DAD FROM HELL

TENNIS dad from hell Damir Dokic thinks he's the man to manage the sport's next generation of stars.

As daughter Jelena shines in Melbourne, Mr Dokic is planning a comeback of his own.

The fiery father is trying to sell his mansion and acreage in the Serbian countryside for $6 million, The Daily Telegraph reports.

He plans to use proceeds from the sale to build a tennis centre and launch new talent.

"I'll return to the successful period when I was working with Jelena and she was the fourth best player in the world," he has vowed.

Cut off from Jelena, Mr Dokic lives alone on a sprawling estate at Vrdnik, 70km north of Belgrade.

He tends to 20,000 plum and pear trees and makes his own brandy, but has apparently had enough of the quiet country life.

He wants to relocate to the nearby city of Novi Sad for his return to the world of tennis.

Mr Dokic's outbursts, which included being thrown out of the US Open after abusing staff over the price of a meal, made him one of the sport's most notorious figures.

His daughter has also revealed how his oppressive presence drove her into a deep depression from which she is only now emerging.

As Jelena has been rebuilding her life and reputation with the help of boyfriend Tin Bikic in Australia, Mr Dokic has worked on his property for the past four years.

"I'm struggling with how to help my child," he has said.

BEST WAY WOULD BE TO STAY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD!

YOU CAN TAKE THEM OUT OF THE BALKANS, BUT NOT THE ...

Crowd violence spilled over at the Australian Open -- once dubbed the 'Happy Slam' -- in Melbourne again on Friday. Following is a factbox of violent incidents at the grand slam tournament in recent years.

* Around 150 fans were evicted from Melbourne Park on the opening day of the 2007 tournament after vicious fighting flared between rival Croat and Serb supporters. The fans attacked each other with bottles and flagpoles. Police were caught on the back foot by the first time such violence had flared in more than 100 years of grand slam tennis.

* In 2008, fans of Greek descent were subdued by police pepper spray after trouble erupted during a match between Fernando Gonzalez of Chile and Konstantinos Economidis, a Greek qualifier on Margaret Court Arena. The match had to be stopped for 10 minutes as the fans were removed from the stadium by police.

* Former finalist Phil Dent warned at the 2009 tournament that disruptive fans with ethnic ties at the Open were certain to cause a riot unless there was a security crackdown. Dent was outraged at the behaviour of teenage fans supporting the Bosnian-born American Amer Delic in the first-round match against his American son Taylor. "I've got to tell you their behaviour would not be accepted anywhere in the world," Dent told local radio.

* In 2009 police escorted at least five fans from Melbourne Park after narrowly averting an all-out brawl. Security moved in after tensions had boiled over in the match between Croatian Marin Cilic and Serbian Janko Tipsarevic. Punches were later thrown in a scuffle near a packed bar.

* Ethnic tension burst into violent crowd scenes after Serb Novak Djokovic's third-round win against Bosnian-born Delic. Groups of rival fans hurled chairs at each other in the beer garden outside centre court when simmering tension boiled over under the hot Melbourne sun. One woman was knocked cold when a chair struck her head. Police arrested two men and ejected another 30 people from the grounds.

GOOD SIGNS

Roger Federer has put on another masterful display on a court he has come to dominate in recent years, knocking out the ever-dangerous Marat Safin in straight sets to move through to the fourth round of Australian Open 2009.

Billed as the match of the tournament so far – and a rematch of their famous semifinal at Australian Open 2005 which Safin clinched 9-7 in the fifth set – the encounter didn’t live up to the hype, with the world No. 2 progressing comfortably.

The only time Federer was truly challenged was in the tight third set, but three-time Open champion hung tough to triumph 6-3 6-2 7-6(5), and said it was a pleasing performance.

THIRD ROUND RESULT - BOTTOM HALF

MURRAY DINES

Andy Murray has continued on his path to claiming his first major title with a resounding straight sets victory over Spain’s Marcel Granollers on Thursday night.

The No. 4 seed displayed the form that has seen him become the hottest prospect in men’s tennis in the last six months, defeating the world No. 51 6-4 6-2 6-2.

Murray said he felt his form improve as the match wore on.

DUDE NO DUD IN NEW DUDES

There is a new look to Rafael Nadal this year. A worrying look. Well, worrying if you happen to be in his section of the draw. Not only is the best player on the planet sporting a new sartorial style, but he is looking like a man on a mission, and whistled past Roko Karanusic 6-2 6-3 6-2 on Thursday to reach the third round.

The world has become accustomed to seeing Nadal mopping up clay court titles and making the French Open his very own, but of late the Spaniard has been branching out. Not only did he break Roger Federer's heart by beating the Swiss in the Wimbledon final, but he also ended 2008 as the best hard court player in the world. Of his 82 wins for the season, 46 of them came on the cement surface. This was indeed a break from the norm.

Coming to Australia, Nadal is looking good. Usually he takes his time to warm up as the new season begins and so far, he has never made it beyond the semifinals in Melbourne – and he has only got that far once in four attempts. This year, though, he has dropped a meagre 11 games in his first two matches and has barely had to get out of third gear to get this far.

WHO? LU!

Yen-hsun Lu had barely walked off the court at Melbourne Park on Wednesday after one of his biggest career wins when his mobile phone started ringing.

Lu, whose previous biggest win was a first-round upset of Britain’s Andy Murray at last year’s Beijing Olympics, pulled off a marathon upset of 10th-seeded David Nalbandian in the second round at the Australian Open.

Lu beat the 2002 Wimbledon finalist 6-4, 5-7, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in a match just short of four hours, marking the first time in 12 Grand Slams that the 25-year-old Lu has advanced past the second round.

Lu persevered through a 10-minute final game when he fought off six break points, but he had a strategy—reverse psychology.

“Everybody knows Nalbandian is one of the best backhand players,” Lu said. “So I thought he’s ready for a forehand return. So I just changed my mind and went to his backhand all the time.

“I served six times to his backhand on break point and I won all the points.”

KOROLEV WORKED ROGER

Roger Federer set up a juicy third round clash with former Australian Open champion Marat Safin after finally subduing a stubborn Evgeny Korolev 6-2 6-3 6-1 on Wednesday.

Federer, who is seeking to equal Pete Sampras's record of 14 grand slam wins with his fourth at Melbourne Park, was more than matched by the Russian qualifier in the opening two sets before romping away with the third.

The 27-year-old Federer enthralled the crowd packed into Rod Laver Arena with some audacious shot-making but Korolev also joined in and his wristy racket work provided some anxious moments for the world number two.

RESULTS [WEDNESDAY IN OZ]

TENNIS ON TSN

NADAL, FED, MURRAY, DJOKOVIC INTO SECOND

 

 

Nadal provided an ominous demonstration of his Australian Open intentions by crushing Belgium's Christophe Rochus 6-0 6-2 6-2 in the first round on Tuesday.

The Spaniard could hardly have been more impressive as he raced to victory in 77 minutes for the loss of just four games.

Nadal

wrapped up the first set in just 19 minutes, giving up only eight points, and was just as ruthless as he closed out the match.

Nadal has never won the Australian Open but has progressed further every time he has made the trip to Melbourne.

He reached the third round on his debut in 2004 and the fourth round a year later. He missed 2006 but made the quarter-finals in 2007 then the semi-finals last year.

He is among the favourites to win the title this year, along with Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, but said he was not thinking that far ahead.

Murray only needed to play 12 games to advance -- Andrei Pavel retired with a back problem down 6-2, 3-1 and 15-0. When they walked off, the temperature was hovering at 37 Celsius (99 Fahrenheit).

In addition to the heat, the early afternoon sun was nearly blinding at one end of the court.

Roger Federer took the first step toward his record-tying 14th Grand Slam title with a 6-1, 7-6 (4), 7-5 victory Monday over Andreas Seppi at the Australian Open.

Federer, seeking to match Pete Sampras' mark, was at his best on the big points on the opening day when most favorites avoided upsets. However, it wasn't easy for even the top players.

"He is a very tough customer, he played really well," Federer said of the 35th-ranked Seppi. "I think I played well, too. I had to."

Defending men's champion Novak Djokovic, started strong then had to rally from service breaks in the last two sets - he was down 4-0 in the third - to oust Andrea Stoppini 6-2, 6-3, 7-5

ROGER, OK?

 

I look eagerly for signs that Roger has has beaten his main opponent --mononucleosis. The results of this match, do not encourage.

With the illness,

Roger was good for one set.

In this match he seemed to good for one set.

This forbodes ill[ness].

Roger Federer took his first step towards a record-equalling 14th grand slam title with a 6-1 7-6 7-5 victory over Italy's Andreas Seppi in the first round of the Australian Open on Monday.

The world number two, seeking to equal Pete Sampras's grand slam-title record of 14, romped through the first set but was made to work hard by the world number 35, who squandered several break opportunities throughout the match. [REUTERS}

ROGER READY

Roger Federer completed his preparations for a tilt at Pete Sampras's record of 14 grand slam titles with an easy 6-1 6-3 victory over Swiss compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka at the Kooyong Classic on Saturday.

Federer captured his second title in the eight-man invitational event, which he traditionally uses to fine tune his game before his Melbourne Park campaign. He also won in 2005.

OZ DRAW

Roger Federer will begin his bid to equal Pete Sampras's record of 14 grand slam titles against Italian Andreas Seppi in the first round of the Australian Open next week.

Top seed Rafael Nadal, who snapped Federer's record 237-week stint as world number one last August, will meet Belgium's Christophe Rochus after the draw was made at Melbourne Park on Friday.

Champion Novak Djokovic was drawn to meet a qualifier in his opening match but if the seeds live up to their billing, he could be on another collision course with Federer in the semi-finals.

Fourth seed Andy Murray, tipped to end Britain's 73-year wait for a men's grand slam champion, was slotted into the same half of the draw as Nadal and will open his account against Romania's Andrei Pavel.

Federer will need to be on his guard if he is to win a fourth trophy in Melbourne since his path is littered with banana skins, including a potential second round match with former world number one Carlos Moya.

If he survives that test, Marat Safin could be his next opponent. The Russian beat the Swiss en route to the 2005 title.

Seventh seed Andy Roddick and Argentina's David Nalbandian, the 10th seed, could face off in an intriguing fourth round battle.

REUTERS

OZ TOP SEEDS

Spain's Rafael Nadal and Jelena Jankovic of Serbia have been confirmed as the top seeds for this year's Australian Open, which begins on Monday.

Roger Federer was listed as second seed in the men's draw ahead of defending champion Novak Djokovic and Briton Andy Murray for the year's first Grand Slam.

Former champion Serena Williams was seeded second for the women's tournament ahead of Russian pair Dinara Safina and Elena Dementieva.

The full draw for the tournament will be made at Melbourne on Friday. Seeds for the Australian Open are based on the world rankings.

The only man missing from the world's top 32 is Russian Nikolay Davydenko while two women are absent, last year's champion Maria Sharapova and China's Li Na.

Nadal has never won the Australian Open although he has won the French Open four times and Wimbledon once. His best performance in Melbourne was last year when he reached the semi-finals.

Jankovic was also a semi-finalist in Australia last year but is yet to win a grand slam.

HATCHETMAN AT BOLLETIERI

MANATEE COUNTY - Two tennis instructors and an executive who helped build the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy into a world-renowned facility have been fired or encouraged to resign in a major shakeup at IMG Academies in West Bradenton.

Coaches Gabriel Jaramillo and Ted Meekma and executive Greg Breunich worked for more than 20 years at the academy -- where superstars like Andre Agassi and Maria Sharapova trained -- and were confidantes of the facility's namesake and founder, Nick Bollettieri.

The three have been let go in the past few weeks, as has chief financial officer Jeff McNeil.

The changes appear to be the latest move by a firm that bought IMG in 2004 and that has restructured other aspects of the company.

The departures at the tennis academy were not amicable, sources say, as Jaramillo was escorted from the property Friday afternoon by a security officer.

Each man was given severance pay, according to Jaramillo's attorney, and signed non-disclosure and no-compete contracts that prohibit them from coaching tennis or speaking publicly about the changes.

"Essentially, this new company brought in a hatchet man to get rid of all the strong people who had been there for years," Mulock said. "They had been with Nick forever. Then they got tossed under the bus."

In 1987, Bollettieri sold the academy to IMG, which kept them all on staff and opened the multi-sport academies in west Manatee County, on 300 acres of former tomato fields. IMG now trains thousands of athletes in sports from golf to basketball

An investment firm, Forstmann Little & Co., acquired IMG -- an international sports and entertainment marketing company -- in 2004 for $750 million.

Forstmann Little has a history of cutting costs to make its acquisitions more profitable before reselling them.

The company bought and later resold Gulfstream Aerospace, Topps and Dr. Pepper.

KOOYONG KLASSIC

 

World number two Roger Federer made a winning return to the Kooyong Classic on Wednesday with an easy 6-2 6-3 victory over Spain's Carlos Moya.

Federer, a perennial visitor to the suburban Melbourne club that hosts the eight-man invitational tournament, was a late withdrawal from the event last year with glandular fever.

The 13-times grand slam winner uses the tournament to fine-tune his Australian Open preparations and, despite the encounter lasting just 57 minutes, he said the match had been beneficial for his Melbourne Park campaign.

"I'm getting used to the conditions here and the way the ball flies -- much more than it did in the past few weeks," Federer told reporters. "I'm trying a few things here and there (and) taking a few chances.

"Its more about getting used to the conditions and getting my footwork right, getting used to the bounce and seeing how high it is and the way (the ball) spins and reacts to the court.

"There was a bit of rust in the beginning and I missed a few forehands (but) I thought it was good match overall."

Federer will meet next meet Fernando Verdasco in the progression-relegation tournament after the Spaniard beat Croatia's Marin Cilic 6-2 7-5.

By Greg Stutchbury

MELBOURNE, Jan 14 (Reuters)

OZ ON TSN

FED PREPARES

A year after withdrawing from the Kooyong Classic with a mystery virus, world number two Roger Federer returned on Tuesday and declared himself fit and ready to finalise his Australian Open preparations.

Federer was forced out of the invitational eight-man field at the Kooyong Club in suburban Melbourne last January with what later transpired to be glandular fever, an illness that affected his form for much of the first half of last year.

He lost in the semi-finals of the Australian Open to eventual champion Novak Djokovic and also ceded the number one world ranking that he had held for a record 237 weeks to Spain's Rafael Nadal last August.

A back injury in the second half of the year also restricted his performances but he still managed to win his fifth successive U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows.

"I'm feeling really good," the 27-year-old Swiss told a news conference when asked about his health. "I was feeling quite bad here last year, which is why I couldn't play.

"It's why I'm really happy to be part of it this year. It's a great tournament and I love playing here because it is great preparation for me for the Australian Open."

THREE MATCHES

Federer, who plays Spain's Carlos Moya in the second match of Wednesday's opening day, said the beauty of the Kooyong event was that players were guaranteed three competitive matches ahead of next week's Australian Open.

"Usually before a grand slam you take it easy or practice, that's all you do," the 13-times grand slam winner added.

"This is a different type of approach here, we are all lacking matches at the beginning of the season and you are looking for matches.

"If you play matches in practice it's not the same.

"You don't have linesmen, or the fans or umpires and it's a different mindset when you come out on the court here at Kooyong."

Federer's Beijing Olympics gold-medal winning doubles partner Stanislas Wawrinka will open the tournament against 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis.

Federer and Moya will then play their match before Croatia's Marin Cilic meets Spain's Fernando Verdasco while Ivan Ljubicic, who replaced the injured Marat Safin, will play Chile's Fernando Gonzalez. (Editing by John O'Brien)

SOMDEV DEVVARMAN ?????

Croatia's Marin Cilic downed Spain's Marcel Granollers in straight sets during semifinal action on Saturday at the $450,000 Chennai Open, but the bigger story was a man who didn't even play.

Wild-card Somdev Devvarman of India reached his first ATP Tour final when fifth-seeded Rainer Schuettler withdrew with a wrist injury, making the 23- year-old former NCAA champion at Virginia the first Indian player to reach the final here.

Cilic continued solid form at this event with a 6-4, 6-3 victory to climb over last year's hurdle. The semifinalist one year ago will now stare across the net at the home-country and heavy crowd favorite with a $73,000 first prize on the line at this ATP World Tour season-opening event and Australian Open tune- up.

SPORTS NETWORK