Sania Mania Over

Sania Mania Over .It had hardly started, sania lived up to the expectations of getting knocked out in the second round of major tournaments. Sania lost to Asian compatriate Japanese Aiko Nakamura ranked 10-12 seed lower then mirza in straight sets 63 62 in a game full of unforced errors. Sania committed 26 unforced errors compared to Aiko's 9. Nakamura will now meet 6th seed three time champion Hingis in the 3rd round who defeated Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 62 62. Mirza has advanced to second round of the doubles event of the tournament but I expect the same story. Sania you need a better coach , your dad is not enough if you want to be consistent and want to win a major tournament , though you can keep performing like this and earn money from endorsements because what ever you will achieve will be the benchmark for other Indians and I don't see any other decent player coming in 3-4 years. Waiting for the huge void which will be left when Paes and Bhupati will retire, although loads of tennis clubs have come up but still quality caoching is not there to make a better player. Talent has to combined with quality guidance and coaching.

Big Fights


Kim Clijsters defeated another Asian Japan’s Akiko Morigami in straight sets 6-3, 6-0 to advance into third round. If it goes on like this Clijsters is on course to meet Hingis who completed her 50th victory in the Australian Open after two more rounds i.e the quaterfinals. Both hingis and clijsters are playing matches at the same time on this Clijsters said
"I think it happened on our first matches. I think we almost won at around the same time. And then we came into the locker room and we started laughing, and she's like, Damn, you beat me, you were there first,"

Till now there is no upset in the women side with all the top 12 seeded players through to round three, but there was an upset in men's category Gael Monfils knocked out 2006 finalist Marcos Baghdatis 76 62 26 60. Monfils is slowly becoming crowd favourite with his fist-pumping antics and collection of impossible looking shots.

Another big match is coming on friday night with men's heavy weights Roddick and Safin battling out for round four qualification. Both have faced each other 6 times with safin winning the last match (5 setter) played long back in 2005.
Serena will also meet no 5 seed Nadia Petrova in the 3rd round. Petrova has not faced Serena since that momentous 2005 Australian Open, where Petrova was beaten 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 by Serena in the fourth round. Serena holds a 5-1 lead over Nadia but I put my money on petrova.

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Sania Mania Begins

First day was not full of surprises as all the top seeded player advanced into the second round of the Australian Open except for the lone case of men no. 4 seeded Ivan Ljubicic of croatia who was defeated by Mardy Fish of USA (64 67 46 46) making the exit of first seeded player of the tournament. Russian Marat Safin had to wage a long battle to defeat Benjamin Becker of germany in a crunching 5 setter. First round was easy cakewalk for Federer , Nadal , Roddick , Robredo. Federer left behind the defeat at the hands of Roddick last week to beat Bjorn Phau of germany in straight sets.

In women category Kim Clijsters who is playing her last Australian Open as she will retire in 2007 end was in supreme form thrashing Russian Vasilisa Bardina 60 60. The match lasted only 44 minutes. It was not easy outing for Sharapova she had to sweat hard to qualify for round2. Maria defeated Camille Pin of france in a three setter cruncher 63 46 97 . Sharapova was cruising for victory in the third set with 5-0 lead but Camille bounced back and was actually serving for the match at one stage at 6-7 but maria ultimately won the set 97 in 171 minutes tie. 6th seeded hingis cruised to round 2 with 60 62 victory.

Sania Mirza also qualified for the round 2 after an easy outing against Ukraine's Olga Savchuk winning 6-3 7-5 . Carrying on her good form after qualifing for the semis of the hobart open last week sania desplayed some nice forehands to advance. Whole nation is expecting from sania to better her round 3 qualification in 2005 Australian Open. Mirza had to face extreme heat conditions in her match temperature was in the range on 30's..

The Australian Open's Extreme Heat Policy (EHP) was implemented for the first time at Australian Open 2007 as the temperature soars on Day Two at Melbourne Park. Under the Policy, no new matches will commence on outside courts, but those already in progress will continue to their conclusion. There is provision to make breaks between games and sets longer than usual in these matches.

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