[Season 4](Day 4) Australian Open Wrap

dav6789 · [Season 4](Day 4) Australian Open Wrap

Week 1

The Australian Open started off in extreme temperatures as usual. Right through the first week, play was limited on all the outside courts, and the roof remained on the main arenas at all times. Despite this, the tennis reached high standards and has left us with a fantastic yet surprising QF line-up for the second week.

First round action took off on the opening day of the event. Sarahginia, Alice, Benchwarmer1 and former top 10 player Ying-Chang all were in devastating form and all cruised through in straight sets. Tennis Fan, ranked 38th pulled off an upset over Nortan, ranked over 10 places above him. Tennis Fan held his nerve to win 6-4 in the final set of an entertaining match.

The higher ranked players took to the court for the second round. The main highlight of the day was Sarahginia, who staged a remarkable comeback to defeat world number 1 Vanessa Child. Child scraped through a tight first set 6-4 and then pulled away to lead 4-0, then 5-2 in the second set. Sarahginia played herself back into the match using her grit and determination. She saved 4 match points in a lengthy tie-break, which she won 12-10. It was then Sarahginia’s turn to pull away, which she did by going up an early break in the final set. Like any world number 1 though, Child responded and got back on serve. At 5-5, Sarahginia broke Child’s serve to love, and eventually closed out the match with an ace. It was one of the best matches played on the Rod Laver Arena and it ends Vanessa Child’s hopes of capturing a career Grand Slam for another year. A very similar match took place the next day and resulted in another huge upset. Duke, the world number 31, cameback to defeat the 2nd seed Jennacourt. The 2nd seed eased through the first set before Duke started to use his good forehand to effect. He sneaked the second set 7-5. Jennacourt looked sloppy while Duke only got better. Duke was up a break for the whole set, and although Jennacourt broke back, she could not deny man from Norway from his biggest win. Duke won a final set tie-break 7-4 to cause another upset. Duke’s win also meant that this tournament is the first Grand Slam where the top two seeds both fell at the first hurdle.

In other second round action, the other top seeds came through. The number 3 seed PSALT won a tricky encounter with Tennis Fan 6-4 in the final set to get his campaign for a 3rd Australian Open final off to a start. The 4th seed and two-time defending Champion John Edelstein cruised past Ronatta. Edelstein, who had been written off as a tournament favourite, looked in good shape again in Melbourne. Bizet, the 6th seed beat Ying-Chang having lost the first set. The rest of the top 8 seeds also advanced: Tricatrina, NEA, and dav6789. Agassi2000, known as ‘the Giant Killer’ lived up to his name as he beat the 10th seed and last year’s semi-finalist x.doublea. An outsider for the tournament, Yodavitch, ended stevos14’s run of two tournament victories with a 3-6 6-3 6-4 win.

The tournament then reached the last 16, and the upsets continued. Former US Open finalist Stroganoff beat PSALT, the finalist here for the last two years. In an error-filled match, Stroganoff rallied from a set down to win 5-7 6-4 6-4 in just over two hours and a half. PSALT won the first set with some patient play from the baseline. His play dipped in the second set as he started dumping his shots into the net. Stroganoff showed her fighting qualities and levelled the match. The 3rd set was full of errors from both players, but Stroganoff was the first to break out of a slump in crucial moments. Agassi2000 then won another 3-setter to reach the QF. He upset NEA, the 7th seed, 6-4 4-6 6-4. 12th seed J-man continued the trend by beating 5th seed Tricatrina 6-4 6-3 in little over an hour, hitting winner after winner. leftys_rock nearly produced another upset against John Edelstein. leftys_rock lost the first set 6-3, but bounced back with focused tennis, forcing errors out of the 4th seed. After winning the second set 6-2, She had many break points at the start of the final set, but couldn’t convert. Edelstein used all of his experience to wrap up the match 6-3, 6th seed former world number 1 Bizet avoided an upset as he went through, beating Jbors47 4-6 6-3 6-3. Former Champion Yodavitch beat Duke to reach the QF stage again. dav6789 repeated his win from last year against Phobe this time in more convicing fashion 6-3 6-2. It was sweet revenge for dav6789, who lost his first match of the year in Auckland to Phobe. Sarahginia remained cool after her dramatic win in the second round. She won another marathon match, against Avolt 6-4 4-6 7-5.

The QF line-up has been decided after a week of high quality tennis:

Sarahginia v (8) dav6789

(12) J-man v (4) John Edelstein

(14) Stroganoff v (6) Bizet

Agassi2000 v Yodavitch

Week 2

Former world number 1 Yodavitch completed an incredible comeback as he retained the Australian Open crown which he won 3 years ago.

The second week of the Australian Open was played in cooler conditions than the first, and for the first time, the roof opened up on Rod Laver Arena.

The first QF was between Sarahginia, the unseeded American who had upset top seed Vanessa Child, against the 8th seed dav6789 appearing in his third Grand Slam QF. Sarahginia looked tired after two previous marathon matches which went 7-5 in the final set. dav6789 on the other hand only had to play two matches, the last of which he won very quickly. dav6789 raced to the first set 6-2. The second set was a bit closer when Sarahginia showed the fight she had in her previous matches. dav6789 also upped his game, and broke for the match at 5-4 to reach the SF again. That turned out to be the least competitive of the QF's as all the others went to 3 sets. The 12th seed J-man upset two-time defending champion John Edelstein. Edelstein had not been in his best form lately, and J-man's was unpredictable. The pair traded the first two sets before J-man turned it on. A string of forehand winners gave J-man a comfortable 4-0 lead. Edelstein wasen't too keen on giving up his title so easily, and fought back to 4-3, but couldn't find anything else as J-man continued to dictate play. J-man won the match 6-4 4-6 6-3 to dethrone the champion. Former US Open finalist Stroganoff faced off against the 6th seed and former world number 1 Bizet. Bizet, like rival Edelstein, had not been playing his best tennis recently and Stroganoff was enjoying a fine run which included a win over two-time finalist PSALT in the previous round. The match was very entertaining and filled with some great rallies. Bizet was in control for most of the match, even when he dropped the second set. He kept Stroganoff at bay at the start of the final set, and eventually won the match 6-3 4-6 6-4. The last QF was between two unseeded players: Agassi2000 and former champion Yodavitch. Both were in great shape and had enjoyed convincing wins. Yodavitch fought back from a set down for the 3rd time in a row to win. He lost the first set 6-3 to his sharper opponent, but came out firing in the second. The final set was brilliant tennis from both. Yodavitch held on tight though, and forced on to victory 6-4.

The first of the SF's was dav6789 v J-man. dav6789 was appearing at this stage for the second year in a row, but J-man had already gone the whole way, in Paris last year. The Briton was focused on doing better this year and won a close first set 6-4. J-man started to compete better and won the second set 7-5 to send the match into a decider. dav6789 fought well against in-form J-man and produced better tennis to come through in a tie-breaker and reach his first Grand Slam final. Bizet and Yodavitch contested the second SF. It resulted in Yodavitch coming back from a set down for a 4th time in the tournament. Once again, he started slowly, but got going after losing the first set 7-5. Yodavitch gained control of the match and won the next 2 sets 6-4 6-4 to hand Bizet another Grand Slam SF loss, and reach his first Slam final since winning in Melbourne 3 years ago.

In the final, Yodavitch defeated dav6789 6-3 6-3. Read more on the final here

This tournament has turned out to be a surprise. Yodavitch continues to impress and seals his comeback with a Grand Slam title. dav6789 makes a huge breakthrough in his career and shows he can play in Grand Slams. Both have showed they will be threats for this year. Yodavitch, who was injured for most of last year, rises up to 13 in the world. dav6789 returns to his career high ranking of 6. They are the top two players in the new race ranking aswell.