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The Australian Open Day 2: Crowd, Set, Match!
by Nadya Vlassoff
Day 2 in Melbourne brought many surprises and a few stunning upsets as the top seeds began to falter from more than just their nerves. The Australian crowd rallied against their hometown boy Lleyton Hewitt and Aussie girls Samantha Stosur and Anastasia Rodinova who battled against a few top seeds. Rod Laver Arena was bursting with spectators who waved flags from all over the world as their countrymen and women battled it out in weather that reached 40C degrees. However, not even the heat and the sun could rattle the crowd as match after match progressed and fan favorites Rafael Nadal, Venus and Serena Williams, and James Blake took to one of the biggest stages in the tennis world that provided world class entertainment.
Best of Day 2
Fernando Gonzalez (13) vs. Lleyton Hewitt
 Early on we picked Fernando Gonzalez as one of the players to watch and he didn’t disappoint in this first-round match in front of a crowd that was feverishly rooting for their hometown hero, Lleyton Hewitt. Both players took to the court ready to throw everything on the line, and what a show they put on. Gonzalez’s blistering forehand met Hewitt’s backhand volleys in long rallies and heart-stopping shots that kissed the lines as the crowd went wild after Hewitt won the first set 7-5. Hewitt went on to drop the next two and then regained momentum by winning the fourth. While Gonzalez was able to break Hewitt on 7 of 14 tries, he still had to battle into the 5th round before finally claiming victory. This was an extremely hard test for Fernando Gonzalez, who is by no means a favorite this year at the Aussie Open, but it was a much needed one as well. Hewitt had far fewer unforced errors compared to Gonzalez but he also had far fewer winners. This might be one of the last times Lleyton Hewitt gets to play in the Australian Open and it was the first time in over a decade that he entered the draw without being seeded. Still recovering from hip surgery, Hewitt is in no way finished with his pro career but only time will tell if he can make a push into the top 100 on the ATP tour again.
Serena Williams (2) vs. Meng Yuan
Any player who takes on Serena Williams in the opening rounds must be battling more than nerves, and Meng Yuan was no different. Serena dominated the entire match with deep serves, heavy forehands and her trademark grunt. While it was not a strenuous match for Serena, Yuan played with every bit of heart that she had and it showed. Refusing to go down quietly to such a heavy favorite in the first round, Meng Yuan held serve early in the second set as she tried to regain a break point chance but wasn’t able to convert. Serena completed the second set with deep forehand strokes that sent Yuan scrambling all over the court, as she returned with a few brilliant shots of her own. But at the end Serena, as usual, overpowered her opponent. This was an excellent test for Yuan since she’ll be taking more than a few lessons with her from this match and Serena will notch another win on her long list of victories.
Samantha Stosur vs. K.Zakopalova
 Samantha Stosur took advantage of her home court to win this tight match on Rod Laver Arena, as the Australian crowd rallied behind their new hope for an Aussie victory on Day 2. Stosur was evenly matched against Klara Zakopalova as they went game-for-game and both sets went to tiebreaks. Stosur is already an accomplished doubles player and she used her volley game to her advantage as she tried to charge the net but came up short on more than a few chances. Klara Zakapalova went 4 for 4 on net points and gave all she had on the court. As exciting as the match was, however, Stosur still had 45 unforced errors to Zakapalova’s 27 but had 28 to her opponent’s 14. Stosur’s powerful first serve may have been the deciding factor in her win since she averaged a first serve that was 30kms faster than Zakapalova’s. Although her win percentage on first serve was not much higher than Zakapolova’s it was still enough for her to pull out a win, especially when she won the second tie break 7-0.
Worst of Day 2
Nicole Vaidisova vs. Severine Bremond
2009 should have been the year that Nicole Vaidisova returned to form and made a challenge for one of the top ten spots in the WTA rankings. Instead, her descent into tennis oblivion continued as she was thoroughly thrashed by Severine Bremond. Although Bremond played well and took control of both sets, it was Vaidisova that was the biggest problem. She is known to choke when it counts and even though this was a first-round match it was still extremely important for a player intent on mounting a comeback. With 27 unforced errors, 14 winners and no aces, Vaidisova dug her grave when she struggled to gain momentum in the early games. Bremond, taking advantage of a disorganized opponent, jumped to an early lead in the first set and solidified her win with 9 aces.
Kateryna Bondarenko vs. Agnieszka Radwanska
 For Agnieszka Radwanska, this was a disappointing match since only two years ago she took out returning U.S. Open champion Maria Sharapova in the 3rd round in 2007 in one of the biggest upsets of that tournament. Since then Radwanska has gone on to reach the Top 10 in the WTA rankings only to be trounced in the first round of the Australian Open by a player currently ranked almost 50 spots below her. This match was similar to the Hantuchova battle from day one as the first set went to a tiebreak that was finally won by Bondarenko 9-7. The problem for players in these types of sets is that they take an exhaustive emotional toll on the loser and gives the other player a huge confidence boost. Although Agnieszka Radwanska was able to win the second set, she never truly returned to winning form and had 51 unforced errors and only 23 winners. The younger of the two Bondarenko sisters, Kateryna, took advantage of her opponent’s ongoing mistakes and capitalized with some well placed, hard to defend winners. Once again it was the service game of the winner that proved to be the deciding factor, as Bondarenko won 70% of her first serve points compared to Radwanska’s 56%. And so, Agnieszka Radwanska exits early and Kateryna Bondarenko moves on to her next opponent, Spaniard Lourdes Dominguez Lino. Now that the Aussie Open is in full swing, it’s easy to see Kateryna definitely has the talent and should be able to come out on top in her next match if she can keep her unforced errors down and play smart tennis.
As Day 2 of the Australian Open drew to a close, the crowd got into the spirit of court festivities as constant chants of "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oy! Oy! Oy!" filled the air. Svetlana Kuznetsova rallied from a set down to beat Australian Anastasia Rodionova. James Black won his match against Canadian Frank Dancevic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga shook off some rust to beat Juan Monaco of Argentina in straight sets. No one garnered more applause than fan favorite Rafael Nadal as he raced through his match against Christophe Rochus of Belgium and delivered a message to the rest of the draw that he’s most definitely ready to take the Australian Open crown and defend his #1 ranking. Despite the loss of a few top seeds in the women’s draw, most of the ranked elite continued to dominate. Day 3 can only promise more excitement.
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