AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2018

draws tomorrow
no serena
novak seeded 14

just kidding draws are out

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Australian_Open_%E2%80%93_Women%27s_Singles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Australian_Open_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_Singles

novak/monfils rd 2 o_o

Kinda nice the way Wiki has pre-filled in Qualifier/Wildcard/nationalities in R2 where it's known ;)

That's a pretty tasty chunk of the draw for Novak, but the way Zverev-the-younger folded vs Fed in Perth last week wasn't great.

RIP lex

venus, coco, isner all bounced already

sock also looking bad wow

raonic out to lacko

First Norwegian in a Slam first round in 17 years and he gets to 2nd round (if barely), GG!

Frances Tiafoe has really gotten into the Australian spirit by dressing up as a Neenish tart:

http://www.tennisidentity.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/IMG_0076.jpg

http://www.allanscakes.com.au/thumbnaillarge/NeenishTarts2.JPG

In general, this tournament has too many diagonal kits and too much pink trim.

Kvitova/Petkovic drained years off my life. I can't quit Petra though, love her too much. Have enjoyed the felling of servebots tho.

is there anywhere to watch a good highlights package of the entire first round? seems like something like this should exist

siniakova looks good, up a set on svitolina rn

lol 15 yr old kostyuk framed a 1st serve on match pt and mock-challenged it

dimitrov survives 8-6 in the 5th v Mackenzie mcdonald

Dimitrov was completely outclassed in rallies. But then he somehow got his first serve % into the 70s.

Mackenzie Macdonald is the kid who won a set against Polansky serving underarm a while ago.

Dimitrov's pink with horizontal stripe ensemble is also horrible. Normally I'm not one to complain about too much pink but EVERYONE is wearing it (and a bunch of other players are wearing that ghastly pink/black thing).

think i forgot the novak/monfils h2h is 16-0 novak

Gavrilova, from 5-0, almost won the set 6-0 several times, just missing, then went on to lose 5-7 3-6. Women's tennis!

god sharapova is loud as shit

nick kicker into the 3rd rd after not winning a hard ct match since rd 1 qualifying of miami

its been that kind of tourney

set monfils!

why do I love monfils

just one of the most absurd holds you'll ever see. monfils essentially tanks the 3 points after he loses the 20+ ball opening rally, then somehow wins the game in deuce

monfils looked like he was gonna puke. mcenroe was calling for the roof to be de-retracted

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/480/cpsprodpb/11002/production/_99643696_gael_monfils_getty.jpg

goffin out, stan out, konta out, mugu out

halep/lauren davis is 8-8 in the 3rd, lotta breaks

ld is p predictable but halep cant really hurt her either

"my toenail fell off"

Can you get a medical timeout for allergies to match points?

davis holds to 12-11 after halep had 5 break pts

theyve ran out of tennis balls fyi

Halep finally breaks, will serve for match.

Couldn't post on ILX because I was glued to that. Gutted for Davis actually!

Same number of games as the legendary Rubin/Sanchez Vicario match from the 90s! Not as good though. I can't even imagine what Sanchez Vicario would do to Halep other than demolish her.

"I'm almost dead." lol Halep

WELL YOU COULD HAVE NOT SERVE-BOTTED YOUR WAY OUT OF TROUBLE IN THOSE TWO SERVICE GAMES SIMONA

Should be a sitting duck for Barty (hopefully)!

sooooooo hyped for Kerber/Sharapova tonight, gotta buy popcorn

Chung and his weird groundstrokes taking advantage of Sascha's passive play, would love to see him win here.

zverev is such an annoying prick

That was such an impressive win for Naomi Osaka over a home-grown favourite.

But if she loses to exhausted Halep next round grrrrr

Tennys wins!

this opens up a whole can of possible children's names. (Criket, Footbael, Gulf, Squas)

Weirdly, he's named after his grandfather, a non-tennis player, who wasn't even from Tennessee. Actually, that's probably less weird than the alternative.

Chung outslugs Novak in three long sets!

Chung was so interesting and fun to watch. Insane gets on the full stretch, like when he had no time to react he was just naturally brilliant. By contrast, sometimes he overthought when he had time. The serve is still a bit attackable but lots of upside. Novak was extremely gracious in defeat but you could tell his elbow wasn't right.

It bears noting that Chung, in his first QF, is going to be playing an actual white supremacist. Sandgren likes white supremacy posts on Twitter. Kill him, Chung.

welp, cilic/Edmund semis

Strange days.

sandgren gets alotta balls back, tho is almost certainly toast if he doesnt get this set

Stuck at work and can't watch but I really, really need Chung to win today.

the evil is defeated!

Yesssssssss

halep/woz ! hard to fathom, one will win a grand slam

I can't see Halep winning this. Woz is limited but not cowed by any occasion, she lost her other Slam finals to the two best hard court players of the generation just above her (Serena and Clijsters). Halep choked her last final big-time to Ostapenko.

that's my take also but we'll see

fed's quote abt chung post-match is interesting in light of fed never retiring during a match in his career

“I’ve played with blisters in the past and it hurts. A lot,” a sympathetic Federer said. “At some point, it’s just too much and you just can’t take it anymore, and when you realise there’s no way you can come back and you make things really worse, it’s better to stop.

Didn't see it. Sad about Halep, but hopefully winning a set means that she can bag her slam in time.

As for the men's I am cheering on Cilic tomorrow...to win or just to make it a good final. All I'm seeing is how this or that person retured hurt. Game seems to be in an appalling state.

I'm cheering on the English bloke because I'm a flag-waving jingoist! Come on Tim!

Can you go have a lie down, thanks.

missed most of the third set as i had other plans but it was a pretty cracking final - at least before Woz started moonballing again. gutted for Halep, hope she gets another chance at it.

As for the men's I am cheering on Cilic tomorrow...to win or just to make it a good final.

me too. I think it'll be a lot closer this time around - he seems to be peaking at the right time, and no sign of injury as there had been during his wimbledon final against Fed.

^^clearly I have no idea what I'm talking about. This is woeful from Marin - nothing seems to be working. Meh.

Oh good, he woke up.

and fell asleep again. (or Fed upped his game a notch)

This has been a very uneven match - neither of them have been playing well at the same time.

Cilic has started to serve better but I don't even know how Fed is losing this set now?

It's like the moment someone ups their game, the other would inexplicably deflate.

Welp there it is, Slam no. 20 for Fed! To be fair, this was prob never meant to go to a fifth set so kudos Cilic, for forcing one anyway.

Couldn’t watch any of this and I was getting the Delpo ‘09 jitters from Fed’s inability to just put the match away. V pleased. Nice round number.

Would love to see him at #1, even if only for a week. I guess it’s possible if he bothers to play the 500 in Dubai and wins a couple of rounds, ahead of defending all those Miami/Indian Wells points.

I've actually no idea what Rafa/Roger's 2018 schedules are, and I expect it's not cut and dried for them either right now, given RF's cherry-picking approach and RN's injury. But assuming they both follow 2017 then they won't play again until the week of Feb 26, when Roger has 45pts to defend (Dubai, lost L16 vs Donskoy) and Nadal has 300pts to defend (Acapulco, lost final vs Querrey). Think it's a 155pt gap now?

Okay I am pretty much forced to admit that Federer is the GOAT

been pretty clear for a while iirc!

would be really nice for someone new to win one though...

Yep re someone new...