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?

Looking ahead to Week Two

Posted by Dave: The weather's friggin' awesome this afternoon, and the Open's continuing to bore me to tears. So I'll go ahead and make my predictions for next weekend so that I can get out and hit some balls. Champions-to-be: Djokovic and Serena.

Djok was on fire this morning. And last time I bothered to watch Serena (something I find less enjoyable than cleaning toilets), she looked rock-solid, too.

The New York Post says, "She's playing with confidence and competitiveness again." No, not Serena, but Ivanovic. It's a nice thought to think she'll beat Serena in the next round, but I'm not that much of an optimist or a dreamer. There's just not a bold fearlessness to Ivanovic's game like there was a few years ago, before success went (literally) to her head. I hope she can shut off her brain, stop analyzing while she's playing, and just take it to Serena. But, again, that's wishful thinking.

I'd also like to dream a little dream for Sam Stosur, who I've long admired. (She's got a nice blend of power and finesse, sort of like Mauresmo or Navratilova.) But I used up all my U.S. Open hope on Sharapova, and I can't take any more disappointment this year. Stosur, you're on your own.

As far as Djok, nothing's going to stop him. I mean, seriously. Look at the guy. He's cranking the serve, killing every shot and taking names along the way.

The only drama we might see on the men's side is Federer vs. Tsonga and Roddick vs. Nadal, if these guys all make it to the quarters. Tsonga's had flashes of brilliance, and you have to like his fighting spirit. Roddick seems determined (I think) to fight, too. But, Tsonga can get streaky and Roddick can get, well, Roddicky. So, I'm feeling like it will be Djok taking care of Nadal in the final -- which, for the record, was my original prediction.

Donald Young might survive another round or two. That would be pretty great. But not as great as this sunny-and-70 weather here in Des Moines today.

Gotta run, y'all. The court's calling me.

Maria, I know exactly how you feel

Posted by DAVE: Last night, I was down for the count with a massive headache. Tonight, it's Sharapova's turn. Knocked out, 4-6 in the third, by Pennetta. Such a disappointment, once again. But I will not give up hope! Maria will win at least one more Slam before she retires. You heard it here first. (Does that make me a tennis analyst, Roddick?! LOL)

So, yeah, I'm left with Stosur on the bottom half of the women's. (shrug) As for the men, the only head-to-head match-up left in my draw is Tsonga/Fish. I guess that's interesting. Sort of. Maybe?

One thing is for certain. I need my friend, Stace, to stop texting me results during the day. That's how I heard about Maria. And about Young taking out Wawrinka. Who needs DVR?! Actually, I would be happy with cable tonight. Mine's out, so I'm watching Roddick/Sock via live stream. It's like watching with a strobe light on. I might turn off the commentators (who needs analysts anyway, right, Roddick?!) and switch on some dance tracks from my iTunes library. Anything to make this Open more exciting.

(c) Joe Klamar / Getty Images

Forevernomore Young

Dave's rooting for Donald Young, too? I'm seeing a pattern here, Dave.

Young's been pretty obnoxious lately and resisting of team USA's recommendations on how he could improve. It's one thing to be stubborn and resist advice if you have your own plan that's working. But his results have been dismal of late, and I'm afraid he's digging a pretty deep hole as far as patience and support from the powers that be. And as far as my fandom goes, as well.

Speaking of Venus's outfit (Dave mentioned it in his post below), please note that we will definitely be discussing the best and worst ensembles of the tournament. It's just another great aspect of the game. Even at Wimbledon, where the rule is to wear "mostly white," players can express their individuality through their attire. Sometimes individuality in tennis attire is good, like Sharapova's glamorous black look which she only wore for night matches at the U.S. Open. Sometimes that's bad, like many of Agassi's early looks or this head scratcher by Serena.

I had a lot of complaints about retired champion Justine Henin. She was just... not my favorite player. But my biggest complaint was that for about four years she wore the same lame outfit. I think she bored herself into retirement.

I'm off to work. I hope Dave watches enough tennis for both of us today. I hope to check my brackets later to see how I'm doing so far. I know all of our readers -- all two of you -- are interested in who's ahead... Dave or Bess!? I'm interested, as well.

Oh, no, she didn't!

Oh, yes, she did. Bess just had to trash Djokovic. Please note, dear readers, that I had not trashed Nadal in any of my previous posts. (Just sayin'.) Anyway, Agassi (whom Bess and I both admire) pulled a lot of crap early in his career, and his ego was out of control, too. But he grew up and grew into his own. (Check out Agassi's perspective on Djokovic.) That growth process is one of the things I love most about tennis. We get the privilege of seeing most players (except the likes of Serena) grow from self-absorbed teenagers to gracious adults. I believe Djokovic is on that path. I could be wrong, and Bess will certainly never let me forget, if that becomes the case. But, I think there's a heart underneath all of that aggressive showmanship.

Speaking of showmen, and this is random (sorry), but doesn't Ben F on ABC's "The Bachelorette" look a lot like Nadal? But I digress.

Bummed about Haas and Young going out early. And Peer and Craybas, too, for that matter. Nice seeing "old man" Schuettler pull off a win. I've got him through to the 3R, where he'd face Roddick, who's playing more and more like an old man every day. (I can cast these judgments for I am, indeed, an old man myself, at the ripe age of 42.)

As for young blood? How about Christina McHale taking out Makarova, 8-6 in the third? Nice! Too bad she got less buzz than the toga get-up Venus wore.

And so it goes. On to day two ...