What I've missed!

Back from some family business and what a lot I've missed. Time for me to start playing again with my new racket. My arm is still slightly sore though despite no tennis!

The Australian Open enters its second week and all I've managed to see on TV was Tim Henman's first round loss to Dmity Tursunov. That was quite a strange loss too, as in the fourth and final set Henman seemed to be clearly in charge and playing almost exhibition stuff. But then Tursunov gathered his focus, shots, and form, and all of a sudden it was over.

Then there was the media fuss about Andy Murray. Well I think it was just media fuss. For goodness sake he's just an 18 year old. ...and a tennis player. The UK media don't give Henman his due anyway and expecting too much from Murray too soon doesn't help the British angst.

So Venus and Serena went out in the first week. Who is surprised? Top class tennis needs top class preparation and maybe a bit of luck.

Martina Hingis, what a story. She could even get past an injured Kim Clijsters.

I saw the Doha match on TV when Federer defeated Haas, and rather easy it was too. So I don't know what happened in Kooyong but Haas seems to be playing confidently and their meeting in the Australian Open will be an indicator of Federer's form and talent. It will need to be good as the former Federer nemesis in the form of Nalbandian is looming.

I also saw the Doha match on TV when Federer defeated Baghdatis, and that too seemed rather easy. It's good though that Baghdatis is flying the flag for the teenagers after the tame defeats of Monfils, Gasquet and Murray. At least Berdych went a few rounds but I guess he's no longer a teen.

Disappointments for James Blake (blog), Guillermo Coria, and maybe Andy Roddick; but first week kudos go to Fabrice Santoro, Marcos Baghdatis, Sebastian Grosjean, Nicolas Kiefer, Tommy Haas, Justine Henin-Hardenne, Samantha Stosur, Patty Schynder and Peter Luczak.

So the doubles lawsuit against the ATP has been dropped. I've already blogged about this before. The outcome is mostly OK, except I personally don't like the no-ad scoring rule.