Grand Slam Gal
The Tennis Players who Supported the Rally for Relief
Photo sourced from www.australianopen.com
The Rally for Relief was held today to support the victims of the devastating floods in Queensland. [Read more…]
Gotta love the Australian Open!
The 2011 Australian Open Tennis Championships are one of the reasons I’m proud to live in Melbourne. [Read more…]
Blue skies returned to Melbourne around lunchtime on Friday 14 Jan
Best known for making it to the finals of Wimbledon, Rain dominated the AAMI Classic so completely on Thursday that the other players couldn’t even make it onto court. [Read more…]
Hoorah! The Australian Open draw was announced on Friday 14 January.
You can view the full Australian Open Men’s draw here.
Often the great matches in the early rounds of the Australian Open aren’t the ones played by the top ranked players, instead the memorable play can come from the matches when lower ranked players get a chance shine.
Here are 7 players ranked outside the Top 10 that have the potential to create some great tennis over the next few weeks.
ATP Singles Ranking 83
Country: Japan
Nishikori was out for 6 months in 2010 following elbow surgery but now he’s back and playing well at the World Tennis Challenge in Adelaide this week. With Brad Gilbert as his coach, who has coached Agassi, Roddick and Murray, he’s worth watching.
Nishikori has a pretty tough draw, playing Fognini in the first round if he gets through, then facing either Mayer or Davydenko in the second round.
ATP Singles Ranking 56
Country: South African
Anderson played well at the Brisbane International to make the semi final, losing to Roddick in 3 sets. He’s really really tall so has a height advantage. Here is a comment from Roddick on the subject:
“Well you can’t teach 6ft 7 that’s for sure. You don’t see a ball coming from that angle too often,”
Anderson has drawn a qualifier in the first round, and then probably Youzhny in the second round.
ATP Ranking 33
Country: Spain
Although he only made it to the 2nd round of the Medibank International, I still think Garcia Lopez has potential.
He won an ATP Tour Title in Bangkok in October, and beat a lot of big guns along the way.
“As World No. 53 at Bangkok, he capped a momentous week by winning his second ATP World Tour title with a 64 36 64 win over Nieminen…Beat No. 8 seed Berrer, No. 4 seed Gulbis and saved a staggering 24 of 26 break points to beat World No. 1 Nadal in SFs…“It has been an unbelievable week for me, from the first round to the final. Every match is different. I think I played relaxed, enjoyed my game and everything was perfect. It’s hard to express what it means, I’m really happy inside”…On 4 October, he rose 14 spots to World No. 39…”
Garcia-Lopez faces Berrer in the first round, and then potentially Andy Murray in the third round.
ATP Singles Ranking 30
Country: Serbia
Troiki, a member of the Serbian team who won the Davis Cup recently, has shown his good form to make it through to the final of the Medibank International in Sydney this week, beating Mayer, Lopez, Chela and Gasquet along the way. Troiki lost in the final to Simon in 2 sets.
Troiki plays Tursinov in round one, and if he makes it to round three, potentially a tough match against his Serbian team mate Djokovic.
ATP Singles Ranking 24
Country: Latvia
Gulbis had a breakout season in 2008 and I’ve had high hopes for him ever since. From memory he was the only player to get a set off Rafa in the 2008 French Open, who beat everyone else in 3 sets on his way through to winning the final.
Gulbis played well in the Medibank International in Sydney this week, up until the point where he lost to Simon in the semi final in 2 sets, with Simon powering through to win the second set in only 16 minutes.
Gublis will have to be on form right from the start of the Aus Open if he’s going to do well, facing Ben Becker in round 1 and then possibly Dolgopolov in round 2 and Tsonga in round 3.
ATP Singles Ranking 14
Country: Spain
Almagro is the highest ranked player on this list, and is definitely worth watching.
Almagro reached the 4th round of the Aus Open in 2010, losing to Tsonga in a huge five setter so hopefully this year he’ll do the same or better.
Yesterday he lost to Nalbandian in the semi final of the Heineken Open in Auckland.
Almagro has Djokovic and Berdych in his part of the draw, so it will be interesting to see how far he can go.
What other non Top 10 Men do you think have a chance to well at the Australian Open 2011?
Leave a comment and let us know.
Grand Slam Gal
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Tips for eating and drinking in Melbourne. [Read more…]
Bring on the Australian Open!
The Australian Open starts in less than a week and in Melbourne, you can feel it.
The Anticipation.
The Expectation.
The weather might let us down (especially if it keeps raining!), but Melbourne won’t.
Melbourne is Ready.
Ready for the Players.
Ready for the Spectators.
Ready for the Action.
The Australian Open Banners and Signage Tell Me So.
Note – In a few of the pics I realise that the banners are quite small. Remember “Where’s Wally”? Spot the banners….
Melbourne's Federation Square Visitor Centre
Flinders Street Station
The Forum on Flinders Street, heading towards Melbourne Park
Flinders Street and Fed Square viewed from Southgate
Crown Casino
When I see the trusty Number 70 tram all decked out in its tennis paint, I’ll know for sure that we’re close.
Very close now.
Stay tuned, there’s more to come in lead up to the Aus Open this week.
Grand Slam Gal
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It was Hot.
It was really Hot at the Hyundai Hopman Cup in Perth.
And the players were Wet.
Wet with Sweat.
To offset the sweat, there was deodorant. Deodorant galore.
Well, deodorant promotion galore anyway. Anyone who watched the One HD TV coverage must know by now that Pat Rafter uses Dove deodorant. In fact, you probably know the ad word for word (born in 1972, got first raquet at age 2…)
The Hopman Cup is named in honour of Harry Hopman, a great Australian tennis player and coach. Here are 5 things that make it ace.
Other than the Davis Cup for men and the Fed Cup for Women, tennis players generally play as individuals or part of a doubles duo.
At the Hopman Cup they play for the glory of their country.
A man and woman on the same team.
Playing separately in singles and then together in mixed doubles.
And it all starts with everyone getting glammed up for a Ball.
Makes for great tennis.
Bad line calls.
Arguing with the umpire.
That’s part of tennis, right?
Not at the Hopman Cup.
Sure I didn’t see every single match but there were no arguments between players and the umpire in the matches I did watch (which was quite a few!)
Perhaps because of the great atmosphere of the tournament. Or maybe the umpiring was just spot on.
However it happens, it makes for great tennis.
The French team was made up of Nicholas Mahut, ranked 132 in the world, who replaced an injured Gael Monfils, and Kristina Mladenovic, ranked 301.
High ranking or not, the French team did their bit to make the tournament ace.
Not just because of their tennis skills or the rematch between Isner and Mahut, with Isner beating Mahut in 9.5 hours less than he took to win at Wimbledon 2010.
But also because of Nicholas Mahut’s keen dress sense during the Mixed Doubles. Hilarious!
Quoting the guy who gave them the winner trophy, the USA team is special because John has his “ridiculous height” and Bethanie has her “ridiculous outfits”.
Makes for great tennis.
Where else in the world does $70,000 worth of diamond encrusted tennis balls make up part of the winners trophy?
Serena Williams loves these diamonds and all the girls want them.
Nole couldn’t win them for Ana because they had to withdraw from the final due to Ana’s injury.
Andy couldn’t win them for Laura.
John and Bethanie won the diamonds and they seemed pretty happy with their haul.
Lleyton’s snippets of time in the commentary box proved that he sure does know a lot about tennis after all these years. And it’s good of him to fit it in his schedule really, given that he had a tournament to play in.
And last but not least, the tweeting by the peeps between the Twitter scenes of @hopmancup was superbly interactive, really getting the fans involved.
The Hopman Cup is over for another year but I know I’ll be back in 2012, at least as a TV viewer if not live.
Congrats to the USA team and to everyone involved for putting on such a great tennis tournament.
What did you like most about the Hopman Cup 2011? Leave a comment and let us know.
Until next time
Grand Slam Gal
Next up we have the Medibank International and the AAMI Classic this week and then of course the Australian Open starting on January 17. Find out which men are playing where.
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Photos sourced from the Hopman Cup website at www.hopmancup.com.au
It has been a really busy week in tennis this week, what with the Hopman Cup on in Perth, the Brisbane International in Brisbane and the Qatar ExxonMobil Tennis Open in Doha.
At the Hopman Cup, Lleyton won his first important match of the year, Isner beat Mahut in 9.5 hours less than he took to beat him at Wimbledon and Britain lost their first Tie.
Here are some of the things that I’ve enjoyed while watching on the web and TV.
Although it’s possible that Bethanie has worn far more memorable outfits in the past I don’t think Perth will ever be ready for this one.
He lost to Andy Roddick in the first round of the Brisbane International but Australia’s third seeded man and Australian Open wildcard holder Marinko Matosevic looked really fit while training in Brisbane.
The ever beautiful Fernando Verdasco has gone hard with the hair product to achieve this new up-do. He lost in the first round of the Brisbane International but his hair held its ground
Until next time
Grand Slam Gal
Photos sourced from www.hopmancup.com.au and www.brisbaneinternational.com.au
While writing the previous article about which men’s tennis players are playing where in Australia in the January lead up to the Australian Open, the names Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer were noticeably absent.
Both Roger and Rafa are confirmed to play in Doha in January at the Qatar ExxonMobil Tennis Open from 3 to 8 January.
Checking out their schedules on their websites, neither Roger nor Rafa are playing in any tournaments in Australia until the Australian Open.
Once the Doha tournament finishes on 8 January, and until the Australian Open starts on 17 January, where will Roger and Rafa go for their training?
Will Roger hang out at his place in Dubai, spending some time with Mirka and the twins between training sessions?
What about Rafa?
Eight days is a long time in the tennis calendar. If it was the lead up to Wimbledon, he could have pretty much won the final of Queens and then gone back to Mallorca for a mini break in that time.
Maybe he and Uncle Tony will hire a huge house in Toorak with a private tennis court and big fence?
Until we see both boys, springy and fresh and ready to slam at the Australian Open, where in the world will they be in January?
If you have any intel, would be great if you can share it in the comments below.
Until next time
Grand Slam Gal
Australian January tennis viewing starts with the Hopman Cup, which brings out some top tennis and gives the viewing public a taste of who has the form and stamina to play well in hot Australian conditions.
Eight countries are invited to play at this invitation only, round robin event, with a men’s and women’s player representing each country.
This year at the Hopman Cup we’ll get to see the form of Novak Djokovic, John Isner and Andy Murray.
Here is the full team list, courtesy of the Hopman Cup website.
Serbia: Novak Djokovic, Ana Ivanovic
USA: John Isner, Bethanie Mattek-Sands
Great Britain: Andy Murray, Laura Robson
Belgium: Ruben Bemelmans, Justine Henin
Italy: Potito Starace, Francesca Shiavone
Kazkhstan: Andrey Golubev, Yaroslava Shvedova
Australia: Lleyton Hewitt, Alicia Molik
France: Nicholas Mahut, Kristina Mladenovic
With a strong field and similar conditions to the Australian Open, the Brisbane International is usually a good place for the top players to get ready for the AO.
Although this year the weather has been far from the norm. In Brisbane, temperatures are expected to get back to 30 degrees C next week but so far the conditions in Brisbane have been really wet. Combine this with the weirdness of Melbourne’s weather lately, who knows what type of weather weather the players should be adjusted for by the time the second half of January rolls around.
Top 10 Players
Robin Soderling – No 5
Andy Roddick – No 8
Fernando Verdasco – No 9
The rest of the Brisbane International line up
Fish, Mardy USA No.16
Baghdatis, Marcos CYP No.20
Lopez, Feliciano ESP No.32
Mayer, Florian GER No.37
Istomin, Denis UZB No.40
Granollers, Marcel ESP No.41
Simon, Gilles FRA No.42
de Bakker, Thiemo NED No.43
Benneteau, Julien FRA No.44
Dolgopolov, Alexandr UKR No.48
Becker, Benjamin GER No.53
Berrer, Michael GER No.55
Petzschner, Philipp GER No.57
Anderson, Kevin RSA No.61
Stepanek, Radek CZE No.62
Giraldo, Santiago COL No.64
Kamke, Tobias GER No.67
Serra, Florent FRA No.69
Kubot, Lukasz POL No.70
Sela, Dudi ISR No.75
Clement, Arnaud FRA No.78
Andreev, Igor RUS No.79
It’s also worth watching the form of Australian Open wildcard winner, Marinko Matosevic, who has been given a wildcard for the Brisbane International.
As always, expect to see some top men’s tennis going on at this Sydney tournament.
Juan Martin Del Potro has been given a wildcard and there will be a lot of interest in his comeback form, following the wrist injury and surgery that kept him out of action during 2010.
Here is the full line up of men for the Medibank International.
Sam Querrey USA No. 1
Marcos Baghdatis CYP No. 20
Ernests Gulbis LAT No. 24
Richard Gasquet FRA No. 29
Viktor Troicki SRB No. 30
Feliciano Lopez ESP No. 32
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez ESP No. 33
Yen-Hsun Lu TPE No. 35
Florian Mayer GER No. 37
Jarkko Nieminen FIN No. 38
Juan Ignacio Chela ARG No. 39
Denis Istomin UZB No. 40
Gilles Simon FRA No. 42
Julien Benneteau FRA No. 44
Jeremy Chardy FRA No. 45
Sergiy Stakhovsky UKR No. 46
Potito Starace ITA No. 47
Alexandr Dolgopolov UKR No. 48
Andreas Seppi ITA No. 52
Juan Martin Del Potro WC
Along with the Medibank International, this tournament butts right up against the Australian Open, with only one day off between the final and Day One of the AO.
Although the matches are only 3 sets maximum, this tournament allows top ranked men to play each other and really find their form in Melbourne conditions.
Here are the players for this year’s AAMI Classic.
Jurgen Melzer
Nikolay Davydenko
Gael Monfils
Lleyton Hewitt
Mikhail Youzhny
Thomas Berdych
Jo Wilfred-Tsonga
Fernando Verdasco
Pat Cash and Henri Leconte will play in the “Legends of the Game” throughout the tournament. I’m expecting some fun from those guys!
The good news for the Australian Open is that the Top 100 Men are all confirmed to play.
Did you notice the absence of Roger and Rafa in the lists above? Watch for my post tomorrow on that topic!
Until then
Grand Slam Gal
When it comes to watching tennis on TV, the quality of the commentary makes all the difference for me in terms of how much I enjoy the match.
I like a commentator who knows their stuff, both the technical aspects of how the game is played and the interesting snippets of trivia, but who also knows when to stop talking!
Jim Courier is my all time favourite
As someone who watches as much of the Australian Open as possible every year, both live and on TV, my favourite commentator is Jim Courier. He really knows what he is talking about, he has an easy voice to listen to, and I particularly love the on court interviews that he does at the end of the centre court matches. He’s great at getting players to open up about their personal life, and having a laugh with them. Like getting Roger Federer to talk about his twin girls and how much he loves being a dad.
I hope he’s still coming to the Australian Open 2011 now that he has become leader of the US Davis Cup team. Does anyone know?
Although Henri Leconte runs a very close second
Jim may have all the right moves and knowledge, but Henri sure cleans up when it comes to enthusiasm. The first time I heard his commentary was the huge Tsonga v Almagro match at the Aus Open this year. And I’m hoping he comes back again to keep us entertained!
I know that there are way more good tennis commentators out there than I have experienced while watching tennis on TV mainly from Australia. I did enjoy Sue Barker’s coverage of Wimbledon for the BBC when I was there to watch it.
Who is your favourite tennis commentator? Broaden my mind and let me know by leaving a comment below!
Hi, I’m Mel from Melbourne aka Grand Slam Gal.
In 2012, along with my trusty side kick Ball Boy, I’m planning to have a red hot go at attending all four Grand Slam tennis events; Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.
And I’ll be writing about my adventures here on this blog. Read more about Grand Slam Gal.
Along with articles about the tennis matches and the players, I’ll be writing about the whole Grand Slam experience including:
I’ll also be blogging about selected pleasantries relevant to each of the four cities where the Grand Slam events are held. Things like “The Grand Slam of Cheese”, “The Grand Slam of Day Trips”, “The Grand Slam of Restaurants” and “The Grand Slam of Snack Packs (to keep you going during the events)”.
If you’ve ever dreamed of doing the tennis Grand Slam, or you’re planning to go to one of the events some time in the future, you’re invited to share the experience with me by:
Ball Boy and I need a lot of support to make our Grand Slam plan a reality. We’re open to all offers of support! Please view the Sponsors page for more info.
Between slams I’ll blog every week or two. In the lead up to, and during a Grand Slam event, I’ll be blogging more frequently.
I’ve chosen 2012 as the year of the tennis Grand Slam because that’s the year that I turn 40.
As a bonus, the Olympics are on in London the same year.
And I don’t want to wait any longer.
Until next time, game on!
Hi and thanks for visiting the Grand Slam Gal website.
The blog will be launched soon. Please connect with me via the links to the right to receive updates.
Thanks
Grand Slam Gal