Best of January 2012:

The Australian Open: 2 fantastic weeks of tennis.

Esther Vergeer‘s winning streak continues: she notched her 444th consecutive win, defeating Aniek Van Koot 6-0, 6-0 to capture the Women’s Wheelchair singles title.

Victoria Azarenka claims her first Grand Slam title and becomes the new WTA number 1.

Novak Djokovic has now won 4 or the last 5 Grand Slams.

Andy Murray hires tennis legend Ivan Lendl as his new coach, wins his first title of the year in Brisbane, and reaches the Australian Open semifinals. And there’s even more: he seemed to have fun on court!

Bernard Tomic: winner in Kooyong, semifinalist in Brisbane, he reached the fourth round of the Australian Open. He’s perhaps the real after all…

Lleyton Hewitt‘s incredible run, and Nadal’s nice words about the Australian veteran.

I always liked him, his spirit of competition. Today he is an example to follow for a lot people. He deserves all the respect of the people who love this sport and respect and admiration of everyone

January tournament winners: Kaia Kanepi (Brisbane), Andy Murray (Brisbane), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Doha), Milos Raonic (Chennai), Zheng Jie (Auckland), David Ferrer (Auckland), Victoria Azarenka (Sydney), Jarkko Nieminen (Sydney), Mona Barthel (Hobart)

2 blogs to follow: The Grand Slam Gal and I have a tennis addiction

Worst of January 2012:

Margaret Court‘s well-known homophobia has reached new heights. Read more about it here: A disappointing irony behind Court’s comments. I mean, they really should rename the Margaret Court Arena into Evonne Goolagong Arena, it would sound so much better, no?

Caroline Wozniacki. No need to add more. At least, she’s not the number one anymore, a really good news for the WTA.

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Day 8:

Upset of the day: Elena Makarova defeats Serena Williams
Seriously, who saw that coming? Makarova stunned 5-time Australian Open champion Serena Williams 6-2 6-3.

Match of the day: Novak Djokovic (1) vs Lleyton Hewitt

Day 8 results:
Elena Makarova def Serena Williams (12)
Maria Sharapova (4) def Sabine Lisicki (14) 3-6 6-2 6-3
Sara Errani def Jie Zheng 6-2 6-1
Petra Kvitova (2) def Ana Ivanovic (21) 6-2 7-6
Novak Djokovic (1) vs Lleyton Hewitt
David Ferrer (5) def Richard Gasquet (17) 6-4 6-4 6-1
Andy Murray (4) vs Mikhail Kukushkin
Kei Nishikori (24) def Jo-Wifried Tsonga (6) 2-6 6-2 6-1 3-6 6-3
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Day 7:

Match of the day: Kim Clijsters defeats Li Na
In a rematch of last year’s final, Kim Clijsters saved four match points before beating Li Na 4-6 7-6 6-4.

Stat of the day – 1: 50
The number of Jankovic‘s unforced errors in her 0-6 5-7 loss to Wozniacki. I feel really sorry for the spectators who had to endure this.

Stat of the day – 2: 31
Roger Federer is in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the 31st consecutive time. Last player to beat him before the QFs was Gustavo Kuerten at Roland Garros in 2004.

Day 7 results:
Caroline Wozniacki (1) def Jelena Jankovic (13) 6-0 7-5
Kim Clijsters (11) def Na Li (5) 4-6 7-6 6-4
Victoria Azarenka (3) def Iveta Benesova 6-2 6-2
Agnieszka Radwanska (8) def Julia Goerges (22) 6-1 6-1
Juan Martin Del Potro (11) def Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4 6-2 6-1
Roger Federer (3) def Bernard Tomic 6-4 6-2 6-2
Tomas Berdych (7) vs Nicolas Almagro (10) 4-6 7-6(5) 7-6(3) 7-6(2)
Rafael Nadal (2) def Feliciano Lopez (18) 6-4 6-4 6-2
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Day 6:

Match of the day: Lleyton Hewitt defeats Milos Raonic
Love him or hate him, you’ve got to admit Hewitt always plays with the heart on his sleeve. And today he gave a big lesson of will and determination to big server Raonic.

Upset of the day: Mikhail Kukushkin defeats Gael Monfils
One day he beats Nadal and one day he loses to Kukushkin, ranked 92. Gael Monfils, King of inconsistency and missed opportunities.

The tournament really begins tomorrow with the fourth round matches:

Women’s singles:
Caroline Wozniacki (1) vs Jelena Jankovic (13)
Kim Clijsters (11) vs Na Li (5)
Victoria Azarenka (3) vs Iveta Benesova
Julia Goerges (22) vs Agnieszka Radwanska (8)
Ekaterina Makarova vs Serena Williams (12)
Sabine Lisicki (14) vs Maria Sharapova (4)
Sara Errani vs Jie Zheng
Ana Ivanovic (21) vs Petra Kvitova (2)

Men’s singles:
Novak Djokovic (1) vs Lleyton Hewitt
Richard Gasquet (17) vs David Ferrer (5)
Andy Murray (4) vs Mikhail Kukushkin
Kei Nishikori (24) vs Jo-Wifried Tsonga (6)
Philipp Kohlschreiber vs Juan Martin Del Potro (11)
Bernard Tomic vs Roger Federer (3)
Tomas Berdych (7) vs Nicolas Almagro (10)
Feliciano Lopez (18) vs Rafael Nadal (2)
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Day 5:

Match of the day: Bernard Tomic defeats Alexandr Dogolopolov 4-6 7-6(0) 7-6(6) 2-6 6-3
It was all about Tomic at Melbourne Park today… again. Next opponent for the 19 years old Aussie: his idol, Roger Federer.

Stat of the day: 0
It’s the first time since 1973 that no U.S. men have reached round of 16 at the Australian Open.

Video of the day: Bernard Tomic: realising the potential

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adidas tennis stars Caroline Wozniacki, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Ana Ivanovic and Gilles Simon, took part in a unique adidas challenge ahead of the 2012 Australian Open in Melbourne.

Playing in mixed teams with local Melbourne sporting stars, the players competed in a modified version of Stické Tennis – a racquet sport invented in the late 19th century merging aspects of real tennis and all the basics of lawn tennis with the addition of side and back walls.

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Enjoy two pics of Caroline Wozniacki‘s adidas outfit:

What’s your favorite adidas outfit? Ana Ivanovic’s or Caroline Wozniacki’s dress?

Quarterfinals:

Wozniacki-Petkovic

Pavlyuchenkova-Williams
With her 7-5 6-1 victory over Pavlyuchenkova, Serena moved two wins away from her 14th Grand Slam title.

Kerber-Pennetta
Big disappointment for Pennetta who could have reached a Grand Slam semifinal for the first time of her career.

Stosur-Zvonareva
No drama this time for Sam Stosur, who dispatches number 2 seed Vera Zvonareva in straight sets 6-3, 6-3. First semifinal at the US Open for the Australian, who’ll be the favorite against Kerber.

Djokovic-Tipsarevic
And another retirement.
Between rain delays, erratic schedule and retirements, this US Open has become a big joke. Djokovic will meet Federer for a rematch of this year’s Roland Garros semifinal.

Federer-Tsonga
Tsonga came back from 2 sets down to clinch a 5 sets victory over Federer at Wimbledon this year, but this time the Swiss Maestro dispatched Tsonga 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 to reach his 8th consecutive US Open semifinal.
Lendl did even better back in the days with 9 finals in a row.

Isner-Murray

Roddick-Nadal
Nadal trashed 2003 champion Roddick 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 in less than 2 hours. 4th straight US Open semifinal for Nadal. Who said he couldn’t play on hard courts?

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Fourth round:

41 winners with 9 aces for Flavia Pennetta who qualifies for the quarterfinals after her 6-4 7-6 win over Shuai Peng. In the last 8, she will face the surprising German player, Angelique Kerber, ranked 92.
Another day another marathon match for Sam Stosur. She outlasted 25th seed Maria Kirilenko 6-2 6-7(15) 6-3 in two hours and 37 minutes. Stosur had five match points in an epic second set tiebreaker, the longest in women’s singles Grand Slam history, won by Kirilenko 17-15.

Easy win for Serena over Ana Ivanovic 6-3 6-4. She next plays Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

After two days of rain, play finally resumes on Thursday! Nadal defeats Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller in straight sets 7-6 (1), 6-1, 6-2. And Murray sails over Donald Young into quarterfinals.
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Third round:

Another big surprise with Sharapova’s defeat. The 2006 US Open champion was knocked out of the US Open on Friday in a shock third round loss to Flavia Pennetta. Semifinalist at Roland Garros, finalist at Wimbledon, Sharapova seemed ready to win her first Slam since the 2008 Australian Open. But she had once again problems with her serve, committing 12 double faults (and 60 unforced errors!).

And the most exciting match so far, the three set thriller between Nadia Petrova and Sam Stosur. The Australian, runner-up at Roland Garros a year ago, outlasted No. 24 seed Nadia Petrova 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 7-5 in 3 hours and 16 minutes to win the longest US Open women’s match of the tie-break era.

Andy Murray came back from two sets to love, to clinch a 6-7 (5), 2-6, 6-2, 6-0, 6-4 victory over Dutchman Robin Haase, who needed regular treatment on a back injury.

Novak Djokovic cruised to fourth round with a straight sets victory over former top 5 Nikolay Davydenko.

On Sunday, Rafael Nadal downed David Nalbandian in straight sets to move into the fourth round. His next opponent: Gilles Muller.
No problem either for Andy Murray who dismantled Feliciano Lopez 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.
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Second round:

10 years ago, Venus Williams wrote tennis history by winning the first final contested by two sisters during the open era. On Wednesday, she pulled out of her second-round match due to Sjögren’s syndrome, an auto-immune disease.

Seeds keep falling in the women’s draw as Marion Bartoli, Agnieszka Radwanska, Dominika Cibulkova and Yanina Wickmayer were ousted at the second round of the 2011 US Open.
Bartoli and Cibulkova were outgunned by rising american Christina McHale and Irina Falconi. (Check out our US players preview here).

Big surprise in the men’s draw, seed Gael Monfils lost to former number one and semi-retired Juan Carlos Ferrero. At times, Ferrero looked like the Mosquito who reached the final at Flushing Meadows in 2003.
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First round:

The women’s draw is as unpredictable as ever, but one thing is sure, there will be a fourth champion in as many Grand Slam tournaments this year: Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova lost to Dulgheru, Roland Garros champion Li Na lost to (2011 Australian Open champion, Kim Clijsters withdrew from the US Open with a stomach muscle injury).
5th seed Kvitova committed 52 unforced errors and was bounced on day one by Romania’s Alexandra Dulgheru. Li Na was sent home on day two by Romania’s Simona Halep in straight sets.

Maria Sharapova was almost upset by big British hope Heather Watson who lead by one set and a break.

Victor Troicki was the first seeded man to fall as he lost a five set thriller to Alejandro Falla. 2010 semifinalist Mikhail Youhzny was beaten in straight sets by headcase Ernests Gulbis. It was the first Grand Slam match victory in more than two years for Gulbis, who was once seen as a future star of the circuit.

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adidas presents Caroline Wozniacki ‘s US Open outfit designed by Stella McCartney.

Classic in design, this white chalk coloured dress is scuba inspired, showing strength and fluidity with every movement Caroline makes on the court.
Other items in the collection include the tennis hoodie, the performance hot pant and bra top plus accessories such as the tennis visor and wrist band. For the Doubles competition, Wozniacki will sport a grey tennis lycra tank top matched with a pleated yellow skirt.

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