You would never have guessed it was just the first week of
the Australian Open. People were playing
to win. Even unseeded players forced the
top ranked players to perform their best. 
Maria Sharapova went to the 7 games and 3 sets to beat
countrywoman Panova, Federer took 4 sets to beat his opponent in Round 2, and
Kohlschreiber went down to hometown favourite, Tomic. Canadians Bouchard and Raonic powered
through their rounds, with Bouchard winning her second round match in less than
an hour and Raonic playing serves in the high 220km/hr range. 
Our new tennis fave, Goran Ivansevic, took on
the role of coach for Malek Taziri when he learned on the IPTL tour that Taziri
was ranked 70th in the world but didn’t have a coach and didn’t even
train because there were no facilities in his home country of Tunisia. With Goran’s main pupil, Marin Cilic, out of
the tournament with an injury, Goran decided to stick around and work with
Taziri. Although he lost to local fan
favourite Kyrgios in the third round, he played remarkably competitively –
where this guy could go with some formal training!
The unexpected match for us, however, was Roger Federer versus Italian player, Seppi. We thought it was going to be an easy match for Federer but after 3 hours playing in the blazing heat, Seppi won the game in four sets. Federer, ever the sportsman, actually clapped for his competitor after a dramatic and thrilling tournament.
It was 50 hours of travel to get to Australia for just a four day stopover but the awesome tennis was totally worth it!
There was even a spot of controversy as the post-game interviewer demonstrated the cultural and gender sensitivity that Australians are famous for by asking the men about their tactics and strategy used to win their matches, while asking the women to twirl and show off their wardrobes.
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