Owatalk

• Home
• Contact
• About

Baghdatis bows out in first week

I suppose maybe the most significant result in the first week so far at the 2007 Australian Open tennis tournament here in Melbourne is Marcos Baghdatis being beaten by Gael Monfils last night. Baghdatis won the hearts and minds of the Melbourne public when he reached the Australia Open final last year and lost to Roger Federer. Many were expecting that he would at least reach the second week but Monfils put paid to those plans and Baghdatis will have to come up again next year for another onslaught at the Australia Open.

Elsewhere, Federer is showing that he is still at his best when he dismissed Jonas Bjorkman in straight sets. I think he will retain his crown and at the moment I think its a question of whether he will drop a set or not and if he does how many.

At this stage of the tournament the match I am looking forward to in the third round is the one between Marat Safin and Andy Roddick. While Safin says he is still coming back from injury, I think he will give Roddick a run for his money and could win the match. To do so he will have play much better that he did against Israeli qualifier Dudi Sela.

In the women's draw no surprises at the moment and I think the women's draw is less predictable than the men's in the second week. A notable match in the third round is the one that pits Serena Williams against fifth seed Nadia Petrova.

Now its not as hot as it was on Tuesday when the mercury went past 40 degrees in Melbourne and while the question has been whether the heat rule is good for the players or not, the same argument can be extended to the fans watching the match. It's not good to be standing in the sun at such baking temperatures but at least the fans can walk away but the players have no choice but to finish the match. That may need revision, I think.

Post a comment:

Name

(required)

E-Mail

(required, but not published)

Website

(optional)

Comment
Enter Code


Notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail