lol who are we kidding... roger for an early upset? even when sick the man can destroy 95% if the mens draw.

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How fucking brutal and sad in my opinion, the BS that this Indian womens tennis player has to go through. . .

quote:

Mirza tries to focus on game despite criticism from fellow Indians, Muslims Jan. 15, 2008 CBSSports.com wire reports MELBOURNE, Australia -- Sania Mirza wishes her only concerns ahead of a tennis match involved studying the strengths and weaknesses of her opponent. These days, she's taking phone calls from her lawyers in India, answering questions about her loyalty to her home country, consistently having to defend herself over her Muslim beliefs, and in her darkest times, considering quitting the sport. "It's not easy to deal with things like that off the court ... I am not superhuman, so it does affect me," Mirza said Tuesday after her first-round victory at the Australian Open. "As much as I try to block it out, it's still in the back of your mind." When she first came on the WTA Tour full time three years ago -- her first Grand Slam was the Australian Open in 2005 -- she was often criticized for her short skirts and midriff-revealing T-shirts that put her at odds with sections of the orthodox Muslim clergy. As of last week, she's having her nationalism questioned. She was photographed at the Hopman Cup mixed team tournament in Perth, Western Australia, in early January with her bare feet positioned near an Indian flag. On Jan. 9, a social worker went to a court in downtown Bhopal and had a judge issue a summons under the "Prevention of Insult to the National Honor Act." The court was told that Mirza disrespected the Indian flag by "sitting in a manner so that her feet pointed at the flag, which he felt was derogatory and had hurt him." Mirza disagrees. "I wouldn't do anything to disrespect my country. I love my country," said Mirza, who's from the southern Indian city of Hyderabad. "I wouldn't be playing Hopman Cup otherwise. But other than that, I am not allowed to comment because it is before the courts." She admitted she considered quitting tennis last week, ending a career that has netted one WTA Tour title and seven finals appearances. "It does play on your mind. You do start to think that at the end of the day, I am not a politician to outsmart people," Mirza said. "That's not what I am trying to do, which is to play tennis. I'm 21 and trying to be the best I can be. "A lot of thoughts went through my head in the past couple of weeks, and one of the thoughts was (quitting). But I wouldn't say that they were serious enough that I would quit right now." Eventually on Tuesday, No. 31-seeded Mirza talks about what she did on the court -- a 6-4, 6-2 victory against wild-card entry Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan. "It was very tricky to play again, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to blank out everything and play a tennis match," Mirza said. In 2005, she became the first Indian woman to advance to the third round of any Grand Slam, losing to Serena Williams here after being granted an Asian region wild card. This year, she could face Venus Williams in the third round -- if she beats Switzerland's Timea Bascinszky in the second -- providing a calming sense of symmetry to counteract all the off-court madness. "It is very special; there were a lot of firsts involved," Mirza says of 2005. "I always feel confident when I come back here." Once she's finished talking about court cases, nationalism, religion and tennis, the inevitable question -- about cricket -- comes up. It is by far the No.1 sport in India. Last week, India's cricketers threatened to quit their Down Under tour over the suspension of spin bowler Harbhajan Singh for allegedly making racist taunts to an Australian player and after a series of poor umpiring decisions cost them the second test in Sydney. "At the end of the day, it is a sport, and we deal with bad line calls on a daily basis," Mirza says, then adds, smiling, "I have my own set of controversies to deal with." AP NEWS The Associated Press News Service Copyright 2007-2008, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved http://www.sportsline.com/tennis/story/10577428

Brutal.

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quote:

Henin rolls on at Australian Open Melbourne, Australia (Sports Network) - Justine Henin won her 30th straight match on Wednesday at the Australian Open, posting a comfortable straight-set victory to reach the third round at the season's first major. Henin doused Russia's Olga Poutchkova 6-1, 7-5 in 1 hour, 23 minutes to reach the third round. She was joined by plenty of tournament favorites, as third- seeded Serbian Jelena Jankovic fought through a second set that pushed past one hour in a 6-2, 7-5 win over Edina Gallovits, while American Serena Williams downed Chinese Meng Yuan 6-3, 6-1. The three-time Aussie Open champion Williams played with purpose and continued her stellar play at the major in Melbourne. Former Aussie Open champion and former No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo slipped past Russia's Yaroslava Shvedova 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), No. 25 Francesca Schiavone from Italy beat Germany's Angelique Kerber 6-2, 6-3, 26th-seeded Victoria Azarenka swept Sandra Kloesel 6-1, 6-1 and France's Virginia Razzano, the 30th seed this week, escaped Italy's Flavia Pennetta 6-2, 5-7, 6-3. The only seeded player to go down in early action was No. 15 Patty Schnyder, who fell to Aussie Casey Dellacqua. The countrywoman fed off the home crowd in a 4-6, 7-5, 8-6 victory that took over two hours. Other second-round winners included Russia's Elena Vesnina, who downed veteran American Jill Craybas 6-2, 6-4, and Japan's Ai Sugiyama, who advanced past Tatiana Perebiynis 6-4, 6-4. The big match of the day will pit fifth-seeded and former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova against unseeded former top-ranked star Lindsay Davenport. The two-time major champion and 2007 Aussie Open runner-up Sharapova is 4-1 lifetime against the three-time Grand Slam event winner Davenport. http://www.tsn.ca/tennis/news_story...&hubname=tennis

OK -- wish I could have seen coverage of it (sadly I've seen like NO Henin coverage yet this tourney, save for 5 mins when they cut to it during the Jankovic match on Monday night.


And I'll def wanna be watching the Sharapova vs. Davenport match.

Not a fan of Davenport at all, but have become awed by her w/ her incredible return to tennis 6 months hafter having a kid! Jesus... and must realize she was outota the game for about a year prior to that too, before having the baby. You cant help but respect that kind of a come back, being so strong, after being away from the game for over a year, AND after having a child -- cant imagine how much work it would have taken her to get back in match (not to mention "Open") form.

And Sharapova, well, i alwasy enjoy watching her matches. Hmmmm...


(Dont wanna spoil the results incase anyone hopes to see coverage of it tonight . . . I'm kinda surprised -- but not really I guess)

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Last edited by Jem_hadar on Jan-16-2008 at 15:25

quote:

Notes: Henin agrees with WTA Tour boss on doping Jan. 16, 2008 CBSSports.com wire reports http://www.sportsline.com/tennis/story/10579224 MELBOURNE, Australia -- Justine Henin agrees with WTA Tour chairman Larry Scott that players should be suspended as soon as they test positive to doping, instead of waiting for an appeal. Under current policies, once A and B samples have tested positive, an appeals hearing, often months later, is held and players are allowed to continue competing. Scott said at the Australian Open that provisional suspensions could be introduced as early as next year. "That's the one dramatic step we could take to shorten the process," Scott said. "The time between the B sample testing positive and the tribunal hearing can be months; what's being discussed is possibly announcing a suspension after a B sample is positive, provisionally, and then it would be confirmed after the tribunal hearing, or not confirmed." "There's a sense that it would certainly speed up when a suspension's announced, and also force the parties, particularly the players and their team, to want to expedite it," Scott said, adding that sometimes the opposite happens now. There "is a sense that sometimes people aren't in a hurry to expedite it." Henin agreed. "I think as soon as you've tested positive you should be suspended at that time," the top-ranked Henin said after her straight-sets win in the second round Wednesday over Russian Olga Poutchkova. "It would be better for everyone if it could go faster, but I don't know the procedure and how it's working. Yeah, it's long ..." Although the WTA proposal would not affect men's tennis, Bob Bryan, one half of the American doubles team that has won the title here the last two years, cautioned against the sport moving too quickly to change the rules. He thinks that the legal presumption of innocence until proven otherwise is important. "The appeals take a long time, maybe up to six months," said Bryan. "But you got to think the guy is innocent, so they just can't rush to judgments."

^^ This has become such a scandal of late... so much increased awareness of this concern in tennis. This open has already seen I think it was 5 female players approaching to throw matches (well, 5 were reported anyways... but with rules as they are now, if a player is approached and does NOT report it, then they will be suspended as well anyways. the WTA and ATP are really trying, and justifiably, to squash this before it becomes a much larger problem.

I, for some reason, never really thought about match fixing when it came to tennis till last year... aroudn wimbledon i think was when teh first scandal became public (??)... i dunno... it def saddens me... seems to take some of the integrity out of the sport for me... hate to think my favourite sport is falling a victim to this plague. very disappointing... hopefully there hasnt been a (large) effect from it.... who knows truly though....

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Last edited by Jem_hadar on Jan-16-2008 at 15:35

This thing with Mirza is a shame...poor girl, honestly.
Instead of being an inspiration to female athletes in India, which lets be honest, are non-existent, it comes to this....

I hope she can block it out the best she can...


Fellow Croat Ivan Ljubicic is out...former #4, but the pinnacle of his career is passed, so not really that big an upset to me.
I kinda lost expectations for him about this time last yr...

Watch out for our young (19) Marin Cilic. Upset a seeded player in the 1st round,
and is the youngest player in the top 100 (ranked like #52).
Oh and ps, he's a Jr. French Open winner

Still nothing too surprising other than Murray going out...
and btw, dude who beat 'em, Tsonga, is into the 3rd round.
HEAVY, HEAVY serve...no one likes playing a guy like that.

Nice to see Sharapova crush Davenport, altho she's a yank i'm arite with.

quote:

Originally posted by TheVrk Instead of being an inspiration to female athletes in India, which lets be honest, are non-existent, it comes to this....

Yeah. Compare her sitch to Marcos Baghdatis, from Cyprus. He's an eff'n LEGEND in his home country now, since that Aussie Open final he made it to against Federer in 2006!

He's an inspiration to his whole country bc there have been no (or few) Cypriots (sp?) who've made a name for themselves and represented their country like him in tennis... i think i heard last year that apparently HIS name is more reknowned and known than the present's of his country... WOW!


And then look at Mirza... similar sitch with there being few Indian players making a mark in tennis to any great or impressive degree...

yet instead of being inspiration as you put it, like Baghdatis is to his HIS country, she's spurned and the subject of endless controversies, etc.

Thats the truly sad part. SUCH a shame, yea.

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Great comparison with Baghdatis...Cyprus has never really had any known athlete in ANY sport...
I do have to point out tho, his situation is different, coz he's in reality representing Greeks more.
His fans are not carrying Cypriot flags, but Greek...
...and thats a whole different convo on its own (the Greek vs Turk claim to Cyprus)

Whatever, its horrible Mirza is going thru this...i was SO glad to come to work, log onto Aussie Open.org and see that she won



No real upsets again, and its tuff to have many in the first 2 rounds.
The 3rd round is where it starts, and the 4th is where we have prime matchups begin.

BUT, as i mentioned Marin Cilic, he won his 2nd round match against Jurgen Melzer of Austria
Now he runs into last yr's finalist and #7 seed Fernando Gonzalez.
This would be a MONUMENTAL win for Cilic, the biggest in his career, but Gonzalez is TOUGH, so not expecting, just hoping.
Regardless, making to the 3rd round means MAJOR important points toward his ranking and he'll def move up from #52

The man who upset #9 Andy Murray (SCO), Jo-Wilfred Tsonga is into the 4TH round.

Tomorrow's my first FULL day of watching the Aussie Open.
Marin Cilic (CRO) plays #7 Fernando Gonzalez (CHI) at approx 3am my time here in Zagreb...definitely getting/staying up for this.

quote:

Originally posted by TheVrk This thing with Mirza is a shame...poor girl, honestly. Instead of being an inspiration to female athletes in India, which lets be honest, are non-existent, it comes to this....

srsly, keep the politics out of sport. Oh I'm offended because you pointed your feet unintentionally at my national flag... don't people have better things to do?

the woman is representing her country dumbass.

i think Mirza needs a stronger, or faster, game though if she's going to take on the likes of Williams and big baseline hitters.

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quote:

Originally posted by eRRaTiK faster, game .

Speaking of "fast" games...

Did anyone catch Justine Henin and the Italian Scivone (sp) last night?!!!


JESUS Christ -- I've NEVER seen Justine play a player that played more similarly to her in my life.

Both are very fit and in excellent athletic condition (though that can be said about most top 10,20,30,etc tennis players). they have the same "fit look" about them, and neither is that crazy tall as many/most women in this game are.

and they both have excellent 1 handed backhands! Great power produced from each with it, and shot making acheieved. I couldnt belive all the angles I was seeing last night coming off both their backhands! It was INCREDIBLE. so much varity.

And both seemed to be trying their hands at slices (esp backhand slices) and coming to net. I saw some pretty darn good serve and volleying coming from Henin! I was highly impressed w/ my girl, busting out the serve and volleying so far in the aussie open! nice to see her trying new things! esp that.

and both players are fast! esp the italian scivone (sp). jessu she'd run down balls à la Nadal stylez on the mens! it was incredible to see her get shots back to Justine after what i figured were winners... and more than once... even twice or three times in a point!


This was one of the more varied and interesting tennis games ive seen in a while. the work both player put in was fantastic. i loved the variety. this is what i hope to see tennis matches slowly come back too... revert from the baseline games they've become in the past 10-20 years, and become diverse with shot making. I WANT MORE NET!!!

I loved seeing justine run around to get her points.

More and more repsect to her every time I watch her play.

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ERRATIK I wouldnt be talking to THEVRK like that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hahahaha

by the way Ivan Erratik je dobar decko!

aint you Anf!

I was at the tennis on Monday & what a crazy day & night it was.
Rakija was lethal!

hahahaha

+ hot swedish fans