I am enjoying watching the Aussie Open in the early mornings. Tennis is one of the things that Nadia and I share a passion for. With her 10 years younger than me and a good athlete, we can play together and it gives me a workout. It is an activity that we can do together. With the birth of Ocean (child number three) our tennis playing has been cut drastically, but now with Ocean able to walk, we will be looking to play more, especially as the weather improves.
Sunday January 25 Update: #1 seed Jelena Jankovic lost to Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli the #16 seed. The only interest I have left in the women’s draw is Jelena Dokic. She is a fascinating story. Her family is Serbian and they fled Croatia during the war of the break up of Yugoslavia in the 1990’s. They first went to Serbia and eventually ended up settling in Australia. She became a top tennis player (peaked at #4 in the world) and renounced Australia to play for Serbia. Her father/coach was strange and battling alcohol problems and her career fizzled out. She is back now, and playing for Australia, sans father. She is making a comeback and defeated two seeded players to get into the third round. The only other names I recognize are Serena Williams and Marat Safin’s sister.
The men’s side is much more interesting for me. Andy Roddick just defeated Spaniard Tommy Robredo and will play the winner of the Baghdatis – Djokovic match. James Blake plays against Muhammed Ali look-alike Tsonga. An intriguing match! Federer is in the fifth set against Tomas Berdych. I also like Monfils, the wild hitting Frenchman.
The Australian Open is the first Grand Slam of the long tennis season. Our favorite player is Lleyton Hewitt because when we lived in Perth (2000-2001) he was number one in the world. I also fashion my game after his – run after every ball, never give up, fist pump, weak serve and no killer winner shot, etc.
Serbia is a tennis power with 2 of the big three still alive in the singles draws. Novak “Nole” Djokovic won his matches in the first three rounds quite easily, only dropping one set. He now has an interesting match against Cypriot Marco Bagdhatis. My other country I am following, the USA, both Roddick and Blake (won first two sets) made it to the fourth round. I don’t have much hope for those guys to win it however, becasue they often lose in the big matches. I feel that however, that Blake could break through and win a grand slam.
On the women’s side, the number one seed, Jelena Jankovic is through to the third round. Ana Ivanovic was knocked out in the second round.
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