AO.2- The Good, the Bad & the Ugly Match

The good, the bad and the ugly. A very useful phrase, for sure. Usually, it can be tossed out while describing ESPN2's slam coverage. This time, though, it's a nod to what happened on the court at Rod Laver Arena on Night 2.

The other day, I mentioned how the 1st Round match-up between Kim Clijsters and Dinara Safina was going to get some attention. And it did, garnering the opening Tuesday night session slot since at least someone in Melbourne thought something interesting might happen. I also noted that the match probably wouldn't amount to much. I was wrong... it amounted to even less.

If the fans had been a late-arriving lot, they'd have missed it entirely.

The Good here was evident. It was Clijsters. Showing a rare lack of mercy, she blistered Safina from beginning to end, winning 6-0/6-0 in forty-four minutes. If I didn't know any better -- and I can't be certain whether I actually do or not, considering my two-week long "Strangelove" haze -- I'd believe that maybe Clijsters was a tad ticked off about how she squandered that Sydney final against Li Na and was actively looking to put a pelt on her wall to make up for it. By the time the Belgian reached her first match point, the Russian had won only a total of twelve points in the match's eleven-plus games. Safina DID manage to slump-shoulder her way to a handful of points in the final service game, but it was sort of akin to putting lipstick on a pig of a performance.

Thing is, Safina knew it, too. Thus, the Bad is evident here. It was hard to watch much of this "contest" (even on replay), since the look on the Russian's face couldn't help but make ME feel bad, too. Obviously, it was the worst loss of her career. The Ugly thing about it, though, was that it didn't create a new all-time low point for Safina by much, or by many days. You see, the last match she played last week in Hobart -- a 1st Rounder against Marion Bartoli -- ended with scoreline of 6-0/6-1 in the Pastry's favor.

(Shakes Head)

This is not the way to make a comeback. But it might just be a grand first step toward a title, though.



=DAY 2 NOTES=
...as 2008 Roland Garros finalist, and former #1, Safina's career was flying around Laver like a stuck balloon, '08 RG champion, and former #1, Ana Ivanovic was fighting for her Melbourne life at Hisense Arena.

She very nearly pulled off the save, too. With Ekaterina Makarova seemingly an instant from victory, leading 3-6/6-4/5-4 and up 40/love on AnaIvo's serve, the Serb played some of her best, most heartfelt tennis since she climbed to the top of the sport following Justine Henin's retirement more than two and a half years ago. Hitting an ace, taking advantage of another good serve and then being on the receiving end of a good bounce of the ball as a Makarova shot hit the tape and popped up (bringing to mind AnaIvo's "Kiss of Life" reprieve on a match point at Wimbledon a few weeks after she won in Paris) but failed to dribble over onto Ivanovic's side of the net, she pushed the game into "extra time" that would last another eight games. In two more service games, at 6-5 and 8-7 down, Ivanovic saved a fourth and fifth match point. Finally, in game #18 of the 3rd set, which lasted ninety-one minutes alone, Makarova finally hit a down-the-line winner to knock off the #19 seed and win the deciding set 10-8. Even though she lost, though, THIS is the type of fire and grit that Ivanovic needs to show all the time. If she can do that again, her so-far-successful comeback will not find its heights with her current Top 20 ranking.

Earlier in the day, the other two Serbs in the draw -- Jelena Jankovic and Bojana Jovanovski -- advnanced to the 2nd Round, but not without their own little moments of chaos. JJ won 6-0/7-6, but only after falling down 0-4 in the 2nd set. Her win ends her six-match losing streak. BoJo, for her part, opened her match against Chang Kai-Chen by falling behind 5-1. No matter, though, as she simply reeled off twelve of the final thirteen games to win 7-5/6-1.

...in other matches of note on Day 2: Alize Cornet sent Coco Vandeweghe out of town on a rail by a 6-2/6-1 score, continuing her not-so-curious results dip since she went 0-2 in the Fed Cup final last year. Several tight matches went long in the final set, as #12 Agnieszka Radwanska defeated Kimiko Date-Krumm in a 7-5 3rd set, Peng Shuai edged past Kateryna Bondarenko 8-6 and '10 AO quarterfinalist #18 Maria Kirielnko escaped Romina Oprandi by the same 8-6 score.

And, of course, I am once again obligated to mention that Anabel Medina-Garrigues' quest to reach her first career slam QF has ended short of the goal, thanks to her 6-0/6-1 loss to Iveta Benesova. AMG is still one more WTA singles title away from joining Anna Smashnova as the only women in tour history to win ten or more singles titles, but never reach a slam quarterfinal. At this point, though, I'm thinking that 10th career title, although she won at least one title a year from 2004-09, might be as unlikely for AMG as ever slipping into a Final 8 situation.

...two more qualifiers (Lesya Tsurenko def. Patty Schnyder, while Petra Martic def. Sophie Ferguson), and two wild cards (Caroline Garcia d. Varvara Lepchenko, and Alicia Molik def. Roberta Vinci) advanced to the 2nd Round. There are five qualifiers and three wild cards still standing in the women's draw.

Molik had to stage a comeback to join the crowd, as Vinci served for the match at 5-4 in the 3rd, only to see the Aussie surge back to win the set 8-6. Meanwhile, Sam Stosur handled Ohio's 17-year old Lauren Davis, making her pro debut, 6-1/6-1 to up the number of Australian women winners in the 1st Round to three.

Actually, with Lleyton Hewitt's late night/early morning 5-hour match loss to David Nalbandian, only four Aussies in total advanced to the 2nd Round. Along with Molik, Stosur and Jelena Dokic in the women's Final 64, Bernard Tomic is the sole Australian in the men's Final 64.

As Dokic's world turns... , apparently, she's apparently already split with coach Glenn Schapp. It seemed to work out well for her in the1st Round. She'll be first up on Laver under the lights tonight, facing Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova. Is lightning about to strike twice? If she wins, she'll get the winner of Li Na/Evgeniya Rodina next.

Speaking of the Final 64, as usual, there are more Russian women (13) remaining than from any other nation. The Czech Republic's seven is the second-highest total. Some of the more interesting 1st Round records by nation: Great Britain was 2-0 (w/ wins by Keothavong & Baltacha), while Austria was 0-3 and, without Serena to "cook the books," the United States was a woeful 2-10 (w/ only Venus and Vania King advancing).

...and, finally, while ESPN2's coverage couldn't help the fact that very little of note really happened until very late in the coverage, with Ivanovic/Makarova occurring in the wee hours, and Nalbandian/Hewitt not finishing until after 9 am East Coast U.S. time (after 1 am in Melbourne), it WOULD be nice if the network saw fit to remind people about Tennis Channel's live match coverage during the early hours that ESPN2 has decided to turn its back on this year. An on-screen graphic last night noted ESPN2's Day 3 start times for coverage, as well as TC's early morning recap/replay coverage, but conveniently left out the nightly multi-hour block on Tennis Channel's air BEFORE ESPN2 picks up coverage in the evening. So many major sporting events are covered by multiple networks, and I've always made a point to see whether or not a network ever mentions the coverage of another outlet, since it shows that someone in power there might actually care at least a little about the fans who are watching and SHOULD be reminded/alterted to where else to go to watch the tournament (well, other than just some other arm of said network, that is).

Not surprisingly, ESPN, which thinks the sports world revolves around it (which, granted, it seems to most of the time these days), fails on that simple bit of accounting. Not that there was any expectation of a different outcome.




*WOMEN'S OVERALL WON/LOST - BY NATION*
[through 1st Round]
13-6...Russia
7-2...Czech Republic
4-3...France
3-1...Belgium
3-2...Germany
3-3...Romania
3-3...Spain
3-4...Australia
3-5...Italy
2-0...Great Britain
2-1...China
2-1...Serbia
2-10...United States
1-0...Bulgaria
1-0...Canada
1-0...Denmark
1-0...Estonia
1-0...Israel
1-0...Latvia
1-0...Netherlands
1-0...Poland
1-0...South Africa
1-1...Belarus
1-1...Ukraine
1-2...Croatia
1-2...Japan
1-2...Slovak Republic
0-1...Argentina, Hungary, India, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Taiwan, Thailand, Uzbekistan
0-2...Sweden, Switzerland
0-3...Austria




TOP QUALIFIER: Vesna Manasieva/RUS
TOP EARLY ROUND (1r-2r): xx
TOP MIDDLE-ROUND (3r-QF): xx
TOP LATE ROUND (SF-F): xx
TOP QUALIFYING MATCH: Q1: Sloane Stephens/USA def. Liana-Gabriela Ungur/ROU 7-6/1-6/8-6
TOP EARLY RD. MATCH (1r-2r): xx
TOP MIDDLE-RD. MATCH (3r-QF): xx
TOP LATE RD. MATCH (SF-F/Jr.): xx
TOP NIGHT MATCH:: xx
=============================
FIRST WINNER: Evgeniya Rodina/RUS (1st Rd. - def. (WC) Olivia Rogowska/AUS)
FIRST SEED OUT: #28 Daniela Hantuchova/SVK (1st Rd. - lost to Kulikova/RUS)
UPSET QUEENS: xx
REVELATION LADIES: xx
LAST QUALIFIER STANDING: xx
IT GIRL: xx
MS. OPPORTUNITY: xx
COMEBACK PLAYER: xx
CRASH & BURN: xx
ZOMBIE QUEEN: xx
LAST SHEILA STANDING: xx
LADY OF THE EVENING: xx
DOUBLES STAR xx
JUNIOR BREAKOUT: xx




All for Day 2. More tomorrow.