Monday, January 23, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
Dokic makes perfect start, Ivanovic out
While the top-seeded players at the Sydney International enjoyed first-round byes Jelena Dokic enjoyed a practice run of her own on Sunday, routing young Australian wildcard Isabella Holland 6-0, 6-0.
Dokic breezed into the second round of the WTA event with the tournament's first double-bagel scoreline in the women's draw in more than a decade.
Back in 1997 Sarah Pitkowski wiped out Natasha Zvereva, also in the first round.
Things did not go as well for former world number one Ana Ivanovic, whose Australian Open preparations hit another snag when she fell to Lucie Safarova 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.
Dokic spent just 53 minutes in the one-sided contest, before revealing she still had the confidence to take on the world's best players if she can remain injury-free in 2012.
"Look, I've been there. So I know I can play at that level," she told reporters after her match.
"It's just everything else coming together. You've just got to work extremely hard because everyone else is."
Dokic said she felt some sympathy for Holland at times during the demolition, and hoped the 20-year-old would learn from the whitewash.
"It's tough because she's also young," Dokic said.
"But it's sport. If I was playing someone like that, I don't think they would take it easy on me either.
"I think you can still learn alot from a match like this. She's just got to go out there tomorrow and work even harder. She has potential and she's still so young."
Ivanovic started her match confidently as both players held serve in the first set, and even looked to have the upper hand at 5-5 in the tie-break when she was presented with a regulation smash to bring up set point.
But instead of punishing Safarova, Ivanovic inexplicably slammed the shot into the net, before later admitting she never recovered from that error.
"I kept replaying that shot in my mind throughout the whole match," she told reporters after the match.
"I felt like that was the turning point."
Ivanovic indicated she will now head straight to Melbourne to continue her haphazard preparations for the Australian Open.
The 22-year-old was defeated in the second round of last week's Brisbane International by Kim Clijsters, meaning she will have had just three tournament matches going into the Open at Melbourne Park beginning January 16.
"It gives me plenty of time to work on a few things and tune up a few things, but I feel my game is there," she said.
"It's still going to be good to have a few days to work.
"I had a good off-season and I just want to try and keep at it.
"It would be great to have a result straight away but sometimes it's a process and it takes time."
Day two at Ken Rosewall Arena will see Australia's number one female, Sam Stosur, take on her nemesis Francesca Schiavone.
AAP
Tags: sport, tennis, sydney-2000, nsw, australia First posted January 08, 2012 13:53:43Thursday, December 8, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Tomic hopes practice makes perfect
Tomic, 18, has become one of the stand-out stories at the All England Club after claiming a host of impressive scalps including world number five Robin Soderling and 29th seed Nikolay Davydenko, en route to becoming the youngest male quarter-finalist for 25 years.
Only Boris Becker, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg have made the last eight at a younger age than Tomic, who demolished Belgium's Xavier Malisse 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 in the fourth round on Monday to become the first qualifier to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals since Vladimir Voltchkov in 2000.
Now Tomic, ranked 158th in the world, faces Australian Open champion Djokovic for a place in the semi-finals and the teenager knows from bitter experience just how hard it will be to shock the second seed.
Tomic has practised with Djokovic regularly since the pair met an exhibition match in the Melbourne suburb of Kooyong in 2010 and he admits the Serb thrashed him in one-set match on the training court before Wimbledon.
"I did hit with him before the tournament, we played a set. He destroyed me," Tomic said.
"Things are not looking good for me, but hopefully he destroyed me then and not on Wednesday.
"It's tough, because even in practice when I play against Novak, I can't execute my shots because he's got one of the best returns in the world.
"He's got an unbelievable backhand. If I can execute my shots and he doesn't return as good on that day, which could be impossible because his return is unbelievable, then maybe I'll have a chance.
"We'll know from the first returns he hits."
Off-court buddies
Tomic, who was born in Germany to Croatian and Bosnian parents, has become firm friends with Djokovic as a result of their practice sessions.
But the Australian has never played Djokovic in an ATP Tour match and he readily admits it will need the performance of a lifetime to beat the world number two, whose remarkable run of 43 successive wins was only ended by Roger Federer at the French Open recently.
"Novak's a champion. He's obviously won grand slams before. My relationship's really good with him," Tomic said.
"I've hit with him a lot of times. He's a cool guy. One of the nicest guys out there on the tour.
"I think he has a respect for me but I've got a much bigger respect for him because he's played at that big level the last five years.
"What a match it's going to be, to play against a guy like him that's two in the world, it doesn't get really better than that."
Tomic has long been earmarked as one of the sport's rising stars after winning the Australian and US Open junior titles.
He struggled to live up to his potential for a while and nearly didn't make it to Wimbledon after coming within five points of losing his first match in the qualifying event.
Yet now he is one win away from a potential dream meeting with his idol Roger Federer in the semi-finals.
"I looked up to Roger when he won his first Wimbledon here and beat (Mark) Philippoussis. Ever since that, the love of the game's always been there," Tomic said.
Even if Tomic's fairytale run ends in the last eight, he has enjoyed the best two weeks of his life and is already planning how to celebrate.
"I still go to the beach and barbecues, that's for sure. Now I'm planning more of that!" he said.
- AFP
Tags: sport, tennis, united-kingdom, england First posted June 28, 2011 12:15:00