TENNIS in DEPTH.

A night after being dismissed by the defending champion as an Australian Open favorite, Andy Murray let his play provide a striking reply.

Murray routed Marcel Granollers of Spain 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 Thursday in a second-round match to stay on track for his first Grand Slam title. Murray is trying to become the first British man since Fred Perry in 1936 to win a major.

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Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP) d [6] Venus Williams (USA) 2-6 6-3 7-5

This wasn

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Carla Suarez Navarro a 20 year old from Barcelona defeated Venus Williams 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the biggest upset of the Aussie Open to date. Venus came in to the tournament as many peoples favourite after showing such good form at both the end of 2008 and her warm-up in Hong Kong. In post game interview Venus complimented the young Spaniard for her win, saying that she played really good tennis, was agressive and continually went for her shots. She added that, ‘she forced me into a defensive role which is not where I want to be to play my best tennis.’ Venus was obviously disappointed, but with 14 years of experience behind her, she adjusts and moves on.

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Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE) d [10] David Nalbandian (ARG)

This came from nowhere. After winning the Medibank International Sydney last week, Nalbandian was looking to be in good shape and a contender for the men

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In a second round match at Rod Laver Arena, Jelena Dokic returned to her old form in front of a wild home crowd to defeat #17 in the world Agnes Chakvetadze 6-4, 6-7, 6-3. The victory marked her first win over a top 20 player since she started her comeback, and for the Aussie fans it couldn’t have happened at a more opportune time. Ahead 5-3 in the second set, Jelena stumbled to let Chatkvetadze go ahead and win 7-6, but she pulled herself together to earn a break in the third set, finally winning 6-3. She will meet Wozniacki in the next round, and as she said in a post game interview, she has nothing to lose. It has been a long time since an Australian woman has made it through to the third round, and the home town fans celebrated the win with a standing ovation for their new favourite.

Jelena Dokic is fast becoming one of the most compelling stories of this tournament, and she created another intriguing chapter by beating 17th seed Anna Chakvetadze in a sizzler of a night session match on Wednesday. Dokic

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Most of the women playing in the 2009 Australian Open will be heading home to join their team mates for the Fed Cup competition. Russia, the defending champions, have the luxury of being able to field a strong team without Maria Sharapova, and are the overwhelming favourites to beat China. Both Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic are committed to play for Serbia, who with a victory can move into the World Group.

Mary Joe Fernandez is the new captain of the US team, and with no commitment to participate from the Williams sister, she is faced with not having any female players within the top 100 to choose from.

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I hate those three little words “we’re still friends”, but it’s what Fernando will have to settle for, as his much-publicised romance with Ana Ivanovic has ended. Whether Aussie golfer Adam Scott is the ‘new’ man in her life remains a secret that only Ana knows the answer to. She also needs to stop eating all that starchy Aussie food!

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Bernard Tomic will meet Gilles Muller in the 2nd round of the Aussie Open later today, and though Mueller may not be as well known as many of the other players, he seems to rise to the occasion when Grand Slams come around.

Gilles Muller’s is the ‘Cinderella story’ of tennis. He captured the attention of every tennis fan at the 2008 US Open with his progress from qualifier to quarter finalist. On the way he knocked out Tommy Haas, Nicolas Almagro and Nicolay Davydenko before falling to Roger Federer. He entered the tournament ranked 130 in the world, booked into a New York hotel for 6 days and entered the qualifying rounds of the tournament. He won three qualifiers and made it through into the main draw. He unexpectedly made it into the second week of the tournament, packing the stands with fans rooting for this underdog, and he became the most talked about player in New York. He was asked to leave his hotel, his reservation was for only six days and the hotel was fully booked, so he was forced to move across the street to another place.

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