12
The Australian Open is finally here, let’s discuss
14 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Bios
There are so many interesting angles this year. Djokovic with Becker… Federer with Edberg… The Serena-Maria-Dimitrov love triangle…the rejuvenation of Lleyton Hewitt…the young Americans…All the players over age 30 now when 25 years ago Johan Kriek was the oldest in the draw at 30…Rafa Nadal vs. Bernard Tomic…Is Del Potro ready to blast out the tournament with his atomic forehand?…When will Milos Raonic take the next step…Dolgopolov with Santoro…Nishikori with Chang…Kimiko Date Krumm age 43 playing the junior teenaged star Belinda Bencic…Bouchard, Halep, Keys, Sloane Stephens…Is Li Na ready to finally win in Melbourne after two very close calls?…Four straight days of over a hundred degrees heat — how will it affect the tournament and players?
If I was there I'd be at Date vs. Bencic
14 comments
<< The Swami Says…Picks of the 2 Best Matches of Day 2 of Aussie O
Scoop Malinowski · January 12, 2014 at 7:46 pm
Venus looks sharp early up the brak on Makarova #22 seed. Stan Wawrinka, after his career best year last year could be ready to take the next step to the top 5 echelon. I like how he’s expressing his emotions and fire now, as opposed to being too introverted earlier in his career.
Doogie · January 12, 2014 at 9:11 pm
I fear it is too hot for Thiem and Vesely today 🙁
Dan Markowitz · January 12, 2014 at 9:14 pm
It’s not that hot. In Venus’s match at the start of the third set, it said the temperature had gone up from 71 to 84. If a pro player can’t play well in 84 temperature he should take up water polo.
Q-ball is now in a fight in third set with Giraldo. Q has talent, but it looks like he never trains, the guy’s got a gut like a college student on spring break.
Doogie · January 12, 2014 at 9:20 pm
Also watching Q – and he really sweats a lot. Due to this I thought it is very hot. Did not check the temp – Only Q t-shirt said it 🙂
loreley · January 13, 2014 at 1:25 am
The heat isn’t the problem, the humidity is.
Thiem & Gulbis won 😉
It seems it was easier for Thiem. He said before the match, that he isn’t nervous at all & that he’s not afraid to play best-of-5. Anderson next.
Monaco is such a grinder. A human wall. He was a tough first round for Gulbis as expected. Querrey next.
Doogie · January 13, 2014 at 1:34 am
I give Thiem a really good chance to advance to 3rd round – for him he is slight fav against Anderson (I lean me a bit out of window – just my opinion).
Gulbis vs Q will be intresting, but managable for Ernests.
Doogie · January 13, 2014 at 1:42 am
for me not for him
Dan Markowitz · January 13, 2014 at 5:16 am
Geez, Djokovic is good. Becker looks uneasy in his player’s box. Almost like he doesn’t believe he should be. Quite different than the easy calm, or forbidding calm of Murray.
The Stepanek curse continues: Petr Kvitova goes down in first round. The message: date or get serious with Radek at your own peril.
Good win for Ebden, who beat Mahut in five sets. Gulbis wins! Gulbis wins! Nice win over Monaco, but it didn’t come easy, and Monaco has been nowhere to be found recently.
Not a good day for the young Americans with Kudla getting tooled by Florian Mayer and SteveJo dropping a five-setter to Mannarino. Let’s see, Yo Adrian, has now knocked out both Q-ball and SteveJo in consecutive first round slams.
Scoop Malinowski · January 13, 2014 at 7:26 am
Heartbreakder for Johnson he has lost another tight five setter in first round in Australia, guy can’t get a break on those, keeps coming up short.I can’t believe that Thai girl beat Kvitova, I hung out with some Thais about five years ago watching one play juniors and Kumkum was there, she had lost first or second round I thought she was just some average junior who had no chance at the WTA level. And now she beats a great player like Kvitova. Amazing. You just never know in tennis. Querrey dropped by K Swiss now with the low level Fila. Sam does look like he has a lil gut. I think he went through a break up with his fiancee which could have affected his tennis. Boy, Baghdatis is just a journeyman now, he lost to Istomin. Venus seems Chang at the end, stil a good player but just can’t close out wins anymore. Hard to believe Venus let that slip away. Gonna be interesting to see how strong Murray’s desire is now after finally fulfilling his destiny. He doesn’t seem like the type who wants to be number one. Good win for Gulbis, it’s a toss up with Sam, so hard to predict both of those guys. Little disappointed with Annacone’s commentary so far. He speaks well but there’s no real insights or anything that piques interest.
Dan Markowitz · January 13, 2014 at 9:02 am
Geez, Annacone needs to drink a little cappacino, the guy is low on energy.
Can’t say Venus is Chang. Chang couldn’t even win Challenger matches when he was 30.
Couldn’t believe our friend, Richard Pagliaro at Tennis.com, picked the Bag-man to beat Istomin in his picks of the day. Come on, are you kidding me. Istomin is playing good tennis these days and Bagman has gone down into fatherhood.
Look, if Gulbis doesn’t beat Q-ball, he doesn’t deserve to be let back into Latvia. Looking forward to Tomic-Rafa tomorrow morning at 3. You going to be up watching, Scoop?
Scoop Malinowski · January 13, 2014 at 10:06 am
Reason why I say Chang is similar to Venus is Chang just could not win close matches at the end of his career, he would just like magically choke them away. It was weird. Same thing seems to be happening to Venus, so close but somehow she squandered it away to E Mak. These young lions are just too hungry. The veterans on their last legs have different pressures to deal with. Federer has gone through the same thing at times and the closer he gets to the end I think it will get worse for him.
Andrew Miller · January 13, 2014 at 2:28 pm
Venus is sick – ill. She’s a champ but her career was destroyed by the disease. She doesn’t need to prove anything.
Some congrats in order:
Damir Dzumhur. Beats D. Brown in rd. 1 of qualies. Find himself in rd. 2 of the Aus Open in straight sets no less over Hajek. Is Bosnia’s best player overlooked by Tennis-Prose?
Thiem. Doogie’s player wins in 4 buy Vesely doesn’t meet his end of the bargain and loses in a brave match vs. big serving Kevin Anderson in 5 sets. I’m becoming a believer in Doogie’s players. Thiem can beat Anderson in rd 2.
Youzhny wins easy. What’s with Youzhny. He wins every match he’s supposed to and loses every match he needs to win. Next round he gets Florian Mayer, who beat up on Denis Kudla in straight sets, no tie breaks. Kudla needs to hit harder.
Jerzy J. comes through in five. I thought he was finding his game in set 3 – looked like a champ again. Can he be better than Gulbis? Who knows – but well done in deciding to win.
Dolgo beats Berankis easily – not easy to do. Gets Chardy. Chardy and Dolgo have found their tennis games. Chardy is hitting his stride and Dolgo’ regaining it. This 2nd round match should be excellent.
Steve Johnson loses to Mannarino in 5 sets. 2nd straight year to lose on the 1st round but at least he went down swinging 6-4 in the fifth. Mannarino gets Ferrer. I think Ferrer has a nice looking draw.
If he and Berydch get through they can fight for the semis.
Ebden gets Pospisil 2nd round. The Canadian #2 wins easily vs. Groth. Ebden gets through in five. I think Pospisil will win this – but Ebden showed grit so he’ll do it again.
Robredo beat Rosol in five sets and gets Benneatau, who beat Carreno-Busta in five sets (Carreno Busta playing at his pay-grade – tour’s tough and only a few new guys will win at any time!). These two exhausted players will face off and I think the Frenchman will come through.
Daveydenko comes through in 5 sets and gets Gasquet. Gasquet won easy so he should get rd. 3.
Bogomolov retires and allows Fognini to advance easy to play Niemenen. I like Niemenen to win this.
Querrey and Gulbis win in 4 and get to play each other. I like Querrey to win this.
Tursunov beat Russell easily plays Istomin, who beat Baghdatis easily (what happenned to Baghdatis? His game disappeared).
Djokovic should get rd 3 easily vs. Leo Mayer.
So there you have it: Kudla, Johnson, Russell. – OUT. Querrey still in it. European players dominating generally.
And the biggest question…who is this Damir Dzumhur kid? He has won all four of his matches, beats D. Brown and hasn’t look back – has a winnable rd. 2 match. The story of the tournament.
On the women’s side – Bouchard wins, Dellaqua beats Zvonareva badly, Keys wins barely, Ivanovic and Hantuchova both win (yeah!), Na Li wins, Safarova wins (I like Lucie), Irina Falconi (who is this?) wins, Lisicki and Serena Williams dominate, Kerber escapes, Pennetta wins easily and gets an interesting match vs. Monica Puig, one of Puerto Rico’s best ever players (maybe the best female player from P.R. of all time?), and, unbelievably, KVITOVA LOSES.
I was watching the Kvitova match and thought she was finding her range. I am afraid this can mean only 1 thing.
the Czech man wins again. When Stepanek is winning on and off the court, whether it’s Hingis, Vaidisova, or Kvitova, there’s no way they are winning.
Thomas Tung · January 13, 2014 at 3:33 pm
You’d think the Czech girls would be aware by know of “Shark” Stepanek’s ways by now — one look from him and their game goes Down Under. 🙁
Andrew Miller · January 13, 2014 at 6:30 pm
Stepanek can’t be stopped. Even Safarova, who should be OK because of her past with Berdych, may need to watch out!