Just a thread to let you know that Aus Open has started for anyone interested in Tennis, British Eurosport and Eurosport 2 will have coverage from Midnight right through until last point of last match scheduled.

As i am huge Tennis fan, i will give you my predictions for the titles ;).

Mens 2012 Champion: Roger Federer- He finished the year off strongly by winning ATP World Tour Finals in London and i believe he is hungry for more Slam titles.

Ladies 2012 Champion: Petra Kvitova- Like Federer, she finished year off strongly and also played immense Tennis at last weeks Hopman Cup.

Anything you want me to predict, i will happily predict for you ok ;).

At this moment in time i can't see him winning a Grand Slam. He's improved over the last couple of years and put in a great performance yesterday but where was he in that 4th set? He dropped serve twice in a row and Novak buried him. Murray might have given up after that to save his energy for the 5th set but this showed Novak could step up a gear when needed.

Andy Murray is still a fair bit short of matching all three Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. He may beat one of them on a good day but to progress to a final and win it you need to beat at least 2 of these guys on the way through, that i'm not so sure he can do.

It's yer dream. Two women, dripping with sweat and squealing with delight as they lunge around in tantalisingly short skirts and revealing sweat stained skimpy tops, their long hair tied back to reveal beautiful sun kissed lips and toned bodies..............................

Aye folks, it's the wifies final at the Australian open

It's yer dream. Two women, dripping with sweat and squealing with delight as they lunge around in tantalisingly short skirts and revealing sweat stained skimpy tops, their long hair tied back to reveal beautiful sun kissed lips and toned bodies..............................

Think yer spending too much time on those "specialist" websites Mannie,this ane will do fer me

Big well done to Andy yesterday as well, great effort and when English gits are texting me stuff ya know he's getting to them, Grand slam this year pleeeeeze Andy

Edited January 28, 201214 yr by Heilandee

That was one boring Ladies Final, the amount of one-sided Slam Finals i have seen is unreal, no wonder i only watch the Ladies during a Grand Slam tournament.

The mens final more than made up for it. Superb stuff.

Longest ever game at the Australian Open with just over 6 hours. I really enjoyed the tournament this year but was hoping Nadal was going to win it.

The mens final more than made up for it. Superb stuff.

Is it equality, or is it ridiculous, that women get the same prize money despite playing far less tennis, and at a far lower standard?

I don't understand why women tennis players get paid the same when they play best of 3 sets and the men play best of 5 sets. The mens final probably lasted twice as long as the womens this year so why would they get paid the same. It shouldn't matter on the quality of tennis though, the womens standard of tennis is poorer but if they were to play the full 5 sets i wouldn't have a problem.

It is supposed to be an equality argument but that is complete b******s. If equality was the argument then why don't the veterans and the wheelchair players get the same? Tennis can discriminate on the grounds of age or disability but not on the grounds of sex, apparently. Of course, the whole concept of equality in sport is crazy because the whole point of competetive sport is that the top competitors demonstrate that they are better than the pack and very definately not equal.

You could argue, as some have done, that women can have equality if they play against the men. There may be some argument for that in darts but not for a game that requires a higher level of strength (although giving the women a 30 - 0 start in every game might make it interesting). On the other hand, you could argue for equality on the basis that regardless of the length of matches, women probably have to train just as hard as the men and therefore the pay is the reward for the committment and not just the match. That argument is also flawed because the paying customer is only interested in the match.

What prize money should come down to is what the paying customer is willing to pay to watch what is on offer. It is a very artificial situation at the moment with the mens and womens tournaments happening at the same time. How about having them a month apart and then see what the TV companies, sponsors and paying customers are willing to part with and adjust the prize money accordingly. They do that with golf so why not tennis?

By the way, the mens final must've lasted at least 5 times as long as the women's final - and I've already forgotten who was playing in that.