"The 2008 Australian Open" in Melbourne, Australia

[Greg]

Mariano's next tournament will be "The 2008 Australian Open" in Melbourne, Australia.

More information:
Date: January 14-27, 2008

Draw Size: 128

Surface: Hard - Plexicushion

Prize Money: AUS$20,600,000

Tournament Director: Craig Tiley

Ticket Hotline:
(61) 3 9299 9116

Official Web-Site: www.australianopen.com/en_AU/index.html

All that I Know is that Mariano will not have to qualify! He is in the singles main draw but I have no idea if he will be playing doubles or mixed doubles. Is anyone going?

[Greg]

Some more information about Mariano's Australian Open history

Grand Slam Singles Results
Year
2007 - 2nd 1st 1st
2006 1st - - 1st
2005 2nd - - 1st
2004 - 2nd - 1st
2003 1st 4th 1st 1st
2002 1st 4th 1st 1st
2001 2nd 1st 1st Quarter-Final
2000 3rd 2nd 1st -
1999 2nd 1st - 1st
1998 - 3rd - -
1997 - 1st - -

The official draws will be released on Friday, January 11th, 2008.

[Marianos biggest fan]

Mariano's best preformance is the 3rd Round (2000). hopefully he does better

[Greg]

Mariano will play Peter Luczak (AUS) in the round of 128. The Day/Court/Time that Mariano will play is still TBD.

Click on the link to see Peter's profile...

www.atptennis.com/3/en/players/playerprofiles/?playernumber=L515

[daussyk]

luczak in the first round it's possible ;D ;D but nalbandian in the secound round it's more more mopre difficult but we will see

[Louiselpp]

Nice possible positive start in the draw for M!

(the webpage will be updated in the next 2 days... - sorry for the delay)

Greg! - thanks for providing the "Official Info" - can you link Mariano's Aus Open page and profile here too - thanks

Louise
(Chief delgator! - just kidding)

[Jelena]

I'm not Greg, but here is the AO-profile of Mariano.

[Greg]

The order of play for Monday has been released and Mariano will not play on Monday. The draws still have not come out for the doubles and mixed doubles.

[Greg]

Alright, Mariano will play on Tuesday (Day 2) on Court "MCA" 3rd match on after an 11:00 a.m. start. GO MARIANO!!!

[Corina2605]

I wont be able to follow scores either, I need my sleep when I am working the next day

Vamos Mariano!!!!!

[Louisellp]

Ok, if technology is successful, I have coverage; (I am currently watching Monaco via this service)

So, I will provide a match report at the end;

Good Luck Mariano!

[Louise Lewis-Price]

The "Aussie Fanatics" are in the crowd making lots of noise. (too much noise....)

Luczac breaks - but M is playing really well

The first point after the break was incredible.

0-4

M needs to settle down and ignore all the Aussies;

He gets a really bad call - and has a bit of a tantrum - and then congratulates the lineperson on getting the next call right - this seemed to give him a bit of a lift.

0-5

Awesome rally followed by ace

Mariano holds serve 1-5


Set 2

M to serve.

M holds easily

Mariano then serves a love game 2-1 and then fights back from 40-0 on Luczacs serve to deuce and makes Luczac really fight to hold.

M and L both continue to hold serve at 4-3

4-4 -15-30

M calls the trainer..

- magic cream comes out - there is thigh pain (had very close camera coverage!)

Starts playing again - holds serve quickly

change of ends - trainer is back again.

Playing again.

Mariano serves an amazing love game to take the score to 6-5

Tie-break

M gets 2 minibreaks straight away
L takes on back
M leads 5-1

6-2 M has lots of set points... and takes the first one to take the 2nd set 7-6(2)

M had control of most of Set 2 - I hope the trainer's magic holds...

Good sign.... no Trainer at the Set break.

Set 3...


2-1 Mariano breaks! - after doing a bit of line-judging and getting the umpire on his side...

and... then gets broken back.... 2-2

3-3 love game with line peppering aces; all Luczak could do was watch

Luczak broke again and took the third set...

Set 4

Ok, so the score is now 0-4 - but before people start being all negative etc; this is his first proper match back after a long break (sorry I do not count New Year - and its a 5 setter - and Set 2 was incredible

Ok so there are rusty signs; but also lots of magical signs - this match had some great rallies and ferocious forehands (no other journalist will probably tell you this) as long as there are lots more of these this year and LESS Trainers, 2008 will be great!!!

oh and the Aussie Fanatics are REALLY noisy!

and WOW the magic returned!!! - somehow he managed to turn it around to 4-5!

Luczac served for the match - Mariano saved two match points, it went to Deuce - the last game probably contained two of the best rallies in the match too.

Luczac and the Fanatics (as they were a big part of the match) won.

[Corina2605]

Thanks for the match report Louise. Sounds like it was a close match that was decided on a few points.

Is M still a Lacoste boy?

Back to clay now:)

[Louise Lewis-Price]

yep - all white with green headband

with one televised shirt-change.....

No major changes to report

[daussyk]

yes close game the key of the match when mariano breaks 21 in the third set quick back on clay

[Corina2605]

Nice one

[Greg]

Mariano will not enter doubles or mixed doubles.

[reiko]

Have you already seen this?
Mariano appears in the middle of this video-clip:
"Del Potro derrotó a Ventura y espera por Ferrer"
sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3197838&n8pe6c=1&categoryId=2482617&brand=deportes

[Corina2605]

Thanks Reiko, haven't seen it yet

I wish I would understand spoken Spanish as well as written Spanish. He says he didn't play well, but that he fought. And as far as I understood he says that he is physically ok and that he had a great preseason.