Australian Open 2010: Of Glamour in Distress and Charming Trash Talk

A recap of some of the most significant happenings on Day 4 of the Australian Open:

When glamour has no style:

Ana Ivanovic’s struggles over the past couple of years have been so intricately documented that the exact nature of each and every one of her problems rolls off our tongues effortlessly – her ball toss during her serve is all wrong; there is no conviction in her strokes; she has no plan B when things are not going her way; she pulls the trigger during a rally way too early. Unfortunately for her, all of these things were on sharp display today in her 3-set loss to Gisela Dulko. Nothing seems to be working for the Serbian glamour girl these days. It seems a very long time ago that she was holding aloft the French Open trophy as the top-ranked woman in the world. And the thing that makes it all the more painful to watch is the utter despondency that shows on her face after every one of her losses. She would do the tennis world a huge favor by doing something, anything, to help her get out of her slump.

Blast from 2006:

Remember Marcos Baghdatis? The man who charmed everyone on the way to the 2006 final right here in Melbourne and took part in a crazily dramatic thriller against Andre Agassi in the US Open that year pretty much disappeared from the scene after that, owing to a spate of injuries and some indifferent form. Having been reduced to playing Challenger tournaments in the last year, he has rediscovered some of his old form and is now back in the top 40 in the rankings, thanks largely to a title last week in Sydney. Today he rallied from two sets down against David Ferrer and outlasted him in a 4-hour marathon, and looks primed to make another hot run at a Major. The only problem? He is slated to meet Roger Federer, his 2006 Melbourne conqueror, in the fourth round. Incidentally, Federer had not even a whiff of a problem in his encounter with Victor Hansecu, cruising to a crisp straight sets annihilation. Ominous signs for the rest of the field.

Williamses keep the family flag flying:

In what must surely sound like a broken record now, Serena and Venus Williams stayed on course to set up yet another all-Williams clash, with straight set victories in their respective second round matches. While Serena had no problems dusting off Petra Kvitova in a resounding 6-2, 6-1 demolition job, Venus was her usual jittery early round self, going down a double break in the second set before righting the ship to score a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Sybille Bammer. These days it seems only a matter of time before we are witness to yet another Venus implosion, and unlike in the case of her sister, these meltdowns have not been restricted to the smaller events. Clearly, Venus has plenty of work to do if she wants to make her first Slam final outside Wimbledon in 7 years.

Not every Slam is a fairytale for Taylor Dent:

At last year’s US Open Taylor Dent seemed to be everybody’s darling, but his inspirational comeback story was given no chance to gain more traction in this year’s first Grand Slam, as he went down with surprising ease to yet another one-time Australian Open finalist, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Tsonga, on the other hand, is looking in imperious form, and his biggest prayer must now be that he somehow stays away from any kind of injury whatsoever, at least for a fortnight. You’d think that that is not asking for too much, but you have no idea.

WTA’s youngsters stay steady, for the most part:

Three of the most highly touted young girls on the tour – Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka and Agnieska Radwanska all secured comfortable second round wins, but Sabine Lisicki, perhaps the most promising of them all, crashed and burned in her match against little-known Italian Alberta Brianti. It’s been quite a while since Lisicki notched up any kind of breakthrough victory, her last significant win coming against Venus Williams all the way back in April, so yes, her camp may have a little reason to worry about the way she’s handling her newfound recognition.

Shout it out loud:

Nikolay Davydenko, the silent nearly-assassin of the ATP is not so silent any more. Reports of a few colourful comments by the man have been swirling about in tennis circles, with one particular tidbit even finding its way into an interview with Rafael Nadal. Davydenko may “not want to be famous”, doesn’t “dream about winnin Slams all the time like Federer and Nadal” and enjoys the fact that “players are scared of him now”, but all of this can only add character to the almost threadbare personality that most casual tennis followers mistakenly assume him to have. (It is entirely possible that some of those comments may have been taken out of context and some others may have been lost in translation, but we’ll leave aside such complications for now).  And if this spanking new confident side of Davydenko can help him get over the hump and finally bag a Major trophy, then I can only say – more power to him. Bring on the trash talk – God only knows he deserves some fun after all the years of toil and hard work. And today he cruised to a ridiculously easy win over Ukranian Illya Marchenko, too, maybe just to prove his point. Point taken, Nikolay.