Australian Open Tennis

Posted by T. A. Niles Jan 14, 2008

Woulda, coulda, shoulda…I shoulda taken the time to write about the men’s Australian Open draw. Had I done so, I woulda suggested that Jo-Wilfried Tsonga might upset Andy Murray (8)…I coulda looked like I knew something…but I didn’t get to it so…

It might be a good thing I didn’t, because I wouldn’t have predicted that Carlos Moya was going to fall to Koubek. Are you kidding me? Koubek’s like 5’ 6” or something…okay, he’s 5’ 9” and he’s given Moya a tough time in the past, going 3-4 against him.

I wouldn’t have picked Juan Ignacio Chela (18) to flame out in round one against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, whom he’s beaten in straight sets both times they’ve played. Except, a little research would have shown that, last week, Chela struggled to beat a player ranked No.344 in the world and lost to 56th-ranked Florian Mayer in straight sets.

Did you happen to catch that 12-10 final set with Jelena Jankovic (3) and Tamira Pasek? Unreal! Jankovic, doesn’t have a prayer of winning this thing, but she plays the sickest defense in tennis bar none! There is no way she should have won that match yesterday except that she can flat out run down winner after winner. Can somebody PLEASE teach the woman how to serve! She might actually have a chance to sniff a Grand Slam final if she had a serve that didn’t belong in the 12 and unders.

Not much else happened of note, except that Lindsay Davenport had to be awakened after she fell asleep during her match with Sara Errani whom she has beaten twice in straight sets since her comeback. Apparently she was dreaming of spanking Maria Sharapova in the second round. She gets a chance to make that dream come true on Day 3.