[Click images for larger views.]

Nadal def. Federer: Nadal won his first major on a hard court while denying Federer‘s attempt to match Sampras’ 14 major record. This marks the first time a Spaniard has won the Aussie Open. The high level of play we saw in the 2008 Wimbledon final continued into the early sets of the Aussie final. Given the record setting five hour, fourteen minute semi between Nadal and Verdasco,  Federer’s attempted to capitalize on Nadal’s fatigue. It didn’t work. Nadal did seem tire out early on but was resilient enough to take it to a fifth set where Federer appeared to wither. Nadal’s strategy, to constantly serve and return to Federer’s backhand worked.

Federer broke down in tears during his acceptance speech. He had to walk away to compose himself. He stood their crying for what seemed like an eternity as the crowed cheered. He finished his speech, fighting back the tears after Nadal picked up his trophy. I’ve never seen anything like that.

Trivia Tidbit: The coin toss is irrelevant for every Federer/Nadal match. No matter who wins, Nadal always elects to server and Federer always elects to receive.

  S. Williams def. Safina: Serena Williams embarrassed Dinara Safina in a 6-0, 6-3 loss lasting less than an hour. This was Williams’ fourth Aussie Open win and 10th grand slam title. Safina’s performance tournament-wide was less than spectacular. She needs more work. She apologized to the crowd for her poor performance. The crowd forgave her.

Nadal def. Verdasco: The Nadal/Verdasco semi-final was the best match of the tournament.  Fourteenth seed Fernando Verdasco had an astonishing run. He beat Stepanek, 4th seed Murray and last-years’ finalist Tsonga to get to the semis. Verdasco played like I have hoped Roddick would evolve too – with lightning fast serves, superb shot making, terrific backhands, sold net-game, dictating play, changing it up – a complete game. These two lefties played a quality match. Shot for shot it was spectacular. At five hours and fourteen minutes, it was  the longest match in Aussie Open history. Brilliant! Nadal was so impressed, when the match ended he hopped over the net to congratulate his fellow Spaniard. I’m looking forward to more of the new Verdasco in 2009. [Watch clip on Youtube]

Federer def. Roddick: This semi-final was as difficult to watch as the Dokic/Safina match. I admire both players and wanted both to win. While Roddick has improved since last year, he was  still no match for Federer. Roddick has gained a more complete game (coming to net more, remaining more balanced on his feet), but his biggest advantage – his gargantuan serves – has dissipated as he ages. He managed just 8 aces to Federer’s 16 in the three set semi-final. The better man marched on to the finals.

Neither Women’s Semi-final was broadcast by ESPN/TSN – GRRR!! That’s actually quite surprising given that Serena played in one of them. The U.S. networks rarely opt out of broadcasting a Williams match.

Safina def. Dokic: With Davenport not playing, these were my two favorite women players at this year’s Aussie Open. It was difficult to watch this quarter-final match. My head was with Safina  but my heart was with Dokic. Unlike the Safina/Williams final, they played solid tennis throughout – something rather rare in women’s tennis these days (especially now that Henin has retired).  I have to hand it to Safina. The crowd overwhelmingly supported Dokic. She apologized for defeating their favourite and asked for their support in the future. A class act.

Roddick def. Djokovic: Roddick defeated Djokovic in a staggeringly hot quarter final match.  Djokovic, the defending champion, overheated and retired early. Roddick seemed quite comfortable in the staggering heat which reached over 60 degrees C. (140 F) on the court. I don’t understand why the officials did not  close the roof. They closed the roof for subsequent matches.

Tidbit: Djokovic has now retired early in 3 of 4 grand slam tournaments – something that is rarely done by the top players.

Tsonga def. Blake: This was another tough match to watch because I enjoy both players. Tsonga took out Blake on Australia Day Monday in the round of 16. Can’t say I was surprised. It seems Blake will forever be relegated to the second tier of tennis.

A comment on the Lines People: The calibre of lines people has fallen since the challenge system was put in play. When it was first introduced only a few challenges succeeded. In the Roddick/Federer match, for example the lines people made bad call after bad call. They are going to have to increase the number of challenges available to players if the calibre of the lines people continues to decline.

Australia Day at the Rod Laver Arena: The Stonga/Blake match was held up for a dozen minutes or so as the fireworks went off. In prior years the players played on through the fireworks.

Reference: 2009 Australian Open Coverage on Wikipedia

Below is a roundup of my thoughts and observations concerning the first week matches at the 2009 Australian Open.

Click on the photos below to view full-sized versions.

Men’s Singles

Nadal Tweaks his Game & His Outfit: Number 1 seeded Nadal has changed his service stance (a little more open, left leg further back and tighter in) to try and get more speed on his serve. It seems to be working so far. His average first serve speed at the Aussie Open in 2009 is 113 mph. His average speed in 2008 was 109 mph. He is also dropping the elbow close to the body to take topspin off his forehand and flattening his forehand to work better on the slower Australian courts. As for fashion, his shorts are a little shorter and he has shirt sleeves for the first time. You’d think that with all his millions, he’d be able to hire a designer to solve his constant wedge problem. But no, he was tugging at the back of his new shorts as much as he ever has.

Roddick: Roddick lost 15 pounds in the off-season. He lost the weight to gain speed. Speed is needed to compete with the top players these days. Fabrice Santoro did Roddick a big favor by knocking out Kohlschreiber in the second round. Kohlschreiber defeated Roddick at the 2008 Aussie Open. I’m looking forward to his next match with Djokovic (assuming Djokovic beats Baghdatis) in the quarters. I’ll be cheering for Roddick! Is it just me, or does that KIA logo make you hunger for a Kit-Kat too?

Federer: It’s still odd to see No. 2 beside Federer’s name. With his 2008 U.S. Open win, he now has 13 majors. He needs one more to tie Sampras‘ 14. He sailed through the first three matches without incident. Berdych gave him one heck of a run in the round of 16 though. So much so that it looked like Berdych was going to win two sets up and ahead in the third. But Federer pulled it out in a five set match.

Djokovic: The only first week Djokovic match I watched was his round of 16 win over Baghdatis. His penchant for incessant pre-serve ball bouncing seems to have diminished. He also seems to be trying a lot harder to tone down his arrogance. That was nice. I may be warming up to him.

Safin: Marat Safin has said this will be his last year of professional tennis. He’ll be missed. He has been a favorite of mine for as long as he’s been playing. He showed some brilliance against Federer but was mostly outmatched and tired. This was likely the last Federer/Safin match I’ll ever see. Sad.

Blake – Dancevic Match: I had mixed emotions during the  Blake/ Dancevic (a fellow Canadian) match. On the eve of Obama’s inauguration Blake won in straight sets. As always, the rare Canadian was taken out early.

Baghdatis: 2006 Aussie Open finalist, Baghdatis shaved off his bushy head of hair. Somehow he has fallen to 100th in the world. He is a far better player than his ranking indicates. Mardy Fish didn’t stand a chance against him in the 3rd round, despite Fish being seeded 23 and Baghdatis, remarkably, being unseeded. Alas Baghdatis was roundly defeated by Djokovic in the round of 16,

Santoro: It was amazing to watch Santoro take out Kohlschriber in five sets in the 2nd round. At 37 years old, this was his 66′th major appearance. Santoro  never gives up. He literally hobbled off the court after match point. He had nothing left in the tank when he met Roddick. [Note: I took pictures of Santoro but somehow I lost them.]

Tsonga: Last year’s Aussie Open finalist, and a personal favorite newcomer, Ali-look-alike, Tsonga made it through easily to the second week. I’m looking forward to the Tsonga / Blake round of 16 match next week.

Gonzalez def. Gasquet: Gonzalez played an enjoyable, late-night, classic, 5 setter against Gasquet winning a squeaker, 12 to 10 in the fifth. He’ll be running into the Nadal wall next.

Hewitt: I was happy to see Hewitt fall in the first round. Might it  be time for retirement Lleyton?

Women’s Singles

Dokic def. Chakvetadze & Wozniacki: The feel-good story of the first week, was all about 187th ranked Jelena Dokic. She took out 17th seed Chakvetadze (who is starting to take on too many of Sharapova‘s annoying habits) in the second round. She followed that up by defeating 11th seed Wozniacki in the 3rd! With her personal story of an abusive father and her feisty play, she’s became the new woman’s underdog to cheer for.  Dokic subsequently made it to the quarters after beating Kleybanova in the round of 16.

Navarro Took out Venus Williams in 2nd Round.  Qualifier Carla Suarez Navarro took out 6th seeded Venus Williams in a three set match. This means week two will, thankfully, not be wall-to-wall Williams coverage! I personally like Venus a lot. But I have been disturbed by the U.S. networks’ coverage of the second week of majors recently. When both Serena and Venus make the second week, the U.S. networks show almost nothing but Williams sisters singles and doubles matches for the entire week – knocking out coverage of many other matches I’d rather watch.

Bartoli def. Jankovic: Dang! ESPN didn’t cover this match. Marion Bartoli is a compellingly odd player. I would have enjoyed watching 16 seed Bartoli take out number 1 seeded Jankovic  in straight sets (6-1, 6-4). But, alas, she’s not as pretty as Sharapova or Ivanovic, and not an American like the Williams sisters, so her matches are rarely covered. Jankovic was looking weak all week. It was no surprise to see her taken down.

Kleybanova def. Ivanovic: Nineteen year old, 29th seed, Kleybanova defeated the over-rated Ivanovic- demonstrating once again that Ivanovic’s 2008 French Open Victory was possibly a one-time fluke. Kleybanova went on to loose to Jelena Dokic in the round of 16.

Mauresmo: 13th seed Mauresmo lost in the third round to 20th seed Victoria Azarenka.

Almost no Safina Coverage: I was disappointed that ESPN/TSN decided not to cover any of No. 3 seeded, Dinara Safina‘s first three rounds. To add insult to injury, they only showed 1 set of her 3 set, round of 16 victory over Cornet. The final come-from-behind set was terrific. With Davenport out of the field, Safina is my current favorite woman’s player.

No Davenport or Sharapova: A grand-slam without Davenport isn’t the same. I don’t know why she wasn’t playing. Sharapova was out with a shoulder injury.

Fun Pictures from the First Week:

’Barack to the Future’ – Aussie Open fans pose as Obama on inauguration day.  Andy Murray was depicted as Braveheart on the cover of Sport magazine. Andy was taken out in the fourth round by Fernando Verdasco.

Broadcast Nits

Horrible ESPN Score Board: I very much dislike the ridiculous ESPN scoreboard. It’s one thing to have a running footer displaying scores from other games. It’s quite another to constantly remove the score of the game underway to display scores from other games. This makes it very hard to follow scores, particularly while fast-forwarding through matches. The tie-break scoring was worse. They kept moving the players names on the score board depending on who was serving. The server’s name appeared on the left.  The names bouncing left and right made it very hard to follow the scores.

No HD Coverage: Neither the weekday nor weekend matches were broadcast in HD. No major U.S. broadcast network covered it at all. The Aussie Open is the only tennis major NOT broadcast in HD in North America. Disappointing!

There was a touching moment (depicted in the picture above – click for larger view) this week when Richard Williams went over and shook the hand of Mr. Keothavong after Richard’s daughter Venus beat his daughter Anne 7-6, 6-2 in the 2nd round. Mr. Keothavong was clearly impressed.

Tuesday – Davenport Injury

It was difficult to watch my all-time favourite woman’s player, Davenport’s,  struggle with an ‘aggravated’ knee (an MRI after the match revealed inflammation behind the knee cap – not a permanent injury). Davenport’s career is near and end. It was sad to see her bow out on Thursday. But in an interview on Thursday she said she’ll be ready for the Beijing Olympics in a few weeks.

Wednesday’s Matches

Two of Wednesday’s matches are prime examples of why watching early round grand slam matches can be so fulfilling:

• Nathalie Dechy and Ana Ivanovic played three nail-biting sets. As much as I like Ivanovic I was cheering for Dechy all the way. What terrific play. But for an Ivanovic shot that barely dribbled over the net on match point in the 2nd, 97th ranked Dechy would have won the match against the current world’s number 1.  Below Ana is kissing the part of the net where the ball hit the net chord.

• The 75th ranked feisty and unpredictable, Marat Safin, was able to oust 3rd seeded, Novak Djokovic, in three thrilling straight sets.

[July 4, 2008 Update: Safin lost Federer in the semi-finals.]

Thursday

My admiration for Dinar Safina started with her taking down Sharapova in the 2008 French Open. I had some considerable pleasure watching the 154th ranked unknown, Alla Kudryavtseva, take out Sharapova in the second round on Thursday. It’s a relief to know I won’t have to watch that self-absorbed squealer for the rest of the tournament.

[June 30 , 2008 Update: Alla ultimately lost to Nadia Petrova in the round of 16.]

Unfortunately James Blake lost a long five set disappointment to Rainer Schuettler. I really like Blake but no matter how far he gets I always just assume he’ll loose because 8 out of 10 times I’ve watched Blake play and got exited for him – he lost.

[July 4, 2008 Update: Schuettler lost Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals.]

As sad as it was to see Andy Roddick lose, Tipsarevic outplayed Roddick. Tipsarevic is an underrated player who I’m really starting to enjoy watching. He played an unforgettable first week 5 setter against Federer at the 2008 Aussie Open that I’ll never forget. He has since beat both Nadal and Djokovic. He deserves whatever bump in his ranking that he gets.

[July 2, 2008 Update: Tipsarevic lost to Schuettler in the quarter-finals.]

Friday

131st ranked Zheng Jie had previously won Wimbledon 2006 doubles but had never beaten a top ten singles player. I was cheering for her as she easily beat Ivanovic 6-1, 6-4. While I have nothing against Ivanovic, I feel her rating is higher than her skill. She hadn’t played well in the tournament. She got past Dechy in round 2 by the skin of her teeth.  She is not a consistent player and hasn’t yet learned how to manage her emotions – crying during a changeover in the middle of the second set. Jie was reminding me a little bit of Henin. Scrappy, going for every shot. I’m looking forward to watching more of her.

[July 4, 2008 Update: Jie ultimately lost to Serena Williams in the semi-finals.]