[dOotsiez]

^ Cibulkova reminds me a little bit of Sanchez Vicario - she religiously chases down every ball, possibly one of the best counterpunchers on the women's tour. Not a fan of that style of play though

Yes, there is a sort of inevitability about Murray winning the Australian Open, right? Let's hope not, because the Sampras record is starting to get on my nerves a little bit, I want Fed to just break it as soon as possible, so I don't have to think about it and can just enjoy the tennis without fretting (like that ever happens)



EDIT// Oh my, topped a page at last. Don't want to see Murray's teeth anytime soon, so I'm thinking ... some pictures of Rafa? He won his first title after reaching No 1 yesterday, pity it was in doubles

What cutie patooties


oh and a cat ran on to the court ... wtf?

[loveprint]

^
Haha a cat? Random. xD But cute.

Just booked my tickets for the night session for Wed. at the Medibank International cause that's the only day I'm free, I'm afraid. D: Hoping for a couple of good matches *crosses fingers*. Gasquet? Tsonga? Or even Lleyton? Serena would be great, too.

Yes, there is a sort of inevitability about Murray winning the Australian Open, right? Let's hope not, because the Sampras record is starting to get on my nerves a little bit, I want Fed to just break it as soon as possible, so I don't have to think about it

Amen.

[wonderbang]

Just booked my tickets for the night session for Wed. at the Medibank International cause that's the only day I'm free, I'm afraid. D: Hoping for a couple of good matches *crosses fingers*. Gasquet? Tsonga? Or even Lleyton? Serena would be great, too.

luuuuucky. have fun and snap pictures if you can.

[dOotsiez]

Yes, have fun! the field for Sydney is not bad at all - Nalbandian, Simon, Tsonga, Gasquet, Rusty, Safina, Dementieva and Serena. I'm sure you'll get someone good, post pictures after


Unlike me, I'm fairly certain I'll get Djokovic for my AO session, defending champion always plays the opening night. Except for Federer last year. Watching Djokovic beat down some poor qualifier is not my cuppa tea.

[wonderbang]

^that does suck. well, have fun regardless. maybe they'll catch you on tv!

[loveprint]

Stepanek just took the second set. C'mon, Gasquet. Would love to see him have a good start to the season.

edit;
Oh, darn! It was close. *sigh* And Stepanek's on-court... 'performances' are ridiculously annoying. D:
Think Verdasco's going to take it out tomorrow. He played great today.

[dOotsiez]

Urgh.... got back from shopping to find out that Baby Fed lost. Nothing I'd like more than seeing the Worm squished by Verdasco in the final.

And what is wrong with Steve Tignor? Dude's making a lot of ridiculous predictions based on absolute nothing.

First he declares that Andy Murray will not win a major in 2009, days later he's saying that Murray will win the Aus Open, then he predicts *surprise surprise* that Fed will win wimbledon, now he reckons Fed will hate playing under the roof at Wimby. Does this guy know his tennis?

Some of his other strange predictions.

Nicole Vaidisova will have a good run at a major. (not?)

Andy Roddick will reach a Slam final and play a five-set match against Roger Federer in Davis Cup. (laugh with me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA )

Fernando Gonzalez will beat Roddick, who is now coached by Gonzo’s ex-coach, in an important match.

Dinara Safina’s ranking will drop. - does Tignor realise Safina's defending NOTHING at the AO?

Bjorn Borg will predict that Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal are each going to win the Grand Slam someday.

Rafael Nadal will win the French Open (LOLL!!! oh the genius )

Richard Gasquet will play a five-set match against Nadal at Wimbledon (not???)

Spain will win the Davis Cup again, beating Switzerland in the final (the tie would be in Spain, as far as I can tell). Rafael Nadal will win the clinching match over . . . Stan Wawrinka? Wait, someone else is coming to me . . . he's flipping his hair back . . . "it's a pity" . . . "please don't call me No. 2" . . . anyway, wouldn't that be a fun DC final? (Again, WTF??)

Moron.

[loveprint]

^
The hell? o_o

Hoping for a good season for Gasquet. *fangirl cheer*

[wonderbang]

LOL. this is why i pick and choose my tennis writers. some of them can be a little cuckoo some times.

[dOotsiez]

^ uhuh, Wertheim is the way to go.

*joins in the Gasquet fangirl cheer*

I'm sure it's not good for him. In fact, it's probably best to ignore Gasquet, he tends to play better when everyone forgets about him.

[loveprint]

^
Exactly what I was thinking.

Eh, Brisbane Int. Women's final tonight. I don't really care who wins, don't know too much about either player, though I've watched a pretty much all of Azarenka's matches in the tourny. She's definitely not bad, but she needs to control her emotions. Really. But she is quite young, so I'll forgive her for that one.


Djoko is playing at the Medibank International! O: He was awarded a wildcard after leaving the Brisbane International so early.

And the draws are out for the Medibank. And since I've got Gasquet in my mind right now, if he gets through the first round he has to play against Simon. A tough one.
And ouch, Sam Stosur is up against Serena in the first round. Actually, Serena's half looks like a tough one.

[dOotsiez]

Azarenka takes the whole "Baby Sharapova" thing too far. She's a little one dimensional, but I definitely see her moving into the top 10. Not a huge fan of Bartoli's tennis, if you were going to have a double handed forehand, then make sure you at least move well. Crap final as far as I'm concerned.

Yes Djokovic needed to play Sydney International because otherwise he would just have one match under his belt going into the Australian Open, and that being a loss, doesn't do wonders for his confidence.

Roger arriving in Melbourne next week for Kooyong, which has the worst field in years because Gulbis and del Potro both pulled out, Murray decided not to play this year, and Roddick isn't playing for like the first time ever.

Ana Ivanovic is in my local papers EVERY DAY? No one outside the tennis world seems to realise that she's in a ditch as far as her tennis is concerned. "Aussie Ana"? *disgusted*

And Venus is still on fire. When the Williamses are on, no one in the women's field even comes close. Henin maybe, but she's gone.

[cecilia]

iv'e been thinking of going to the medibank international but no one to go with (!!!!!)
maybe i should go myself.... hmmm

[dOotsiez]

HAHAHA I just drag a friend along. A lot of my friends are tennis fans anyway. No one wants to get a ground pass with me on Day 1 of the AO though. Unloved ....

Ch 7 covers both Sydney and Kooyong next week. Hoorah!

Stosur loses the first set 3-6. Serena's looking great. Nice to see her withdrawal from the Hopman Cup wasn't because of anything serious.

EDIT//

Urgh.... poor Serena, bad luck on a net chord call.

EDIT 2//

Stosur serves for the set, 3 match points at 40-0, and loses the game. Serena 6-5 third set.

[wonderbang]

^And to finish the update (hehe), Serena pulls it out 7-5 in the third. PHEW...talk about a close one. That net cord was a biggie I think.

Anyhow, Sam is playing well! I hope she has a great AO run. Serena needs to shape up definitely. Nice to get a tight win but I'm sure she's not too pleased with her play. Is she trying to recreate that AO win when she was ranked 81?

[loveprint]

A really close one for Serena. D: Glad she pulled through.

Stepanek. Pfft.

iv'e been thinking of going to the medibank international but no one to go with (!!!!!)
maybe i should go myself.... hmmm

You should've totally come with me! I just freed up my Thursday but I'm cashless. Should've mentioned it earlier, since we can't make it to the AO. T_T

[wonderbang]

murray is on a hot streak! so how will this translate to the AO? hmmm...

my new look-out-for-this-guy cilic is in the chennai final wooooo~~

and last but not least, the first double bagel of the season has been seeeeerved at the wta hobart stop.

Petra Kvitova def. Sally Peers, 6-0, 6-0

ouch.

[dOotsiez]

^ Yes Cilic is on my "look out" list too, big serve, beautiful movement, and a great BHDTL. Like Ernests Gulbis, I think he's headed for the top 10 either this year or 2010.

I think Sally Peers is from Melbourne. Ouch.

While I'm happy that Serena pulled it out, Sam Stosur's gotta feel disappointed that she had 4 match points and double faulted on two of them. Comes down to nerves and confidence I guess.

Stepanek is officially the most annoying player in the world, he tries to mentally falter all his opponents, it's perfectly within the rules, but it's just foul .... Tough day for Verdasco - losses in both singles and doubles finals. And Tsonga takes his first title of the year in doubles with Gicquel.

Oh... and sad news, Maria Sharapova has pulled out of the Australian Open
I really hope she's not heading for an early retirement a la Hingis.

... and JJ's sick. Petrova's out of the AO too because of viral meningitis. Davyenko obviously has that foot injury - casualties this early in the year is never good.

[cecilia]

i managed to find a friend to go.. and i'm going on thursday night~ wahahaha

i looked at the tv guide, seems like there is going to be much coverage on kooyong at all
i just hope i can catch some fedaction~!

[loveprint]

^
Hope you get a good match. Take pictures. :DDD

Oh man, that's sucks that Sharapova had to pull out. Yeah, really, it's too early for casualties.