Australian Open 2010 Day 8 Order Of Play

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Rafael Nadal of Spain signs autographs for fans after beating Ivo Karlovic of Croatia during their Men's singles fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday Jan. 24, 2010.

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Can today's matches hold up to yesterday's? Um.... No. This is the boring half of both draws, relatively speaking.

I suppose the most intriguing matchup is Fernando Verdasco and Nikolay Davydenko. I suppose. Folks on Twitter have taken to calling Kolya XBox360 because he never misses. I haven't seen him strike a single ball at this event. Nor have I seen the swollen-faced Spaniard. But I suppose, based on current form and past history, it could be a barn burner. But I'm going with XBox360 in straights.

For the rest, I'm picking Venus Williams in straights, Serena Williams in straights, Roger Federer in straights, Vera Zvonareva in straights, Li Na in three, Novak Djokovic in straights, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in straights.

Schedule for Day 8: Monday, 25 January 2010

Rod Laver Arena 11:00 Start Time

1. Women's Singles - 4th Round
Francesca Schiavone (ITA)[17] v. Venus Williams (USA)[6]
2. Men's Singles - 4th Round
Fernando Verdasco (ESP)[9] v. Nikolay Davydenko (RUS)[6]
3. Women's Singles - 4th Round
Serena Williams (USA)[1] v. Samantha Stosur (AUS)[13]

Rod Laver Arena 19:30 Start Time

1. Men's Singles - 4th Round
Roger Federer (SUI)[1] v. Lleyton Hewitt (AUS)[22]
2. Women's Singles - 4th Round
Vera Zvonareva (RUS)[9] v. Victoria Azarenka (BLR)[7]

Hisense Arena 11:00 Start Time

2. Women's Singles - 4th Round
Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)[4] v. Na Li (CHN)[16]
3. Men's Singles - 4th Round
Novak Djokovic (SRB)[3] v. Lukasz Kubot (POL)
4. Men's Singles - 4th Round
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA)[10] v. Nicolas Almagro (ESP)[26]

Day 6: Bagels And Breadsticks

Lemme tell you, if I had a ticket for yesterday's matches I would demand a refund, especially if it was for the night session on Rod Laver. Those folks got a set and a half of men's tennis, and a set and a bagel of women's, which the European commentators declared an "exciting and strategic affair". I don't know what they were watching. When Shahar Pe'er gives away the entire match, and I'm not exaggerating, it's not exciting, strategic or engaging otherwise. When I previewed the day, I wrote that I didn't see much on the roster that made me salivate.

I shoulda stopped right there.

A walkover, two retirements, and a whole lot of phoned in performances produced boring, lopsided matches with zero excitement. You'd have to go to a bakery to find more bagels and breadsticks. The losers left the premises full of carbs.


AP

Only two sets of tennis, one of each side, advanced past 6-4 in a set. The most drama on the day came in the sixth game of the first set of Serena Williams' beatdown of Carla Suarez-Navarro. It took 22 minutes, almost twice the time it took to run up a 5-0 lead, for her to fight through 6 break points, 13 deuces, and 8 set points (after missing the 7th, she was so frustrated she sat down right in the middle of the court) to close out the set.

There were no wars.


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Crowd favorite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga almost had to play his first(!) five-setter, but clearly didn't feel like it. So when a slightly hampered Tommy Haas served for the fourth set, Tsonga raised his game, broke back and ran away with the last 10 points to take the match and make the second week Down Under for the third straight year.

As for the rest, the scorelines speak for themselves.

Men's Singles - Third Round

[1] R Federer (SUI) d [31] A Montanes (ESP) 63 64 64
[3] N Djokovic (SRB) d D Istomin (UZB) 61 61 62
[6] N Davydenko (RUS) d [30] J Monaco (ARG) 60 63 64
[9] F Verdasco (ESP) d [Q] S Koubek (AUT) 61 ret. (illness)
[10] J Tsonga (FRA) d [18] T Haas (GER) 64 36 61 75
L Kubot (POL) d [20] M Youzhny (RUS) w/o (right wrist)
[22] L Hewitt (AUS) d M Baghdatis (CYP) 60 42 ret. (right shoulder)
[26] N Almagro (ESP) d A Falla (COL) 64 63 64

Women's Singles - Third Round

(1) Serena Williams (USA) d. (32) Carla Suárez Navarro (ESP) 60 63
(4) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) d. (29) Shahar Peer (ISR) 64 60
(6) Venus Williams (USA) d. (WC) Casey Dellacqua (AUS) 61 76(4)
(7) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) d. Tathiana Garbin (ITA) 60 62
(9) Vera Zvonareva (RUS) d. Gisela Dulko (ARG) 61 75
(17) Francesca Schiavone (ITA) d. (10) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) 62 62
(13) Samantha Stosur (AUS) d. Alberta Brianti (ITA) 64 61
(16) Li Na (CHN) d. (22) Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) 75 36 62

Men's Doubles - Second Round
[3] L Dlouhy (CZE) / L Paes (IND) d L Arnold Ker (ARG) / H Tecau (ROU) 75 63
M Kohlmann (GER) / J Nieminen (FIN) d C Fleming (GBR) / K Skupski (GBR) 36 64 63
A Clement (FRA) / J Erlich (ISR) d F Lopez (ESP) / R Schuettler (GER) 63 75
F Gonzalez (CHI) / I Ljubicic (CRO) d C Ball (AUS) / S Huss (AUS) 57 76(3) 75
I Karlovic (CRO) / D Vemic (SRB) d [WC] K Hensel (AUS) / G Jones (AUS) 36 75 75
J Isner (USA) / S Querrey (USA) d J Benneteau (FRA) / S Darcis (BEL) 64 60
L Mayer (ARG) / H Zeballos (ARG) d I Andreev (RUS) / E Korolev (KAZ) 63 62

Women's Doubles - Second Round
(8) Mattek-Sands/Yan (USA/CHN) d. Jankovic/Perry (SRB/USA) 62 46 61
(9) Vesnina/Zheng (RUS/CHN) d. Razzano/Wickmayer (FRA/BEL) w/o (lower back soreness)
Azarenka/Kuznetsova (BLR/RUS) d. (14) Groenefeld/King (GER/USA) 63 46 63
(15) Kirilenko/A.Radwanska (RUS/POL) d. Baltacha/Dekmeijere (GBR/LAT) 60 62
Dushevina/Rodionova (RUS/AUS) d. Szavay/Vinci (HUN/ITA) 64 36 62

Veterans Day

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Even though it's Easter Sunday, I'm calling it Veterans Day because it featured the resurrection of two veteran players, former world No. 1's and Slam champions virtually left for dead.

No. 88-ranked Lleyton Hewitt, back from hip surgery, won his first title in nearly two years with a US Clay Court Championship title over first-time ATP finalist and American Wayne Odesnik, who was clearly overwhelmed by the occasion. Hewitt, on the other hand, threw in a couple of over-the-top, manufactured "C'mons!" and lawn mower celebrations to punctuate his return to the winner's circle. A demoralized Odesnik, despite a second-set display of nerves from the 28-year-old Aussie who dropped 5 straight games, was never in the match, struggling to hold serve throughout, losing 2-6, 5-7. That's why all the outbursts from Hewitt were so annoying. Alas, some things never change. But he gets credit for winning in his Houston debut over a decimated field where the quarterfinals featured not a single seed.


AP

But the day belonged to Juan Carlos Ferrero, pictured above with Nawal El Moutawakil, Moroccan Minister of Sports. He won the Grand Prix Hassan II in Casablanca without dropping a set to clinch his first victory in 5 1/2 years and 111 tournaments. Florent Serra, who'd never lost a final or a macth to his opponent, was certainly the favorite. But after a break-fest to open the match, Ferrero was more solid on the big points, his 29-year-old feet a bit more fleet, his groundstrokes more precise. The final verdict: 6-4, 7-5. The Spaniard hasn't raised a trophy in victory since the 2003 Madrid Masters when he was still the world's best player. Now ranked No. 115, he's a winner once more. I'm sure someone has the data, but his has to be one of the longest title droughts in recorded history.

"This is a special tournament for me," said Ferrero. "Ten years ago I played my first ATP World Tour tournament here and now I'm back winning the title. I'm very happy, it was a great week for me."

Poetry.


Reuters

Over on the WTA, Jelena Jankovic celebrated her own comeback of sorts with a tough three-set victory over Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to take the Andalucía Tennis Experience title in Marbella, while Caroline Wozniacki won her firth WTA title and second of the year with a 6-1, 6-2 rout of Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak at the MPS Group Championships in Ponte Vedra Beach.


AP

Face Of The Day

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Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro celebrates defeating Venus Williams of the US in their game during their women's singles tennis match on the fourth day of the Australian Open in Melbourne on January 22, 2009. Sixth seed Venus Williams crashed out of the Australian Open, losing in the second round to Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the upset of the tournament so far.