for the love of tennis

proposed changes on ATP schedule

2006-04-24T15:29:00.000+08:00

what do you think of this:-

THE MASTERPLAN
1. The four grand-slam tournaments and four or five “Super” combined events would be mandatory.
2. Round-robins introduced at events below grand-slams and “Super” combined.
3. Masters Series on ATP Tour would disappear.
4. Davis Cup final played in second week of November.
read more on the propose changes to the atp tour schedule here

diminishing... no, vanishing the masters series? the "Super" combined events means the ATP-WTA combined tournament.

if i understand clearly, they wanted to change the schedule to more like the US Open series. i am alright with us open series coz they did a hell of a good job there. but i also hope they are not squeezing too many tournaments in leading to a grand slam.

In the view of De Villiers, the two areas in the calendar that need the most attention are the clay-court season before the French Open and the autumn season leading up to the Tennis Masters Cup circuit finale.

i hope de villiers didn't forget that wimbledon needs attention too. there are just a handful of tournaments leading to wimbledon. and the gap between switching from a dirty tennis shoe to all-white is too short - sometime i believe given the chance, coria or even ferrero would be excel in grass too.

i wonder how is this round-robin format will turn out? will that mean a low-ranking, like world 200, will have the chance to play against 3 players before they bid farewell? sometime, even before the round-robin matches finish, we already know the result. don't you think it will produce a lot of white-elephant matches?

if this propose new schedule take place, i believe thailand open will no longer exist. it's out of the continent for most players and in odd period too. unless they wanna make history like "winners for most tournaments" or a particular player wanna create a "name brand" globally, don't think they even bother to come to this continent.

the sentimental story

2006-04-06T11:05:00.000+08:00

i was reading SI's Jon Wertheim weekly mailbag and lead me to another story of james blake.

it was written by the dilbert's scott adams praising james blake on his comeback after his 2004 much talk about story... well, if you don't know what happened to james blake, read the link above! it was such a sentimental story that i cried! yes, i cried while reading the story. and at the end of the story, scott adams wrote:

At the trophy ceremony, Blake spoke to the crowd. He said that in 2004, when he was in the hospital with a broken neck, only one tennis player sent him a note to wish him well. It was Roger Federer.

some might said they are not surprise to know that federer sent blake a note coz he's a nice guy and blah blah blah...

for me, it was a surprise. i thought andy roddick was the best pal of james blake and why only federer the only tennis player sent him a well wishing note? though i admit i'm a federer's fan, but i do visit roddick's website regularly. in roddick's website, he (or his webmaster) always include news about james blake.

i haven't learnt to be a blake's fan yet coz i watch too little tennis of him. also blame it on the time difference between the continent... my local paid tv shows the recent 2 masters played in US but unfortunately due to time difference, those live matches played in the wee hours and do not have repeats! crap!

i hardly watch blake play but certainly no short of praises story about him. now, i'll start to learn to like him.

ATP 2006 fantasy tennis season

2006-04-05T10:17:00.000+08:00

hey there, have you register yourself for the atp 2006 fantasy tennis season yet?

join me and my tennis fanatics friends in my sub-league to play against each other - no prize for the winner but you get the fun of competing with someone instead of the thousands of participants... :-)

to play this fantasy tennis game, you must register yourself and create a team before you can join any sub-league team.

my sub-league team: team tennis fanatics

2006 ATP fantasy tennis season

2006-04-04T10:47:00.000+08:00

the 2006 ATP fantasy tennis season is now on! registration is free but you are only allow to register once... heck! if i use different IP to register as many as i want also they wouldn't know! :-)

click here to check it out.

ACE - a new tennis show on espnstar

2006-03-23T23:46:00.000+08:00

hey, fellow asian tennis lovers! there's a new tennis magazine-like show, ACE, being shown on star sports every thursday at ~~11.30pm~~ 10.00pm. (or check your local listing)

the show is hosted by geogina chang and co-hosted by jien of football crazy.

the show also feature special guest, this week was Lyetton Hewitt. it was a one by one interview with geogina but unfortunately the interview clip lasted for a mere minute. i hope it would be longer. though i dislike hewitt, but we don't really get to know more about them outside the tennis court and it's good to hear them speak once in a while too.

the show is pretty up to date. tonight's show also feature last tuesday's night "stars for stars awards gala". oh well, ACE is sponsored by sony ericson and the award is a sony ericson sponsored event too. :-)

disappearance

2006-03-15T10:47:00.000+08:00

well, there were few tournaments played between aussie open and now but no live telecast!

the pacific life is showing on tv. unfortunately the live telecast starts as early as 2 in the morning for my time. that's why i have been unable to update on my tennis blog.

though tennis is the love of my life but with different tournament playing in different continent, it's difficult to catch all of them.

sorry!

australian open - conclusion

2006-01-29T21:15:00.000+08:00

the first hour, i loathed federer. the 2nd, i love him. it's difficult to hate him isn't it?

at first i was cursing him for making those mistakes. baghdatis was too good - in retrieving back all those amazing shots from federer's racket. for any other players, those shots would be lethal but baghdatis managed to get back almost all of it. he won his previous matches simply because he could retrieve balls and have few good winners too.

it was either baghdatis has learned how to serve like federer or federer simply getting old and have difficulty reading baghdatis' serve, but he simply couldn't get close on breaking baghdatis on the first 2 sets - even though he did break baghdatis twice after baghdatis breaks him.

but undeniable baghdatis play pretty good in the first two sets. he keeps on hitting winners on federer's 2nd serve. federer didn't really serve well too. he used to have difficult angle even on his 2nd serve but he was untypically serve to the hitting zone of baghdatis most of the time on the first 2 sets - seems like inviting baghdatis to hit every winner out of his 2nd serve. i couldn't stop cursing so that he can serve wide out so that baghdatis would not take the ball on the rise and get another point out of it.

Baghdatis suffered a fall in game two of the fourth set and immediately called the trainer but the damage was already done. from bbc sports

i don't think bbc sports and us are watching the same match! hey, that wasn't a fall and obviously baghdatis was suffering from cramp. when the journalist writes that baghdatis "fall", it kinda like saying "yeah, baghdatis injured. that's why federer can beat him..."

and what the hell was the band coming out to sing a song right after federer/baghdatis came out from their locker room? isn't that weird? shouldn't any kind of entertainment should be performed before the players set foot on the court? even if they wanna perform, i thought it should be the national anthem instead of just another band trying to sell more record and get their name on the international tv. when i saw the band performing, i was cursing the organiser for having such an arrangement. please do not do that again next year!

will baghdatis here to stay? we'll see after this. he could be just another martin verkerk... who's martin verkerk? exactly! he's the runner up for ferrero in 2003's french open. where is he now? i wouldn't know and nobody's bothered!

Q. You said that you were going to be going home to Cyprus in the next couple of days. The Victorian government said the other day they'd love you to take out Australian citizenship. Would you ever really consider doing something like that?
MARCOS BAGHDATIS: Really, tell you the truth, that's not what's in my mind for the moment. I mean, my dream is to win Davis Cup for my country. I think my country is Cyprus, and I want to do it with them.

from baghdatis' post final match conference interview

it's funny how australia so desperate for someone (of their own) to win their open after so long and simply make everyone their citizen. and i must laught at jelena dokic, their adopted and failure daughter. now, stop making me laught.

yeah, i was crying too after the final. i remember someone or the media criticising federer for being too sensitive to become a champion when he won his first wimbledon in 2003. after winning his 7th, i wonder what those people gonna say about this? :-)

Q. Could you say how difficult it is when day in, day out, you're having to spend an entire day waiting around. It's likely to happen more and more because No. 1 seeds at US Open and here, there's more night sessions coming along. It's going to become a trend. How difficult is it to spend all day waiting to play, two days really?
ROGER FEDERER: Also the rhythm is just really difficult, you know, because the average going to bed was about 4 o'clock in the morning, you know, the last few nights, waking up at 12 to 2 in the afternoon. So it's a really weird schedule, you know, I'm going through. I wake up and all I do is rest and hit a little bit. If I feel like I need, you know, to do some extra stuff, I'll do it, but I didn't have to do it this time because I thought I was ‑‑ I had to save myself.

I think especially before the big matches, like maybe Kiefer and now Baghdatis, it's hard, waiting in the room all day. So actually nice to get out here and get the first hit, take a shower, get ready, you know, sort of eat something and being active. Just sitting in the room, it makes it hard, but you don't want to lose energy either.

So makes it hard, but I think once you get used to it, it's easier.

federer's post final match press conference interview

last year's us open, the no.1 seed was playing first in the day session. we all fans never know how difficult it was for a player to sit around and wait for their night session match. personally i enjoy the night match simply because i could watch it live on tv (aussie is only 3 hours ahead while us is exactly 12 hours behind malaysia. wimbledon is 8 hours behind but since the center court do not have lights, they don't play until too late. while the local tv station do not broadcast french except from q-final to final but since they play in the afternoon and 8 hours behind, i have chance to watch it)

last us open, i compiled a list of my favourite quotes from those genius (or stupid, it doesn't matter coz it's only between a thin fine line!). this time around, there's a list compiled by aussie open website.

australian open - day 13

2006-01-28T21:37:00.000+08:00

i thought mauresmo was playing a wonderful tennis only to find out that henin-hardene wasn't in good health. what a disappointment that is. is she's not really fit, why wouldn't she pull out in the semi and let the fit one to go through? i'm being selfish for saying this though. doesn't matter now coz tomorrow is what we are waiting for.

see, there's not monkey at the back of mauresmo anymore.

federer vs baghdatis starts at 7.30pm local time - 4.30pm malaysia time.

in the mean time, i'm going to enjoy my chinese new year!

gong xi fa cai to everyone!

australian open - day 12

2006-01-27T22:23:00.000+08:00

i couldn't believe what i heard over AO radio. the chinese pair won the doubles trophy and they came back from a set down and had a dog-fight on the 2nd set tie-break. that's a good "ang pow" (red packet given out during chinese new year) for them since the new year is coming this sunday.

beware, the chinese are coming...

anyway, i was running through the open's statistic and got this: coria was among the "top" in the many statistics compiled - in the "double fault" department! and he's way up there and nobody else will have the chance to surpass him.

3) He's so overcoached in an effort to beat Roger that he's lost his game against the smaller-fry.

read more on jon wertheim - tennis mailbag

australian open - day 11

2006-01-26T23:20:00.000+08:00

while i was listening to nalbandian/baghdatis match and not sure who should i support. afterall, nalbandian got the better chance to beat federer in the final - if federer reaches the final. while baghdatis might give federer a surprise too if he wins.

and after his win, do you think he is capable to become the next roger federer (like he "suddenly" appear from 2003 wimbledon?) or rafael nadal of 2006? read his profile at junior tennis... and why is he still being profile at junior tennis?

Nalbandian doesn't hit a big serve and doesn't have a monster forehand winner that knocks opponents off the court. Baghdatis does. He sets up the point, opens up areas and, boom, hits a winner. He changes gears and paces with his ground stroke and tempo. Nalbandian, by contrast, starts the same way and ends the same way, whether he's up or down. It's very predictable. The toughest thing for clay court players to do is to put their opponent away. from espn.com

my favourite girl is out of the tournament. sigh! not sure whether i'll be watching the match this saturday because of chinese new year's eve reunion dinner. even if i watch, i wouldn't know who i'm going to support. the amelie-i'm kinda a loser-mauresmo or hh?

here's a question for you: do you think players have to apologize for lat call? not like they planned for the lat but the ball was just coincidentally touches the net. IMHO (yeah rite!), i don't think they should!

day 11 complete result
day 12 schedule of play
day 12 tv schedule (for SEA only) - men's s-final starts 4.30pm on espnstar

australian open - day 10

2006-01-25T21:00:00.000+08:00

jl: start counting how many matches federer gonna lost this year. i say between 5 to 10 matches. but definitely not lesser than 5.

by now you should have known about this incident:

however, i'm confuse whether kiefer "toss" or "throw" or even "lost control" as written by the aussie open website, the racket into grosjean's side of court. that's two very different situation but i think kiefer throws than toss after listening to his the press conference. kiefer was basically being grilled by the journalist. all kiefer can say was "well, it was a tense match and you have to understand we were "suffering" out there under the hot sun"

i think this photo tells us that kiefer was throwing the racket thinking he will be unable to return grosjean shot but grosjean actually netted that shot and kiefer's racket ended in grosjean's court.

since this is the longest match for 2006 tournament, it wasn't really a good news for the winner too coz he has to play again tomorrow. will the winner running out of stream after this marathon match tomorrow? we'll see!

while my favourite girl is through to the semis. who are you going to support between mauresmo and clijsters?

hey people, working and can't watch the live matches on tv? do you know the aussie open's ibm on-demand scoreboard has this function called "point tracker"? after every point played, the tracker will show the balls direction for each point. try it out today.

my prediction for the semi final:

nalbandian/baghdatis - nalbandian err... baghdatis maybe
federer/kiefer - federer
mauresmo/clijsters - clijsters
henin-hardene/sharapova - henin-hardene

i'm not sure who to choose with nalbandian/baghdatis. while federer is a clear winner for me. while my favourite girl is clijsters and will do not favour mauresmo at all. sharapova was pretty shaky through out the tournament though my first choice of champion was her earlier but i'm changing my vote now.

day 10 complete result
day 11 schedule of play
day 11 tv time (for SEA only) - women's s-final starts at 10.30am while men's at 4.30pm.

australian open - day 9

2006-01-24T23:15:00.000+08:00

not sure since when, but i have started disliking henin-hardene. like or dislike, she won her match. will sharapova have enough charms to beat her? i'm glad to know that sharapova won the only hard court match they ever met. but lost 2 clay matches too. with the lost, davenport lost her no.1 ranking too.

The loss may cost Davenport, who was beaten by Serena Williams in last year's final, the top ranking that she has held since Oct. 24. more

i am really upset about ljubicic lost. period! but baghdatis plays really good tennis. he manged to return all the lethal shots. but will he do well further than this aussie open?

my tomorrow's matches prediction:

federer/davydenko - federer
kiefer/grosjean - kiefer
schynder/mauresmo - mauresmo
hinggis/clijsters - clijsters

the head to head records between federer/davydenko speaks for itself. 6-0 to federer. furthermore, at this point nobody will fancy davydenko to win except his own entourage. even though kiefer/grosjean head to head favouring grosjean at 3-2 but i still think kiefer has that little bit advantage over grosjean.

i'm taking mauresmo side this time. hopefully she really is the one. i'm waiting excitingly for hinggis/clijsters match. no comment but i go for clijsters to win - provided that she didn't chock on last minute.

Q. You don't even seem in a hurry. You're signing autographs, I notice.
ROGER FEDERER: Well, three autographs (smiling). I'm also cutting them down a little bit. So let's hurry up here, okay. We all got to go to bed and sleep. roger federer's interview after his match against haas. it was 1.30am and the moron journalist asked the most stupid question.

day 9 complete result
day 10 schedule of play
day 10 tv schedule - 8am til the last match on center court

article: player of the year 2005

2006-01-24T11:47:00.000+08:00

presenting roger federer

(click to enlarge)

australian open - day 8

2006-01-24T01:11:00.000+08:00

no wonder daghdatis can do so well... i would well too if i'm waking up next to this girl every day. :-) there's so many photos of them but i choose this simply because... *fill in the blank yourself*

once again, mauresmo surprised me. the reason why i expect vaidisova to win because mauresmo hasn't been in top form this year. she played only 1 tournament and lost in her first match for 2006 to ivanovic. seriously, i expect the up and coming krajicek to beat her in 3rd round but the weather wasn't really kind to krajicek then. vaidisova helped mauresmo by hitting those unforce error. in the first 2 games itself, she has 8 unforce errors - that's how mauresmo breaks her serve.

do you remember hinggis said she might do well because others do not know what to expect from her? could that be the result why she has been winning for 4 matches in a row and with astonishing result? maybe with the exception on today's match against stosur - she has been struggling with her own service game. deja vu? well, she can call dementieva "mate"!

while the federer/haas match managed to get me throwing everything in sight for a good 1 hour. i couldn't believe federer managed to have 66 winners and 58 unforced errors too. both figures are so close to each other. while haas's figure are both half of it.

my women's q-final prediction:

davenport/henin-hardene - davenport
sharapova/petrova - sharapova

provided that davenport is actually fully fit tomorrow! they met 9 times before and the last 5 matches has been favouring henin-hardene regardless of hard or clay court. while i support sharapova all the way... to the championship! :-P

while the men's:

santoro/nalbandian - nalbandian
ljubicic/baghdatis - ljubicic

santoro and nalbandian met only 3 times so far with santoro leading 2-1. santoro beat nalbandian before on both clay and hard court. but i fancy nalbandian on this one. though i expect the result to be in 4 sets or 5 but with the man they call "magician" (santoro lah) you never know what will happen. while the other pair - you know i love ljubicic. and that's the end of the story. :-) but the record shows otherwise! ljubicic lost to baghdatis last year in the round 64. then again, last year this time, ljubicic wasn't as good as he is now. so, i still fancy ljubicic chances.

day 8 complete result
day 9 schedule of play
day 9 tv schedule (for SEA only) - 8am until the last single's match on center court

tidbits:

So here we go. I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to all the players about whom I have thought, and continue to think, positive thoughts. My only advice is, beware.

The much hyped Roddick/Maria Sharapova love match isn't what the tennis world is craving it to be. They are not together. Sorry, guys. While it makes a great story and gives the gossip magazines something to occupy their pages, they are both in Australia to win a tennis tournament, not engross themselves in some dramatic love affair.

justine gimelstob aussie open blog. it's a good read since he's also an active player on the tour (though he is out of aussie open now). go through his aussie open 2006 archive and you'll find it pretty informative.

australian open - day 7

2006-01-23T01:10:00.000+08:00

even though roddick lost on the 4th round but he has never play a single tie-break at all in this aussie open. :-) however, i was really disappointed on his lost. i was actually thought that since nadal is not around to contest with him, he would at least be the real rival of federer for once - after knowing he has been playing pretty well in the past few rounds.

another surprise result is santoro. i expected him to lose to gaudio on the 3rd and ferrer on the 4th. but in the open, you never know what will happen.

and the rest of the results are expected and as predicted by me.

Federer has an advantageous draw and the aura that comes with having won 160 of his past 170 matches, a 94 percent clip. from espn.com

tell me that's not a burden for federer! though the article actually focus on roddick's fall and raised the question of "no american men left" after roddick's lost. and how the media has been giving the pressure to roddick to be the "the one" for them and inevitably putting the pressure on federer to win too.

here's my prediction for tomorrow's matches:

federer/haas - federer
hrbaty/davydenko - davydenko
chela/kiefer - kiefer
mathieu/grosjean - grosjean

shynder/vaidisova - shynder
hinggis/clijsters - clijsters

day 7 complete result
day 8 schedule of play
day 8 tv schedule (for SEA only) - starts at 8am and ends on the last single match on center court

australian open - day 6

2006-01-22T00:09:00.000+08:00

another error i spotted on the internet website:

escuse me espn, but are we in the same planet?

mistake like this can never happen.

there are only that much of matches on tv at one time. but guess what? i watch almost all of them today!

i watched how hingis triumph again though she isn't as sharp as her first 2 matches. i saw how the teenager, krajicek, unable to cope with the heat and have to withdraw. i actually predict her to beat amelie coz amelie looks vulnerable. what about coria's antic - "oh look, i'm hurt!". and how clijsters dismantle vinci. then finally how the masters federer beat the beast from belarus...

here's a question for you: since kooyong classic was just an exhibition tournament. so is federer loses to haas is official? a check on the head to head record on atp website, there's no record showing of that lost. this year itself, federer and haas has played twice - federer won in doha at the final and haas won at this kooyong classic invitation. i hope haas will not be another marat safin for 2006!

btw, did you notice that hrbaty is still wearing that peek-a-boo pink shirt? :-)

my prediction for the 3rd round has only 6 uncorrect prediction for men's while it's 2 for the women's! though i know men tennis players more than women's.

here's my prediction for the 4th round on sunday match:

santoro/ferrer - ferrer
robredo/nalbandian - nalbandian
ljubicic/johansson - ljubicic
baghdatis/roddick - roddick

davenport/kuznetsova - davenport
ruano pascual/henin-hardene - henin-hardene
sharapova/hantuchuva - sharapova
vesnina/petrova - petrova

tata, another morning wake up for me tomorrow!

day 6 complete result
day 7 schedule of play
day 7 tv schedule (for SEA only) - as usual will start at 8am until the last match of the night session on center court

australian open - day 5

2006-01-20T23:32:00.000+08:00

remember on day 1 report, i said something like this:

v.williams is out and s.williams will fall in the 3rd round against hantuchova!

i'm such a genius! well, not really! once i see s.williams play her first match, i know very well she will not go far on this tournament with that gorilla-like body. and i know what i'm talking about. this is hantuchova's 4 attempt in beating s.williams and success! with s.williams today's form, all the top 1017 (that's hantuchova ranking) women can beat her ~~in any given day~~easily. but please, don't wait too long coz she might decided "that's it for me now!" and get back to shape! :-)

i saw this pretty photo on the aussie open website yesterday but they never say who she is so i thought the girl was just a model for garnier... heck! it's hantuchova. she's amazing. she could be easily being mistaken as a model instead of a tennis player, isn't she? last year, she put on some weight and have that chubby face. but few days ago when i saw her on tv, she looks skinny like skeleton again... hmm... remember two years ago, reports was saying she has eating disorder problem? another hmm...

heat heat heat!!! then rain rain rain!!!

on an unrelated issue: i've been listening to the AO radio almost every single day. the commentators are mostly aussie, with the exception of 1 or 2. i'm afraid by the end of the aussie open, anybody that speak to me, i will image they speak with aussie accent. he he he...

wow! sharapova and roddick are really matching each other very well now, aren't they? :-) okie, i'm not joining the rumours or tabloids about their possible love match. i'm simply talking about their form! *lol* but boy, they really look good together. couldn't believe roddick going to face the man with woman's chest... sorry baghdatis!

sigh! i'm kinda fed up with nalbandian antic - can not produce a solid result. first, he has to beat someone ranked as low as 121 in the world in 5 sets. it was a wonder how he managed to settle wawrinka in 4 sets. looking at his 2005 aussie open result, he has not straight set win over all his opponents all the way to his lost to hewitt in the q-final. luckily he can produce a more solid result on other surface - doesn't matter losing or winning. so next time when he loses on his 1st set or loses on the 3rd after 2 sets up - don't write him off yet coz he's just reminding you "hey, that's just my antics!"

"When I do that it means I'm not going to miss the ball." Maria Sharapova explains why her screaming sometimes gets louder.

day 4 complete result
day 5 schedule of play
day 5 tv schedule (for SEA only) - as usual starts at 8am until the last match single match of the night session

australian open - day 4

2006-01-19T22:46:00.000+08:00

start off with andy roddick's amex advert photo:

you know what i love about day 4? that pierce lost! if she wins, she'll face hingis - a fast pace player. i wonder how hingis handle pierce slower than turtle pace of style if they really meet.

and hewitt lost must have stunned the aussie crowd. though they said he was suffering an ankle injury but through out the match he has too many unforce errors - all 62 of them while chela only half of that figure. you could say he self destruct on that match. no more that annoying "come on" and fist pumping. don't you think he is quite a different person since he got married? this piece of news is old but pretty much says what i think of hewitt and his wife.

i have actually draw up my own outcome of the 3rd round. after tomorrow's result, i'll know how many of them is correct! yipee! my prediction starts on saturday!

tidbits:

American Alex Bogomolov was fined $4,500 for verbal abuse and obscene language after his heated first-round match with Chile's Fernando Gonzalez at the Australian Open. more and remember to watch the clips at espn.com (hopefully it's still there by the time you watch it)

"Maybe further down the road in my career, in a couple of years when I'm maybe not that fast any more around the court, then maybe it would be good to come to the net a little bit more often." Roger Federer makes plans for his old age. writer's note: federer is good in every position he's playing

"I wouldn't call him my mate." Lleyton Hewitt on his rematch with Juan Ignacio Chela - the man who spat "in his direction" last year. writer note: excuse me lleyton, maybe you should re-evaluate your behaviour why other players acting like that towards you in the first place!

"inside the court you really feel like killing him" guillermo coria commented about hewitt on their davis cup tie in 2005. writer note: i couldn't agreed more with you.

Switzerland's Roger Federer, the No. 1 player in men's tennis, comes from a country with fewer people than New York City. The sport's top team title, the Davis Cup, belongs to Croatia, a nation four years younger than second- ranked Rafael Nadal of Spain. Small Is Big in Men's Tennis, Where Swiss, Croatians Top U.S.

Two elements of the Sorry Aussies story, though, beg to be treated together because of the striking similarities—and balance—they represent: the pathetic duo of Mark Philippoussis and Jelena Dokic. most pathetic story of 2005 from peterbodo's tennis world writer's note: i couldn't agreed more.

day 4 schedule of play
day 3 complete result
day 4 tv schedule (for SEA only) as usual from 8am till the last match on night session

australian open - day 3

2006-01-18T22:46:00.000+08:00

nalbandian/wawrinka: didn't see anything wrong with wawrinka play at all but somehow he loses that match. he served like rainer schuttler and very straight forward with his shots - nothing fancy. in fact, i think nalbandian is the lousy one between 2 of them but he just got that bit extra than wawrinka, isn't he? atp feature wawrinka as the one to watch for this week coz he jumped to no.46 in the world after last week's good performance.

sharapova has another good match. if s.williams win her match against hanthucova, sharapova will meet her in the q-final.

tidbits:

It sounds like Andy Roddick found his mojo. Australian tabloids have reported, quite breathlessly, that tennis' top male hottie has been seen with his female counterpart, Maria Sharapova, on the town at the Australian Open.
mercury news

Jim Courier, the Australian Open champion in 1992 and 1993, believed entourages had expanded in line with increasing prizemoney. "With the advent of players being able to afford to have coaches, girlfriends, wives, boyfriends, husbands, trainers, etc, it's just followed naturally from there," he said. read more about "who said tennis wasn't a team sports?"

day 4 schedule of play
day 3 complete result
day 4 tv schedule (for SEA only) will begins at 8am and end after the final match of the night session.

swiss miss

2006-01-18T00:05:00.000+08:00

for your record, i have never seen martina hingis play in a match before. i just watched the repeat of hingis/zvonavera match on tv and i couldn't believe my very pair of eyes!

she was so fast - with her shots and in between games. she plays like agassi - always in a hurry and never let her opponent have a rest at all. she keeps her opponent on the run all the time. from left to right, front and back. her shots are incredible fast.

but her serve is really vulnerable - slow pace though good placement on the court. against players like davenport and sharapova who like to take chances and give you their best service return, she might have a problem on that.

she could meet pierce in 3rd round. i hope hingis win that match as you know i bloody hate mary pierce!

australian open - day 2

2006-01-17T20:45:00.000+08:00

damn, i was just saying i wanted to see more of monfils, gasquet and the young american, donald young... suddenly 2 of them were defeated in the first round! another youngster - which i really don't want to see, andy murray, is out of the tournament too. i never like murray, he's cocky!

(dennis istomin, federer's 1st round opponent. is he reading on how to play the world no.1?)

i call my boss early in the morning to tell him "boss, i'm going to run some errands and will come in late"... in fact, i was at home watching federer/istomin. well, it was federer's routine match. nothing spectacular hence, no comment from me. :-)

i was following the result of clijsters match online. she was trailing in the first set 3-1 and i thought she was going down... luckily my favourite girl came back strong and trashed her opponent 6-0 in the 2nd set. same goes to amelie. i thought she was going out but she came back in 3 sets.

though all top 20 female players are in this aussie open but the seeded players slowly bowing out one by one.

hewitt's match was very exciting too. through the online radio, i didn't hear that much of "come on" though. is he changing his behaviour slowly? :-) i wonder what happened to those players that was expected to win easily but not. eg. hewitt/vik, amelie/sun tiantian, davydenko/karlovic and kiefer/srichaphan? is that the sign of them fading away slowly?

i also wonder what happened to the german rainer schuttler? in 2003 and 2004 , i heard a lot about him and suddenly he disappear and no where to be seen. he was defeated in the first round yesterday by another german. sigh...

and i got the chance to watch grosjean/philippoussis: totally one sided affair for grosjean. another wild card wasted on philippoussis. if i'm not mistaken, he has the record of losing on all his 1st round - which he got to play because of a wild card, last year while watching him, i feel so sympathy for him. how he survives through out the years? when was the last time he wins something? doesn't he need money to buy food? ... and did you managed to hear him swears on the 3rd set? hehehe... it was clearly heard on the tv!

congratulations to hingis for a successful come back.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"The way I've been playing, I didn't really care who I was going to playing first round here."
Haas shows the value of positive thinking.

"If you guys expect me to play well every single match and every single tournament then it's not going to happen." Andy Murray lets the media know there may be more bad days to come.

yes murray, don't think you will be any success in future too!

day 3 play schedule
day 2 complete result
day 3 tv schedule will begins at 8am until the last match of the night session

australian open - day 1

2006-01-17T11:02:00.000+08:00

let start off with an error i spotted on the yahoo tennis page:

when was the last time v. williams won the aussie open?

v.williams is out and s.williams will fall in the 3rd round against hantuchova! the moment i turn on the tv last night, i was surprise who's that heavy weight boxer against the tiny chinese... oh, sorry, was that s.williams? damn! she was breathing heavily through out the match and she's as heavy as a gorilla! sorry, was i too harsh on you, serena? maybe it's time for you to face the truth!

omg! it was really unbelievable seeing s. williams like that. clijsters was out most of 2004. but when she return, she didn't look like she was out for so long. at least she didn't gain so much weight. and s. williams was out for like what, 3 months? and she looks near to a gorilla now!

the only match i wathced was roddick/lammer. i thought i saw 2 roddicks on the court only to realise the other was lammer. :-) doesn't he look like roddick? if roddick didn't put on that cap, we'll have difficulty identifying who's who!

this is an old news but nevertheless, some of you might not read it before - sharapova & roddick love match. though the report says their rumour first surface at last year's us open but if you remember, they met up during the ESPY awards where report says they were chatting by the pool until wee hours. imagining them together, they make a lovely couple!

and other shock defeat that i'm pretty disappointed would be: dent and moya.

yesterday afternoon, i was listening to the aussie open live radio coverage via real player. on the sharapova match, i was supposed to listen the commentator clearly but all the noises came from sharapova!!! nevertheless, from the commentators, sharapova's tennis looks great! she can beat anybody on any given day but somehow i just think she doesn't have that much power to beat the best like clijsters, davenport and the old s.williams.

here's another piece of news that worth reading.

day 1 complete result
day 3 tv schedule (for SEA only) - starts at 8am until the last match of the night session

australian open - day 1 schedule

2006-01-15T01:52:00.000+08:00

day 1 play schedule
day 1 tv schedule (for SEA only) - though the schedule indicate they only show the night session starting at 4.30pm (6.30pm melbourne time) but i strongly believe they'll show the night session which begins at 7.30pm. in any case, espnstar always show the night sessions live. i'm looking forward for roddick's 2nd match on the center court.

aussie open website

2006-01-13T18:27:00.000+08:00

i notice the front page of the aussie open website:

understandable why they choose to put safin, hewitt and serena's photos. but why sharapova's photo is also included in the masthead? did the moderator of the website get their fact for 2005's tournament wrong? or simply because davenport is too ugly to be featured? that's really unfair to davenport who's performance was brilliant through out 2005 season.

next tournament: australian open

2006-01-13T18:11:00.000+08:00

when: 16jan06 to 29jan06
where: melbourne, australia
defending champion: marat safin
official website: www.australianopen.com/en_AU/index.html
draw: click here