Play began tonight on ESPN2 and will continue for the next two weeks. We're only in the first wave of matches on Day 1 and we already have some good ones. Adrian Mannarino took the first set from (11) Juan Martin Del Potro before DelPo came back and wiped the court with Mannarino in the second. Lukasz Kubot took the first set 6-1 against (10) Nicolas Almagro. American Bethanie Mattek-Sands, a player more known for her outlandish outfits and tattoos, is locked in a first set tiebreaker against (8) Agnieszka Radwanska. I think the match of the first day will be (22) Fernando Verdasco against the Aussie wunderkin Bernard Tomic. Tomic has been getting better and better over the last two years and Verdasco is a head case who hasn't been playing well of late, as evidenced by his drop in the rankings from inside the top ten to outside the top 20. Overall, I think this is a huge tournament for American tennis. The Yanks put on a good show at the US Open, but if they don't come back and play well in this major, much of the good will they earned in the tennis community in September will be lost.
After a quick start for the underdogs I mentioned in the previous post, water has found its level to some degree. Del Potro has taken the next two sets from Mannarino, Radwanska took the second set from Mattek-Sands and Almagro took the second and third sets from Kubot. As for Verdasco/Tomic, the big lefty from Spain took the first set 6-4 and is up an early break in the second set.
The Verdasco/Tomic match has lived up to the hype. After dropping the first two sets and looking like he was already out of gas, Tomic has roared back and taken the next two sets. Verdasco has a history of self-destructing, so the fifth set will be interesting. The top-ranked American, Mardy Fish, is cruising to a first-round win against Gilles Muller, a pesky lefty from Luxembourg. He took the first two sets 6-4, 6-4 and he is up 5-2 in the third set. Sam Querrey, who had an injury-plagued 2011 is up two sets to none against a French qualifier. Even though it's a match against a lesser opponent on a court with just a couple hundred spectators, it's good to see Querrey winning at a Grand Slam event.
Tomic ended up getting the win, huge win for this young kid but you have to feel that Verdasco with his 81 unforced errors really should have never let it slip. McHale got up and beat Safarova in straight sets and cost me my first multi of the tournament Will be interesting to see Andy Murray goes if he makes it late into the tournament, how much of a difference will having Llendl make to his game when it matters.
Day 2 of the Australian Open is well underway, but it has failed to give us some of the early drama we saw yesterday. The only real upset chance thus far has been on the women's side. 14th-ranked Sabine Lisicki was down a break in the deciding third set before coming back and winning her match against Swiss qualifier Stefanie Voegele. There are some pretty good matches still to come on the men's side. I don't think he has what it takes to win the match, but I will be interested to see what Ryan Harrison can do against Andy Murray. If nothing else, Harrison is fearless and he won't back down from one of the tournament favorites. I will also be curious to see what kind of form Andy Roddick is in. He hasn't played much tennis since the US Open and when he has taken the court, he hasn't looked great. He has a tough draw against Robin Haase. Haase pushed him a little bit at this event last year and at the US Open, he pushed Murray to a fifth set. It will get exactly zero TV coverage, but I'll be rooting hard for American Michael Russell. He has just a bit more talent than your average country club tennis pro, but he is in superb shape and works harder than anyone in the game if you ask guys like Pat McEnroe. He is taken on 27th-ranked Juan Ignacio Chela, a guy who probably isn't as good as his seed would have you think. He's a dirt rat clay-courter and little else.
uh oh, harrison is bringing the heat to murray. I would love to see this upset. Kid has a lot of fire to him and has clearly improved all around on his shots, control, decisions
Harrison played about as well as you could expect of someone in his position. He was near-perfect a lot of the time in the first set. He was going for his shot and getting it pretty often, which is saying something when taking on a defensive-minded player like Murray. I was also impressed by the way Roddick played. I figured Haase would at least push him, but outside of little spurts in the first set, Haase was all but powerless. I was also happy to see Lleyton Hewitt get a win at his home tournament. I know that there have been times when Hewitt has been a grade-A d-bag, but after all the injuries troubles and drops in ranking he has suffered over the last three or four years, it was nice to see his hard work pay off. For his troubles, he gets Roddick in round two.
Wow. Big blow for the Americans today. Mardy Fish just went down in straight sets to Alejandro Falla. Falla is a decent player, but he has no business beating Fish, much less in straight sets.
Have 2 tv's running at all time, one with channel 7 another with foxtel. Love the Australian Open :grin:
Fish let his opponent get to him today which seems to be a common theme so far in 2012. Haven't seen the same Fish to start 2012 as we did last year and his meltdown against Grigor Dimitrov has really summed up the last few weeks. Even today, late in the 3rd set he was more interested on the treatment his opponent was receiving than his own game. Schiavone has just been eliminated in straight sets against Oprandi. The big one for the Aussies is tonight with Tomic taking on Querrey, Tomic is going in as favourite here in Aus but I honestly feel a lot of people are underrating Sam's game. Should be a ripper match and the night session always adds a bit more atmosphere to it.
Agreed on all accounts. Fish hasn't looked right yet in 2012. Many experts had him pegged as an early exit, but I don't know that anyone figured he would get rolled in straight sets in the second round. I'm really looking forward to Tomic/Querrey. Because of the injuries that have plagued Sam over the last couple of years, people are quick to forget how talented Sam is. There was a time not so long ago that Querrey was likely the second-best American behind Andy Roddick. This was a time before Fish had his resurgence and Isner had yet to really develop as anything more than a big server.
John Isner caught a huge break in his match against David Nalbandian last night. Isner hit a serve that was called out, but the chair umpire overruled the call for the ace. Nalbandian challenged and the replay was shown. The ball was well out, but as it turns out, the umpire said that Nalbandian couldn't challenge because it was too late. Nalbandian's argument (a good one), was that he couldn't tell what was going on in enough time to challenge. Isner went on to win the next two games to win the match.
Another disappointing result for the Americans. Andy Roddick was forced to retire from his second-round match against Lleyton Hewitt with an injury. At this point, he just can't stay healthy. This is the first time I can remember him retiring from a match at a Grand Slam, but it seems that he ends up nursing some sort of injury at every major. Another American, Ryan Sweeting, put a scare in David Ferrer in their match last night. He took Ferrer to five sets before falling. Unless I'm overlooking someone, I think that makes John Isner the last American man in the field.
And just like that, the Americans are gone from the men's draw. After escaping David Nalbandian by the skin of his teeth, John Isner was taken down in five sets by Feliciano Lopez. At this point, the Americans being gone early is no surprise, but that doesn't make it any less disappointing when it happens yet again. I was cautiously optimistic about the chances of an American man making a deep run at this tournament coming off of a heartening performance for the Yanks overall at the US Open this past September, but it was not to be.
While watching this tournament this week, I'm convinced that the tennis schedule has to change. It's just too long. The players don't get any real break. As a tennis fan, I've always wanted the season to go on as long as possible, but the grueling schedule is clearly hurting the quality of play at this event. It has been a tournament of blowouts, particularly on the women's side, and it seems that every player is dealing with some sort of nagging injury. Plain and simple, with a few exceptions (Tomic's performances, the Isner/Nalbandian five-setter), it has been a ho-hum event so far.
I hope Tsonga wins the entire tourney Nishikori is underrated, and beat Jo at Shanghai last year, so Jo better not look at this as an easy-win
