The Australian Open Recap

Andre Shaw

Sports Writing

Professor Varnon

1/26/12

 

The Australian Open

            In the wonderful world of tennis, one of the major tournaments going on right now is the Australian Open. The Australian Open brings both men and women to a highly competitive tournament to compete for a chance to claim a spot at the top of the ranks. The highlight matchup of the tournament so far took place at 3:30am when Rafael Nadal defeated Roger Federer three sets to one. Nadal awaits the winner of the semi-final matchup between two up and coming young stars in Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray Friday.

As for the women, Maria Sharapova defeated Petra Kvitova to advance to the finals for a chance to compete for a second Australian Open championship title where she will be going head to head against Victoria Azarenka. Azarenka defeated Kim Clijsters who happened to be the defending champion, for the right to play in the Australian Open finals Saturday night.

Who will finish at the top spot? It will soon be determined.

Australian Open as of 1/26 at 11:15am

The Australian Open semi-finals pitted two top dogs of tennis against one another.  Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal went head to head in the early morning hours of January 26^th for people watching in the U.S.  The Telegraph reports that Nadal’s game on Tuesday against Tomas Berdych was possibly the best of his career. Nadal won the match and will take on the winner of the semifinal match of Andy Murray against number 1 seed Novak Djokovic.

On the women’s side of the court fan favorite, Serena Williams could not get past her opponent Ekaterina Makarova and failed to advance to the quarterfinals.  Makarova was then beat by Maria Sharapova and denied a spot in the semi-finals. Sharapova then beat Petra Kvitova, and will now take on Victoria Azarenka (who beat out  Kim Clijsters in their semifinal match on Wednesday) for the woman’s final.

Australian Open Update

On the other side of the world, in a nonmainstream sport, one of the most prestigious tournaments in all of sports is being played; and most casual sports fans probably have no idea it is going on. If you were to go to the homepage of espn.com, you would find it as the front page story or even a story that has a link on the side for that matter. The sport is tennis, and the tournament is the Australian Open.

The Australian Open, one of the most prestigious tournaments in tennis began on January 15 and will be ending on the 29^th of January. Coming into the tournament the United States only had four athletes entered on the men’s side, led by 8^th ranked Mardy Fish and 16^th ranked John Isner. Neither Fish nor Isner were favorites to win the Open, the favorites were Roger Federer of Switzerland, Rafael Nadal of Spain, and Novak Djokovic of Serbia. The men’s side was much more typical as the semifinals ended up being Federer verse Nadal and Djokovic verse Andy Murray of England. Nadal won his match verse Federer while we wait for Djokovic to play his. As far as the women’s side of the draw is concerned, only four women represent the United States, while none are ranked in the top 30 worldwide; considering the Williams sisters are not competing this year. The women’s field is favored this year by Maria Sharapova of Russia and Petra Kvitova. The finals are set to be played in the next couple days between Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Sharapova. Azarenka has never made it to the Australian Open while Sharapova won the Open in 2008.

2012 Australian Open fails to Disappoint

The tennis world marks its calendars every January for the Australian Open. It has been one of the four Grand Slam tournaments since 1905. In 2012, the event continues to draw millions of tennis fans. It continues to be an event aspiring tennis players dream of being a part of.

The 2012 Australian Open started with two 64-person tournaments, a mens tournament and a women’s tournament.

On the men’s side, Novak Djokovic, the 2011 champion, was seeded first overall in the 2012 tournament. The top seeds of the other three brackets were Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Andy Murray. All four lived up to their top-seed billing as well, winning their respective brackets.

Nadal and Federer will meet in the semifinals. The match will be a renewal of tennis’ biggest rivalry, a tandem that has met 26 times since 2004. Nadal has taken 17 of those matches, including 7 of the last 9. Andy Murray will face top-ranked Djokovic in the other semifinal.

The women’s side has a similar script, except for top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki getting upended by defending champion Kim Clijsters in the quarterfinals. The top-ranked players in the other three brackets, Petra Kvitova, Victoria Azarenka, and Maria Sharapova, all reached the semi-finals.

The Australian Open wraps up on Saturday. Clijsters and Djokovic have a chance to defend their titles. Otherwise, new champions will be crowned.

Australian Open

The Australian Open for tennis happens every year around the beginning of the year. This year’s tournament is going on now and is in the semi-finals. The women’s semi-finals matchups are Kim Clijsters vs. Victoria Azarenka (#11 seed against #3 seed) and Maria Sharapova vs. Petra Kvitova (#4 seed against #2 seed). These four tennis players fought hard throughout the tournament and are now competing for the finals matchup. Clijsters took out the top seed, Caroline Wozniacki,  in the women’s bracket in the quarterfinals to advance. Azarenka beat the eighth seed, Agnieszka Radwanska, to set up a match against Clijsters. Sharapova defeated Ekaterina Makarova, to move on. While Kvitova won her match against Sara Errani.  For the men’s semi-finals matchup, you got Roger Federer vs. Rafael Nadal (#2 seed vs #3 seed) and Novak Djokovic vs. Andy Murray (#1 seed vs. #4 seed). In the men’s semi-finals the top four players in tennis are all in the semi-finals. Djokovic defeated the fifth seed, David Ferrer, to go on to the semi-finals to face Andy Murray who beat Kei Nishiikori. Federer advanced by defeating Juan Martin del Potro. And Nadal defeated Tomas Berdych to set up a great semi-final match. For the Nadal/Federer match, it will be the tenth time these two have played each other in grand slam tournaments.

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