tennisgrandstand

by Lisa-Marie Burrows, Special for Tennis Grandstand World No.1 and defending champion Novak Djokovic was victorious once again on Rod Laver Arena in a spectacular Australian Open Final to win his third straight major championship after defeating Rafael Nadal 5-7 6-4 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 7-5 at Melbourne Park. Novak Djokovic captures his third Australian Open title The two current greatest players in the world locked horns for an epic 5 hours and 53-minutes in a match that had more twists and... Read Full Story

by Maud Watson High Stakes Have your ear plugs handy, folks, because this year’s Australian Open women’s final is going to be a loud one as Azarenka takes on Sharapova.  While the noise level of this match is going to be a turn off for many fans, we have to give credit where credit is due.  Sharapova dug deep when it counted, weathering the barrage of Kvitova’s strokes to allow her Czech opponent to self-destruct.  It was evident that Sharapova’s greater experience in major semifinals... Read Full Story

Victoria Azarenka will face defending Australian Open champion Kim Clijsters in a semifinal showdown. Victoria Azarenka is not one to go unnoticed. The tall, blonde Belarusian plays with powerful groundstrokes that matches her intense personality. She expresses her emotions freely on court and carries herself with an air of confidence wherever she goes. And let’s not forgot about the shrieks. Oh, the shrieks. But regardless of whether you admire her on-court tenacity or have trouble... Read Full Story

Lleyton Hewitt put on one of the most impressive performances of the 2012 Australian Open by making it to the fourth round and actually taking a set off defending champ Novak Djokovic. And while he might be far removed from his glory days, one thing’s for sure: You can never count Hewitt out. Lleyton Hewitt still in the game But why is that the case? Surely with his game—built around court coverage and flawless groundstrokes—would lead to him getting blasted off the court by bigger... Read Full Story

Here’s a roundup of funny photos from Day Eight of the Australian Open featuring players Kvitova, Tsonga, Ivanovic, Murray, Ferrer, Hewitt, Gasquet and Lisicki among others, Tebowing, calling on the tennis gods, and of course, stripping. Petra Kvitova paying homage to American football player Tim Tebow by ” Tebowing ” on court. The only way that this could be more impressive is to Tebow during a point — a fact that Ana Ivanovic has nearly perfected: *** This is a photo of Lleyton... Read Full Story

by Maud Watson Key to Victory One of the biggest stories going into the 2012 season was that Andy Murray has finally ended his search for a coach. In his decision to hire tennis great Ivan Lendl, Murray may have just found the missing piece to his success at the majors. Lendl has a personality that should jive well with Murray’s. He also is less likely to put up with the Scot’s on-court tirades, which will hopefully help Murray do a quicker job of righting the ship when things aren’t... Read Full Story

by Stephanie Neppl, Special for Tennis Grandstand What a week we’ve had at the 2012 ASB Classic! One of the best fields in tournament history has been narrowed down to just four players: a German (but not the top seed Sabine Lisicki as expected), an Italian, a Chinese (but not the #2 seed Peng Shuai)  and a Russian. To get us to this stage of the tournament, we’ve survived numerous rain delays which have done their best to complicate life for the players and organisers. One entire day of... Read Full Story

With the 2012 season of the ATP World Tour just getting officially underway this week, tennis fans and media alike will be closely watching how the pros come out of the starting blocks. The Mubadala World Tennis Championship (an exhibition) in Abu Dhabi last week and now regular events in Brisbane, Chennai and Doha, have provided an alphabetically-related quartet of venues whose results may or may not mean anything by the end of the year. Players who struggle initially and suffer early... Read Full Story

Bernard Tomic First things first: Win a singles title. For teenagers and top 100 ATP World Tour players Bernard Tomic and Ryan Harrison, that should be the top priority going into 2012. But with the way both of them have shot up the rankings over the past couple of years, much more is expected from the 19-year-olds. That’s what happens when you make the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, like Tomic did last year—becoming the youngest player since the legendary Boris Becker to do so. Or when... Read Full Story

by Stephanie Neppl, Special for Tennis Grandstand The 2012 ASB Classic is underway and it’s lining up to be a memorable tournament with stellar fields in both singles and doubles. Despite the withdrawal of drawcard Venus Williams, the singles draw is full of big names and big talent. We’ve got our previous two champions in 2011 winner Greta Arn and 2010 champ Yanina Wickmayer as well as former runners up Flavia Pennetta (2010) and Elena Vesnina (2009) all in the main draw. Sabine... Read Full Story