The Australian Open: Day Two

By Haruka


The party vibe of the Australian Open was dampened today by the lingering effects of the antics of Serbs and Croats and the security placed on Mario Ancic did not help. But tennis continued to go on in the forms of either extremely breath stopping tennis or matches that took two minutes to finish. Due to the incredibly hot weather many matches did not go on. The first matches of the day did occur on the outer courts and after that players were not allowed on court due to the extreme on court temperature.




Women's Tennis in Summary

This is Kim's last year and being the number four ranked player she is a contender to win the Australian Open. Coming out on a mission, Kim took out Russian Vasilisa Bardina in 44 minutes and did not let the Russian take a game. Another match that was over in short order was Martina Hingis verses Nathalie Dechy of France. Hingis won the first set in 19 minutes and did not let the Frenchwoman get on the board until the second set. The second set took a bit longer, 35 minutes, and though Dechy won two games, the Maneater aka Hingis won the second set and moved on to the second round.


Other winners of the day were Ana Ivanovic's routine win over American Vania King and Russia's Anastassia Rodionova defeat of Roberta Vinci from Italy. Slightly tougher wins came to Anna Chakvetadze, the number 12 seed from Russia, and her defeat over Sybille Bammer in two sets, 6-4 and 7-5. Then there was Sania Mirza's defeat of Olga Savchuk in 6-3 and 7-5. Luckily for you patriotic tennis fans out there, an American women, Laura Granville, managed to have a pretty easy win over Yulia Beygelzimer from the Ukraine.

The Big Women's Match

Maria Sharapova was first to play today. In what most figured would be a cake walk to the second round turned into a battle against the heat and a battle of wills in the third set. Sharapova took her famous bathroom breaks at the end of her surprising loss of the second set and though she led the 3rd set 5 games to 0 her opponent, Camille Pin, went all out and managed to come back from behind and push the game on. Sharapova, overcome by the the court temperature of 120 degrees and what looked like a pinch to her side, had to fight Pin's match points and had to fight to get her own match points and finally overcame Pin to take the final set 9-7 and win the match she owes to the break she took in the third set.

Men's Tennis In Summary

Despite the incredible heat there happened to be a few four four and five set matches. A few easy wins for Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador rally over Alan Mackin of Britain, Argentina's Juan Chela victory over Italy's Potito Starace, and Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic defeat of Hyung-Taik Lee.


Of the four set matches Australian Robert Smeets won against Luckas Lacko of Slovakia, Mischa Zverev defeat of Michael Berrer both coming from Germany, and Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland disappointing defeat of American Kevin Kim.


Of the five set matches There was Chile's Paul Capdeville win over Julien Benneteau, American Robby Ginepri tough win over Nicolas Almagro who comes from Spain. Argentina's David "Fat Dave" Nalbandian's just barely managed to hold on and greatly appreciated Serbia's Janko Tipsarvic who in the fifth set could not handle the Australian summer and retired. Another surprise was Olivier Rochus of Belgium win of over Chris Guccione much to the disappointment of Australian tennis fans.

The Big Men's Matches

First up was Rafael Nadal's match. This is the second year Nadal has played and the first year he has to battle with expectations. As the match started Nadal's tentativeness showed and Robert Kendrick's tenacity kept the first set even and forced the players to go to a tie break. Nadal slowly becoming more comfortable on court had to battle to get win the first set tie break but afterwards was on fire. Winning the second set 6-3 and the third set 6-2, he edged ahead of Kendrick lining up brilliant shots and his pure athleticism helped him win the match.


Currently 3:15 EST, it is the second set of the American James Blake and Mallorcan Carlos Moya's first round match. Though the first set was pretty even, James Blake despite his forehand errors, played a better tie break and won the first set. In the second set, with the confidence and game, James Blake is currently over powering the still rusty Carlos Moya to break ahead in the second set. Blake has plunged ahead and won the second set, 6-2 and is currently on his way to winning the match.

Random Commentary

Maria Sharapova obviously dresses herself or wanted to spark Lolita fantasies in men. Her hideous dress was thankfully occasionally covered by the shade she would understandably cower in at any opportunity. Patrick McEnroe's arrogant hopefulness that Kendrick would win over Nadal was not only misplaced but was also nauseating. Patrick's unprofessional one-sided commentary over Blake's match should be taken note of. Also the fact that he is still jerking off over Roddick's "great" win yesterday should be not only be noted but praised because I figured his hand would be tired by now.

Tootles