Tennis (in general)

[DiabloRoma]

Multiple BOOMS in women's draw - as many seeds were kicked out of the tournament!

No. 5 seed Ana Ivanovic lost in 3 sets against Lucie Hradecka - it's her first 1st round loss since Roland Garros 2011.
No. 32 seed Belinda Bencic suffered a heavy defeat against Julia Goerges - the German won 6-2 6-1.
No. 23 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova has been eliminated by Yanina Wickmayer in 3 sets.
No. 28 seed Sabine Lisicki said goodbye to Melbourne by losing to Kristina Mladenovic in 3 sets.
No. 27 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova was kicked out by Caroline Garcia - and the results talks by itself: 6-4 6-2.
No. 17 seed Carla Suarez Navarro badly lost to the German Carina Witthoeft - 6-3 6-1.
No. 9 seed Angelique Kerber faced a kind of comeback from Irina Camelia Begu - the Romanian didn't have recent good results, but this time she won in 3 sets.
No. 16 seed Lucie Safarova has been thrown out by Yaroslava Shvedova: she won 8-6 in the 3rd set. She's not new to these upsets.

The seeds who survived are Karolina Pliskova, Makarova, Errani, Halep, Bouchard, Peng, Diyas and Sharapova.

Now, let's go through MEN's draw.

The only seeds who lost are Tommy Robredo (retired in the middle of first set against Edouard Roger-Vasselin) and Ernests Gulbis (who lost a 5-set match against the Aussie Thanasi Kokkinakis).

Roger Federer easily beat Yen-Hsun Lu, and so did Nadal against the phantom of Mikhail Youzhny. Berdych, Leonardo Mayer, Kohlschreiber, Anderson, Gasquet, Rosol, Murray, Klizan, Goffin, Dimitrov, Karlovic all reached the 2nd round.

Federer will now play the Italian Simone Bolelli, while Nadal will face Tim Smyczek from the USA.

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Australians are furious because of the strange Rod Laver Arena & Margaret Court Arena order of play for the Day 2 night session. Hewitt-Ze Zhang and Rogers-Tomljanovic were set to play in the RLA, while Serena Williams-Van Uytvanck and Pouille-Monfils were put on MCA - and Novak Djokovic on day session.

 

[SRBIJA]

First day and my two big favourites are out already.

 

[DiabloRoma]

DAY 2 - WOMEN'S DRAW

Many of the seeds survived - however, we're saying goodbye to some of them.

No. 13 Andrea Petkovic was defeated by the American Madison Brengle, recent finalist in Sydney, with a score of 5-7 7-6 6-3.
No. 12 Flavia Pennetta lost to Camila Giorgi 4-6 6-2 6-3. As I respect Pennetta and don't like at all Giorgi, this doesn't sound good to me.
No. 15 Jelena Jankovic - who isn't in a good shape - lost to the Swiss Timea Bacsinszky, who is living a kind of 2nd young age.

Stosur, Wozniacki, Dellacqua, Serena Williams, Kvitova, Venus Williams, A. Radwanska, Cornet, Cibulkova, Muguruza, Zahlavova Strycova, Svitolina, Lepchenko are the seeds who managed to advance to the 2nd round.

MEN'S DRAW

Some "booms" happened. One of them was unfortunately involving an Italian.

No. 16 Fabio Fognini lost to Alejandro Gonzalez in 4 sets - 4-6 6-2 6-3 6-4.
No. 15 Julien Benneteau suffered his destiny against Benjamin Becker, in 4 sets.
No. 27 Pablo Cuevas didn't win any set against the German Matthias Bachinger.
No. 21 Alexandr Dolgopolov, who was already in bad shape, lost to the Italian Paolo Lorenzi in straight sets.

Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka easily won their matches, and so did Nishikori, Raonic, Simon, Ferrer, Lopez, Verdasco, Isner, Bautista Agut, Giraldo.

While I'm writing, Lucas Pouille and Gael Monfils are still playing. They're 2 sets all, and 4 games all in the final set. Monfils is No. 17 seed.

 

[DiabloRoma]

Monfils won it - or better, Pouille lost it with some disasterous choices.

 

[DiabloRoma]

SORRY for the lack of updates.

I'm gonna resume, SO QUICKLY, all the events from Day 3 and 4.

DAY 3
WOMEN
News of the day: Maria Sharapova needed 2 match points in order to avoid a defeat vs Alexandra Panova (who's becoming quite habit to these things: in 2013 Fed Cup final she missed 4 match points against Roberta Vinci).

Surprisingly, all seeded players made it to the 3rd round. Diyas and Pliskova were the only who needed a 3rd set to advance.

MEN
For more than 1 hour, we were near to a big BOOM, as Rafael Nadal needed 5 sets and more than 4 hours in order to beat the American qualifier Tim Smyczek. Even Roger Federer had some difficulties: the Italian Simone Bolelli played well and won the 1st set of their match, before losing the subsequent 3.

Many seeds were eliminated.

No. 22 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber suffered the new shape of Bernard Tomic, who gained the right to play in the 3rd round by winning in 4 hard sets.
No. 29 seed Jeremy Chardy couldn't stop Andreas Seppi's revenge desires (2013 Last 16). The Italian won in 4 sets and "gained" Roger Federer.
No. 23 seed Ivo Karlovic lost his battle against the rising star Nick Kyrgios. Another 4 set match.
No. 20 seed Marcos Baghdatis relived his best days, as the Cypriot managed to send out of Melbourne the Belgian David Goffin in 4 sets (again!)
No. 28 seed Lukas Rosol's adventure came to an end because of the Israeli Dudi Sela. How many sets? Again, 4.
No. 26 seed Leonardo Mayer met Viktor Troicki. The Serbian won the 4th set 6-0 on his way to the 3rd round.
No. 32 seed Martin Klizan retired at the beginning of the 4th set against the Portuguese Joao Sousa.

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DAY 4
WOMEN
Quite a bad day for Australians.

No. 20 seed Samantha Stosur failed once more to shine in her homeland, as Coco Vandeweghe beat her with a double 6-4. Curious: Vandeweghe eliminated two Grand Slam champions - Schiavone won at Roland Garros 2010, while Stosur won at the US Open 2011.
No. 29 seed Casey Dellacqua faced her destiny against Madison Keys. She won the first set 6-2, but she fell down in the last two - 6-1 6-1.
No. 8 seed Caroline Wozniacki's run was quickly declared over by the unseeded - but still strong - Victoria Azarenka, who's threatening to come back from a bad 2014. Final score: 6-4 6-2.

Williams sisters, Radwanska, Cibulkova, Kvitova, Lepchenko, Cornet, Zahlavova Strycova, Svitolina, Muguruza were the remaining seeds who made it to the 3rd round. Other qualifiers are Bacsinszky, Brengle and Giorgi.

MEN
Djokovic, Wawrinka, Nishikori, Raonic, Ferrer, Isner, Lopez, Verdasco, Simon were the seeded players who respected their role and gained their 2nd tournament win.

Those who lost:
No. 17 seed Gael Monfils was shocked: Jerzy Janowicz is back and shows it by winning in 5 sets, bouncing back from a set down.
No. 30 seed Santiago Giraldo was heavily beaten by Steve Johnson: 6-3 6-4 6-2 was the final score.
No. 13 seed Roberto Bautista Agut didn't survive one more who's reliving his best days, named Gilles Muller. The match had a 4 set length.

Other unseeded qualifiers for the 3rd round: Benjamin Becker (who defeated Hewitt), Nieminen, Pospisil, Garcia Lopez.

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Okay, now I'm gonna wait for Sara Errani's match, which is coming in just 30 minutes.

 

[DiabloRoma]

DAY 5

BOOM - The Big Upset came.

No. 2 seed Roger Federer has been defeated by the Italian Andreas Seppi. The final score is 6-4 7-6 4-6 7-6.

I want to talk a little about this match and about Andreas.

First of all, I'm talking from a double point of view. I'm both Italian and Roger's fan. Now, I'm heavily disappointed for Roger, but at the same time I'm feeling happy for Seppi. Andreas is a good and loyal man. Despite his solid playing style, he's respected among Italian tennis fans. His career had many highlights. He started in 2004 by defeating Rainer Schuettler at the US Open (Andreas was world no. 167 at that time, while the German was No. 11). A year later, he defeated Hewitt, James Blake and Ferrero. In 2008, he had the very highlight of that part of career, defeating Nadal in Rotterdam (he didn't win that tournament because of Soderling). In 2012, he had his best year. He made it through the Top 20 and defeated both Isner and Wawrinka in two legendary matches in Rome (the 2nd named "match of the year" by ATP) and Verdasco in Roland Garros. In the same tournament, he was so near to something historical - defeating Novak Djokovic. He led by 2 sets, then Novak came back. In the same year, he won his 2 first ATP tournaments, the first one in Belgrade and the second one in Moscow (in the first one, he defeated Nalbandian in SF and Paire in F, while in Moscow he defeated Bellucci in F).

He has always been trained by Massimo Sartori.

No other seeds were eliminated - as Nadal, Murray, Berdych, Dimitrov and Anderson all made it. Dimitrov needed 5 sets to run over Marcos Baghdatis, while all the others needed 3 sets. Kyrgios and Tomic also reached the last 16.

The eightfinals of the lower part of the draw are: Berdych-Tomic; Anderson-Nadal; Murray-Dimitrov; Kyrgios-Seppi.

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WOMEN

Only one of the seeded players left the tournament today - unfortunately for my country, it was Sara Errani, who didn't manage to save her advantage of a set against Yanina Wickmayer. The final result was 4-6 6-4 6-3 for the Belgian. Despite this result, Sara achieved a thing she needed: some matches. She had severe troubles during the off season, and we'll see her in a better shape in March, during Indian Wells and Miami, I believe. Then, "her" red clay will make the other part of the work.

Sharapova, Halep, Bouchard, Makarova, Peng were the seeded players who made it through the last 16. Other unseeded players who reached the 2nd week are Goerges and Begu.

These are the eightfinals of the lower part of the draw:

Goerges-Makarova, Wickmayer-Halep, Bouchard-Begu, Peng-Sharapova.

 

[DiabloRoma]

DAY 6

WOMEN
The big upset is in - Madison Keys beats No. 4 seed Petra Kvitova. Wimbledon champion says goodbye to Melbourne by suffering a 6-4 7-5 defeat.

Only one more unseeded-seeded match saw the unseeded player emerging as a winner. It's the case of Victoria Azarenka, who's currently out of the Top 40. She won against No. 25 seed Barbora Zahlavova Strycova with a 6-4 6-4 score.

Both Williams sisters had troubles.
Serena lost 1st set against Elina Svitolina, before coming back and winning for 4-6 6-2 6-0.
Venus was very near to the defeat against Italian Camila Giorgi. The 34 years old 5 times Wimbledon winner was 6-4 4-2 0-40 down, and 5-3 30-0, and 5-4. She elevated her playing level, defeated Giorgi in the tie-break and in the subsequent 3rd set: 4-6 7-6 6-1.
It's interesting to notice that Camila's father, Sergio, stated that "Camila can beat Venus, because she plays better". His daughter said that she didn't know Venus playing style, as she followed male tennis only.

Garbine Muguruza ended the revival run of Timea Bacsinszky, but she needed some effort as the result was 6-3 4-6 6-0.

Radwanska, Cibulkova and Brengle are the others who made it to the 4th round.

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MEN

There's just one upset - and it's a kind of comeback story as Gilles Muller, from Luxembourg, defeated No. 19 seed John Isner in straight sets. This, after defeating another seeded player, No. 13 Roberto Bautista Agut.

Djokovic, Wawrinka, Nishikori, Raonic, Ferrer, Lopez, Garcia Lopez are the others who sent theirselves into the 4th round.

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In the next post I will post the entire draw for both men and women for the 4th round. I will also post when and where these matches will take place.

 

[DiabloRoma]

ROUND 4 - Matches taking place tonight (in Europe) get their infos on them.

WOMEN'S SINGLES

Serena Williams (1) vs Garbine Muguruza (24)
Dominika Cibulkova (11) vs Victoria Azarenka
Madison Keys vs Madison Brengle
Venus Williams (18) vs Agnieszka Radwanska (6)

Julia Goerges vs Ekaterina Makarova (10) - NB 1:00 PM in Australia - Margaret Court Arena
Yanina Wickmayer vs Simona Halep (3) - NB 7:00 PM in Australia - Rod Laver Arena
Eugenie Bouchard (7) vs Irina Camelia Begu - 11:00 AM in Australia - Rod Laver Arena
::na Shuai Peng (21) vs Maria Sharapova (2) - Follows Bouchard-Begu - Rod Laver Arena

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MEN'S SINGLES

Novak Djokovic (1) vs Gilles Muller
Feliciano Lopez (12) vs Milos Raonic (8)
Stan Wawrinka (4) vs Guillermo Garcia Lopez
David Ferrer (9) vs Kei Nishikori (5)

Tomas Berdych (7) vs Bernard Tomic - NB 3:00 PM in Australia - Margaret Court Arena
Kevin Anderson (14) vs Rafael Nadal (3) - NB 2:00 PM in Australia - Rod Laver Arena
Andy Murray (6) vs Grigor Dimitrov (10) - following Wickmayer-Halep - Rod Laver Arena
Nick Kyrgios vs Andreas Seppi - NB 6:15 PM in Australia - Hisense Arena

 

[DiabloRoma]

DAY 7

WOMEN

No upsets for today. The only 3 sets long match was played between Eugenie Bouchard and Irina Camelia Begu. The Canadian won 6-1 5-7 6-2.
Sharapova smashed Peng 6-3 6-0, Halep defeated Wickmayer 6-4 6-2, Makarova ran down Goerges 6-3 6-2.

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MEN

The most dramatic match was the one between the two unseeded. Andreas Seppi led 2 sets to 0 against Nick Kyrgios, but the Australian won the 3rd, served great to save a match point in the 4th set, won it in the tie-break, and finally won the whole match 5-7 4-6 6-3 7-6(5) 8-6. I'm proud of Andreas, because he played so well.

Grigor Dimitrov literally imploded when he was near to the 5th set against Andy Murray. The Briton won 6-4 6-7(5) 6-3 7-5. On the match point, Murray hit the net and the ball ended its run on Dimitrov's side.

Tomas Berdych defeated Bernard Tomic 6-2 7-6(3) 6-2, while Kevin Anderson also imploded against Rafael Nadal. He was 5-5 and 0-40 in the first set. It ended 7-5 6-1 6-4 for the Spaniard.

Day 8 will feature all other 4th round matches.

 

[DiabloRoma]

Sorry for the lack of updates - but at last, we've got the Finals.

WOMEN'S FINAL

Serena Williams vs Maria Sharapova

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MEN'S FINAL

Novak Djokovic vs Andy Murray

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MEN'S DOUBLES FINAL

Simone Bolelli / Fabio Fognini vs Nicolas Mahut / Pierre-Hugues Herbert

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WOMEN'S DOUBLES FINAL

Bethanie Mattek-Sands / Lucie Safarova def. Yung-Yan Chan / ::na Jie Zheng 6-4 7-6(5)

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MIXED DOUBLES FINAL

Kristina Mladenovic / Daniel Nestor vs Martina Hingis / Leander Paes

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JUNIOR BOYS' SINGLES FINAL

Roman Safiullin vs Seong-Chan Hong

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JUNIOR GIRLS' SINGLES FINAL

Katie Swan vs Tereza Mihalikova

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JUNIOR BOYS' DOUBLES FINAL

Jake Delaney / Marc Polmans def. Hubert Hurkacz / Alex Molcan 0-6 6-2 (10-8 super tie-break)

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JUNIOR GIRLS' DOUBLES FINAL

Miriam Kolodziejova / Marketa Vondrousova def. Katharina Hobgarski / Greet Minnen 7-5 6-4

 

[DiabloRoma]

Now - Serena Williams won her Grand Slam No. 19.

Italians Bolelli and Fognini won their title in doubles (and here many tennis fans are happy, it's the first doubles Grand Slam in the Open Era, and first overall one since Pietrangeli and Sirola in Roland Garros 1959).

Now, in less than 9 hours, Men's Final will come.

Novak Djokovic will face Andy Murray.

Will it be the 8th of Novak, or will it be the 3rd of Andy?

Murray is playing his 4th final in Melbourne - he lost the 3 he played before (1 vs Federer, 2 vs Djokovic).

Djokovic is playing his 5th final in Melbourne - he won all the 4 he played before (1 vs Tsonga, 1 vs Nadal and 2 vs Murray)

That's all. Now... enjoy.

(By the way, next week we'll have 3 tournaments in Montpellier, Zagreb and Quito, while women will be deeply into Fed Cup rounds - I'll be in Genova, attending the clash between Italy and France)

 

[DiabloRoma]

So here it comes - NOVAK DJOKOVIC wins the Australian Open 2015. It's his 8th Slam, 5th in Melbourne, like Andre Agassi did.

He won the final against Andy Murray. The score was 7-6(5) 6-7(4) 6-3 6-0.

The final was basically divided into two parts. The first one goes from the start to the break made by Murray in order to go 3-1 up in the 3rd set. The second part was the subsequent one: Djokovic won 11 games in a row, and the whole tournament.

The new ATP ranking will feature Djokovic at No. 1, Federer at No. 2, Nadal at No. 3, Murray at No. 4. Wawrinka goes down to No. 9.

 

[Sean]

Stan Wawrinka, take a bow!

Beat Djokovic 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-4 to win the French Open

 

[Tinchey]

FFS ČILIĆ :|

 

[Hele.]

FFS ČILIĆ :|

You were following too...simply...no words for him! :?
But he is guilty completely if he loses...he had zillion opportunities...I do not regret if he losses tomorrow...

 

[Tinchey]

I do normally cheer for the outsider, but the way crowd and Watson's box were behaving during the match totally turned me against her. Cheering on double faults and unforced errors always sucks, regardless of who is playing and how badly you want someone to win. So, kudos to Serena for making it after all. And let's go Jelena tomorrow!

It messed up Isner and Čilić a couple of times too. :'D It was hilarious.

 

[lavieenrose]

Heather Watson is back on the Rogers Cup main draw scene ! Now everything you need is in her first round matchup.

 

[Lupus]

Quite a shock really in the men's game with Wawrinka now announcing he's missing the rest of the year as well as Novak. It leaves things very open for everyone else!

 

[Hele.]

Quite a shock really in the men's game with Wawrinka now announcing he's missing the rest of the year as well as Novak. It leaves things very open for everyone else!

Wouldn't be surprised if Murray decides on something similar too...Well, I think Federer and Nadal are surely above rest this year but especially Fed with his smart scheduling. However, it is yet to see how he is gonna react in this part of season where he didn't have that big break like after IW/Miami as he is 36 years old after all and not sure if he can maintain such high level through all tournaments he play. Nadal is most consistent through whole year and on all surfaces (unless grass) but he is also not at his best! I think Zverev (and Kyrgios if he got serious, Ajla dumped him btw), Thiem, Cilic, Raonic, Nishikori and Berdych will be most dangerous on hard surface (and indoor as well). If Murray continues to play, I expect him to raise his level finally!

But with missing Serena and all other normally best, but now returners to tour that are very rusty (Sharapova, Kvitova, Azarenka), women game seems to be very open! Pliskova is another surprising slam-less number one and Halep can't get any of them: no 1 or slam! Konta is having great season and I think she is one to watch in this hard court season as she already won Miami previously! But many amazing youngsters are knocking on the tour, lead by RG winner Ostapneko! Bencic (first of the company to reach top 10) is searching for herself, but there are Konjuh, Kontaveit, Barty! Bellis is doing some scary things for her age as well! Trio of Potpaova, Anisimova and Yastermska (all born after 2000) is announcing big things!

All in all, many interesting things in women and men game in this US Courts swing!

 

[Lupus]

Wouldn't be surprised if Murray decides on something similar too...Well, I think Federer and Nadal are surely above rest this year but especially Fed with his smart scheduling. However, it is yet to see how he is gonna react in this part of season where he didn't have that big break like after IW/Miami as he is 36 years old after all and not sure if he can maintain such high level through all tournaments he play. Nadal is most consistent through whole year and on all surfaces (unless grass) but he is also not at his best! I think Zverev (and Kyrgios if he got serious, Ajla dumped him btw), Thiem, Cilic, Raonic, Nishikori and Berdych will be most dangerous on hard surface (and indoor as well). If Murray continues to play, I expect him to raise his level finally!

But with missing Serena and all other normally best, but now returners to tour that are very rusty (Sharapova, Kvitova, Azarenka), women game seems to be very open! Pliskova is another surprising slam-less number one and Halep can't get any of them: no 1 or slam! Konta is having great season and I think she is one to watch in this hard court season as she already won Miami previously! But many amazing youngsters are knocking on the tour, lead by RG winner Ostapneko! Bencic (first of the company to reach top 10) is searching for herself, but there are Konjuh, Kontaveit, Barty! Bellis is doing some scary things for her age as well! Trio of Potpaova, Anisimova and Yastermska (all born after 2000) is announcing big things!

All in all, many interesting things in women and men game in this US Courts swing!

I actually wonder if Murray will take a punt and try and keep going until the end of the year... Given that two of the top five are out for the rest of the season, surely that means easier pickings for him? We'll see, but it's odd that he's not yet made a call one way or another! I do think he's trying to keep going.

As for the women's, lordy me... Open as anything right now! No one really deserves to be number one in a sense given how little consistency there is XD

But yes, all exciting stuff going on; certainly keeping track of what's happening!