Monday 2 February 2009

Australian Open 2009 - A Summary: Rounds Three And Four

I'm already wishing I'd found the time to post updates throughout the tournament - it's pretty tiresome posting in retrospect so-this-happened-then-that-happened-and-then-he-beat-him-and-took-five-sets and it's not making for a hugely entertaining read - we all know what happens at the end! Still, I can hardly ignore one of the four slams and, well, I've started, so I might as well finish.

Round three then (sighs). Nadal, Djokovic, easy wins, blah di blah, you know the drill. Safin ended his most successful slam with a straight-sets defeat to The Fed. Better than losing to some nobody, though, eh, in your final match? Another cruise-control match for Murray over Jurgen Melzer, while still-not back-in-top-10-form (and maybe never again) Mario Ancic faded out against Gilles Simon. Richard Gasquet, obviously attempting to emulate his countryman Mathieu from the previous round, played one of the matches of the tournament with Gonzalez, but despite a two sets to love lead and a match point in set three, eventually went down 12-10 in the fifth. Ho-hum, not my tournament, as I said before. Baghdatis continued to provide some cheer with a straight sets beatdown of the hated Fish. Woo-hoo!

Mauresmo lost early yet again to screechy bint Victoria Azarenka, and bang went my interest in the women's event - although I did watch the final out of a sort of morbid curiosity. More on that story later.

Round four. Nothing much to report here. Berdych blew a two set lead against The Fed (shock horror), Baghdatis's good run came to an end against Djokovic (annoying but inevitable) and the Great British Media Hype around Andy Murray came crashing down around our over-optimistic ears with a five sets loss to Verdasco. Okay, so he had a cold and ran into a opponent who had been crushing decent players left, right and centre, but there was a touch of the Henmans about it all - the build-up, the expectation, the seeming inevitability that it was finally his - our! - moment... and then, the end. Again. Still, months ahead to build it all up again for the French and Wimbledon, eh? In other results, EVERY OTHER ONE of the top eight seeds progressed. You bastards.

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