Australian Open - Men’s - Day 1 wrap
Day one at the open has nearly ended. There is a match in progress between Marat Safin and Benjamin Becker. Safin is ahead in the fifth set against the player who ended the career of Andre Agassi.
Today was pretty much business as usual. Federer won first up against Bjorn Phau. The 7-5, 6-0, 6-4 suggests it was a comfortable win for the no. 1 seed. Federer didn’t look fantastic however he did enough to claim his spot in the second round. His next opponent is veteran Swede Jonas Bjorkman. Back in 97 Bjorkman was ranked no. 4 in the world. He is now down to 50 and I don’t see him winning a set against Federer.
In other matches involving seeded players we saw wins to Mikhail Youzhny (25) over Jan Hernych, Juan Carlos Ferrero (24) had a walkover against Jan Hajek, Novak Djokovic (14) had the easiest victory of the day over Nicolas Massu 6-1, 6-1, 6-0, Marcos Baghdatis (11) fought off Rainer Schuettler 6-4, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, Richard Gasquet (18) defeated Filippo Volandri 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. Tommy Robredo (7) defeated Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo in another incomplete match. Andy Roddick defeated French wildcard Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-3.
In the upsets from today the biggest would have to be the defeat of Ivan Ljubicic (4) who lost to American Mardy Fish 6-4, 6-7, 4-6, 4-6. This continued a poor run in grand slams for the world no. 4. Ljubicic had the form on the board following a title win in Doha however he seemed to lose that form on the flight over from the middle east. Other seeded players to lose today were Agustin Calleri (30), Jose Acasuso (27). Both players from Argentina lost to relatively unknown Americans.
Marathon match of the day would have to go to Lukas Dlouhy and Teimuraz Gabashvili who played a five setter that lasted over four and a half hours. Dlouhy was victorious 6-3, 6-1, 6-7, 6-7, 16-14. I bet he wishes he could have wrapped up that third set tie break.
Tommorow we see action from the other half of the draw.