Federer Masters Melbourne Again
Sunday, 29 January, 2006
by Bren O'Brien
Swiss No.1 seed Roger Federer has claimed the men's title at Australian Open 2006 after a brilliant comeback against unseeded Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis to win 5-7 7-5 6-0 6-2.
Federer claimed the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup for the second time in three years, but was forced to come from a set and a break down against Baghdatis who has captured the public's imagination in the past two weeks with his affable manner off the court and never-say-die attitude on it.
It was not the assured performance that has become expected of the Federer in the past two years, but the No.1 seed got better as the game wore on, using his full array of strokes to thwart the determined Cypriot, who had already knocked out No.2 seed Andy Roddick, the No.4 seed David Nalbandian and the No.7 seed Ivan Ljubicic on his way to the final.
Federer's Grand Slam record now stands at two Australian Opens, two US Opens and three Wimbledons, with the French Open the only major title to elude him. At 24, he remains on track to match Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slam titles. Sampras had also won seven of his titles at the same age.
Both men dominated on serve early in the first set with only one point conceded by the server in each of the first four games. However, Baghdatis was able to pressure Federer on his serve in the fifth game. Uncharacteristically, the Swiss conceded three consecutive points with unforced errors and gifted the Cypriot a service break.
But Baghdatis also appeared in a charitable mood, handing back his break after a double fault. Keen to make up for his lost opportunity, the world No.54 continued to pressure Federer's serve, forcing the Swiss to bang down consecutive aces to win his next service game.
The Cypriot was finally rewarded for his persistence in the 11th game of the set. Federer led 30-0 but a series of unforced errors, including one on break point, gave Baghdatis the edge. Some powerful serves then set up two set points and when Federer netted his return, Baghdatis had taken stunning one-set lead.
Baghdatis took the momentum from the first set into the first game of the second set, breaking Federer, who conceded the game with his 19th unforced error for the match. The Swiss was staring down the barrel of a two-break deficit after an all-too casual shot from the net into an open court went wide in the third game.
It seemed to act as a wake-up call for Federer, and faced with the possibility of having to win the match in five sets, he saved two break points to keep himself in the set. He then pressured Baghdatis into conceding his next service game to get back on level terms.
Federer appeared to be under the greatest pressure on his serve, but when the break did come, it was against Baghdatis. Up 40-0 in the 12th game, the set looked destined for a tie-break, but Federer reeled off five consecutive points, including a set point which was over-ruled by the chair umpire, to level the match at a set apiece
Buoyed by his second-set heroics, Federer began the third set in fine touch, winning his own service game to love before breaking Baghdatis. Having romped to a 3-0 lead, Federer broke him once more, then held onto his serve in a tense fifth game. The world No.1 was starting to hit his straps and in just 24 minutes, took the third set thanks to a mis-hit backhand that landed on the line.
When Baghdatis cramped up during his first service game in the fourth, eventually conceding it to love, the writing was on the wall for the Cypriot. Federer had made it 11 games on end by the end of the third game, eventually conceded a game to Baghdatis but not before creating yet another break point.
A lesser opponent would have wilted under Federer's relentless pressure, but despite his body telling him to stop, Baghdatis fought on, ensuring the Swiss would have to battle for his seventh Grand Slam title. He held a break-back point in the seventh game, but couldn't capitalise. In the next game, Federer created two match points, he only needed one as Baghdatis hit a shot into the base of the net.
Current Match on Rod Laver Arena
Match Facts
• Federer had 11 aces to Baghdatis' 6
• Each player had 48 unforced errors
• There were 11 breaks of serve, eight to Federer, three to Baghdatis
• Federer won 142 to 116
Showing posts with label Melbourne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Melbourne. Show all posts
Monday, January 30, 2006
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Justine Distraught by Retirement - 2006-01-28
Wow. I never thought The womens final was like this. Please just read the story taken of the Australian Open Site.
http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/news/articles/2006-01-28/200601281138433392736.html
(I will add some photos later).
Justine Distraught by Retirement
by Amanda Buivids
Saturday, 28 January, 2006
It all happened rather suddenly, really.
Two points into her service game and then there was a tentative, long march to the chair umpire and … it was over. Just there and then.
The final of the women's singles at Australian Open 2006 was a set and two-and-a-half games old when Justine Henin-Hardenne, renowned for her fighting qualities, told umpire Alison Lang she could no longer continue.
She retired while trailing 4-6 0-2.
Her stunning capitulation took everyone by surprise, most of all Amelie Mauresmo, who after shaking hands with Henin-Hardenne and expressing her condolences, walked back to her chair realising the title was hers.
As Mauresmo saluted the warm and sympathetic Rod Laver Arena crowd, and wiped tears of joy from her smiling, joyous face, Henin-Hardenne sat, slumped in her court-side chair, head buried in a towel trying to come to terms with the enormity of her decision and its repercussions.
The Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup was not the only thing at stake at that very moment, there was also her pride.
Such was her overwhelming sense of grief, it was the newly-anointed champion who had to stand up, walk the six metres and sit next to Henin-Hardenne, who was speechless and reduced to merely peeping through the peak of her cap and a sweaty towel.
It was the pure sense of disappointment that shuddered through her small, but muscular frame.
"It's one of the biggest (disappointments) because I don't know what is harder; to lose even when you're playing well and just you lose, or just when you have to retire like that," a distraught Henin-Hardenne said after the match.
"I think it's very disappointing because I was playing so well, and I had a lot of good chances to win here. When you lose that like this, it's pretty hard."
The No.8 seed said she had been feeling sick in the stomach for a couple of days. She said she had a problem shoulder and was prescribed anti-inflammatory tablets for the injury.
She admitted, though, that she had doubled her intake of the tablets to cope with the injury, which may have inadvertently caused her tummy troubles.
"It's been a few days I wasn't feeling well. My stomach was very upset. And then last night, I didn't sleep a lot because it got worse and worse," she explained. "Two weeks now, I had to take anti-inflammatories for my shoulder, and that killed me a little bit."
"But I had to for my shoulder. Now I got on my stomach, and then I had no legs today. I couldn't move. When the stomach is so upset and so inflamed, you know, you just don't have any energy."
"And I felt it when I woke up, but I tried. I knew at the beginning of the match I couldn't win it. I really tried to stay in the match, but there was no chance for me. If I would have keep playing and continue, maybe I would injure something else, so that was the best decision, even if it was very, very hard for me."
From the stands, the only minor indication that something was up with the petite Belgian, was the scoreline.
We had not seen her as overwhelmed in a final before. She was out-played and out-muscled in the opening set, suffering two breaks of serve to drop it in 33 minutes.
Henin-Hardenne called for the trainer during the second game of the second set after she managed to level at deuce on Mauresmo's serve.
The tyros had just completed a 33-shot rally - the best display of shot-making in the 52-minute contest - but obviously inflicted diabolical distress on the right-hander, who lost the following two points and the game.
After a three-minute injury time-out, the two combatants resumed with the calm Frenchwoman winning the two points, and Henin-Hardenne then walked towards the net to tell her opponent and the umpire that she was beaten and broken.
"I was dead, yeah … just after that point I was feeling like short of breath and no legs, no power, nothing," she said, referring to her request for medical assistance at the change-of- ends.
"I say, I am going to ask the doctor what we can do. But there's nothing we can do at that point when you're feeling like that. So I think that was really the best decision for myself."
World No.3 Mauresmo played magnificently. She controlled the contest from the start when she won her service to 15, and then immediately broke Henin-Hardenne before doing so again in the fourth game.
Her looping forehands and well-positioned serve troubled Henin-Hardenne, despite her physical frailties.
For the vanquished Henin-Hardenne, the match as well as the post-final media conference reduced her to tears.
The stress, the questioning, the criticisms had become overwhelming and too much of a burden to bare.
However, what was tougher for her was the tough decision to take her position on Centre Court when she knew that she was not 100 per cent healthy.
"Well, it's always my decision, you know, my choice. I know what was the problem, and I decided to walk on court because I'm professional, I want to try," she said. "When you see it's not working, it's the only way to go out."
"I mean, you know, it's hard when you're on the court and so much in pain. I think it's very easy to say that here in press conference. But when you're on the court and you suffer a lot and you feel like you don't have anything to give, it's pretty hard to stay on the court. I have no regrets about the decision I took."
Extending her professionalism, she congratulated Mauresmo, the 26-year-old who has finally broken through for her first Grand Slam crown in 32 attempts.
"It's great for her. She was waiting for that for such a long time, and it's finally coming out, very strange way, Kim (Clijsters) and me," Henin-Hardenne said. "But I'm sure it will give her a lot of confidence. She worked very hard so she deserved that."
http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/news/articles/2006-01-28/200601281138433392736.html
(I will add some photos later).
Justine Distraught by Retirement
by Amanda Buivids
Saturday, 28 January, 2006
It all happened rather suddenly, really.
Two points into her service game and then there was a tentative, long march to the chair umpire and … it was over. Just there and then.
The final of the women's singles at Australian Open 2006 was a set and two-and-a-half games old when Justine Henin-Hardenne, renowned for her fighting qualities, told umpire Alison Lang she could no longer continue.
She retired while trailing 4-6 0-2.
Her stunning capitulation took everyone by surprise, most of all Amelie Mauresmo, who after shaking hands with Henin-Hardenne and expressing her condolences, walked back to her chair realising the title was hers.
As Mauresmo saluted the warm and sympathetic Rod Laver Arena crowd, and wiped tears of joy from her smiling, joyous face, Henin-Hardenne sat, slumped in her court-side chair, head buried in a towel trying to come to terms with the enormity of her decision and its repercussions.
The Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup was not the only thing at stake at that very moment, there was also her pride.
Such was her overwhelming sense of grief, it was the newly-anointed champion who had to stand up, walk the six metres and sit next to Henin-Hardenne, who was speechless and reduced to merely peeping through the peak of her cap and a sweaty towel.
It was the pure sense of disappointment that shuddered through her small, but muscular frame.
"It's one of the biggest (disappointments) because I don't know what is harder; to lose even when you're playing well and just you lose, or just when you have to retire like that," a distraught Henin-Hardenne said after the match.
"I think it's very disappointing because I was playing so well, and I had a lot of good chances to win here. When you lose that like this, it's pretty hard."
The No.8 seed said she had been feeling sick in the stomach for a couple of days. She said she had a problem shoulder and was prescribed anti-inflammatory tablets for the injury.
She admitted, though, that she had doubled her intake of the tablets to cope with the injury, which may have inadvertently caused her tummy troubles.
"It's been a few days I wasn't feeling well. My stomach was very upset. And then last night, I didn't sleep a lot because it got worse and worse," she explained. "Two weeks now, I had to take anti-inflammatories for my shoulder, and that killed me a little bit."
"But I had to for my shoulder. Now I got on my stomach, and then I had no legs today. I couldn't move. When the stomach is so upset and so inflamed, you know, you just don't have any energy."
"And I felt it when I woke up, but I tried. I knew at the beginning of the match I couldn't win it. I really tried to stay in the match, but there was no chance for me. If I would have keep playing and continue, maybe I would injure something else, so that was the best decision, even if it was very, very hard for me."
From the stands, the only minor indication that something was up with the petite Belgian, was the scoreline.
We had not seen her as overwhelmed in a final before. She was out-played and out-muscled in the opening set, suffering two breaks of serve to drop it in 33 minutes.
Henin-Hardenne called for the trainer during the second game of the second set after she managed to level at deuce on Mauresmo's serve.
The tyros had just completed a 33-shot rally - the best display of shot-making in the 52-minute contest - but obviously inflicted diabolical distress on the right-hander, who lost the following two points and the game.
After a three-minute injury time-out, the two combatants resumed with the calm Frenchwoman winning the two points, and Henin-Hardenne then walked towards the net to tell her opponent and the umpire that she was beaten and broken.
"I was dead, yeah … just after that point I was feeling like short of breath and no legs, no power, nothing," she said, referring to her request for medical assistance at the change-of- ends.
"I say, I am going to ask the doctor what we can do. But there's nothing we can do at that point when you're feeling like that. So I think that was really the best decision for myself."
World No.3 Mauresmo played magnificently. She controlled the contest from the start when she won her service to 15, and then immediately broke Henin-Hardenne before doing so again in the fourth game.
Her looping forehands and well-positioned serve troubled Henin-Hardenne, despite her physical frailties.
For the vanquished Henin-Hardenne, the match as well as the post-final media conference reduced her to tears.
The stress, the questioning, the criticisms had become overwhelming and too much of a burden to bare.
However, what was tougher for her was the tough decision to take her position on Centre Court when she knew that she was not 100 per cent healthy.
"Well, it's always my decision, you know, my choice. I know what was the problem, and I decided to walk on court because I'm professional, I want to try," she said. "When you see it's not working, it's the only way to go out."
"I mean, you know, it's hard when you're on the court and so much in pain. I think it's very easy to say that here in press conference. But when you're on the court and you suffer a lot and you feel like you don't have anything to give, it's pretty hard to stay on the court. I have no regrets about the decision I took."
Extending her professionalism, she congratulated Mauresmo, the 26-year-old who has finally broken through for her first Grand Slam crown in 32 attempts.
"It's great for her. She was waiting for that for such a long time, and it's finally coming out, very strange way, Kim (Clijsters) and me," Henin-Hardenne said. "But I'm sure it will give her a lot of confidence. She worked very hard so she deserved that."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)