Melbourne v Newcastle – Preview

On Monday night at AAMI Park, Melbourne Storm will take on the Newcastle Knights, the same team that unexpectedly knocked them out of last year’s finals series.

While the Storm have started the season with two dramatic one-point victories over Manly and Penrith, Newcastle remain winless, although their line-up hasn’t been at full strength because of injuries.

Despite this, Cooper Cronk was adamant they are capable of being a dangerous side.

“The way they play, they are very aggressive with a big forward pack that likes to dominate. Defensively they will be rushing our attack so we need to make adjustments there. Also they are a team that like to spread the football a lot.”

Craig Bellamy has named an unchanged 17 while Wayne Bennett has included forward David Fa’alogo as the 18^th man but is expected to miss the final cut. The valuable Darius Boyd (hamstring) and Jarrod Mullen (hamstring) remain sidelined.

Melbourne lead Newcastle 5-1 in head to head meetings at AAMI Park – That one win for the Knights was 18-16 in week two of last year’s finals series.

I think if the Melbourne defence is good enough to prevent wingers Akuila Uate and James McManus from finding space out wide, they should win comfortably and continue their unbeaten start to the season.

Tip: Storm by 8.

Melbourne v Penrith – Review

Melbourne celebrated millstone games for Cameron Smith and Billy Slater with their second consecutive one-point win, 18-17 over Penrith at AAMI Park on Saturday night.

On what was a wet and stormy night, Smith was playing a club-record 263rd game, surpassing Matt Geyer for the mark. Slater, who is currently third on that list, was playing his 250th game.

In a thrilling last ten minutes, when scores were tied 16-16, Cooper Cronk, playing his first match since shoulder surgery, nailed an ugly but effective field goal to put the purple outfit in front.

That was cancelled out by Penrith’s Peter Wallace, and it looked like we might have our second golden point match in a row. But another Cronk drop goal with thirty seconds to go once again put the Storm ahead by a point.

But just as the fans thought it was over, there was another twist in the tale.

Penrith were awarded a penalty with seconds on the clock and the 13,952 in attendance had to hold their breath one last time as Wallace had a chance to kick the go-ahead 2 points which would have spoiled the script.

Wallace failed in his attempt from 42 metres out, well right of the posts and the Storm were finally allowed to rejoice the narrowest of victories.

Earlier on, Penrith had the better of possession and territory in the opening 10 minutes but, against the run of play, it was the returning Cronk who dummied inside before assisting Proctor to open the scoring.

Although Smith missed the conversion, he cleverly produced a perfect kick in the in-goal to force a goal-line drop-out. From the ensuing play, Slater linked with centre Mahe Fonua to score.

Kevin Naiqama got Penrith on the board in the 26^th minute, scoring in the right corner after some overlap play by Wallace and Jamal Idris.

Opposing wingers Sisa Waqa and Naiqama traded tries in the last 10 minutes of the half. And when Smith converted a penalty, Melbourne went into the interval with a 14-10 advantage.

Three minutes after the break, Josh Mansour scored the first and only try of the second half.  

Penrith remain winless in Melbourne since 2005. 

Melbourne v Penrith – Preview

Two days after kicking the winning field goal against Manly, Cameron Smith announced a four-year contract extension that will see him stay at the Melbourne Storm till the end of 2018. He turned away a big money offer to move to the Broncos but said his family — of whom he has two girls in primary school — was the main priority in his decision to finish his career at the same club he started with in 2002.  

Cooper Cronk’s return from a shoulder reconstruction is a massive boost for the Storm. Last year’s Dally M medalist will slot straight into his customary halfback position, relegating Ben Roberts to the bench.

Penrith coach Ivan Cleary has named an unchanged lineup with both Jamal Idris and Tim Grant still unavailable.

Melbourne’s first home game of the year will be an even bigger occasion as there are two milestones. Not only will Cameron Smith will play his 263^rd game, eclipsing Matt Geyer as the longest-serving player in the club’s history, but Billy Slater will also play his 250^th game.

This will be an interesting match to gauge where Penrith are at. They had a lot of new recruits over the off-season and started with a comfortable 30-8 win over Newcastle. But most of the scoring was done in the second half when the Knights were decimated with injuries right through their spine.

Melbourne Storm will be up for this at AAMI Park on Saturday night and I tip them to win by 12 points.

Sea Eagles v Storm Review

This match delivered on all its pre-match hype.  Melbourne Storm completed a stunning comeback at Brookvale Oval with a field goal in extra time from Cameron Smith in his club record-equalling game.

It was a tale of two halves as Manly dominated early with four tries in the half hour. A double to Steve Matai along with one each to Justin Horo and Cheyse Blair saw Manly race out to a 20-0 lead and at that stage, the result looked beyond doubt and it was a case of how many points will Manly win by.

But as this unpredictable sport never ceases to amaze, Sisa Waqa was on the end of a Cam Smith cross field bomb and the high-flying Fijian touched down in the right corner to subdue Manly’s momentum heading into half-time.

Waqa scored his second 5 minutes into the second half and when Manly’s fullback Brett Steward was unable to return after the half-time interval because of a hamstring injury, the match had a whole different complexion.

All of a sudden it was the Storm, funnily enough in stormy conditions, dominating possession, territory and creating several opportunities.

The penalty count also flipped dramatically with Storm getting 6 in a row at one stage. Manly captain Jamie Lyon even questioned the referee if he was trying to even up the count as Manly had the rub of the green in the opening half.

Young five-eighth Ben Hampton scored close to the uprights to allow Smith an easy conversion after missing two tough ones from the sideline earlier.

Four minutes later, a fourth Storm try was scored by Kenny Bromwich. Smith converted and scores were locked up at 20 apiece.

In the last 15 minutes, Smith and Lyon traded penalty goals and again it was tied up at 22-22.

A sense of déjà vu emerged as last year these teams also had a match go to extra time.

But unlike that occasion when they still couldn’t be separated after 10 additional minutes, Cam Smith got the go-ahead point in the 85^th minute. And like a thief in the dark, the Storm pinched 2 valuable Premiership points.

Manly coach Geoff Toovey was mild-mannered after the match but still disappointed with the second half turnaround.

“When you lead by 20 points at Brookvale Oval you don’t lose from there. Obviously there was a massive change with flow of possession, I think they got the first five penalties and we sort of capitulated and made a lot of unforced errors. Silly mistakes by us. To be honest with you I thought we probably should have been up by a little bit more.”

This match will be remembered for an amazing comeback, all the more impressive since Cooper Cronk wasn’t playing. But skipper Cameron Smith stepped up in his absence.

He provided the clever cross field kicks and the winning field goal which in normal circumstances would have been Cronk’s responsibilities. Smith even joked after the match that it was his first field goal since the under 16s for Queensland side Logan Brothers.

US Open Day 2 – Story of the day

11^th seed Sam Stosur is of the US Open, in the very first round to a 17 year old American ranked 296 in the world.

On what ended up being a night match on Louis Armstrong Stadium, Stosur led 7-5 4-2 and had a game point for 5-2 but made 56 unforced errors to her opponent’s 35 and eventually lost the match after 2 hours 39 minutes.

The loss for the 2011 champion is all the more shocking because she actually came in with really good form with wins over two of the top four players in the world – Agnieszka Radwanksa and Victoria Azarenka – on her way to claiming the Southern California Open in Carlsbad.

Stosur has dropped from a career high 4 in the world to a current ranking of 13 and she can expect that to drop further as she had quarter-final points to defend from last year’s US Open.

The 29 year old’s losses in Grand Slams this year have been to Zheng Jie, Jelena Jankovic and Sabine Lisicki and now to qualifier Victoria Duval. Her season would be considered a major disappointment because she has failed to make it past R3 at any of the Slams.

But lets turn our attention to Duval.

The Miami-born teenager has a story of her own. Born to Haitian parents, Duval has fine-tuned her game by training at the famous Nick Bollettieri Academy in Florida.

Duval had to endure the anxiety of almost losing her father in the 2010 Haiti Earthquake which took an estimated 250,000 lives.  Although he survived the catastrophic natural disaster, he was left with a shattered vertebrae and broken legs, arms, ribs, and a punctured lung – which required multiple surgeries.

Earlier on in the starlet’s life, she had a gun shoved in her face and was held hostage by a kidnap gang. She was at the tender age of just seven at the time.

Duval next faces another veteran, Daniela Hantuchova in R2. 

US Open Day 2 – Story of the day

11^th seed Sam Stosur is of the US Open, in the very first round to a 17 year old American ranked 296 in the world.

On what ended up being a night match on Louis Armstrong Stadium, Stosur led 7-5 4-2 and had a game point for 5-2 but made 56 unforced errors to her opponent’s 35 and eventually lost the match after 2 hours 39 minutes.

The loss for the 2011 champion is all the more shocking because she actually came in with really good form with wins over two of the top four players in the world – Agnieszka Radwanksa and Victoria Azarenka – on her way to claiming the Southern California Open in Carlsbad.

Stosur has dropped from a career high 4 in the world to a current ranking of 13 and she can expect that to drop further as she had quarter-final points to defend from last year’s US Open.

The 29 year old’s losses in Grand Slams this year have been to Zheng Jie, Jelena Jankovic and Sabine Lisicki and now to qualifier Victoria Duval. Her season would be considered a major disappointment because she has failed to make it past R3 at any of the Slams.

But lets turn our attention to Duval.

The Miami-born teenager has a story of her own. Born to Haitian parents, Duval has fine-tuned her game by training at the famous Nick Bollettieri Academy in Florida.

Duval had to endure the anxiety of almost losing her father in the 2010 Haiti Earthquake which took an estimated 250,000 lives.  Although he survived the catastrophic natural disaster, he was left with a shattered vertebrae and broken legs, arms, ribs, and a punctured lung – which required multiple surgeries.

Earlier on in the starlet’s life, she had a gun shoved in her face and was held hostage by a kidnap gang. She was at the tender age of just seven at the time.

Duval next faces another veteran, Daniela Hantuchova in R2. 

James Blake retires

This time last year, Andy Roddick announced his retirement. Since then, Mardy Fish has barely played any tennis because of serious health issues. His days on the tour look numbered. Now a third member of the US older generation has bid farewell.

On Monday, an emotional James Blake announced his retirement after fourteen years on tour.

He reached a career high of No. 4, has claimed 10 titles, won a Davis Cup and played at the prestigious year-end championships.

But his story is more about perseverance and inspiration.

At 13, Blake was diagnosed with severe scoliosis – a medical condition in which a person’s spine is curved from side to side. For five years, 18 hours a day, he had to wear a full-length back-brace to align his spine.

Fast forward to 2004. Blake is now 24 and his career looks like it’s on the rise although he is yet to really break through. Blake is practising at the Rome Masters with fellow American Robby Ginepri but then tragedy strikes. Blake suffers a horrific accident, breaking his neck after slipping on the clay and colliding with the net post.

Things got even worse. Later that year, he lost his dad to stomach cancer.  Blake then developed shingles, which temporarily paralysed half his face and blurred his sight.

But Blake bounced back.

He won the Comeback Player of the Year award in 2005 for his incredible resilience.

In 2006, things improved even more. It was to be the best year of his career. 5 of his 10 titles came in that season. He made the US Open quarters and then made his one and only appearance at the Masters Cup (held in Shanghai at the time) which pits the best eight players of the season against each other in a round-robin format. Blake finished runner-up to Roger Federer and subsequently finished the year at his career high ranking of four.

The following year, Blake along with Roddick and the Bryan Brothers would win the Davis Cup beating Russia in the final in Portland.

But at age 33, and with a family on the way, Blake has a called a curtain to his feel-good story.

All good things come to an end. 

US Open women’s preview

The central theme to the women’s draw is the growing rivalry between Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka.

However, the headlines were grabbed by Marion Bartoli and Maria Sharapova in the last month. As it turns out, neither will compete at Flushing Meadows.

Marion Bartoli at the peak of her tennis career having just won Wimbledon and ranked a career best 7 in the world announced her shock retirement after her loss to Simona Halep in Cincinnati. The Frenchwoman looked quite emotional as she cited physical exhaustion and her body no longer being able to handle the rigours of professional tennis as the reason behind her retirement.

As for Sharapova, she ended her three-year partnership with coach Thomas Hogstedt. She then hired legendary eight-time grand slam winner Jimmy Connors as his replacement, but one match later, he too got fired. She also flagged the possibility of legally changing her surname to ‘Sugarpova’ for the duration of the Open as a marketing campaign to promote her candy range. That idea was put to bed because she had to pull out anyway because of a shoulder injury.

Back to Serena and Azarenka though. This rivalry is an intriguing one. Serena holds a 12-3 record against Vika but twice this year the Belarusian has got the better of Serena and both times were in finals; in Doha and more recently Cincinnati.  So she’s starting to get the monkey off the back but has to do it in a Grand Slam to really make a statement.

Azarenka has played in the past three hard-court grand slam finals, winning the Australian Open twice and losing a heartbreaker to Williams at last year’s US Open final where she served for the match but failed. By the way, that was probably the best women’s Grand Slam final in a few years. So many end up being one-sided fizzers.

Serena has only lost four times this year; to Sloane Stephens at the Australian Open, to Sabine Lisicki at Wimbledon and of course those 2 losses to Azarenka I mentioned earlier. Serena is turning 32 in a month and she’s looking to surpass Margaret Court’s record as the oldest winner of a US Open women’s singles title. Her bid also includes trying to win at Flushing Meadows for a 5^th time and 17^th Major overall – that would equal Federer. Aren’t we spoilt to have two legends playing in this era?

Serena has such an intimidating power game and if her serve finds her groove, she is close to unstoppable. As mentally tough as she is, every now and then, she has a match where she looks nervous and tentative and can’t buy a first serve and that’s when she is vulnerable. Quite often, she digs herself out of those holes but not always.

Azarenka is a more technical, drilled player. Her weakness is definitely her serve. Her return game is brilliant and she’s pretty strong off both wings and probably has one of the best backhands in women’s tennis.

Azarenka and Serena seem destined for the final but, just from the amount of tennis I have watched, I expect one of them to get knocked out before the final. If both get eliminated, the draw opens up and we get a Wimbledon-like scenario.

I give Aussie Sam Stosur a decent chance! That win in Carlsbad (over Azarenka) a few weeks ago was actually her first since winning the US Open 2 years ago and just her 4^th overall, which is extremely low for someone who’s won a Major.

Radwanska, Errani, Li Na and Kvitova are some of the outside chances. British prodigy, Laura Robson, the highest ranked teenager in the world, will be seeded (30) at a Major for the first time.

Donna Vekic could be an exciting player. The 17 year old Croatian is the youngest player inside the top 100.

Simona Halep has become a bit of a bolter; she’s been one of the most improved players this year. Out of nowhere, she has won four titles this year and surged into the top 20 in the WTA rankings.

Svetlana Kuznetsova, who’s playing doubles with Stosur, is a two-time Major champion and previous winner in New York, so she might be a chance to make it deep. And also look out for the batch of young US players led by Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys.

Alisa Kleybanova makes her comeback to Grand Slam tennis after two and a half years out with Hodgkin’s lymphoma – a frightening cancer of the lymphatic system which can spread to the rest of the body.

Men’s US Open Preview

So who’s the favourite for the men?

If you were to ask me straight after Wimbledon, I would say a toss-up between Murray and Djokovic.

But after winning both Masters 1000 events in Montreal and Cincinnati, I am left with no choice to have Nadal as favourite. If you have a closer inspection at his season, that R1 loss to Steve Darcis, as surprising as it was, is the only blip on season. In every other event he has entered this year, he has made at least the final and he is unbeaten on hardcourts having also won Indian Wells in March.

Indeed, Nadal could even usurp Djokovic to be the year-end world no.1 because he has no points to defend remember because he was injured this time last year. But now he looks back to his best and that knee looks healthy and he looks confident.

He has Federer as a possible quarter-final. The same match-up was possible at Wimbledon but didn’t eventuate. Surprisingly, Nadal and Federer have never met at the US Open, at any round. The NY crowd will be hoping that will change.

Now am I discounting Murray or Djokovic? Absolutely not. They are firmly in the mix. Murray has won two of the last four grand slams. While in the last couple of seasons he has struggled for form in ATP events, for some reason, he has performed his best at Majors. The defending champion is super consistent, making at least the semis in 9 of the last 10 Grand Slams he’s entered. And by winning Wimbledon, the first British male in 77 years to do so, he has proven he definitely knows how to deal with pressure.

Djokovic too hasn’t had the best lead-up; his serve in particular looking dodgy, reminding us of his struggles early on in his career. But I’m confident he’ll find form in the first week of the tournament. Djokovic has incredibly made the last 13 Grand Slam semis, still 10 off the all-time record held by Federer (23). But the point is, he’ll be there.

There is no chance of a repeat final from last year because Djokovic and Murray are seeded to meet in what would be a mouth-watered semi-final, probably even more anticipated than a Federer-Nadal quarterfinal.

So I have Nadal, Djokovic and Murray as my three main favourites with Nadal just slightly favoured because he in great form and has a clearer draw.

After that, I have the champion from 4 years ago, Del Potro, as fourth favourite. He won the Washinton 500 and lost to Djokovic in the semis at Wimbledon in an amazing match, one of the best I’ve seen this year.

What about Federer? He has dropped to seven in the world, his lowest ranking in 11 years. He had a shock loss to 116^th ranked Sergiy Stakhovsky in R2 at Wimbledon. He then changed his racket to a larger frame and struggled to adapt. He entered two clay events that he normally wouldn’t, in Hamburg and Gstaad and had two more shock losses to Federico Delbonis and Daniel Brands ranked 114 and 55 in the world respectively.

Federer is definitely on the decline but he that still doesn’t make him irrelevant. He has won this event 5 years in a row when he was at his peak. I think he’ll make the quarterfinals but no further, but you just never know.

Besides the aforementioned players, I have the Cincinnati and Montreal finalists, Isner and Raonic, as outside chances as well as Ferrer. The fourth seed has a fantastic draw. He can the semi-finals for the third time at Flushing Meadows without having to play one of the big 4. Also, don’t rule out Tomas Berdych, even though he’s had an indifferent season.

With Andy Roddick retiring at last year’s US Open, there seems a bit of a man drought of top US players with John Isner the only player ranked inside the top 20. He’s in good form too, finishing runner-up to Nadal in Cincinnati. I was very impressed with that display; his defensive game looks like it has improved considerably and his forehand was bone-crunching. With 7 ATP titles, he has teased for a long time but has never made a grand slam quarter-final and only once made the last 16.

John McEnroe is of the view that if one of Nadal, Murray or Djokovic wins the US Open, he would be regarded as the best player of 2013 because as it stands they have won one Grand Slam each and the US Open would almost act as a ‘tie-breaker’.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is highest ranked player to have withdrawn because of injury. Marin Cilic, Gilles Simon and Mardy Fish are also absent.

As for the US Open, it seems a lifetime ago that Lleyton Hewitt won this event in 2001. He plays Brian Baker first up and then is seeded to meet Del Potro in R2. That would be a fun match to watch and the USTA should put that on Arthur Ashe at night in my opinion.

Bernard Tomic is unseeded and if he beats Albert Ramos in R1, I’d expect him to lose to Kei Nishikori in R2. Marinko Matosevic did well to make the quarter-finals at the Rogers Cup, losing to Nadal. But his Grand Slam record is 0-10 and he plays a resurgent Tommy Robredo in R1. Sorry for the pessimism, but I’d expect him not to break his duck and go to 0-11.

Titans v Storm preview

Gold Coast Titans host Melbourne Storm at Skilled Park on Monday night in what looms as an intriguing contest.

Both teams will have their depth tested but the Storm will be more exposed as they lose their spine to Origin duty. Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk and Ryan Hoffman are all in Brisbane preparing for Origin II at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday night.

The Titans lose key forwards Greg Bird and Nate Myles – to be replaced by Mark Minichiello and Luke Douglas respectively – but crucially retain their halves pairing of Albert Kelly and Aidan Sezer. And they also have their fullback William Zillman and hooker Matt Srama, so they should start favourites because forwards are typically easier to replace than spine positions.

The Titans are lucky they don’t lose a third forward to Origin commitments because veteran lock Ashley Harrison, who played in Origin I, has been dumped by the Maroons for Game 2.

Last week, the Titans were brave against the ladder-leading Rabbitohs in Cairns, falling short by 6 points in a very entertaining game. The Storm escaped with a narrow win over the Knights thanks to a late Slater try.

While the Storm missing key players can be seen as a bad thing, a positive aspect is that youngsters will be given the opportunity to make their mark. 21-year-old Ben Hampton will make his first-grade debut at five-eighth with regular no.6 Gareth Widdop shifted to fullback. Brett Finch keeps his halfback spot after coming in for Cronk in a late change last week. New Zealander Slade Griffin will be the starting hooker.

A revealing stat exposes how much the Storm relies on ‘The Big 3’. They’ve only won once in the last decade when all three have been absent.

Gold Coast is looking for their eighth win this season, a win which would see them go past Cronulla into fifth spot. Melbourne is looking to maintain their one point trail behind the Rabbitohs.

Staggeringly, the defending premiers have won 18 of their last 21 matches with only a draw, a 2-point loss and a 4-point loss blemishing that record.

You have to be a brave man to tip against the Storm but if ever they are vulnerable, tonight is the night. And if the Titans can bring a full 80-minute performance, like they did last week, they should win.

Tip: Titans by 6