Live at the Australian Open

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Jan 21, 2000

Heating up at the Open
It's getting hot! The tournament kicks into high gear on Sunday (Australian time) when the final 16 players try to raise their games to compete in the intense second week of a Grand Slam. The tennis is certainly heating up the courts and the off-court scandals also continue to hound the headlines each day. The only thing which is not heating up is the weather, which was pretty dismal on third round play on Friday.

Still, the Jelena Dokic scandal keeps the full attention of the worldwide press present at the Australian Open. Surprisingly, no other players seem to be causing much commotion, or any commotion for that matter, considering what happened last year with the Amelie Mauresmo debacle. Martina Hingis has certainly cleaned up her act since last year in what was a PR-horrendous 1999, and has answered questions from the press with the mature wisdom reminiscent of her on-court style and grace.

The upsets continue to run amuck at the Open, although the draw is starting to solidify as the in-form players start to make in-roads towards a successful Australian Open 2000 campaign. Aside from the Mauresmo upset - which was considered the biggest upset of the women's draw, considering the form she brought into the tournament - Amanda Coetzer did herself an incredible injustice by producing an uncharacteristic amount of unforced errors in her second round match, causing her to tumble out of the Open in quick fashion. Quite surprising considering she was showing remarkable form at the Hopman Cup which she won with Wayne Ferreira three weeks ago.

The Australian Open favourites
The TAB favourites have run themselves according to the seedings, as at January 21. Top seed Martina Hingis is the favourite for the championship at $2.35, but not by much. 2nd seed Lindsay Davenport is not far behind at $2.50. 3rd seed Serena Williams was right up there with Hingis and Davenport but rather mediocre form has seen her fall to $4.75. 4th seed Mary Pierce is next in line but sees herself well outside the top 3 favourites at $12. Anna Kournikova and Jennifer Capriati may not be in the top 10 rankings but strong form so far this year and at this tournament make them the 5th and 6th favourites with the bookies respectively at $18 and $21. One surprise is Patty Schnyder who has steadily improved her odds, thanks to the huge victory over tournament favourite Amelie Mauresmo, which sees her at $21, equal to Capriati.

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