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

That was close

Well, that was a close one. Victoria Azarenka was on the verge of going 18-0 for the year with a 6-4, 5-1 lead over Mona Barthel. Over an hour later, she was on the verge of losing for the first time.

Even while leading, Vika seemed uncomfortable on-court constantly looking over to her team or up to the heavens. Something clearly did not feel right all match long so when she was able to build that 5-1 lead in the second set, perhaps her mind relaxed too much that easy errors came raining down. Vika then dug herself a hole in the final set surrendering a service game with 3 straight double faults to go down 2 breaks. (Is her last name Sharapova?)  Fortunately for her, her opponent could not contain her nerves and was unable to close out the match.

“It was survival,” Vika said. “To win when you’re not playing your best, it’s more joyful.”

Blowing a 5-1 lead against an opponent she previously had no trouble with was surely the opposite of joyful. But for now, the streak continues and improves to 18-0.

Image © Jeff Gross/Getty Images