Erratic and Ragged Day One at the Australian Open
Posted on January 16, 2007 - Filed Under Australian Open, Tennis | Leave a Comment
The Australian Open got underway in Melbourne yesterday and on more than one count it was a uncharacteristic beginning down under. Beginning on an inauspicious not when a crowd trouble broke out in Melbourne Park, the cops had to act swift and eject about a 150 fans mostly Croats when a scuffle broke out between them and the Serbians. And the rather troubled start seemed to rub on to the players as well as the top seed and world number one Roger Federer was broken thrice in the first set of the match before he won in straight sets. The Swiss defending champion next plays Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman who won in five sets and after being two sets down to Frenchman Oliver Patience.
American Andy Roddick also found going though against Frenchman Jo-Wilfred Tsonga as he lost the first set in a marathon tie breaker. The second set also went down to the wire but this time Roddick seemed to be coming into his elements as he took the tie break 7-2 to level the match at one set a piece. But the rhythm that the sixth seed found in the second set tie-breaker helped him take the next two 6-3 6-3 as he closed out the match in four sets. Most definitely Roddick would know that if wants to repeat a Federer beating performance as he did last week he’s got to pull up his socks by a mile.
Fourth seed Ivan Ljubicic was the only major casualty for the day after being dumped out by American Mardy Fish in four sets. That capped a rather unfortunate and a forgetful day for the Croats at the Aussie Open. Jose Acsusos and Agustin Calleri were amonst the other seeded players to have bowed out on day one. Meanwhile, seventh seed Tommy Robredo, Serbian Novak Djokovic, Richard Gasquet and ninth seed Mario Ancic all made it to the second round without much hassle.
On the women’s side the story with the story with the defending champion seemed to rather similar with Amelie Mauresmo looking hardly herself in her 6-3 6-4 win over Shenay Perry. She was broken early in the first set and had a patchy second one and made it in to the second round knowing pretty well that another performance like this could very much spell doom for her in the later rounds.
Also in to second round was the Russian brigade of Nadia Petrova, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Dememntiva all registering easy wins over their opponents. 20th seed Tatiana Golovin and 11th seed Jelena Jankovic also had no problems seeing off their opponents.
The standout performer of the day seemed to be two time Champion but unseeded Serena Williams who blew apart Italian Mara Santangelo 6-2 6-1. Serena looked the most convincing or rather commanding, pretty much her old self. The world number 81 made an expected slow start but once into her elements she tore apart the Italian with big serves and powerful forehands as her opponent was forced into making a string of unforced errors and handed the match without any real fight.
Comments
Leave a Reply