Nice to see both of my girlfriends, Sorana Cirstea and Sabine Lisicki doing well. Been a rough couple of years but they’ve had my support the whole time. Errani and Kuznestova are both going down!
I’m hoping I can stay up late and watch a bunch of these matches this weekend, because it’s shaping up to be very good: Tomic vs. Federer, Raonic vs. Hewitt, Gasquet vs. Tipsarevic, even Djokovic vs. Mahut and Murray vs. Llodra or Nadal vs. Lopez could offer a little intrigue. On the women’s side there’s Clijsters vs. Na, Wozniacki vs. Jankovic, and Lisicki vs. Kuznetsova.
Djokovic just finished off Mahut 0+1+1 (nevermind that one being potentially intriguing) and it made me think about the way tennis has changed. It used to be that you had guys who could play all kinds of insane defense but who didn’t put that much oomph on the ball, and you had guys who hit tons of winners. Today the best players are crazy good on defense and cover the entire court. It hardly looks possible.
Meanwhile we’ve had some fairly big upsets on the women’s side: Zheng beat Bartoli (9) 3&3, and Makarova beat Zvonareva (7) 6&1.
One girlfriend down but the other came through in nice fashion. Don’t see any problems with Lisicki getting to the quarters, I mean, who’s even heard of this Sharapova girl anyway? Nope, no problem what so ever, you got this Sabine!
I don’t tend to watch much cricket as you can burn so much time, but I caught a bit of the game with Kim Clijsters last night. Is it my imagination or has she fined down a heck of a lot?
Guessing that means “slimmed down” - I thought the same thing.
Yes- that’s what I meant.
Maybe now she will fancy a fat middle aged man- okay so she won’t…
I live in hope.
I think Clijsters, Serena Williams, and Tsonga have all slimmed down quite a bit in recent months.
I’m a couple days late with my commentary, so bear with me for reporting on old news.
Isn’t Lisicki the one who always has to be carried off on a stretcher? If she can’t bear the heat, she picked an odd sport.
I thought that the chair umpire should have taken Nalbandian out to dinner prior to the Isner match since he screwed him up one side and down the other.
Isner’s head is too small for his body. Tell me you haven’t thought the same thing.
Wish I’d get to see Murray play every now and then.
I like Nike’s colors this year (Nadal, Sharapova).
Glad to see Lleyton’s run. I hope he enjoyed himself. His only shot at advancing is if Djokovic breaks his ankle. Possibly both ankles.
I miss Marat Safin. Sniff, sniff.
I wonder how much it rankles Djokovic, who had such a stellar year last year, not to mention the defending champion of this event, to have Nadal’s image standing in front of him on the Aussie Open ipad/ipod app graphic. Ditto for Clijsters standing behind Stosur.
Watched some of the Hewitt/Raonic match. No grunts or shreiks.
Hewitt looks “rode hard and put up wet”. He has got the face of a 60 yr old. Age 31. I always like the way he played the game and had mixed emotions that he won today. happy for him, sad for Raonic.
Raonic looks like he might be the next great male player if he continues to work hard. It would be great for Canada to have a world class tennis player atop of the rankings.
It would be a interesting prop bet of male players who have not won a Grand Slam event, which will be the next player to win two. I would think Raonic (ranked in the 20’s) would be close to being the favorite.
As a Canadian, I hope you’re right, but Djoker is only 24 and Del Potro is only 23. This is also ignoring Nadal. I happen to think he’ll break down just based on how much work he does and his injury history, but he still has a few years left in him.
If you are looking for an American, I think the hopes may be on Ryan Harrison. I happen to like him a fair bit, anyhow.
I don’t have high hopes as Clijsters seems to be on fire this tournament, but I’d love to see Wozniacki come through for her first major. I’ve seen a number of interviews and she seems like such a nice, friendly, person.
I like Caroline as well.
Wozniacki is dating Rory McIlroy who is ranked #3 in Mens Golf
Some other past male golfer/female tennis player relationships:
Sergio Garcia/Martina Hingis
Adam Scott/Ana Ivanovic
Raonic is very talented and has all the makings, but he’s still just 21 and needs more seasoning before he’s going to win a major. The winner in any poll like this would probably be Murray and the runner up would be Tsonga. Tsonga has been to several major semifinals and one final, and Murray has lost (albeit timidly) in three major finals. Raonic is going to have his day, though, and so could Tomic. And there are some other really promising players working their way up.
Clijsters just saved three match points during a tiebreak with Na, and she broke Na’s serve to start the third set.
At the risk of being obvious:
Greg Norman/Chris Evert
Noted.
I was going for active players.
Glad I taped the overnight matches because ESPN2 just out and out canceled their recap show in favor of a multi-hour Joe Paterno special.
Federer gave Bernard Tomic a nice lesson in “the next level” tennis. I cringed at some of his comments during the post-match interview with Courier. He just has no idea how arrogant he sounds.
Berdych was a dick to Almagro by not shaking his hands after getting hit on the shoulder. I hope Nadal aims for his face. Well, no I don’t, but it would serve him right.
I knew Feliciano wouldn’t beat Nadal, but I was hoping for a better match. Guess there was no fuel left in the tank.
I was shocked to wake up and see the Clijsters finished the match after rolling her ankle. Wonder how it’s feeling today. I really like both players and felt bad for Li Na.
Once again, I wish I’d be able to see Murray play every now and then. He’s top 4 but gets no pub.
Some good matches are in store. Hope someone, anyone, can make Djokovic break a sweat.
Wozniacki’s match was a snooze fest.
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No kidding. We lose a whole day of coverage because of his death. Odd.
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What did Tomic say post-match?
Do you really think Federer was arrogant in the post-match? I heard it live and thought he was as fair as he could be. The crowd certainly thought so. He was complimentary and fair to Tomic without downplaying how well he himself had played.
I know he doesn’t hold back when he thinks he’s played well but I don’t get the “arrogant” vibe from him. In any case, hard to oversell yourself with 31 consecutive quarter finals and 16 majors.