So onto the men's tennis at the Australian open, which I will cover the 2nd and 3rd round matches so far at the first major of the season. So let's move on...
Starting with the top seed, Novak Djokovic, who is looking to win a hat trick of Melbourne titles, and on the form he has shown so far, he just might do it. In the 2nd round Nole had a potentially difficult opponent in the talented American youngster, Ryan Harrison, as they played a fairly close match at Wimbledon last year. However this time, Harrison proved to be no such threat and Nole thoroughly outclassed and out-manoevered the American and went on to win a very easy straight set win, with the scoreline of 6-1, 6-2, 6-3. In the 3rd round however Nole had a trickier time against the Davis cup hero last year, Radek Stepanek, who proved to be quite a test for him, in what was a very entertaining match. Stepanek throughout used his doubles skills at the net and played an array of classy and entertaining points, which knocked Novak off his rythym, and saw the Czeck make a lot of funny gestures on court such as pretending to shoot with his racquet. But being the World No.1, Nole managed to get it done in straight sets, albeit in three difficult ones, with a 6-4, 6-3, 7-5 win. Next up for Novak will be the Swiss No.2, Stan Wawrinka, who is playing well just now, so we expect that to be quite a tricky encounter.
Next up we have Roger Federer, the No.2 seed, who so far has had a fairly easy time of it, and in the 2nd round he played Nikolai Davydenko, and despite a decent effort from the Russian, Fed outclassed him once again, and went to win in 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. In the 3rd round Roger was up against a potentially tough opponent as he played the home favourite, Bernard Tomic, who came into the match unbeaten in 2013. However Rog was intent on ending that, and after two competitive sets, he did just that in the 3rd as he broke the young Aussie twice to shut him down with a 6-4, 7-6, 6-1 victory in just under two hours. But things don't get any easier for Roger as in the 4th round he will face the big serving Canadian, Milos Raonic, who he has had some very close matches with so far, so we can expect a real tough one for the Fedster here, and hopefully it will be a cracker. However Roger so far has been in very impressive form and I think it will be very tough to knock him off his perch.
And now we go onto Andy Murray, the British No.1 and US Open champion. After getting the major monkey off his back, Andy so far has been in good form in Melbourne, and in the 2nd round he continued his form, as he took out Joaoa Sousa in straight sets with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 win. In the 3rd round however, Andy faced his first test against the talented Ricardes Berankis, whom is a regular hitting partner with Andy on the tour. And Berankis for the most part rose to the challenge with Andy, who struggled on serve against the young Lithuanian, who knocked off Andy off his rhythym throughout. Despite all that, Andy managed to close out the match in straight sets, after being broken in the 3rd at 5-4 by Berankis to level at 5-5, Andy broke once again to win the match in 6-3, 6-4, 7-5. Andy next up will go on to face the talented Frenchman and 14th seed Gilles Simon, who has completed an epic battle against fellow countryman, Gael Monfils in 5 sets, 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 1-6, 8-6. Andy also has a very good head to head against Simon, who has only beaten him once, and with Simon no doubt being exhausted after his lengthy epic against Monfils, then surely Andy has to be favourite, but we'll see.
In other matches starting with David Ferrer, the Spaniard has been making good progress so far, although he did face a tricky opponent in the 2nd round Tim Symczek, where he dropped his first set of the tournament. How Ferrer soon fought back after losing the 3rd set, he went on to win the match in the 4th with a scoreline of 6-0, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3. Next up Ferrer played Marcos Baghdatis, and despite any fear that he would be in for a long night, Ferrer put that to bed as he dismissed the Cypriot in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2, 6-3. Ferrer will next up play a possibly tough encounter with the Japenese No.1, Kei Nishikori. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, and former finalist in Melbourne, also is in good form so far, and in the 2nd round he got past the talented Japenese player, Go Soeda in 6-3, 7-6, 6-3. In the 3rd round Tsonga continued his impressive form having beaten Blaz Kavcic, the Slovenian player, in 6-2, 6-1, 6-4. This sets a potentially really good clash with his fellow Frenchman, Richard Gasquet in the 4th round, which promises to be a fine match.
Tomas Berdych, the big Czeck so far has also been making good progress, and in the 2nd round dismissed Gilluamme Rufin of France with straight settie win of 6-2, 6-2, 6-4. And despite a possible testing 3rd round with Jurgen Melzer, the Austrian player, Berdy had no probs in getting past him with a 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 scoreline. This however sets up Berdych biggest test yet where he will play the big South African (6ft 8 to be exact!) Kevin Anderson, who has also been in good form, so that should be a really good un. Janko Tipsarevic so far has had a tougher time of it, as in the 2nd round he was up against it with the Slovak player, Lukas Lacko, who battled back from 2 sets to love down to square the match, to take it into the 5th, where Janko just edged him, to win in 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 7-5. And in the 3rd round Tipsy had another testing encounter with the French player, Julienne Benneteau, which again went the distance, where the Serb finally won in 2-6, 6-4, 2-6, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the 4th round for the first time in his career. In the 4th round Tipsy will face Nicolas Almagro of Spain, who beat Tipsy quite easily last year, so this might prove to be a really tough encounter for him, but we'll see.
And finally to end up with a bit of bad news, Juan Martin Del Potro, who was one of the possible contenders for the title, went out in the shock less to the dangerous French player (yep there's alot of them!) Jeremy Chardy. Chardy himself impressively came from through after going to 2 sets to love up and Delpo squared the match, but the French player won in the 5th, where he has reached the 4th round of the Aussie open for the first time, with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-7, 3-6, 6-3 victory. This was a bit of a surprise but at the same time Chardy has shown in the past that he has game to knock any player off when he is on his game. And this could prove to be a real danger for Andy Murray, as Chardy could be a possible quarter final opponent for him, and Andy lost to the French man last year in Cincinnati, so he will need to be on his game to win. However first things first to Chardy, who will play Andreis Seppi of Italy in the 4th round, so we will see how that pans out.
So that's it for now for the men's, I will post up more once the 4th round matches have been completed for both the gals and the guys.
Till then bye for now!
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