I don’t see a thread about the '08 Aussie Open, so I’ll start one:
Women’s side
Serena Williams is looking very good.
Venus is a little shaky, but both have proven that they can come back strong.
Justine, Justine, Justine…why don’t you wear a sleeveless shirt every now and then? Those cap sleeves and confining sports bra do nothing for your figure.
Sharapova’s serve is looking very sharp. I’m looking forward to her playing one of the Williams sisters.
Men’s side
Federer is looking rock solid. That one point (if you saw it, you know what I mean) between him and Fabrice Santoro was magnificent. I was rooting for Fabrice.
How can I possibly choose between Safin, the sexy headcase, and Baghdatis, the charismatic whippersnapper?
Nadal needs to quit beating the hell out of his body.
Gooooooooooooo Spadea!
Overall
Pepperspraying a rowdy crowd? Bad form, Aussies.
What’s up with the ESPN/TTC coverage? Can’t we just pick one and stick with it???
I love Martina Navratilova’s commentary. She’s so brutally yet innocently honest with the players. (“Venus, what are you going to do about that crappy serve?”)
I wish I didn’t have to work so early and could watch more, but this weekend figures to be a tennisgasm for me.
Federer, from the little I saw, looks great, and certainly not like a guy who just got over a case of food poisoning. He crushed Santoro, and that’s a pretty tough guy to draw in the second round.
I particularly wish I’d seen more than a few minutes of Baghdatis-Safin. I would really like to see Baghdatis return to form, and his next match (Hewitt) should also be very interesting, and the winner should get Djokovic. Ouch.
If Sharapova is serving well, her psyche should hold up and she would be hard to beat. I look forward to examining that.
Nadal… yeah. It’s hard to imagine him staying healthy and having a long career. He plays such a hard style and even his early round matches seems to last a long time. He’s always tired out by the end of the season.
I think it blows that Federer probably will have to play Djokovic before the final- I don’t care what the rankings are, there’s no way Nadal should be a second seed on a non clay surface.
So would I. Was it two years ago that he made a name for himself in Australia? I was drawn in by his smokin’ hot girlfriend at the time, but he subsequently won me over.
I’m having a lot of trouble getting into tennis so far this tournament; I’m usually watching hours a day like a mental patient. And there’s a writer’s strike! I think the reason is because my beloved Giants are still in action, which is depressingly rare this time of year.
So far I caught about three games worth of the Sharapova/Davenport match, and one set worth of the Baghdatis/Safin match. Didn’t see any of the Federer match, but that particular highlight was in heavy rotation on ESPN. Very impressive.
Yeah, amazingly that was two years ago. He has a really fun style of play and a lot of charm, but he’s done little to follow up on that run, so now he’s got this draw of death. I guess he’s unlikely to make it past Djokovic. If he does that well, maybe he can start putting things together and carry it into other tournaments. New York really wants to get behind that guy. If he ever plays well at the Open he’ll get a lot of love.
Wow. That’s a stunning loss - not as bad as Gilles Muller, but very surprising - but I don’t agree with your assessment. Despite his shortcomings he’s been about the third best player in the world over the last four years. I’d say that qualifies as elite.
Depends on your definition of elite. He was never going to be an all-time great, but after Federer and Nadal, he’s been the consitent #3 player. Djokovic looks better now, for sure, but we’ll see how well he holds onto that spot. Is Roddick not elite at #6?
He’s been to three major finals, although his performance at the slams has gotten inconsistent; his ranking has slipped a little and he’s running into stronger competition at earlier rounds. He did just lead the U.S. team to that Davis Cup win. It sounds like didn’t play poorly at all and lost a great match today - not the kind of choke that got him ridiculed at the U.S. Open in 2005. Kohlschreiber isn’t a nobody.
Hmmm… well, he beat Youzhny at the U.S. Open last year, that’s probably the biggest one. Youzhny isn’t a big name either, but he made the semifinals at the U.S. Open the previous year.
But I’ve been seeing his name in the slam draws for years, so he’s not an upstart nobody, and he did manage to grab the #29 seed. I see that he came into the Australian off a tournament win, too. It looks like Kohlschreiber is peaking right now, since he’s at his best-ever ranking.
The funny thing about Roddick is that his game has improved a lot, but he’s got nothing in particular to show for it. He used to just be a forehand and a serve. Now his backhand has improved a lot, and he plays much better at net. His accuracy on serve is still excellent, it’s not just his power. But the competition is getting better and some of them are more complete players, nevermind whatever mental issues Roddick might have.
I think Roddick’s problem is that he’s simply not a strategic player. He’s developed an incredible serve and is working very hard at developing the other parts of his game. But he just doesn’t have that innate ability on the court that the great players have. He doesn’t know how to change up HIS game to react to his opponent’s game. He can just hit the ball really well. And that’ll get you far, but not to the very top. Not with Federer sitting there.
John Isner is falling into the same trap, which is over-relying on his serve and not developing his overall game. That explains why he just got his butt handed to him by Santoro. On paper, Isner should have creamed Santoro – he’s far younger, more fit, and has incredible shots. But Santoro is waay smarter. His instincts on the court are incredible. Roddick simply falls apart when faced against someone who’s smarter, but not necessarily as powerful as him, on the court. At its best, tennis is a cat and mouse game. Roddick is a big saber toothed tiger who can’t figure out what to do with anything other than another saber toothed tiger.
Agreed on the sad irony of Roddick’s successes decreasing as his skillset improves. That has to be frustrating. And Lisa, good analysis of Roddick’s issues. I’d buy that for a dollar.
That’s a very good analysis of Roddick indeed. I was able to watch a little of the match this afternoon on ESPN2, and it’s not like Kohlschreiber was beating Roddick on strategy. He was just playing better, and in particular he was using the angles. Other than mental toughness issues (but those are mostly against Federer), Roddick’s big problem actually seemed to be a lack of offense. I’ve heard commentators say that his forehand doesn’t zing quite the way it used to, and where he was hitting solid groundstrokes, Kohlschreiber would just go for more and blast winners. His backhand was excellent, and everything else was working. He played a great match from the baseline, and he was effective at net when he had to be. Roddick still plays too defensively sometimes, standing behind the baseline and not opening up the court. He does a lot of things better these days, but against the best players, he doesn’t seem to know when augment sound play with aggressive offense.
Let’s see… the Williams sisters are out, Roddick is out, Blake is out. So no Americans left in the Open.
All my favorites are gone except Djokovic. Rafa was handily whipped by Tsonga, who is en fuego! Marat Safin, the sexy head case, went out at the hands of another favorite, Marcos Baghdatis.
My husband wants to know who the blonde was that was cheering Hewitt on. His wife has gone brunette.
Blake played as well as he could vs. the Federer machine. I hope Tsonga can keep the level of his game up. I’d love to see Federer outplayed for once.
Sharapova is looking as sharp and focused as I’ve ever seen her. I still don’t like her but I don’t think she can be beaten when she’s playing at the top of her game. She had Henin running all over the place.
Jankovic needs to give her body a break and come back another day.
On to important matters:
I can appreciate Venus trying to create a reasonably priced tennis line, but I can’t stand the cap sleeves on her shirts. And her shorts are waaaay too short for the average bear.
Not into Roger’s all black look. Black socks and black shoes…? Blech.
I don’t understand why Sharapova’s visors has little gold stars on just the one side.
Not a fan of Ivanovic’s outfit, which has a weird seam which encircles her boobs. It’s not attractive.
The Spot Shot seems off for this tourney. Sometimes the balls look within centimeters of the line and Spot Shot shows it being several inches out.
Djokovic looked really terrific against Ferrer the other night. Tonight’s match with Federer should be very good - whoever wins is going to be a heavy favorite in the final. It’s amazing how fast Tsonga has found his form; he showed some promise last year, but this is pretty remarkable. We’ll see if he can sustain this, or if he follows in the footsteps of Baghdatis and Gonzalez.
