Australia China Friendship Tournament a great success!

As George Harrison sang on The White Album: “It’s been a long, long, long time.” Apologies for such a delay between blogs… life has been hectic.

We’re four weeks into the new footy season (for NRL fans)… India’s won the World Cup (as expected)… the NSW Corporate Games have been and gone with some great results for DD members (despite the Games being played on the worst weather weekend in living memory, forcing the tennis, cricket and Touch Footy Finals to be abandoned).

But last Sunday, April 3, the Gods smiled down on us and provided a perfect day for the inaugural Australia China Friendship Tournament organised by Double Drummer at the Tennis Valley Club in Chatswood, Sydney.

Former World No. 2 Doubles Player and Davis Cup representative Sandon Stolle brought his wife and two children with him to Tennis Valley and his own words: “The whole family had a great time!”

Stolle was incredibly generous with his time, playing three matches with his partner for the day – Secretary of the Australia-China Friendship Society NSW, 77 year old Margaret Kelly – as well as an exhibition set with three of the better standard DD members present on the day. He also took aside some of the tennis club’s good juniors for an impromptu coaching session.

Sandon Stolle & Margaret Kelly from ACFS

Brett Muzik is the father of one of those lucky students, Josh, and he later said: “Joshua and his young mate Oscar thoroughly enjoyed themselves, being matched on Centre Court against a former World No. 2 and Davis Cup rep. (and son of the legendary Fred Stolle!)… and then being coached by him. It was like being with royalty!”

58 players contested the inaugural event, with almost a 50/50 split of Chinese and Australian players (and a few friendly other nationalities mixed in for good measure… a special ‘Hi’ to you crazy Filipinos!). Even though Gladys Berejiklian, MP was unable to officially open the event (as she was being sworn in as the new Minister for Transport) and Fox Sports Presenter Ryan Phelan was called into work at the last minute and therefore couldn’t play, the perfect weather, excellent tennis and wonderful camaraderie ensured a fantastic day that’s likely to become a regular event on the Double Drummer calendar.

For the record, the tournament was won by Sam Green and Anna Cosio, who defeated Erwin Wong and Shelley Storer in a high quality Final. Trophies were presented by the Mayor of Willoughby, Councillor Pat Reilly.

The Mayor and 'Moonie' present the winners Anna & Sam

With the help of sponsors Running Bare and Star City who both donated sensational raffle prizes, around $2,200 was raised on the day for Animals Asia Foundation, the organisation that, among other great work, rescues the Moon Bears of China and Vietnam from farms where they are milked daily for bile from their gall bladders for use in traditional Chinese medicine.

Gina Kelly from the Australia-China Friendship Society NSW said: “Our thanks to Tennis Valley and the Double Drummer Team for such a great inaugural tournament – all the Australia China Friendship folks felt so welcome. We’re already looking forward to next year!”

(And I’m looking forward to posting more regular blogs!)

The Form so far…

Two rounds into the 2011 Australian Open and as always we’ve had the usual share of surprise results that spice up a Grand Slam. I’m on a 7am flight to Melbourne tomorrow and can’t wait to get among the action.

Davydenko… gone! Hewitt… gone (a real shame, given it was a tough 1st round for both he and Nalbandian, but Lleyton… a lead of 2 sets to 1, 3-1 up in the 4th and Love 40 on Nalbandian’s serve… how do you lose from there?!). And my biggest disappointment (from a spectating viewpoint) Ana Ivanovic… GONE!

Ana 'the glamour' Ivanovic

And even despite their previous head-to-head record, it was a surprise to me that Giles Simon took The Fed Express to the limit last night… especially after the first two sets when Fed was simply imperious. But Simon’s a top player. I watched him win Sydney last week… and he was the No. 6 player in the world in 2008. (But seriously, how does anyone that skinny – 68kg wringing wet – hit the ball so hard?)

I guess the other surprise was Tomic beating World No. 44 Jeremy Chardy from France in straight sets. He’s certainly an enigma is our Bernard. I watched him get towelled up by the talented Ukranian Alexandr Dolgopolov in Sydney last week and to be honest, he looked pretty ordinary. Then he thumps a quality player like Chardy? He’ll be tested against Lopez today, but hey… go Tomic!

Rafa doesn’t seem inconvenienced by the ‘flu any more. Dokovic was taken to the limit by Croatian journeyman Ivan Dodig last night for two sets before crushing him in the 3rd and 4th. Murray and Soderling are looking good early. It’s going to be a tough 2nd week with dangerous floaters like Tsonga and Berdych also in the mix.

But for mine, Roger Federer will defend his Australian Open title and start the year with a bang. Last night’s match will stand him in good stead and I like the remainder of his draw through to the Quarters. He loves Melbourne… loves the night matches and loves Rod Laver Arena. He has a point to prove this year, which he commenced in 2010 by thrashing Nadal in London and then starting 2011 with a win in Qatar. Working with Paul Annacone obviously agrees with him… they’ve won 6 titles since he came on board after Wimbledon last year.

He is the greatest ever… and he’s not finished winning Grand Slams yet.

 

Australian Open Draw announced

As just reported in the T.A. Newsletter Slice:

There’s nothing like a lottery to excite the masses, and the Australian Open draw is no different.

Now we can see what we are getting into as we rapidly plunge head first into Australian Open 2011.  Both men’s and women’s draws are characterised by great depth, which has led to some big first-round matches.

Sam Stosur, the first Australian woman to be seeded in the top five of the Australian Open since Wendy Turnbull in the 1980s, will begin her attack on the Australian Open silverware against young American wildcard Lauren Davis.

Hewitt v Nalbandian - a mouth-watering 1st Round

Unseeded Lleyton Hewitt was at the mercy of the draw, and a collective murmur rippled through the auditorium as Argentinean warrior David Nalbandian’s name was drawn against Hewitt’s. Nalbandian, the 27th seed, and Hewitt have a lengthy history. The Wimbledon finalists of 2002, Hewitt got the better of him then but it will be interesting to see how these veterans match up nine years later.

The unfortunate men to be pitted against previous champions Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the first round this year are Brazil’s Michael Daniel and Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko respectively. Women’s world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki has a tricky first match against Gisela Dulko, while second-seed Vera Zvonereva takes on Sybille Bammer.

The potential match of the round however, goes to world No.3 Kim Clijsters versus former world No.1 Dinara Safina. Safina, sister of Australian Open 2005 winner Marat Safin, has not been in the greatest form of late. However, as with someone of the Safin temperament, you never quite know when she could turn it on.

For all the draws, visit the Australian Open web site: http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/scores/draws/ms/index.html

Long live ‘The King’

In an imperious display over 5 matches across 8 days, The King – Roger Federer – has once again proven just what he’s capable of and where he stands on the Honour Roll of tennis champions, past and present.

Roger Federer wins his 5th season-ending ATP title

In the year ending ATP Finals played in London recently, Federer wiped Soderling… thrashed Murray… destroyed Dokovich in the semi… and then after two sets of a high quality Final, totally nullified Nadal’s usual weapons to streak away to a 6-1 win in the 3rd. He was simply unbeatable over the week. All those bagging the Swiss great, saying he was “too old, too slow, past his peak” and more, are now eating their words as The King displayed his on-court supremacy to take this prestigious title for the 5th time.

Federer won an incredible 92% of the points played on his first serve in the final! He lost only 13 points on serve in the entire three set match! He was more aggressive all week than he’d been all year… made many more moves forward to volley brilliantly… and used the dropshot (particularly on his forehand side) to great effect in every match.

Nadal had an amazing year, winning the last three Grand Slam tournaments consecutively to set up a possible ‘Rafa Slam’ at next year’s Australian Open. But Federer loves Melbourne… he’s the defending champion… and he usually starts the year on fire. Could he possibly win his 17th Grand Slam singles title in January? Despite the doubters, don’t bet against him.

And regardless of the result, don’t for God’s sake bag this bloke for losing the odd match here and there at this stage of his career… (remember, he’s the same age as another ‘former No. 1’ in Lleyton). Take the opportunity to watch him while you can and luxuriate in the sublime perfection he brings to his sport. Enjoy the spectacle while he’s still playing – because you won’t ever see another player like Roger Federer… the King.

“You cannot be serious!”

Okay… so I didn’t tip the winner of The Cup, with So You Think finishing a valiant third. The thing is, while I had my main go at the former Cummings champion, I also backed first and second… and the quinella… and the trifecta. And to top it all off, I picked Americain in the Double Drummer office sweep! (So I’ve been too embarrassed to blog ever since.)

Isaac Luke performs the Haka

And now the sporting year is coming to a close. The Four Nations tournament is over with refereeing again the absolute loser, three of the four tries in the Final scored illegally! (If I never see another try allowed off a forward pass it will be too soon.) We snuck past the All Blacks in the dead Bledisloe Cup rubber, then got hammered by the POMs.

We missed the chance to have an Aussie Formula 1 Champion… Mark Webber came close, but missed it by that much. And now we have the worrying prospect of an Ashes loss to England to nervously await.

The Champions Downunder Tour has been and gone and while the tennis was for the most part brilliant, the marketing of the event was a disgrace. Whether it was the mob at PPR or Geoff Parmenter’s Events NSW I’m not sure, but to charge $89 a ticket to see 2 mid-week pool matches (best of 2 sets, super tiebreaker at 1 set all) and then $129 for Finals Day (add one doubles pro set to the schedule) was patently ridiculous. Few would pay those prices, even if they knew about the event! For half that (or less) you can watch the current stars at the Medibank International… in fact Ground Passes to the January tournament start at just $10!

It wasn’t until Tennis NSW and IMG were asked to get involved that the event was even properly advertised and

McEnroe - as intense and passionate as ever

promoted… and in the end, the former organisation had to give away thousands of tickets to members to ensure these legends of the sport weren’t playing to empty houses. As it was, the Olympic stadium was never more than half full… which was a damn shame and disrespectful to champions like Rafter, McEnroe, Ivanisevic and Willander. They’ve got another two years to get this right or lose it. It’s a great concept, people love to see these former greats in action (and believe me, they’ve still ‘got it’)… but they have to make the tickets affordable and promote the event properly.

Let kids in for free to see the way tennis was played… with less bash and more skill. Offer group discounts to every tennis club in NSW. And price the tickets so that sports fans who are not necessarily ‘tennis nuts’ will want to come along and be entertained by madmen like Henri Leconte.

The Frenchman’s matches were pure, unadulterated, exhibitionistic FUN… with some amazing shots thrown in for good measure. But McEnroe was as intense as ever, the desire to win just as great as when he faced Borg over the net on Centre Court at Wimbledon. He is a nut case… an arrogant ratbag who was up to all his old trademark antics, barking at the umpire, telling him he was full of s*#t, purposely serving a bull at full pelt at the head of a linesman… but he was also brilliant!

The sublime followed the ridiculous as he deftly placed winners into the corners past lunging opponents, picked up half-volley after half-volley off his toes and quite often hit them for winners too, served with that unmistakable action and the same venom as he had in the early ’80s and volleyed incredibly. The man is a flawed genius, but a genius nonetheless.

"You cannot be serious!"

Hopefully the decent weather will stay around longer than a day at a time and we can all enjoy summer on the beach.

Decent weather… this Spring? “You cannot be serious!”

Take the tip… So You Think for the Cup!

The Grand Final’s gone (congratulations Saints!)… The ‘Australian Games’ as Roy & H.G. call them finish up tonight in New Delhi (what a rout!)… Holden rules the Mountain once more… the top two cricket nations in the world (do we still rate that highly?) are fighting it out in Sachin’s backyard… and an amazing year of sport is coming to a close.

But there’s still The Melbourne Cup in just three weeks time to look forward to! The Melbourne Spring carnival is in full swing with last Saturday’s racing showcasing the two best horses in Australia, trained by the two best in the game, historic competitors from the Cummings and Smith (Waterhouse) stables.

Just how good are More Joyous and So You Think? And who’s the best? We’ll know soon when this amazing pair clash in Australia’s weight for age Championship, the W.S. Cox Plate. But I wouldn’t wait ’til then to make a Spring killing. Surely at $6.50, you have to get on So You Think NOW to win the Cup.

 

So You Think with Stephen Arnold on board

 

I know he’s young… and he’s never raced over 3200 metres… but he’s a champion, he’s trained by the Cups King and there’s little doubt in my mind that he’ll get the distance on the first Tuesday in November. You remember Saintly right? And Let’s Elope? If he’s in the field, he’ll win the race… for mine, that’s the only gamble you take backing him now. (Build a stake by backing Alcopop and Shocking to quinella the Caulfield Cup this Saturday!)

And if racing’s not your thing, don’t despair. The Four Nations rugby league kicks off soon… the Legends of Tennis come to Sydney next month (“You can’t be serious!”)… Ricky Ponting’s men will soon be back on Channel 9… and then there’s the end of year Tennis Masters Cup to look forward to… (C’mon Roger!).

Too much sport is never enough!

Grand Final Week … for Brett Stewart

A relieved Brett Stewart

Congratulations Brett! Thrilled to see you acquitted of the charges that have been hanging over your head for what must have been the 18 longest months of your life.

Hope you can now put the pain behind you, get as fit as you’ve ever been and this time next year be leading Manly into another Grand Final!

As for the other big game this week… Sunday’s NRL decider looks a close match up on paper. With no allegiance at all to either side, I guess I’ll be rooting for the Roosters (even though I’ll be thinking back to ‘that’ game when the Sea Eagles absolutely creamed them for the first 39 minutes before the Ref. turned the match in Easts favour).

I won’t be unhappy if the Dragons win – they certainly deserve it – but it would be nice to see Brian Smith get one up on Bennett.

Happy long weekend!

Not so Mad Monday

Manly Co-Captain Jason King

Just a quick addendum to yesterday’s post…

I was out at an album launch in Collaroy on the northern beaches last night – (do yourself a favour and watch out for a new singer songwriter, Ella Freestone. Great voice… a star in the making) – and dropped in to the Surf Rock Hotel for a pre-show drink (as you do).

Sitting at a table enjoying a beer when first Trent Hodkinson, then Matt Ballin, Jason King, Terrence Seu Seu and a couple of the other Sea Eagles players walked down the stairs, leaving what had obviously been an end-of-season function upstairs. It was around 7pm and the Manly boys were still neatly dressed and obviously stone cold sober. What a difference a couple of NRL seasons makes. Just wanted to let the world know that league players can enjoy themselves without causing public mischief.

On a totally unrelated note, how long will tennis officials let Novak Djokovic get away with that interminable ball bouncing in the lead up to every serve. The guy’s obviously a good player, but what a pain in the backside! I used to think Nadal was slow, but this morning, watching the US Open Final, I counted the number of times each player bounced the ball before serving.

Nadal topped out at about 10 (still way too many)… but Djokovic averaged around 17… and at 4-6, 1-1, 30-30, I kid you not, he bounced the ball 26 times before he delivered a serve… that was a fault! Whether or not he’s within the allowable time limit (and I can’t see how he could be), this delay between points is simply unfair to his opponents.

Federer may be past his absolute best, but I’d prefer to watch him play any day than suffer through the boredom served up by the Serbian ball bouncer… what a joke!

Dragons put Sea Eagle fans out of our misery

It was the result we had to have.

Though hoping for a miracle, yesterday’s match at Kogarah was never going to end any differently. Such a shame, as with a full team on the park, we would definitely have given St George a run for their money.

A big rap (among others) to Kieran Foran, Joe Gulavao and Anthony Watmough, none of whom were fit enough to play, but who bravely took to the field on a hiding to nothing to help their team mates at a time of crisis. The Sea Eagles actually played pretty well for 60 minutes (a familiar call this season)… though down 12-0 after an hour, the much-hyped Dragons had only scored one try and three penalty goals (one of which was awarded for a ‘late’ Matt Ballin tackle, which wasn’t late at all!).

It was a shame the score blew out at the end when we let in tries to Cooper (2) and Gasnier… Manly had played better than the 28-0 final score suggested. In saying that, we didn’t really look like scoring, with the Dragons’ defence as rock solid as ever. With Manly now gone, I can enjoy the remainder of the Finals series in a much more relaxed frame of mind.

After the weekend’s games, I’m jumping on the jolly green Raiders bandwagon. Nine wins from their last 10

Terry Campese

matches… the only team all year to win six in a row… and they should have beaten the Panthers by more on Saturday night but for yet another terrible video ref decision, this time by Russell Smith. They’re playing with confidence, being led by Campese in great form (and on a high from having just become a first-time Dad) and they have no fear of playing St George.

Raiders v Panthers was one of two great games on the weekend… the Tigers were desperately unlucky, while the Roosters… they were just desperate. Nothing between them, but given Benji’s injury, the Roosters look the better bet going forward – I just get a feeling the Panthers may have already played their best footy for 2010. And the Tigers now play Canberra in Canberra this weekend. (Amazing system the McIntyre… team 3 v team 7, but the latter gets the home game.)

Of the two sides with next weekend off, I like the Titans. I know the Dragons have a great defensive record and in Soward, Cooper, Morris and Gasnier, they certainly have points in them… but they’ve been cleaned up by Manly, the Titans and the Raiders this year. A side that gets on a roll against them can beat them. I really don’t think they’re the over-the-line certainties that everyone’s making them out to be. They’re a long way from doing the lap of honour as 2010 Premiers.

So bring on the rest of the Finals… (and then bring on 2011 when the Sea Eagles will be back!).

Sea Eagles at long odds in the Semis.

I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Sea Eagles fan, but given we’re still dealing with injuries to a number of key players and will now go into the sudden death semi. against the Dragons without Glenn Stewart, Matai and King (all bloody suspended!), it’s hard to see how we have a snowball’s chance in Hell of surviving the first week of the finals series.

I couldn’t believe what I was watching against the lowly placed Bulldogs on the weekend. For a team that used to pride itself on defence, there were just way too many one-on-one misses by Manly in the first half when the teams went tit for tat in terms of scoring tries. At half-time we were two points down… but instead of storming home, our second half effort was up there with the rubbish we’ve produced all season.

Chance after chance went begging due to schoolboy mistakes, some from players who have been among our most reliable this year. Passes going to ground… or out over the sideline… knock-ons on the 1^st and 2^nd tackle… and three ridiculous high tackles, which have pretty much cost us any chance in the Finals series.

We’re dead lucky to even be there, limping into 8^th spot on the back of the Dragons’ last round win over the Rabbitohs, playing with half their first grade team on the sidelines through injury. (My guess is St George went flat out to win this one to make sure they played us next weekend instead of a rampaging Raiders side.)

It was so disappointing to see a team that had so much to play for over the last month lose must-win matches against the likes of Newcastle and Canterbury. Even more so when you consider how well they played for 39 minutes against the Roosters. And I know ‘we wuz robbed’ in that one… again – but even the most loyal fan must admit that apart from the odd game here and there, we just haven’t been an 80 minute side all season.

Will Hopoate

I hope I’m wrong about this weekend… I hope Des and the boys pull off a miracle against the Dragons… that’s what it’s going to take. (Maybe in the ultimate irony, all the bad refereeing decisions will go our way this Saturday. What a twist that’d be for season 2010.)

If nothing else, the Sea Eagles made the semis again; and taking into account the fact that Kieran Foran is still a rookie and that this year’s first grade debutants Will Hopoate, Dean Whare and Jamie Buhrer all look the goods, we do have plenty to look forward to in 2011.

And at least the Sea Birds (cheer girls) have been in great form all year… the best in the League bar none!

Monique from the Manly Sea Birds