!Lopezvmuller_2By TW Contributing Editor, Ed McGrogan
Note: Please treat this post as an Australian Open Crisis Centre. Regarding comments, please try and keep them on topic, and tennis-related -- thanks.
Last Week's Tournaments
Heineken Open (ATP - Outdoor Hard - Auckland, New Zealand)
Singles: Juan Martin del Potro def. Sam Querrey
Doubles: Martin Damm/Robert Lindstedt def. Scott Lipsky/Leander Paes
Medibank International (ATP & WTA - Outdoor Hard - Sydney, Australia)
Men's Singles: David Nalbandian def. Jarkko Nieminen
Men's Doubles: Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan def. Daniel Nestor/Nenad Zimonjic
Women's Singles & Doubles
- Elena Dementieva def. Dinara Safina
- Su-Wei Hsieg/Shaui Peng def. Nathalie Dechy/Casey Dellacqua
Moorilla Hobart International (WTA - Outdoor Hard - Hobart, Australia)
Singles & Doubles
- Petra Kvitova def. Iveta Benesova
- Gisela Dulko/Flavia Pennetta def. Alona Bondarenko/Kateryna Bondarenko
This Week's Tournaments
(TV Schedule)
Australian Open (ATP & WTA - Outdoor Hard - Melbourne, Australia)
Men's Singles Bracket
Women's Singles Bracket
Men's Doubles Bracket
Women's Doubles Bracket
Website
Beyond the Bracket
As many of you know, I'm manning the TENNIS.com ship stateside, while fellow webmaster Abby Lorge enjoys the sun and sport Down Under. That means I'll be putting in some pretty odd hours for the next two weeks. Last night required a 7 pm - 2 am shift, and I anticipate doing the same tonight.
I haven't done a live blog in a while (my last efforts were on Gasquet & Racquet, and from last year's Davis Cup tie between France and the U.S.), so I think tonight is as good a time as any to do another. There's lots of matches to discuss, and the good vibes from the tournament's opening days are still prevalent. Few things compare to the opening day of a Slam, in my opinion. So check back here for some commentary on Day 2.
Speaking of Gasquet and Racquet, three years ago - to the day - I wrote this post while laboring at my old day job. Three years later, I'm working for the best tennis publication in the world. I'm truly blessed; thanks to everyone who helped along the way.
4:46 PM - The live blog will start early, after I discovered that YouTube had a clip of this really fun point from last night's Federer/Seppi match. (I couldn't wait to show you all.) I'm just watching the match for the first time now on television, and it was a treat to see for the first time. Now I'm going to watch it many more times.
Reminds me of a point that Federer hit in the 2006 French Open. (I believe that was the year.) Some of you Federer nuts will know what I'm referring to.
4:59 PM - Looking at the schedule of play, I'm very surprised to see that Lleyton Hewitt's match with Fernando Gonzalez was not given the nighttime treatment. But maybe tournament organizers suspect that it will be another 4+ hour encounter, and just want to ensure proper sleep. I'm hoping for another (long) classic. For fans, patience through five sets at Grand Slam matches is often rewarded with a memorable contest.
That's the match of the day, but there are some other interesting "last on Court XX" matches: Blake/Dancevic (Margaret Court Arena), Ljubicic/Kunitsyn (Court 13), and Stakhovsky/Clement (Court 14). Also appearing last on Court 7 is Melanie Oudin, who qualified for the main draw. The young American plays Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan.
5:47 PM - Great sign spotted in the crowd: "Have my babies Roger". In case you're wondering, it wasn't Mirka holding it up.
7:42 PM - Dementieva's match with Kristina Barrois is being shown on Tennis Channel right now, with Barrois up an early break (4-1). Barrois is a tall girl with a one-handed backhand, neither of which are in great supply on the women's tour. It's a welcome sight, and she's taking it to Dementieva at the moment. I'm not saying this will be the match, but I feel that we're due for some kind of upset after a very ordinary Day 1.
Meanwhile at Rod Laver Arena, Andy Murray is having no trouble with the ancient Andrei Pavel (great adjective, Mr. Tignor), winning the first set 6-2. The upset won't be happening there.
7:54 PM - Also taking it to Dementieva is Martina Navratilova, from the commentary booth. The Patrick McEnroe of female announcers (a good thing), Martina correctly pointed out Dementieva's tenative nature in this opening set. But Barrois is doing her part too - she just hit a screaming backhand winner down the line to earn a 5-2 lead.
8:05 PM - Not so unexpectedly, Barrois failed to hold serve with the first set on her racquet. She didn't serve badly, but errors crept in during the ensuing rally. I won't give the set to Dementieva just yet - there have been five breaks of serve already in this match. Still, one gets the feeling that Barrois may have blown her big shot already.
Quickly, Dementieva holds for 5-5.
8:26 PM - Make that seven breaks of serve. After winning four straight games, Dementieva pulled a Barrois and failed to serve out the set. The No. 4 seed did, however, win the tiebreaker giving her the first set in one hour and five minutes.
Dementieva has the obvious advantage in groundstrokes against Barrois, and should win this match, but this is not the way to wait to start a campaign towards a maiden Slam title.
Andy Murray has gone through to the second round, after the ancient Andrei Pavel retired in the second set.
8:38 PM - Speaking of players who aren't playing up to their pre-tournament levels, Richard Gasquet, who reached the semifinals of Brisbane and Sydney, dropped the first set of his match to Diego Junqueira of Argentina. Gasquet has tumbled to the No. 24 in the world rankings after a brief stint in the Top 10.
8:50 PM - This is a good one. From Jon Wertheim's SI.com mailbag:
"Early candidate for the year's best/most distasteful headline: After Bernard Tomic won his first match, The Age of Melbourne declared "A Tomic bomb drops on Open."
More good tennis links: here, here, here, and here. They are parts 1-4 of the International Herald Tribune's Global Sports Forum. Read 'em all, they are worth your time.
Also, Barrois gets to serve for the second set against Dementieva at 5-2...
8:57 PM - In just 33 minutes, Barrois wins the second set. It was 2-2 about five minutes ago - I swear - and then it's over. Interesting third set coming up. Let's hope ESPN2, who takes over coverage in mere seconds, shows this instead of Serena's opening set. (I bet they don't.)
9:20 PM - Dementieva appears to have finally calmed down in this match; she holds a 4-0, double-break lead in the third set. But No. 9 seed Agnieszka Radwanska is down 4-0 (double-break) in the third set of her match against Kateryna Bondarenko. There's that upset I was looking for.
9:52 PM - The ESPN commentators will not stop talking about American tennis players. Whether it's the low number of Americans who qualified for the main draws, or the lack of men still alive in the tournament, or the lack of young women coming up the ranks, viewers are constantly subjected to the line that this is a "team" of Americans. No, it's not. Tennis is not a team sport, and not every American tennis fan pulls for every American player.
After mentioning that only four U.S. women qualified for the tournament, Mary Joe Fernandez said that, "thankfully we still have Venus and Serena." Please stop.
10:08 PM - Almagro/Massu, an outer court match, is headed for a fifth set, and looks like a dandy. Looks hot out there too.
10:26 PM - Hewitt fights off triple break point to start his match against Gonzalez, which I'm now being told was scheduled for the day session match per Hewitt's request (Lleyton embraces the heat).
Gonzalez's countryman Nicolas Massu is on his last legs against Nicolas Almagro; the Spaniard leads 5-2 in the fifth set. Almagro, one of the flashiest players on tour, returned an overhead smash for a winner that will surely be on ESPN's top shots of the day - look out for it.
11:03 PM - Fernando Gonzalez is feeling the heat. Maybe not as much literally, as the temperature has dipped about 20 degress since play started, but in certainly the nerves department. After leading 30-0 when serving to stay in the set, Gonzalez struck a double fault, a forehand error, and finally gave the set to Hewitt on a timid final point. You could see it in his service toss (second serve) - the point was over before it started. Over the years of watching so much tennis, I've learned that the service toss is very telling - it, like a follow through, can be aggressive or defensive. Hewitt looks very comfortable out there.
11:15 PM - I'm not trying to pick on ESPN tonight, honestly, but why would you utter the words "Coming Up: Elena Dementieva in the studio" when Gonzalez just broke in the second set in this very competitive match? Come on guys.
11:44 PM - Hewitt and Gonzalez are tied at one set apiece, but the match is Gonzalez's to lose. Hewitt gutted out his opening set with one opportune break of serve; Gonzalez won the second set with superior shotmaking and tennis. Hewitt just fended off a break point in the first game of the third set - a critical hold - and we go on.
12:10 AM - And Gonzalez takes the third set with ease. In other action, Chris Guccione scored a pretty easy win over Nicolas Devilder, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4. No matter who the opponent, a win at a Slam for Guccione is a big one for his confidence. From what Hewitt's shown us today - or rather, lack thereof - Guccione will be the Aussie hope going forward until Bernard Tomic really comes into his own. Guccione plays Gilles Simon next in a very attractive second-round match.
12:33 AM - As Christina McHale took an injury timeout for a cramp in the middle of her opponent's service game, Brad Gilbert and Pam Schriver engaged in a bona fide battle of banter. The plusses and minuses of the controversial rule were argued for and against, and it couldn't have come at a better time -- the Venus Williams/Angelique Kerber match is still being shown in place of the Hewitt/Gonzalez one, even though it's likely going to a fifth.
12:42 AM - Gilbert vs. Schriver presses on, as does Gonzalez vs. Hewitt, now being eschewed for Moore vs. McHale. Again - why?
12:47 AM - Hewitt just forced a fifth set, but something's strange - the crowd doesn't seem as excited for the moment as I would have expected. I'm sure the fact that it's not a night session has something to do with it, but have the Aussies more or less given up on Lleyton? Fallen for Federer instead? Needing Nadal? Digging Djokovic? Enjoying these poorly-constructed alliterations?
12:59 AM - While we're watching this charming McHale/Moore first-rounder, I will say that McHale does hit a really good ball for a young girl. Nothing like Fernando Gonzalez's forehand or Lleyton Hewitt's running backhand, but a very nice shot nonetheless.
1:26 AM - The Moore/McHale match ends with Jessica Moore of Australia winning the third set 9-7. In all seriousness, this was entertaining to watch - I do think that McHale will be quite a player; her groundstrokes are fantastic for her age - but I don't know how you leave the fifth set of a match where Australia's veteran legend is battling back against the 13th seed on Centre Court. But that's just me.
1:24 AM - Caught the last game of Gonzalez's eventual runaway of the fifth set against Hewitt. And that's it from me for tonight -
Let's go Bills.