2012 Australian Open Discussion Thread

[greenwavegecko]

Hey everyone! Since it's a new year that means tennis is back in full swing, and January has brought with it the:

2012 Australian Open
which is taking place from January 16th-29th in Melbourne, Australia.


The reigning champions are:

Women: Kim Clijsters
Men: Novak Djokovic
Women's Doubles: Flavia Pennetta & Gisela Dulko
Men's Doubles: Bob Bryan & Mike Bryan
Mixed Doubles: Katarina Srebotnik & Daniel Nestor


This year's seeded players for the women's and men's draw are:

1-Caroline Wozniacki/Novak Djokovic
2-Petra Kvitova/Rafael Nadal
3-Victoria Azarenka/Roger Federer
4-Maria Sharapova/Andy Murray
5-Li Na/David Ferrer
6-Samantha Stosur/Jo-Wilifred Tsonga
7-Vera Zvonareva/Tomas Berdych
8-Agnieszka Radwanska/Mardy Fish
9-Marion Bartoli/Janko Tipsarevic
10-Francesca Schiavone/Nicolas Almagro
11-Kim Clijsters/Juan Martin del Potro
12-Serena Williams/Gilles Simon
13-Jelena Jankovic/Alexandr Dolgopolov
14-Sabine Lisicki/Gael Monfils
15-Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova/Andy Roddick
16-Peng Shuai/John Isner
17-Dominika Cibulkova/Richard Gasquet
18-Svetlana Kuznetsova/Feliciano Lopez
19-Flavia Pennetta/Victor Troicki
20-Daniela Hantuchova*
21-Ana Ivanovic/Stanislas Wawrinka
22-Julia Goerges/Fernando Verdasco
23-Roberta Vinci/Milos Raonic
24-Lucie Safarova/Kei Nishikori
25-Kaia Kanepi/ Juan Monaco
26-Anabel Medina Garrigues/Marcel Granollers
27-Maria Kirilenko/Juan Ignacio Chela
28-Yanina Wickmayer/Ivan Ljubicic
29-Nadia Petrova/Radek Stepanek
30-Angelique Kerber/Kevin Anderson
31-Monica Niculescu/Jurgen Melzer
32-Petra Cetkovska/Alex Bogomolov Jr.

*The men's 20th seed withdrew from the tournament, but the replacement player did not take over his seeding.


I will be posting each day's recap of winners, any upsets, and matches to look forward to.

So, talk about who you think is going to win, the fashion, the matches you've watched, the matches you're looking forward to, memories of past tournaments, or anything else related to the tournament! Have fun.

[greenwavegecko]

Day 1 Recap:

Women's 1st Round Winners:
Caroline Wozniacki, Anna Tatishvili, Pauline Parmentier, Monica Niculescu, Christina McHale, Marina Erakovic, Kai-Chen Chang, Jelena Jankovic, Kim Clijsters, Stephanie Foretz Garcon, Lesia Tsurenko, Daniela Hantuchova, Anabel M.Garrigues, Olga Govortsova, Olivia Rogowska, Li Na, Victoria Azarenka, Francesca Schiavone, Casey Dellacqua, Agnieszka Radwanska, Peng Shuai, Romina Oprandi, Julia Goerges, Galina Voskoboeva, Eleni Daniilidou, Petra Cetkovska, Tsvetana Pironkova, Alberta Brianti, Mona Barthel, Paula Ormaechea, Nina Bratchikova, Iveta Benesova


Men's 1st Round Winners:
Bernard Tomic, Roger Federer, Juan Martin del Potro, Rafael Nadal, Tomas Berdych, Alexander Dolgopolov, David Nalbandian, Stanislas Wawrinka, Marcos Baghdatis, Mardy Fish, John Isner, Pere Riba, Olivier Rochus, Nicolas Almagro, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Kevin Anderson, Tommy Haas, Andreas Beck, Grigor Dimitrov, Sergiy Stakhovsky, Blaz Kavcic, Carlos Berlocq, Donald Young, Yen-Hsun Lu, Feliciano Lopez, Alejandro Falla, Ivo Karlovic, Lukas Lacko, Flavio Cipolla, Sam Querrey, Tobias Kamke, Florent Serra


Upsets of the day:
Bernard Tomic defeated 22 Fernando Verdasco
>>Verdasco reached the semi-finals 3 years ago and is a former top 10 player while Tomic just broke into the top 100 last year

Philipp Kohlschreiber defeated 25 Juan Monaco
>> Juan Monaco is of the most consistent players on tour while Kohlschreiber has a tendency to bottle matches.

Galina Voskoboeva defeated 28 Yanina Wickmayer
>>Wickmayer has made it to a grand slam semifinal before while Voskoboeva has rarely made past the 1st round

Nina Bratchikova defeated 19 Flavia Pennetta
>>Pennetta won the women's doubles last year with Gisela Dulko and has made previous grand slam quarterfinals

Ivo Karlovic defeated 31 Jurgen Melzer
>>Karlovic is the tallest men's player on tour and serves a lot of aces while in 2010 Melzer was a top 10 player in both singles and doubles

Lukas Lacko defeated 28 Ivan Ljubicic
>>Ljubicic has reached the quarterfinals before and is considered to be a tough player

Flavio Cipolla defeated Nikolay Davydenko
>>Davydenko has made the quarterfinals on several previous occasions and has one of the best win percentages on tour, also a former top 10 player

[greenwavegecko]

Day 2 Recap:

Women's 1st Round Winners:

Petra Kvitova, Sorana Cirstea, Serena Williams, Maria Kirilenko, Maria Sharapova, Jelena Dokic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Vera Zvonareva, Ana Ivanovic, Sabine Lisicki, Marion Bartoli, Jamie Hampton, Sloane Stephens, Ekaterina Makarova, Angelique Kerber, Shahar Peer, Dominika Cibulkova, Aleksandra Wozniak, Jie Zheng, Lucie Hradecka, Greta Arn, Stephanie Dubois, Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, Carla Suarez Navarro, Michaella Krajicek, Kaia Kanepi, Roberta Vinci, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Nadia Petrova, Vania King, Urszula Radwanska, Sara Errani


Men's 1st Round Winners:

Novak Djokovic, Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, David Ferrer, Gael Monfils, Jo-Wilifred Tsonga, Richard Gasquet, Matthew Ebden, James Duckworth, Gilles Simon, Santiago Giraldo, Thomaz Belluci, Kei Nishikori, Tatsuma Ito, Marcel Granollers, Julien Benneteau, Juan Ignacio Chela, Nicolas Mahut, Ryan Sweeting, Michael Llodra, Mikhail Kukushkin, Alex Bogomolov Jr., Ricardo Mello, Andrey Golubev, Frederico Gil, Janko Tipsarevic, Viktor Troicki, Milos Raonic, Philipp Petzschner, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Pablo Andujar

Upsets of the day:

Sorana Cirstea defeated 6 Samantha Stosur
>>Stosur is the reigning US Open champion and has reached the finals of the French Open

Nicolas Mahut defeated 29 Radek Stepanek
>>Stepanek is a former top 10 player and Mahut is most famous for his epic tennis match against John Isner at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships

Andrey Golubev defeated Mikhail Youzhny
>>Youzhny is a former top 10 player and has previously reached the quarterfinals while Golubev has only made it past the 1st round once before


The second round starts tomorrow at 11am Melbourne time. Here are my picks to watch tomorrow:

Sam Querrey vs. Bernard Tomic
John Isner vs. David Nalbandian
Stanislas Wawrinka vs. Marcos Baghdatis (any match with Baghdatis is great to watch, he's got a raucous cheering section whenever he comes to play in Oz)

[Shikamaruuu]

I'm rooting for Murray as always but Djokovic is going to be one hell of a challenge.

[AaronM1D1]

Whilst Murray's in it, he's British. When he goes out to Djok/Nadal, he's Scottish.

This is the Englishman's approach to Tennis

[vi3t_93]

Tomic!!!

[greenwavegecko]

For the record, I'm rooting for Nadal and Clijsters to win.

I would love Murray to win a grand slam event. Just because I think every one would give him the break he finally deserves! Murray isn't a terrible player, he just happens to get beat by the three players in the world who are better than him at the business end of tournaments. I also think that the US Open bet for Murray to win.

My second picks to win are Murray and Kvitova. Got to give Murray some love and Kvitova has impressed me a lot in the past year. Plus, she's more likeable than some of the other contenders on the women's side.

[greenwavegecko]

Here are the women's and men's doubles seeding for this year's tournament:

Women's Doubles Seeding:

1 Kveta Peschke & Katarina Srebotnik
2 Liezel Huber & Lisa Raymond
3 Vania King & Yaroslava Shvedova
4 Gisela Dulko & Flavia Pennetta
5 Maria Kirilenko & Nadia Petrova
6 Sania Mirza & Elena Vesnina
7 Andrea Hlavackova & Lucie Hradecka
8 Daniela Hantuchova & Agniezska Radwanska
9 Natalie Grandin & Vladimira Uhlirova
10 Iveta Benesova & Barbora Zahlavova Strycova
11 Sara Errani & Roberta Vinci
12 Jarmila Gadjosova & Bethanie Mattek-Sands
13 Nuria Llagostera Vives & Arantxa Parra Santonja
14 Su-Wei Hsieh & Galina Voskoboeva
15 Raquel Kops-Jones & Abigail Spears
16 Vera Dushevina & Shahar Peer


Men's Doubles Seeding:

1 Bob Bryan & Mike Bryan
2 Max Mirnyi & Daniel Nestor
3 Michael Llodra & Nenad Zimonjic
4 Mahesh Bhupati & Rohan Bopanna
5 Jurgen Melzer & Philipp Petzschner
6 Mariusz Fyrstenberg & Marcin Matkowski
7 Robert Lindstedt & Horia Tecau
8 Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi & Jean-Julien Rojer
9 Oliver Marach & Alexander Peya
10 Eric Butroac & Bruno Soares
11 Frantisek Cermak & Filip Polasek
12 Santiago Gonzalez & Christopher Kas
13 Scott Lipsky & Rajeev Ram
14 Simone Bolelli & Fabio Fognini
15 Colin Fleming & Ross Hutchins
16 Paul Hanley & Jamie Murray

[greenwavegecko]

Day 3 Recap:

Women's 2nd Round Winners:

Li Na, Kim Clijsters, Victoria Azarenka, Jelena Jankovic, Caroline Wozniacki, Daniela Hantuchova, Romina Oprandi, Anabel Medina Garrigues, Monica Niculescu, Julia Goerges, Iveta Benesova, Agnieszka Radwanska, Christina McHale, Nina Bratchikova, Mona Barthel, Galina Voskoboeva


Men's 2nd Round Winners:

Rafael Nadal, Bernard Tomic, Tomas Berdych, Roger Federer, John Isner, Kevin Anderson, Alexandr Dolgopolov, Juan Martin del Potro, Nicolas Almagro, Alejandro Falla, Lukas Lacko, Yen-Hsun Lu, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Feliciano Lopez, Ivo Karlovic


Upsets of the day:

Romina Oprandi defeated 10 Francesca Schiavone
>>Schiavone is a top 10 player, grand slam winner, and has played the longest ever women's tennis match at a grand slam event

Alejandro Falla defeated 8 Mardy Fish
>>Fish is the number 1 American tennis player and is undergoing a career renaissance. Fish has made a grand slam quarterfinal before.

Iveta Benesova defeated 16 Peng Shuai
>>Benesova has only been to the 3rd round once(?) of the Australian Open


Here's my pick of matches to watch on day 4:

15 Andy Roddick vs. Lleyton Hewitt
>>Nostalgic flashback. It'll be like two boxers coming out of retirement to settle one last score

Andrey Golubev vs. 17 Richard Gasquet
>>Potential upset special

[vi3t_93]

Keeping with the Tennis theme , this is hilarious...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sLFCwOVrEw&feature=player_embedded]Extremely funny proposal. Hey Nadal, Will you marry me? - YouTube[/ame]