AO Day 5: Monfils Exits, Williams Sisters Power Forward In Doubles
Friday, January 22, 2010
Gael Monfils, France(Photo by Getty Images)
Try as he may, Frenchman Gael Monfils was not able to raise his level of play sufficient to overcome the game of American John Isner. Isner barraged Monfils with 26 aces to pull off a 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6(7-5) upset.
Venus and Serena Williams, USAAmerican doubles team of Venus and Serena Williams continued there AO doubles success defeating Ioana Raluca Olaru of Roumania and Olga Savchuk of the Ukraine 6-1, 6-2 to advance to round three.
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American Raquel Kops-Jones, partnered with Great Britain's Sarah Borwell, did not enjoy the same success. They were knocked out by Argentine Gisela Dulko and Italy's Flavia Pennetta 7-5, 6-2.
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(PHOTOS) The Prince And The Grand Slam
Thursday, January 21, 2010
His Royal Highness Prince William of Wales(Photos by Getty Images)
While visiting Australia, the very dapper Prince William made an appearance at the Australian Open and took time to be photographed with various players.
Prince William and American Serena Williams
Prince Williams and Switzerland's Roger Federer
(L-R) Serena's mom, Oracene Price, Prince William, and Serena
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AO Day 4: Three Up, One Down
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRAFrenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has sent a powerful message to his opponents in his 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 win over American Taylor Dent on Thursday night at Hisense Arena.
Tsonga thumped 42 winners and had only 10 unforced errors in his 101-minute effort. For Dent, the stats weren’t as appealing, as he offered seven double faults and 33 unforced errors as he tried to keep the pace with his power-laden opponent.
Venus Williams, USAWith a 6-2, 7-5 win over Austrian Sybille Bammer, American Venus Williams advanced to the third round. Venus hit 32 winners to Bammer’s four and seven aces to none.
Venus later commented that, "Playing two lefties in the first two rounds is a little unusual, but I was up for the challenge."
"She's a really good player and a really good athlete. Her game is a little bit different from most people, so you really have to be a little more patient because she's hitting a kind of a moonball almost.
"It's a little bit different, so I just had to just make sure I stayed on my rhythm -- I'm happy to be through."
Serena Williams, USASerena Williams did likewise by defeating Czech Petra Kvitova 6-2, 6-1 in just an hour and seven minutes. Post match Serena said, “I thought today was a little bit better than my match in my first round. I felt like I was moving better and I had better energy. I felt like I could have actually played a lot better today. She was definitely taking it to me, though. That was really good for me to play a lady like her.”
Donald Young, USADonald Young's Australian Open hopes were cut short by Australia's Lleyton Hewitt in a 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 6-1 defeat. Young began the match very strong but was unable to match Hewitt's onslaught and the games as well as the match slowly slipped beyond anything he could muster to turn it around.
An early exit for Young, but after three rounds of qualifying and an impressive five-set victory in the first round, 2010 is already looking good.
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Venus And Serena Begin AO Doubles Campaign In Winning Williams Style
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Rarely do Serena and Venus Williams step onto the court without an air of purpose about them.
And although Margaret Court Arena may not be as significant a stage as Melbourne Park’s centre court, the No.2 seeds were no less hungry to open their women's doubles title defence with a win in front of a packed house.
Sadly, their Australian opponents Jess Moore and Sophie Ferguson were poorly matched against a pairing with 10 Grand Slam doubles titles – not to mention a few in singles as well.
The only real threat to the Williams sisters was Serena’s serve, with two double faults responsible for one of the two games they dropped during the match.
The packed crowd tried their best to lift the locals, but ultimately were left clutching at straws as Moore and Ferguson succumbed 6-1 6-1.
Luckily, there are still a number of Australians left in the draw – not to mention many of the top women in the game.
AO Day 3: Monfils In, Blake Out, Young Does Press
Gael Monfils, FrancePutting his various ailments behind him, the 12th seed played an athletic and fairly effective game behind the baseline match in besting the Croat, cranking big forehand winners when called upon to ice the contest.
But Monfils, who is coached by Australian Roger Rasheed, wasn’t thrilled with his play.
“On a scale of 1 to 20, I would give myself a five,” he said. “Roger would probably give me a two. Against Isner, I’m planning on giving him a much better number.”
“He has a monster serve,” said Monfils. “It’s going to be really hard to return serve. If he’s serving well, it’s almost a bet as to whether I go left or right. I’m going to have to try and read his serve really well.”
James Blake, USAI don't know what this exchange of glances on the sidelines was about, but there was definitely a fight happening on court. Blake was not able to topple Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro, who won the match 6-4, 6-7(3), 5-7, 6-3, 10-8, but he put up one hell of of a contest.
In the best match on the men’s side to date, del Potro had to come up with every shot in the book to repel the veteran American, who fought off one break point after another late in the fifth set in an attempt to pull off what could have been one of the most critical victories of his career.
“As soon as I let any ball sit up a little, he was taking it to me,” Blake said. “That’s my goal too, and I had chances at them and made some mistakes. That's the difference. You miss a couple balls and he’s moving on, and I'm not. But that’s why he won the US Open and is No. 4 in the world.”
“It’s tough to rank the [five set losses] but right now it hurts pretty bad,” said Blake. “I had plenty of messages from people back home who were up until 5 am watching me, and I don’t even want to respond to many. I just feel bad that they were up watching and are probably going to sleep a little disappointed. Luckily for me they will all be my friends tomorrow, which will help me get through after I stop beating myself up for a few hours or few days.”
That was an encouraging battle to watch, no disappointment here Blake.
Donald Young, USARead the rest of this post...........
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