Day 4 of the Australian Open

Day 4 was the completion of the 2nd round for both the men and the women.  It was also the end of the tournament for former finalist and former #1 in the world Ana Ivanovic.  Ivanovic lost her 2nd round matchup with Argenitne, Gisela Dulko.  Maybe this is who Ana is now.  Maybe 2 years ago was a fluke, and that was not the real Ivanovic.  Maybe fame, looking pretty, and having famous athlete boyfriends is more important in her life than making the sacrifice on the practice courts and winning tennis matches.  Ana Ivanovic, say hello to Nicole Vaidisova on the way down for me.

Dulko now has to deal with Vera Zvonareva in the next round.  Zvonareva had no trouble in booting Iveta Benesova out of the tournament... Serena Williams steamrolled Petra Kvitova, and now faces Carla Suarez Navarro who took out Andrea Petkovic... Italy's Alberta Brianti upset the #21 seed Sabine Lisicki...  Samantha Stosur earned a 3rd round matchup with Brianti, by defeating Kristina Barrois in straight sets... Tathiana Garbin's cinderella story continues when she beat Yaroslava Shvedova, but now gets to face Victoria Azarenka who crushed Stefanie Voegele...  Caroline Wozniacki disposed of Julia Goerges and now has a 3rd round date with Shahar Peer who defeated Tsvetana Pironkova...  Daniela Hantuchova got passed Sofia Arvidsson...Hantuchova's next opponent will be Na Li who outlasted Agnes Szavay...  #10 seed Agnieszka Radwanska had little trouble in beating Alla Kudryavtseva... Francesca Schiavone advances to play Radwanska after a win over Julie Coin...  Aussie, Casey Dellacqua continues her tournament with a win over Karolina Sprem, but now has to face Venus Williams who beat Sybille Bammer.

The best match on the mens side had to be the "choke job" David Ferrer pulled against Marcos Baghdatis.  Yesterday I correctly predicted that this would probably be the match to see on Day 4.   The first set was full of serves being held, but not easily.  Quite a few deuce games were played and it was tough for each player to hold serve, but holding serve is what they did until the last game of the set when David Ferrer broke Baghdatis to take the first set.  The 2nd set was the same as the first.  Tough baseline play and a break by Ferrer is what propelled him to a 2 sets to love lead.  After the 2nd set on the changeover Baghdatis was visibly upset with himself and his rackets.  Making sure to smash a couple, and grab another out of his bag that had never been used and still in the plastic.  He then smashed that one as well.  This seemed to have a good effect on himself, and pumped up an already pro-Baghdatis crowd.  The crowd was very vocal and in the Cypriat's corner.  Ferrer with the crowd against him came out quickly once again and broke Baghdatis to take the quick lead in the set, but Baghdatis quickly broke back and charged the crowd once again.  The 3rd set went to a tiebreaker which is an achilles heal for Ferrer, and his terrible record in tiebreaks continued with Baghdatis taking the 3rd set 7-6 and giving him new confidence.  The 4th set was Baghdatis raising his game a notch and taking the set 6-3.  The fifth set is not new for either of these players.  Baghdatis played the long epic match with Hewitt a couple years ago that went until 5a.m., and David Ferrer doesn't seem comfortable unless it goes the distance.  Its almost like he makes sure to give everyone their moneys worth.  The 5th set was brutal for Ferrer, Baghdatis was on fire hitting all types of shots and also putting more chinks in the armor of Ferrer by out-volleying him and making him run with drop shots.  Baghdatis was cruising to a easy 5th set victory, when he was hit with a bout of cramps.  Falling to his knees, getting up and jumping up and down and stomping around like his leg had fallen asleep.  With his legs cramping he hit an ace against Ferrer.  That point was basically the story of this match.  Just when you thought Ferrer had something going, Baghdatis would say "NO!" and stomp out them hopes as if it was a bothersome cramp.  Gimping around Baghdatis then played a little serve-and-volley putting away a  nice volley and walking back to the baseline taking time to kiss the little patch of Cyprus on his shirt.  This was Marcos' day, and unlike his miracle comeback in Davis Cup, Ferrer was on the opposite end of a magical 5 setter.  Baghdatis took the 5th set and match 6-1... Baghdatis now gets to avenge that tough loss to Hewitt in the next round as the Australian had a little trouble in the beginning with Donald Young but came out the straight set victor.

#1 seed Roger Federer's dominance continues beating Victor Hanescu easily...  Next up for Federer is Spain's Albert Montanes who defeated Stephane Robert of France... Fernando Verdasco pounded Ivan Sergeyev and now will play veteran Stefan Koubek in the 3rd round, after Koubek defeated Ivan Dodig...  #6 seed Nikolay Davydenko easily got passed Illya Marchenko, and now will play the #30 seed Juan Monaco who got the victory over Michael Llodra...  Novak Djokovic lost the 1st set to Marco Chiudinelli, but got on track and took the match in 4 sets...  Dennis Istomin will be Djokovic's next opponent after he beat Michael Berrer of Germany...Mikhail Youzhny won easily over Jan Hajek and faces Lukasz Kubot who took out Santiago Giraldo...  Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was a straight set victor over Taylor Dent...  Tommy Haas will be Tsonga's next opponent after he got passed Serb, Janko Tipsarevic in 5 sets... and #30 seed Nicolas Almagro continues his Australian Open with a win over Benjamin Becker, and will face little-known Colombian, Alejandro Falla who easily defeated the guy that upset Robin Soderling, Marcel Granollers.

I just want to quckly point out how retarded Pam Shriver is.  Recently Serena Williams has come out and said that her fine for the bullshit she pulled at the U.S. Open is unfair and, has gone as far as playing the gender card and saying that if she was a man she wouldn't of been giving such a severe punishment.  Her punishment was a measly $90,000 dollar fine.  She did not have to miss any court time or tournaments.  Hell she made $500,000 grand for singles and doubles at the U.S. Open alone.  Not to mention the 1 million+ she won for winning the year end event.  Yet she complains its too much.  So getting fined less than 20% of your U.S. Open purse, and not missing any tournaments  is unreasonable?  According to old crotchety Pam Shriver it is.  I'll give credit to Mary Jo Fernandez and Pat McEnroe for saying the fine was bullshit and she should of been hit harder with a steeper fine and suspension.  Then Shriver had to pipe in trying to show off her knowledge saying that in the NBA if you berate an official, and there was one incident where a player purposely shoved an official and the fine was $25,000.  Well Pam, you need to include the player was also probably suspended and losing game checks for the incident.  So it was substantially more than $25,000.  What a fucking retard.  She is becoming the Skip Bayless of ESPN's god-awful tennis coverage.  You have Tipsarevic-Haas in the middle of a 5th set, and they think its more fit to show Serena beating the piss out of some jobber and then going to the studio to talk about and re-show the U.S. Open incident that happened over 4 months ago.  Like seriously, WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!  So Serena is pissed that she isn't properly being treated because she is a woman.  Next time Serena, pull out your dick.  I'm sure its probably bigger than mine, and I'm sure Pam Shriver will be all over it.  Maybe that will get you the respect you so deserve... Anyways, enough about that.

Day 5 has Safina back in action along with Roddick, Del Po, Nadal, Kuznetsova all on Rod Laver Arena.  The upset of the day will be the first match on court at Hisense Arena, where "Flying Bondarenko sister" Alona will end Jelena Jankovic's Australian Open.  Hisense Arena will also have the match of the day, Clijsters and Petrova who will be the first match of the night session and will be the one to watch.