Sam, Australia. Australia, Sam

I’ve seen a 5-2 lead in a set disappear too many times in my career as a tennis fan. We all saw it yesterday when Sam Stosur led by that scoreline in the 3rd set against Jie Zheng before she collapsed in front of her home crowd (where else?), 4-6 6-1 5-7. Although a 5-2 lead can be misleading sometimes, a player can lead by that much with only one break of serve, that wasn’t the case in this one. Sam was ahead 2 breaks and had all the momentum. She was asked about the c-word in her presser and didn’t disagree.

Q. How much of it was mental as opposed to physical?

SAMANTHA STOSUR: Oh, I think it’s a hundred percent. I think, yeah, that’s what it was. I got tight and then you start missing some balls. You probably think a little bit too much. You do it over and over and over again, and then, yeah, you start not wanting to miss rather than wanting to, you know, make the winner.

Q.  Do you think you choked?

SAMANTHA STOSUR:  I don’t know.  Whatever word you want to put on it.  At 5 2 up in the third, double break probably is a bit of a choke, yeah.

Oh, Sammy, why are you so scared of Australia?

Image © REUTERS/Daniel Munoz

Keep up, would you?

The first day of a slam. It’s all so exciting and you make plans that it’s going to be such a fun and relaxed day of tennis-watching. Two hours go by and suddenly everything is happening at the same time, you can’t keep up and it is now super stressful. We fumble with our keyboards trying to flip streams because Twitter said a good match is going on at Court 18. What if it ends up becoming an epic? No one wants to miss out on an epic. *fumble* *fumble* *bufferiiiiiiing…* “Goddamnit!” Also, World No. 547 is leading the 12th seed over on MCA. “Wait, he was but not anymore? Is my stream delayed?” No. 22 is getting routined over at 4. Your sometimes favorite is in a deciding set against some dangerous floater. There’s an upset alert on Hise… RaaaaaaaaaahIlovetennis!

I tried to absorb as much as I could on Day 1 of the Australian Open. I tried so hard that my brain was starting to tap out before the day session ended then nodded off 2 games into the Hewitt-Tipsarvic match. WEAK. In no particular order, here’s what I remember most about the first day:

• You don’t engage in a long rally with a “rusty” Maria Sharapova because she’ll come alive.
• Venus Williams is looking sharp early on and is on course to meet Sharapova in the 3rd round.
• Sam Stosur won her first match of the year! Phew.
• Agree with Andy Roddick, Novak Djokovic is still good at tennis.
• Patrick McEnroe’s seemingly ridiculous prediction almost came true. That’s what you get for laughing, tennis world. And me, too.
• Grigor Dimitrov flames out to veteran, Julian Benneteau. Kid still has a lot of work to do on the tennis court. *winkyfaceemoji*
• What happened, Juan Monaco? And who is Andrey Kuznetsov?
• Sad we won’t be seeing more of Mona Barthel’s wide array of outfits.
• Ana Ivanovic scored a good win over Melinda Czink.
• Yung-Jan Chan def Daniela Hantuchova 6-1, 1-6, 6-1. Yeeeaaaap, this is Dani’s life these days.

I’m sure I’m forgetting a few notable matches/results because I don’t think this is even 1/4 of the Day 1 happenings. Aaah! Let’s do it again!

Image © Getty Images

La Terre Battue

Are you ready for the second slam of the year? I’m not. But maybe you are. The draws come out tomorrow and for us who are not in Paris, we will mindlessly stare at our Twitter timelines and pretend to understand what’s happening as they pick out and place the players’ names.

Roger is in Nole’s half again… duh.

First round is… Rafa vs Nalby. WOT? Why do the tennis gods do this?

Hold on, nevermind. It’s actually Nalby vs Qualifier, I get confused which lines play each other.

Milos vs Murray third round. LOL. I think. I don’t know anymore!!!!

Every. Damn. Slam. I get quite the kick out of it.

Here are some must-reads/sees (according to me) as we look ahead to Roland Garros:

• Brian Baker. Keep an eye out for him.
  I hope he’s not too tired from Nice to make a mini run in Paris.
• The parallels of Rafael Nadal and Bjorn Borg’s clay court dominance.
• Great interviews with Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic on CNN
• Sport Illustrated writers preview the men’s field. Their pick for the title? Some guy whose name rhymes with Nafa.
• Richard Pagliaro’s 5 contenders for the women’s title. Hard to disagree with this list. I initially thought of Kvitova instead of Stosur but Petra limped out of Rome so her level is a big question mark right now.
• The floaters who might (or might not) shake it up for the top seeds.

In not really RG-related but kinda…

• Nole signs with Uniqlo. He’s not wearing all-white while rolling around the RG dirt, is he?
  Full disclosure: I wrote this.
• Pablo is on Twitter. That’s all. Move along.

Image via Roland-Garros

Tennis has jokes… kinda

© REUTERS/Michael Fiala

These are mostly videos I missed (or have bookmarked and forgot to share) while I was having too much fun in Indian Wells.

Who knew Rafa was a prankster?! Also, Muzz, JOHNNY BRAVO??? Really?

Best. Video. Ever.

Grisha and Dolly both want to “hit” the same racket. It’s hilarious…ly awkward.

Caro pulled a (fail) prank on Masha. I think after their quality time in MSG, Caro thought they were buds. Yikes. Sorry, high fives are not available at this time.

Speaking of Masha, do you ever wonder what goes on in her head when she’s posing for photos at her $ponsors’ events? Creep, wonder no more.

Guys, meet Andy Rocket. He says things like, “blah blah blah,” to be funny. I think.

Practice, practice, practice

Franny showing off her guns. No big deal.

Sabine and Lucie practicing together. After today’s match, clearly Sabine was the one who picked up a few things from this.

Muzz lookin’ like an absolute hottie from this angle.

Sam looking… scared?

Marion checking out the Povs in practice.

That’s just her face.

Finally, some Benoit and Ernests in their respective matches for the ladies.

Azarenka, Federer and Raonic stay perfect

KARIM JAAFAR/AFP/Getty Images

Victoria Azarenka keeps her unbeaten streak going and wins her third title of 2012. She improved to 17-0 after defeating Samantha Stosur in the Doha finals.

Vika is handling her post-grand slam breakthrough differently from the last 3 winners. While the others floated around the Tour after their wins seemingly hungover from all the glory, she keeps going and winning like she’s been expecting all of this. And perhaps she has, it’s been a long time coming. I have to admit, it’s refreshing to see someone in the women’s game not crumble under pressure. If Vika can remain healthy, who knows how long she can keep at this.

KOEN SUYK/AFP/Getty Images

Roger Federer, not a stranger to streaks, is currently riding a 24-0 one on indoor hard courts. His last loss on this surface was November 2010 against Gael Monfils at the Bercy Indoors. Since then, he has won 5 titles including this week’s ABN Amro World Tennis in Rotterdam.

Roger scored an routine 6-1, 6-4 victory in the finals over a surging Juan Martin del Potro. A good win for the 30-year old following the disappointing Davis Cup loss to the United States. He won’t let us forget that he’s still got it.

AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

In his two appearances at the SAP Open, this year and last, Milos Raonic has yet to lose a set. That’s right, a set. At this weekend’s championship match, he defeated Denis Istomin, 7-6(3), 6-2, to claim his third career ATP World Tour title.

Milos played incredibly well to defend his title. His serve was on fire (I think it could really kill someone.) and his forehand is at it’s best ever. It’s a little scary to think that he still has a lot of room for improvement. I’m really excited to watch him grow and see how far he can take his talents. (Hopefully, not to South Be… hahaaaa haa ha.)

Elsewhere

Nicolas Almagro successfully defended his Brazil Open title. He defeated Filippo Volandri in the finals, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

19-year-old Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino won her first ever WTA Tour title at the XX Copa BBVA Colsanitas in Bogota. She is the youngest Spanish player to win a title since Anabel Medina Garrigues won Palermo in 2001.

AO 2012: Day 2 Highlights

Match of the Day: Sorana Cristea defeated Samantha Stosur 7-6(2), 6-3

“Probably the whole country hates me now…. Everyone was focusing on her and maybe they forgot about me.” – Cristea after her win over Stosur

Absolutely. Well, I sure did. I looked at the draw and didn’t highlight this as a first round to watch. “Sam’s got a good first round,” I thought. Way to make me feel stupid, Sorana Banana.

Sori was clear on her gameplan against Sam—take cracks at the serve and constantly attack her backhand—and executed it close to perfection.  Sam was supposed to counter with her signature forehands and serving variations but instead her forehand collapsed and her serve was easy for Sori to read. Sam never plays well Down Under and that will most probably never change.

Elsewhere

Most top seeds cruised through to the second round except for Andy Murray and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who both needed 4 sets to dispatch their tricky opponents.

Fancy a little therapy session read? Please check out Jarmila Gajdosova’s press conference. You can’t help but feel for her and then develop an urge to slap everyone around her.

Image © Quinn Rooney/Getty Images