Hawk-Eye not accurate all day long due to Australian sun

Hawk-Eye not accurate all day long due to Australian sunHawk-Eye, the technology used to determine line-calls, is believed not to be 100 percent accurate at the second showcourt at Melbourne Park during certain times of the day. This issue has interrupted and even delayed some matches.

Between 4.45pm and 5.30pm shadows prevent the Hawk-Eye from being precise, so the organizers have decided to turned it off during that time period. In the meantime, Paul Hawkins from Hawk-Eye is working to solve the problem.

Luckily, the issue is present only at this one court. "We don't have this problem on Rod Laver Arena, and there are shadows out there too. It's just the nature and the darkness of the shadow and the height of the roof which are contributing factors,” said Craig Tiley, Australian Open tournament director. (source: Reuters, photo via: USA TODAY)

Maria Kirilenko beats Anna Chakvetadze, reaches Australian Open fourth round

Maria KirilenkoSeed No.27 Maria Kirilenko defeated sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze 6-7, 6-1, 6-2 in the third round of the Australian Open.

Robbery-affected Chakvetadze won the opening set in a thrilling tie-breaker. But Kirilenko ignored the fact that her opponent had a fantastic 28-1 win-loss record in Grand Slams after taking the first set, and got her way to victory even though Chakvetadze saved four match points.

BTW: Are you too in love with Maria Kirilenko’s outfit? It’s part of the Spring line from Adidas by Stella McCartney. (photo via Getty Images)

Cara Black falls on her face during her second round match at Australian Open

Doubles world number one Cara Black fell heavily at the beginning of her second round match at the Australian Open and hurt her jaw. Still, she and her partner South African-born American Liezel Huber went on to win the match 6-2 6-4.

Oh, poor Cara, that must have hurt! :(

Cara Black and Liezel Huber are defending champions this year in Melbourne. In 2007 the doubles specialists also won Wimbledon. (via WTA World)

Agnieszka Radwanska upsets Svetlana Kuznetsova at Australian Open

Agnieszka RadwanskaPoland's Agnieszka Radwanska, the player who stunned defending champion Maria Sharapova in the third round of the 2007 US Open, scored her second major Grand Slam upset with a 6-3 6-4 win over second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova to reach the last 16 at the Australian Open.

Radwanska, seeded 29th, raced into a 3-0 lead in the first set. Although Kuznetsova quickly leveled, her inconsistency returned and the confident Krakow teenager took three straight games to win the first set. The 18-year-old Radwanska rallied from 0-3 down in the second to take a 4-3 advantage, and after Kuznetsova tied, Radwanska took the final two games to score the victory.

"I was not playing against her, I was playing against me," said extremely disappointed Kuznetsova, who believed to be better prepared than even for the Australian Open. However, Radwanska believes that her determination was what gave her the victory: "I played against her a few times, always losing, so I said 'no more'."

In the fourth round Radwanska will play either 14th seed Nadia Petrova or Ekaterina Makarova. (photo via Getty Images)

Casey Dellacqua defeats Amelie Mauresmo at Australian Open

Casey DellacquaIn a match which could have easily gone each way, Australian Casey Dellacqua defeated seed No.18 Amelie Mauresmo of France 3-6 6-4 6-4 and set up a fourth round clash with Jelena Jankovic.

Mauresmo, the 2006 Australian Open champion, is the second seed to be defeated by home favorite Dellacqua, the first one was No.15 seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland.

Will exhausted Jelena Jankovic be an easy target for world No.78 Casey Dellacqua? Hmm, easy definitely not. As we have seen, third seed Jankovic has been advancing no matter what and I believe she’s able to continue posing threat to her opponents, at least to those outside of top 20. Jankovic is now a master of playing with very little to no energy and crossing the pain barrier is not a problem for her (oh, so sad Jankovic got herself into this desperate situation). (photo via Getty Images)

Justine Henin beats determined Fracesca Schiavone at Australian Open

Justine HeninTop seed Justine Henin of Belgium reached the last 16 of the Australian Open on Friday with a hard-fought 7-5 6-4 win over seed No.25 Francesca Schiavone of Italy.

Schiavone was concentrated and performed very well, but you need to be perfect if you want to defeat Henin, even if she is not playing her best tennis, which was the case on Friday.

There were five service breaks in the first set, and three of them went to Henin so she won the close opening set. In seemed that Henin would easily win the second set as she was 4-1 up, but Schiavone battled back and had two break points to level at 5-5. Still, Schiavone could not convert and and Henin closed out the match with three straight points.

In the fourth round, Justine Henin will face Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei before a possible meeting with Maria Sharapova. (via BBC, photo Getty Images)

In-form Ana Ivanovic moves into Australian Open third round

Ana IvanovicCheered on by her Australian-based relatives and the local expatriate Serb community, fourth seed Ana Ivanovic crushed Italian world No.40 Tathiana Garbin 6-0, 6-3 to move into the third round of the Australian Open.

"I just played an awesome match, I really hope I can keep at this level and play as long as possible here," said the 20-year-old Ivanovic.

The world No.3, who advanced in just 66 minutes, will next face seed No.28 Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia. The Serb is definitely the favorite in this match as she has the perfect 3-0 record against the Slovenian and has shown she is in spectacular form at her favorite Grand Slam.

BTW: I haven't told you before, but do stop by Ana Ivanovic's Australian Open blog if you want to see this Grand Slam from her point of view or ask her a question. (photo via Ana Ivanovic's site)

Venus Williams stumbles into Australian Open third round

Venus WilliamsVenus Williams advanced to the Australian Open third round with an unimpressive 7-5 6-4 victory over France’s Camille Pin.

The former world number one had to come from behind in both sets (from 4-5 in the first and 2-4 in the second) to beat the battling Frenchwoman. Even though Pin defended well, the encounter was close because Williams made a lot of unforced errors and her serve was not remarkable either. In the first set the eight-seeded Williams double-faulted four times, and made 21 unforced errors to Pin's 11. The second set was quite the same story for Williams, two double faults and 23 unforced errors.

Venus Williams next faces Indian Sania Mirza who showed the controversy is not affecting her play as she managed to focus on tennis and advance at the Aussie Open. (photo via Getty Images)

Nicole Vaidisova apologizes for defeating Alicia Molik at Australian Open

Nicole VaidisovaAt the third day of the Australian Open, No.12 seed Nicole Vaidisova of Czech Republic defeated Australian Alicia Molik in straight sets 6-2 6-3 , and later apologized for beating the local favorite.

Vaidisova's domination in this second round match raised questions about Molik’s ability to fight back to a career-high world ranking of eight. After the one-sided encounter, the 18-year-old Vaidisova apologized to the crowd for 'ruining' their day by beating their home player.

With the victory the world No.12 booked a meeting with Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama.

BTW: Finally, Nicole Vaidisova said something about her supposed engagement to fellow Czech Radek Stepanek. They are dating, but there is "no wedding, no engagement, no nothing." Why did it take her so long to announce the truth?

Maria Sharapova makes quick work of Lindsay Davenport at Australian Open

Maria SharapovaLindsay Davenport was not a big challenge to fifth-seeded Maria Sharapova who defeated her 6-1 6-3 in little over an hour.

Sharapova took the first set in just 26 minutes. The second set was much more competitive, but still Davenport couldn't find an answer to Sharapova's confident play and devastating form.

Everybody was disappointed that these two former world number ones had to meet as early as in the second round of the 2008 Australian Open. However, we must admit that the comeback mom Lindsay Davenport didn’t live up to the expectations, as we were expecting a much tougher battle and a continuation of her more than impressive comeback.

Davenport herself is not satisfied with her performance, but is still optimistic (and she should be!). "I know I can play better than I did here this week," said the former Australian Open champion. "I've got to figure out a way to play better again at the bigger tournaments."

Maria Sharapova will face fellow Russian Elena Vesnina in round three. (photo via Getty Images)


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