Aussies Around the Globe – Stosur, Hanley, Kerr and Jones

Written by: Global Chick on 14th August 2011

Aussies Around the Globe – Stosur, Hanley, Kerr and Jones

Samantha Stosur of Australia returns to Simona Halep of Romania during their second round match for the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 25 May 2011. EPA/KERIM OKTEN |

Australia’s best ranked player Sam Stosur is playing well again after having a few tough months. Sammy was playing in the Rogers Cup in Toronto last week. The Aussie No. 1 was seeded number ten in the main draw. After she shook off the cobwebs in the first round it was smooth sailing for Stosur. She smashed Li Na of China of the court 6-2 6-4 in the third round. She overcame Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-4 6-1. Vinci had taken out both Caroline Wozniacki and Ana Ivanovic in the previous rounds.

In the semi-finals in Toronto Sammy toughed out a three setter against Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, winning 6-2 5-7 6-2. Sammy advanced into the final where set up a meeting with strong player Serena Williams. Unfortunately, Williams was too good for Stosur and finished the Aussie off in two sets 6-4 6-2.

Queensland’s doubles player Paul Hanley sneaked in to the main draw of the Rogers Cup in Montréal. Hanley teamed up with Brazilian Bruno Soares. The Aussie/Brazilian team won their first round against Nicolas Almagro of Spain and Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic 6-3 6-2. Their second round opponents the number five seeds Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq aka The Indo/Pak Express were too strong for Hanley and Soares and ended up winning 6-4 7-6 (6).

Two Aussies were in the qualifying draw of the Rogers Cup. Marinko Matosevic overcame Daniel Garza of Mexico 7-5 6-1 in the first round but lost to World No. 57 Alex Bogomolov Jr in the second round in three sets.

Matthew Ebden didn’t qualify either. Ebden was seeded number nine in the qualies but lost in the second round to the number four seeded German Tobias Kamke 6-7 (5) 6-3 6-4. Kamke lost in the first round in a tough three sets match to Fernando Verdsaco in the main draw.

Australia’s number one player Bernard Tomic was given a wildcard into the main draw. The young Aussie won his first round against Yen-Hsun Lu 7-6 (5) 6-3. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Tomic in the second round 6-3 7-6 (1). Tsonga went on to beat Federer in the third round for the second time in the last couple of months.

A couple of Australians went to the $50 000 ATP Challenger in Binghampton, NY. There were some byes in the qualifying singles event at The Levene, Gouldin & Thompson Tennis Challenger. The number two seed Ben Mitchell had a bye in the first round. He beat Shaun Bernstein in the second round 6-3 6-3. His third round was tougher, Mitchell needed three sets to defeat Brazilian Bruno Semenzato 7-5 4-6 6-1.

Unfortunately, Ben Mitchell lost in the first round of main draw to American Adam El Mihdawy 7-6 (5) 6-0. It was a first round loss for Chris Guccione as well to American Alex Kuzmetsov in three 7-6 (4) 5-7 6-3.

Greg Jones won his first round against the number seven seed Arnau Burgues-Davi 6-0 7-6 (5). Jones was also too good for Chile’s Nicolas Massu, who received a wildcard into the main draw. Jones’ great run was halted by Grega Zemlja. The Slovinian sailed past Jones in two sets 6-2 6-0.

Half American half Australian Carsten Ball also won two rounds before losing to the number two seed Paul Capdeville of Chile 7-6 (4) 6-4.

In the doubles event in Binghampton we saw South Australian veteran doubles player Jordan Kerr. “Jordy” teamed up with American David Martin and they were seeded number three. Kerr/Martin won their first and second rounds easily before losing in the semi-finals to the number one seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah of Colombia in a close match finishing 6-2 1-6 10-8.

In the bottom half of the draw and seeded number four were Carsten Ball and Chris Guccione. They sailed past their first two rounds before losing to the second seeds Treat Conrad Huey and Frederik Nielsen in the semi-finals 6-4 6-7 (4) 10-7.

Jelena Dokic pulled out of her first round main draw match against Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia after only 9 minutes. The cause of the injury is unclear to this day. We wish Jelena good luck with her preparation for the US Open in a couple of weeks.