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Australian hopes dashed as Stosur exits

MELBOURNE - It’s already been 30 years. Australia will have to wait at least one more for a female Grand Slam champion.

Sam Stosur was not the only hometown disappointment Friday night, but the French Open finalist was the one with the best chance of winning. In the evening’s first marquee match she lost 7-6 (5), 6-3 to No. 25 Petra Kvitova.

“I would have dearly loved to go farther than I did,” the No. 5-seeded Stosur said. “It’s always disappointing to lose. Especially here.”

Immediately after, the packed Rod Laver Arena watched 18-year-old Australian wildcard Bernard Tomic put up a good fight but predictably lose in straight sets to No. 1 Rafael Nadal.

The 26-year-old Stosur became the first Australian woman to crack the top five in a quarter-century and reached the French Open final last year — as close as any Australian woman has been to a Grand Slam trophy since Evonne Goolagong Cawley at Wimbledon in 1980.

“I actually thought I played really well. So, it’s hard to walk off the court thinking you played well,” Stosur said.

The first set was a close one. Stosur took a 5-3 lead in the tiebreaker but ultimately lost the tense 63-minute first set, and never fully recovered.

The home crowd at Melbourne Park might not have helped because of the added pressure. Stosur has never passed the fourth round of the Australian Open in eight previous appearances.

Her 20-year-old Czech opponent Petra Kvitova said she enjoyed the raucous center court.

“I like this court and this crowd,” said the No. 28-ranked Czech, who whacked 35 winners to Stosur’s 11. “Unfortunately, it was against me, but it was still nice.”

She faces Italian Flavia Pennetta in the fourth round.

DOUBLES DRAMA: “Vamos!” shouted the Indian doubles player. His Spanish-speaking opponents were clearly not amused.

Tennis etiquette was put aside during a heated doubles match between Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi of India and Spain’s Feliciano Lopez, who played with Juan Monaco of Argentina.

The No. 3-seeded Indian pair won the second-round match 7-6 (2), 6-4. Match officials stepped in to calm the players afterward, when the two teams approached the net, arguing and angrily gesticulating. The losing team then snubbed the Indians by not shaking both their hands.

Lopez later told reporters that Paes was “trying to provoke us all the time.”

“At one point, we were a little bit tired of the style he was using on the court, and that’s all that happened,” Lopez said.

Lopez did not specify which point, but the Indians say he intentionally hit a serve aimed at Paes, who jumped out of the way to avoid being hit.

“There was one serve fired at Leander,” Bhupathi said. “We’re all professionals, I don’t think he would have missed (the service box) by that much.”

In their post-match news conference, the Indian team was openly amused. Bhupathi blamed the tension on their opponents’ “not being in a happy place” because they were losing. And because it was a hot summer day.

“It’s hot out there, we’re trying to beat each other. A few unnecessary things were said,” Bhupathi added, smiling. “The crowd loved it. We got into it.”

“They probably were not happy that we used the word ‘Vamos,”’ Bhupathi conceded. “Small things like that added up. Kept adding to their frustration that we were playing good tennis.”

“Vamos!” — the Spanish expression for “Let’s Go!” — is commonly used by Spanish-speaking players and their fans.

“It’s just one of the words I like to use,” Paes said, adding incredulously that Spanish speaking players have taken offense to it in the past. “Nobody has a patent on it.”

Paes added that they do not intend to censor themselves in the next round, where they face Spaniards Tommy Robredo and Marcel Granollers, the No. 13-seeded team.

Tournament officials did not immediately comment.

THE BUBBLE’S BACK: Pesky bubbles keep percolating at Hisense Arena.

For the second day in a row, a bubble-like pucker rose from the flat blue surface of Melbourne Park’s second show court.

Saturday’s bubble, inconveniently, emerged during No. 4-seeded Robin Soderling’s third-round match against Jan Hernych. It forced a 7-minute delay while a technician treated the problem by drilling holes and pounding it with a mallet to relieve the pressure.

Soderling beat his Czech opponent 6-3, 6-1, 6-4.

A different swelling appeared on Friday, and Maria Sharapova noticed it while warming-up for her third-round match against Julia Goerges. She informed the umpire, the warm-up was halted, tournament officials rushed in and the driller arrived.

After that incident, tournament referee Wayne McEwan said moisture from recent rain had gathered under the court’s Plexicushion layer but had evaporated as temperatures rose in recent days and caused a pocket of vapor that lifted part of the surface.

Soderling’s match was the first of the day, and no additional bubbles were reported at later matches.

Craig Tilley, the tournament director, made only a brief comment Saturday: “The court’s fine.”

RING, RING — IT’S BJORN AGAIN: Sometimes Robin Soderling’s phone rings and the voice on the other end is none other than Swedish tennis great Bjorn Borg.

“We meet sometimes, and sometimes he calls me, sends me texts. It’s nice,” the Swede said of the support he gets. Borg won 11 Grand Slam singles trophies in the 1970s and early 80s.

The No. 4-ranked Soderling has come close a few times to winning his first major but obstacles keep getting in the way, namely No. 1 Rafael Nadal and No. 2 Roger Federer.

The Swede has lost the last two French Open finals — once to Nadal and once to Federer. He reached the quarterfinals at 2010 Wimbledon, losing to Nadal, and at the 2009 and 2010 U.S. Open, losing to Federer both times.

But he has beaten both players on other occasions and doesn’t feel intimidated by their domination at Grand Slams.

“They’re No. 1 and No. 2 in the world. I think in every tournament they play, they will be the favorites,” Soderling said. “I think there’s many guys who can actually compete against them and have a chance to win.”

The 26-year-old Soderling advanced Saturday to the Australian Open fourth round for the first time in his career. He served 10 aces against Jan Hernych and hit 33 winners, dominating his 241st-ranked Czech opponent who managed eight winners.

Soderling hasn’t dropped a set and is on an eight-match winning streak with his three at Melbourne Park after winning the tuneup tournament at Brisbane.

He faces Alexandr Dolgopolov, who won a five-set, third-round match against 2008 runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, and could meet Nadal in the semifinals.