K.O. in Round One at Australian Open!

Well it’s that time again when Nadal fans the world over were treated to a tennis clinic courtesy of Nadal.  I must give credit to his opponent, Rochus.  The Belgian had an uphill climb from the start and his willingness to stay into the ring and not give up should be herald too!  Rafa came to win, and the one two punch delivered.

To those people watching who say that Nadal cannot play on hard court, I hope you had your feast with plenty of water to wash it down.  His Uncle Toni has been at work again reinventing Nadal the 09 model.  It seems to have been a success. Although female fans the world over miss the sleeveless shirt.

What I noticed about the Spanish phenom is that his serve was better and that his shot placement with his new follow through seems spot on.  If you don't believe me then listen to the playback from the ESPN commentators.  Brad Gilbert and Darren Cahill both stated that this year the 22 year old jumped out of the blocks!

So far the usual seeds came through with flying colors and that makes the AO even more interesting. Sorry to see Feliciano Lopez departure so early in the tournament, as well as Querry, Hewitt, and Ginepre.  Rest up guys because soon it will be clay court season again!

Federer and Djokovic came to the party to show their skills on day one also.  Giles Simon seemed to make one amazing shot after another. Andy Murray came to show us what all the press is talking about, but his opponent was not up to the task.  The heat on the courts took more than one good player out of contention.

Watching the best in the world play tennis is even more fun because of the crowd participation. The Aussie contingent never lets you down.  There is such a great presence of European, South American and American fans too that it looks like the UN at a giant tail gate party.

What happens tonight will be great fun to watch, or is that TVO?  Even a 16 hour time difference makes getting up in the middle of the night well worth it! Thanks to all the U.S. television viewers for hanging in there. Who knows maybe we'll be seeing more televised tennis tournaments here in the states in '09!