Australian Open – Day 2 (1R)

Juan Martin del Potro [236] came to Melbourne last year admittedly with suspicious physical shape, but in a glory of the US Open ’09 champion. Now, after a wasted year due to injury, tries to rebuild his position in the tennis world and his first step is notable – he beats Dudi Sela [92] in straight sets, winning #the third longest tie-break in the Australian Open history. In the tie-break of the 1st set he saved five set points (5:6, 7:8, 8:9, 11:12, 12:13), two of them on opponent’s serve, in impressive style the last one when played a forehand winner DTL of the tramlines.
Interesting battle on Margaret Court Arena survived one of the oldest players in the main draw – Michael Russell [100]. 32-year-old journeyman of America, after winning the first two sets easily against “wild card” Matthew Ebden [185], led 4:1 with a double break in the 3rd set but found himself at 3:5* (15-40) in the 4th set. Russell managed to save that double set point, saved another one in the tie-break at 6:7 and won 6-3, 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(9) after 3 hours 22 minutes.
John Isner [20] who wins more sets than anyone else being one or two points away from losing a set, once again showed his tremendous mental resistance in the 2nd set of his match against Florent Serra [69]. At *7:7 tried to finish the point with a forehand but missed by centimeters, wasn’t upset though and in the following point risked with his forehand twice to save the second set point (the first was at 6:7). Isner won 6-3, 7-6(8), 6-3, after exactly the same scoreline (except the score in a tie-break) won his match Feliciano Lopez [31], who will meet next the biggest Australian hope, 18-year-old Bernard Tomic [199] – a good performance on Hisense Arena against Jeremy Chardy [44] –  Tomic’s first win over a Top 50 player. “I think I played well as a junior,” Tomic says, “That’s totally different to the senior level. But I think I’m stepping up and beating all these players now. I think it’s just a matter of time before I win a lot of matches in a row in a tournament“. Other youngsters, Milos Raonic and Richard Berankis won their matches in straight sets as well, Raonic served 27 aces in his first Grand Slam win.
Two out of four main contenders to the title, Rafael Nadal [1] and Andy Murray [5] weren’t forced to work even trough three sets, because their opponents, respectively Marcos Daniel and Karol Beck retired quickly.
In one of the most entertaining first round matches, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga [13] came back for the first time in his career from two-sets-to-love to improve his perfect five-set record (5-0). The beaten Philipp Petzschner [57] has lost for the third time being two sets ahead ##, and for the third time after winning the first two sets easily… Unfortunately there were many lopsided three-setters, the most surprising outcome was witnessed on Court No. 18 where Ernests Gulbis could not deal with Benjamin Becker.

Longest match:
4 hours, 48 minutes: David Nalbandian d. Lleyton Hewitt 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(1), 9-7

Most aces:
27 – Milos Raonic, defeated in three sets Bjorn Phau

5-set barometer:

30-16 Lleyton Hewitt
17-11 David Nalbandian
12-18 Arnaud Clement
9-6 Marcos Baghdatis
8-7 Andreas Seppi
6-6 Philipp Petzschner
5-0 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
4-1 Ricardo Mello
3-3 Thomaz Bellucci
2-2 Grega Zemlja
1-1 Pere Riba, Carsten Ball

# Three longest tie-breaks in the Australian Open history:

2007, 1R: Andy Roddick d. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-7(18), 7-6, 6-3, 6-3
1992, 3R: Omar Camporese d. Lars-Anders Wahlgren 6-4, 6-2, 7-6(15)
2011, 1R: Juan Martin del Potro d. Dudi Sela 7-6(13), 6-4, 6-4

Del Potro’s tie-break

## Petzschner’s five-set defeats from 2-sets-to-0 up:

UO ’09: Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 2-6, 4-6
AO ’10: Florian Mayer 6-0, 6-2, 4-6, 2-6, 2-6
RG ’10: Carsten Ball 6-3, 7-6(4), 2-6, 5-7, 7-9
AO ’11: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 6-2, 2-6, 3-6, 4-6