AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2015

wow a straightforward win for Kei. I hope he can repeat his USO win over Stan now.

Domi! Finding form out of nowhere.

raonic has such a punchable face

wow, Lopez saves two MPs in the fourth set TB (after saving two MPs in R1 and one MP in R2) to take it into a fifth. Saved one with a s&v and the second on Raonic's serve with a brilliant BH pass

Aga approaches off a mid-pace short ball down the middle, Venus buries the pass in the bottom of the net

12-deuce game and Venus breaks...

Venus losing it. That smash into the back fence...

Radwanska is so useless, I love it. So close, Venus! Please not yet another close 3 set slam loss.

That smash triggered her getting it together to an extent. From a break down to 4-1 up but this is patchy tennis.

Only just got home at 1-0 in the third but if Radwanska has been playing like this how did she even win games let alone a set. My god, she has no kill shots as ever but she doesn't even have touch. Keys would just annihilate her, so might as well lose to Venus.

Aga's timing is all over the place now

Aga's approaches and volleys were terrible all night, really. Venus stemmed her UEs impressively...

amazing win for Venus! although radwanska literally was just unbelievably bad.

Predix:

Serena vs Cibulkova
Keys vs Radwanska
Makarova vs Halep
Bouchard vs Sharapova

Djokovic vs Raonic
Wawrinka vs Nishikori
Berdych vs Nadal
Murray vs Kyrgios

15/16. could not be more ecstatic about the one i got wrong!!

Women's QFs set.

(1) Serena Williams vs. (11) Dominika Cibulkova
Madison Keys vs. (18) Venus Williams
(10) Ekaterina Makarova vs. (3) Simona Halep
(7) Eugenie Bouchard vs. (2) Maria Sharapova

H2Hs

Serena 4-0 Domi
Venus 1-0 Madison
Simona 1-0 Kate
Maria 3-0 Eugenie

Venus/Keys seems like the only one that could potentially go the other way but even then I'm backing Venus. I changed my mind and put some money on her before this match - realised that she'd been physically done when she played Aga the last few times, but the day off would have helped her here. Never looked in danger of tiring.

oh wait djokovic didn't play yet lol

makarova/halep doesn't seem very set in stone to me!

I think Makarova might need to really peak to win though, Halep will expose her movement

Garbiñe gives some advice:

Q. Maria Sharapova has not beaten Serena in 10 years. If you could give Maria any advice from your experience, what would you tell her?

GARBINE MUGURUZA: [...] I think maybe improve more the way she plays to beat her. I think the way she plays is not the way to beat Serena. That's what I saw in the 10 years.

So happy Domi has managed to hold on to some of those finalist points from last year after flopping the entire rest of the year. The massive free-fall predicted has not come.

Now pulling for her or Kate Mak to win the whole thing even though this will not occur.

Garbi :D

Men's QF set. Only Fed failed to make it out of the top 8 seeds.

(1) Novak Djokovic vs. (8) Milos Raonic
(4) Stan Wawrinka vs. (5) Kei Nishikori
(7) Tomas Berdych vs. (3) Rafael Nadal
(6) Andy Murray vs. Nick Kyrgios

Novak 4-0 Milos
Stan 2-1 Kei
Rafa 18-3 Tomas
Andy 1-0 Nick

yea & they commented that berdych hasn't beaten rafa since before iphones existed

stan/kei shd be a great match

wow halep is reaally off rn

i like halep but i get suckered into rooting for lefties p often

halep is struggling w/ the eKatMak serve

these girls have like the exact same game

maria does look p sick rn

wtf nadal

wow i never saw that clip of berdych sushing the crowd lmao

berdych is serving v well

whens the last time rafa served at 0-5 down

berdych like occasionally plays like this and looks terrifying, he just never does it in a spot like this

nadals serve really let him down

Oh that is a horribly disappointing loss for Halep...echoes of last year, getting whomped by a non-elite player in the QF.

Berdych, amazing way to overturn the h2h. Glad that Rafa didn't bullshit his way through the draw playing like that.

Q. Would you like a group of fans to follow your matches and sing all the way through them?

MARIA SHARAPOVA: No, I actually prefer writing my own songs and singing them. I think I did a pretty good job of that today.

Murray/Kyrgios going exactly as expected, good to see

Go Muzza

Murray just changing pace on every shot for fun now

Kate stanning for Nastya <3

Q. There was a time when Russian women's tennis was very much in the limelight with Kuznetsova, Myskina, Kournikova. Can you talk about those times.

EKATERINA MAKAROVA: My idol was Anastasia Myskina. I was watching so many matches of her when she won the French Open and when she was playing Olympics. That was a great time, yeah, when Dementieva, Kuznetsova, Safina, they were all -- like we had four girls in the quarterfinal, two of them in the semis. Now it's a little bit less of us. I don't know. I really wanted to be one of them when I was watching them and learning some things from them. I'm so happy that these tournaments I'm quite like they are.

Q. Has Sharapova felt like part of that group? I know she doesn't spend much time in Russia or play Fed Cup very much. Does she feel a little different?

EKATERINA MAKAROVA: Well, that's tough question. I just want to leave it.

Q. Out of all of those women you mentioned, why Myskina?

EKATERINA MAKAROVA: I don't know. She looked so smart on the court. She doesn't have a lot of power, but she was moving the opponent so much. Like it was so enjoyable to watch her game. When I was going on the Kremlin Cup, when I can see her live, that was amazing. They were playing against Dementieva one year in the final, and it was like crushed stadium in Moscow, so it was great feeling to sit and watch it. Now I have a, like, great feeling when I'm there.

Sharapova's camera-drawing message utterly repulsive, heinous. Kerber beating her at Wimbledon probably my favourite tennis match of the last five years (it was a truly great match too)

Wish I could watch more of this but it comes at bad times.Also I don't have my laptop rn so I will just have to imagine the pride of Cyprus crumbling in a heap

Makarova can beat her, right?

I do love watching Andy Murray swear at himself in slow motion. Eurosport are excellent at showing it.

lmao these lobs

Peak Murray lobbing to win the TB

Makarova can beat her, right?

0-5 h2h, I would say no

Kyrgios standing flummoxed at the net as he gets lobbed repeatedly is comedy gold.

^ this. He's just so eminently slappable. The Eurosport commentator (whoever it is that's not Mats Wilander) jizzing himself about how young and exciting he looks with his hair and his eyebrows and his headphones was also comedy gold, like he's never seen a teenager before.

I hope Maria beats Makarova but I was more comfortable and secure faced with Bouchard who half-assed her way to the QF.

Fond of Murray's tricks today

Beautiful BH DTL from Murray

Kyrgios is like a Monfils who cares about winning

Another lob, another break

Kyrgios standing at the net shitting himself at the prospect of Murray blasting him/lobbing him for the zillionth time = lolz galore

Amelie's new-wave hairstyle = awesome