It looked like it would be smooth sailing for Ivan Dodig as he took a two set lead over Bosnian Damir Dzumhur, but quickly the heat things changed everything for Dodig. After experiencing cramps and a possible injury to his right thigh, Dodig began to literally give points to Dzumhur and ultimately he withdrew with the score at 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 4-1. Dodig raised serious questions of the tournament organizers after the match, as he said “Today, 30 minutes after the match I could not walk. There was 10 people around me. I was thinking I could maybe even die here. For this to come from a player like Dodig, who is known as being one of the tougher players on the tour, is surprising. His sentiments on the weather were shared by Andy Murray:
Andy Murray is concerned that “something bad could happen to one of the players” if matches aren’t suspended at #AusOpen due to extreme heat
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) January 14, 2014
Ultimately, its a disappointing early exit from Dodig, who will look to crack the top 20 this year.
Day 4 Preview
Day four sees two Croats finally featuring on TV courts! Ajla Tomljanovic goes up against #13, American Sloane Stephens in the 2nd match on Margaret Court Arena (about 8:30 PM ET) and Marin Cilic will play #18 Gilles Simon in the third match on Show Court 2 (about 9:20 ET). Tomljanovic will play again later on in the evening in her first round doubles match, as will Petra Martic.
http://www.vecernji.hr/hrvatska/policija-dosla-po-josipa-perkovica-izrucit-ce-ga-danas-916963
And too add, it would have been 23 – 21 but the goalie did a hail Mary pass that literally landing in the guys hand and he scored. That was pretty fricken awesome.
@Dragi, my opinion on the Croatia Sweden Handball game.
Croatia did a good job at capitalizing on the turnovers.
Sweden, really good team and fun to watch. They seemed to take more chances and be creative. Croatia did an exceptional job of just being solid. Cupic missing two penalties was horrible, BUT their goalie was on his game and made a ton of great saves.
What I think was exceptional was our ability to shut down any run that Sweden produced. Just really solid play, and the reason we won is we made less mistakes. A great win today.
.
Isn’t Cilic like only 24 or 25 tho ?
It’s a bit young ti give in isnt it>???
Cilic may be on the downside of his career. Most guys when they are busted for doping rarely play at the same level they played at while doping.
I did wonder about that coaching too, Ziva..
I have no idea..it’s like the repka where we seem to think former players make great coaches.. i have no idea why..
I’m not happy about it either..of course.. nothing against Goran, he’s our greatest ever player.. but can he coach ??????
Not sure about that one..
I would be much more comfortable if he stuck with bob brett or a proven coach even if they are american (and it pains me to say that)
Hopefully all the hrvati in Melbource visited the park for the first three days so they can see all the hrvati.
And why is ivanisevic coaching Cilic? Why is Ivanisevic coaching anyone? I wonder if he needs the money. Dude made some bad investments over the years.
well, i would like to know what’s going on in handball, especially now we have no interest left in the tennis, so….
@dragi………how about you cover it. The boys who run this website don’t make any money form this site, so its not like they have an army of writers and editors covering everything that is going on. How about you visit a Cro language website if you want instant updates on handball.
armada:
you need to think about ppl watching on tv, not just ppl right 1 metre in front of the jersey.
That garbage u showed, no way anyone can ever see that on TV or anything that is related to “not playing on the field”
@Mishko
cupic missed two 7 meters
lack of coverage of EHF?? “croatian SPORTS”????
Croatia just beat Sweden 23-22 to remain top of the group. Great game.
.
on the topic of kits, this is a cool graphic…
http://www.xtratime.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=37337&d=1389942700
never saw some of these kits from 91-94… nice designs
and i always thoght our 2002 kits were hideous…
I don’t get why we can’t use black numbering and lettering with our kits. Everything is clearly visible with a checker background and black numbers. See below:
http://www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/265x/0dc2d03fe217f8c83829496872af24a0/c/r/croatia-01-home-mw-suker.jpg
Big game in handball going on right now. A win today basically makes our path to a semifinal a lot easier. A loss today and we can almsot forget about it. Would have to run the table in the next three games to be in play for the semis. A win today gives us room for a mistake in the second round.
So long as FIFA keeps forcing us to use a solid colour wherever the player names and numbers go, our kits will always be just “okay” but never “great”.
Ideally, the jersey should be completely checkered on the back, but there will always be that awkward giant block of colour (be it red or white) that covers up the top two-thirds of the back where the number goes (yet leaving the bottom third of the back in checkers). Just as bad, there will probably be a smaller single block of colour on the front of the kit (where the smaller number goes) which will ruin the consistency of the checkers on the front as well.
They may as well just eliminate the checkers on the back of the kit entirely, and make it just a single white colour (rather than leaving that strip on the bottom where the player’s ass is). But year after year, it’s the same awkward solid block colours on the front and back that ruin these awesome home kits.
I don’t like the new jersey that was leaked or whatever either, is that official yet? are there any clues on the away one ??
I’m not a massive fan, it’s not terrible but.. it’s a bit “meh”
Oh, hi everyone btw : )
What the fuck was this load of shit i watched yesterday???
Both Tomljanovic and Cilic were in match-winning positions at various times and both prolly should have won..
Cilic 5-0 and loses 6 games in a row??? What the fuck ???
Was there a cyclone on that outside court, why couldnt he hold serve?
Fucking garbage.
Fucking piss up my balls.. fucking bullshit
Welcome back NB!Your absence has been noted.
god lord, some of you guys are already looking for excuses. Don’t forgot we also have guys who go down way too easy and initiate contact to fool the ref (Srna, Mandza, Colluka).
@Mishko
Howard Webb refereed for us against Italy in Euro2012 and Greece in Euro2012 qualifying. I don’t think he’s ever refereed in a match for us other than those two games.
Against Italy, yes, the foul call on Balotelli (that lead to Pirlo’s free kick goal) was complete bullshit, but I don’t recall if there were any other real instances where he completely screwed us. Italy deserved to score on us after the way we played in that first half anyway.
The Greece game was entirely our fault on our own.
I just hope we don’t get a Spanish/Portuguese/Italian/S.American referee. They tend to be more trigger-happy with the penalty calls, and if Brazil struggles to score on us, the possibiliy of a weak penalty increases.
Pointless friendly.
Australia’s style doesn’t match any one of our opponents’.
If anything, we might be exposing ourselves to some last minute injuries if the Aussie take the game too seriously. Hopefully both sides just take it easy and use it as a game to keep fresh.
As long as we dont get Milorad Mazic as a ref we should be happy.
http://hns-cff.hr/news/3311/hrvatska-s-australijom-u-brazilu/
Croatia will warm-up for the 2014 FIFA World Cup with a friendly against Australia, the European nation’s FA confirmed on today, with the host city in Brazil yet to be confirmed.
What bad calls has he made against us???????
Every ref makes a bad call now and then. This sounds more like complaining just for the sale of complaining.
Should we also point out the good calls that have gone in our favor? Or are those not in your memory.
Damn, no hrvat in the 3rd round of the Aussie Open.
Doper Cilic went out last night. Strange match. Doper had his serve broken 10 times in the match. So much for Ivanisevic helping him with his serve as his new coach.
@Ziva, he’s made some extremely bad calls against us in the past. Trust me when people find out they’re going to be pissed.
.
why, is he anti-hrvat?????
Oh fuck me.
Howard Webb could referee the opening match at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Which means he would ref us against Brazil. This is not good, not good at all.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/10573441/Howard-Webb-could-referee-the-opening-match-at-the-2014-World-Cup-in-Brazil.html#disqus_thread
.
Herceg bosna grb isnt illegal.
matter of time before that happens.
Nice gesture to support Suspension Joe, but nothing will come out of this.
I like how they have both grb’s on the site… and i’m surpised they haven’t outlawed that ‘2nd grb’ by now…
Whats up guys! Joes Simunics lawyer has started a petition for Joe as well. Sign it and pass it on to everybody you know.
Petition link
http://www.za-dom.eu/
ESPN3 also shows all the TV courts for US people
link to the article i was alluding to: http://www.index.hr/sport/clanak/dodig-o-bosanskim-navijacima-trebali-su-otici-na-nogomet-jer-o-tenisu-nemaju-pojma/721870.aspx
If only Dodig cared more about his conditioning than what opposing fans were saying and chanting. Sounds like sour grapes.
If you guys have Direct TV, the overflow channels for the Aussie Open allow you to watch the 6 tv courts.