G'day! (sorry couldn't resist!)
Right! Well it has to be said I am quite far behind on doing any coverage of the first grand slam of the season at Melbourne as the Australian open is now deep into its second week and this year's tournament has seen more than its fair share of upsets, so I will get into that soon enough.
But for now I will say I will try and keep my updates brief as I can so this post doesn't totally overrun and I will bring the results up to speed for the quarter finals of the men's tournament and I will cover the first week in this post and the second up until now in another.
So without much further messing about, let's crack on....
1st WEEK
So to start off we'll look at some of the top seeds and how they got on....
Right well the first week of the Aussie open saw one of the biggest ever upsets of all time in the tournament's history as Novak Djokovic took on the Uzbekistanian, Denis Istomin, in the 2nd round. And the defending champion looked up against it as he lost the first set, however he did then go on to level the match and take a two sets to one lead, but Istomin managed to level things in the 4th set. And in the 5th set it was Istomin that did the unthinkable as he stunned the six time champion and sent him packing with an incredible 7-6, 5-7, 2-6, 7-6, 6-4 victory.
Well this was one result that no one could have seen coming given that Novak went into this tournament having already beaten the current World No.1, Andy Murray in the final of Doha earlier this month and he was starting to look good again. However this match really did sum up that Novak still isn't one hundred percent yet in his form and he has a way to go before he can recapture his very best and we will just have to wait and see if he does.
As for the other seeds, Andy Murray, the top seed (for the first time in a major) enjoyed better luck in the 1st week as he defeated Iilya Marchenko, Andrey Rublev and Sam Querrey all in straight sets to advance to the 2nd week with fair ease, which would be good going ahead into the last 16.
Roger Federer, who was making his tour comeback after being layed off with a knee injury for 6 months, also made an impressive start as he overcame a slow-ish start by beating Jurgen Melzer in four sets, then he went on to defeat Noah Rubin of the USA in three straight sets. And more impressively Roger started to show where his game is really at now by dishing a convincing hammering to the 10th seed, Tomas Berdych who he beat in straight sets to advance to the 2nd week.
Rafael Nadal also looked in good form in the 1st week as he cruised his way past his first two rounds, beating Florian Mayer in the 1st round and Marcos Baghdatis in the 2nd round, both in straight sets. Rafa however did not have it all his way in the 3rd round as he took on the young rising star, Alexander Zverev, who did a great job at taking it to Rafa throughout the match as the young German went two sets to one at one point. However Rafa, valiantly fought back as he levelled the match taking it to a 5th set and he then went on to break Zverev twice to seal his place in the 4th round with a thrilling 4-6, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2 win.
Stan Wawrinka also so far has made it through the 1st week too although he had a very tough start as he had to battle his way past Martin Klizan of Slovakia, who pushed the Swiss No.1 to the limit in a five setter that eventually saw Stan come through and win. Stan next however soon enjoyed a more straight forward win against the American, Steve Johnson whom he defeated in straight sets. However, Stan once again was tested in the 3rd round where faced off against the Serb player, Viktor Troicki who Stan had to beat from a set down and was pushed into a 4th set tiebreak, which he eventually won to reach the last 16 with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 win.
Kei Nishikori, the 5th seed had a pretty good 1st week although he started off with a tough five set win over the Russian player, Andrey Kuznetsov, but Kei soon went on to beat Jeremy Chardy and Lukas Lacko both in straight sets to reach the last 16.
As for some of the other top seeds, Grigor Dimitrov, who has had something of a resurgence in his career again has made good progress too, so far as he beat Christopher O'Connell, Chung Hyeon and more impressively, Richard Gasquet in straight sets to reach the last 16. This shows that Dimitrov is starting to recover that promise that he once had only a few years ago.
Gael Monfils also enjoyed good fortune too in the 1st week having beaten Jiri Vesely, Alexandr Dolgopolov and Philipp Kohlschreiber to reach the last 16 where he would set up a showdown with another player of note, Rafa Nadal.
Dominic Thiem too has had a good 1st week where he beat all his first three opponents in four sets comprising of Jan Lennard Struff, Jordan Thompson and Benoit Paire, which enabled the Austrian to reach the last round of 16 for the first time in Melbourne.
And last of all, David Goffin, who is currently ranked just outside the top 10 (literally!) at No.11 in the world, has shown some good form so far in the tournament also he has beaten Reilly Opelka, Radek Stepanek and quite impressively, the big giant serving erm...giant, Ivo Karlovic in straight sets to reach the 4th round.
As for some of the other seeds however they also suffered early exits as well as Novak, such as Marin Cilic, who was stunned by the new in-form British player, Dan Evans, who made it through to the 2nd week after he beat Bernard Tomic. Nicky Kyrgios also despite being the great Aussie young hope, also suffered a shock early defeat to the Italian, Andreas Seppi in a five set epic match that saw Seppi finally claim a win from two sets down. Lucas Pouille, who made a name for himself last year after beating Rafa at the US Open, also went out early in the first round to Alexander Bublik (great name!). And lastly, John Isner was also booted out early on by Mischa Zverev in the 2nd round in an epic five set match.
Right so that's it for now and I will be back soon with how the 2nd week at the event has gone so far.
See you in a bit!
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