Who's wearing what?

It was Heineken Day at the Australian Open, which seems like a good idea, when have drunk Australians ever been a problem?  So much of the photos on the website are of people drinking and Heineken signs- dullsville.  So lets take a look at the fashion so far...

Our Maria, wearing a nice orange and grey two tone dress.  But you know when you're 10 feet tall, 9 and half feet of legs, it's quite easy to wear a dress.  And yet she has worn some awful things (you won't have seen it but for one event a black leather dress with gold buttons down the front looking like dominatrix barbie with 8 gold nipples).  But this I like. The colours seem to clash but in a strangely pleasing manner.

 Alright, another tall, pretty, blonde lady in a nice dress, athough Wozniaki never manages to pull off sporty but pretty mid shot in the same way Sharapova does, huh? Equally, Caroline has worn some hideous outfits, all seem to be designed by Stella McCartney, this is the best of the bunch, much nicer than the black scuba dress from the US Open, although still a little    see through for a prude like me. 

Well talking of see through, heres Venus.
Only got a look at three of the frocks this year, after she pulled a stomach muscle and retired after 7 points of her third round encounter.  The first two are the same; stripes of colour then stripes of transparency, in blue and black.  Once again too short, the millionaire athlete and clothing designer apparently can not find a dress to fit over her ample behind and as soon as she moves in her outfits they become little more than badly fitting stretchy tops.  Although its the yellow dress (below right) which has provoked the most interest/instant and total derision, apart from from Judy Murray who tweeted (yes I said tweeted) that Venus 'knows her fashion'....  Anyway I feel like I should include Venus's explanation of the dress, because it's bonkers:

"The outfit is inspired by Alice in Wonderland. It's kind of about a surprise, because when Alice goes down the rabbit hole, she finds all these things that are so surprising. This outfit is about having a surprise in a tennis dress, and showing some skin and then just having a print. Prints don't happen that often in tennis. So it's called the Wonderland dress."


The men are all looking rather dull, I'm afraid.  Both Roger and Rafa have taken to wearing grey shorts regardless of the colour of their shirts, although I do appreciate Roger coordinating the colout of the shirt piping, armband, and bandana.   IMO the best dressed man was Giles Simon (you really have to say it in a french accent), wearing green shorts and a lovely stripey green top.

And Novak showing off alternating outfits, just like Venus, you know one on, one in the wash.  I vastly prefer the black, but this contravenes all my rules about wearing black in the sun- pure madness.  It may have something to do with his rather lovely arms?
I heart Novak.

And some nice pink on show here with Victoria Azarenka showing off a hot pink halter dress with drop waist and pleated bottom (do I sound like I know what I'm talking about?).  And Jelena wearing a dullish pink dress that looks much better as a shorts and top ensemble IMO.  Really really really, why why why, don't any of the women wear shorts???

Anyway, that's it.  Nothing else has caught my eye. 

The Weekend at the Aussie Open

And Finally some big name seeds are out:

Aussie hope, and fifth seed, Sam Stosur lost to Petra Kivitova.  Kivitova once was a lumbering dinosaur style tennis player, she's clearly done a ton of gym work, lost  loads of weight, but still has the strength to whack the ball around the court.  She got to the semis of Wimbledon, and now shes in the fourth round of Oz. 
And Justine Henin who beat British Elena Baltacha, lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova (who won the US Open then disappeared, then won the French Open a few years ago and then dropped out of the top 20).

And Nadal...no just kidding, he went through beating the last Australian left in the draw- the 18 yr old, German born, Bernard Tomic who's already 6ft 4" tall.  Apparently press about him has been rather critical, his style is unorthodox and he lacks strength.  Needs some more time in the gym, get a bit wider, although how he can even walk at 6ft 4" I don't know. Anyway, he showed off his chops somewhat, by getting to 4-0 in the second set, but still lost in straight sets.  One for the future I say.

In other news Roddick, Federer, Djokovic, Soderling, and Murray all went through, and Wawrinka beat Monfils, Meltzer beat Bagdhatis, and Cilic beat Isner. So now Wawrinka plays Roddick, Cilic plays Nadal, and Meltzer plays Murray.  On the womens side Sharapova, Clijsters, Wozniaki, and Zvonerava won their matches.   But alas Jamie Murray lost his second round match :( 

My next post looks at what everyones wearing...

Week One Half Done

Well then, well then what's ben happening in Australia, I hear you ask?

Firstly, Mr Federer was pushed to 5 sets by Giles Simon (who, when beaten by Nadal last year said he was happy to be going home to his new baby, awww), in fact Simon had a good chance to win the match as Feds was no where near his best for the second half of the match.  Even at 2-5, 0-40 down Simon kept fighting, saving three match points and holding his serve.  But Federer was able to serve, and win the fifth set 6-3.
Top seed Nadal, however, brushed aside American qualifer Ryan Sweeting 6-2 6-1 6-1.  And Andy Murray came through comfortably against Illya Marchenko in straight sets.  He's a curious fellow, 'our' Andy, determined to do his darnedist to win his first grand slam but came to Australia without his current coach, did no research on his first round opponent who he had never played before, and said he wanted a slow start to the tournament so he could peak at the end.  Not sure this the approach I would take, but it's worked for him so far I guess. 

The most interesting match of today was Juan Martin Del Potro (who won 2009 US Open beating Federer before serious wrist injury took him out for a year, his ranking dropped from 4 to around 260, but he has a protected ranking allowing him into this tournament without needing to qualify) against Bagdhatis (who stunned everyone in 2008 by getting to the Aussie Open final, where he was beaten by Djokovic).  Good signs for Del Potro who was whacking the ball without his hand falling off, but he did need the doctor 3 times in the second set.  He  lacked consistency and made too many unforced errors. He lost the first two sets, came back hard in the third winning it 6-3 and suggested a tidal turn in the match, but failed to capitalise and lost the fourth set 1-6.  I hope he does well, he has a nice attractive face, with tufty facial hair. 

On the women's side, 7th seed Jankovic lost in straight sets to Shuai Peng, the world number 54.  And Venus wWilliams tore a muscle in her match but came through it in three sets.  Also through are Stosur, Clijsters, and Zvonereva.  Alas, as predicted, both British ladies lost their matches- Baltacha in straight sets to Henin, but Keothothong had a real chance against Petkovic after winning the first set 6-2 and having a break in the second.   But she lost the second set 5-7 and collapse in the third 1-6.  Shame too, as she won have played Venus Williams in the third round who may have given her an injury walkover into the fourth round for the first time.

And the doubles has kicked off with a win for Jamie Murray :) and his partner Xavier Malisse, who knocked out the 9th seeds.  Doesn't seem that Jamie's playing in the mixed doubles though, shame because he does well in that.  But its only men's doubles which give him ranking points so hopefully he'll get a few good points here.  Although he did kill a bird :( See Below.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/9367989.stm

 

Things Kick Off Down Under

 Well day two of the Australian Open is over, despite my constant protestations the first Slam of the year continues to be played at local time, 11hrs ahead of the UK.  Grrr.  Anyway, I've not been able to see much live action and have already been reduced to replays. :( Luckily they do play until insanely late at night so I saw all of the Hewitt-Nalbandian marathon.  It lasted nearly five hours, entirely five sets, with Nalbandian winning 9-7 in the fifth after Hewitt (Aussie legend, packs out a stadium, won two grand slams, former world number one, suffered with injuries) had two match points in the fifth set, and was a point away from a 4-1 lead in the fourth set before losing it in a tie break.  Harsh loss me thinks.  And yes, that was all I did this morning/afternoon.

Good news for British fans, or fans of the British, (or Scottish, if you want to be like that) Andy Murray, Elana Baltacha, and Anne Keothothong all won their opening matches and are through to the second round.  Murray looks comfortable until at least the quart finals, but thats what happens when youre a seeded player.  Keothothong and Baltacha have a tougher journey with the former up against the current number 30 Petkovic (sigh, no I can't my -vic es straight either), and the later up against Justine Henin, current number 12, former number one, multiple grand slam winner.  I can't see either of them winning, but they both have a chance- Henin is still recovering from a gross elbow thing (tendon came away from bone ewww) and not quite at her best.  She lost the first set of her first round match to Sania Mirza (you remember her from the Common Wealth games final), but eventually came through 6-1 in the third.  

Generally speaking it's been plain sailing for the top players- Federer, Nadal, Roddick, Djokovic, Murray, Soderling, Wozniaki, Sharapova, Jankovic, Zvonerava, Clijsters, V. Williams (S not here from restaurant related foot injury) all through with little trouble.   Davydenko lost in four sets though, a shame for a player who was consistently in the top five, and then top ten until a bad broken wrist forced him out of the game for a while.  He won the prestigeous End of Tour Finals in 2009, but didn't make the cut in 2010 (only the top 8 play) and lost significant points pushing him out of the top 20.  He was playing well at the start of the this year though, getting to the Final of Qatar before succumbing to Federer (also playing a bit well), but lost yesterday to Florian Mayer.  A similar story on the womens side as former world number one Ana Ivanovic lost in a tough three setter to the Russian Markorova (yes I have trouble with my -va s as well, but apparently she won Eastbourne last year, beating a bunch of top 20 players along the way).  Ivanovic suffered from the stress and pressure of being world number one and her ranking dropped down to the 60s, but slowly she's worked herself back into the sport and is seeded 19th here.  Or she was until she lost 10-8 in the third, saving 5 match points, but not the sixth.   

Not that surprisingly was the 0-6 0-6 loss of Dinara Safina, another former world number one and three time grand slam finalist, to Kim Clijsters, another another former world number one, current world number three and three time grand slam champ.  Dinara suffered at the hands of a mean hearted press room, constantly questioned and critiqued about her number one ranking (without winning a major, clearly evil), as well as an ill fitting outfit, and then a bad back injury took her out of the game for a few months.  Her ranking is in the 70s now and will soon be out of the top 100 for the first time since 2002.  She does, however, have a much better fitting dress to wear.  Just a silver lining.

New Year

What have you been up to ya lazy lot, we're already a week into the tennis new year (and erm the regular new year, in the West) but it's all going on at the moment.

Andy Murray winning his matches in the Hopman Cup (some kind of Davis and Fed combined, with one lady singles match, one manly singles, and one mixed doubles, against other countries.  Only this is Dav-Fed lite as it all happens within a week not the whole year) but his partner Laura Robson (the young one that won junior Wimbledon when she was 6 or something, and she's pretty and unnervingly at ease with herself in the public eye so she's held up as the future of British tennis despite the rather quieter and better progress of compatriot Heather Watson, more on her later) lost all hers, and they lost most of their mixed doubles, and then Laura hurt herself so they're not gonna win.  It would have been US vs Serbia, with Djokovic (magnificant hair grown back in super fast time, since post Davis Cup win head shave in December) and Ivanovic but she hurt herself too, so they had to pull out and Belgium took their spot. 

Heather Watson (who won junior US Open just after LaRo won Wimby but no one seemed to care that much) won 5 matches at the WTA Tournament in Auckland, 3 qualifying and two real rounds getting into the quarter finals beating the 9th seed along the way.  She broke top 200 last year, is around 170 now, and will be top 150 by Monday as a result. Deserves a good pat on the back imo.  Top seed Maria Sharapova got a couple of wins in before been beated by Greta Arn, who's about 30 but said beating Shazza was like a little girls dream.  She sounds slightly annoying.  Poor Ole Dinara Safina, former number one, now ranked around 60 after terrible back injury last year, lost in the first round to the second seed Yania Wickmayer.


On the Mens tour, Andy Roddick has cruised through to the semis in Brisbane, and will play South African Kevin Anderson  While Soderling plays Stepanek in the other semi.  But in Doha Rafa Nadal, suffering from a fever poor lamby, lost in the semis today to Davydenko (who has been playing well all week), but Federer beat Tsonga in the other semi.  Hope Davy can bring it tomorrow. 
And how was your week?