Pakistan’s challenge in the Open continues tomorrow as the Czech Pakistani duo of Aisam Qureshi and Andrea Hlavackova face off against the Italians Roberta Vinci and Daniel Braccali. The Italian duo had surprised the top seeded team of Mike Bryan and Peshe Kveta in the first round and followed it up with a straight sets win over the Japanese pairing of Kei Nishikori and Kimiko Date.
Aisam and partner have an excellent chance of getting into the semis where they could run into either his former partner Rohan Bopanna or Leander Paes, each of whom had an experienced partner. Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi are in the lower half of the draw. This could be an ideal opportunity for Aisam to achieve the finals as the draw was opened with the early defeat of Bryan and Peschke. Roger Federer keeps getting better with age, it seems. He simply rolled over Juan Marin Del Potro, the Argentinian who had beaten him at the US Open some years ago. Federer, on the day, was simply flawless, giving no chance to Del Potro.
At the time of writing, Rafael Nadal and Thomas Berdych were locked in a titanic struggle to decide who faces Federer in the semis. In the top half, Novak Djokovic should be too good for the hard working Ferrer while Japan’s Kei Nishikori will face Andy Murray. Nishikori has been the surprise of the tournament. He almost went out in the first round but survived to knock out Tsonga in the quarters in five sets. Nishikori might find Murray too tough to handle.
The tennis equivalent of the UDRS has been in frequent use and has performed flawlessly. Many observers have commented on the reluctance of the Indian cricketers to use the UDRS in the Test series, the Indians claiming that it was not accurate enough. Experts say that the system is very accurate and above all is consistent, something that all players want from an umpiring point of view. Now that the technology is available, it should be made mandatory rather than through mutual agreement.
The Rod Laver Arena has a multitude of television cameras on court, but the most interesting one is the floating camera which is tethered by four wires and floats around or zooms up and down to provide images from every conceivable angle. During the breaks it can even be seen chatting up some spectators on the sidelines.
A newer wireless version, that has eight battery powered propellers, is in the works and will be tested in events later this year. It will hover by remote control over the playing area. Hopefully both these cameras are failsafe and will not act up in front a of a world wide audience.