One Week Down, One To Go

It's been an eventful Australian Open so far, and I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while. I'm still trying to adjust to the new semester and being in America trying to watch the Australian Open is rather difficult. I've found some free time today after watching the Oklahoma State men's tennis team win its first match of the season against Memphis.

Well the biggest upsets so far at the Australian open were Maria Sharapova, Elena Dementieva, Ana Ivanovic, Kim Clijsters and Svetlana Kuznetsova. Neither player was able to make the quarterfinals, and Kuznetsova was the only one to make the Round of 16.

Nadia Petrova seems to be playing the best tennis since clay season in 2006. Petrova handed Clijsters the worst loss of her career and now just upset No. 3 Kuznetsova to make the quarterfinals in Melbourne for the second time in her career.

Dinara Safina hasn't played her best tennis, but has a rather easy draw to make the semifinals, but will face a tough task against Maria Kirilenko, who upset Sharapova in the first round. Jie Zheng came into the tournament unseeded, but as a dangerous floater, and she was the first in the Quarterfinals after she defeated No. 31 seed, Alona Bondarenko.

Justine Henin seems to be the story of the tournament. In the second round she upset No. 5, Elena Dementieva in two close sets and was a point away from going down 3-6 1-4 against Alisa Kleybanova in the third round. Henin will next face "qualifier" Yanina Wickmayer tonight for a spot in the quarterfinals.

The Williams sisters seem to be on a collision course to the semifinals as neither has lost a set so far, and Serena has yet to drop a game on her serve. Serena will next face Aussie, Samantha Stosur, while Venus will take on Francesca Schiavone.

Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka have gone through the draw quietly, but surely. Neither player has dropped a set, and Azarenka has handed a handful of bagels.

I'll try to write another post tomorrow after the Safina/Kirilenko and Henin/Wickmayer matches.

Is Serena Maturing?

Elena Dementieva defeated world No. 1, Serena Williams, 6-3 6-2 to defend her title in Sydney. Although Serena made around 40 unforced errors, she actually gave some credit to the Russian for beating her.

"She played well, and I made about 1002 unforced errors," Serena said. "I feel I have enough matches under my belt though. Even though I didn't play great today, I feel like I can play much better."

As the Australian Open draw came out a couple days ago, all eyes were on where Justine Henin would be placed.

In the first round, Henin will face fellow Belgian, Kirsten Flipkins, and could face Sydney winner, Dementieva in the second round. Henin is in the same quarter of the draw as two other Belgians, Kim Clijsters and "qualifier" Yanina Wickmayer.

The Australian Open starts today, and I'm pleased to announce that I actually get to use espn360.com this year and will have access to 7 courts. Who said Christmas is only one day a year?

Four Seeds Left (Who would have thought Safina would be one of them)

Well Dinara Safina somehow managed to defeat Agnieska Radwanska in Sydney yesterday after being down 5-0 in the first set, but she was able to win in straight sets, 7-5 6-4. This match should give her a bit of hope, but we can't really say how well her 2010 season will be after just one match. However, she did show a good fighting spirit and was able to control her unforced errors at key times in the match.

"Well, it was a little bit of a slow start, but it was a start. It was a winning start," Safina said. "It's not easy to play against Agnieszka. She's a Top 10 player and plays very smart. I was missing my timing until 5-0 but then I found my game. It ended up being a very solid match for me for my first match of the year."

Serena was able to show up to a non-grandslam event and dispatched Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-1 6-2. Surprisingly, Martinez Sanchez hit more aces than Serena. Serena seemed a bit optimistic about playing in Sydney.

"It was a good match. It's definitely more match practice," Serena said. "I'll hopefully get a couple more under my belt. I'm guaranteed at least one more, so hopefully I'll try to win some more. That's the goal."

The five players joining Serena and Safina in the quarterfinals are Dominika Cibulkova who upset No. 3 seed, Svetlana Kuznetsova, 7-5 6-2 while No. 5 seed, Elena Dementieva, and No. 6 seed, Vikotira Azarenka, defeated Daniela Hantuchova and qualifier Kimiko Date Krumm respectively. Flavia Pennetta, Aravane Rezai and qualifier Vera Dushevina were also winners yesterday.

What A Final!

I'm just now writing about the Brisbane final. I've started a new semester today and my mind has been on that for the most part. I also was trying to enjoy the last weekend before the start of school. But after watching Kim Clijsters defeat Justine Henin for the first time since 2005 was a huge relief as a Kim fan. Although she should have won it easily in straight sets after being up a set a 4-1, it's good to know Kim can still win after losing a lead against a player who's had a mental hold on her for a while now.

Clijsters had to save two match points on her serve, and had a few match points of her own in the tiebreak. One of them Kim thought she had when she hit a backhand down the line, but the umpire overruled on the opposite side of where she was sitting. No one could believe it, especially Kim, but she remained calm and was able to convert on her match point at 7-6 to clinch the first title of the year with a 6-3 4-6 7-6(6) win.

Clijsters continues to show what a kind person she is, as it was announced during the trophy presentation that she has decided to donate all of her prize money to the Children's hospital in Brisbane.

In just Justine's first tournament back, she showed some impressive tennis to make the final, but an injury is already lingering as she had to withdraw from Sydney. Supposedly, there is something wrong with her leg, that she hopes will be OK once the Australian Open starts.

Clijsters wasn't the only Belgian to win a title the first week of the 2010 season. Yanina Wickmayer defeated the top seed, Flavia Pennetta, 6-3 6-2 in Auckland.

I'm watching Safina play her first match in 2010 and it's like nothing has changed. She continues to struggle with her serve and continues to make error after error. I would think Radwanska would be a good opponent for her first match, as Radwanska can't hurt Safina with power, but when you can't keep a ball in the court you will find yourself down 4-0 to Agnieska Radwanska like Safina is right now.

Age Is Just A Number

While Younes El Aynaoui is making history on the men's tour for being the oldest player, 38, to win a match on the main tour since Jimmy Connors, Kimiko Date Krumm, 39, is still finding success on the women's tour. She ended last year with a title in Seoul where she defeated three top ten players and made a run to the semifinals in Bali. She continues her career even further in 2010 as she made the quarterfinals yesterday with a 3-6 6-3 6-2 win against the No. 5 seed Virginie Razzano in Auckland.

Her compact swings and her intent to run down every ball is frustrating to a lot of the younger girls she plays that like to just hit the ball hard. She has worked her body into incredible shape and just by looking at her you couldn't tell she is a year over 30. She started her comeback in 2008 when her husband encouraged her to do it to see if she still enjoyed it. Apparently she does, as she is now in her third year in her comeback and seems to be playing better everyday. Her next opponent is the No. 3 seed, Yanina Wickmayer, who has made some news after escaping a one-year ban when failing to show up to drug test in Belgium. Wickmayer defeated Ioana Raluca Olaru 6-2 6-2.

Other winners in Auckland were the top seed, Flavia Pennetta, No. 4 seed, Francesca Schiavone, Alize Cornet, who defeated the No. 6 seed, Elena Vesnina 6-1 6-1, Dominika Cibulkova, who defeated the No. 7 seed Aravane Rezai, Shahar Peer and Maria Kirilenko.


Tonight in Brisbane, No. 3 seed, Ana Ivanovic, will take on Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Justine Henin will face Melinda Czink. No. 4 seed, Daniela Hantuchova, will play Andrea Petkovic, and No. 1 seed, Kim Clijsters, and Lucie Safarova will be the night match.

She's Back

Justine Henin's return from retirement started off with success as she defeated the No. 2 seed, Nadia Petrova 7-5 7-5, in the first round of Brisbane. It was a high quality match throughout. Although I hate to say it, as I don't like Justine at all, she seems to be playing just as she did when she was No. 1.

The one thing she needs the most work on is her first serve percentage because it was rather low the entire match, but with saying that, she was only broken once in the match. Henin's next test will be against qualifier Sesil Karatancheva who defeated the Aussie hope, Cassey Dellacqua 6-2 0-6 7-6(1).

Petrova played great tennis, but she got a bit unlucky drawing Henin in the first round. Hopefully Petrova can gain confidence from that match at the Australian open in two weeks.

Before Henin's comeback match, the No. 3 seed, Ana Ivanovic, defeated Aussie, Jelena Dokic, 7-5 1-6 6-3. Although it was ugly tennis, Ivanovic scraped through. Dokic played like a top 10 player again in the second set as she was finding lines throughout the set, but wasn't able to keep that going in the third. Ivanovic's ball toss was still all over the place, but ironically her serve was what helped her win the match the most. Next up for Ivanovic is the big smiling Timea Bascinsky who defeated Alla Kudryavtseva 6-4 7-6(3).

Other winners include No. 4 seed, Daniela Hantuchova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who defeated the No. 5 seed, Alisa Kleybanova, No. 6 seed, Aleksandra Wozniak, Lucie Safarova, Agnes Szavay and Roberta Vinci.

Tonight, Kim Clijsters will take on another comeback player, Alicia Molik. Ivanovic is also in action.

Welcome to the new season

Hello everyone!

Well, I'm sitting here in my room in the new house my cousin and I moved into yesterday and am watching the Gasquet vs. Nieminen match at Brisbane waiting for the Dokic vs. Ivanovic and Henin vs. Petrova matches that follows.

I decided to start this blog as my new years resolution and hope to keep up with it for the rest of the year at least.

Last year was a great year for professional tennis for me because of Kim Clijsters coming back. She has been my favorite tennis player since I started following tennis in 2003. Her winning the U.S. Open in her comeback was just unbelievable. I was happy that I would just get to watch her play again, and was not expecting her to actually win her second grand slam in just her third tournament back.

Although I could talk about Clijsters forever, I'll change subjects now.

I'm really excited for the Ivanovic vs. Dokic match. I like both players a lot, but I'll be pulling for Ivanovic. I might even yell a few "Ajde's" while I watch. This match could have been played almost a year ago at the Australian Open if Ivanovic had found the confidence to beat Kleybanova in the third round. However, with Ivanovic losing, it led to a great match between Dokic and Kleybanova. It was really one of the best matches of 2009 on the women's side. The drama and the atmosphere was just incredible.

Well, I feel like I wrote a lot for my first post so I'll end it here.

Best Wishes!

--Steven Tabrizi