*Official* Tennis Thread

[Simon]

C'mon Sania, make it a double for India!

butchered the set really and then got schooled in the tie-break. bring on hewitt and baghdatis already...

 

[Johnners]

Once Australia lost the cricket Federer was always going to win. The world would've exploded otherwise.

Sick of Mirza v Williams, want to see Hewitt get crushed.

 

[Dark Hunter]

AWTA, can't wait for another Hewitt failure.

 

[Jono]

You know, I wanted Federer to lose until half-way through the 5th, when I realised the quality of the players that wouldn't have made it to the second week.

Federer, Safin, Roddick, and whilst I don't like him, Gonzalez too. I think some other seeds are eliminated, I haven't been following as much as in previous years due to work.

 

[Johnners]

3 top 10 seeds are gone, Murray, Roddick & Gonzalez, not sure about any of the other top 16.


Edit: Robredo & Moya gone as well

That means we've lost the 6th, 7th, 9th, 11th & 16th seeds.

 

[duffer]

Sania

C'mon Marcos , spank this little skidmark for me.

 

[Jono]

Sania needs to work really hard next year to try and get a higher seed. Its tough coming up against Venus in round 3. She was playing well but then fell away.

Venus is all class though. Could finally win this thing.

Btw, I'm in Singapore, but my mum was telling me about some rubbish regarding Baghdatis and Turks and his cousin being ringleader of some movement or something back in Cyprus. Anyone can clear this up for me?

 

[Dark Hunter]

Haha, Marcos just flicked a switch during that last service game of his, and has just ripped through the last few games of the first set.

 

[NUFAN]

Sania needs to work really hard next year to try and get a higher seed. Its tough coming up against Venus in round 3. She was playing well but then fell away.

Venus is all class though. Could finally win this thing.

Btw, I'm in Singapore, but my mum was telling me about some rubbish regarding Baghdatis and Turks and his cousin being ringleader of some movement or something back in Cyprus. Anyone can clear this up for me?

MELBOURNE'S Turkish Cypriot community has called for Greek Cypriot tennis player Marcos Baghdatis to be expelled from Australia after he was caught on camera chanting anti-Turkish slogans.

Turkish Cypriots were furious Baghdatis had provoked their community, Australian Turkish Cypriot Cultural and Welfare Association president Hakki Suleyman said today.

"I have had a lot of calls from upset members stunned about this racist attack by a high-profile sportsman that breaches the racial vilification Act," he said.

"This is a straight-forward provocation of our community and he is playing a different game to sport, he is not being a sportsman and should apologise."

A 10-month-old video surfaced on video-sharing website YouTube of Baghdatis at a barbecue in Melbourne last year with members of the Hellas Fan Club holding a flare and chanting "Turks Out."

The video has now been removed by the user.

Baghdatis, in Melbourne for the Australian Open Tennis Championships, is set to play Australian Lleyton Hewitt in one of the show case matches in the third round tomorrow.

Baghdatis today did not back away from his comments.

"There has been a lot of coverage of me appearing in a video on YouTube.com.,'' Baghdatis said in a statement issued by tournament organisers.

"In that video from 2007 I was supporting the interest of my country, Cyprus, while protesting against a situation that is not recognised by the United Nations.

"Now I would like to concentrate on the tournament and ask everyone to respect that.''

Three members of the Hellas Fan Club - an organisation which supports Greek sportsmen in Australia - were arrested and banned from the Open following a confrontation with police on Tuesday night.

Mr Suleyman said his association would write letters to Tennis Australia, the State Government and other organisations calling for Baghdatis to be expelled from the Australian Open and the country for abusing his position.

Turkey invaded and occupied a third of Greek-controlled Cyprus in 1974.

Suat Yilmaz, secretary of the Australian Turkish Cultural Association believed members of his community will ignore Baghdatis' behaviour.

"I don't think there will be a bad reaction from our community - people will ignore him," Mr Yilmaz said.

"But in any community there are stupid people. Baghdatis should not mix sport with politics."

Mr Yilmaz said he he had seen Turkish fans with a Cyprus background at the tennis supporting Baghdatis.

"That's normal - he is a young man from the Mediterranean and we support them."

Tennis officials are meeting to decide how to respond to the matter.

The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is meeting Baghdatis' management to discuss the issue.

Tennis Australia is yet to decide whether it will make a comment on the reports.

A spokesman for a leading Greek community group in Melbourne said the comments on the YouTube footage were not racist and it was not even clear whether Baghdatis was making them.

Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria director Bill Papastergiadis said Baghdatis was joining the group in singing the Greek national anthem, before someone unidentified began to call "Turks out of Cyprus".

"But you don't see him say that because his arm is in front of his mouth then and you can't hear him say it," Mr Papastergiadis said.

"You don't know whether he's saying it."

He also said the call for Turks to leave Cyprus was in line with a United Nations resolution.

"It's not exactly expressing a view which doesn't conform with the UN resolution or with the general global view of that incident," Mr Papastergiadis said.

He said the comments were not racial vilification and it was "mischievous" of the media to now make a story out of the old footage.

 

[Dark Hunter]

Sania needs to work really hard next year to try and get a higher seed. Its tough coming up against Venus in round 3. She was playing well but then fell away.

Venus is all class though. Could finally win this thing.

Btw, I'm in Singapore, but my mum was telling me about some rubbish regarding Baghdatis and Turks and his cousin being ringleader of some movement or something back in Cyprus. Anyone can clear this up for me?

Just after the Safin game, footage was found on youtube of Baghdatis and some other people at a party or something, chanting "turks out of cyprus" and the like. Was apparently a year old. Baghdatis is holding a flare in the footage as well. Media hyped it up a bunch, while Baghdatis just dismissed it as him being passionate about his country. Haven't heard anything about his cousin leading a movement or anything...probably just media garbage.

EDIT: Beaten to it.

 

[Jono]

Hmm yeah, the timing (just before a Hewitt match) is quite interesting, but at the same time from what I just read up about it on The Age website, Baghdatis isn't apologetic at all.

Hope there isn't anymore crowd trouble at the Open.

 

[duffer]

Here's the news report.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9mAokijV4I

 

[Dark Hunter]

Hmm yeah, the timing (just before a Hewitt match) is quite interesting, but at the same time from what I just read up about it on The Age website, Baghdatis isn't apologetic at all.

Hope there isn't anymore crowd trouble at the Open.

Don't see why he should be tbh, it's obviously something he believes in strongly.

Hewitt 4-1 up in the 2nd... 3 am, here we come.

 

[Johnners]

Reckon it will last to at least 4am, 5-setter ftw.

 

[Anil]

Umm yes it is silly, because you said Federer. You didn't say "He'd have lost to so, so and so" eventually anyway. You specifically chose the best player in the world who has won 3 of the last 4 Aus Opens.

Why didn't you say it when Safin went out? "He woud have lost to Federer eventually anyway"

don't you get it? from your point of view, it might seem silly or whatever, from my point of view, there is nothing silly about my comment because we clearly view roddick's presence(and the entertainment factor in the game, it would seem) in a tournament differently...and i was not trying to retract/fluff up my statement by mentioning other players(i mentioned just federer earlier because that's who he has been losing to a lot of recent grand slams), it just strengthened my point...

i also mentioned "potentially how well they can play", safin is good enough to beat anyone when he is playing at his best, even federer...that's why i didn't say it when he went out, just regretted that the guy is on such a downslide...a safin in the final days at a grand slam would mean that he is playing exceptionally well and is a contender for the big prize no matter whoever else is in the field, definitely not so with roddick if one or two of the players i mentioned are around as well...

also all this is not to indicate that i hate watching roddick play or hate him as a person or hate his presence in the later stages of a tournament, i just don't think it is as bad for the quality of the draw if roddick loses compared to quite a few others...

 

[Nate]

Cilic is doing incredibly well for a 19 year-old.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

This is so stupid. Scheduling 5-set matches to start at a few minutes before midnight is ridiculous.

 

[Bobisback]

This is so stupid. Scheduling 5-set matches to start at a few minutes before midnight is ridiculous.

tbf, the people running it wouldnt have guessed that Federer's match would go for 12 hours or whatever.

Hewitt to lose this. 5-1 up with serve and choking, what a loser. Even worse to lose the set 6-7.

 

[pasag]

Haha, still going at 4.30am is classic, record anyone?

 

[NUFAN]

Just finished,

Great work Hewitt!!