Wednesday, January 2
Last updated on Thursday, January 3 at 12:15 pm EDT
AUSTRALIAN PRESS
Hewitt finds new edge - Linda Pearce, Melbourne Age
The first set was particularly impressive, and the top seed earned break points in five of eight Acasuso service games throughout the 61-minute match, while taken to deuce only once himself. The one false note came when his serve fell apart in the last game, and double-faults cruelled his first two match points."I'd nearly played the perfect match up 'til then," Hewitt said later, while admitting to some satisfaction at having so comprehensively avenged his five-set Davis Cup loss in Buenos Aires 16 months ago.
...Roche was vocal with his encouragement - "good hitting, good pressure, good move, mate" - from among the large Hewitt entourage in the front row of the Memorial Drive stand. Tougher tests than Acasuso lie ahead in the coming weeks, but Roche's emphasis has been on a more attacking approach, and the signs so far are good.
"There's just a purpose with everything we do, and there's not too many things that are good enough for Rochey on the court," Hewitt said. "Every minute that we're on the practice court there's a reason we're out there, and working on something, and that's been the biggest change, and I've enjoyed it."
Vaidisova hurt her ankle going for a backhand return and called for the WTA trainer at the break between sets. The ankle was strapped and, while she admitted the injury was at the back of her mind, she refused to use it as an excuse... Vaidisova will have the ankle scanned and head to Sydney, where yesterday it was dryer and warmer after her match against Li was played in 17C temperatures.But the 2007 Australian Open semi-finalist does not think the ankle will be any concern for her long-term. "I don't think it's going to be hopeless or something huge. But it does distract you," she said. "I stepped wrongly into the ball and felt sharp pain through it. I tried to play through it.
"But after that you're watching it, thinking about it, and suddenly it's 4-0 and you're not paying attention to the game as much."
For Li, it was a welcome return to form after missing the bulk of the second half of last season due to a stress fracture in a rib. She also played yesterday with her left thigh heavily strapped. "I have pain in the muscle, maybe I'm getting old," the 25-year-old said. "I'm like a grandmother. My first match I'm on the court two hours and I'm running and look like a grandmother. I had pain everywhere... "This is my first tournament back on tour (after the rib injury), so everything is new - new tournament, new season. I wasn't sure how I'd go and how I would hit," Li said. "But today I'm thinking 'wow, I'm back'."
Molik said the crispness of Williams' groundstrokes forced her off balance."She hit me with a barrage of shots in the first set and I knew that was coming," Molik said.
"But, even though you know that weight and speed of shot is coming, it is still very difficult to react to it.
"She can win the Australian Open, without a doubt. She is executing her shots very well. I felt like she was playing great."
"I mean, I need to go for my shots," Safina said after wasting five match points against Shahar Peer on her way to losing their quarter-final 4-6 6-1 7-6 (10-8) at the Australian women's hardcourt championships on the Gold Coast yesterday."In the tiebreak, I'm match point on my serve and maybe I should have put first serve in. I need to be playing a little bit more with the mind and not with the nerves," she said.
..."It's disappointing. I won the first set but somehow I let her come into the match because I was dominating from the beginning, but then I started to slow down my game," Safina said. "I'm like, 'let's play rallies' instead of keep on my game and keep going for my shots. "Second set I wasn't there.
"I don't know what I did, actually. It was also my big mistake.
"It shouldn't happen like this. If I want to become a top-10 player, I have to stop doing it half-thinking, half-playing."
..."Now I can say I can play three sets every time, but that's not what I want," she said. "I have to change a little bit, the mentality of my mind. I need to believe more in myself and be much more aggressive and not slow down.
"The Australian Open counts more than here. Who cares here if I win? More important to dominate at the Australian.
"I will practise and work on my mistakes from here. At the Open I'm not allowed to do any more of those kind of mistakes."
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
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Jankovic, who hurt her right thigh on Wednesday, was unable to complete her singles match on Thursday but returned for the mixed doubles later as Serbia beat Argentina 2-1 to set up a final meeting with United States on Friday...."I shouldn't be here, I am really risking my career," Jankovic told the crowd after helping Novak Djokovic beat Gisela Dulko and Juan Ignacio Chela 6-1 3-6 7-6 in the doubles. "It's a bit worse today and I shouldn't be playing but I love playing for my country and I will just try the best I can."
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Swedish press report that Soderling's wrist injury has deteriorated and he will miss the Australian Open. The withdrawal means Isner, ranked 106, is placed to get direct entry into the main draw of the Australian Open. February is now Soderling's target for a return.
Last updated at 1:35 am EDT
AUSTRALIAN PRESS
Jankovic said she initially feared the worst with the Australian Open less than two weeks away. "It was really painful and I thought I had torn a muscle," Jankovic said. "It was really dangerous because for me, I have to be ready for Melbourne, which is most important and I don't want to risk any form of injury."I went straight to the hospital and got tests and I am really glad I don't have a torn muscle, only a strain."
At a loss to explain how she made it through the mixed doubles rubber, Jankovic said national pride had taken over.
"Novak was trying to help me out on the court and he tried to cover more than his side and we did it," she said.
"I was really having pain every time I made some steps, but I have the desire and motivation to win and somehow pull it off.
"We are Serbian and we fight until the end."
HAVING previously won a single tour-level match in a career remarkable only for dogged persistence, 32-year-old Joe Sirianni has now won two more, although the feel-good local script that would have included Sirianni's sometime-practice partner Chris Guccione in tomorrow's Memorial Drive quarter-final took an unfortunate evening twist.Sirianni said he had used his regular experience against the explosive Guccione serve to help prepare him for yesterday's second-round upset of world No. 63 Sam Querrey, as the veteran Victorian prevailed 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-3 at the Adelaide International. The not-so-happy ending was Guccione's, as the 22-year-old fell to highly rated Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 despite 24 aces.
...Sirianni contends that a career on the fringes of the ATP Tour and on club duty in the Netherlands has provided experience with relatively little physical wear and tear. "(My age) is only a number . . . I'm 32, but I haven't been out there grinding it week in, week out all the tournaments," he said, having reached a tour quarter-final for the first time 11 years after his debut.
Jankovic was not angry with the acupuncturist, rather she "hated the needles" used to treat a buttock injury that forced her withdrawal from a singles rubber against Tatiana Golovin after just one game....But while Golovin and 2001 Australian Open finalist Arnaud Clement were baffled by Jankovic during the doubles, they were initially bemused and then increasingly amused when their post-tie press conference was repeatedly interrupted by the screaming Serbian receiving treatment nearby. The French pair exchanged bewildered looks, smiles and a joke as Jankovic yelled: "Owww, that hurts."
Djokovic, who said following his 6-3 6-3 win over Clement he hoped the doubles proceeded because he liked to share a pre- and post-match kiss with his fellow world No3 and enjoyed seeing her "bending over" when he was serving, smiled as Jankovic explained her antics. "I was just crying in the change rooms," Jankovic said. "I was screaming a lot and those needles don't really feel that great when they put them in."
"I feel I still want to do this. I still have this thing inside me pushing me, first of all to do two months practice back home to make sure, physically, I was very well," Mauresmo said after reaching the quarter-finals of the Australian women's championships on the Gold Coast yesterday with a 6-3 6-4 win over childhood friend and fellow Frenchwoman, Nathalie Dechy.
"Honestly, I want to be here. I want to play this season and maybe win another Grand Slam," she said. "I don't feel I've had enough of tennis yet. When the time comes, that will be OK but it is not at the moment."
Mauresmo, 28, is in a far more comfortable place now she is no longer at loggerheads with herself. She has been No1 in the world, won two Grand Slams, a Fed Cup and an Olympic silver medal, in Athens.
"I'm trying to do the best I can physically by travelling with a physio but I think the head, the head is really determining a lot of things," she said. "If you want to keep going, if you have this fire inside you; it's true that it's tough when you're injured, especially as you get older, but I think the mind decides everything."
The exhausted third seed, who snatched a 6-4 2-6 6-4 victory from the brink of defeat in the 1hr 57min match, said she had not played in more than two months - and it showed."When you have played many matches, then you don't care it's match point - you just go," the Russian said after the match at Royal Pines.
"But when you haven't played for a while, have so many things on your mind and you're thinking 'what should I do now?', that's just what it's like at the beginning of the year."
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
According Anil Khanna, president of ATF, Asian players are struggling to break the stranglehold of American and the European players dominating world tennis...“Tennis definitely needs to change somewhere, somehow so that Asian players feature prominently on the ATP Tour. I think the reason why the sport has not developed in the region is because the money made out of tennis, especially at the Grand Slams, is not distributed properly among the deserving countries.
“Fifa, whatever money it makes, redeploys its huge profits among the affiliated associations for the development of football around the world. The International Cricket Council does the same. Tennis should also focus on development of the sport in a big way,” Khanna said.
New Zealand's Marina Erakovic caused a major upset in downing top seed Vera Zvonareva, of Russia, in their quarterfinal at the ASB Classic women's tennis tournament in Auckland today.Erakovic came from behind to win a thrilling third set tiebreaker and take the match 6-3 2-6 7-6.
"Maybe it was the fact that once I was down I thought 'right, I have to start swinging again'," she said.After recovering from an early service break to force a tiebreaker, Erakovic closed out the first set in convincing fashion. She then broke Harkleroad when the American was serving for the second set before fending off two break points to go ahead 6-5. One match point was all it took for Erakovic to put the rapidly unravelling Harkleroad out of her misery. "I really enjoyed the last point," she said.
...Harkleroad couldn't contain her frustration as a series of close line calls went against her in the closing stages. After throwing her racquet and kicking balls around in the final two games, she departed the court immediately after the final point. It's unlikely the ice-cool Zvonareva !] will be as susceptible to the pressure an already sold-out centre court crowd will look to exert on her.
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The winner is likely to play the top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, who won well for the second day in a row, overcoming another former titleholder, Fabrice Santoro, 6-3, 6-3.The Russian struck the ball well, despite the mixtures with which the Frenchman tried to disrupt his rhythm, and has so far dropped only nine games in four sets.
“I’m pleased,” Davydenko said.
“I haven’t just come here for practice for the Australian Open.
This is an important tournament and there are quite a lot of ranking points at stake. I want to win it and then I will have more confidence for Australia.”
Williams, the current Wimbledon champion, added she would be tussling with her sister Serena for the number one spot during 2008."I definitely want to return to number one," she said, when asked about her sister's aim to head the rankings this year.
Speaking to L'Equipe newspaper after being named as it's Champion of Champions for the third year running, the Swiss star said that at 26, he was injury-free and full of motivation. "It's all to do with my preparation," he said. "The way that I train and get myself in top condition is very important. "I have put the priority on longevity. I've always had an eye to the future and would like to continue playing as long as possible to play against as many generations as possible. I am in it for the long run." A winner of three out of four Grand Slam titles in 2007, the Swiss player finished well ahead of American swimmer Michael Phelps and French world rally champion Sebastien Loeb in a vote by L'Equipe's journalists....Looking back over 2007, Federer said his greatest satisfaction came from matching Bjorn Borg's record of winning Wimbledon five times in a row by defeating Rafael Nadal in a pulsating five-sets final. "It was an incredible match against Nadal - in front of Borg who was there, Connors also and McEnroe - everyone was there. It was a magical moment for me.
"It felt like moving into another dimension and that I was no longer just the best player in the world, but a kind of legend.
"Of course its bizarre to think of oneself as a legend, but that was the biggest moment of the year for me."
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HEWITT NO LONGER SPUNKY TEEN: Lleyton Hewitt celebrated his 10th anniversary of his Adelaide title by besting Israeli Dudi Sela 6-2, 6-2. Last year's runner-up, Aussie Chris Guccione, will meet No. 2 Paul-Henri Mathieu, who reversed a two-match losing streak against French compatriot Julien Benneteau. In a battle of oldies and somewhat goodies, 33-year-old Vince Spadea beat Sebastien Grosjean 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.VAIDISOVA STILL SHAKY: Top-seed Nicole Vaidisova, who spent much of last summer battling a virus, survived a scare from Aussie Casey Dellacqua in a tight 5-7, 7-5, 6-0 win at the Gold Coast. Seventh-seed Sybille Bammer, who started 2007 so well Down Under, joined second-seed Nadia Petrova as a first-round victim when she was beaten 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 by China's Li Na. Two matches of note on Wednesday are Flavia Pennetta v. Dinara Safina and Nathalie Dechy v. Amelie Mauresmo.
...POLITICKING, AUSSIE STYLE: This a watershed year for the Aussie summer circuit as in 2009 – with the advent of the Sony Ericsson WTATour's radical calendar changes and some changes to the ATP side – the men's tournament at Adelaide and the women's at the Gold Coast will be history. Those tournaments will be replaced by a combined event in Brisbane, which the Heralds Sun's Leo Schlink described as a "tennis wasteland for much of the past 20 years apart for the family-funded emergence of Pat Rafter."
In the nineteenth century, you could get deported to Australia on a convict ship for stealing a chicken. Now the ATP has decreed that two Italians will not be allowed to go to Australia for placing bets that barely amount to chicken feed.In banning Potito Starace, Italy’s top ranked player at 31 in the world, for six weeks and fining him $30,000 and banning Daniele Bracciali for three months with a $20,000 fine, the ATP has attempted to show the world how tough it intends to be in dealing with the betting scandal that has erupted in the sport this year.
But this is nothing more than posturing. Starace got it absolutely right when he said, "They have attacked us without resolving the real problem – match fixing."
...If the ATP leadership wants a guide, it would be better off consulting the locker room rather than one of those indecently expensive consulting firms which have to go off in search of experts to answer the questions they have been asked to relay back to the people who should have known the answers in the first place. Judgment – unhappily you can’t buy it.
Mixed doubles is an event that is simultaneously compelling and under-covered. Over years, I wrote a few pieces really focusing on mixed doubles, at both the pro and amateur level, mostly in hopes of focusing on the challenges posed by mixed-gender competition. Those challenges (easily summed up in the question: Do I nail the chick between the eyes with the gonzo Pete Sampras slamp-dunk overhead?) are just your ticket into the mixed doubles arena. There are loads of interesting technical and labor-division issues lurking behind them.The Hopman Cup was started by a guy I know pretty well, Paul McNamee (he was probably better known to most of you as the former Tournament Director of the Australian Open). He very generously invited me to attend his event a bunch of times, although I was never able to make it because of the obvious timing issues. McNamee is a very bright guy, and a former pro (he won two singles titles and almost two dozen doubles titles, including those of Wimbledon and his native Australia). He also is the only successful pro I know who changed from a one-handed to a two-handed backhand late in his development (he had already started playing Challenger-type events). He'll be the first to tell you that his bold (at the time,many said "Ill-advised") move to adopt the two-hander was ultimately his ticket out of the journeyman ghetto.
Hear the one about the tennis off-season? It fell on a Tuesday this year.
The GEE means Davenport can receive a wild card into any tournament.Davenport applied for the golden ticket when she came back in fall 2007 after giving birth to her son Jagger in June. She has the pass for the entire 2008 season, during which she hopes to play herself onto the U.S. Olympic team and compete in three of the four Slams, skipping Paris and its troublesome red dirt. (However, Davenport has committed to play on green clay at Amelia Island in April.)
BRITISH PRESS
Murray responded impressively to the minor crisis, however, by demonstrating that the mental side of his game is now just as sharp as the physical. He emphatically turned the tide to win 11 of the next 12 games and storm through 1-6, 6-0, 6-1. "It sometimes happens at this level that you get outplayed," Murray said of the first set. "The important thing was to hang in and change things round and that's what I did."The tactical key was changing the pace of the ball and trying to force Schuettler, the world No 99, into uncertain territory close to the net, which Murray managed to accomplish with a mixture of slice and finesse.
...Sweden's Thomas Johansson is down to 69 in the world rankings after peaking by winning the 2002 Australian Open. "It is a different match-up because Thomas is a bit more aggressive and has a bigger serve but he is not as quick as Rainer and doesn't retrieve as well," Murray said. "I'm looking forward to another good match."
First he required steely resolve to stay in contention, then the ability to create error-free pressure with more variety of spin and pace. A few stealthy net attacks followed and eventually some thunderous serving to convert what had been a worrying situation into a satisfying one... "He's a really tough player and plays really well on this surface," Murray said of Schüttler and the slowish Rebound Ace hard court. "But I made a few too many mistakes, got the tactics a little bit wrong and he hardly missed a ball. Sometimes it happens at this level that you get outplayed and it was important to hang in at the start of the second set."The problem was that Schüttler, despite being down in the nineties in the rankings and well into his 32nd year, was playing as if inspired by returning to the centre court where he tenaciously beat Tim Henman in the final nine years ago.
"I made too many mistakes in the first set," Murray said. "The most important thing was to hang in there... I changed my style of play in the second and third sets. I was coming to the net more and using the slice shots."
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