What an absolutely incredible display of tennis between Roger Federer and Bernard Tomic. Wow! If I was to tell someone to watch one match at the Australian Open so far it would be this one. I am just so impressed by what each of those guys were able to do. Even though I haven't liked Tomic's cocky attitude leading up to this, he certainly was able to put on a great display of tennis for his packed home crowd on Rod Laver Arena. However, he wasn't able to match the brilliance of the Maestro from Switzerland. Really the only thing Federer wasn't able to do well was to convert break points. Much of that, however, was due to Tomic's clutch play in those moments, really coming up with the goods at the important times. The shot making between both of them was downright breathtaking at times. Definitely Tomic was wanting to make a good impression and prove himself capable of being a top player. I think, though, that the hype about this match also brought out in Roger a fierce determination to show that he isn't going down yet to the young up and coming guys.
Federer ended the match with 46 winners and 20 unforced errors. Now those are the types of numbers his fans love to see! He truly hasn't lost his greatness in any way, and the way he moved around the court shows he hasn't lost his speed either, with some amazing retrieval ability to stay in points. Here is just one small example showing the full range of his skills.
I
thought Roger did a great job in his press conference delicately
dealing with the issue of respect between players, in a gentle way implying that Tomic could have handled that aspect better than he did. Here is a
link to that interview, as he says it much better than I could:
I could go on and on with my appreciation for this match and for Federer in general as he claimed his 250th grand slam win. I can say it was definitely worth staying up until 2:30 a.m. Hopefully he can keep up this incredible form through the next challenging matches to come.
You know it's a very hot day when Roger Federer is sweating that much. Still 104 degrees in the first evening match, they at least didn't have to deal with the intense sunshine that the daytime matches had to contend with. It was a fairly easy, though definitely not epic win for the world #2 against someone who has beaten him a couple times before. I'm sure he felt cautious about this one, knowing Davydenko had really stretched him in Oz a couple years ago, plus had recently been a finalist in Doha a couple weeks ago. However, Davy certainly wasn't up to form, making many, many unforced errors and really making it pretty easy for Roger. Of course, this sets up what has been getting a lot of attention in the media - Fed vs. Tomic at the AO. Tomic is taking full advantage of the situation and saying things that frankly I hope get him into some trouble. Yes he has turned his game around from the depths it had fallen to the second half of last year, and yes he beat Novak Djokovic in an exhibition match, meaning he obviously is playing some good tennis, but it seems he may be setting himself up to be made a bit of a fool of if he isn't able to live up to his own expectations, after making comments implying Federer may not even make it to the 3rd round - even though it hasn't happened in over eight years. It all remains to be seen how this match will go, but I hope that Roger teaches his young opponent that he is still the master. I am finding that I had already forgotten, in the 4-5 months since the last major, how much of the action we don't get to see,. especially in the first couple rounds. There is just so much tennis going on, and I feel like I have seen just a tiny fraction of it, in spite of watching hours and hours a day. But one thing that does seem evident is that the top players for both the men and women are in tip top form, with some of the women hardly losing any games in their first two rounds. Things will start heating up more now for some of them and we have some good matches to look forward to, like Maria Sharaova vs Venus in third round action.
And
I have to make mention of the sad situation that happened for Sam
Stosur the other night. She has always struggled to play in her home
country and once again her nerves got the best of her. It was heart
wrenching to watch. After dropping the first set and looking like the
same old - same old, she managed to get things together, won the second set and was up 5-2 in the third. Then
the demons attacked again. She got broken serving for it the first
time. Oh well, she has another insurance break, she can do it the next
time. Not so. Errors, tentative play, and aggression from her opponent
caused her to lose her serve again. Then discouragement took over and
her opponent took advantage. Soon the match was over with her losing
the last five games of the match. I have major sympathy for her. All
the advice in the world doesn't seem to help. I really hope for her
sake she can find a new way to wrestle through this incredibly
frustrating malady.
For those who are still alive in the tournament, though, on to the third round. And many of us are needing to adopt the hash tag the AO twitter page is using - sleepisfortheweak!
Some of the nerves that Federer fans were feeling before Roger's first match, after his not having played a competitive tour match in two months, were put to rest today with a straight forward win against Benoit Paire. The relaxed expression on his face in his on court interview was the feeling of the entire match. It never felt stressful in any way in his 6-2 6-4 6-1 breeze through to the 2nd round. While it's true that Paire was definitely helping the cause by making quite a lot of errors, almost to the point of seeming like he wasn't trying sometimes, the winner's coming off the Fed's racquet were beautiful indeed.
Now his second round match may be a different story if Davydenko lives up to his potential. However, seeing the form he was in this match still put some fears to rest about how he would come into the tournament. He seemed very equal to the form of Djokovic and Murray, who both looked very sharp themselves. Granted, a lot can happen over a two week period and it's pretty hard to predict how things will go from one round to the next, but I am at least feeling quite confident from his first showing. Of course there are many stories going on already in these two days in both the men's and women's game but I won't go into all that at this point in the tournament. However, I can sleep well tonight knowing that Roger came out in great form, which makes the happy slam all the happier.
Anticipation is high with predictions abounding as we inch ever closer to the first major of the year. The predictions, however, are almost all the same - Djokovic and Serena holding the trophies in two weeks time. While I believe this is very likely myself, what's the fun of the build-up to the final if we already know the result?
With the draw being so heavily favored to Djokovic, having pretty much of a cake-walk most of the time, and being the lucky one to get Ferrer in his half (although Ferrer has already won two titles this year, just winning his second this weekend, to beat Djokovic in the semi would be a bit of a miracle), he pretty much has a shoe-in to the final. Federer by far has the hardest draw, with one of the biggest concerns, in my mind, being his second round most probably against Davydenko. He really struggled against him here a couple years ago, and anyone who saw Davydenko play against Ferrer knows that he still has the capability to play amazing tennis. Then, of course, there is Bernard Tomic, the tanker and troublemaker from last season who seems to have gotten his life together with a new focus on tennis. He just won his first ATP title in Sydney and could face Fed in the third round. Aussie support will be strongly in Tomic's favor, but Roger is used to those moments. Roger could also see Raonic in the fourth round, who he has lost a set to every time they have played. However, I think in a best of five format that he will come through. My hope is that he won't come out looking rusty from lack of match play but will be mentally prepared for the onslaught and that these challenging matches will toughen him up for later in the tournament. I definitely think he has a chance to win it this year.
As for the women, Serena most certainly is the very heavy favorite, but there are definitely others who have a shot - Azarenka, Sharapova, and I am even going to throw in Radwanska, who is on a roll, not having lost a set yet this year in two tournaments, and actually posting a double bagel in the final in Sydney, something that hasn't been done in a final since 2006. I really feel for Caroline Wozniacki, who is drawn to face Sabine Lisicki in her first round match, a very challenging hard hitting player. I really hope Caro can figure out a way to get through this one or I'm afraid to see what will happen with her year.
And on the fun side of things, the Australian Open Kids Day saw some of the top players having a good time on the court, along with some characters like Sponge Bob. I had to watch it with no sound but it was enjoyable to see them relaxed before the serious stuff starts. The part I have most enjoyed, though, is seeing a few pictures of the Federer twins. Here are a few to show how cute and grown up they are getting:
The next post I write will be about the real action at the Aussie Open. Let the tournament begin!
It was quite a first week of the season. During the week or two before majors when there are a lot of smaller tournaments going on for both men and women, sometimes there is so much action happening that it's pretty much impossible, even for the most hard core tennis fan, to keep up with it all. My tournaments of choice to pay attention to were Brisbane, Doha and the final in Auckland.
Aga Radwanska had the privilege of being the first person of the year to claim a title, doing so by beating Yanina Wickmeyer. Though she looked a little shaky in her semifinal, she held strong to get through tho the final and claimed the title with a 6-4 6-4 win.
The final in Doha really showed the precarious nature of tennis scoring. Played between Nikolay Davedenko and Richard Gasquet, Davydenko clearly was control of the match, winning the first set, with a break in the second and break points for a second break. It looked like it would probably be a 6-3 6-2 scoreline, with Davydenko having played an aggressive match with many high quality shots. Given that he hadn't been broken for the whole tournament so far it looked like a foregone conclusion. But then, whether it was nerves on his part or determination on the part of Gasquet, things suddenly turned around once Gasquet managed to hold serve and momentum slowly began to shift. Davydenko was broken for the first time trying to serve it out and Gasquet won the tiebreak and carried the momentum through the third set to victory. I have seen it way too often in my own matches - sometimes if you let an opportunity slip through your fingers you're not going to end up with another one. Credit to Gasquet for the fightback, but Davydenko's got to be kicking himself for letting that one go. And on a side note, the match he played in the semi against David Ferrer was really jaw dropping tennis. If you didn't see it and can find a replay on the internet, definitely inspiring tennis to watch. Serena showed that she is serious this week in Brisbane with her comprehensive win over Pavyluchenkova. She has implied that she could see herself winning all four majors this year. After watching her win that title I certainly could agree. I was impressed with first time finalist Grigor Dimitrov, who played in the hopes of getting his first ATP title against Andy Murray in Brisbane. In both sets he was up a break and was playing some really impressive tennis. He really didn't show any nerves at the start - the nerves came when he had to try to close the deal. He started making more errors and Murray showed himself to be the more mature and higher ranked player in the moments he needed to in order to win the the title in a tight two sets. Dimitrov showed himself someone to be reckoned with this year if he can keep up that level of play. I could also see why he is sometimes called Baby Federer because his style of play does have a lot of similarities. Li Na also won a title in a tournament in her home country, Janko Tipsarevic claimed one in Chennai India (against a finalist I had never even heard of, with all the other seeds falling early), and Spain was able to overcome Serbia in the exhibition Hopman Cup, in spite of the duo of Djokovic-Ivanovic teaming up. Ok, I may have missed something, but that is a lot of tennis activity. This week the majority of the top men will be resting and preparing while many of the top women are playing in small preparation tournaments. In the meantime I am counting the days to Australia!
Roger Federer took a little detour to Singapore with Credit Suisse on his way to Australia. It's great to hear him talking about all kinds of things from his 2012 season, his extended practice time, his foundation, his family and many other topics. So pour yourself a cup of coffee and enjoy this nice long visit with Roger:
Tennis action is starting to heat up as we inch toward what we are all waiting for - the first major of 2013! I started out just half-heartedly watching some of the matches this week according to what is on TV in my area, but as the week has progressed I have begun paying more attention, finding some matches on the computer that weren't on TV, beginning to get into the spirit of the new season.
For example, I was very impressed with a girl I had never heard of before, Monica Puig. This 19-year-old from Puerto Rico and ranked in the 100s gave #5 ranked Angelique Kerber a real run for her money, taking her to a 3rd set tiebreak. Those two were going for it with everything they had on every point. It was very inspirational tennis and I'm sure we will see more of her this year.
It was encouraging seeing Gael Monfils playing in Doha. After being out of the tennis world for a few months following a knee injury and now ranked at 77, Monfils looked as if he plans on a move back up the ranks, playing some really good tennis to beat Kohlschreiber. He did, however, have a little run-in with the chair umpire after being warned that he was taking too long between points. The often ignored rule of 25 seconds between points is actually going to be enforced this year, with loss of serve after the first warning for the server (hmm, maybe that's the real reason Rafa decided not to play this month?), which happened to Feliciano Lopez in his lackluster loss the other day. I'm really happy that they're finally cracking down on this and hope it continues.
Though I am ready for the next week-and-a-half to go by to get to the tournament we're really waiting for, and in spite of several top seeds going out early in the women's game, I'm glad to at least be watching some great tennis that has actually inspired my own game, which had been suffering the last couple times I played. Today I was able to apply some of the tactics I had seen in a few of the matches I watched and had some good success.
I don't know how much the tournaments this week really mean when it comes to predictions at the Australian Open (such as Djokovic's loss to Tomic in the Hopman Cup), but it's fun to see some of the players out on the court again knowing we have some great things to look forward to right around the corner.
