2012 Australian Open Day 3 Recap

The 3rd day of the Australian Open featured some great tennis, some unforgettable moments (some for the wrong reasons), and Hisense Arena being robbed of Roger Federer playing his first match on that court since 2004 thanks to Andreas Beck withdrawing, giving Fed a free pass into the 3rd round, where he will play Dr Ivo, Ivo Karlovic.  The last time these two met was Wimbledon 2009 where Roger was utterly superb with his return game.  On the slow hardcourt surfaces, I can't see Roger having any harder a time breaking Ivo's serve than he did on that Wimbledon occasion.  Karlovic's ground game is virtually non-existent as well so Roger should have no trouble holding serve.  I expect a straight sets win but all the sets should be close.

Nadal came through in straights against Tommy Haas but it was hardly a convincing win.  He was up 5-1 in the first set before barely holding on to win 6-4, and then in the 3rd set he was down a break before coming back to win.  The most shocking upset on the day came when Alejandro Falla defeated Mardy Fish 76 63 76 to knock the #8 seed out.  Mardy had a terrible attitude and quite frankly deserved to lose for the disrespect he showed to a fellow veteran in Falla.  Another thing I noticed about the match is that Fish has NO ground game to speak of.  His forehand is the least intimidating shot I have ever seen, and even when Falla was hurting physically, all he had to do was keep the ball in court because Fish was no threat to whip winners by him.  Almagro, del Potro, Wawrinka, Lopez, Anderson, Tomic, and Dolgopolov all came through.  In Wawrinka's match, his opponent Marcos Baghdatis took it upon himself to smash four racquets in succession after going down two sets to love.  This was COMPLETELY uncalled for, especially when he went on to win the 3rd set but lose the 4th.  It was an emotionally immature act and I hope he feels shame.

The biggest shock of the day came at the conclusion of the John Isner vs David Nalbandian match.  The score was 8-8 in the 5th set, and David had a break point.  Isner hit his serve, which was called out.  He was going to challenge, but before he could, the umpire overruled it.  So because of that, Nalbandian challenged.  But he was told he could not.  And the supervisor told him he could not as well.  Nalbandian ended up losing the match 10-8.  The umpire and the supervisor should lose their jobs after this debacle.  On break point at 8-8 in the 5th set, and the umpire does not allow Nalbandian to challenge a serve that HE overruled as in?  For all intents and purposes, the umpire and supervisor cost Nalbandian the match, which should NEVER happen in tennis.  The outcome of a match should NEVER be decided by any other than the players themselves.  Shame on the umpire and supervisor, and I wish you both nothing but shame.

There are some enticing matches for the bottom half's 2nd round matches.  Hewitt/Roddick should be an amazing contest, as should Troicki/Kukushkin, Llodra/Bogomolov Jr, Raonic/Petzschner, and Simon/Benneteau (battle of the Frenchmen).  Djokovic, Murray, and Tsonga should ease through.

I hope we see a great day of tennis,

Kyle.