G'day maaaates.
Apparently that's a typical aussie greeting so I'll probably use it every day!
Arrived early monday about 3am so was delighted that Andy wasn't playing until Tuesday. Fell asleep when I got to the hotel after 24hours in the air and woke up to find it was 36 degrees outside and I had all but missed the matches of Katie O'Brien and Mel South.
Katie went down 6-4, 6-1 to Monica Niculescu, a really tricky Romanian player who slices and dices a la Fabrice Santoro, and really makes it difficult to get into any sort of rhythm off the ground. On paper it looked like a decent draw for Katie but Niculescu (who I remember from the junior tour) is a smart and determined competitor who plays a very different game from the rest of the players, keeping the ball low and cleverly changes both pace and spin.
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I didn't see any of Mel's match with Marion Bartoli the French player, double handed on both forehand and backhand, who made the Wimbledon singles final in 2007. She lost the first pretty quickly - I was following on the BBC sport website live text - but she was a double break up in the second at 4-1 but then unfortunately dropped the next 5 games to go down 6-2, 6-4.
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Third up was Anne Keothavong who faced the No. 17 seed Anna Chakvetadze from Russia on court 3. It was still very hot when this started and Chakvetadze took the first set in 27 minutes showing some of the form that took her to top 5 in the world a year or so ago. Anne started the second more purposefully and hitting better depth.
It was interesting to see how the Russian started to panic when she was put under pressure and lost her rhythm on both serve and forehand. Anne got the trainer on at 3-4 in the second set complaining of feeling sick and bloated due the volume of fluid she had drunk in order to stay hydrated. It reminded me of the time Andy threw up in the US Open for the same reason. Anyway she took the second on a tie break from 2-4 but lost the 3rd 6-1.
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Not a great day for the British players but Baltacha (who came through a hard series of qualifying matches) is playing tomorrow and can hopefully get a win against Anna Lena Groenfeld from Germany.
The Aussies love their sport and they had a lot to cheer about today as their 16 year old prospect Bernard Tomic justified his wild card into the Men's Singles with a 4 set win over Italian Potito Starace. He next faces Gilles Muller from Luxemburg who outlasted Feliciano Lopez (Spain) 16-14 in the 5th. I had to watch that 5th set (despite the heat) as I love deciding sets and tie breaks. The mental approach of the players in tight situations fascinates me (and so does Deliciano if I'm being honest !!).
Anyway Muller went 15-14 up and Lopez was remonstrating with his coach and gesticulating at his inability to return the big leftie serve. He took that negative state of mind and body language into his own service game - the 72nd game of the match - and lost it!
"If you're going to chase you're dream and follow you're goal, concentrate on the donut and not on the hole".
Love that little gem. Happy to share it with you Deliciano :)
More Tuesday