Australian Open 2012 - Day 5

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Order of play

Rod Laver Arena
11:00 AM Men's Singles - 3rd Round
Lukas Lacko(SVK) vs. Rafael Nadal(ESP)[2]
Men's Singles - 3rd Round
Ivo Karlovic(CRO) vs. Roger Federer(SUI)[3]
7:00 PM Men's Singles - 3rd Round
Alexandr Dolgopolov(UKR)[13] vs. Bernard Tomic(AUS)
Women's Singles - 3rd Round
Anabel Medina Garrigues(ESP)[26] vs. Na Li(CHN)[5]

Hisense Arena
11:00 AM Women's Singles - 3rd Round
Victoria Azarenka(BLR)[3] vs. Mona Barthel(GER)
Women's Singles - 3rd Round
Caroline Wozniacki(DEN)[1] vs. Monica Niculescu(ROU)[31]
Men's Singles - 3rd Round
John Isner(USA)[16] vs. Feliciano Lopez(ESP)[18]
7:00 PM Women's Singles - 3rd Round
Kim Clijsters(BEL)[11] vs. Daniela Hantuchova(SVK)[20]
Men's Singles - 3rd Round
Yen-Hsun Lu(TPE) vs. Juan Martin Del Potro(ARG)[11]

Margaret Court Arena
Tomas Berdych(CZE)[7] vs. Kevin Anderson(RSA)[30]

Show Court 2
11:00 AM Women's Singles - 3rd Round
Nina Bratchikova(RUS) vs. Iveta Benesova(CZE)
Not Before:2:30 PM
Men's Singles - 3rd Round
Stanislas Wawrinka(SUI)[21] vs. Nicolas Almagro(ESP)[10]
Women's Singles - 3rd Round
Romina Oprandi(ITA) vs. Julia Goerges(GER)[22]
Men's Singles - 3rd Round
Alejandro Falla(COL) vs. Philipp Kohlschreiber(GER)

I don't think either. Dolgo is the classical player Fed loves to play against.

Tennis needs players like Dolgopolov just for the variety and unpredictability factor.

Tomic looks an absolute nailed-on slam champ of the future but (then again) hasn't that been said before.

Well obviously because Dolgo's game won't make him uncomfortable and the 70+ UEs today suggest that Fed would beat him in a shotmaking contest.

Jiayou Li Na

I wish them both well in future, but this all out slicing game is painfull to watch. But sure we have a couple of future GS winners.

break_in_the_fifth wrote:Well obviously because Dolgo's game won't make him uncomfortable and the 70+ UEs today suggest that Fed would beat him in a shotmaking contest.

True but Dolgo would have got a nicer ball to time that those soft pushed sliced.

Tenez wrote:

break_in_the_fifth wrote:Well obviously because Dolgo's game won't make him uncomfortable and the 70+ UEs today suggest that Fed would beat him in a shotmaking contest.

True but Dolgo would have got a nicer ball to time that those soft pushed sliced.

Really? He'd be a lot more rushed. Those pushed slices were his chances to go for winners and from where I started watching he was guilty of quite a few himself.

Some great shots by Li Na to get the early break.

I am not saying Dolgo woudl have won, but he would have played much better than v Tomic.

Some players raise your games, others drag you down.

I can see where you're coming from, I wasn't referring to winning or losing either and was also considering how his game would look against Fed. To b e honest I've only seen him play twice, the other time being against Djokovic at the US open.

Quite a bad fall for Anabel, might be over for her. Shes was playing well as well and was pushing Li Na.

Shame the match had to end like that after starting pretty well. Li Na for the womens title.

Good to know that there is still British interest in the doubles with Fleming / Hutchins beating Kunitsyn / Bogomolov Jr. 6-0, 6-3 to reach the 3rd round. Thought I'd mention it now as their next opponents are the Bryan brothers.

bogbrush wrote:

laverfan wrote:230 match wins in slams. Second to Connors.

How many did Jimmy get?

BB did not see this earlier. Connors has 233. Federer has arrived at this much earlier than Connors, IIRC.

Federer will have to beat Tomic, Del Potro and Nadal (potentially) to equal.

http://sports.yahoo.com/tennis/news?slug=ycn-9063943

Win the thing to break the record then!

Jimmy played until his late sixties as well, if I recall correctly.

bogbrush wrote:Win the thing to break the record then!

Jimmy played until his late sixties as well, if I recall correctly.

Yep - At times while coaching Roddick, he wanted to take Roddick's racquet and play in his stead.

Connors will be playing in the Champions Tour event in Zurich, along with Henman, Safin, Leconte & Phillipousis.

Safin?????

What a comic...the year he left he said he would never be a commentator or do the old tour, that there was plenty of great things to do in life besides tennis.

Looks like it did not take him long to explore the rest of the world.

Has anyone watched that 1set TB between Fed v Karlo? Ivo is really a more complete player than some may think. I know I have said that many times but he wins a crucial long rally v Fed at a key time on Fed's serve.

He seems more mobile than a couple of years ago too.

I watched that tie break. It was electric! Federer catching hold of a serve at last and at such an important part of the match was amazing.

Tenez

I think Karlovic may be just your sort of player. He has the opposite of a "physical" style. In fact when recieving sometimes he couldn't even be bothered with all that running about malarkey and just let the ball go. His game is virtually made up of winners. He could still be playing when he is 40.

This is something I was wondering, listening to the streams through my headphones.

You know how you get the shots, usually where the play is stretching gets a racket on the ball and the ball then goes flying into the crowd. Well played mate, I think to myself, good point. And then the ball lands out of screen and I suddenly hear "OUTTT!!!"

I take it line judges still need to shout out even if it lands about 20ft wide.