TENNIS AUSTRALIAN OPEN – Selfie mania at the Australian Open, where Radwanska is on a bagel diet, Vika is still dancing on court, and both Williams reach R4. In the mens’ singles all big names advance to Round four From Melbourne Robbie Cappuccio
AO2015: Interviews, Results, Order of Play, Draws
The perfect Aussie Summer day, as you find it in the postcards: blue sky, 30ºC to and the usual happy crowd around Melbourne Park: the fact that there are around 300 different ancestries in Australia, added to the tennis fans coming from overseas, raise the chances that players, regardless of their nationalities, find a group of vocal supporters cheering and chanting for them.
A lot is happening at Tennis Australia. After Rafter becoming director of performance, Lleyton Hewitt is going to be Australia’s Davis Cup Captain.
Twenty-four hours after Roger exits the tournament everybody still talks about it. It’s Federer’s loss according to the Aussie press, which does not even mention Seppi calling him “an unseeded Italian” (Herald Sun) and forecasting a place in the quarter for Nick Kyrgios, next opponent of Seppi. The Age does a little bit better with a quarter page photo of Andreas, whose name though is barely mentioned in the article.
It’s Seppi’s win, though, according to Serena Williams, who, during her press conference after defeating Svitolina says “Seppi played incredible. He served well, he played well, he moved well. He did everything great. If you want to beat the top players, that’s what you’re going to have to do. I think he proved he could do that consistently for four sets. I don’t think Roger played bad. I think Seppi played really, really well.”
It’s selfie-mania at the Australian Open: people are taking selfies in the main arenas and designated spots around Melbourne Park to get to be seen on the main screen.
But what happened on court?
Serena took a nap during first set against Svitolina who’s got “this fire in her eyes, this desire” – as Serena said – to then powered off and closed the third set with a bagel 4-6 6-2 6-0
Azarenka looked sharp on court defeating Zahlavova Strycova with a double 6-4, reaching the fourth round without dropping a set, and then addressing the crowd “My name is not Vicky”. The shot of the day was definitely the one taking Vika to the match point: drop shot by Zahlavova Strycova, Azarenka gets it with the backhand, lob by Zahlavova Strycova, Vika jumps and misses the overhead, runs back, hits, Zahlavova Strycova approaches the net and … manages to place the forehand volley out. Priceless. “When I missed the overhead, I really had some bad words in my head that I thought about. It was really passionate, with a lot of probably anger in it. I’m not going to say them because you’re going to have to bleep all of them out“. During the press conference then kept on entertaining the journos with her outfit: “How am I an original? Well, first of all, look at my leggings (a sort of tutti frutti icecream). There’s not many players who can pull that off (smiling). What do you think about them?”
Madison Brengle won the all-American match with Vandeweghe and now waits either Kvitova or Keys. In case the American wins, we will have two Madisons, both Americans, playing in round four of a Grand Slam: something you do not see every day. Brengle had a skin tumour cut out of her knee in late October. “It obviously was not a fun time hearing that, but you deal with it. A lot of people have to go through so much worse. They found it really, really early. We took care of it and I have a nice scar on my leg to show for it”. Yes please, use your sunscreen everybody, and especially here down under!
Also, it’s been four years since both Williams reached round four of a Grand Slam tournament. Venus was faster than Serena to reach round four: despite being down to Giorgi 2-6 2-4 0-40, got her mojo back and ended winning 6-1 in the third. Could we see an all-Williams quarterfinal? Well ask Aga Radwanska, who seems to be on a bagel diet: one bagel to each opponent so far in the tournament. Today 6-0 7-5 to Varvara Lepchenko.
Another American caused the upset of the day, Madison Keys ousted fourth seed Petra Kvitova 6-4, 7-5 in the last match of the day on the Rod Laver Arena
In the men’s tournament no big surprises, with Djoker in straight set over Verdasco 7-6 6-3 6-4. The highlight of the match was a marriage proposal of a spectator captured by camera during the match and underlined by a round of applause by the crowd, including Novak Djokovic.
Raonic demolished Becker with 22 aces and is now the only big server remaining, after John Isner (who served 30 aces today) was upset 6-7 6-7 4-6 by Gilles Muller. There you go, the Luxembourger is another big server, cruising at over 25 aces per match so far. Boom Boom next round.
Stan the Man shows how he loves Melbourne cruising in 3 sets with Nieminen 6-4 6-2 6-4. Stan the Man, Stanimal, Stantastic. But to earn names like that “you have to play good and I’m here to win matches. I’m focused on that, not on my surname“.
Nishikori, after an initial stumble, remembers that the opponent has also a forehand (I was hitting to only his backhand, especially first set. He was playing really solid actually) changes pace and continues his Australian campaign by defeating Steve Johnson 6-7 6-1 6-2 6-3.
David Ferrer was made to fight for his win against Gilles Simon in the last match of the day on the Margaret Court Arena. After winning the first two sets, the Spaniard lost the third. In the fourth Ferrer won the match at the tie-break 6-2, 7-5, 5-7, 7-6(4)
Today the Legends’ Doubles tournament kicked off with the new Fast4 tennis; that’s tennis with the following different rules:
- play lets. If the serve clips the tape and lands in the service box, there’s no let, it’s game on. What’s more, if you’re playing doubles either the receiver or their partner can take the return.
- No ad scoring. As soon as a game gets to deuce it’s a Power Point aka Sudden Death. The receiver chooses which side will take the serve. This applies to doubles too with the receiving pair deciding who returns the point.
- Tie break at 3 games all. At 3 games all a short tie-break is played, first to 5 points. A Power Point determines the winner at 4 points all.4) First to win 4 games wins. Hence the name FAST4. It doesn’t matter how you get there, just make sure you get to four before the competition does. No advantage games.
Henry Leconte performed also wearing a Ball Kid outfit, and ended up defeating the Woodies, in team with Philippoussis, whereas Croatian team Ivanisevic/ Ljubicic loses to M.Bahrami / F.Santoro.
