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

“Want to walk around?”

I’m sure there’s a purpose for this… drill? But Mono being tied to the fence by her father in practice is a mildly disturbing sight.

Pico hitting with his doubles partner Kei. After practice, Kei was hounded for autographs. He looked shocked but tried to sign for every single fan.

.

How do you feel about drawing Vika once again?

Put a shirt on, Feli. This is not a very good look for you.

You know, two good lookin’ guys just chillin’.

Aaaaaaaand awkward.

I know, Benny, me too. Me too.

Andy made a rare appearance at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden practice courts.

Doubles love in IW

3 of the Top 4 players on the ATP World Tour have entered the doubles draw in Indian Wells. Novak Djokovic will play with Viktor Troicki, Andy Murray with his brothers Jamie and 2010 Indian Wells doubles champions, Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez, will team up once again.

Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka, who played doubles with all those three teams last year, have yet to enter. What gives? That Davis Cup incident still stings a bit, Stan? A rematch of that Fedal doubles showdown last year would have been fun. Oh, well, let’s hope the draw gods give us some Rafole doubles. Maybe Rafa can finally get a win, yes?

Other notable entries are: 2009 champions, Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga with Julien Benneteau.

Image © Maria Noble

Australian Open 2011: A look ahead to Day 1

And so we begin. The first major of the year starts today and I can only hope that it doesn’t start the way it did last year. Some very big names will be in action. They’ll try to survive and fight off those first round nerves. Roger Federer, Caroline Wozniacki, Novak Djokovic, Maria Sharapova, Andy Roddick, Venus Williams and Justine Henin are scheduled to play.

Of course, the tennis powers would put Masha on the same court and time as last year. They like to torture us that way. It’s kinda fun. NOT.

Matches I will be keeping an eye on:

• Tamarine Tanasugarn vs Maria Sharapova [14]
  You know why.
• Caroline Wozniacki [1] vs Gisela Dulko
  Gise has a reputation of taking out top seeds early in tournaments. Can she do it here?
• Yanina Wickmayer [21] vs Jarmila Groth
  Jarka just won a tournament and she’s on a nice roll. This should be a fun match.
• Alison Riske vs Svetlana Kuznetsova [23]
  I like Ali, she’s my favorite “up and coming” American. I also like Sveta because she’s Sveta. I just want a good match, ladies.
• Julien Benneteau vs Juan Monaco [26]
  Pretty, pretty!
• Barbora Zahlavova Strycova vs Aravane Rezai [17]
  Blood, sweat and tears for this match.
• Carlos Berlocq vs Robin Haase
  Go, Robin!

Full Day 1 schedule here.

Image via Getty

Wimbledon 2010: A look ahead to Day 7

There’s going to be blood and tears. Let’s get real, Serena would like to see Maria bleed to death in their Round of 16 match. Hence, the tears from me.

The second Monday at Wimbledon is single-handedly the best Monday in tennis. All R16 matches will be played and it is always wild. Sometimes the rain makes it wild but forecast says the matches will be the ones taking all the attention this year.

Day 7 schedule:

Centre Court

• Roger Federer [1] vs Jurgen Melzer [16]
• Serena Williams [1] vs Maria Sharapova [16]
• Sam Querrey [18] vs Andy Murray [4]

No. 1 Court

• Kim Clijsters [8] vs Justine Henin [17]
• Novak Djokovic [3] vs Lleyton Hewitt [15]
• Paul-Henri Mathieu vs Rafael Nadal [2]

No. 2 Court

• Jarmila Groth vs Venus Williams [2]
• Caroline Wozniacki [3] vs Petra Kvitova
• Yen-Hsun Lu vs Andy Roddick [5]

Court 5

• Tsvetana Pironkova vs Marion Bartoli [11]
• Klara Zakapalova vs Kaia Kanepi (Huh?)

Court 12

• Vera Zvonareva [21] vs Jelena Jankovic [4]
• Julien Benneteau [32] vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga [10]
• Robin Soderling [6] vs David Ferrer [9]

Court 18

• Na Li [9] vs Agnieszka Radwanska [7]
• Tomas Berdych [12] vs Daniel Brands

Game on, boys and girls!

Wimbledon 2010: Day 6 wrap

Day 6 was relatively tame. There were two upsets; Victoria Azarenka, who made the quarterfinals last week, and Flavia Pennetta, all-around bad ass.

Rafael Nadal was taken to 5 sets again for the second straight round here in Wimbledon. He called for the trainer a few times during the match to treat his knee. All these long matches are not doing him any favors but then again he probably wouldn’t need 5 sets to take these guys out if he were 100%. Rough.

Q. How much are you worried about your knee? Is there a risk you should skip the Davis Cup tie after Wimbledon?

RAFAEL NADAL: Yeah. Well, sure, I am a little bit scared about the knee. But, you know, it happen. I had a treatment after Monte‑Carlo. So I had the problem. I didn’t say nothing before, but you know, guys, how is everything. I had the problem against Roddick in the semifinals of Miami.

I don’t like to say nothing in that moment because when you lose, always looks like an excuse. But I can say now I had the problem after I played in Monte‑Carlo with a little bit of pain on the knee, on the left knee, because that’s what happened there.

After Monte‑Carlo, I didn’t play Barcelona because I had to do a treatment, new treatment. You know, I tried to play the clay season perfect because in that moment the right knee was better than the left. But at the same time I know the knees are not hundred percent recovered. But playing on clay and maybe on grass, if is not very long matches, can work well.

But the last treatments I did between Monte‑Carlo and Rome was perfect. I didn’t have no one more problem on the left knee. But just I did one time, and I need to do three times.

I didn’t have time to do it at the right knee before because I had to play. The clay season was my main goal of the season. After here I gonna do it another time, no? My goals for me is a big disappointment not be in the Davis Cup on France, you know. Some confrontations, if you play at home against some country, maybe you cannot play this one. But playing in France for me is a very special confrontation and a very big motivation for me.

But I talked with the captain, I talked with the president of the Federation a few days ago, and I said, Guys, I never arrive to the US Open with my hundred percent of conditions. I had last year broken abdominal, two years ago playing crazy here. After Olympics, I did arrive very tired. And I really want to try to go there with my best chances, no, to play, to play my hundred percent.

So I need to do this treatment after here. If I play Davis Cup, I don’t have enough time to recover and play tournaments, Cincinnati. Everything was perfect for me last few months, and I need to be ready to finish the season well. My goal is try to keep having the chance to be No. 1 for the rest of the season. That’s gonna be difficult. But if you are not in hundred percent of condition, is going to be impossible.

Day 6 results:
Serena Williams (1) def. Dominika Cibulkova 6-0, 7-5
Caroline Wozniacki (3) def. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (29) 7-5, 6-4
Agnieszka Radwanska (7) def. Sara Errani (32) 6-3, 6-1
Na Li (9) def. Anastasia Rodionova 6-1, 6-3
Klara Zakopalova def. Flavia Pennetta (10) 6-2, 6-3
Petra Kvitova def. Victoria Azarenka (14) 7-5, 6-0
Maria Sharapova (16) def. Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 7-5, 6-3
Kaia Kanepi def. Alexandra Dulgheru (31) 6-1, 6-2

Rafael Nadal (2) def. Philipp Petzschner 6-4, 4-6, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-3
Andy Murray (4) def. Gilles Simon (26) 6-1, 6-4, 6-4
Robin Soderling (6) def. Thomaz Bellucci (25) 6-4, 6-2, 7-5
David Ferrer (9) def. Jeremy Chardy 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 7-5
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (10) def. Tobias Kamke 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (7-1)
Sam Querrey (18) def. Xavier Malisse 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-2, 5-7, 9-7
Julien Benneteau (32) def. Fabio Fognini 6-4, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3
Paul-Henri Mathieu def. Thiemo De Bakker 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (8-10), 6-4

Image via Getty

Roland Garros: Day 1 wrap

Day 1 came and went and I saw a total of 3 games (it was in 3D) before I passed out. Rough night for me but I’m sure Victoria Azarenka’s had a rougher string of days so I’m not going to complain.

Vika lost to Gisela Dulko in their opening round match 1-6, 2-6. The loss isn’t surprising considering Vika’s injury and form of late but that scoreline was definitely unexpected.

Vika’s boyfriend, Ernests Gulbis, retired in his first round match against Julien Benneteau while down 4-6, 2-6, 0-1. There goes everyone’s money. Funny how both Ernie and Vika have hamstring issues.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was taken to a deciding set by Daniel Brands. Crazy! But Jo pulled through (thank God!) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-7(2), 7-5.

One more notable scoreline, Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez lost her opening round match to Agkul Amanmuradova 2-6, 4-6. Good news for Elena Dementieva?

Complete list of today’s scores here.

Image via Getty