[Munki Bhoy]

Murray's through round 1, albeit 6-2, 3-1 on a retirement. That's a shame, no one wants to win like that.

[MK Chris]

I'm sure when all's said and done, it means he's slightly less tired for the later rounds so he'll take it, even if he says otherwise publically. He'd easily have beaten Pavel anyway, I can't see him having any trouble certainly before the quarters; it's his favourite surface.

[Munki Bhoy]

Well that was him a set and a break up at the time, so it was looking pretty good.

Nadal's skooshed through as well.

[MK Chris]

Nadal looked ferocious, even if he was only playing Rochus, who is number 75 in the world. He won't win, but it'll take one of the other top five to beat him... I was going to say one of the other four, but I think Tsonga can do it too.

[pjordan2000]

I agree, on a good day Tsonga could do it but he's not been in the best of form at the end of last season and has been struggling with an injury if I remember rightly.

I don't think Federer will win it this year, nor Djokovic. I'd like to say Murray but I think Nadal is proving himself on all the courts and I think he'll reach the Aussie Open final for the first time.

[MK Chris]

I don't think Federer will either... personally, for me it's between Djokovic, Murray and Tsonga at a push.

Rafa will one day win a hard court slam I think, but not this year..... well, not the Aussie anyway, see how he gets on at Flushing Meadows at the end of the year.

[MK Chris]

OK, having analysed the draw, my predictions are:

Quarters
Rafael Nadal to beat Fernando Gonzalez in four
Andrew Murray to beat Jo-Wilfred Tsonga in four
Novak Djokovic to beat Andy Roddick in three
Roger Federer to beat Juan Martin Del Potro in five

Semis
Andrew Murray to beat Rafael Nadal in five
Novak Djokovic to beat Roger Federer in four

Final
Novak Djokovic to beat Anrew Murray in five

Feel free to quote me when it goes spectacularly wrong...

[Munki Bhoy]

Honestly, I think the Murray v Tsonga one is about the only thing I think you might get wrong there. And even then I'm not sure myself. Mind you, if Tsonga wins that I think Nadal will beat him and lose to Djokovic in the final.

I do hope Murray can do it though. I'm fairly sure that's the Scottish bias talking mind you.

[Sunny So Cal]

Feel free to quote me when it goes spectacularly wrong...

Anrew Murray

Or now?

[MK Chris]

What do you mean 'or now'? I'm still on course (though it's early days) for all of those so far.

[Yudster]

Read it again, Tofu.....!

[MK Chris]

Ha, oh yeah. Oops.

[Munki Bhoy]

Annoying point - the BBC appear to have bought the rights to the Open, but are only showing Murray matches.

I complain here as I was happily watching Ivanovic's match last night on Eurosport when they decided that since she was winning that was no fun and they'd go watch Safina instead who had just lost the first set tie break. I switched off and went to sleep after that. The BBC wouldn't have done that if it was Wimbledon, and even if they had they'd have the interactive service so I'd still be able to watch the match I was watching in the first place.

[MK Chris]

This is explained in today's live text:

By the way, if anyone is wondering why we haven't got a live stream at the moment (which some of you are), apparently the contract we have only allows us to show a certain amount of live action from Melbourne and the decision was taken to stream Federer and Djokovic earlier this morning, rather than Dokic or Roddick now, for example.

Murray is clearly being given priority, but for days like today when he's not playing, they'll just take the matches that are likely to generate the most interest I guess.

[Munki Bhoy]

What a rubbish contract. I suppose they did it on the cheap due to the usual "it's not Wimbledon" and "it's silly hours" reasons.

[MK Chris]

I hope it's better for the French... clay court tennis is great.

[MK Chris]

Apologies for the double post, but:

TV coverage news just in - as well as Murray v Granollers being broadcast LIVE on BBC TV, this website (UK users only) and 5 Live sports extra tomorrow morning, you will be able to watch Elena Baltacha's second round match against former world number one Amelie Mauresmo through the same mediums from midnight tonight. Brilliant.

Oh good, so we get to watch a shit tennis player get stuffed by a pretty mediocre tennis player, as opposed to, say, Nadal, Monfils or Tsonga.

[pjordan2000]

Yeah i saw that earlier, but I'll probably watch it because Murray won't be on court until about 10a.m. tomorrow by which time I'll be at work and we can't stream here!

I think Baltacha may have a chance tonight. Amelie Mauresmo isn't the player she was and Aussie Open is where Elena had her surprise run last year I believe....

As per Toph's quote earlier, feel free to quote me if it goes wrong.

[MK Chris]

If a 'run' counts as getting to the third round, she has only ever been that far in a slam - not last year though, once at Wimbledon and once at Melbourne, but about 2005 or 2006 I think. I'm not sure she even qualified last year.

Mauresmo is indeed not the player she was, however, she would need to go down some way to be beaten by any of the British girls, even Keothavong with her dizzying heights of a top 50 ranking.

[Yudster]

Mauresmo is indeed not the player she was.............

I have always had my doubts as to whether she is in fact even the gender she was.

[Bonanzoid]

Exactly my thoughts, Madame Yuds.

[Munki Bhoy]

I forgot Baltacha was Britain's female number one. That Monty Python joke just won't go away...

[MK Chris]

Judging by the live scores on the Australian Open web site, Tsonga is being given a real run for his money at the moment... all three sets so far have gone to a tie-break, Ljubicic won the first, Tsonga the second and currently 6-6 (with Tsonga coming from behind) in the third.

He's no mug, Ljubicic, I'm pretty sure he was ranked in the top three at one point. I'd expect Tsonga to win though.

[MK Chris]

Also (sorry for the double post), but I was wrong about Baltacha (not for the fact that she wasn't good enough, but Mauresmo was extremely poor.)

[pjordan2000]

I must admit, i thought Baltacha did well and didn't disgrace herself but was probably down to how poor Mauresmo was.
Andy, the sole Brit left, is up in about half an hour now i believe. Its crap that we can't stream it at work!