…in my virtual tournament Andy Roddick would beat Roger Federer just once so that he can regain a bit of his Federer confidence.
Tennis-x.com reports that IBM “has built a three dimensional facsimile of the Melbourne Tennis Centre complex inside a virtual world called Second Life. Over the duration of the two week tournament, data will be fed from games in the real Rod Laver Arena into the unreal one, nanoseconds after [it] happens.”
Wrap your head around this concept because IBM is creating a virtual Australian Open using the actual trajectory of the ball as it appears in the real matches in the tournament. The players will look and act like athletes in sports video games. In the future, instead of paying extra for that sports package so you can get The Tennis Channel, you’ll be able to log on to a virtual version. The virtual version might be free – if you don’t want to buy land, you can troll around Second Life without paying – but I also suspect that every free pixel would be plastered with advertising.
Second Life is a virtual universe with avatars that represent your body in virtual space. Your avatar can own land, create objects, attend virtual concerts and even work as a pole dancer and earn a few Linden dollars – virtual currency. Last year I gave the winner of our ATP fantasy subleague a pair of virtual tennis shoes from Second Life because we had no budget for the leather version.
I actually have an avatar on Second Life named Imriel after the character in Jacqueline Carey’s book Kushiel’s Scion, part of the Imriel Trilogy. If I ever get 48 hours in a day instead of 24, I want to build a virtual tennis world on Second Life. If I build my own virtual tennis tournament, what might it look like? First of all, in my tournament Andy Roddick would beat Roger Federer just once so that he can regain a bit of his Federer confidence.
Wait a minute! It happened. In the real world. Well, almost the real world. Roddick beat Federer in the Kooyong final this week but it’s an exhibition so it doesn’t count in the ATP world.
The virtual version of the Open starts Monday as does the real version. Meanwhile, let’s look at my version of the Open.
Lleyton Hewiit is injured again and his coach Roger Rasheed has abandoned him. Hewitt was evidently abusive to the members of his box during his loss to Igor Kunitsyn at Adelaide and Rasheed quit soon after. But Hewitt is often abusive when he’s on the court so it’s possible that Rasheed is unhappy with Hewitt’s conditioning or maybe he’s deserting a sinking ship. Rasheed’s public announcement of his split with Hewitt sounded like a job application for the next vacant coaching spot on tour. I have Hewitt through to the third round if that.
Rafael Nadal gets Robert Kendrick in the first round. That’s the same Kendrick who had Nadal down two sets to none at Wimbledon last year by relentlessly attacking the net. If the courts are fast enough it could be an exciting match. Nadal retired in the first round at Sydney with a groin pull or a hamstring pull of whatever it was. Does one go with the other? If Nadal gets as far a meeting with Andy Murray in the fourth round, I think he loses it. Murray and Nadal have never met before.
Marcos Baghdatis and Gael Monfils could be a very entertaining match in the second round. Two very emotional, very athletic players will be going at it for four or five sets. Monfils hasn’t been consistent enough yet but one day he’s going to set a slam on fire. The third round could be the same thing because Richard Gasquet might be there. Baghdatis and Gasquet have also never met before even though Baghdatis has been on the tour for three years and Gasquet for four. I have Baggy getting through both matches but just barely. He won’t get past Tommy Robredo in the fourth round.
Gaston Gaudio has a 5-2 record over Nikolay Davydenko but all five victories were on clay before 2006. I hope married life is better to Nikolay’s game than it has been to Lleyton Hewitt’s. I have Malisse over Davydenko if they meet in the fourth round.
David Nalbandian had a disappointing second half last year. I don’t know whether his abdominal strain bothered him or it was general malaise. Whatever it was, it’s continuing into the new year. He lost in the first round at Chennai two weeks ago then pulled out of Kooyong with tendonitis in his knee. He’ll lose to someone before the semifinals, probably to Tommy Haas in the quarterfinals.
James Blake will meet Carlos Moya in the first round after beating Moya in the final at Sydney last week. No contest – I hope – because I think this is the year that Blake finally wins a five set match. He’s currently 0-9 in five setters. His first big test will be Fernando Gonzalez in the fourth round and here’s where he’ll need that five setter. I think he gets it. In fact, I think he gets all the way to the final where he loses to… see below.
Roddick has a pretty good road to the semifinals where he should meet Federer. Marco Chiudinelli grew up playing tennis with Federer. He said that he always beat Federer in practice but Federer always beat him in tournaments – which is where it really counts. That’s how it’ll be this time. Kooyong was practice, the semis will be for real.
Zero Counter: each week we add up the number of matches between players who’ve never met before. We’re making two points here. First of all, if players never meet, how can there be rivalries? The closest thing to a rivalry on the ATP tour is Federer-Nadal and that’s dormant at the moment. Second, when there are two or three tournaments every week in far flung places, fans seldom get to see the top players in one place. This week is an exception because it’s a slam, but 28 out of the 127 matches in my version of the draw feature matches between players who’ve never met before. That’s 22%. Way too high.
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| Australian Open 2007 | (names in blue are my picks) | |||
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Quarterfinals |
|
1. Federer 2. Phau 3. Bjorkman 4. Patience 5. Greul 6. Lu 7. Hernych 8. Youzhny 9. Ferrero 10.Hajek 11.Udomchoke 12.Arguello 13.Lopez 14.qualifier 15.Massu 16.Djokovic 17.Baghdatis 18.Schuettler 19.Monfils 20.bracciali 21.Simon 22.Delic 23.Volandri 24.Gasquet 25.Acasuso 26.Querrey 27.Serra 28.Devilder 29.Karlovic 30.Melzer 31.Ram. Hidalgo 32.Robredo |
Federer Bjorkman Greul Youzhny Ferrero Udomchoke Lopez Djokovic Baghdatis Monfils Simon Gasquet Acasuso Serra Melzer Robredo |
Federer Youzhny Ferrero Djokovic Baghdatis Gasquet Serra Robredo |
Federer Djokovic Baghdatis Robredo |
Federer Federer Robredo |
|
33.Ljubicic 34.Fish 35.Mahut 36.Monaco 37.Koubek 38.Arthurs 39.qualifier 40.Calleri 41.Stepanek 42.Llodra 43.Dlouhy 44.qualifier 45.T. Johansson 46.qualifier 47.Pless 48.Ferrer 49.Ancic 50.Soeda 51.J. Johansson 52.Garcia-Lopez 53.Spadea 54.Andreev 55.Vanek 56.Hrbaty 57.Safin 58.Becker 59.qualifier 60.Srichaphan 61.Gicquel 62.Jones 63.Tsonga 64.Roddick |
Ljubicic Monaco Koubek Calleri Stepanek Dlouhy T. Johansson Ferrer Ancic J. Johansson Andreev Hrbaty Safin Srichaphan Gicquel Roddick |
Ljubicic Calleri Stepanek Ferrer Ancic Hrbaty Safin Roddick |
Ljubicic Ferrer Ancic Roddick |
Ljubicic Roddick Roddick |
|
65.Nalbandian 66.Tipsarevic 67. qualifier 68.Lapentti 69.Guccione 70.O. Rochus 71.C. Rochus 72.Grosjean 73.Soderling 74.Mayer 75.seppi 76. qualifier 77. qualifier 78. qualifier 79.Montanes 80.Haas 81.Berdych 82.Lee 83. qualifier 84.Smeets 85.mirnyi 86.Horna 87. qualifier 88.Tursunov 89.Malisse 90.Clement 91.Santoro 92.Kunitsyn 93..Muller 94.Gaudio 95.Roitman 96.Davydenko |
Nalbandian qualifier O. Rochus Grosjean Soderling Seppi qualifier Haas Berdych Smeets Mirnyi Tursunov Malisse Santoro Gaudio Davydenko |
Nalbandian O. Rochus Soderling Haas Berdych Tursunov Malisse Davydenko |
Nalbandian Haas Berdych Malisse |
Haas Haas Malisse |
|
97.Blake 98.Moya 99.Luczak 100. qualifier 101. qualifier 102. qualifier 103.Ginepri 104.Almagro 105.Hewitt 106. qualifier 107.Dancevic 108.Hanescu 109.del Potro 110.Di Mauro 111.Korolev 112.Gonzalez 113.Murray 114.Martin 115.Verdasco 116.Mathieu 117.Chela 118.Starace 119.Goldstein 120.Nieminen 121.Wawrinka 122.Kim 123.Benneteau 124.qualifier 125.Vliegen 126.Kohlschreiber 127.Kendrick 128.Nadal |
Blake Luczak qualifer Ginepri Hewitt Dancevic Del Potro Gonzalez Murray Verdasco Chela Nieminen Wawrinka Benneteau Vliegen Nadal |
Blake Ginepri Hewitt Gonzalez Murray Nieminen Benneteau Nadal |
Blake Gonzalez Murray Nadal |
Blake Blake Murray |