the Australian Open (Tennis) and Really Long Matches

[yertle-the-turtle]

from the beeb

Tim Henman let a two-set lead slip, to lose to Guillermo Canas 6-7 in five sets at the Australian Open.
Henman took the first on a tie-break and sneaked the second 7-5.

He was unable to hold onto an early break in the third set and allowed Canas back into the match when he played a poor tie-break.

Canas took the fourth 7-5 to send it to a decider, and, despite holding an early break, Henman finally succumbed 9-7 in the fifth.

Henman at times played close to his best tennis, but questions will be asked after he again failed at a Grand Slam away from home and threw away such a promising position.

Even in the fifth set Henman had his chances, breaking to lead 4-1 before Canas levelled the match at 4-4.

The match turned when Henman led 30-0 as Canas served at 6-7 down but the Argentine produced a brilliant lob with Henman well placed at the net.

Canas escaped and then broke immediately as Henman double-faulted on break-point.

Henman bravely saved two match-points with some bold attacking play and had the chance to break back when Canas double-faulted himself.

But the Argentine found his first serve when he most needed it to get out of trouble, and sealed victory with a brilliant passing shot after an epic four hours and 51 minutes.

It is a familiar story against Canas, who previously held a 3-1 lead over the Briton including wins in the US and French Opens.

Canas now goes on to an all-Argentine clash with eighth seed David Nalbandian in the last 16.

 

[Angela Harlem]

quality game.

 

[brettig]

Poor Tim

 

[popacrobat]

lets go agassi, lets go <clap clap>

he has the same birthday as me, so hes always been my favorite tennis player.

 

[cass]

I haven't caught a match played by Agassi yet...hopefully I'll see him in the final. I would love to actually be there , courtside , and watch him play.
I was channel surfing between ODI India vs. Zimbabwe and Lleyton vs Rafael last night....excitement plus..( VSS Laxman must have godlike status back home) That young Spaniard Rafael is so strong, I wanted him to win. He'll be back.


Go Andre!!

 

[The_Sweetest_Thing]

That still wasn't even the longest match in Aus open history..it was Roddick and El Aynaoui last year in the QFs, I think, 21-19 in the fifth set. I love that they don't take the 5th set to tiebreak (US Open does). Anyway...


Federer and Hewitt face e/o in a few hours now. Can't wait.

 

[intedomine]

Go federer, and im an aussie, and its australia day!

I went to the oz open on day 4, its a great experience which we here in melbourne are lucky to have....for 25$ you can see heaps of quality players in a quality atmosphere, i saw federer, coetzer, ferriera and sargsian....a lotta fun.....

i prefer womens tennis essentially coz mens tennis goes on for to long in grand slams......over 4 hours is too long.......should only be 3 sets......



Go Roger

Go my darling Justine H-H....

 

[Saracene]

Ahhh, both Aussies lost on the Australian Day, Oh welleth, Federer is one hell of a player (didn't watch Arazi & Phillipousis match).

Sometimes you have birds, sometimes you have mobile phones, sometime you have streakers... and sometimes there's fifteen minutes of Australia Day fireworks going off like crazy in the third set!

Yes, go Justine H-H!

 

[The_Sweetest_Thing]

i prefer womens tennis essentially coz mens tennis goes on for to long in grand slams......over 4 hours is too long.......should only be 3 sets......

you are sooo lucky to be able to see it live! *jealous* My new-life-goal is to see all 4 Grand Slams live. I suppose the Oz Open will be the most difficult for me (in January? Yessir!)

Anyway, I'd like to argue that men's tennis SHOULD be best of 3/5 sets, the way it is now. The game, based on power tennis, is much too fast. Eliminating the sets eliminates half the game.

This may be less true for say, Roland Garros, where the court is slower and rallies are longer (rare to see a serve and volleyer in a French Open final), and to a lesser extent, the Oz Open, but definetly Wimby and the U.S. You get guys like Scud or Roddick out there to serve a few aces...and the entire game can be won in less than 2 minutes.

This said, the Canadian Open is one of the very few stops on the Masters Tournament that only has a best 2/3 men's stop. Trust me, it's annoying--we want to see good tennis--close matches--not quick, overpowering plays (like the Williams sisters). It just isn't fair to see a player win a match sometimes when you know that if it had gone to a 4th or 5th set that there would have been a turnaround.

To me, that's why women's tennis, at least formerly, used to be more exciting. More rallies, longer points, more action.
I miss the days of young-Hingis and Steffi Graf.

 

[The_Sweetest_Thing]

oh, and intedomine, you didn't happen to see any of the 'legends' matches, did you? Tony Roche, Pat Cash , John Newcombe..I would have loved to have seen any of these people play!

 

[intedomine]

best of 3 best of 5 whatever the case.....JUSTINES IN THE FINAL!

shes gonna destroy clijsters!


and go federer in the mens draw.....but congrats safin for makin the final

 

[cass]

My Boy...Andre I enjoyed the game, what a display.
I saw a little bit of Martina Navratilova playing today in the doubles.

PS: I think Andre looked a bit like BP Fallon in Chizips' avatar....on my little TV anyway...I think it's the eyebrows.

 

[cass]

missed opportunity.....

I think it's the eyebrows

 

[intedomine]

JUSTINE

 

[Saracene]

Pity about Safin losing in the final, but Federer is so damn great I've resigned myself to watch Marat lose from the start,

 

[OzAurora]

I just love watching tennis, but I really dont understand why the Australian players, namely in recent years, Pat, Leyton and Mark why dont they ever do well in Melbourne, anyway I enjoyed this years tournament although I gotta say that one of the best games I ever saw played was probably back in 98 I think when Philippousis played a massive 5 setter against Michael Chang or was it that the match went for 5 hours, anyway it was amazing, roll on Davis Cup

 

[intedomine]

coz lleyton and philoppoussis are crap and good old pat's retired

 

[bono_man2002]

good old patty retired to early

 

[The_Sweetest_Thing]

coz lleyton and philoppoussis are crap and good old pat's retired

lleyton has 2 slams under his belt.
So did Pat.
Sounds even, methinks.

The last year Pat played I think he would have won...really, had it not been for the strange cramping episode against Andre. One of the toughest matches to watch. HE (Pat) had been ahead by so much and slowly, he lost, but didn't retire the match, and instead played until the end. I think the audience even game him a standing ovation as he left.


Stupid commentary here gave a ridiculous stat about women who had lost their first three slam finals and how many slams they went on to win after that. Of the 7 or so women listed, NONE of them had ever won a slam, with two exceptions: Jana Novotna (1 slam), and Chris Evert (18 slams).

Now, seeing as how this stat was entriely ridiculous and completely uncorrelational, I still fail to see its validity.