2014 Australian Open Campaign

[Bulldog Force]

Another amazing result in Sydney yesterday, #1 seed and current defending champion, Polands Agnieszka Radwanska lost to the Lady GaGa of the WTA tour, unseeded American Bethanie Mattek-Sands in straight sets 7-5, 6-2 after taking out the first 11 points, up 2 breaks and leading 3-0 in the first set. She went down like a lead balloon.

 

[Bulldog Force]

Casey Dellacqua and Olivia Rogowska both eliminated yesterday down in Hobart, in what's been a pretty poor tournament for the Aussie so far. Sam Stosur is still in the running though, taking on Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic later today.

 

[Bulldog Force]

Aussie Storm Sanders also in the running in Hobart takes on Kirsten Flipkens from Belgium later today.

 

[Bulldog Force]

Samantha Stosur wins a tough tussle in Hobart, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (9-7) - I never knew that 3 setters for women would go to a tie-breaker!

 

[Bulldog Force]

19 year old Sydney-Sider Jordan Thompson is pushing Richard Gasquet to the limit - Gasquet won the first set 7-5 and is down 1-2 in the 2nd. Hopefully this fella will be a wild-card entrant next week in Melbourne!

 

[ek999]

Samantha Stosur wins a tough tussle in Hobart, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (9-7) - I never knew that 3 setters for women would go to a tie-breaker!

All womens events are 3 tie break sets with the exception of the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon (and perhaps the Tour Finals not sure about that). All mens events are too except the grand slams which are 5 sets with no last set tie breaker (except for US Open which has a tie-breaker in the 5th). The tour finals used to be 5 tie-break sets but that changed in 2009.

Qualifying for the AO mens is 3 sets with no tie-break in the last though. Young Australian Luke Saville lost in the first round today 11-9 in the last.

 

[ek999]

Is Thompson a replacement for Hewitt? Never heard of him before

BTW Tomic wins the first set of his 2nd round match against Blaz Kavcic 6-3

 

[Bulldog Force]

Jordan Thompson on the verse of knocking out Gasquet

 

[Bulldog Force]

Is Thompson a replacement for Hewitt? Never heard of him before

BTW Tomic wins the first set of his 2nd round match against Blaz Kavcic 6-3

According to the website, Hewitt is playing Murray on Friday, so he can't be. This bloke is ranked 300+ and look at how good he's going. Outstanding.

 

[ek999]

Yeah Hewitt was meant to play in the Kooyong Classic but pulled out after winning Brisbane, instead he is playing the one match against Murray. Had a look and he will be playing the AO as he won a spot in the WC play-off last year

http://www.tennis.com.au/player-profiles/jordan-thompson

 

[Bulldog Force]

6-5 in favor of Thompson, 3rd set.

 

[Bulldog Force]

Along with mad-dog, Ebden, Groth and Tomic, the future of Australian mens tennis is looking as promising as it was in the mid-90s. Heaps of them are coming through.

 

[Non Terminator]

Great times ahead.

 

[Bulldog Force]

Gasquet prevails but it was 7-6 in the 3rd. Thompson has a huge career in front of him if he concentrates on his career. He has not lost any fans after todays efforts.

 

[Bulldog Force]

Tomic wins...

 

[LatK7]

Was awesome seeing Laver out on the court tonight.

 

[ek999]

8 Australians (4 men and 4 women) have been given wildcards into the AO.

They are: Men: Nick Kyrgios, Thanasi Kokkinakis, James Duckworth and Sam Groth. Women: Ashleigh Barty, Jarmila Gajdosova, Storm Sanders and Olivia Rogowska.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/tennis/...n-wildcards-20140107-30fjy.html#ixzz2pr6iMH00
​

 

[Bulldog Force]

I love that info. In my opinion, ALL of those 8 players listed are rightful wildcards, not just because they're Australian, but because they've proven themselves worthy this summer, and for the older ones, in previous campaigns.

 

[Bulldog Force]

I don't like 72 coverage of the APIA (Sydney) International, because quite frankly, the AAMI international which they keep crossing to time and time again is only an exhibition tournament that has no points on offer, it is simply an invitational lead-up to the AO. The APIA is the country's second most prestigious event and should be a priority for this entire week. I don't like how a tournament that has absolutely NOTHING on offer (apart from prize-money) keeps taking the spotlight away from the APIA International. I'm sick of it to be honest. Let APIA be on the same time the Hopman Cup is on seeing as they both have no career progression for players. It's quite a joke and I wish they'd stop.

 

[ek999]

The quality of tennis at Kooyong is generally a lot better then that of Sydney. Of the 8 playing only 2 have never been ranked in the top 20 (Thompson obviously and Dimitrov who is ranked at a career high 22 or 23 currently). Compare that to the quality of field in Sydney and you can see why they want to show more of Kooyong. Plus its the week before the AO so all of those who are playing at Kooyong aren't going to be holding back just because there is no ranking points on offer, they need match practice and fitness before next week. Plus the 250 points on offer for winning wouldn't make much of a difference to the rankings of most competing anyway - Del Potro will have no hesitation in retiring from a match in Sydney if he thinks it will hurt his AO performance by continuing.