2012 Australian Open Tennis

[Troy]

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The Australian Open starts in two days time so I thought that it would be the right time to post the thread for it.

Novak Djokovic is the defending men's singles champion. Novak returns to the place where his great run started, he won three of the four majors last year and is still in excellent form. Clear favourite here and will be very tough to beat. The rest of the top four, Federer, Nadal and Murray will as always be up there and will fight it out to topple Novak. Bernard Tomic is Australia's best hope, up to 37 in the world rankings but he has a tough first match against the number 22 seed Fernando Verdasco.

Kim Clijsters is the defending women's singles champion but she comes into the tournament out of form due to a few injuries over the past six months. The top seed is Caroline Wozniacki who still hasn't won a major. Sam Stosur is the local hope and she no longer has the monkey on her back after finally winning a major. She has never been past the fourth round at the Australian Open but many expect her to reach at least the finals this year.

The grand slams are always great to follow and I will be watching matches everyday of the tournament.​

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[The New F'n Show]

As always because of the large time difference I will not watch the early rounds. However like always I will DVR from the QF's on. Will share my in depths thoughts when we get that far.

 

[PHIL DUNPHY'S MOUSTACHE]

Djokovic/Kvitova to take the titles (likely to happen.) However, I want it to be Federer and Wozniacki (or Stosur)

 

[Troy]

Stosur choked yet again losing 6-7 3-6 in the opening round. I don't know why she struggles so much to deal with the mental side of things, surely someone with so much experience should be able to deal with it.

Bernard Tomic had an incredible win on the opening day. Came back from two sets to love down to win in five. Great performance by a 19 year old and next up he faces Querry and he should be confident of a win.

 

[Troy]

Tomic won that game in four sets, another strong performance by him and up next he plays Dogopolov who has been in sketchy form so for. Dolgopolov has gone to five sets in both opening games and doesn't look in the best of form.

Isner and Nalbandian had a great match yesterday as well. Five sets with Isner finally winning in the end, really good match to watch even with that shocking umpiring call not letting Nalbandian call for a review even though he had some left.

Big match tonight is Hewitt and Roddick facing off again. So far Roddick is up 6-3 0-3

 

[Troy]

Roddick suffered an injury and had to retire from the match so Hewitt managed to advance.

Tomic won again tonight in a tough five setter, he now faces Federer in Fed's 1000th match. If he can take a set of Federer, like he did in their Davis Cup match, then that will be a huge acheivement for a 19 year old.

 

[Troy]

Federer showed that Tomic is still some time away from bothering the top players with a straight sets win tonight. Still it is good experience for Tomic to play someone like Federer at a Grand Slam tournament and he will only improve from here.

Hewitt managed to beat Raonic last night to get himself into a fourth round match against Djokovic.

 

[Aniking]

Speaking of Djokovic and Tomic, listen to this little nugget.

At the 2007 Australian Open, a 19-year old Djokovic was beaten in the 4th round by Roger Federer. The following year Djokovic won the Australian Open at the age of 20.

See where I'm going with this? 19-year old Tomic lost tonight... in the 4th round... against Roger Federer. The only difference is that Djokovic was the 14th seed then, whereas Tomic is No. 38 in the world. Still, that's quite interesting M2

 

[Derrick]

LOL, good luck wishes to Hewitt.

You know who I'm rooting for since I'm half serbian.

 

[ants]

I picked Federer and Clijsters at the start, so with them both in the quarter finals, my picks are going strong. The Fed Express was a class above Tomic, and then a little bit more last night. And Kimmy did well to come back from a set down and a minor injury to beat Li Na, a very good player in her own right.

Been impressed with Azarenka this tournament as well, only seen bits of her before this summer, but shes really played some good tennis. And has a bit of anger about her which I like. Del Potro is a big danger for Federer this game I think, hes been dominant

 

[PHIL DUNPHY'S MOUSTACHE]

My picks of Djokovic/Kvitova are still going strong. Federer, Murray, Nadal looking great as well, and Sharapova, Clijsters and Wozniacki looking good for the ladies.

 

[Troy]

Del Potro is looking good, if he is fully fit again then he will make the dominant top four a top five.

Some upsets today with Nishikori beating Tsonga to move into the Quarter finals. The big one was Makarova beating Serena Williams! I have no idea who Makarova is but she smashed Serena in straight sets.

Men's singles quarter finals are;

Djokovic/Hewitt vs. Ferrer
Murray vs. Nishikori
Del Potro vs. Federer
Berdych vs. Nadal

It should be the top four seeds progressing with Del Potro having the best chance of causing an upset.

 

[Troy]

The finals are set.

In the women's singles final Sharapova faces Azarenka in the battle of the screamers. I hope that Sharapova wins because she has looked very good this tournament and it will be good seeing a women's number one that has actually won grand slams.

In the men's singles final Djokovic defends his title against Nadal. On hardcourt I can't go against Djokovic here even though he did have a long five hour match against Murray.

 

[Slim]

I was really really hoping that Clijisters... I can't ever spell her name right, but I was really hoping that she would make it to the finals.

 

[Troy]

She was definitely the fan favourite when she played the other night and she came close to beating Azarenka. Will be watching the women's final tonight and then tomorrow night the men's final should be great to watch.