Week one of the Australian Open is over and there has been plenty of exciting tennis to look back on. All Aussie hopes of Australian Open glory ended last night when no. 5 seed Sam Stosur and young gun Bernard Tomic were eliminated from the tournament.
In the men’s draw all the big names are still there with nine of the top 10 seeds progressing to the fourth round. All the favourites are going through the tournament fairly easy.
Rafael Nadal looks ruthless; giving away nothing in his matches so far and is yet to drop a set. However, Roger Federer had a slight scare in his second round. Federer faced in form Giles Simon, winner in Sydney last week and took five tough sets to beat the Frenchman. Aussie Lleyton Hewitt went down in a memorable and heartbreaking first round encounter with nemesis David Nalbandian. Hewitt was up two sets to one and a break in the fourth and looked like progressing. However, Nalbandian the fighter that he is, came back to win in five marathon sets. Nadal still remains the punters favourite to take out the title after a good first week.
In the woman’s draw the seeds haven’t all faired so well.
Big names such as Venus Williams, Sam Stosur and Jelena Jankovic have failed to make it to the second week of the Open. Stosur was Australia’s big hope of Grand Slam glory but lost to an impressive Petra Kvitova last night. No.1 seed Caroline Wozniacki has been progressing through the tournament well and has not yet dropped a set. But it’s the no.3 seed Kim Clijsters that looks the most impressive so far in the woman’s draw. She destroyed former world number one Dinara Safina 6-0 6-0 in the first round. Clijsters remains the favourite currently to take out the title.
The second week looks like it will provide some more great tennis. Some big potential men’s clashes look set to take place and it looks like a couple of bolters in the women’s draw might have a lot to say. So will it be Nadal who completes the ‘Rafa Slam’? Can Wozniacki cement her place as world no.1 and win that first Grand Slam title? All remains to be seen in the second week of the Australian Open!
Gordon D'Mello
Gordon is a Journalism student at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney who has a huge passion in the field of sports writing and sport itself. Here he is a writer, senior editor and is also a co-founder of Injury Time.

