Australian Open 2006 (Bhupathi-Hingis win MxD title)

[gvhvhg]

Prakash Amritraj (IND, 256) vs. Todd Widom (USA, 258)

Set 1
PA to start things off on serve

1-0 PA holds after a couple of deuces
1-1 Widom holds at love, on serve
1-2 PA broken at 15 by TW

Three straight UFE's there from PA to give the break to TW

1-3...TW holds at 30... TW serving on point...3rd ace of match for 15-0..PA error for 30-0.....PA BH UFE 40-0....TW DF...40-15...TW forced error 40-30...PA error for game...(PA 9 UFE's, TW 0!)
1-4 TW breaks after two deuces.... two winners from TW take it to 15-30...a winner from PA and some errors from TW take it to 40-30...after two deuces, TW gets the insurance break
1-5 TW BH winner for 15-0...PA FH UFE for 30-0...TW ACE #4 for 40-0...TW ACE #5 for the love hold
2-5 PA forces three straight BH errors from TW for 40-0 and then finishes it off with the FH winner
2-6 A PA UFE and a forced error put TW up 30-0...a FH winner from TW gives him 40-0 and THREE SET POINTS...he finishes it off with another winner for the set

First Set-Widom 62 (Just two UFE's! and 5 Aces!)

Second Set

1-0 PA digs out of 0-30 hole...two UFE's from PA puts TW up 0-30...PA forces an error from TW's FH wing..and then hits a FH winner for 30-30...two more forced errors on TW gives PA the game
1-1..TW digs out of 15-40.....PA starts off with a FH winner for 15-0, but a forced error on thatsame wing takes it to 15-15...TW is forced into an error of his own for 15-30...and PA backs it up with a winner for 15-40 and TWO BREAK POINTS...He blows the first with a BH UFE...and Widom saves the second with his 6th ACE...a pair of errors (one forced one unforced) from PA give TW the game
1-2 PA drops serve at love...PA starts the game off with an UFE....TW follows it up with a winner for 0-30...more errors from Kash throw the game away
1-3...TW holds at 15....PA is forced into two errors and gives one away to go down 40-15 on TW's serve...he then gives off another UFE for the game
1-4 PA blows a 30-0 lead....a forced error on TW and a PA FH winner put him up 30-0...PA throws in a FH UFE and TW comes up with two BH winners for 30-40 and BREAK POINT...TW comes up with yet another BH winner for the double break.... UFE count PA 24, TW 2
Winner count PA 10, TW 18
1-5 A BH UFE from PA puts him down 15-0...but he hits a winner for 15-15...yet another BH UFE and he is down 30-15...TW comes up with a BH winner for 40-15...and another for the game
1-6 PA starts off with his 27th UFE...and TW finally hits his 3rd and first of the set! 15-15....PA is forced into an error for 15-30 but comes up with his first ace for 30-30...TW hits a FH winner and then forces PA into an error to complete the rout


Todd Widom (USA, 258) defeats Prakash Amritraj (IND, 256) 6-2 6-1

[Varma]

Boy, this Widom guys seems to be a big server...5 aces so far. With the opponent serving that efficient, perhaps P$ is feeling the pressure in holding his own serve. He got to do something rightaway and turn the match around in his favour.

Come, P.Diddy...show your magic

- Varma

[*sridinats*]

What kinda match was this??:damn:

NOT one ace from Prakash......He had 27 UFE's wheres as Widom had 3!

Prakash won only 50% of his first serves whereas Widom won 95%

Near demolition act performed by Widom

Sridhar

[gvhvhg]

Apalling match by Prakash....While Widom was really on his game (6 aces, 21 winners and onle 3 Unforced errors!) Prakash was far from that level...(1 ace, 12 winners and an atrocious 27 Unforced errors....)

Really dissapointing performance...perhaps a letdown to playing a player of his own rank (his last three matches had been against much higher ranked players...)

Im really pissed ....after brilliant performances against three higher ranked players this was not expected...Our players seem to be frustratingly inconsistent.....Although Shikha and Prakash were both consistently error prone today...combining for 24 winners to 55 UFE's! Im so dissapointed...like a little boy who was waiting for a certain present on christmas morning only to find new cotton socks awaiting him under the tree (Horrible analogy....im just not in the mood to come up with a better one....)

All we have left now is Bops...

[Rajiv]

a disspointing loss for pa 2 & 1 , what an anticlimax after the past few heady days, at this stage , and the form he is in these matches one should convert or atleast take it down the wire but definately not such a lopsided affair , unless the injury bug has bit him

go on bofors the last man standing - dont let us down.

[sanjay5goel]

If I were to guess, maybe PA played his old game of rushing to the net every point + lot of UFE.

Could the fact that he was playing someone that he was expected to beat be something to do with the unforced errors?

Sanjay

[Kumar]

May be this widom is really good ... ? I hope PA is able to string group of matches...

Go Rohan

[gvhvhg]

May be this widom is really good ... ?

Kumar--looking at the stats there is no doubt that Widom played a fantastic match...but Prakash also played horribly.....

[Kumar]

it is just wishful thinking Ashish...

It is better than him being inconsistent, which has been the bane of PA for a while..

[Varma]

Watch out for these exciting matches in the first round...

Men's
Tommy Haas v Richard Gasquet (14)
Andy Murray v Juan Ignacio Chela
Nicolas Kiefer (21) v Paradorn Srichaphan
Sebastien Grosjean (25) v Mark Philippoussis
Andrei Pavel v Carlos Moya (32)
Tim Henman v Dmitry Tursunov
Xavier Malisse v Mikhail Youzhny

Women's
Na Li v Serena Williams (13)
Martina Hingis v Vera Zvonareva (30)

- Varma

[PKBasu]

It's tough being a tennis pro. Prakash's Q2 match was less than 24 hours after his Q1 match, and he probably didn't have enough time to regroup before this clash. I'm shocked that he was demolished like this by a (slightly) lower-ranked player after his string of great wins in recent matches. The latter (especially the win over a very hot Wessels) showed that Prakash has it in him to be a world-class (top-100) player eventually. But in order to get there, he has to put together a string of wins -- first at the Challenger (or Slam qualifier!) level, then in tour-event qualifiers and main draws. I think he certainly has the tools, but days like today need to be minimised.

[PKBasu]

Shikha at least put up a tough fight against a higher-ranked opponent. Not so disappointing that she lost, although how I wish she could recapture the glorious form of July-August 2004 in order to move sustainably from the 150 region to the top-100!

[genius]

Yeah Krajicek could be tricky.

sorry vparam.Usually when i see GS draws i see 25-32 seeded vs top 8 and i am not sure if a GS has an exception to this.

[Nate]

What a terrible day today! I am feeling totally down. No wins yet. PA, Shikha and Rajeev all lost. Just a reminder to us, these guys need to do a lot of work before we can expect any Grand Slam success from them. We get too excited with their one off wins or upsets.

On another note, the Uzbek Istomin is playing Federer in the first round. How come he is a direct entry to the main draw? Talk about the rise.
Also I saw a few names which our guys especially Rajeev Ram have beaten last summer (Thomas Cakl, Wesley Moody, Amer Delic), I am surprized to find them in the main draw. Seems like they have improved and risen the ranks by leaps and bounds in the fall and our guys haven't really done much since the USO Hope Rohan gets into the main draw.

[Sandeep]

Not so disappointing that she lost, although how I wish she could recapture the glorious form of July-August 2004 in order to move sustainably from the 150 region to the top-100!

If we are talking about Shikha moving into top-100 she should have won this match. Especially considering her opponent is just 10 places above her. It was a disappointing loss