I still love you.

Fanatic Omes:

Ok I've been M.I.A for so long that Bucky Dun Gun keeps coming up on my ipod. 

Truth is I found it really hard to recover from what Tennis did to me at the Australian Open final. Tennis broke my heart, stomped on the pieces then fed them to a lion. And so I needed my space. But I'm willing to give Tennis a second chance. 

I'll be waiting at Indian Wells; don't let me down.

Emo out.

(Pic: troll.me)

Why Rafa's fans should smile

Fanatic Omes:

7-5 for the first set,

0-40 down in the fourth set - 2 winners, 2 un-returnable serves and an ace,

7-6 for the fourth set having been down 3-5 in the tiebreak,

In the fifth, break point saved at 4-4 and 5-5,

Break point when Djokovic served for the title,

67% first serves, 10 aces, 5 sets, 5 hours 53 minutes.

Longest Slam final in history.

Novak Djokovic is out of Rafael Nadal's head.

Smile.

(Pic: AP)

Aussie Open 4th round blatherings

Fanatic Omes:

Comeback Kim

Coming back from 4 match points down in a second set tiebreak with a rolled ankle to win a match - that's boss. Kim C managed to pull that off much to her surprise. And no doubt Li Na's as well, who was just in shear disbelief that she could throw away a match that was on her racquet. 4 times. Poor Na was unsurprisingly in hysterics in her post match presser. It's a shame - she was finally finding her form after her maiden Slam slump, only to throw such a crucial match on the stage where her career year begun. Let's hope she bounces back nicely and can once again be a force for the rest of the season. 

Kimbo will go on to play Caro and I'm praying her ankle is ok, because THIS, I want to see. I'm always up for student v master scenarios. Yes I believe compared to an "on" Kim, Caro's still a student.

Rafa report

Rafa's doing good - he's still serving B52s. He's playing Mr Baby (Berdych) next which will be a step up in terms of competition/quality but I expect him to come through nicely - provided I stay up to watch the match and only take my eyes off the screen to blink and tweet. Experience tells me that you shouldn't leave Rafa unsupervised.

Tourney faves

Andy is comfortable y'all. He said so. I mean I'd be comfy if I knew I had a spot the semi-final. Not to take anything away from Nishikori - who is a fine, fine player and has pulled off a mighty fine win (more below), but we all know he's not going to trouble comfAndy. Jo Willy on the other hand could've if he didn't decide to leave his form in Doha.

Novak is still looking great. I'm not going to say much about Hewitt as I'm bitter I missed the end of what I thought would be a routine match to take a Power Pump class at the gym (bad decisions). So read this for sentimental Hewittness. 

Am I seeing things, or does Nole look a little bit less impervious than his usual 2011 self - he's got to be feeling the pressure from the weight of expectation that last year gave birth to - and I think its manifesting in his game. Or is it just wishful thinking? (Rafa fan, remember). Only time will tell - I still have him as a firm favourite for this tournie though.

The student and the master

Roger showed Tomic how it was done. Tomic got a lesson in how to do it and hopefully has learned a lesson in humility. Nah, who are we kidding. Of Federer, Tomic stated:

"It's tough. I can't use my shots the I way I need them against him ... because he knows, he's a little bit smarter and he understands where I'm going to go." 

See I kind of feel that as time goes by this will be the case with everyone else. Yes the beauty of thing about Tomic is that you never know what you're going to get next, but did you know that the shuffle feature on your ipod actually has a formula? Once the other players figure out Tomic's formula, he'll be just like everybody else. He's welcome to prove me wrong though. (By the way I still think he's a great player and the future of men's tennis).

Giant killers

56th ranked giant killer Ekaterina Makarova has gone ahead and slayed three fire-breathers - all in straight sets - in her run to the quarters: Kanepi, Zvonareva and fiery-est of all Serena. 

Serena played in that same sluggish manner she employed at the US Open final last year. She divulged that her ankle still wasn't 100 % (said if it wasn't a Slam, she wouldn't have played; exact sentiments were: "no way"), but made no excuses for losing, acknowledging that Makarova just played better. Well done Mak, that is some feat. I'm kind of mad at you for not letting me see a Masha/Serena quarter though.

Nishikori also pulled off a stunner, beating Jo Wills in a five set thriller to make his first Slam quarter-final ever. Jo Wills was up and down, but when he was up, Kei just hit everything back. Simples. Wells done Kei. Try not to run out of steam Jo, you've been doing so well recently.

Closing remarks

I still resent Power Pump.

(Vid: tennisclipsonline on Youtube)

Onwards and upwards and all around.

Fanatic Omes:

Between Nalbandian's challenge controversy/alleged water throwing, Baghdatis' racquet demolition, Vika's line judge tantrum and Tomic's cheating, there's been so much drama at this Aussie Open, that I really didn't need to watch that episode of Revenge.

Order of play.

Ladies' match of the day: Kirilenko vs Kvitova; 1st on Laver

Men's match of the day: Raonic vs Hewit; last on Laver

(Pic: Getty)

Aussie Open 2nd Round Report

Fanatic Omes:

Rafa Report

The hypercritical fan in me still wants him to hit the ball harder. I guess it's good that he's been stretched well enough early. (Taking what I can get here.)

Tournament faves

Nole and Andy and are doing really well - nothing to see here, keep moving. Kvitty had her first scare coming from a break down in the 2nd set against Suarez-Navarro but good thing is that she can win when she's playing ugly. She's gonna need that skill if she wants to play with the cool kids.

Crusing ladies

There's obviously a massive gap between the leading ladies and the rest of the field. With just 28 games lost between the lot of them after the 2nd round, Kimmie, Na, Vika, and Serena are just steamrolling ahead. This makes me very excite.

Angry men

Fish has been exhibiting some unpleasant behaviour of late and he brought along the bad attitude to the Ausso. Apparently dear Mardy was so irate at one point during his match against Alenjandro Falla (which he lost in straights) that he actually spat at fans! It's such a shame - it's like his 2011 season never happened. What's going on witchu Mardy?

We've all seen that video of Baghdatis breaking 4 racquets in a row after his 4 set loss to Stan (hey, 1 for each set!). But was it all a dig the racquet manufacturers? Probably not. But a good effort from Forbes on that story.

Then there was the whole Nalbandian challenge controversy where... oh do I really need to explain it again? Just click here to watch the video. Anywhoo it was most unfair. The call didn't lose Nalby the match though - it just robbed him of an opportunity to win it. But before we crucify Kader Nouni let's remember that he just made a mistake at work. If we had to be investigated every time we made mistakes at work... well we'd just be being investigated a lot. Yeah.

Closing remarks

Peace out.

(Vid: CardCollections on YouTube)

 

Let's keep it moving.

 

Fanatic Omes:

Competition heats up with seeds sprouting up to play each other. It's still really weird that someone is definitely going to win this thing. Sorry that didn't make much sense, I'm a wee bit sleep deprived. But you get it.

OOP.

Ladies' match of the day: Clijsters vs Hantuchova; 4th on Hisense

Men's match of the day: Dolgopolov vs Tomic; 4th on Laver

(Pic:Reuters)

Aussie Open First Round Blather

Fanatic Omes:

My favourites

Nole is looking good enough to defend his title. His outfit however is not. Too many colours and patterns bro. My favourite part was when he got broken in the 3rd game and my twitter timeline started talking about his demise.

Andy also came through nicely enough. I didn't watch the match but no eyebrow raising from me - Harrison ain't an easy first round opponent.

Kvitty and Vika killed it. Dead. They be looking goooood, but we'll know more when they encounter more difficult opponents. (Obvious statement of the year.) Oh and I'm not a fan of Vika's shorts, she looks like she's in practice. Bring back the baby doll dress Viks.

Rafito

Can Rafa please give his fans some peace of mind just once? Busted shoulders; crack-y knees. Jeez Louise. Please Rafa, do it for us. He totes rocked out his match though; and apparently was moving well in practice so you know, yay.

Shocks

If it was noticeably darker in Melbourne Park it's because Verdasco, who proceeded to wear the Sun, went out to Tomic in 5 sets. Well we knew it would be interesting. Where he goes from here, I don't know but homie needs to make some changes fast - the demise is unnecessary. 

Ay nooo Samantha! Maybe Sam should see a sports psychologist because it's been downhill since the USO and frankly, she's better than this.

Other important observations

What's up with the Brits? Five out at once in the 1st round, with no sets for any of them. Come on Britannia. Rule Britannia.

What are those gargantic bugs that keep landing on court? They're making me shudddder.

Having shielded my eyes from Jo Willy's shoes, Masha's straps and Verdasco, I can safely say the theme for this Aussie Open is: BRIGHT.

(Vid: carlpcurran on YouTube)

Australian Open 2012 Preview

Fanatic Omes:

The Men

I agree with Uncle Toni's assessment: the two favourites for the Aussie Open are Nole - for obvious reasons and Murray because he's hungry to win his first Slam. You could argue that Nole has only had tournament practice in the form of a lowly exo some eons ago yadda yadda but that's only because you'd be a Rafa fan.

As for Murray there's the perpetual argument that he's hungry for his first Slam, but add to that the fact that he's acquired the Brisbane title, Ivan Lendl and another year of finals experience under his belt and he's looking stronger than he ever has. *Insert something witty and related about his shaggy mane here*.

Now I would've considered King Rog to be a heavy heavy favourite coming in if he hadn't messed up his back. At the end of last year he was looking sensationnelle but we know what happened last time he played with a slight back injury - let's just hope Alejandro Falla isn't anywhere in sight. I guess I'm going to have to cap off Roger's progress at the quarters, but I could be wrong. And probably will be.

And now for our Bacardi champion. The good new is that the shoulder is in perfect conditions. The illusion is there; the passion is there. Things are looking good. I mean, Rafael Nadal is alwaysandforever going to be a contender and he seems to be practising well, but it's a matter of wait and see.

Someone that should definitely command your attention is the small matter of Jo-Willy Tsonga who has not put a foot wrong since the end of last year. You know how everyone keeps asking if there is anyone that could spoil the top 4 party? Yeah. This guy.

The last male player that springs to mind is the bombastic Milos who captured his 2nd title ever in Chennai. Expect him to go far. Well as far as Nole in the fourth round. Sorry Milos.

The Women

Kim's hip and Serena's ankle are making it hard for me to place them - it really just depends on how they're holding up - there's a credible army of contenders these days. I am NAAT optimistic about MaSha at all though. Zero match practice since forever is just not going to cut it. You never know though. Although, you do. Why are all our veteran champs hobbling?

Vika's made her way nicely to the Sydney title and is definitely a top pick for me to get far. Her draw should certainly allow it up to the quarters. Petra's obviously a front-runner as well and I'm sure she won't allow her loss to Na in Sydney to phase her. Na on the other hand should definitely allow the win to phase her. Knowing she can take on someone like Kvittygoat will be a big consolation; and stepping back on the court where she'd made the finals last year as we all know, will be a huge boost. Na says "[she's] back" and I believe her.

As for Caro and her wrist - I'm not so sure. I don't think she's in the best shape ever to do some serious damage (well not after she gets to the fourth round anyway; have a look at her section of the draw - it ain't bad). There are far too many challengers in the mix for a full fledged Caro show.

So there's my take. Thank you and goodnight. I'm off to sleep for a full 48 hours.

Click here for the draws.

(Pic: Scott Barbour/Getty)

  

Andy brings the LOLZ

Fanatic Omes:

Andy plays that game where you pick your favourite answer out of two related categories. Sounds bland simple enough but it quickly turns into one of the most intentionally/unintentionally hilarious interviews ever with our dear boy. Observe:

(Vid: kikirikimiki2 on YouTube)

Marat Ma-wrong!

Fanatic Omes:

Marat Safin has been running his big mouth of late, claiming that little sis Dinara's career had all but come to an end due to the back problems she's sustained for the past two years. 

While Dinara's made no secret of her injury woes telling ESPN:

"Right now when I have this back pain, I don't think [of returning] at all. I'm sick of this pain." 

She also made this clear: "But I don't want to say officially that I'm going to retire."

Which is why Marat isn't helping matters by gobbing all over the place. Dinara's a big girl, she'll retire when she wants to retire and she'll say she's retiring when she wants to say she's retiring. And she seems to reiterate that sentiment somewhat passive aggressively. (Ok not passive aggressively at all - very nicely):

It takes a lot for an attractive man to incur the wrath of women, believe you me, but Marat's managed to do it. Well done Marat, as punishment there will be no watching of YouTube videos of you for two days.

What's that? You look like this?

...Ok I forgive you.

(Pic: asava-newflavours.blogspot.com)

 

Wozz up with that?

Fanatic Omes:

So it's official. They are hereby deemed: Wozzilroy. And the 2nd Z? Well that just makes it gangsta.

(Pic: Caroline's Twitter)

 

Readme

 Fanatic Omes:

• Ok I sympathise with the players and everything re all the strike and schedule talk, but all I'm hearing from them is whine whine whine.
• Again, whine whine whine.
• Argentina and the essence of the Davis Cup.
• Rafa will bounce back - like a tennis ball that's hit a wall. AmIright?
• Cool piece from a photographer at the US Open.
• If the players do decide to strike, they'll need replacements right...? It could be more fun this way.
• So what you're saying is you can sit on bum watching tennis and still be training.
  
• Nice Q&A with Martina Hingis.
• Rafa and Quely - the perfect pair. My favourite is how many different camera angles they managed to find to film him eating the biscuits. 
• Tipsy wants his share of underwear action too. To be honest, I'm surprised it's taken him this long.
• I heart Momo Chan.
• WHAT COULD THIS MEAN???!!!

(Pic: christinefeehan.com)

The Real Winners of the Davis Cup

Fanatic Omes:

Sure Spain beat France and Argentina beat Serbia to set up a nice Hispanic-y clash in the final. Sure Switzerland, Austria, Japan, Italy, Croatia, Canada, Russia and the Czech Republic all came through in the world group playoffs. These countries may have won their ties, but nobody won over our hearts, LOLZ and WTFs like this lot:

Rafa Nadal: For playing 3 days after losing that grueling US Open final, which must have felt like assault. Rafa had just 45 minutes to practice transitioning from hard to clay and disclosed that he was "close to the end of his energy". And he still PWNED poor Gasquet and Jo-Willy, reminding us that he is no doubt the GOATOC. (Greatest of all time on clay).

Córdoba: For making that the killer poster above (click to enlarge and read). Unless it was the thing responsible for spurring on Fer's jacket.

Nalbandian: For being the anchor of the Argentina. Nobody does a Davis like Daveed. He brings out his best for it and it brings out the best in him. You'd have to smile thinking about how much making this final must mean to him. But then you'd soon frown knowing that Spain will probably kick their asses. And then you'd smile again because: vamos.

That Judy fan: For that t-shirt. Andy, this is what you get for having a cool mum.

Hewitt and Guccione: For upsetting Olympic Gold pair Stanislas and Roger, having teamed up for just the second time ever. Did you LOL? I did.

Sela: For not letting a little thing like height keep him from making his voice heard.

Popsicle (Vasek Pospisil): For leading Canada to victory in a stand out performance, complete with a 5 set epic against Sela, a doubles shocker with Nestor and a straight sets final over Weintraub. The 21 year old moved up a couple of ranking spots with the performance declaring it "the best moment of [his] career". And those rosy cheeks!

Nole: For going out there with a failing back and trying the best he could. It must have been tough to come crashing down on the same stage that was so integral to his unbelievable success this year. I'm sure if all his ligaments etc. had snapped so that his skeleton was only being held by his skin, and there was a way he could still play, he would have. Also a couple of points for the tears. Grown men crying gets me every time.

Del Potro: Again the crying thing - every time. 

Roger: For being the tournie's class clown.  

Fer: For being brave enough to don that jacket. And also for redeeming himself after his shocktastic performance with Feli in the doubles match against Tsonga and Llodra.

(Pics: AP, Getty, Reuters, SMP Images, Yahoo)

Readme

Fanatic Omes:

• The 'case of the magic draw' has been quite the topic of controversy this US Open, and it's easy to see why.
• Because it's always fun to read an Ernests Gulbis article.
• Nice article on whether Roddick's meltdown mania was kindddda justified.
• Now everyone is a racquet diva.
• Wondrous illustrative article showing the best fistpumps through the years. Glorious; just glorious.
• Article about the abusive tennis coach, who's now been named and shamed as hall of famer, Bob Hewitt. Appalling.
• Exhibit A. Exhibit B. But there's nothing wrong with Harrison's temper - according to Jim courier. (No comment on Gimelstob btw. Wow.)
• Toni being candid and a little pessimistic about Rafa (sky is blue).
• Glorious animation on Rafa's forehand from the New York times. And it's informative too kids!
• With the number of retirements  as numerous as sand grains on the seashore at the USO - this certainly springs to mind.
• We all know about Ball Boys and Girls, but meet Spitz - the (over) enthusiastic Ball Lawyer.

(Pic: dcanimals.org)

The US Open so far - in blather form.

Fanatic Omes:

- Fish swam (I had to) through his match pretty much likeaboss. He came, he saw, he demolished, he probably went home and polished off a can of Bumblebee. Me like-y what me see-y here.

- Harrison failed dismally having lead all through the match and I really don't know why. Maybe the success of his breakout season has finally caught up with him? Or MAYBE HE NEEDS TO CHILL. No one should have a respected commie calling them a 'brat'. Remember when he tried to give Federer advice? Maybe he should take a page out of the GOAT's book and start to control that temper on court.

- Gutsy, courageous - no doubt two words you would've heard Heather Watson being described by when she pushed a crappy Masha to three. What impressed me the most about her was her MIND yo. She was all like: I'm playing Maria Sharapova winner of 3 Slams, no big deal, what are you doing for the rest of the week? She really thought she could win the match (and with the way Masha was playing, I could've probably won the match) and that is what you want to see from youngins. Here's to a bright future Hev.

- We had our first upset of the tournament with Wimbly champ Petra Kvitova. This gives me sadz, I don't like when champions go out emphatically. Especially when I just recently ran my mouth about more WTA consistency. Ahem.

- And then we had our 2nd upset with Li Na bowing out who said she played like the stronger word for poo. And only for the 2nd time in the Open Era, 40 years since the last we have none of the previous Grand Slam winners in the 2nd round of the USO. Which brings me back to dud article on female domination. Jeez can't catch a break.

- We had 2 curses - the curse of the Japanese players with Kei Nishikori, Ayumi Morita and Misaki Doi all bowing out. And the curse of the 5-1 down retirements with Conor Niland and Jamie Hampton both retiring from their matches against Nole and Elena Baltacha respectively.

- Ernie won his match! And convincingly! Shhhh, don't say it out loud.

- Rafa was in and out of focus, actually mostly just out. Golubev lead all the way through the match, but proceeded to choke all the way through the match. Dude has some serious shot-making abilitites, it was almost annoying. And by almost I mean very. Well it was a customary slow start from Rafa. On the plus side the prodigal serve seems to be on its way back home.

- Serena steamrolling through her match isn't news. Her hilarious response to yet another journey back to Foot Fault Gate is.

(Vid: bizbuzz2000 on YouTube)
 

Readme

 Fanatic Omes:

• The Pragmatic Federer.
• Better over the hill than under it, I always say -yeah basically Federer ain't getting any younger. 
• Lovely advice for a doubles partnerhip. Or any parternsip for that matter.
•  Another funny from Chris Chase as he analyses Rafa's first twitterings.
• In case you haven't experienced the enigma that is Ernests Gulbis...
• Nole goes on Leno and Conan. Conan wins. 
• So what if we don’t have money for the kids’ education? “We’ll pick our favourite and that one’ll get to go to college!” 
• Look at Li Na - she's gettin pay-pa. (Uhh Ye Feng - that was a bit uncalled for!) 
• Meet Wayne Odesnik in this phenomenally comprehensive article ...and form your own opinions.

(Pic: mountainkidsfantasy.com)

Rafa learns a new word!

Fanatic Omes:

Rafa: "Good afternoon, today’s workout with the junior Pol Toledo was very enriching. I’ll be training hard with him in the court some more days :) Rafa"

(Pic: Rafa's facebook)

Simon's da mon.

 

Fanatic Omes:

Gilles Simon was a happy bunny yesterday after defeating clay prince, Nicolas Almagro to win the bet-at-home Open (yah, that’s actually what it’s called :/). I’m not sure what that’s going to mean for him seeing as we are currently in the HARD court season (that was said loud enough for Hamburg to hear).  But he’ll certainly take away some serious confidence. Believe it or not it was actually Gillou’s first ATP 500 title (...I know). The win has propelled him to no. 11 and he is now perfectly poised to once again settle into the top ten where he belongs.

Baby G was even there to support – Gillou now considers him his lucky charm. Here is a video of Lil’ Gilles giving Big Gilles a high five. All together now: AWWWWWW.

My womb has now turned into rose-infused chocolate and it's in a puddle on the floor.

(Pic: Getty)

Readme

Fanatic Omes:

• Rafa talking food. I have to embarrassingly confess that I once used the recipe from Rafa’s 2010 It Must Be Love video to make pasta con gambas. (Yeah...) It turned out horrible. I didn’t use Spanish olive oil though so...
• Rafa bringing the LOLZ in his top 10 funniest interviews. I will NOT say "he's so cute" again. Oops!
• CNN credits Borg for changing the game. Fairy nuff.
• The GB vs Hungary Davis Cup tie is to be played in Scotland again. Andy you’d better cry harder this time. I want to see saliva!
• The ATP’s ‘Hard Court Heroes’ – noticeably absent – Rafa *sniff*
• Let’s be real, the ultimate tennis player is Nole* (...for now... >: ) )
• Loving this rally.
• Lena D looking ravishing in a beautiful ball of fluff at her wedding. If you weren’t there, do not fret; just journey back to Alla Kudryavtseva's twitter timeline that day.
• She will always be number 1 in our hearts. Kournikova will never not be relevant in tennis for a non-tennishead. Still haven't forgiven her for bagging Enrique.
• The fact that there are no top Afro tennis players is major sadz for me as Africa is my muthaa-land. Booooo!
• Things to do with your tennis balls when it’s not summer and you refuse to play in the snow again.

*I hope I'm not coming across as a Nole hater atm, but as someone who thinks Rafa is literally the best thing since organic, seedy, sliced bread, you see my predicament...

(Pic: chtariq on Flixr)

A Portrait of Roger

Fanatic Omes:

So artist Jean-Pierre Blanchard painted a portrait of Rog from scratch, in under four minutes. I don't know where all this need to create extravagant art pieces of Roger's face came from, but it's pretty impressive.

Anyway this went down a the presentation of the SVC Entrepreneur Award in Zurich and the portrait was auctioned off for charity. Here it is:

Highlights:

1. The Nike tick.

2. The general dementedness of Jean-Pierre.

(Vid: creditsuisse)