Australian Open 2006

[Annie]

One week to go ladies and gentlemen ;D With or without Marat, it's a tournament not to miss

www.atptennis.com/en/media/notes/2006/AustralianOpenPreview.pdf

The link above will take you to ATP's AO preview ;D

[Annie]

Five Aussies Grab Open Wild Cards

Five Australians and players from three other countries have been granted wild cards for the Australian Open by Tennis Australia.

The Australians who have been granted a wild card into this year’s Open in Melbourne are Mark Philippoussis, Marc Kimmich, Chris Guccione, Peter Luczak and Nathan Healey. The other wild cards went to American Amer Delic, Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan and Frenchman Michael Llodra.

The 29-year-old Philippoussis will be playing in his 10th Australian Open. He owns a 16-9 record at the event, having reached the fourth round on four occasions. Injuries limited Philippoussis in 2005 when he went just 9-10 in ATP matches. His INDESIT ATP Rank to start 2006 was No. 172.

Philippoussis, the 1998 US Open and 2003 Wimbledon runner-up, owns 10 career ATP titles and over 300 match wins.

Luczak can also be considered an Australian Open veteran, as the 26-year-old will be playing in his hometown of Melbourne for the fourth time. In his debut at the event in 2003, he reached the third round. Last March, Luczak reached a career high INDESIT ATP Ranking of No. 110 just weeks after reaching the semifinals at an ATP event in Costa do Sauipe.

The 20-year-old Guccione will be making his third Australian Open appearance. While going 4-3 in ATP events in 2005, Guccione was 20-14 in Challengers, winning a pair of titles. He entered 2006 with a career high INDESIT ATP Ranking of No. 149. Guccione this week

Kimmich will turn 23 during on Jan. 21. He’s making his second Australian Open appearance. The Queenslander reached a career high INDESIT ATP Ranking of No. 226 in October 2005.

A three-time ATP singles finalist, Llodra reached the ‘s-Hertogenbosch final in 2005, but has since seen his INDESIT ATP Ranking slip to No. 137.

Llodra is best known in Melbourne for his doubles success with countryman Fabrice Santoro. The duo, 2005 Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai champions, won the 2003 Australian Open and celebrated by stripping to their underwear and tossing their clothes to the crowd. They also won the title in 2004. This year, he’ll play doubles with a different countryman, Arnaud Clement.

Delic, a 23-year-old American who lives in Jacksonville, Florida, has played in two US Opens but will be making his Australian Open debut. Delic’s lone ATP win in 2005 came at the US Open. He was 25-18 in Challenger events in 2005, winning one title.

At No. 197 in the INDESIT ATP Ranking, Istomin is the No. 1 player from Uzbekistan. The 19-year-old was 2-1 in ATP events in 2005, while posting a 16-6 Challenger record and collecting one title.

The Australian Open begins on Monday, January 16.

[Annie]

MELBOURNE, Jan 12 (Reuters) - World number one Roger Federer and his counterpart in the women's game Lindsay Davenport were on Thursday named as the top seeds for next week's Australian Open.

There were few surprises in the list, which was based on the world rankings.

Women's champion Serena Williams was named 13th seed after an injury-affected 2005.

Williams could conceivably run into one of the top four seeds as early as the fourth round. Her sister Venus, last year's Wimbledon champion, has been seeded 10th.

World number three Andy Roddick has been installed as the men's second seed after Spain's Rafael Nadal withdrew from the tournament earlier this week due to a long-standing foot injury.

Australia's Lleyton Hewitt, last year's beaten finalist, has been seeded third but must wait until Friday's draw to see if he could face Federer or Roddick in the semi-finals.

Argentina's David Nalbandian, who beat Federer last year in the season-ending Masters Cup final was seeded fourth, though he is battling a viral infection that forced him to pull out of the invitational Kooyong Classic this week.

Belgium's Kim Clijsters, who suffered a hip injury at this week's Sydney International, is the women's second seed with France's Amelie Mauresmo third.

Former world number one Maria Sharapova, battling a shoulder injury to be fit in time for the tournament which begins on Monday, has been seeded fourth and heads a list of nine seeded Russian women.

India's Sania Mirza occupies the last seeded place in the women's draw.

[Annie]

The draw is out and I am having a nervous breakdown

Misha meets Malisse in the first round
Kolya and Igor are in the same quarter with Roger

Haas-Gasquet in the first round

The ladies draw is

Here it goes...

Men's Singles - First Round Section

Roger Federer SUI (1)
vs.
Denis Istomin UZB

Hyung-Taik Lee KOR
vs.
Florian Mayer GER

Qualifier
vs.
Davide Sanguinetti ITA

Thierry Ascione FRA
vs.
Max Mirnyi BLR (30)


Olivier Rochus BEL (24)
vs.
Michael Llodra FRA

Ivo Minar CZE
vs.
Peter Luczak AUS



Paul Goldstein USA
vs.
Novak Djokovic SCG

Tommy Haas GER
vs.
Richard Gasquet FRA (14)


Dominik Hrbaty SVK (12)
vs.
Qualifier

Qualifier
vs.
Dick Norman BEL


Qualifier
vs.
Raemon Sluiter NED

Nicolas Almagro ESP
vs.
Igor Andreev RUS (23)


Filippo Volandri ITA (29)
vs.
Nathan Healey AUS

Potito Starace ITA
vs.
Amer Delic USA


Qualifier
vs.
Kevin Kim USA

Ivo Karlovic CRO
vs.
Nikolay Davydenko RUS (5)

[Annie]

Men's Singles - First Round Section 1 2 3 4

Lleyton Hewitt AUS (3)
vs.
Robin Vik CZE

Andy Murray GBR ;D
vs.
Juan Ignacio Chela ARG


Christophe Rochus BEL
vs.
Kristof Vliegen BEL

Kenneth Carlsen DEN
vs.
Fernando Verdasco ESP (28)


Nicolas Kiefer GER (21)
vs.
Paradorn Srichaphan THA

Wayne Arthurs AUS
vs.
Boris Pashanski SCG


Andreas Seppi ITA
vs.
Qualifier

Tomas Zib CZE
vs.
Juan Carlos Ferrero ESP (15)


Fernando Gonzalez CHI (9)
vs.
Qualifier

Arnaud Clement FRA
vs.
Paul-Henri Mathieu FRA ;D


Carlos Berlocq ARG
vs.
Bjorn Phau GER

Luis Horna PER
vs.
Gael Monfils FRA (22)

Sebastien Grosjean FRA (25)
vs.
Mark Philippoussis AUS

Jean-Rene Lisnard FRA
vs.
Juan Monaco ARG

Juan Antonio Marin CRC
vs.
Alberto Martin ESP

Victor Hanescu ROM
vs.
Guillermo Coria ARG (6)

[Annie]

Gaston Gaudio ARG (8)
vs.
Razvan Sabau ROM

Qualifier
vs.
Rainer Schuettler GER


Fabrice Santoro FRA
vs.
Vincent Spadea USA

Andrei Pavel ROM
vs.
Carlos Moya ESP (32)


Mario Ancic CRO (18)
vs.
Agustin Calleri ARG

Jan Hernych CZE
vs.
Fernando Vicente ESP



Daniele Bracciali ITA
vs.
Qualifier

Florent Serra FRA
vs.
David Ferrer ESP (11)


Tommy Robredo ESP (16)
vs.
Jiri Vanek CZE

Tim Henman GBR
vs.
Dmitry Tursunov RUS


Qualifier
vs.
Alexander Waske GER

Jose Acasuso ARG
vs.
James Blake USA (20)



Jarkko Nieminen FIN (26)
vs.
Marc Kimmich AUS

Mariano Zabaleta ARG
vs.
Yeu-Tzuoo Wang TPE


Stanislas Wawrinka SUI
vs.
Albert Montanes ESP

Qualifier
vs.
David Nalbandian ARG (4)

[Annie]

last quarter

Ivan Ljubicic CRO (7)
vs.
Chris Guccione AUS

Lukas Dlouhy CZE
vs.
Philipp Kohlschreiber GER


Ricardo Mello BRA
vs.
Gilles Muller LUX

Tomas Behrend GER
vs.
Feliciano Lopez ESP (31)


Tomas Berdych CZE (19)
vs.
Bobby Reynolds USA

Qualifier
vs.
Nicolas Massu CHI


Xavier Malisse BEL
vs.
Mikhail Youzhny RUS revenge time Mishka!!!

Cyril Saulnier FRA
vs.
Thomas Johansson SWE (10)



Robby Ginepri USA (13)
vs.
Jurgen Melzer AUT

Jonas Bjorkman SWE
vs.
Qualifier


Justin Gimelstob USA
vs.
Marcos Baghdatis CYP

Qualifier
vs.
Radek Stepanek CZE (17)


Taylor Dent USA (27)
vs.
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez ESP

Marcos Daniel BRA
vs.
Qualifier


Wesley Moodie RSA
vs.
Oscar Hernandez ESP

Qualifier
vs.
Andy Roddick USA (2)

[Annie]

women's singles draw can be found here

www.australianopen.com/en_AU/scores/draws/ws/index.html

Dinara and Nastya are right next to each other

[Annie]

Federer, Hewitt could meet in Australian Open semifinals

By JOHN PYE, AP Sports Writer
January 12, 2006

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt were placed in the same half of the Australian Open draw Friday, meaning two of the favorites for the season's first major could meet in the semifinals.

The top-seeded Federer will play a wild card entry, Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, in the first round of the tournament beginning Monday. The third-seeded Hewitt, who lost in the second round and quarterfinals of two warmup tournaments, opens against Robin Vik of the Czech Republic.

Also in Federer's quarter of the draw is Tommy Haas of Germany, the former No. 2 who beat Federer in an exhibition tournament this week. Haas opens against the former world junior champion, Richard Gasquet of France.

Federer's quarterfinal opponent could be fifth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia.

Second-seeded Andy Roddick and fourth-seeded David Nalbandian of Argentina, in the same half of the draw, have both drawn qualifiers for their first-round matches.

Top-seeded Lindsay Davenport will play Australian Casey Dellacqua in the first round in her tough quarter of the women's draw that also features Venus Williams and 2004 champion Justine Henin-Hardenne, meaning either one could meet Davenport in the quarterfinals.

Former Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova takes on Germany's Sandra Kloesel in the first round while defending champion Serena Williams, also in Sharapova's quarter and Davenport's half, has a tough opener against China's Li Na.

Martina Hingis, a three-time Australian Open singles champion trying to come back after a three-year retirement, has drawn Vera Zvonareva of Russia, while former champion Mary Pierce plays Nicole Pratt of Australia.

Second-seeded Kim Clijsters of Belgium, bothered by a hip injury, will face Cho Yoon-jeong of South Korea.

Third-seeded Amelie Mauresmo, who won the season-ending WTA Championship and was a finalist here in 1999, has No. 7 Patty Schnyder, No. 12 Anastasia Myskina, No. 16 Nicole Vaidisova and India's Sania Mirza in her quarter.

The men's draw has been hit by the injury withdrawals of defending champion Marat Safin (left knee tendinitis), 2005 French Open winner Rafael Nadal (left foot injury) and four-time Melbourne Park singles champion Andre Agassi (left ankle strain).

Former Australian Open champ Thomas Johannson also is questionable -- he has a right shoulder injury and withdrew from the Sydney International this week.

Australian Open chief executive Paul McNamee said despite some high-profile absentees, the men's draw contained 17 of the top 20 players and the women's draw featured all of the top 20 players.

"The men's first round is pretty fearsome, the best I've seen in a while," said McNamee. "Lleyton falling into Roger's half is pretty tough -- he'd just love to get to the semifinal and have a crack at it then."

Clijsters pulled out of the same tournament in the quarterfinals Wednesday with a left hip injury, but still hopes to play in Melbourne.

"I had an MRI scan and it's shown I have an inflammation of the hip joint and tendon," the No. 2-ranked Belgian said in a statement. "The good news is that there is no tear of the muscle. In the next couple of days I'm going to receive more treatment and do some stabilization exercises. At that point I'll have a better idea of my condition."

[pau]

Thanks for the info Annie!! It's such a pity marat's not going...

[marats]

The draw is not so good for our Russian friends !

[dawaymarat]

Thank you Annie for posting the draw !!

marat said:

The draw is not so good for our Russian friends !

I'm more shocked about the german opponents; poor Sandra Kloesel, she will play against Maria Sharapova....
What do you think are the finalists for the single title? I really believe Justine Henin-Hardenne and Michaella Krajicek will be very successful. Federer hasn't got a big problem with his opponents so that he can win one more Grand Slam Title against Andy Roddick or Nalbandian.... But I really hope there will be another champion after Marat ;D

[Annie]

I somehow have a gutt feeling (and I pray it is a right one) that this will be a rather surprising Grand Slam, there are so many players who can just shoot out of nowhere and do really well that I am hoping that this is exactly what will build the suspense.

Re: women...I agree about Justine but I will also be sending out my prayers to Lena Dementieva. It's really about time that girl takes a GS

[Annie]

Monday's order of play can be found here ;D

www.australianopen.com/en_AU/scores/schedule/index.html

Udachi Lena, Mitya (I hope they show his match against Henman, should be excellent!!!), Nadia, Maria, Misha , Sveta, and all the others!!!!!!!!!!!!

[marats]

Thanks Annie !
Let's hope we got a male and female surprise winner !!!