Brilliance and Tragedy

I don't know if there'll ever be a second round match as brilliant or as devastating as the match between Marat Safin and Marcos Baghdatis. Five sets. Impossible to pick a winner, right to the end. An awesome match, between two awesome competitors. A tragic match, because one of them had to lose.

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I am very fond of both Marat and Marcos... perhaps a little more partial to Marat, but I didn't want to see Marcos lose either! What a tragedy that they had to face each other in the second round - but what an incredible, incredible match!

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It seems amazing to me that two men that are so different physically and emotionally can play such similar tennis. Marat Safin is big, strong, fiery and moody. Marcos Baghdatis is small, quick, happy and smiley. And yet their tennis games are so similar! It was almost painful to watch at time - they both hit so flat that you think every shot is going to hit the net. They hardly ever approached the net - neither is a particularly confident volleyer - but slogged it out from the baseline. Marcos did his best to absorb Marat's sheer power, and Marat did his best to match Marcos's speed. Their games were almost perfectly matched. It was great to watch.

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I miss the old Marat - the pre-injury Marat, who was a giant but so fleet around the court, getting down to every ball. We may never get that Marat again - he's said a couple of times it's unlikely he'll be able to play without some pain in his knee - but for the third and fourth sets last night, he was almost there. When Marat is switched on, he is awesome. Federer once said that when Marat is playing well, he can't just beat a player, he can kill them. Well, Marat killed Marcos in those two sets. It's just a shame that he couldn't keep it up in the fifth.

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Lots of aspersions have been cast against the fitness of both men - Marcos in particular - but I don't think it's in doubt that they both went the distance physically. Marat lost concentration and hence lost the match. If he had kept his game up, with Baghdatis playing like he did in the fifth, it's difficult to say who would have won! It would have been a marathon - probably something like 27-25 in the fifth! But tennis is not a game of what-ifs, I suppose... and all credit to Marcos. He played beautifully - and oh! how I will be gunning for him against Lleyton Hewitt! Go Marcos!

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One thing I did notice is that Marat wanted to smash his racquet several times, but restrained himself... until he finally gave out in the fifth set, and totally destroyed it. I wonder if this is a new mental regime...? Maybe he's sick of being fined, who knows? Maybe he's trying to be more Federesque... though somehow I think that's not the case. Marat likes who he is, and he's happy being a hippo! But my interest was piqued...

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Speaking of Federer, he was awesome yesterday against Santoro... and all cred to Santoro for being such a good sport about it! I love watching the master at work... and it seems to me that he, Nadal and Djokovic are having some sort of unspoken competition over who can give up the least games. Federer's winning! Six games in two matches... Djokovic is second with thirteen. And oh, how I am cheering for Roger!

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...how unusual...

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Australian Open Results - Day Four

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Men's Draw

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Roger Federer def. Fabrice Santoro, 6-1 6-2 6-0

Marcos Baghdatis def. Marat Safin, 6-4 6-4 2-6 3-6 6-2

Lleyton Hewitt def. Denis Istomin, 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 5-7 6-1

Novak Djokovic def. Simone Bolelli, 6-1 6-2 6-2

David Nalbandian def. Peter Luczak, 4-6 7-5 6-4 6-1

James Blake def. Michael Russell, 6-3 6-2 6-2

Juan Carlos Ferrero def. Alun Jones, 6-4 6-4 6-2

David Ferrer def. Juan Martin del Potro, 6-4 6-3 ret.

Janko Tipsarevic def. Fernando Verdasco, 7-5 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-3)

Fernando Gonzalez def. Hyung-taik Lee, 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-4

Tomas Berdych def. Oscar Hernandez, 6-1 6-2 6-3

Sam Querrey def. Dmitry Tursunov, 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 6-4 6-2

Sebastien Grosjean def. Robin Haase, 4-6 6-4 6-0 6-7 (4-7) 6-4

Vince Spadea def. Denis Gremelmayr, 4-6 6-2 6-3 2-6 9-7

Juan Monaco def. Amer Delic, 6-3 7-6 (8-6) 5-7 6-7 (8-10) 8-6

Marin Cilic def. Jurgen Melzer, 6-4 6-3 6-4

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Women's Draw

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Ana Ivanovic def. Tathiana Garbin, 6-0 6-3

Svetlana Kuznetsova def. Tsvetana Pironkova, 7-6 (7-0) 6-2

Venus Williams def. Camille Pin, 7-5 6-4

Daniela Hantuchova def. Alize Cornet, 6-2 7-5

Anna Chakvetadze def. Alisa Kleybanova, 6-3 6-4

Nadia Petrova def. Anne Kremer, 7-5 7-5

Sania Mirza def. Timea Bacsinszky, 6-1 4-6 7-5

Li Na def. Maria Elena Camerin, 6-4 6-3

Katarina Srebotnik def. Anastasia Rodionova, 6-4 6-1

Maria Kirilenko def. Akiko Morigami, 6-1 6-1

Agnieszka Radwanska def. Pauline Parmentier, 7-5 6-4

Marta Domachowska def. Sofia Arvidsson, 7-5 1-6 6-1

Virginia Ruano Pascual def. Catalina Castano, 6-2 6-4

Ekaterina Makarova def. Yvonne Meusberger, 6-3 6-1

Sabine Lisicki def. Mariya Koryttseva, 6-1 7-5

Caroline Wozniacki def. Alona Bondarenko, 7-6 (7-4) 6-1

Hoping for Interesting Times

I love tennis. Have I mentioned that? I really, really love tennis.
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Sometimes it’s almost better to watch a match with two players you don’t care about very much – tonight’s match between Roddick and Berrer, for instance – because then you can sit back and be impartial and appreciate the struggle, which is something I certainly can’t do when Federer or Tursunov are playing!
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Actually, that’s what I was hoping for in that match between Sharapova and Davenport. I am partial to Davenport, but not so much that I’d be devastated if she lost, so I was all settled in for a potboiler… and then Shazzapov had to go and win 1 and 3. Typical of her, raining on my parade!
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The Roddick-Berrer match was much more watchable – though it would have been better if Berrer hadn’t been making so many fricking unforced errors! I’ve never seen him (Berrer, obviously) play before, and he’s a real talent… though he needs to clean up his game big time. He takes risks, and when they pay off his shots are great, but probably two out of three times he misses. He’s twenty-seven, so I don’t know how much time he’s got to tidy up his act, but if he could he’d be top fifty for sure, if not top twenty.
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Roddick won that match pretty easily, but honestly, he’s another Guccione for me. I quite like him as a person – he’s funny, and his interviews are always good value, and he knows how to take a Federer beatdown like a man – but I find his tennis a bit boring, really. He’s better now than he was when he started out, when he was all serve and nothing else – his backhand in particular has improved greatly – but he’s still just a bit nggh for my taste. I like the artistry of Federer, his easy, fluid strokes, the way he makes something incredibly difficult look so simple. Roddick doesn’t have that at all, really.
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That said, we all know my number two is Dmitry – who is a baseliner with a monstrous forehand, but, if we’re honest, nothing like Federer’s artistry. He can pull off some great shots, but he’s no Roger. And then we look at my number three – Safin, who is fiery and temperamental and pretty much the anti-Fed… though there is clearly a lot of respect between them and they’re mates and stuff. But when it comes to mentality, Safin has none of that implacable calm that I admire so much in Federer. But I suppose that calm is right for Roger, and it would be strange on Safin – can you imagine a calm Marat? To quote him (possibly paraphrased), ‘I am who I am, and I’m happy being a hippo.’
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Day Four action looks like it’ll be, on the whole, much more interesting than Day Three. The draw is just so lopsided, especially for the men. On Day Three, there was Nadal, Roddick and Gasquet, and not much else. But Day Four? Federer, Safin, Baghdatis, Nalbandian, Djokovic, Tursunov… everyone’s there. It’s strange, how the draw ended up like that. Not that Day Three was uninteresting, but there’s just so much more on offer on Day Four. Channel 7 had to resort to repeating that Dellacqua match after Roddick and Berrer finished. I mean, I appreciate it was a good win over Schnyder and that she’s Australian and all, but really… was there nothing else? Out of a whole day of tennis?
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If I catch Channel 7 repeating Hewitt tonight… I won’t do anything, but I might grit my teeth in annoyance.

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Australian Open Results - Day 3

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Men's Draw

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Andy Roddick def. Michael Berrer, 6-2 6-2 6-4

Rafael Nadal def. Florent Serra, 6-0 6-2 6-2

Nikolay Davydenko def. Nicolas Mahut, 6-4 6-0 6-3

Mardy Fish def. Tommy Robredo, 6-1 6-2 6-3

Richard Gasquet def. Feliciano Lopez, 6-2 6-1 6-3

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga def. Sam Warburg, 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 6-2

Mikhail Youzhny def. Andreas Seppi, 6-4 5-7 6-3 7-6 (7-4)

Philipp Kohlschreiber def. Evgeny Korolev, 6-4 6-2 0-1 ret.

Jarkko Nieminen def. Jesse Levine, 6-2 7-5 7-6 (7-2)

Paul-Henri Mathieu def. Paul Capdeville, 6-7 (5-7) 6-0 6-4 6-4

Igor Andreev def. Kristof Vliegen, 7-5 7-5 6-2

Stefan Koubek def. Agustin Calleri, 6-3 7-6 (8-6) 7-5 (7-5)

Marc Gicquel def. Stanislas Wawrinka, 6-2 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 2-1 ret.

Ivo Karlovic def. Dudi Sela, 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 6-3 6-1

Gilles Simon def. Rainer Schuettler, 6-2 6-2 6-1

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez def. Alejandro Falla, 6-4 5-7 6-4 7-6 (8-6)

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Women's Draw

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Justine Henin def. Olga Poutchkova, 6-1 7-5

Jelena Jankovic def. Edina Gallovits, 6-2 7-5

Maria Sharapova def. Lindsay Davenport, 6-1 6-3

Serena Williams def. Yuan Meng, 6-3 6-1

Elena Dementieva def. Anabel Medina Garrigues, 5-7 6-2 6-3

Nicole Vaidisova def. Alicia Molik, 6-2 6-3

Aravane Rezai def. Tatiana Golovin, 6-3 3-6 6-3

Casey Dellacqua def. Patty Schnyder, 4-6 7-5 8-6

Shahar Peer def. Jessica Moore, 6-0 7-5

Amélie Mauresmo def. Yaroslava Shvedova, 6-4 7-6 (7-5)

Hsieh Su-Wei def. Sybille Bammer, 6-2 6-0

Francesca Schiavone def. Angelique Kerber, 6-2 6-3

Victoria Azarenka def. Sandra Kloesel, 6-1 6-1

Virginie Razzano def. Flavia Pennetta, 6-2 5-7 6-3

Ai Sugiyama def. Tatiana Perebiynis, 6-4 6-4

Elena Vesnina def. Jill Craybas, 6-2 6-4