MELBOURNE—It’s shaping up to be a banner weekend for Australian tennis here, as well as a possible changing of the men’s guard. Last night, a Friday night, the main square in front of Rod Laver Arena was filled with families and couples stretched out on blankets, drinking wine, having a night out, watching Bernard Tomic on the big screen in front of them (see my Racquet Reaction on his victory here). Tonight it should be more of the same, as old man Lleyton Hewitt squares off against Milos Raonic in the most anticipated match-up of the tournament thus far.
What are the Aussie papers making of these boom times, or at least this boom moment? Here’s a look.
Links: *The Australian*; *Morning Herald*; *The Age*
Andy Murray, History Buff?
That's the surprising question that Murray poses at the start of his latest Australian column. The answer? Not as surprising, perhaps.
“Well, not quite," Murray admits, "but I’m definitely interested in great athletes of the past and what they’ve accomplished.”
Murray writes again of his love of boxing, and how much he enjoys the Goat debate in that sport. He admits that he saw very little tennis on TV as a kid other than Wimbledon, but that he’s getting a crash course in the 80s and 90s from the man who ruined them . . . I mean, one of that era’s stars, Ivan Lendl. Muzz concludes by saying that his favorite player to watch was Fabrice Santoro, and that the match-up he most wants to see today would be between Gael Monfils vs. Bernard Tomic. Junkball at the highest level.
Eye, Beholder
The Australian’s Patrick Smith returns with a column about yesterday’s forgotten men, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. He focuses, naturally, on the one memorable shot of their collective afternoon, Federer’s flip lob at set point that his opponent, Ivo Karlovic, muffed. Like Novak Djokovic's famous return of serve at last year’s U.S. Open, Federer’s lob has touched off a “Was it skill or was it luck?” debate. Smith, quoting the two players on the same shot, shows how far apart our viewpoints can be on the same subject:
Karlovic: “It is like, one in a hundred I’m going to lose that point. It was really unlucky. I didn’t really expect him to do that, but I was there. I just, how you say, miscalculate the jump. It was really unlucky.”
Federer: “Thank God, he gave me a second serve and a slight chance. Might have had a little bit of a lucky volley (Karlovic’s), but with quick reflexes at the net that can happen.
“Running up there," Federer continues, "I didn’t know what to do anymore. Probably left or right it’s going to go too slow and he’s going to slam it home. Let me try the lob, even though that’s not what you’re supposed to do against him. I got sort of the angle right and was able maybe to surprise him. We’re that close to each other, so it’s hard maybe to react.”
Same shot, two very different stories. In my opinion, the key phrase is Karlovic’s admission that he “didn’t expect [Federer] to do that.” That element of surprise was enough to make it something other than plain good luck for Federer. If they played that point 10 times, I’d say Karlovic wins it more than 50 percent of the time. But they won’t play it 10 times; they’ll never play it again.
Fed Up
Even more so than "Weekend with Bernie," that’s the popular headline of the day: In other words, Roger Federer is up next for Tomic. Federer himself doesn’t seem all that concerned. Asked about the set he dropped to Tomic in Davis Cup this fall, Federer mostly shrugged:
“I was extremely tired,” he said, “from playing Lleyton [Hewitt] the first day, then the doubles, and coming from New York. So I don’t remember that much. It was just a blur for me. But I do remember that it was tough and tricky.”
As for Bernie, he says he's "glad I had a chance to play him once before this match." We'll see what he learned.
—The Herald reports that Vika Azarenka is “fine with the taunts of the crowd.” In her second-round match against Aussie Casey Dellacqua, Azarenka’s extended, peacock-like shriek was mimicked by some in the audience. “I have no problem with that at all,” a surprisingly understanding Azarenka claimed yesterday. “I know it’s going to happen. They wanted her to win bad. It doesn’t really bother me.”
It probably helped that Azarenka, who hadn’t been quite so calm in her third-round match yesterday, took an extra hour to settle down before coming into the interview room. She might not have been quite as mellow otherwise.
—Also in the Herald: You can’t say young Aussie Matthew Ebden doesn’t want it. What did he do after his five-set loss to Kei Nishikori on Thursday? “Went for a punishing run on the treadmill.”
“I can put more into every point, every game, every set,” an obviously crazy Ebden said.
—Yesterday TAB Spotsbet here received its biggest wager of the event thus far: $90,000 on Victoria Azarenka to beat Mona Barthel, at $1.10. Total collect: $99,000.
—Here’s the way the Herald, in its best Brit-tabloid imitation, assesses Lleyton Hewitt’s opponent tonight, Milos Raonic:
NEW GIANT TO RUN INTO THE GROUND
Rafa Still Likes Gluten
For its Saturday edition, the Age trots out a new column, “Devil’s Advocate.” Two nuggets:
Jim Courier’s on-court interviewing style is compared to both a “Vegas lounge greeter’s” and a “water-cooler Casanova’s.” I like Courier, but the latter phrase is pretty funny.
The Devil’s Advocate also notes that, “Someone has torqued up the effects microphones on court to an unprecedented degree of hyper-realism. Viewers who have long hankered for tennis shots to sound like the post-dubbed punches and kicks in a 1970s kung-fu movie will be particularly satisfied by this overdue development.”
It’s true, when I watch on my monitor in the press room, I feel like the ball is popping off my ears. I have to say I like it, though.
—Elsewhere in the Age, Martin Blake watches Julia Goerges and reports that, after her win, “A handful of young guys fought over the towel she threw over the fence.”
—Rafael Nadal continues his tradition of either blogging for, or answering fans’ questions in, every media outlet on earth.
Today Nadal is asked, “How may other languages do you speak?
Rafa: “Oh well, I try to speak English.”
“Don’t you think changing your diet might help you as it helped Novak?”
Rafa: “I don’t think there is a real need for that.”
Serve and . . . What?
We’ll close with our traditional return to Old England, to see what the folks at home are saying about their Dunblane Dynamo, Andy Murray.
After two matches in Melbourne, the *Sun*, with some prodding from Henri Leconte, has made its decision: Murray and his new mentor are the perfect match—the only possible match, in fact.
MURRAY’S DRIVEN BY COACH
Ivan Lendl is the only man on the planet who could help Andy Murray realize his dreams
—The *Daily Mail*, meanwhile, concentrates on Murray’s opponent today, Michael Llodra. It seems that the Frenchman—a real “nutter,” in Murray's words—is cooking up a diabolical and previously unheard of tactic to foil the Scot:
LLODRA REVEALS ‘SERVE AND VOLLEY’ PLAN TO WRECK MURRAY’S GRAND SLAM DREAM
Could have sworn I read that exact headline in the Onion recently . . .