Bernard Tomic, the cocky teenager who was treated like a national hero until Roger Federer taught him a lesson at the Australian Open, has again been pulled over by police on the Gold Coast.
Tomic drives a distinctive orange BMW sports car and has been given a special license while he remains on his P-Plates that allows the teenager to drive the powerful car only between home and his practice courts. Read more
Posted in Australian Open, Bernard Tomic, Damir Dokic, Media, Roger Federer
Tagged John Tomic
In a strange, yet high quality, match that saw Rafael Nadal robbed of vital points by poor line calls repeatedly, Rafa has battled the huge serves and powerful, flat ground strokes of Tomas Berdych to book a place in the Australian Open semi finals. It took Nadal four hours and 16 minutes but he eventually walked away with the 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 win that finished right at midnight.
Both players had early break point opportunities but were unable to convert, Nadal fighting against the booming serve of Berdych and incredibly flat ground strokes.
The 12th game of the first set went for over 8 minutes with Berdych having triple set point. His incredible defensive skills saved the second break point as he somehow stayed alive in a point he should have lost multiple times. Despite a fourth point for Berdych, Rafa dug deep and forced a tiebreak. Read more
Posted in Australian Open, Match Report, Media, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Tomas Berdych
There was never any doubt that one of tennis’ most psychologically strong men, Lleyton Hewitt, would give everything he had against Novak Djokovic and he did. After a rough first set Hewitt changed his tactics and gave Novak more of a fight.
Hewitt was handily battered by Djokovic in the first two sets and then put his body on the line to get the third. After feeling a chance to go up 4-3 Hewitt was left frustrated as the opportunity went wanting.
Lleyton struggled to scramble everything back as it became obvious he was even compensating as he walked to keep the pressure off his degenerated big toe. Then he started shaking out his hands as he struggled to block out his screaming body. Read more
Posted in Australian Open, David Ferrer, Injury, Lleyton Hewitt, Match Report, Novak Djokovic
I think it’s safe to say that even though we’re only just into the first day of the second week that this has been the strangest Australian Open ever.
There have been a significant number of injuries on both the men’s and women’s side but at the time of writing there had been an incredible 8 retirements and 1 withdrawal on the men’s side alone.
Rafael Nadal injured his knee getting up from a chair but played on. Kim Clijsters re-sprained her troublesome ankle but played on. Li Na seemed to be the kiss of death for ankles knocking both Anabel Medina Garrigeus and Kim Clijsters to the ground in the early stages of their first set. Read more
Posted in Anabel Medina Garrigues, Australian Open, Bernard Tomic, David Ferrer, David Nalbandian, Donald Young, Fernando Verdasco, Gilles Simon, Injury, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, John Isner, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Kei Nishikori, Kim Clijsters, Li Na, Lleyton Hewitt, Marcos Baghdatis, Media, Nicolas Almagro, Rafael Nadal, Tomas Berdych
Rafael Nadal is one of the fairest men in tennis and he wont be impressed by Tomas Berdych’s snub of his compatriot Nicolas Almagro. It’s not the first time Rafa will have been irritated by Berdych’s behaviour so it’s going to make for an interesting quarterfinal particularly given how well Nadal plays when he’s irritated and how much the crowd now hate Berdych.
So here’s an old clip of Nadal telling Berdych that it’s not OK to silence the Spanish crowd. The clip is from Madrid 2006 and you’ll need to skip to 6.50. It seems Tomas likes to ruin perfectly good matches with bad behaviour Read more
Posted in Australian Open, Media, Nicolas Almagro, Rafael Nadal, Tomas Berdych
Besides ‘poor form’ and ‘poor Nico’ there really isn’t much else to say.
Posted in Australian Open, Media, Nicolas Almagro, Tomas Berdych
Rafael Nadal was too good for his countryman and good friend Feliciano Lopez today, handily beating him 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. Lopez was crippled by his own errors, his backhand repeatedly breaking down
Despite an exchange of breaks early in the second set Nadal steadied, reducing his unforced errors and cruised to the finish line as a frustrated Feliciano struggled to make in roads in the match. Read more
Posted in Australian Open, Feliciano Lopez, Injury, Rafael Nadal, Tomas Berdych
‘Aussie Kim’ needed her fans today after a nasty tumble at 3-3 in the first set against Li Na saw the Australian Open defending champion roll the ankle she struggled with last year. After halting play immediately Clijsters returned with a heavily strapped ankle and impaired movement and it looked as though Kim’s final day as a professional athlete at the Australian Open was over.
Despite looking like she might get steam rolled Kim said she didn’t want to retire from her last match at Melbourne Park and said “You just keep fighting because you never know what goes on the other side of the court,” and sure enough something was happening down the other end of the court. Read more
Posted in Australian Open, Caroline Wozniacki, Injury, Jelena Jankovic, Kim Clijsters, Li Na, Media
