Australian Open Day 6 NotesPosted on January 19, 2008 Because of light rain, which is expected to continue Sunday, no play took place on the outer courts Saturday at the Australian Open...
Roger Federer went the deepest he's ever gone into a fifth set, 10-8, to defeat Janko Tipsarevic. Federer had a career-high 39 aces in the match. Federer is now 11-10 in five-set matches while Janko Tipsarevic is 11-5... James Blake has won two of his last three five-set matches after overcoming a 4-1 third-set deficit to Sebastien Grosjean, who has blown all four of his two-set leads in his career at the Australian Open... Jarkko Nieminen has won four of six from Philipp Kohlschreiber, but the German has won the last two encounters... 19-year-old former junior No. 2 Marin Cilic had never won a Grand Slam match until this week, now into the fourth round of the Australian Open... The extra day of rest thanks to the rain should help Vince Spadea, who won both his two matches in five sets. Spadea will play David Ferrer, who's only played five sets total... The other Maria, and many say hotter Maria, Kirilenko has reached her first career Grand Slam fourth round after beating good friend Anna Chakvetadze... For the second straight Grand Slam Agnieszka Radwanska upset the No. 2 seed in the third round. She did in second-seeded Maria Sharapova at the US Open, and duplicated the feat Saturday ousting Svetlana Kuznetsova... Justine Henin will bid for her 32nd straight match win... Roger Federer has won 17 straight at Melbourne and he's won 16 consecutive Grand Slam matches... Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won the Syndey doubles title last week. Now they are playing for a spot in the Australian Open quarterfinals. Gasquet won two of three meetings with his buddy Tsonga last year... Juan Carlos Ferrero and David Nalbandian have split their four meetings with the Spaniard winning the last two... 2007 Australian Open finalist Fernando Gonzalez will fall outside of the Top 20 after losing Saturday to Marin Cilic... A quarterfinalist at the Australian Open earns nearly $170k... Justine Henin on whether she would ever display some of her hip-hop moves after a match, with the Belgian telling reporters at the Australian Open she has been taking hour-long hip-hip workouts with a trainer: "Never. Don't dream."... American Donald Young has switched from IMG to Octagon. The 98th-ranked Young, 18, is currently the youngest player in the ATP's Top 100. "We are extremely excited to have the opportunity to work with Donald, one of America�s most promising young athletes," said Octagon Senior Vice President, Tom Ross. "His recent growth and maturity, both on and off the court, has led to a successful transition from the top of the junior ranks to his impressive ATP ranking at just 18 years old."... From Tennis Week's Alix Ramsay: "on Friday night, Andy Roddick swore, sneered and belittled Emmanuel Joseph, the chair umpire, during the course of a four hour match which he lost to Philipp Kohlschreiber. Using language both crude and blasphemous -- and sometimes highly anatomical -- he berated the poor official simply because he, the world No. 6, was being made to look like the limited, petulant player he is by a fellow from Germany ranked 27 in the world. Yet Roddick walked away with no more than a $500 fine for racket abuse. While Jimmy Connors looked on, Roddick proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the only thing he has learned from the retired champion is how to behave badly in public. But if Connors behaved like a foul-mouthed hooligan from time to time, he could, at least, point to the fact that he was a serial Grand Slam champion, he was the most consistent world No1 in the history of the game (or he was until one R. Federer of Switzerland came along) and he was pathologically incapable of accepting defeat. Roddick, on the other hand, is a one slam wonder with a big serve and no clue how to formulate a game plan."... |
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