Australian Open 2012: Second Round Flashback

The second round is now in the history books at Melbourne Park. This is when the tournament really starts to gain momentum, with some more competitive matches between seeded players. But before we move on, let’s pause and take a look back at an eventful second round.

The Big 4 Roll:

Nobody had it easier than Roger Federer, who received a walkover several hours before he was scheduled to take the court on Day 3. It remains to be seen if the three day layoff will produce any rust; Fed will be tasked with returning the big serves of Ivo Karlovic in the third round.

Novak Djokovic hasn’t received any walkovers, but he has been walking all over his opponents so far. The No. 1 seed has not been tested, clinically dismissing Colombian Santiago Giraldo in the second round, 6-3 6-2 6-1.

Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray both moved into the third round without incident, Rafa taking down popular veteran Tommy Haas and Murray dispatching Edouard Roger-Vasselin after running away with the first set and holding off the Frenchman, 6-1 6-4 6-4.

I still think Nadal will be the first of the top four to run into problems, but probably not against Lukas Lacko, his third round opponent.  Rafa, however, will face either John Isner or Feliciano Lopez in the round of 16; either of these guys is capable of pulling off the upset.

Sharapova, Azarenka Dominating:

The Nos. 3 and 4 seeded women have gotten off to a scorching start in the first two rounds--each only dropping 2 games over two matches.  Sharapova will most likely get a tougher test when she faces Angelique Kerber, a 2011 US Open semi-finalist, but the Russian is showing no effects from a lingering ankle injury and looks to be in top form.  Azarenka will play Mona Barthel, who is playing some of the best tennis of her life. She swept to victory last week as a qualifier in Hobart, and has yet to drop a set thus far in Melbourne.

While both top seeds Caroline Wozniacki and Petra Kvitova both advanced to the third round, neither looked like they couldn’t be stopped. Especially Kvitova, who went completely AWOL in the middle of her match against a very capable Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro, who upset Venus Williams at the 2009 Australian Open.  Kvitova seemed to completely lose her timing for a stretch, but regained her form just in time to pull out a hard-fought victory, 6-2 2-6 6-4.  Wozniacki also appeared to be cruising against Georgian Anna Tatishvili, but fell behind in the second set before staging a comeback and taking the match in a second set tiebreak, 6-2 7-6(4). Both women stumbled a bit, both survived to fight another day.

Testers, Injury, Drama & Controversy:

On paper, it looked like No. 5 seed david Ferrer may have had the least challenging path to the quarter-finals.  That was before American Ryan Sweeting starting pounding groundstrokes, moving deftly to net, and knocking off quality volleys. Sweeting took a 2 sets to 1 lead over Ferrer, but was unable to close the deal against one of the tour’s most battled-tested and tough players. Ferrer prevailed to take his place in the third round, 6-7(4) 6-2 3-6 6-2 6-3

Andy Roddick was going to have a tough, if not nearly impossible, time making a run this year Down Under. He was dealt a pretty brutal draw which would have pitted him against huge-serving Canadian Milos Raonic in the third around and world No. 1 Djokovic in the fourth round. Instead, Roddick went out in the second round to former world No. 1 and Australian hero Lleyton Hewitt, forced to retire with a hamstring injury after the third set. Roddick was trailing 2 sets to 1 when he retired. 

They say a Grand Slam doesn’t really get started until the first marathon 5th set is played or the first controversy bubbles to the surface. Both happened in the second round, and they both happened in the same match.  David Nalbandian and Isner were locked in a tight battle deep in the 5th set. Isner, whose right leg was cramping throughout the latter stages of the match, was facing break point at 8-8 when his first serve was called out. Chair umpire Kader Nouni overruled the call, and then would not allow Nalbandian to challenge the call, ruling too much time had elapsed. {See prior post}.  Isner went on to win the match 10-8 in the 5th, and a classy Nalbandian did not blame the loss on the controversial call, but drama and controversy made this the most compelling match of the tournament’s first two rounds.

No. 13 seed Alexandr Dolgopolov hasn’t exactly made things easy on himself thus far.  The Ukranian also needed extra time to take down Tobias Kamke 8-6 in the 5th set. Dolgopolov has dropped the first set in both his matches, and has needed the full 10 sets to move into the third round. Things won’t get any easier for him, but they promise to be very interesting when he faces newly-minted Australian super hero Bernard Tomic--a must see third round tilt.

Hats off to Janko Tipsarevic and Nicolas Mahut, both of whom survived tough second round matches. Mahut came back from a set down and a 2-6 deficit in the second set tiebreaker to beat Tatsuma Ito of Japan in four sets. Mahut will play in the third round of a Grand Slam event for just the second time in his career (Wimbledon 2006).  Tipsarevic survived a tout struggle with Australian wild card James Duckworth. The Serb dropped the first set and had to fight both his opponent and a vocal partisan Aussie crowd, and fought back to win a quality match, 3-6 6-2 7-6(5) 6-4.

Impressive Milestone:

Serena Williams beat Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-0 6-4 to notch her 500th win as a professional.  “It’s really really cool,” Serena said after the match, “500 is a lot of matches to play, let alone win.”

More Fallen Seeds:  

Six more men’s seeds fell in the second round: Mardy Fish (8); Gilles Simon (12); Andy Roddick (15); Viktor Troicki (19); Marcel Granollers (26); Alex Bogomolov, Jr. (32).

Eight more women’s seeds were defeated in the second round: Francesca Schiavone (10); Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (15); Peng Shuai (16); Dominika Cibulkova (17); Roberta Vinci (23); Kaia Kanepi (25); Nadia Petrova (29); Petra Cetkovska (32).

Nalbandian, Isner & Kader Nouni: A Few Thoughts

There was plenty of talk leading up the Australian Open about a brewing controversy swirling around Margaret Court Arena. I don’t think this is what people had in mind.

A few thoughts on the controversy that erupted at the end of the Isner-Nalbandian match:

By now, I’m sure most people have seen and/or read about the circumstances surrounding Kader Nouni’s refusal to allow David Nalbandian to challenge his overrule of a call with John Isner serving at 8-8 and facing a break point. If you haven’t, check it out; I’m sure it’s already been hit thousands of times on You Tube.

I think Nouni should have given Nalbandian the chance to use the challenge system. Plain and simple. In a Grand Slam match as close as this was, it is important to make every possible attempt to get the call correct.  There was a lot of confusion on the court. The line judge called the ball out (correctly, as replays showed), the crowd reacted in a manner befitting a dramatic 5th set nail-biter and Nouni’s subsequent overrule of the call was hard to hear.  In fact, I had no idea he overruled the call until I saw Nalbandian telling Nouni he wanted to challenge. Nalbandian claims Isner told him to challenge the call. Given the confusion on court, and the fact you have disagreement between the two officials, let hawk-eye determine the call and move on.

It would have saved time, as well.  There is no reason Isner and his crampy right leg should have to stand idle for more than 5 minutes as Nalbandian pleads his case with the tournament referee.

It is important to remember, though, that this decision by Nouni did not determine the outcome of the match. And to his credit, Nalbandian made this clear in his post-match comments. Indeed, when all this took place, Nalbandian should have already been up a break.  He played two horrendous backhands on the two previous break points--one an attempt at a pass that didn’t come close to clearing the net and another that he sailed 3 feet long with Isner out of position.

Plus, had Nalbandian been able to successfully challenge, Isner would have had a second serve.  It wasn’t like the Argentine was having all that much success returning Isner’s kicker.

Even more important, from my perspective, is this: the conversation on “timely challenges” is well past due on both the ATP and WTA tours.  If the situation had been different (ie lack of confusion about the original call and subsequent overrule; disagreement between two on-court officials), I would fully support Nouni’s decision to not allow a challenge. Players routinely take way too long to decide whether to challenge. The stroll slowly to have a peek at the mark; they look to their box for advice.  The decision to challenge should be made right away, and it should be made by the player without input from his or her box. Umpires should be more forceful in their enforcement of the “timely challenge.”  It’s high time the ATP and WTA sit down and come up with some clearly enforceable guidelines.