The first Grand Slam of 2014 gets underway in Melbourne, with the Australian Open starting the season with a bang. Novak Djokovic and Victoria Azarenka both attempt to defend their titles, whilst Rafael Nadal returns having withdrawn from last year's tournament due to illness. Home favourites Bernard Tomic and Lleyton Hewitt are both on top form, but there are plenty of top names and faces hoping to stop them in their tracks. Bring on the top tennis action!
Australian Open 2014
Published by Christine Blachford on
ahh, tennis. been away to long. currently have watson vs hantuchova on.
live scores for current matches: http://www.ausopen.com/en_AU/scores/index.html
game over. good match though.
didn't realise tennis was on both eurosport channels. no idea what to watch next.
might have to call it a night. i do like sports in my timezone.
hooray for tennis.....
leaving for Melbourne in a couple of hours, ive got a ground pass for the next three days wandering the courts, seeing what I can see. the forecast of 41, 39, 41 could be better but I suppose its slightly better than the 43, 43 41 forecast for the next three days here in Adelaide.
tomorrow should be a good day my two favourites are playing, sorana cirstea on an smaller court and also alize cornet, so they are the two I will definitely see and apart from that ill just see how it goes, could watch anything,
should have my camera there so ill post a few photos but here a handful from last year where I went over for a day.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/87237331@N03/sets/72157632619745755/
Loving Pat Rafter's sort of comeback :)
Tennis!
Watching "highlights" of Heather Watson and Laura Robson. Swift exit for the ladies!
watson did okay.
Hantuchova has a blue dress so I can't tell her apart from the court.
tennis camouflage.
looks like i have azarenka and larsson for company this morning.
set 2.
all done. i probably should have tuned in earlier for that one. oops.
now watching tsonga. close match (so far).
done. pretty straightforward in the end.
our commentator just described rafas shirt as 'becoming one with his torso'
its hot out there folks.
Just catching up on Twitter and it's all about the temperature. An extreme heat policy and everything!
For Mr C: http://twitter.com/AustralianOpen/status/423047296159195138/photo/1
Also, tough that Hewitt went out after what was almost an epic comeback.
well it was a bit warm I must say but there are plenty of water fountains and taps around, im guessing I drank about 42 litres of water and slapped on about 5 litres of sunscreen. it was quite breezy there, although a hot breeze as long as you got yourself wet it provided some relief.
saw bits and pieces of a lot of matches today, saw the whole cornet match, all 1 game before her opponent retired, that went quick, and also watched the whole sorana cirstea match which was a good tough couple of sets but unfortunately for me she lost. I met both cornet and cirstea today so im a very happy man.
could here the boos for tomic when he retired as we walked past rod laver arena.
Tricky situation. Even if he is really injured, it still looks like he's just scared of Nadal!
he comes across as being a bit fragile. would rather give up when it gets a bit tough.
yeah!!!
His mental stamina is shockingly low.
Christine was it you who was a Pat Rafter fan? He's about to play at the Australian Open for the first time since he retired in 2002!
Yes, yes! I saw he was coming back for doubles. These sports people that don't know what retirement means!
I see Pat's comeback wasn't very long. Boo.
Sharapova just squeaked through. You don't see so much of epic final sets on the women's side. But 10-8 in that heat... blimey.
It's quite ridiculous down there. Thankfully I'm not :)
I called my parents because the media has me convinced I'm going to die in the heat wave but I am loving this weather. I am loving watching tennis in this weather. I am pleased I'm not playing though.
Going by the comments of the Chief Medical Officer it's not that hot.
I think someone in Melbourne needs to acquire an antelope and let this lunatic chase it for 8 hours in that heat. He may find that if you chase an antelope for 10 seconds it will be so far away that you can't see it. I am fairly certain that primative humans, assuming they ate antelope, sneaked up on them and threw spears.
How can anyone so stupid get a medical qualification?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/25755065
:)
Hopefully you're not sitting opposite the sun in a stadium though ala Cardiff ;)
kicking off with barthel vs pennetta today. never heard of either.
am literally watching an ice cube melt on live tv. genius.
I just saw that, There were 2 or 3 sitting just off the court turning into a puddle. This will be Bernie's next plan for F1. Everyon objects to sprinklers so he will give us something entirely different - ice cubes
hehe. it enhances the drama. cut to ice cube for 30 seconds and suddenly the serves seem faster.
So we should give it a few years and expect to watch paint drying for 5 minutes every so often
it's the future!
:)
serena's match over already.
Melting ice cubes add a variability that the sprinkler system doesn't provide. Hot day and the track gets wetter faster but also dries faster. Cold day and no wet track.
after three great days at the tennis it doesn't take long to get back into reality, after a 10 hour bus trip home, i was home for about 10 minutes then straight back to work. good thing I could sleep on the bus. coming home though about 12:30 am, probably somewhere near the South Australian / Victorian border over the hills was this impressive looking but at the same time a touch scary orange glow from the bushfires still going now.
the tennis was awesome, wish I was still there, definitely think the ground pass is much better than the matches that are on rod laver arena or hisense arena, sure they get the bigger names but the better games are on the smaller or outside courts. loved getting there early and watching the practice, even got to see serena smack the furry ball around for a while.
on the Wednesday night I was having something to eat just sitting there with my brother about to leave when some lady came up to us an said do you want to go in rod laver arena, thought of course, turns out they were leaving so they gave their tickets away and we managed to see the last set and a half of the Ebden match v the Canadian, it was alright, (and the only mens match I saw for the three days) but I do prefer the atmosphere and closeness to the play of the outside courts.
there is plenty of water around and as long as you got wet and drank plenty. not to mention apply plenty of sunscreen all day it was fine to watch in that heat. must be that Anzac spirit but I thought it was fine there too. playing is another thing though, anyone that thinks tennis is soft is kidding themselves, its a tough sport, every point there is maximum effort, even watching training you realise just how much they put into chasing and hitting that ball around, when you throw in those extreme temperatures it just another thing to it.
really disappointing to hear that from 2015 margaret court arena will be solely another ticketed area and no longer available for those with ground passes. pretty soon if you cant get there on the first few days ground passes will only get doubles and juniors.
Watching a replay of Murray/Lopez. Thought Murray would take longer to get back into it after the back thing.
Tuned in just in time for a match point. Love it when that happens.
Didn't see Serena's match, but big surprise she's out already.
They just previewed Tsonga versus Federer, that should be a good one.
geez we make our ball boys tough.....didnt even flinch.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6SzspJ0GCk
ana is hitting the ball pretty sweetly right now, of course serena is claiming an injury as she always does every time she is beaten, opens the tourney up now for the women, anyone can win. azarenka still favourite but it wouldnt surprise me if sharapova, li na, ana ivnovic, radwanska or even bouchard or stephens can win, should be a cracking week of tennis. now i think of it look out for cibulkova too, ive actually backed her to beat sharapova tomorrow so probably should add her to the names who can win.
They really do need danger money.
We've got a repeat of Serena now.
sorting through my photos, found this, could be said perfect timing i guess, made me laugh anyway.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5534/12027862996_75b49ca7c5.jpg
heres a bunch of photos from my few days at the tennis if anyones interested.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/87237331@N03/sets/72157639928667645/
guess that means i'm watching it too :)
Some great shots in there.
she 100% was injured, i have insider info that i shouldnt have haha
Sharapova out now too! Bad start to the year for the big names!
caching, caching, caching............to the pub, its my shout........
shes always injured when she loses, never gives her opponent credit, but I do realise she was a bit sore yesterday.
murray getting booed for his usual petulant behaviour after losing the third set. nice.
I see channel 7 are as live as ever.
yeah im watching on foxtel, sorry if you were watching 'live' on 7
Can't get Foxtel here even if I wanted to pay that much for it mostly for IndyCar (and maybe V8s in future).
all I watch is sport on foxtel, the v8s are going to be huge in 2015, all practice, all qualifying and all races live, plus all support races live. that's the sport covered the way it should be covered these days.
considering whats wrong with her i was impressed how much she kept trying to turn her presser around to how well ana played.
you can get foxtel everywhere these days #internetz
http://www.foxtel.com.au/foxtelplay/home/default.htm
Federer looking sharp early
vintage federer
On the condition that you're home (no recording possible) and that the show isn't on the red button and is one of the limited channels available.
its the perfect solution for me because it has all the sports channels which are the only onesi care about, and i can't record on the normal foxtel boxes in my apartment anyway
Most of the stuff I want to watch is at 2am or on the red button with a mid-afternoon replay (while I'm at work). Makes life difficult :)
how can it be on at 2am your time, if it's also on at 2am our time?
whoop for quarterfinals. li na vs pennetta up first on eurosport.
I followed links to watch live video on the Australian Open website - geo-blocked for Aus :(
AusOpen website has their "Slamtracker", which is fine but there's a bar with a percentage next to the player's picture. No idea what it's meant to represent.
the colour matches the words "positive sentiment". might be related to that?
slam tracker rivals baseball for stat analysis. wow.
A bit of an odd choice of stat if it was.
appears to be tied to what people are tweeting.
*shrugsies*
It'd be interesting to see how motor racing would change if there was in-race statistical analysis like this. Things like number of times off track, number of short shifts, etc.
I thought that but it doesn't appear to be changing - so either it's stuck/broken or tweeters are very consistent.
hopefully one day. am worried we aren't even going to have live timing this year. there's no app and none of our browsers can run f1.com timing anymore. this kinda detail is a pipe dream!
Yes, I've noticed that too. Not sure why it's so slow to appear - I hope it's not going to be another Fan Vision (especially after buying one in 2012 - was useful for the NASCAR race it was purchased at as well as the US F1 but was meant to be useful still).
it could easily be another fanvision. damn.
Hmm...went to the Soft Pauer website - 500 error.
bugger. v8 & motogp pages have been removed too.
http://www.softpauer.com/v8-supercars.html
http://www.softpauer.com/motogpsite/
the slam tracker disappeared from one of the slams a couple of years ago. fan outrage bought it back.
it's super cool. how did i live without it?
where have you been, its been around for years! positive sentiment was only added at wimbledon last year, it updates every 10 minutes.
casually watching :)
Li Na thinks her racquets are her friends so she doesn't smash them. I gues other players think they are their enemies then
shes playing incredible, would love to see her win it
I have hardly seen any tennis but it was definitely a convincing score
i saw her play on sunday, everyone i was with was very impressed.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/01/put-a-bird-on-it-how-aussie-sport-is-being-dragged-into-the-future-with-twitter/
great post!
Purely coincidence finding that too - I was just doing normal lunch time reading.
I can just imagine Bernie's attitude to that.
"Bah, the internets won't last. It's just a fad. And get that damned dog off me"
(crosses fingers people have read that story)
it looked more like a bear stood next to him :)
Add in
I own all the videos and I own all the tweets.
The more I think of it Bernie reminds me of The Cat in Red Dwarf
But with nowhere near as much style.
When I heard how much footage Bernie had, all I could think was that he's obsessed with making money and sitting on a gold mine yet doing nothing to mine it.
He has a warped idea that it is worth more if access to it is scarce which has to be the most stupid business move ever.
I could see the point if he was 35 and trying to build up its value to cash in at a later date
Yeah but at 135, it's a bit late ;)
'Broadcast partners make the Australian Open search spectators at the gates for long-lensed cameras which may be used to replicate the images they’re taking'
tell me about it, the first day I had a few issues with a couple of staff workers their that took their jobs way too seriously, not so much those on the gates searching the bags, they didn't have a problem, (I put a small lens on the camera and wrapped my 300 mm lens in a towel on the bottom of my bag, they didn't search too hard, they just looked at the camera) but geez a few working around the courts need to relax a little. a couple of times I was told to put the camera away but after a while I learned to be a touch more discreet, they were plenty of regular spectators there with far bigger better lenses than mine, mostly they didn't mind, and they shouldn't.
woah djokovic in a little trouble
this match has it all. 5-5 in the fifth and it starts raining, very lightly.
geez so one of berdych or wawrinka will be in the final, berdych it is i feel
Just seen the Djokovic result! Amazing!
Go on Stan the Man :)
Sounds like it was an epic match too.
Clearly Stan the Man had a masterplan of which he ran in front of many an australian.
The last one was a stretch.
You could have had "fan".
Murray versus Federer looks like it might be a good match too. On at 8am UK time they reckon.
yay radwanska on eurosport this morning.
remarkably one-sided.
I had no idea that you were such a good tennis tipster. Amazingly one sided given their previous record
been watching ten minutes and i think i'm an expert :)
comeback starts here. he says with utmost confidence.
oh
Have you changed your mind on the comeback
i... don't... know
:)
There's been somewhat of a comeback.
Looks like it may be back on after a service break to love.
commentators say it's a turning point. lets go with that.
I want another turn so that I can get to bed. Radwanska cruising suited me fine
you may be out of luck there. amazing how a tennis match can just change like this.
I have decided that I am going to bed at the end of this set regardless who wins
plan :)
Looks like Radwanska is getting with the plan after drawing level
bugger.
You are on your own now. I am going to bed. I would never have believed after the first set that Azarenka could have won the second.
The deciding set should be good. Enjoy it.
Good night
cheers sir
(i may not make it to the end either)
I'm still hanging around. Not paying huge amount of attention as working :)
lo chap.
OK it's like this. I decided to have a drink before I went to bed and sat down to watch a little bit more tennis while having the drink. Now it looks like bed is off the agenda until the end of the match
Before this match these two have played 12 sets and Radwanska has only won 26 games so 2 per set.
So slightly above average today :)
Just a little bit
brilliant tennis!
Incredible shots
♥
Amy,
Can you tell us what is special about the balls? Commentators keep saying things and ending them wit "with these balls"
Fantasti
c
eek
The last shot was incredible
given up what i was coding. am all in on this until the end.
You should enjoy your 5 minute break.
I need to find out when her next match is
not even that. amazini.
Definitely amazini
Azarenka just cannot wait to get out of there
looks like the semi's are on tomorrow?
http://www.ausopen.com/en_AU/scores/schedule/tournament.html
Seems like a harsh schedule
Should be. Semis usually get split to men's and women's on Friday and Thursday, respectively (with the finals on Sunday and Saturday). Though looks like the first men's final is Thursday night, which seems a little unfair.
I am definitely going to bed this time.
Good night all and any lurkers.
cheers sir. am done too.
Night.
come on federer....
were they using old/new balls at the time? Our commentators were not doing the same
Come on Andy! I haven't been able to watch you much this tourney.... Don't loose when I finally get to see the whole match!
Phhheeeeewwww!!! Awesome tiebreak.
Oh man, I switched over to the replays on the other side. Darn it.
I can't watch him when he gets all ragey. It might make him a better player but it makes me a stressed viewer.
phew
vintage roger
Federer v. good at the moment.
what a great match!!! Murray fought well, loved it! Well done Roger.
back fit and in form, great to see, i actually thought we wouldn't see it again after the last couple of seasons but now we get reminded just how good he is.
murray played some huge points under pressure in the third and fourth sets.
i dont care how many kids he ends up with, his wife must always be pregnant. its the key to his form.
:D
roger v rafa semi, going to be a blinder, im backing roger to win, although head to head rafa is clearly the better player 22-10 in all matches, 8-2 in grand slam matches, 13-6 in all finals, pretty comprehensive stats in favour of nadal. but right now I think roger is primed to get through to the final v berdych.
They said it a few times during the match and it sounded like they were using new spec balls. They seemed obsessed by tech as they kept talking about racquet weights too
Saw the final set of Radwanska's match earlier and now the replay is showing the first. I'm watching this match backwards.
odd, they definitely havent changed
I must listen harder in future to figure out what they are on about then
Always weird seeing Red Foo in the crowd.
shortest final ever, li na v cibulkova, 172 cm, v 160 cm,
I have Wawrinka on my TV now. Close fight so far.
dont pay too much attention to berdych's knees, during the first set i noticed that his large thigh muscles cause his knee to have a weird overlappy foldy bit and i can't unsee it.
Okay, I am determined not to look directly at them now.
its hard to look away from the jockey jersey anyway so that helps
if this game goes to a fifth set we might still be here tomorrow, still only 1 break of serve for the match
I can't believe H&M want to be associated with that
Knobbly knees is out. Stan the man continues.
that time stan walked out on his family because he only had five years to get good at tennis was only 3 years ago. bad maths stan, bad.
this is going to be huge. hoping for a 5 set classic
Was following via Twitter, Nadal wins!
comprehensive
was hoping for a great match, but it was pretty obvious early on that rafa is just way too good for roger, I really cant see roger ever beating rafa again. nadal has too much power and its too easy for him too just muscle his way past roger and dominate the points.
Ooh, thought I missed it but women's final still in the first set.
Li Ana takes the first, closer than I would have thought though. To a tiebreak!
might be a quick second set here...
just like that 4-0
webbaaaaah enjoying his f1 retirement
Oh man, what happened, I blinked and missed it. They were so close in the first.
Webber: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/photos/formula-1-1316768972-slideshow/2014-australian-open-day-13-20140125-090411-459--ten.html
good to see mark take his mum to the tennis......
I just woke up, am I still dreaming? Stan playing so well!!
I am glad for five set matches cos it means it is still going when I finally get myself together and get up!
Did Stan fall down? commentators sound worried.
Oh no, nadal maybe.
I see, Nadal can barely move for back pain. May not be a long match at all.
Ooh, bit of back rubbing in the break and Nadal has perked up.
They say Nadal's turned it up a notch, and Stan's lost his concentration. Tide could be turning.
Third set to Nadal. Who knows where this is going to go!
Come on stan!
I meant to wake up at 8.. woke up at half 10. Oops.
You have both not missed much and also missed a lot :)
Looking at twitter, Nadal has been in tears and everything!
Yea, for half a set it looked like he might have to give up. That wouldn't have been a good final!
Two break points for stan
Nailed it!
come on stan, shut down the #idontunderstan hashtag
Darn it!
Nadal is so resilient.
its the battle of injury vs epic choking
Another quick question - why were people booing nadal earlier? Seems a bit harsh
he took his mto at a time that really disrupted stan, aussies don't like that. aussies don't like mtos in general from past experience
and yet they're cheering rafa now. madness :)
its australia day, everyone is drunk!
Another break!
serve it out this time you idiot
Slow mo punching yourself in the head is not a good look.
needed comedy sound effects
Eek, three match points.
Three champiomship points...
Amazini.
Big chat at the net.
Woohooooo!! I like a new grand slam champion :)
AH MAZ ING!
i like rafa staying a bit further away from 17 :D
i like all the stats that come out when someone new wins :)
first man to beat the top 2 seeds in a slam since 1993, oldest first time slam champ since Goran :D
wow murray falls to 6 in the rankings from that. federer to 8.
Blimey, seems weird to even think it
pete!
Roger is now the Swiss #2 :D
this makes me sad, but i sense the rankings wont be the same come the end of the year :)
im sad roger hasnt tweeted yet about my friend stanley.
i find it hard to dislike rafa, when he's so nice
just think about how bloody long he takes between points ;)
ahhh yes.. Keep reminding me that Amy. It's like I forget how annoying that is when he starts talking.
haha i have the same issue. hes another vettel. so annoying in his sport, so nice when talking.
I find it easier to dislike Vettel... I think perhaps because I can't forgive him for Spa 2010, and I can hold a grudge ;)
dont come to any races with me then, i always end up seeing him in situations that dont make tv that make him unhateable.
ohh maybe that would be a good thing?.. I feel like if JB can forgive him, i should be able to.. ;)
Boo to the BBC for focusing on rafa's injury than celebrating Stan
its silly, he beat djokovic and a very on form berdych to win this too, not just an "injured rafa"
he says he never dreamed of winning a grand slam because he always thought it was too far to reach
aw roger tried to call him after the match. swiss bros.