Australian Open (of tennis) 2011

Draws are out.

I haven't had time to go through them yet but feel free to make your predictions and discuss potential bracket busters, must-see first round matches, AO tennis fashion, tennis spouses, and whether THIS is the year Andy Murray wins a slam.

exciting!

hurrah!

I totally lost track of tennis at the end of last year - partly life getting massively hectic, partly laptop death and failure to keep up w/results - and I'm still only just catching up w/this year's results. watching my first tennis of the year though, Li just came back from 0-5 15-30 down to take the first set vs St. Kim! (didn't see the comeback, just the end of the set)

have checked the draws, no time for predix right now but I'll just say LOL @ Safina - poor, poor girl. She lost 0 and 1 to CAKE last week and now gets Clijsters in round one.

Oh god this match is dreadful. Of course it is. Women's tennis has not changed.

Checking in for the first of my bi-annual ILX binges (this and Wimbers) for 2011. Last two years the action on the Oz Open thread has been so frenetic my computer has blown up....

Once again Lleyton, we are assured, is playing his best tennis for years; Sam, as usual, is ideally placed to challenge despite (equally as usual) mediocre lesd-in form; Bernie the Brat, who resolutely refuses to grow out of his entitlement-addled adolescance, has once again made a prize tit of himself and alienated all but about 3 of the total 28 people remaining throughout Australia who he didn't quite completely piss-off over the 'Beddy Byes' fiasco a year ago. Another serial Oz false headline, Chris Guccione, was shown in wedding clobber in last weekend's papers and so may or may not front this year - not that it would matter much. You could lock the new Mrs G in David Jones for the entire length of Mr G's usual Oz Open involvement without serious damage to anybody's credit rating...

Last couple of days, a high-profile local bed manufacturer has run a half-page ad featuring Roger Federer reclining on one of their beds. Come Monday fortnight, which of two frightfully clever captions will be tacked onto that pic - Rodge's career at the top of the heap out for the count and flat on its back, or Rodge sleeping the sleep of the justified after sealing his greatness with maje no 17?

(STOP PRESS: Nadal has had his antlers trimmed. Instantly he looks about 10% as menacing as previously.)

Wozzie switching rackets, crashing and burning in lead-up and meating wild shot giant killer Dulko in first round. Everything's set!

Rooting for Ana! Because everyone I usually root for seem to be in depressing slumps.

No way I'll do predictions for this, but I won't be surprised if Djokovic does well. Murray won't get my nod until he actually wins a slam.

i'm finding it weirdly hard to root for anyone any more. for opposite reasons on either side - i like all the top male contenders, which weirdly results in me not minding about the eventual outcome. soderling, i guess, is my new love-to-hate, but he's not a contender to win.

among the women i still have my favs and non-favs but they're all so fucking useless - all of them - that i just can't get emotionally invested. my favourite has inexplicably found herself as the no 2 seed and all i can think is how fucking ass-backwards and undeserving that is.

What do you mean, I for one enjoyed seeing Zvonareva edge out K Woz in a 6-0 6-1 struggle the other day, the kind of tight wrestle for the top spot we expect from top dogs.

lol i didn't even know about that - was that the HK exo? i've been seriously falling behind w/results.

i did manage to get some entertainment value out of today's Li/Clijsters shitfest by starting to think of it as comedy rather than sports.

<3 Li Na.

soderling, i guess, is my new love-to-hate, but he's not a contender to win.

lex, really? I saw him in Brisbane and dude looked terrifying. New coach, playing smarter than he usually does at this time of year, wouldn't be surprised to see him go further than usual.

though I'm with you on not really minding any of the top guys winning and not giving a shit about the women because of their unpredictability. but I am invested in seeing say, Gulbis get to the third round, or for Delpo (yay, he's back. :) :)) to win at least one match.

and kinda rooting for Ana, too! surprising myself... I dunno, I've got a soft spot for her, takes more balls than I have to go through the two years she did and still managing to come back playing moderately well. Injured herself at the Hopman Cup though.

been watching qualies and taking note of early rounds more than usual - guess it shows how much I'm hankering for new blood in tennis.

Dimitrov, natch, umpire-shoving exploits notwithstanding. but also Richard Berankis who could be playing the winner of Nalby-Chewitt in the second round, Lukas Lacko who's just the right kind of test for Fed in the first round, and Ryan Harrison, who's the first American in ages that i've enjoyed watching - a really well-rounded, instinctive player.

On the womens', I'm rooting for Heather Watson to get through qualies and been quietly impressed with Bojana Jovanovski all week - never watched her play before this year but beating Kanepi, Rezai and Penetta in a row is no small feat for a 19yo. solid game, no real strengths but no real weaknesses either.

Maria gave Joyce the final boot in Auckland.

lex, really? I saw him in Brisbane and dude looked terrifying. New coach, playing smarter than he usually does at this time of year, wouldn't be surprised to see him go further than usual.

yeah all my opinions are a few months out of date ;_; GOTTA CATCH UP.

roz, you can watch qualies? are you on site or are they actually being streamed?

lol i guess i should've said watching the qualies' live-scoring app.

but it is possible to watch some, not all, qualie matches on the AO site here: http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/video/live.html - they're only showing a couple tomorrow though and the rest of it will be the Rally for Relief exho.

Apropos of absolutely nothing of long-term significance to this thread, Lleyton Hewitt beat a practically immobile Gael Monfils to win the Kooyong Classic this afternoon. Apart from his hip problem, Monf also copped the worst run of net-cords in the history of tennis - but still only lost by one break per set.

All of which you will be able to read about tomorrow, on whatever page the paper tells you to turn to after the third para, under the 4000-point headline, 'HE"S BACK!' or similar...

I went to the Medibank last week and saw two terrific matches: Azarenka/Clijsters - which was REALLY CLOSE despite the score-line, and Kleybanova/Cibulkova, which was just a delight to behold the whole way through, watching tiny Dominika hit balls at head height for winners on barking mad angles. Was also seated so that Clijsters' winners to the backhand corner - there were lots of them - were coming straight at me.

Loved the Hopman Cup too and have a new favourite player in Kristina Mladenovic! In mixed doubles, she sits in the ad-court and , even better, returns serve inside the baseline (the new Lucic!) She pwned Murray during the mixed France played vs GBR! Sadly I don't believe she's in the Open :(

you guys, this rally for relief thing is kinda fun. bepa being snarky to roddick... <3

ok it's boring now that the players aren't miked up. what gives? is this just so to avoid any potential awkwardness between lleyton and kim?

Headline in today's Age (a paper that really should know better}:

DO OR DIE FOR HEWITT

It appears that somewhere in the ultra-fine print is a rule that when you lose you go home. Been following this tournament for years and years and never noticed....

Shreik off to a very muted start v Tanasugarn - lost first service game to love, served five faults in a row and looked as slow as treacle.

EDIT: But Tanas's first effort at serving was even worse....

Monf has broken de Bakker and looks well over the hip injury that wrecked his Kooyong final.

Shreik thru with very little bother after that lack-lustre start, local Olivia Newton-Rogowska out, Thiemo de Bakker, who blew a two-set lead to lose to Arthurs a few years ago, is now two up on a sloppy and lethargic-looking Monfils.

Seeds dumped: Towelova to Kulikova; Querrey to Kubot; KING KOLYA to Fmayer.

Nice to see Regina Kulikova get an epic win over Hantuchova - she's talented, but seems to be injured for about half of every year, so good to see her grab big wins when she can. And even better if they come at Hanturexia's expense.

Double bagel for CAKE :D When the hell is Garbin going to retire, anyway?

Just saw the Lu/Simon TB, Lu's playing rather well.

Caravane also in seeded trouble perhaps; bagelled by BZS in first set. Wörle just now out of double-bagel danger after winning the eighth game in the match vs Azarenka.

Justine very lucky to avoid going 0-3 down there...Mirza had her 40-30 point pretty much won, but a bad call cost her and on the replay she DFed.

Notice Marion 'Cake' Bartoli zero and zeroed someone earlier this afternoon.

As I recall Ti Amo de Bakker already had a reputation for snatching defeat fropm the jaws of victory BEFORE his 2007 cave-in against Arfurs. After todays effort he may be the 'male Jana' for the duration of his career.

Drizzle delay as Henin yet to establish any advantage over Mirza - JH visibly less than impressed at (lack of) proceedings

Henin still struggling - broke to serve for the set but unable to finish.

Groth about to go a set down.

Wow. After the rain, it looked like Mirza had fallen apart - lost the next seven points in about 5 seconds. Then Henin fell apart herself after missing the set point, and it's first set Mirza...

(I fully expect Henin to win 5-7 6-2, 6-2 or similar.)

5-7, 6-3, 6-1. Close. Sania had many chances in the second set but couldn't keep herself away from spates of DFs and stupid UEs, as soon as Justine got a lead in the third it was a formality.

LOL, British media trying to spin a win for Anne K over the world no 185 as a "superb" win.

"She beat A-Rod!"

Djoko crunching Granollers, Looch kept Ljubicic honest without seriously threatening to take a set, seeded Querry out in five, Hantorexia and Rezai also done for.

There was always a big sense of 'I've seen this film before' about Mirza v Henin - and much and all as Mirz gave it her best shot and all that. the moral of the story remains that Henin won without hitting second gear.

Busy day, missed most of the tennis but really enjoyed the little I did get to watch - Thiemo's third set breakdown as he was serving for the match, the first set of Henin-Mirza, the bits of Woz-Dulko when Dulko wasn't being a moron.

Also RIP Rezai's dress - god bless you, you lovable wacko.

http://cowbell.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83423e30253ef0147e1a94d25970b-pi

^^best pic I could find, courtesy of a fan.

Caravane <3 Too bad you apparently blow this year.

Appalling umpire overrule against Mrs. Krumm pretty much hands the first set to A-Rad >:(

Chardy's had a fairly hardcore haircut :o

Peng vs. K-Bond is unexpectedly excellent quality. 5-5 in the third was an epic game, Peng broke by finally going to the K-Bond FH and is serving for it...

...guess how that went! Women's tennis.

Peng breaks again on an incredible rally on BP. Serve it out quickly, Shuai, I want to see Krumm close out A-Rad.

Peng won :D

Krumm is not closing this out as she should.

A-Rad's racquet snapped clean off her handle when she tried to retur that serve :o

*return

http://i54.tinypic.com/2ur6rv9.jpg

LOL

YAY ALICIA!

Nice effort to win by just about the most (only remaining?) bullshit-devoid presence in Australian tennis.

oof dinara

Safina not looking likely to win a game

Judging by the scoreline and people’s responses on Twitter, Makarova v Ivanovic looks thrilling (8-8, in the third) - wish I was home watching this instead of stuck at work. :/

Though not this time, it looks like :(

:(

fuck

ah well

;_;

'bad luck, li'

good work dickhead

'and to kim cloooooooisters'

The BBC commentators did say there was one slam final that went to three in the last five years. This is now the 2nd. Just glad it was fairly entertaining. I was neutral.

Li looked good with some great FH angles but way too erratic at the end of the 2nd and throughout the 3rd. Kim seized her opportunity.

Actually really happy for her - unique career trajectory. Ridiculously successful comeback.

Li and Schiavone emergence have livened things up.

it probably helped me out and I hope it doesn't happen again

lol Andy

That was a good final on its own merits and triply so compared to.. well, most other slam finals.

Just watching highlights + now postmatch talk. Clijsters winning in her lovely green outfit. I'm surprised + pleased for her!

Excitement building. Warding off urge to sleep.

so how long before "settling in" can adequately be described as "choking"

Djokovic is hitting the ball better and deeper for the most part. I think it's only a matter of time before he takes advantage. A couple of great passes aside, Murray is mostly just hitting the ball back.

murray's a slow starter though.

Does Murray ever get challenges right? The two he's had so far weren't even marginal - both full ball on the line.

He's had at least one right so far, but yeah he's pretty terrible with them in general.

He made a correct one early on in this set. Xpost

Seems like Djok is putting a lot more more into his shots but not benefitting particularly from doing so. Would still expect him to take this set but the longer match still favours Murray IMHO.

woof that was a rally.

I missed the first two games so it must have been then.

Great point there, Murray should have buried it but blinks first. Set point.

Djokovic wins the Aussie Open. Now to bed.

Stupid telegraphed drop shot on break point. Murray really struggling now.

Not enjoying this getting up Sunday morning lark :(

o_O splits from Djokovic there ouch

It's not looking like a longer match.

classic murray!

Saves a point to avoid the bagel. He really can't do this slam final thing eh.

Looks like training together has helped Djokovic more than Murray - he's reading everything before Murray knows he's going to do it.

Murray was hitting his forehand better in that last long rally better than any point in the match so far. Shame he still can't send his backhand beyond mid-court but still.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Just pathetic. Will Murray ever win a set in a slam final?

clutch

A break for Murray. Let's see if he can hold it for one service game.

good on Murray for swearing like a true Scot.

Nope.

that's it i'm done. g'night all.

I woke up for this

http://www.madaboutjewellery.com/acatalog/crystal_princess_choker_jet.jpg

That was a stunner from Djokovic

Murray is playing some rather good points off Djokovic's serve but has held his own serve, what, once since the end of the first set?

Striking such a dour presence - Australian crowds must be among the world's easiest to gee up, I know it's really cunty, but a fist pump or a "come on" would probably help him here.

Its a good point in that he (or his attitude) is easily subdued in finals.

I think if Murray can win a set that might be something to build on until his next slam final.

Djokovic's game has dropped a bit in this third set but Murray's serve is just too easily broken for it to matter. He's broken Djokovic twice and he's 4-3 down!

Well done Nole - the better player won.

should have thrown the shorts too!

that's it i'm done. g'night all.

― Gukbe, Sunday, January 30, 2011 Bookmark

^ this is one wise ilxor.

Well done Nole - the better player won.

Indeed. Great guy too.

watched this with the boy at the pub.

seemed like for long stretches, Murray forgot how to serve or hit passing shots or overhead smashes - some of those games he lost were just. argh. Wasn't like I wanted him to win that much either, I just wanted to see a good match.

Nole was ridiculously on fire though - those pinpoint lobs! Amazing.

missed this, figured this would happen though. against Berdych and Federer, Hobak was a man on a mission. three Slam finals and no sets won against opponents that, as great as they are, Murray can regularly beat outside of Slams is really really poor though.

Roll of honour!

Men's singles: Novak Djokovic
Women's singles: Kim Clijsters
Men's doubles: Bob Bryan & Mike Bryan
Women's doubles: Gisela Dulko & Flavia Pennetta
Mixed doubles: Katarina Srebotnik & Daniel Nestor
Boys' singles: Jiri Vesely
Girls' singles: An-Sophie Mestach
Boys' doubles: Filip Horansky & Jiri Vesely
Girls' doubles: An-Sophie Mestach & Demi Schuurs

New rankings:

1. Caroline Wozniacki (1)
2. Kim Clijsters (3)
3. Vera Zvonareva (2)
4. Francesca Schiavone (7)
5. Samantha Stosur (6)
6. Venus Williams (5)
7. Na Li (11)
8. Jelena Jankovic (8)
9. Victoria Azarenka (9)
10. Agnieszka Radwanska (14)
11. Shahar Peer (12)
12. Serena Williams (4)
13. Maria Sharapova (16)
14. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (18)
15. Marion Bartoli (17)
16. Flavia Pennetta (25)
17. Kaia Kanepi (21)
18. Petra Kvitova (28)
19. Ana Ivanovic (20)
20. Nadia Petrova (15)
21. Aravane Rezai (22)
22. Alisa Kleybanova (23)
23. Svetlana Kuznetsova (26)
24. Andrea Petkovic (33)
25. Maria Kirilenko (19)
26. Yanina Wickmayer (24)
27. Dominika Cibulkova (32)
28. Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (29)
29. Alexandra Dulgheru (30)
30. Lucie Safarova (35)
...
36. Anastasija Sevastova (46)
40. Shuai Peng (54)
41. Ekaterina Makarova (49)
43. Jie Zheng (27)
91. Anne Keothavong (118)

1. Rafael Nadal (1)
2. Roger Federer (2)
3. Novak Djokovic (3)
4. Robin Soderling (4)
5. Andy Murray (5)
6. David Ferrer (7)
7. Tomas Berdych (6)
8. Andy Roddick (8)
9. Fernando Verdasco (9)
10. Jurgen Melzer (11)
11. Mikhail Youzhny (10)
12. Gael Monfils (12)
13. Nicolas Almagro (14)
14. Stanislas Wawrinka (19)
15. Ivan Ljubicic (16)
16. Mardy Fish (17)
17. Sam Querrey (18)
18. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (13)
19. David Nalbandian (21)
20. Marin Cilic (15)
21. Marcos Baghdatis (22)
22. Ernests Gulbis (23)
23. Michael Llodra (24)
24. John Isner (20)
25. Viktor Troicki (27)
26. Albert Montanes (26)
27. Juan Monaco (28)
28. Juan Carlos Ferrero (29)
29. Guillermo Garcia Lopez (32)
30. Richard Gasquet (33)
...
32. Alexandr Dolgopolov (46)
35. Nikolay Davydenko (25)
68. Lleyton Hewitt (54)
73. Richard Berankis (95)
85. Grigor Dimitrov (105)
94. Milos Raonic (152)

Oh yeah. And Safina is now ranked 117.

So that was the 2011 Oz Open.

Upthread Lex called it as 'the best womens' slam in years' or something like that, and it's hard to make a case against. Ni La was magical, but Kim eventually deserved her win, beating the best of the opposition at the business end. Woz resolved nothing - two weeks ago she was neither definitely a contender nor definitely an impostor, and she still isn't. Bepa looked the likely winner right up to the moment she lost. Frankie Sciavone had her moments, as did up-and-comers Petkovic and Kvitova (one of them is called Andrea and the other Petra, but I'm stuffed if I can remember which is which). Re the local hero: as Greg Baum wrote in the Age in the middle of week 2, 'few will be surprised if one day Stosur wins a major, but almost nobody will be if she doesn't.' It doesn't look great for Shreik, or (more regrettably) for the delightful Ana, and Alicia: enjoy your upcoming wedding and we look forward to more of your commentary, but PLEASE don't try to play again.

Serena, who stayed at home, had far and awsy the berst Open of anybody in the Williams family, Venus' dress sense looking like winning her the tournament booby prize until the appalling Oracene opened her cakehole. Just sod off, you bitter old bat, and never come back...

The mens' was also a good contest that needed a great final to be great and didn't get it. Djokovic was the player of the tournament practically from day 1, and in hindsight should have been at least equal favorite from the middle Saturday onwards. With both Rodge and Rafa fading from the picture, Djoko beat better players more convincingly and his demolition of Murray (who rarely and barely exceeded mediocre for long enough at a time) was absolutely no surprise. Special mentions also to Milos the Moose Wrangler, Stan the Vav and Dave Ferrar, and even to Lleyton for his commentary (one of the other surprise packets of the fortnight). And Bernie Tomic as well, I suppose....

See you at Wimbledon.