Gonzalez Wins Marathon at Australian Open; Dokic Owes Drug Dealer, Rusedski Un-retires
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Serena Rolls, Dementieva Overcomes Choke at Aussie Open
Serena Williams says her game is still coming together during week one at the Australian Open, but on Saturday it was enough to overwhelm China’s Peng Shuai 6-1, 6-4 to move into week two.
ADHEREL
“It was definitely a lot better than my second round but I’m still trying to work on some things and hoping they’ll come together,” said Serena, who found herself down a break 1-3 in the second set. “I started making more errors and then I lost my serve a couple times. Then I think I put too much pressure on myself and the next thing I know I was down. I hit some wild shots on my backhand so that was kind of crazy, so I’m feeling a little rusty, for whatever reason.”
Serena will next face Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, who on Saturday put down former No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo 6-4, 6-2. Mauresmo came into Melbourne with an injury, and exits feeling good about her game.
“Even though it’s now quite disappointing, I think my (best) level of play is coming back. It’s slowly getting there,” Mauresmo said. “I have to be a little bit patient I guess with the things we worked on in the winter. Some things are good, some other things are still up and down.”
Russian Elena Dementieva, who has never won a Slam but came into the event a favorite by virtue of two titles in her first two events of 2009, had to overcome a case of the chokes in defeating Aussie Sam Stosur 7-6(6), 6-4 in front of the supportive Aussie fans.
“I was nervous to play against her,” said Dementieva, who was down 2-5 in the opening set after dropping serve to begin the match. “I’m sure she feels very comfortable playing on this court with the crowd support. It was not easy for me. It was a tough match to play. I’m just glad I was able to win the first set and finish it in two sets…There’s gonna be some bad days and some days of, let’s call, ‘survivor days.’ The most important is to go through.”
Also through into the fourth round Saturday were (8) Svetlana Kuznetsova (d. (31) Alona Bondarenko) (21) Anabel Medina Garrigues (d. (12) Flavia Pennetta), (18) Dominika Cibulkova (d. Razzano, (22) Jie Zheng (d. Kateryna Bondarenko), and unseeded Spanish Venus-killer Carla Suarez Navarro (d. Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez).
On court Sunday in 4th round action are (1) Jelena Jankovic vs. (16) Marion Bartoli, (3) Dinara Safina vs. (15) Alize Cornet, Aussie Jelena Dokic vs. (29) Alisa Kleybanova, and an all-Russian in (10) Nadia Petrova vs. (7) Vera Zvonareva.
Gonzo Outlasts Gasquet in Marathon, French Musketeers Advance in Oz
Headed toward what looks like an inevitable semifinal showdown, world No. 1 Rafael Nadal and Brit challenger Andy Murray rolled over opponents to move into the fourth round at the Australian Open.
Nadal dominated former No. 2-ranked German Tommy Haas 6-4, 6-2, 6-2, while Murray held off No. 31-seeded Jurgen “Tuna” Melzer of Austria 7-5, 6-0, 6-3 in a lopsided battle.
“I think I played one of my best matches here at the Australian Open,” said Nadal, who next faces a revenge match against Chilean Fernando “Gonzo” Gonzalez, who beat the Spaniard en route to the Aussie Open final two years ago.
Gonzo pulled a rabbit out of a hat against “Baby Fed” Gasquet, who ran through him 6-3, 6-3 in the first two sets, seemingly en route to a quick dinner engagement. But in the third set Gonzalez seemed to wake up, and after fighting off a match point in the tiebreak, clinched the third set. In a show of will the eventually-limping Chilean, who received attention from the trainer for a toe problem, won the next two sets 6-2, 12-10 to emerge victorious in what was another heartbreaker for the gumption-challenged Gasquet.
To his credit the Frenchman, suffering his own foot injury with a broken nail, turned to serving and volleying late in the match and threw the Chilean off his ground game. Gonzalez saw that Gasquet, not known as one of the training workhorses of the tour, was beginning to suffer later in the match after his fast start.
“He was playing like a superhero,” Gonzalez said. “I mean, I couldn’t do anything. I was 6-3, 4-1, I couldn’t do too much…I saw that he was trying to save energy. I don’t know the reason. I saw he was really tired in the fourth set, fifth set. In the first set, I tried to move him, tried to play long points and try to do something else. If I went for my shots, he was coming with another better one. So, was very tough in the beginning.”
Other winners into the fourth round Saturday were the three young French musketeers in (5) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (d. Dudi Sela in four), (6) Gilles Simon (d. Mario Ancic), and (12) Gael Monfils (d. (17) Nicolas Almagro), American (9) James Blake (d. (18) Igor Andreev in four), and Spaniard (14) Fernando “Hot Sauce” Verdasco (d. (22) Radek Stepanek, baking two bagels in the final two sets).
Saturday’s schedule in Melbourne is (2) Roger Federer vs. (20) Tomas Berdych, Marcos Baghdatis vs. (3) Novak Djokovic, (8) Juan Martin Del Potro vs. (19) Marin Cilic, and (7) Andy Roddick vs. (21) Tommy Robredo.
TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Sixty-eight unforced errors and you still win the match in straight sets? That’s what Sveta Kuznetsova did…
Fernando Verdasco has lost just 12 games in advancing to the fourth round, which puts him in the Sweet 16 of all four Slams…
Victoria Azarenka is undefeated in 2009, 8-0, without the loss of a set…
Juan Martin del Potro beat Marin Cilic twice in juniors. The two 20-year-olds are the youngest players left in the men’s field and both are undefeated in 2009…
Fernando Verdasco says he’s worked with Andre Agassi’s old trainer, Gil Reyes, leading up to the 2009…
The last time the Top 8 seeds made the fourth round at a Grand Slam was at the 2003 US Open…
Andy Roddick, Marcos Baghdatis and Gael Monfils all won the Australian Open junior title…
Roger Federer has won seven straight, winning 18 of 19 sets, over Tomas Berdych since the Czech beat him at the 2004 Athens Olympics…
Tomas Berdych is 0-10 vs Top 10 players in Grand Slams, and 14-23 outside Slams…
Novak Djokovic will again have the crowd against him when he takes on Melbourne favorite Marcos Baghdatis. Novak has beaten Bags in both previous meetings including a 5-setter at Wimbledon in 2007…
Andy Roddick last lost to Tommy Robredo at the 2000 Australian Hardcourts. Roddick since has won 9 straight over the Spaniard, losing just one set…
Marin Cilic lost to Donald Young in the quarterfinals of the 2005 Australian Open juniors…
Four women — Serena Williams, Jelena Jankovic, Dinara Safina, Elena Dementieva — are all vying for the No. 1 ranking…
Gilles Simon says he and Gael Monfils are 10-10 in practice sets. The two friends have never played an official match…
Another streaker hit the Aussie Open late in the day, streaking through the oval courtyard…
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga says his back is “perfect”…
Serena Williams and Sveta Kuznetsova are the only players left in the women’s draw with a Slam title…
Jelena Jankovic is appearing in her 11th straight Grand Slam fourth round…
How about these Tennis Channel commercials! The “Titan Peeler”? We need one of those for our kitchen. Viagra? Yes! But where is the ShamWOW guy? That guy can’t be beat…
We just saw a Citizen watch ad that says Nicole Vaidisova is unstoppable…shouldn’t those ads be pulled? Does it mean unstoppable on the challenger circuit?…
ARE YOU KIDDING US? — ESPN leaves it’s coverage of the Gael Monfils-Nicolas Almagro match last night after match point, then does a few wrap-up notes and goes off the air. A couple minutes later the Tennis Channel opens their coverage showing the match point from Monfils-Almagro with Bill Macatee’s voice-over ‘We’re live at the Australian Open, at the conclusion of the Gael Monfils-Nicolas match…’ Huh? Live in a time warp with a match that ended five minutes ago? Or did you forget that viewers were switching over from ESPN’s live coverage? Either awful decision-making or a verbal blunder by Macatee…
EXCESS BAGGAGE — The Telegraph on coach Roger Rasheed saying many of the lower-ranked women players, such as Aussie Casey Dellacqua, are too fat and lax on their conditioning to compete with the top players: “Roger Rasheed, who used to coach Lleyton Hewitt and is now in charge of top French player Gael Monfils, was quoted by Melbourne’s Herald Sun as saying fitness was a super-important “controllable.” “There’s two things you can control in tennis — one’s your physical conditioning,” said Rasheed, who labelled the serve as the other. “I’m baffled that girls in sport, in tennis, can actually carry excess baggage. That means you’re slower, your mind doesn’t work as well, you can’t recover, you can’t recover off shots. It means you can’t play the shots you want to play often enough against the better players. So you lose.” He singled out Australia’s Casey Dellacqua, who crashed out of the Australian Open in the first round and has been accused of being out of shape. “She may have had some injuries, she’s had a shoulder, but that doesn’t actually stop you from getting into real tip-top shape,” Rasheed said. Dellacqua’s coach Nicole Pratt refused to comment. “From a professional stand-point, I’d rather not answer back on that one,” she told the newspaper, although Dellacqua, whose weight has been under scrutiny before, shot back that Rasheed does not know her. Australian Pat Cash then supported Rasheed, saying “He is a hard disciplinarian and an experienced coach. I think his comments were pretty valid. In regards to Casey, I know she has been working on her fitness and I think there has been an improvement.” Another former player, Margaret Court, added: “I don’t think they’re as fit as we were when we were playing.”…Tough to hear for players, but Dellacqua is chunky. But how many chunky girls are in the No. 50-200 ranking level? If you watch a lot of tennis on TV — lots of them…
Dmitry Tursunov was fined $3,000 for racket abuse and dropping f-bombs during his first-round loss, and Nicole Vaidisova was fined $2,000 for blowing off her post-match media conference after her first-round loss. Thanks for coming Nicole, keep up your stellar training and media relations routine…you’re unstoppable…
RUSEDSKI BACK! BOGGY BOOTED! — Britain’s Greg Rusedski has announced a tennis comeback, saying his retirement has allowed his body to heal, and that he has asked for some wildcards at ATP events. He has also stated his desire to play Davis Cup for Britain alongside Andy Murray, but Davis Cup captain John Lloyd has thus far responded, to paraphrase, ‘Uh, no thanks.”…In other Brit D-Cup news, Lloyd has booted Alex Bogdanovic off the team, saying the former pupil of Brad Gilbert has had plenty of chances to perform. “I believe that Alex has had a lot of opportunities and he hasn’t been successful,” Lloyd said. “It’s time to move on and give other people a chance.” Instead of giving the former Slam runner-up Rusedski a shot, Lloyd says for the No. 2 singles spot behind Murray he will have a playoff amidst the all-zero group of Brit non-comers Josh Goodall, James Ward, Alex Slabinsky, Jamie Baker, Dan Evans and Colin Fleming. Geez John, we can see you’re taking a page out of U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe’s “Let’s Develop the Youngsters” manual, but he had something to work with. Just swallow your pride and insert Rusedski back in — not only has he given a lot to the squad in the past, but you’d actually have a shot at getting out of Davis Cup zonal play. At least let Rusedski into the playoff. If those kids can’t beat an out-of-competition Rusedski, they suck anyhow…
Prudish conservative politicians are trying to ban topless sunbathing at Australian beaches. This country is really going down the crapper…
Serena in her best third-person reference style in blogging for USA Today from the Australian Open: “My first-round match here was one I will remember. I was told it was over 115 degrees on the court. It was so hot that I forced my breathing to become shallow, to not over-extend too much energy gasping for air. My throat was clogged with dryness. I was desperate for water before the allotted two-game break and remember telling myself, “Serena, after this point you get some water.” Indeed I did get water only to restart in the dry, excruciating heat…Finally after an hour and 20 minutes it was over. I won, but you did not see the usual Serena Williams after-match celebration. Just the Serena “happy to have won” and even happier to run out of the heat.”…
Why does Rafa have to put a collar on his shirt to make him look more “mature” according to Nike and his camp? Will it help him get a job after tennis? Maybe he should wear one of those faux-tuxedo t-shirts next. A Nike release gushes, “With colors as vibrant as the culture of Majorca, Rafa will burst onto the court in chlorine blue, orange blaze, white and concord. Rafa’s contrasting tones are set to shine, day and night in the city that never sleeps.” Puke…
Jo Stanley writing for the Herald Sun on glitz and glamor over substance in today’s version of women’s tennis: “At the risk of sounding like someone’s grandma, superstars of the past were so because of their play. No one saw Martina Navratilova in a bikini, admittedly, nor did we want to.” — All these women need to wear pantaloons! And you kids, stay off my lawn!…
DOKIC DEBTED TO DRUG DEALER? — Management company IMG says they know nothing about their client’s involvement, but according to the Herald Sun, Jelena Dokic owes $60K to the family of a now-dead drug trafficker who took her in and paid for her training two years ago when she was struggling. Dead drug importer John Anthony Giannarelli’s family is demanding the money, saying he took over Dokic’s management duties and paid all her expenses before dying of cancer. “She arrived out here broken and penniless and Johnny was the one who took the punt on Jelena,” family friend Glen Schirmer, who worked as Dokic’s dietitian at Giannarelli’s request, told the newspaper. “At his own expense he housed, fed and trained both her and her boyfriend for months. He said he knew that one day he’d get the money back from her. He liked her and he thought she deserved a second shot at it. He felt really sorry for her and they became very, very close. She was trying to get a start again but nobody wanted to touch her, so Johnny took her on.” — One of life’s lessons Jelena, never stiff the mob…
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