Tag Archives: thanasi-kokkinakis

Aus Open wrap, NRL update, AFLW round 5 and Justin Langer steps down as Australian coach on show #443

The Professor and the panel of Coutta, Paul Dalligan, Sarah Radlow and the Gelding take a last look at the Australian Open results and the epic five set match in the men’s singles between Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev.

Paul gives an update on the coming NRL season with only a week to the All Stars match and three weeks to the Charity Shield. Tom Trbojevic will be off the grog again in 2022 and is there any hope of the New Zealand Warriors playing home games this season.

Sarah looks at round 5 of the AFLW season, the appointment of Scott Greenwood as coach of the Sydney Swans and the suspension of reigning league best and fairest, Kiara Bowers.

The Gelding talks about the resignation of Justin Langer as Australian cricket coach and why it took so long to make a decision.

You can see this episode of Sportzfan Radio at our YouTube channel here.

Aus Open update & women’s cricket on show #442

The Professor and the panel of the Judge, the Gelding and Coutta review the results from the Australian Open to date including Ash Barty’s win in the women’s singles – the first time an Australian has won the Open in 44 years, the win by the Special K’s – Kyrgios and Kokkinakis in the all Australian men’s doubles final Jaime Fourlis and Jason Kubler making the mixed doubles final and Dylan Alcott’s last match in the men’s quad wheelchair singles.

The Judge queries whether the women’s cricket matches against England can be called ‘the Ashes.

You can hear this episode of Sportzfan Radio on our YouTube channel here.

Weekend musing…..Lleyton Hewitt, more on the supplements scandal….

Chris Barwin HillsWell Thursday night we saw Lleyton Hewitt bow out of the Australian Open for the last time. I have never been a particular fan,hewitt but you have to admire the guy. He made it to Number 1 in the world at 20, he won two Grand Slam titles and the most singles matches ever for Australia in the Davis Cup. You also have to admire that he has kept playing despite the many injuries he has endured and his falling ranking. A pretty good career and I think he will be good in his role with the Davis Cup.

Let us hope he can harness the potential of the likes of Tomic, Kyrgios and Kokkinakis.

I didn’t want to comment further on the Essendon Supplements Saga, however, some of the comments I have heard from some pundits suggesting that the case is similar to the Lance Armstrong and 1384012800000Marion Jones cases has angered me somewhat. In those cases there was a lot of people who provided sworn testimony that both had used banned substances, that is a significant difference to the Essendon case. I am also constantly angered with people saying they did not know what they took. The club has a spreadsheet on all the supplements that the players signed up to and the comment has always been if they were administered anything else, they were not aware of it and it was not sanctioned. This is a very important distinction.

What I would like to know is who advised the players not to complete the ASADA forms correctly. Clearly they were obligated to completeUnknown
those forms honestly and whoever told them not to cite the supplements they were being administered has a lot to answer for as this omission seems to have played a significant part in the penalty that has been applied.

I now pledge not to make any further comment on this sorry tale.

Have a great weekend!

Aussie men’s tennis gets much needed shot in arm with Davis Cup win

Coors lightHaving languished in the doldrums for more than enough years (for that read since the mid 1970’s), Australian men’s tennis seems to be on the long road back. That recovery is evidenced not only in the better results during the recent Australian Open, but by the weekend’s 3-2 away win against the Czech Republic in the Davis Cup. Remember the Davis Cup? That trophy Australia has won on 28 prior occasions since it was first competed for in 1900. Recently we have not featured at the top level and even when we have, have usually come away empty handed. This is reflected in the fact that this was Australia’s first win in a Davis Cup tie in the Championship division since 2006.

We at Sportzfan Radio have been rather critical of Bernard Tomic’s seeming inability to keep his mind on the job and play at a level expected with a person of his talent. In Ostrava, Tomic certainly led by example and won both his matches giving him an impressive 14-2 win/loss singles record in Davis Cup play. The tie also saw the emergence of Thanasi Kokkinakis who won his first match and confirmed Australia can now call on a number of talented young players to champion the cause. Although Lleyton Hewitt was used in the doubles match with Sam Groth, Australia’s fortunes no longer solely rest on the ageing Hewitt’s shoulders.

Sure, it can be argued that the Czech Republic were weakened by injuries to Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek but Australia also was unable to select talented Nick Kyrgios due to a back injury.

A review of the men’s ATP rankings sees Australia with five men in the top 100 being Kyrgios at #36, Tomic at #38, Groth at #69, Marinko Matosevic at #72 and Hewitt at #98. Contrast this with the fact that several years ago, we did not have one player in the top 100 and it is easy to see why results have improved.

Australia now hosts Kazakhstan in a mouth watering quarter final and given the team’s form look set for a long run in the 2015 tournament.