Murray Moping; Oz Open Redux; ATP/WTA Previews; Tennis-X Notes
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Movistar Open
Santiago, Chile
Surface: clay
Seeds: David Nalbandian, Juan Monaco, Thomaz Bellucci, Juan Ignacio Chela, Potito Starace, Tommy Robredo, Fabio Fognini, Santiago Giraldo
ADHEREL
Floaters: Carlos Berlocq, (WC) Nicolas Massu, Igor Andreev, Maximo Gonzalez
Notes: Four-time champ Fernando Gonzalez is missing with injury; draw looks like the Argentine Open, with seeds Nalbandian (vs. Barlocq) and Monaco (vs. M.Gonzalez) facing tricky all-ARG openers with practice partner countrymen; Bellucci beat Monaci in last year’s final; in addition to Gonzo winning the event four times, other notable past winners are French Open champ Gustavo Kuerten (2000) and French runners-up Guillermo Coria (2001) and Alberto Berasategui (1994).
SA Tennis Open
Johannesburg, South Africa
Surface: hard
Seeds: Feliciano Lopez, Yen-Hsun Lu, Janko Tipsarevic, Kevin Anderson, Florent Serra, Adrian Mannarino, Rainer Schuettler, Michal Przysiezny
Floaters: Frank Dancevic, Dustin Brown
Notes: Pretty shallow field, but F-Lo has a tough opener against Dancevic; (5) Serra starts against Jamaican sensation Dustin Brown; F-Lo won the title last year, beating Stephane Robert in the final; five seeds make their Johannesburg debut.
PBZ Zagreb Indoors
Zagreb, Croatia
Surface: indoor hard
Seeds: Marin Cilic, Ivan Ljubicic, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Richard Gasquet, Florian Mayer, Marcel Granollers, Philipp Petzschner, Michael Berrer
Floaters: Radek Stepanek, Arnaud Clement, Ivo Karlovic
Notes: A Croat has made the final all five years of the event; the top-seeded Cilic is the two-time defending champ; Cilic will team with Goran Ivanisevic in doubles; returning champs in the field are Cilic (2010-09) and Ljubicic (2006).
Fed Cup
Feb. 5-6, 2011
World Group I
Italy at Australia
France at Russia
Czech Republic at Slovak Republic
U.S. at Belgium
World Group II
Spain at Estonia
Germany at Slovenia
Canada at Serbia
Ukraine at Sweden
TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
ANDY MURRAY FALLOUT
Andy Murray failed to end Britain’s 75 year Grand Slam title drought after being straight-setted in the Australian Open final by a red-hot Novak Djokovic, who also beat Roger Federer in straight sets in the semifinals. Murray now joins Goran Ivanisevic, Andre Agassi, Ivan Lendl as players to lose their first three Slam final appearances. Not bad company. It remains to be seen how quickly Murray can mentally bounce back from failing to be competitive in the big moment: “I was in a much worse state last year than I was this year. I don’t know why. It’s better than it was last year. It was obviously tough, disappointing. I thought Novak played unbelievably well. And, yeah, it’s tough, but I’ve got to deal with it.”
BRYANS STOP SMACK-TALKING INDIAN EXPRESS
The re-forming of the “Indian Express,” the oft-fighting pairing of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, has been a topic since the two have come together to prepare for the 2012 Olympics. In their first Slam back together the Indians ran all the way to the final at the Australian Open before being stopped by the No. 1 Bryan brothers who played almost a perfect final. Paes, known for getting under the skin of opponents, shouting “Vamos!” at Spanish opponents and mimicking the Bryan’s chest bump when playing the brothers, could not make a dent in the twins’ arsenal as the Bryans won 6-3, 6-4. “It never gets old,” said Bob Bryan. “Especially to play those two guys, the ‘Indian Express,’ who we have tons of respect for. We were jacked up for this match. These two guys are legends. It was an extra special feeling out there on the court playing two guys that dominated the game 10 years ago.” The Aussie Open is the lone Slam title the Indian Express has yet to win. It was the fifth Aussie Open title for the Bryans, and third in a row. They are 43-3 in Melbourne over the past eight years. With 10 Slams, the 32-year-old Bryans moved to within just one Slam win of matching Open Era leaders Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde. “Today we lost to the best team on the planet who played lights out,” Paes said. “I thought they played the perfect match.”
PENNETTA-DULKO WIN FIRST SLAM
The Argentine-Italian pair of Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta came back from a 6-2, 4-1 deficit to defeat Victoria Azarenka and Maria Kirilenko 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 for their first Gland Slam title. “I think a set and 4-1 down, in the changeover, we were like looking each other and saying, ‘C’mon, we play less than an hour,'” Dulko said. “We cannot finish the match playing less than an hour in the final.” Azarenka particularly folded mentally after her team blew the lead, in the third set missing easy ball after easy ball. It was an easy-on-the-eyes final, as the official Australian Open website summed up: “It was a glamorous match up, and the tennis proved highly entertaining as well.”
NESTOR MIXES IT UP AGAIN
Daniel Nestor won his second career mixed doubles Slam at the Australian Open, teaming with Katarina Srebotnik to beat Aussie Paul Hanley and partner Yung-Jan Chan 6-3, 3-6, 10-7. The pair survived another match tiebreak in the second round against Olga Govortosva and Marcin Matkowski. Nestor also won the Aussie Open mixed title in 2007 with Elena Likhovtseva. “I’d like to thank my partner Katarina, she carried me,” Nestor said. “She’s actually already dumped me for the next Grand Slam, she’s going back to her regular partner, so this was my one shot.”
MISC
Wayne Bryan on his son Bob getting married in December: “Bob was married to Michelle Alvarez at the historic Spanish Monastery in Miami. It was a beautiful and inspirational ceremony and we are proud and happy to have Michelle in our family. She comes from a wonderful family and is an attorney and close to getting her Masters in Business. She grew up at our Cabrillo Racquet Club in Camarillo taking tennis lessons from [wife] Kathy and went on to play college tennis. And yes, the Bros. have now divided up their bank accounts and all their real estate.”…From Canadian writer Stephanie Myles: “Westmount’s Eugenie Bouchard heard all about the trash talking from American Lauren Davis, the diminutive 17-year old’s bravado undimmed, even after Davis, unbeaten in four months in junior and smaller pro events, was taken to school by No. 5 seed Samantha Stosur in the first round of the women’s singles draw at the Australian Open. Bouchard put a zip on little Lauren’s lip yesterday, trouncing the No. 3 seed 6-0, 6-3 in the third round of the junior girls’ event. “I knew about ending her four-month winning streak. I was like, ‘She’s going down’,” Bouchard said afterwards, a big smile on her face. “I read about (the big talk) and I needed to knock some sense into her. She was being cocky before her other match.”…ATP South African Open officials are lamenting a poor field this week following the Australian Open, and with a lack of appearance cash to hand out: “No player appearing this year is receiving a cent of appearance money. We are happy to host the event with some strong entries,” said Tournament Director Ian Smith. “Stars like Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are out of reach for the South African Open because it begins a day after the Australian Open finals. Another factor is that the fees being demanded by their agents are quite prohibitive in the current financial environment.”…Rumor overhear in Melbourne — Venus William’s injury at the Australian Open was the result of not recovering enough after having a secret hip surgery late last year?…Who can hit less winners in a Grand Slam match, Caroline Wozniacki or Andy Roddick?…Vera Zvonareva dissolved in a puddle of tears during the Australian Open — to the pre-Aussie Open writers who claimed that era was over and the fragile Russian was on the verge of claiming No. 1 from Caroline Wozniacki…From SI.com tennis writer Jon Wetheim: “It’s a personal decision, but I suspect more athletes could benefit from the [Andrea] Petkovic approach and realize that when they have fun with their craft, their performance ultimately benefits. And a few weeks ago, we speculated on how her victory dance routines were going over in the WTA locker room. After advancing past Venus in that unfortunate 6-minute retirement match, Pam Shriver asked Petkovic to offer a funny routine. Petko explained that there was nothing funny about the moment. What’s the German word for “class?”” — And what’s the word for “Get the classless Pam out of the ESPN booth”? The commentary during the women’s final from that team was grating…And Jon on Andy Roddick: “…if you don’t have the “support system” to back a big serve, you’re not going far either. Here we trot out Roddick, who fell in Round 4 to Stan Wawrinka.”
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