at this point.
Very impressive win by Tomic. He was down two sets against Verdasco but came back to take it 7-5 in the fifth. He gets Querrey next, and he should win that match if he’s not too worn out. He looked alright at the end. It’s starting to look like Dolgopolov could be the first big upset victim.
I don’t know- on the one hand, Nadal isn’t at his best physically and it’s a hard court. It’s true that it was starting to feel like Federer played Djokovic at the semis in every tournament, but he did beat him at the French and had match points against him in the U.S. Open, so it’s not like he couldn’t compete.
I’m just itching to see if Djokovic can keep up his awesome streak and win both a Career and Grand Slam in 2012.
IMO, Fed is not going to be a contender anymore. I’ll be surprised if he makes it past the semis this year in a Grand Slam.
The jury is still out on Nadal. He’s hungry to win, but hasn’t changed his game up in order to out-master Djokovic. To beat Djokovic, he needs to become way more offensive and quit thinking he can win on the baseline. Djokovic has way more variety to his game, plus he has the confidence to win.
Murray is the wild card this year. On paper, a partnership with Ivan Lendl seems smart because Murray has the game to go toe to toe with Djokovic. It’s all about his mental toughness. I’d love to see Murray have a break through year and have 4 really strong men in the top 5.
As far as the women’s game goes, I’m rooting for Sam Stosur because she’s playing in front of the home crowd. Kim Clijsters pulled out of Melbourne a week or so ago, so not sure if she’ll be physically strong. I want Azarenka to lose asap because of her shrieking. And I hope Serena gets her ass kicked by some no-name player because otherwise it’ll be difficult to fit her, and her ego, into a plane for the ride home.
I’m not predicting him to win or anything, but did you see Federer post-US Open last year? He was playing at the top of his game. And he won the year-end championship.
Ya’ know what? I will predict something.
Federer will win a major this year.
Write it down, folks. Mahaloth predicted it.
OK, so it’s not the craziest prediction ever, but I’m still calling it.[ul]
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Good to see a traditionally strong British showing at a tennis Grand Slam. I think everyone from the UK who played today lost in straight sets.
You’re a contender if you’re making it to the semis. Federer would need some things to go right, like a favorable draw and a weak showing from the guys ahead of him. But in those conditions it wouldn’t be impossible.
Djokovic isn’t exactly one to approach the net either. I agree Nadal is looking for answers and doesn’t seem very confident that he can figure out what to do against Djokovic. I think the bigger concern for Nadal right now is his health: even before the Australian, he announced he was going to take February off to rest his shoulder, and now he’s got problems with his knee. He got it together yesterday, but if his knee hurts and he’s playing someone who can run him around, it could be a problem.
I see Dolgopolov managed to turn things around last night and win in five sets. The closest thing to a big upset for the men was Ivo Karlovic beating Jurgen Meltzer. A couple of low seeds lost on the women’s side, but none were ranked higher than Pennetta (19). I see people are focusing on Roddick as a candidate for an upset loss tonight. He’s playing Robin Haase, who has a very big serve himself. Tune in for Roddick’s mohawk, if nothing else.
Stosur lost. That must be a big Buzz kill for the Aussies.
This sounds like it could be really serious for Mats Wilander.
That’s another disappointing loss for Stosur, yes. I had hoped she was over those since she just won a major, but I guess playing in Ausatralia is always going to be difficult for her. That being said, Cirstea is pretty good. She’s only 21 and she’s been ranked in the top 25, although she’s ranked around 60 now.
Djokovic played incredibly well yesterday. Nadal is still not looking up to beating him. Federer looked very sharp. Didn’t get to see Murray’s match.
Stosur losing is a major disappointment. A slimmed-down Clijsters may well win again, though Azarenka and Kvitova looked good. Sharapova was super aggressive, but those double fault spurts are going to pose many more problems against an opponent who can hold serve.
Can’t believe Pennetta is out already. She’s one of my favorite players. Haven’t seen Wozniacki in a long time.
Harrison was playing well and being aggressive at the beginning, but it looked like Murray was getting on track and Harrison’s level was coming down. I fell asleep around the end of set 2, and it looks like Murray cruised after that.
Mardy Fish could be a few minutes away from a second-round loss to Alejandro Falla, the guy who almost knocked out Federer in the first round at Wimbledon in 2010. Fish just broke to even up the third set, but Falla won the first two.
Schiavone is out. Well, damn.
Kvitova and Ferrer both got pushed to the maximum, but managed to get through. Vania King (US) beat Pavlyuchenkova, which is a big win for her. Serena and Zvonareva won, and most of the top players got through easily. Raonic also won, and he’ll get the winner of Hewitt-Roddick.
After a minor stumble in round 1, Murray makes it through easily in his match.
At this point, as with all GS, the war is largely phony and everything gets much more interesting in week 2. Nevertheless, looking forward to Roddick-Hewitt and the winner of that versus Raonic which should be interesting matches (especially if Hewitt feels the force of the crowd and gets past Roddick). Similarly looking forward to Tomic-Dolgopolov. The Aussie crowd can really project the excitement through the TV imo.
Tomic - meh. Reminds me far too much of a spoiled brat. Pat Cash anyone?
Roddick retired from the match after hurting his leg, so Hewitt gets through. It should be interesting to see if his experience can get him past Raonic’s power and athleticism.
Eh? I think he comes across as quite reserved. He keeps his cool when points don’t go his way. I saw McEnroe play at the World Tennis Challenge last week, now there is someone who (still) comes across as a spoiled brat!
Stupid Tennis Channel! Sadly, I don’t have much available time to watch the open this year (having to earn a paycheck sucks!), so I watch a little bit whenever I can. Last night Serena’s match was on, as always, she was kicking the crap out of her early round opponents. Tennis channel cuts to a couple of other matches, one of which was Tsonga’s match. I was thrilled, I love love love watching Tsonga play! They showed about 5 minutes of the match and then back to Serena. Bleah.
Turned it on this afternoon, yep, showing the replay of Serena’s match.
I have nothing against Serena, but would it kill Tennis Channel to show some of the other matches!!
Today I got to see Roddick retire 3 times thanks to the myopic coverage. Luckily, I taped the overnight coverage, so I got to see Sloane Stephens v. Kuznetsova. Great, high quality tennis.