David Nalbandian was fined $8,000 for his outburst on Friday where he threw water at a staff member at the Australian Open. The incident happened in his match against John Isner and frankly I can easily see why he got upset!
Nalbandian commented about his penalty and said, “ridiculous playing this kind of tournament with this kind of umpires.”
Other penalties included:
Julien Benneteau’s $2,500 penalty for verbal abuse is the next highest.
Marcos Baghdatis was fined $1,250 for smashing four rackets on Wednesday.
Overall, I think Baghdatis got the best out of the penalties, it could have been a lot worse! Additionally, it got him a huge amount of press!
Last night (Australian time) I was watching Marcos Baghdatis and Stanislas Wawrinka match. Baghdatis seemed to be in complete control in the first set, but really struggled to close out the set. This seemed to become a trend for the rest of the match.
Wawrinka won the match 7-6 6-4 5-7 6-1.
p.s. Did I mention that Baghdatis broke four racquets during the match! Great to see some emotion on court from a top player (shows it means a lot).
Lleyton Hewitt has moved into the third round of the Australian Open 2012 at the expense of Andy Roddick. Roddick had to retire injured with Hewitt leading two sets to one at the time.
Hewitt was leading 3-6 6-3 6-4.
“In the last four years I’ve had five surgeries, and last year I played just two grand slams and two Davis Cup ties,” Hewitt said.
“I came in here with nothing to lose, I’ll play with my heart on my sleeve and see where it gets me.”
Hewitt will now play Canadian Milos Raonic in the third round.
Mardy Fish struggled in Melbourne and is out of the Australian Open 2012. Fish lost to Alejandro Falla 6-7 3-6 6-7 and freely expressed his irritation that Falla was treated for cramps at the change of ends.
“I see that guy’s called the trainer three, four times, however many times he was out there. It’s hot and I’m down two sets to love and I’m looking for anything to sort of gain the momentum a little bit. They’re making the balls bigger and heavier. They’re making it to where it’s such a physical match now that you’re going to have guys that are going to abuse that a lot. So, yeah, I thought he was having some physical issues. But then in between on every point he was totally fine.
Roger Federer is my favourite to take the Australian Open 2012 title, but Im sure he will have stiff competition. Here is his interview from the Australian Open 2012.
James Duckworth has moved into the second round of the Australian Open 2012 with the best win of his career! Duckworth, 19, had a straight sets win over Estonian qualifier Jurgen Zopp.
He made light work of Zopp, a 23-year-old ranked No.148, winning 6-3 6-4 6-4 in 99 minutes on Show Court 3.
“I’ve always dreamt about playing the Australian Open in front of my home fans and my family and friends.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling.”
“I was pretty nervous walking out. There were lots of people out there,” Duckworth said.
“I managed to hide my feelings quite well and, you know, I’m really happy with the win.”
Duckworth now faces Serbian No.9 seed Janko Tipsarevic in the second round.
Rafael Nadal has a strong win in the first round of the Australian Open 2012, but he did suffer a knee injury. Nadal played with a heavy strap on his knee. He said an MRI revealed no damage.
“I am really confident that having the worst feeling that I ever had in my knee yesterday and today was able to play,” he said. “I have fantastic hope that gonna happen the same for after tomorrow.”
Rafael is taking a huge amount of anti-inflammatory medication and is hoping to be fit to play the second round match. However, I wouldnt place a bet on him to win the title if I was you!
John Isner has decided to start the 2012 season with a new sponsors. John has moved from Nike to Lacoste. Obivously Lacoste were offering some good money.
Isner had been sponsored by Nike since his college years at the University of Georgia, and will now join a strong Lacoste team which includes Richard Gasquet and Milos Raonic.
Jarkko Nieminen was a qualifier at the Sydney International and today he has walked away with the title. Jarkko defeated Julien Benneteau 6-2 7-5 in the final.
Jarkko Nieminen had a great tournament in Sydney which saw him defeat James Duckworth, Radek Stepanek, Bobby Reynolds, Denis Istomin and then Julien Benneteau. As you can see from his draw it ended up quite simple compared to other players.
p.s. Poor old Benneteau remains winless in six ATP World Tour finals.
Roger Federer is going to be looking very good at the Australian Open 2012 in this stripe Nike outfit. Im really hoping he can have a strong performance and regain the world number 1 spot.
Novak Djokovic will be wearing a very interesting pattern from Sergio Tachini for the Australian Open 2012. Here is a quick preview of his Australian Open outfit.
Rafael Nadal is going to be a contender for the Australian Open 2012 title. Here is Rafael’s Nike outfit he will be wearing at the Australian Open 2012.
Andrea Petkovic has had to withdraw from the Australian Open 2012 with a stress fracture in her lower back. Petkovic has looking strong this year and im sure would have performed very well in the tournament, so its a shame she wont be there doing her traditional stupid dance!
‘‘I’ve been having some back problems for the last three or four months. I’ve been struggling with it, but I’ve always believed it was going to be fine and so I pushed through the pain.
‘‘The last two weeks in Australia I’ve been having bigger problems. I could only play for 30 to 45 minutes without pain.
‘‘After yesterday’s match against Agnieszka, I decided to have an MRI and a CT and the results showed a stress fracture in my lower back.
‘‘The only thing I can do right now is rest, not walking or sitting a lot, just lying down and hoping that the bone will heal as fast as possible.’’
John McEnroe has publicly stated that he thinks Bernard Tomic will have opportunities in his career to win a major.
Bernard has got more upside than any young guy I see out there, McEnroe told reporters in Adelaide on Monday, mirroring comments made by world No.11 Juan Martin del Potro.
He’s going to get stronger – that will help him. He is right there with the young guys as one who can make the breakthrough and win some majors.
Now.. if McEnroe says it .. you know it isnt going to happen!
Andy Murray was on a recent sports show here in the UK where he tried to recreate Roger Federer’s serve trick shot from the viral ad that has over 8 million hits on YouTube. Enjoy!
Here are the seeds for the Australian Open 2012.
