Luke Jensen's Australian Open Blog

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Syracuse Tennis Fans,

In the last 24 hours the tennis from the first slam of the year has been AWESOME! Andy Roddick loses in five sets but serves a creer-high 42 aces but gives up 104 winners to his opponent. For Roddick, he needs to get in better shape and get a bit quicker around the court. If you are giving up 104 winners and 32 aces to you opponent, that means you are not fast enough. Andy needs speed.

What about Roger Federer? A thrilling five-set win, but what did we learn? Is there a formula to beat the world #1? I learned a ton from that win by Fed. The formula is simple -- OFFENSE! To beat Roger you must keep him deep behind the baseline and push him around. FOOTWORK! To beat Roger, you need to have the speed to run his shots down and recover. BELIEF! Do you really believe you can take this guy down? If you take the court with these qualities and play them point after point, YOU CAN BEAT FEDERER!!!!

Those two matches were great but a match that began just before midnight local time and lasted four hours and 43 minutes. Hewitt ended his match at 4:33AM! Crazy stuff from the Aussie Open.

Now I am about to cover the Nadal match. I need some sleep!!!!

Keep the e-mails going. You can see all the ESPN tennis from the Aussie on espn360.com or go to ESPN.com Advantage Luke Jensen for more info on the tournament.

Keep hitting winners!!!

Coach Jensen

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Hello Cuse Tennis Fans,

Day Four of the Aussie Open is just a few hours away and some of the key matches will be Marat Safin vs. Mario Baghdatis. I really want to see Roger Federer vs. Fabrice Santoro. Venus Williams will take the court today along with many other matches. Doubles began yesterday and that was a ton of fun to watch. Maria Sharapova destroyed my pick to win the tournament Lindsay Davenport. Sharapova was just awesome. She has really worked on her movement and it shows. She is able to track down two to three more shots a point. I believe she has shed some pounds and that helps the court movement. Venus and Serena play dubs today and that is fun to watch. I wish they would serve and volley more but the way they attack is fun to see.

Go to ESPN360 to get seven courts of action.

Have fun watching the matches!

Coach Jensen

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Hello Syracuse Tennis Fans!

Coach Jensen here with your Aussie Open preview. I arrived in Melbourne Saturday around noon after a 20-hour flight from the USA. I have found after playing here since 1988 that the best way to flush the system out and get the body ready to roll is to get the body moving. So I checked into the hotel, laced up the running sneaks and went for my Syracuse 5-mile run. I run along the Yarra River that makes its way right past the tennis courts. Jim Courier used to jump into the Yarra after his Aussie Open wins. One very cool thing about this Slam compared to all the others is the close distance to downtown Melbourne. A 15-min. walk from most hotels downtown. It is common to see players and fans walking side by side to the event everyday.

Roger Federer calls the Aussie the "Happy Slam" and I would agree. It has been a couple of months since you have seen your fellow players and it is summer here, so it is nice to catch up and catch some rays.

After my run it was off to the site to pick up my pass and go to work. I look to see when the big names are going to practice. It is the best way for me to see if anyone is injured and if they are ready to roll. Maria Sharapova has changed her service motion since her finals appearance last year but I still see a lack of direction. Maria has Lindsay Davenport early in the tourney and if that second serve goes to the Davenport forehand too much, Maria will be going home early. Davenport is a new mom and has won three tourneys since her return to the tour. This will be a fun match to watch!

On the mens side, Roger is getting over a flu bug or something but it may be the only thing that stops him here. He was in all black -- shoes, socks, shorts, shirt, etc. You will see other players in the black outfit theme.

I covered a ton of practice from a ton of players and then I went to the press conference to hear from the players. Serena Williams sounded and looked very confident. She looks very lean and looked like she was moving better around the court in practice. Serena has picked sister Venus to win here. Sharapova did not look too happy about the draw with Davenport early but she talked about how she will fight for every point. Rafael Nadal spoke about how the surface was slower than last year and it should help his game.

The Aussie has changed to a hard court surface like the US Open but slower. Vodafone Arena, the number-two stadium court is really slow and I am sure big power players like Andy Roddick will not like it. He plays his first round on that court.

I am off to bed. This is going to be a fun Aussie Open. Catch the entire ESPN team on the family of networks plus ESPN.com for advantage Luke Jensen when I recap the day's action. ESPN360 has seven courts to watch all for free!

E-mail any questions you may have for the Otto mailbag and the best one will make it on-air everyday.

Twelve days and counting before the Syracuse Orange kick off the season against Cincinnati.

Keep hitting aces fans and send me your Aussie Open picks!

All the best,

Coach Jensen

Syracuse University Athletics

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