A love letter to Maria (and Alexandra)

Sharapova after a tough win.

POSTED BY DAVE: My Australian Open is complete, thanks to a gutsy second round match between Maria Sharapova and Alexandra Panova. Sharapova pulled off a victory, by coming back from way down in the third set -- and also by holding off two match points near the end. This is why I love tennis! Thank you, Maria, and thank you, as well, Alexandra.

Both of these women played such high-caliber tennis, including on crucial points. It truly is a shame, especially for Panova, that there couldn't be two winners. I have a hard time imagining that the final will be as exciting or close as this match was. However, if it is, and if Sharapova is in the mix, my money is on her. (But that should come as no surprise to Bess.)

Who else will earn aces from me in the second round? Read on.

Women

• Excited about the Keys/Dellacqua match-up! Should be high-intensity, and, I hope, high-drama.
• Excited about Wozniacki/Azarenka, too. For obvious reasons.
• Koukalova has the best shot in her quarter of the draw, now that Ivanovic has made an early exit. Expecting good things from her in 2R.
• Would love to see all of the American women move forward to 3R. I'm especially pulling for Venus, my sentimental favorite, and McHale, who I believe will ultimately make it to at least the round of 16.

Men

• Really liking the looks of Nieminen, Karlovic and Wawrinka. Something tells me all three will breeze through to 3R.
• Looking forward to Young-Raonic. Hoping for a highly athletic and extremely close match.
• My sentimental favorite is Hewitt. Wasn't his biggest fan years ago, and, to be honest, wasn't really a fan, at all. But, I've enjoyed watching him the past few years, and admire how well he is playing at this late stage in his career. I also like how he carries himself now in interviews -- mature, gracious, grateful.

BESS REPLIES: Despite a barrage of texts from Dave (barrage = seven), I slept through that third set of Sharapova/Panova. Drat! Clearly I missed a(nother) great Maria comeback. Just when all hope is lost, Maria wills it back into existence. Congrats to Maria!

A few aces and faults from me:

Aces

Dave had to complete his brackets on
(wait for it...) paper! Hence my abacus joke.
Also, please note that the purple eggplant is our
chosen emoji to signify goodness/happiness.
Not sure why.

• Baghdatis won again! In the process, he took out the 20th seed, David Goffin. Nice work, Marcos.
• An ace to Andy Murray's barber. The closer-cropped cut is a definite plus.
• At the risk of self-promotion and conceit, I'm going to give myself an ace for my 50 correct predictions in the first round of the ATP bracket challenge. Pretty sure that's one of my best first rounds ever. Feelin' pretty good... for the time being. 
• Upcoming matches I'm excited to see:
• Looking forward to seeing Rafa in action again tonight to make sure that first round performance wasn't a fluke. Yes, I'm still reining in my optimism a bit. Protective measures and whatnot.
• Tomorrow night there's a host of U.S. women in action - looking forward to seeing all of them. And while I appreciate the up-and-coming among them, I'm rooting for Venus most of all (sadly she would have to beat American Lauren Davis to advance... )
• Tomorrow's Jerzy Janowicz/Gael Monfils match could make for an entertaining highlight reel.

Faults

• Sorry to burst Dave's bubble and totally bummed to report that Christina McHale already lost her second round match. That 12-10 third set victory in the first round may have taken too much out of her.
• An XL, rosy-hued fault to that Pepto Bismal pink Nike dress worn by so. many. women. in round one. More on that in a subsequent post, but I am not a fan.
• A definite fault to me for snoozing while Maria willed herself to win her second round match. If only I could channel her sheer will and dogged determination into staying awake. As it is, I'm just channeling #tired. And it's only day three! Fault, fault, fault.

TENNIS FANS: Who are you keeping your eyes on, during 2R?

A speed round of aces and faults

POSTED BY BESS: We've been having so much fun with our rejuvenated blog, discussing magazine covers, speedboat tennis, logos and coffee drinks--all somehow related to tennis. But Dave has wisely reminded me that we need to cover some of the, you know, actual action from the Aussie Open.

So here's a quick speed round of aces and faults from the coverage I have seen so far:

Photo: Jason Lockett/Tennis Australia

Aces:

• Nadal is back! And somewhat surprisingly in fine form in his first round win. The shorts are shorter, the shirt is pinker and the accessories are day-glo-ier than ever. I've missed you, Rafa.
• Props to Christina McHale for tossing her cookies several times on court, yet managing to pull out a win deep in the third set (12-10). You've gotta love this Jersey Girl!
• Kudos to the young Aussie men, Kyrgios and Kokkinakis for winning your first round matches and, especially in the case of Kokkinakis, getting the stadium rocking into the wee hours (well, the hours were "wee" for me, at least...) And that backward somersault/neckstand thing? Pure joy. (Kokkinakis did say he'd work on his celebration for future wins.)
• Thank God they changed that Melbourne ad from last year. Remember that "I wanna know..." line that was unrelentingly drilled into our brains 24/7? Perhaps this new ad will get just as old in a few days, but I credit the Melbourne marketing team for at least trying to preserve our sanity.

Faults:

• Ivanovic's loss was disappointing and dispiriting. I just don't understand what's going on there. She must be so frustrated. (As is my bracket.)



Photo: Ben Solomon/Tennis Australia

• I was excited to hear about the special pre-night session ceremony honoring the recently retired Li Na... only to find out they weren't showing it on TV. Li Na with a microphone is never to be missed! So it's a FAULT for ESPN2 not to show it live. (But a definite ACE to Li Na who announced she and husband/comedic punching bag Dennis will become parents this summer! Sign that baby up for tennis lessons and a Twitter account, tout de suite.)

DAVE'S TAKE: Haven't seen much coverage yet; I'll blame that on a date with Benedict Cumberbatch last night. I mean, a night out to see his movie 'The Imitation Game' (which I highly recommend, btw). Regardless, here are my thoughts, thus far:

Aces:

Marcos Baghdatis,
2015 Australian Open player photo

• There have already been more than a half-dozen, five-set matches on the men's side -- including a win by Bess' former favorite, Marcos Baghdatis, 6-4 in the fifth over Teymuraz Gabashvili, of Russia. (Bess dumped Marcos for Rafa a few years ago*.) Fun to have such close matches this early on in the tournament!
• My eye is on Ivo Karlovic, of Croatia, this tournament. I am wishing now that I had taken him farther in my draw.
• Love that Genie Bouchard and Maria Sharapova sailed through their first-round matches. A good omen for both, I hope. (And pray.)
• The fact that there are/were women named Storm and Oceane playing in the opening round. Australian Storm Sanders lost, but, dang it, you gotta love her first name!

Faults:

• Too many women's seeds are already out! Ivanovic, Pavlyuchenkova, Lisicki, Kuznetsova, Suarez Navarro, Vesnina, Kerber. What? My draw is a disaster. 
• I'm an idiot for having made plans last night, on the first night of televised play.

TENNIS FANS: First-round action will be finishing soon. What's your take on the tournament so far? Which players have caught your eye? Who deserves an ace or a fault? Tell us!

* Bess clarifies: I did not dump Marcos! He just hasn't been around as much for me to obsess over. I heart you, Marcos!

We've only just begun

... and already I'm having trouble leaving for work in the morning thanks to breakfast at Wimbledon with my good friends Chris Fowler, Brad Gilbert and now Chris Evert as well. Oh, and this morning Rafa was also invited. Pretty entertaining guest list.

I'm trying to avoid some of the updates during the day, which is tough, but I haven't had anyone pop over the wall yet saying, "Did you hear what happened at Wimbledon today?" so I'm guessing Rafa didn't lose to the American I had never heard of.

I did complete my brackets last night, and although I didn't know Tipsarevic was hurt (Dave is always up on this stuff), I didn't pick him to win the first round against Karlovic. So here's hoping he's really hurt. For the sake of my draw. Not that I wish injury on anyone. How un-Dostoyevskyesque that would be!*

Unsurprisingly, I have chosen Rafa on the men's side. For the women, I went with Sharapova. I made that pick before I knew the oddsmakers favored Sharapova, so I guess it's not as "out there" as I thought it was at the time. Oh well.

Here's my one unsolicited comment on Dave's pick of Djokovic to win because "he deserves it." I say what the Djoker deserves from his "stunning first half of the season" is pretty much what he's gotten--a stunning first half of the season. End of story. It was impressive and noteworthy and interesting. And it ended with a loss at the French. All credit to him for that amazing string of wins, but I have moved on.

Here's the deal. I have admiration for him. But I have very little love for him after some of his behavior the past few years. What with the ripping off of the shirt after wins. With the fist pounding of his heart. With the parents saying classless (and clueless) things about "the king" being dead when Djokovic first beat Federer. With Djoker's on-court war of words with Roddick at the U.S. Open. (The Djoker may have a had a point there, but he handled it so poorly.) With the family wearing his image on their T-shirts every single day. It's alllllllllll a little too egocentric for me.

Perhaps he has matured. I've seen glimmers of hope that some of that behavior is behind him. I just found it all very unattractive. And it's going to take me time to get past it.

So I'm willing to concede that he's had a phenomenal 6-7 months. But I'm doling out admiration sparingly until I can gauge where his sportsmanship is these days.

The fact that he seems to be pretty friendly with Rafa now does bode well for him, I'll tell you that. :-)


*I don't know if that's true or not, because I really am not up on my Dostoyevsky.