Couch Umpire
Louie
Yinette PerezUnderdogs dominate Hopman, Adelaide underway
December 31st 2006 11:38
The Hopman Cup started yesterday and opened with the Australian team playing top seeds Russia. Alicia Molik and Mark P won both their singles matches. Both were playing strongly and I think with Alicia's form she'll get back up to the top ranks in no time. Mark P I'm not so sure about, as I believed Russia's Dmitry Tursunov was probably still out of form, playing a bit too hard in the first set and having balls falling long, and stuff, so it would probably be better to judge when he plays more matches. I am biased though, as I don't like Mark P very much, and I adore Dima, so maybe you shouldn't take my word for it.
Also yesterday, France played the USA team who are the defending champions, and also seeded, and France beat the US as well. Mardy Fish hit the net judge once and he ran over and asked if he/she (can't remember) was alright. I love that the Hopman is so lighthearted. The best commentary, interviews, stats, background snippet things, it's adorable. and no ads on the ABC. fantastic.
Czech Republic played today against India and Sania Mirza (India) dominated her match and Tomas Berdych (Czech) dominated his, which was pretty expected. Tomas was absolutely stunning in his singles match, beautiful groundstrokes and balance. I'm not too sure how he handles dropshots and such though, because tall guys can't usually handle those too well. But serve was great, (one of his stats was 100% on second serve) and he converted 4/5 breakpoints, all the stats were great actually, very high. I'm pretty sure he'll break top 10 this year.
India won the tie in the live doubles with the Indian guy, Rohan Bopanna, really being in his zone in the doubles, as opposed to being annihilated in the singles by Berdych. Lucie Safarova put in a gutsy effort in the second set and India won in a match tiebreak.
I don't have any coverage of Adelaide but Chris Guccione and Peter Luczak are through, I think, along with comeback guy Joachim Johannson. Considering I adore Joachim (former #9 in the world, and stuff) I might be mentioning him more often than you would bear to hear. He's doing the first blog of 2007, link here.
I don't really understand the Round Robin format too well, will probably get it eventually though. Full explanation can be found here but I'm not going to guarantee you'll understand it. A friend of mine from Adelaide said that in her paper even Lleyton said he didn't really get it, and he's...you know, playing.
Finally, Hewitt has been removed from the Australian Open 07 posters and Federer still has the French Open at the top of his 2007 to-do list, but I don't think that's too surprising to anyone.
Also yesterday, France played the USA team who are the defending champions, and also seeded, and France beat the US as well. Mardy Fish hit the net judge once and he ran over and asked if he/she (can't remember) was alright. I love that the Hopman is so lighthearted. The best commentary, interviews, stats, background snippet things, it's adorable. and no ads on the ABC. fantastic.
Czech Republic played today against India and Sania Mirza (India) dominated her match and Tomas Berdych (Czech) dominated his, which was pretty expected. Tomas was absolutely stunning in his singles match, beautiful groundstrokes and balance. I'm not too sure how he handles dropshots and such though, because tall guys can't usually handle those too well. But serve was great, (one of his stats was 100% on second serve) and he converted 4/5 breakpoints, all the stats were great actually, very high. I'm pretty sure he'll break top 10 this year.
India won the tie in the live doubles with the Indian guy, Rohan Bopanna, really being in his zone in the doubles, as opposed to being annihilated in the singles by Berdych. Lucie Safarova put in a gutsy effort in the second set and India won in a match tiebreak.
I don't have any coverage of Adelaide but Chris Guccione and Peter Luczak are through, I think, along with comeback guy Joachim Johannson. Considering I adore Joachim (former #9 in the world, and stuff) I might be mentioning him more often than you would bear to hear. He's doing the first blog of 2007, link here.
I don't really understand the Round Robin format too well, will probably get it eventually though. Full explanation can be found here but I'm not going to guarantee you'll understand it. A friend of mine from Adelaide said that in her paper even Lleyton said he didn't really get it, and he's...you know, playing.
Finally, Hewitt has been removed from the Australian Open 07 posters and Federer still has the French Open at the top of his 2007 to-do list, but I don't think that's too surprising to anyone.
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