I'd eyeballed that Verdasco - Tomic match beforehand as quite possibly being the best one of this opening day.
Fernando - up 2 sets to love, and 4-3 (on serve) in the 3rd... with Tomic looking physically out of it... and Bernard comes back to win the match. The fact that a different outcome in any ONE of multiple points during a match could cause a completely different outcome... is one of the things about this sport which makes me appreciate it so. :) The 5th set was particularly compelling drama in this one.
Bethanie was giving Aggie a scare, and her hitting was looking VERY good... but she wilted in the 3rd. It was a good, gritty 'tough it out' victory for Radwanska.
Daniela was down early, and looking in trouble, but came back for the victory... looking SMOKIN' hot as usual, I might add. :)
Americans had a pretty good day in day 1 at th Aussie Open. Querrey, Isner, and Fish all won in straight sets. Pretty disappointed to see Young couldn't close out his opponent in straight sets. No way that match should have went 5.
Young have a good matchup in round 2 with Lacko as I believe that is the guy he beat in round 1 at the US Open.
The photogenic Sorana Cirstea just scores the first BIG upset of the tournament, booting Australia's own Samantha Stosur. Cirstea was blistering the ball today.
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I'm OK with Verdasco - he's had a good game for the past few years in particular, but he's certainly dropping in the rankings at present. Tomic's win is especially good now for the Aussie's, given Stosur's abrupt departure.
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You may be meaning that there's not much for Americans to root for in regards to the women... but if you're instead meaning that the women's matches in general have something to be desired, I'd have to disagree. As an example, I started watching the Niculescu - Cornet match last night on a whim, and the hitting I saw those two women giving turned out to the THE best I'd seen in a match all day. They were BOTH pummeling the ball, with some rallys / net play / defensive 'gets' that were SO good I actually literally applauded them in my chair, here. It was an EXTREMELY good match, the second set scoreline not withstanding.
Kvitova and Sharapova looked very, very tough today... but the latter is going to have to drop those double faults, or they'll again get her into deep trouble, just like they did on at least a few occasions last year.
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Harrison's giving Murray a real battle at the moment, at a set apiece.
...and now he's down TWO sets, and a break in the 3rd, to him!! Fish is in BIG trouble... in only the 2nd round!! Whoa. Oh, one second... he just broke back, so they're on serve.
There are some REALLY good matches in particular amongst the men today that I'm looking forward to watching:
John Isner(USA)[16] vs. David Nalbandian(ARG) Sam Querrey(USA) vs. Bernard Tomic(AUS) Stanislas Wawrinka(SUI)[21] vs. Marcos Baghdatis(CYP)
After being down 0-3 in the 1st set, Nalbandian totally dominates and wins the set 6-4.
Isner had 10 aces (and 1 DF), and couldn't win the set. There are too many US players in the men's game who rely far, far too much on winning matches with a big service game... and not enough of everything else.
This is turning out to be possibly a terrible day for the American men.
Fish already disappointed with his straight sets now Young is down 6-3, 6-1 to the qualifer lacko.....A guy he just beat at the US Open.
Big John match is a toss up at this point. It is a set apiece and 1-1 early in the 3rd so who knows. Mr. Querrey has a tough matchup with Tomic who beat Verdasco in a 5 set match in round 1.
It is very possible that come thursday AM ( USA time) all our top Americans may be gone if Querrey, Isner, and Roddick (who all have tough 2nd rd matche) loses their 2nd round matches.
I think that Isner's toast, at this point - he's looking like a lumbering brontosaurus out there; he looks like he's completely sapped of energy. He's SLOW as can be, and his body language is horrible (and Nalby's surely picking up on that).
I'm expecting that Tomic will beat Querrey - I just think he's the better player at this point to begin with, AND he'll have a huge home crowd cheering him on in the main stadium.
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I neglected to mention Flavia's bad loss a couple of days ago... but her countrywoman Schiavone losing today reminded me of it. Frannie's WAY early loss, combined with Stosur's - well, the recent first-time Slam winners are having some pretty tough sledding, here. Na had a good result today, but her performance since winning the French has been less than stellar, to say the least, so it's hard to know what to expect from her for the remainder of the tourney.
On the other hand, Kimmy was a STEAMROLLER today. I'd LOVE to see her win it all yet again.
Roddick looked SOLID in his match with Haase. As much as i respect Hewitt, I think roddick will win in straights. It wont be easy, but Hewitt just doesn't have the game that he did 10 years ago.
True on Lleyton... he's unfortunately a mere shadow of his former playing self. We'll see how he is starting in a few moments.
Last night will be the best full-night of matches for the guys at this year's AO:
- Nalbandian vs. Isner - I HATE 'big serve' players. 43 aces for Isner, as I recall. He 'survived' in his last 5 or 6 service games in the 5th by having a MINIMUM of 2 aces in each game. It's 'crap tennis', IMO; I despise it. I hate it as much with an American as I do with Karlovic. Nalbandian absolutely blew multiple opportunities to win the match, though, with his very worst mistake being not just 'letting it go' on that controversial call, and just continuing to play. His getting off-kilter b/c of that call is probably what cost him the match at that juncture.
- I hardly saw any of Tomic - Querrey, but from what I did see, I'm liking Tomic more and more - he remains very cool in pressure situations, and has a very smoothly flowing game. I think we're going to see him make a big rise in the rankings over the next few years.
- Almagro was a total jerk towards the end of the match against Dimitrov, who was obviously having physical (leg) problems; Almagro was acting like he was some 'hot stuff'... which is a whole lot easier to be against an ailing opponent. Dimitrov was classy, though, and finished the match. I applauded him when it was over. Almagro can bite me; I hope that Wawrinka CRUSHES him tomorrow.
- And last of all, Wawrinka vs. Baghdatis. Baggy's Cypriot fans are usually great fun, and really add to the excitement of his matches, but last night it all went way, way too far; they were out of control, and some of them were being total jerks. Yelling to the point where you're a distraction is going too far. It got so bad that Baggy and Stan were even sniping at each other; fortunately though, when they met at the net when it was all over, Baggy was classy and basically seemed to be apologizing for what had gone on. They seemed to mend the fence well enough. Baggy's one of my favorite players on the Tour, but I'm glad that Stan won the match last night.
True on Lleyton... he's unfortunately a mere shadow of his former playing self. We'll see how he fares starting in just a few moments.
Last night will be the best full-night of matches for the guys at this year's AO:
- Nalbandian vs. Isner - I HATE 'big serve' players. 43 aces for Isner, as I recall. He 'survived' in his last 5 or 6 service games in the 5th by having a MINIMUM of 2 aces in each game. It's 'crap tennis', IMO; I despise it. I hate it as much with an American as I do with Karlovic. Nalbandian absolutely blew multiple opportunities to win the match, though, with his very worst mistake being not just 'letting it go' on that controversial call, and just continuing to play. His getting off-kilter b/c of that call is probably what cost him the match at that juncture.
- I hardly saw any of Tomic - Querrey, but from what I did see, I'm liking Tomic more and more - he remains very cool in pressure situations, and has a very smoothly flowing game. I think we're going to see him make a big rise in the rankings over the next few years.
- Almagro was a total jerk towards the end of the match against Dimitrov, who was obviously having physical (leg) problems; Almagro was acting like he was some 'hot stuff'... which is a whole lot easier to be against an ailing opponent. Dimitrov was classy, though, and finished the match. I applauded him when it was over. Almagro can bite me; I hope that Wawrinka CRUSHES him tomorrow.
- And last of all, Wawrinka vs. Baghdatis. Baggy's Cypriot fans are usually great fun, and really add to the excitement of his matches, but last night it all went way, way too far; they were out of control, and some of them were being total jerks. Yelling to the point where you're a distraction is going too far. It got so bad that Baggy and Stan were even sniping at each other; fortunately though, when they met at the net when it was all over, Baggy was classy and basically seemed to be apologizing for what had gone on. They seemed to mend the fence well enough. Baggy's one of my favorite players on the Tour, but I'm glad that Stan won the match last night.
It may be me just talking to myself at this point, but - man, you guys missed a high-quality match if you didn't catch any of Dolgopolov - Tomic. Talk about a strategic chess match, which saw Tomic winning in 5 sets. Highly entertaining, this match was.
The kid's mature beyond his chronologically youthful 19 years, playing with a HUGE amount of patience and composure. I really do believe he's got a very good chance of becoming a major player in the sport.
Up next for him, on Sunday... and it'll surely be one of the night matches in Rod Laver Arena... is Federer. I hope it's a good match.
Nice to finally see Lisicki breaking through. I've also been waiting for Makarova and Errani to make some noise for a while so I'm happy they are still in it. I still expect to see the veterens in the semis.
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