Roger Federer moves into the quarters

Ah, to play an icon, a hero, someone you idolize.

That’s the fate that became Bernard Tomic when the draw dangled 16-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer in front of him in a fourth-round match, played under the lights, at Melbourne Park on Sunday.

There’s no denying that that kind of occasion presents a challenge, but taking advantage of the opportunity doesn’t come complete with a guaranteed high percentage of success. And as much as Tomic -- and a stadium full of fans -- hoped that he could possibly create the upset, it was not to be.

Federer easily displayed why he’s Federer, the guy many believe to be the greatest player to ever play the game. The third seed, Federer remains in the hunt for a fifth Australian Open title after a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 win, while Tomic took a step to the exit of Melbourne Park.

“For me, it’s a great pleasure and honor to play him,” said Tomic, whose best career Grand Slam outing was making it to the Wimbledon quarterfinals last season. “You can just only get better if you lose against him.”

The 19-year-old Tomic -- currently ranked a very respectable No. 38 -- has no reason to hang his head. He put up a stunning week of tennis to seize a fourth-round berth against Federer. It was his second loss to Federer -- the Swiss Master took him in four sets during the 2011 Davis Cup World Group Playoff -- and you can be assured that every time Tomic faces Federer he’s receiving a pertinent lesson. 

“The harder I hit it, the ball comes back in a different corner and ends up always being a winner,” said Tomic, smiling at the memory of being outclassed. “It’s very strange. Never did experience my balls that I hit that hard to come back and to be a winner.

At one time the 30-year-old Federer seemed invincible, dominating the tour closing out five seasons as No. 1 (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009). Nowadays, Fed is not quite as impenetrable, but he still one of the top three guys in the game, albeit No. 3, and he remains a player to be feared.

On many occasions during the one hour, 44 minute match, Tomic pounded fast and ferocious groundstrokes at Federer, clear winners against practically anyone. But not against Federer.

“It’s good to watch. Even for me, playing, I enjoy watching it,” Tomic said.

And watch he did as Federer broke his serve six times in the match while he could only return the favor, so to speak, by breaking Federer’s serve on a third break point in the sixth game of the second set.

Federer served up 13 aces to none for Tomic. Federer’s serve has always given him great leeway in matches and Tomic saw that when the Swiss won 37 of 44 of the first serve points he got into play. How did Tomic do in the same regard? Not well. He only won 40 of 71 first serve points he put into play.

To his credit, Tomic didn’t deflect a question that suggested it was like man playing boy out there on the court.

“I played pretty decent at times, he just played better and there was nothing I could do,” Tomic said. “He broke my confidence down.”

A gracious Federer credited Tomic with playing top grade tennis during the match, emphasizing that the score didn’t necessarily reflect the contest.

“I thought we had a lot of long games, tough points, and I thought he did actually really well,” Federer said.

As a selected talent for the future in his teens, Federer remembered back to when he was 19 and waiting to make it. His message was clear -- don’t rush Tomic, he’ll get there  on his own time.

“It’s funny, when you’re 19 you have nothing to lose, you feel like,” Federer said. “But then you feel an immense pressure, just the constant pounding of knocking on the door from everybody saying, ‘When are you going to make the breakthrough?”

Federer’s next job will be to try and break the confidence of Juan Martin del Potro in the quarterfinals. Amazingly, that upcoming match will be his 1000th career match. Del Potro comes as a more potent test than Tomic -- the Argentine won the 2009 U.S. Open in a five-set final win over Federer. The No. 11 ranked Del Potro is quickly reinstating himself as a major force in the game after losing most of 2010 to wrist surgery.

“I think it’s going to be a good match,” Federer said. “Look, I think he’s coming back awfully strong again. I thought he had a chance in 2010 to sort of make a run for world No. 1. Injury came and things obviously changed, and now he’s had to have a great year to get back in the top 15, I think, and now he’s making his move to the top 10.”

australianopen.com

Del Potro next, nail biting, hair pulling time!.  I'm still reliving the Clijsters match thank god there's a day's break in between, my poor fan heart can't take anymore more drama after that!.

Comeback Kim Clijsters powers into the quarters at Aussie Open

Jan 22 (Reuters) - Kim Clijsters was courage personified as the defending champion shook off a painful ankle injury and saved four match points to overhaul China's Li Na 4-6 7-6 6-4 and reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open on Sunday.

The big-hearted Belgian rolled her left ankle at 3-3 in the first set on a scorching day at Rod Laver Arena but rejoined the battle after a lengthy medical time-out with her foot thickly taped.

In a re-match of last year's finalists, champion Clijsters stared at the abyss when 6-2 down in the second set tiebreak but reeled off six points in a row to take the set and spark a rapturous ovation from the stands.

 The hard-hitting Li slumped to 4-0 down in the decider then recovered gallantly to trail 5-4 but Clijsters held to close out the match and keep her hopes alive of a fifth grand slam title in her farewell year on tour.

"It has to be (one of my best comebacks)," Clijsters said red-faced in a courtside interview after raising her arms in triumph to acknowledge the roaring crowd. "I can't believe I won. 

"I knew before the match that it was going to be a tough match, physically, mentally.
"It was amazing to get through and to fight and probably not with my best tennis." 

French Open champion Li took the first set of last year's final against the Belgian but was once again left crestfallen after missing a golden chance to put her Melbourne Park nemesis away. 

After saving three match points, Clijsters appeared to suffer a mental lapse on the fourth when she attempted a speculative drop-shot that bounced up and begged to be put away. 

Fifth-seeded Li charged in but her attempted winner was equally inept and allowed Clijsters to poke a lob over her head to save the point. 

The Chinese subsequently crumbled under the pressure, spraying two backhand shots to lose the set before her serve collapsed as Clijsters charged 5-1 ahead in the decider. 

Li dug deep to break back and took Clijsters to deuce when she was serving for the match, but surrendered the match after netting a backhand. 

Clijsters will play the winner of top seed Caroline Wozniacki and former world number one Jelena Jankovic who play in the evening session at Rod Laver Arena.

uk reuters

Oh, the drama of this match, seriously! I honestly thought Kim was done after she rolled on her ankle.  And I felt sadness but also a lot of admiration for her continuing on despite it all.  

When we got to the tiebreak and Kim went down four match points, I held my breath, and was on the edge of my seat.  This was such a topsy-turvy match, but so damn entertaining nonetheless worth staying up till 2am.

Sure a lot of people will say that the match was Li Na's to lose, which is partly true, she went away mentally in the 3rd set (and in the tiebreak) and looked down and out before fighting back.  

But the majority of the credit has to go to Kim for just hanging in there in a tense situation not once but twice!.  That's the difference between players and champions I guess they just find a way.

Haven't seen that much fighting spirit from Kim in a while.  Assuming her ankle is ok I hope this match spurs her on into the semis.  Thanks Aussie Kim for making this one memorable! :).

Kim Clijsters moves into 4th round with convincing win

It seems like Kim Clijsters has never left. In yet another authoritative performance in Melbourne, the defending champion ran over Daniela Hantuchova 6-3, 6-2 to move into the fourth round.

 

Clijsters, who has only played seven tournaments since lifting the 2011 title due to injury, owned a 9-1 record against the slender Slovakian entering the contest, with Hantuchova’s only victory coming in Brisbane two weeks ago when Clijsters retired with a hip ailment.

 

It was certainly not the greatest performance of Clijsters’ life, but it was good enough as she ripped 27 winners (almost an equal amount off her forehand and backhand sides) and committed 18 unforced errors. Hantuchova, who reached the semifinals in Melbourne in 2008, before losing to Ana Ivanovic, could only manage 12 winners and committed 23 unforced errors.

 

“ Day off yesterday, night match tonight. So I felt like I kind of just had to find my aggressive footwork and positioning on the court,” the Belgian said. "But I was able to at the important points win those points and make the right decisions. Obviously at the end of the day, when you're not playing your best, that's what it comes down to is just trying to play the important points as well as possible. I was able to do that today.  So [the] second set was much better.  I'm pleased that I finished a lot better than how I started.” 

 

One of the game’s most feared all-around players, the 28-year-old Clijsters has gotten to the point in her career where she does not need a lot of matches. In fact, in her comeback to the tour in August 2009 after she took off two years to start a family, she won the US Open in just her third tournament back. She is not seen by some to be a player who relies on her wits, but she has a great understanding of her capabilities and where her opponents’ frailties lie. That's why she was able to enter the 2012 Aussie summer season without having played since the first week of August 2011, and yet has immediately become a title threat once again.

 

The pre-first retirement Clijsters, who was considered to be a bit of a play-aholic, has matured.

 

“I think when you're a little bit older you're capable to set your mind to what it is like to play a match again,” she said. “You have your routines. I come back to routines, but they're so important.  You have your game that you know that you're going to stick to.  I think when I was younger I needed to play those matches to kind of get a feel for how I had to play and what my coach wanted of me and those kind of things.  Now I know out there.  Even after two years off, when I stepped out there, I knew what my game was, and I didn't need a lot of the matches to find that again. Okay, you need to get used to the emotions and the pressure and the stress a little bit, but when it comes down to finding your own confidence, that's there.  You've done that so many times and been in big situations so many times.”

 

Clijsters might have to face the same woman she bested in a classic Australian Open final last year, Li Na, in the fourth round. She has no plans of playing beyond the US Open, so this will likely be her last season. But she is not sitting on her laurels and does believe that she can get better on a daily basis. She’s been around long enough to know that if she doesn’t continue to tinker with her game and attempt to bring at few new things to the table each week, that the youngsters will catch her and possibly pass her.

 

“I would like to improve every day,” she said. “That's one of the main reasons why I decided to put [coach Carl Maes] on board again. I want to learn from him and improve. I have the feeling that I have been improving on a lot of different areas as well as emotionally, tacticwise, physically, and confidence. It's great for me to be in a situation with Carl where I still feel like I can improve on all those things and I'm not stuck to where I feel like I'm at my top level. Look at Nadal, Federer. You can always become better. You can always work out harder in the gym and work out differently. You just learn yourself better and better.”

 

australianopen.com

It's a re-match of last year's final with Li Na.  That will be a real tough test for Clijsters.  Can't wait!.

Martina Hingis Australian Open 2012 interview

Roger Federer through to 4th round at Aussie Open

ONE of the world's most exciting young players looms as the stumbling block to Roger Federer's quest to end a grand slam drought dating back to the 2010 Australian Open. 
 
The 16-time grand slam champion showed no signs of rustiness in his convincing 7-6 (8-6) 7-5 6-3 dismissal of Ivo Karlovic despite having entered the match with a four-day break following a second-round walkover against Andreas Beck.

Federer faces the winner of last night's clash between Australian rising star Bernard Tomic and unorthodox Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov for a possible quarter-final confrontation with 2009 US Open winner Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina.

"Either player is going to be a challenge for me," he said.

"But overall I feel good, you know. It has been a good match for me and a good last week or so."


Federer and Nadal, who share the same side of a grand slam draw for the first time since 2004, generated most interest yesterday.

Both entered this Open under injury clouds - Federer withdrew from an event in Doha with back spasms, while the Spaniard considered pulling out of this event as recently as Sunday because of knee pain - yet they have been convincing to date.

Federer's clash with Karlovic, who almost a decade ago ended Lleyton Hewitt's defence of his Wimbledon title in the opening round, was of most interest because of the danger Karlovic occasionally poses with his brilliant serve.

Karlovic is a gambler on court. Blessed with an amoury that allows him to hold serve at almost every turn but bereft for the most part of skills to put pressure on a rival's serve, his lot is to either blast away at a forehand or chip and charge the net in hope when receiving.

In 26 prior sets against Federer, Karlovic has managed to break just once. He is a long shot to win a set against Federer in anything other than a tiebreaker.

At five-all in the first set tiebreaker, he actually constructed a point of class, stretching and testing the best in the business until Federer overhit a forehand.

It brought him a set point on serve, usually a guarantee.

Instead followed the most bizarre of points, with Federer chipping a slice at the Croatian's feet and ripping a pass that, somehow, Karlovic got racquet on.

Even more fortuitously, it dropped over the net for what seemed almost a perfect drop volley. But Federer, somehow, got racquet below ball and . . . lobbed. Lobbed the tallest man on tour standing half a metre from him.

Talk about surprise and despair. It was, as Karlovic noted later, the least predictable shot the 16-time grand slam winner could throw at him at that moment, yet it proved the critical difference.

"It is like one in, I don't know, hundred that I'm going to lose that point," he said.

"It was really unlucky. I didn't really expect him to do that, but I was there.

"I just, how do you say, miscalculated how much on the jump.

"If I would have won that, everything would have been different. But that is life. Tennis, that's how it is."

A ripped backhand pass on the next point and an ace to close the tiebreaker and the match, for all intents, was Federer's.

theaustralian.com

So it's the Australian Tomic vs. the Fed man next.

Should be interesting to see which one the crowd roots for more and how well the young Aussie handles the pressure.

Assuming he doesn't collapse from exhaustion half way through.

Martina Hingis to play Legends tournament at Aussie Open

TENNIS great Martina Hingis has swept into Melbourne to play in the Australian Open legends tournament. 
 
In a coup for organisers the Swiss former world No.1 will play at Melbourne Park for the first time since her last main draw appearance in 2007.


Hingis, 31, is sure to be a crowd favourite, having claimed three titles here and made six consecutive finals from 1997-2002.


"Getting her back is great and she is a champion here," legends tournament director Todd Woodbridge said.


"She's still playing a great brand of tennis and it's great for the sport. I give great kudos to her good friend in Iva Majoli for helping persuade Martina she needed a nice holiday in the Australian summer.

"They're looking to having some fun on and off the court."




Woodbridge said a top class field had been assembled for the start of play this weekend."We've been working on strengthening the legends men for the past few years and now we have a great line-up," he said.


"We've got (Goran) Ivanivesic, (Yevgeny) Kafelnikov and (Pat) Rafter. It's just created a buzz.
"They're still pretty young, fit and big names. This year I really wanted to work on getting some of the women back.


"That's the beauty of the legends now is that they take it seriously but it's not life or death on the court. They can get out and see the city and enjoy themselves."

heraldsun

Kim Clijsters thrashes opponent to reach Aussie Open 3rd round

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Champion Kim Clijsters and the player she beat in last year's final Li Na rarely got out of first gear while Roger Federer did not even have to get out of bed to advance to the third round of the Australian Open on Wednesday.

American eighth seed Mardy Fish, however, became the first men's top-10 player to depart the tournament when he crashed out in straight sets to Colombia's Alejandro Falla 7-6 6-3 7-6.

Temperatures were much more comfortable on Wednesday after the first two days when they reached 30 degrees Celsius before midday, and Clijsters barely built up a sweat on Rod Laver Arena as she thrashed France's Stephanie Foretz Gacon in 47 minutes.

Clijsters, who has recorded four previous 6-0 6-0 'double bagel' victories at Melbourne Park, flirted with a fifth as she rattled off the opening seven games in little under 30 minutes before the 30-year-old Frenchwoman finally held serve.

The stay of execution, however, was brief and the Belgian calmly went through her processes again, building pressure and forcing errors before she moved into the third round with a 6-0 6-1 win when Fortez Gacon's return of serve floated long.

"I felt like in my first match I didn't really have that rhythm that I would have liked to have," Clijsters told reporters. "So that's usually something that I try to look for in the beginning of the match.

"(I) was hitting the ball well (and) felt that I could keep her under pressure. I didn't really let her play her game. From the beginning till the end, I did what I had to do well."

World number three Federer, who had been due to play later on Wednesday received a walkover into the third round when his German opponent Andreas Beck withdrew from the tournament with a back injury.

reuterscanada

This was pretty much a one woman show.  Much more routine and Clijsters-like.  

This pretty much confirms that I was right in my last post when I said that the further she goes, and longer she plays the better she'll get (as she has often done in the past).  

With this performance I am much more convinced that she actually has a shot at defending the title.  

As the Aussie's would say, good on ya Kim!.  Hantuchova is up next that may prove to be a bit more of challenge.  

But enough about that once again the best thing about this match was the post-match interview. 


Or, more precisely Kim asking the entire Aussie crowd to sing her sister a Happy Birthday :).  I'll post the video when it becomes available.

Priceless! :D.  I'm really gonna miss stuff like this when Kim goes away for good after this year.