Can you believe what's happening in the women's draw? Venus goes out to an unknown but brilliant young Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro, Ivanovic loses to the unheralded Alisa Kleybanova and the Jelena Dokic comeback continues with a 3 set win over the exciting young Dane Caroline Wozniacki.
Dokic's win ensures an Aussie (via Serbia) presence in the singles events and it's great to see her showing some of the sparkling form that took her to No. 4 in the world 8 years ago. She's still only 25 but she has been through all sorts of emotional difficulties due to the behaviour of her dad Damir. Apparently he is planning to sell his sprawling rural property near Belgrade (where he claims to have 20,000 plum and pear trees) for $6m and start a junior tennis academy. Would you trust your child to this man who threatened to bomb Sydney a couple of years ago when his daughter applied for Australian citizenship? I don't think so - even if he did coach her to the top of the women's game.
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I'm not sure what's happened to Ivanovic, she has had a pretty unsuccessful time these past 6 months and has just split with tennis player boyfriend Fernando Verdasco. She may be the glamour girl of the circuit but if you're not winning, you are nowhere near as marketable.
I had a good chat with Richie Sanchez today he is the coach of Jelena Jankovic. We got to know him pretty well during Wimbledon 07 when Jelena played mixed doubles with Jamie. I was asking him about the ice packs she has been applying to her feet at changeovers. Apparently her new shoes "don't have air conditioning" (do yours?) and her feet are getting too hot. Last year I remember her putting on disposable plastic gloves to apply her sun block at changeovers. As you can see it's all about attention to detail!
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There is alot of debate over the change to the rules which allows for on-court coaching in the women's tour this year with many coaches and players against it. The WTA has been experimenting with it for a while now and it involves the coach being miked up so the TV audience can hear all of the conversation, this means your trade secrets are out there for all to hear and it's probably going to inhibit what you say or how you say it!
I did a little online Q&A for the Oz Open website this afternoon, there were some good questions and a few bizarre ones too like "my son is 15 months old. When should he be starting to play tennis?" Can he walk? :)
Marit Safin has announced he will probably retire at the end of the year. He has been in patchy form for a while now but who will ever forget that incredible Oz Open semi-final between him and Federer in 2005? One of the best matches ever.
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Aussie legend Peter MacNamara is going to be the new coach of Chris Guccione (the Gooch), a 23 year old Aussie leftie who stands at 6 ft 5 and is currently around 120 in the world. Great things were expected of him when he was one of the top juniors in the world at the end of 2003 but his form has been slipping of late. The Aussie press are criticising him for being a one shot wonder, they are refering to his big serve, and playing out-dated tennis, by which they mean serve and volley.
MacNamara once invited Jamie and Andy to stay with him and train for a few days at his farm near Luton. They were 13 and 14 at the time and he told them that "at your age, it's all about building a game for the future. You need to develop a big weapon and you musn't be afraid to miss. " That is sound advice.
I went for dinner to a great restaurant called The Botanical where I had the best crab cake I have ever had.
More on Saturday!