Six Hour Showdown

The Longest Ever Grand Slam Final

The moment that summed up the match and made both players even more adorable was when Nadal and Djokovic said in their acceptance speeches, “Good morning everybody!”

At quarter to 2  in the morning, after 5 hours and 53 minutes of mind-boggling and ferocious tennis, two things emerged.

Firstly, the current men’s game is probably as high as it gets.
It seems almost impossible to even imagine what level could exist beyond what we are seeing presently. Two weeks ago, several of the top 10 players had a fair chance of making it in Melbourne. Tsonga came in behind a strong finish last year and a confident start to this season in Doha. Tomas Berdych came with confidence after what was his best year on tour since he went pro. David Ferrer came in hot after winning in Auckland. Andy Murray came in with significant change to his camp. With multiple grand-slams champion Ivan Lendl as his coach, many reckoned that Murray has now the advantage of experience too, on his side. With Nadal's knees creaking, Federer's back spasming and Djokovic's shoulder and ankles barely managing to maintain the functionality, many expected a fairly open field in Melbourne.

But here is where men’s tennis is currently so good. To be at the top, you have to earn it. And you have to earn it in so hard a manner, that once you are there, you will break your back, pop a tendon or crack a rib, if you must, to stay there. After the first week, only 1 of the top eight seeds did not make it. And by the semi-finals, the gap between the top four and the rest of the pack elongated a bit more. The final three matches served tennis fans across the world, 14 hours and 25 minutes of high quality, mind numbing and sensational tennis. That's how good it is.

The second thing to emerge from this match is that Novak Djokovic is now, truly and deservedly in place as the World No. 1 and the leader of the field in this extraordinary sport. Many said that he achieved it when he won at Wimbledon. However, they also said that his run of 2011 will never be repeated, not even by him. That is why, to achieve all that in 2011, and then to come back, and defend his title, and defend in such difficult circumstances in such a spectacular fashion, marks for me, the moment when Novak Djokovic earned his spot.

Djokovic collapses after hitting the winner.

Meanwhile, Uncle Toni and Rafa need to figure out what exactly is still missing. The two probably started to think about the Djoker puzzle after back to back losses in Indian Wells and Miami. Five more losses later, it still remains unsolvable. He has lost now, three Grand Slam finals in a row. He has come closer to the solution in each match, yet not managed to find it.

However, after the contesting the longest grand slam final ever, after being up in the fifth set, after being only a few points away from the match and yet losing the match, those sure were some great words, not to mention a formidable spirit, from the champion Rafa.

Lip-smacking tennis is on offer in 2012. Do not miss it for the world.

Quarter-Finals Summary

There were four monumental matches on Day 9 of the Australian Open. And I think that they all ended with the right result.

First was the battle between Victoria Azarenka and Agnieszka Radwanska.

Vika Azarenka celebrates her Quarter Final win

Azarenka averaged at three games lost per match till today. It took a tight first set and a shocker of a tie-breaker to bring back that form into her. After 6-6 in the first set, the crowd was probably anticipating a tight tie-breaker. Instead, Radwanska ran away with it with seven consecutive points. Enough the shake Azarenka and bring out the best in her. Sure, the shrieks reached shattering frequencies, but it clearly meant that Vika was in the groove now.

She completed a convincing comeback to take the match 6-7 6-0 6-2.

The second clash was between Wonder Mum, Kim Clijsters and the slamless No. 1, Caroline Wozniacki.

Kim Clijsters after defeating Caroline Wozniacki

After her victory against Li Na, in what was, by far, the best women’s match in this Australian Open, yet, many wondered if she will be able to play at her best today. Especially after the tumble she took in that match, early in its first set. And despite the seedings, no one was fooled into believing that the Dane was the favourite, or the Belgian, the underdog. And after making it almost official in her previous match that this would be her last Australian Open, Kim Clijsters is on a dream run here. And she was not going to let the World No. 1 stop her.

She convincingly defeated her opponent 6-3 7-6 to progress to the semi-finals. And this meant that Wozniacki is set to lose her No. 1 ranking. She could be replaced at the top by either of Azarenka, Kvitova or Sharapova.

The third match was between Roger Federer and the rejuvenated Juan Martin Del Potro.

Federer and Del Potro shake hands after their match

To grasp just how talented and quick to learn the Argentine is, all one needs to do is look at four matches from 2009. The first one was here in Melbourne, in the quarter-finals. Federer won that encounter in a display of sheer dominance, 6-3 6-0 6-0. The next match is again between these two, this time of the clay of Paris. Federer almost had to dig the clay up to record a win. Five tight sets, with Federer even down a break in the fifth. In fact, the only reason Federer probably won that day was because he was on a highly motivated run to claim his first Roland Garros title after Nadal was disposed by Soderling. The third match is between Nadal and Del Potro, US Open semi-final. Only once before has Nadal ever had such a beating in a Grand Slam match. Del Potro decimated the Mallorcan, 6-2 6-2 6-2. The last one is the US Open final. No one, not even Del Potro himself probably believed that he could upset the five time champion. Five sets later, when he did accomplish that, he had become the first man ever, to defeat Federer and Nadal in a Grand Slam tournament.

He even had a shot at the coveted top two ranks, but for that brutal wrist injury. Missing almost the entire 2010 season, he plummeted from 4^th to somewhere close to 500^th in the world.

But the Argentine is back. He is he 11^th seed now and true to his ability, had progressed till the quarter-finals. Unfortunately, the confidence is still not quite back. It also does not help to run in a Federer who is playing brilliantly. Federer took just a minute less than two hours to win the match. The final score was 6-4 6-3 6-2.

For some records at statistics, this was Federer’s 1000^th tour level match. And he won his 2000^th, 2001^st and 2002^nd sets as well.

The last epic was between Rafael Nadal and Tomas Berdych.

Nadal celebrates a point

After the rather acrimonious spar between Berdych and Almagro, and being booed by the Melbourne crowd, Berdych was in no happy mood. He does not have a happy history with Nadal either. Nor is his head to head with Rafa something to cheer about. But Berdych is in the best form of his career. He is playing exceptionally well, on all wings. Unfortunately, so is Rafa.

After several nervous holds till 4-5 in the first, Berdych jumped to a 0-40 lead on Nadal’s service. Nadal then upped the ante and played three screaming points (not that Berdych was going easy, mind you) to draw level. Then in the tie-breaker, Nadal was the first to draw blood. But an excellent service return and an error in judgement related to the Hawk-Eye challenge meant that Nadal was suddenly another set point down. Berdych calmly aced it.

Again in the second set, Nadal raced to a 5-2 lead. But a challenge on his serve resulted in him having to replay the point, despite Berdych having been hardly any position to make a return. The service was broken and another tie-breaker followed. This time however, Nadal kept his nerve to close it 8-6.

For two sets, both Nadal and Berdych pounded the ball till it pleaded for mercy. After a set apiece, only Nadal had juice left in him to keep on going. Berdych was clearly out of gas. The first two sets lasted for two hours and twenty six minutes. And after four hours and sixteen minutes, the Spaniard triumphed. The score card read 6-7 7-6 6-4 6-3.

With both Federer and Nadal winning, this means that for the first time since the 2005 French Open, the two players will meet in the semi-final of a major. The only other time these two played in Australia was in the epic final of 2009.

This one on Thursday has all the makings of a classic.

Origami and more...

1. From a relative anonymity to the Hall of Fame - the jump that Marcos Baghdatis made in the sport of racket smashing.

Sure you have heard of the champions of this sport.
Goran Ivanisevic is undoubtedly one of the greatest. A Wimbledon champion and a fine tennis player. Finer than him were the pieces of his equipment after he was done with them. This is what he said after his semi-final against Kafelnikov -

"I was pretty nice to the racket all last week. I was surprised how easy it broke. Maybe there is something wrong with it, or I'm too strong."

Another famous champion is the Russian, Marat Safin. If you were to consider only his racket smashing reputation, then this man should be sending shivers down the Russian Duma (all 140% of them). He is estimated to have smashed over a thousand rackets in his career.
In his own words, the logic behind his passion for racket origami -
"Today I smash rackets, for tomorrow we die."

Safin: Using the Force to destroy this particular one

Even the great Roger Federer is a nondescript in this sport. Then how did Marcos Baghdatis achieve his feat, you might ask. In a highly explosive fit of rage in the match against the Swiss, Stanislas Wawrinka, the Cypriot destroyed not just one or two, but FOUR rackets, all within a minute, before smiling, accepting a code violation and resuming the game.

Thank goodness Cypress is no longer a part of Greece.


2. Clash of the Canines - A poor joke that can be made on two very talented youngsters on the circuit.
But the Aussie, Bernard Tomic (read more about him here) and the Ukrainian, Alexandr Dolgopolov (nicknamed Dog) match up to showcase the most extraordinary brand of tennis. As Vijay Amritraj pointed out -

"If Ferrer and Hewitt played a match, no doubt it will be of excellent quality, but they will end up playing the same point over and over again.

They will come no where close to matching the variety of these two youngsters."

          

And in a true display of rising confidence, the younger Tomic battled past Dolgopolov in five electrifying sets to advance to a personal best fourth round in the Australian Open and set up a clash with four-time champion Roger Federer. This performance also justifies his new title of being Australia's No. 1.

3. After shattering and grinding all records, and then sweeping them and throwing them into the bin, all in one Wimbledon match, one would have thought he'd had enough of five set marathons.
But clearly, five set marathons have not had enough of John Isner.

The American giant with a powerful service game had two of them, back to back. Against the Argentinian, David Nalbandian, he went on for 4 hours and 41 minutess before winning 10-8 in the fifth set, which alone lasted for 99 minutes. And against the Spanish lefty, Felicano Lopez, he toiled for 3 hours and 26 minutes. But this time he ended up on the losing side.

Isner: After someone kidded that they're abolishing tie breakers.

Of course, these encounters do not compare at all with that Wimbledon match (Isner's, not the 08 final). But it would seem Isner is making himself into a professional long-distance runner.

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Read the first of the articles on the One Hundredth Australian Open here.

A-Tomic and the Slam from Down Under

In a recent interview, Rafael Nadal said that the game was getting faster than ever.

The balls are flying quicker and heavier off rackets designed to impart more spin and power.

He is himself an excellent specimen to testify his claims. And with the likes of Djokovic, Tsonga, Soderling, Del Potro, Fish and Berdych filling the upper ranks, the factor of power seems to be the key to top flight tennis.

That is why, Bernard Tomic comes as a refreshing change.

Born in Stuttgart, Germany to parents of Croatian background, Tomic shifted to Australian when he was three. He first made headlines when he became the youngest ever male winner in the main draw at the Australian Open, in 2009 at the age of 17, as a wildcard.

His playing style is certainly unorthodox and the two most striking aspects of his game are his forehand and his footwork.

He hardly takes a swing behind his forehand, despite which it is generally effective.

His footwork is, to say the least, minimal. Unlike most players who take several strides and then a bunch of mini steps to work their way into a position from which to unravel the shot, Tomic simply takes a couple of steps in the direction of the ball before using his giant wingspan and the above mentioned forehand (or backhand, which seems to be more or less orthodox) to make his shot.

His movement about the court is not as busy and fast as Nadal's or Djokovic's. Nor is it as immaculate as Federer's. It is lazy and laid-back, almost clumsy.

But the bigger picture is not at all ugly. In fact, to watch Tomic play is almost mesmerizing. You are absolutely captivated by his shots - under-paced balls, drop shots (some of them played from well behind the baseline), slices and the squash-like defensive retrieve. He has the ability to change the pace of the rally.

An ability that was on display in his 2nd Round match of the 2012 Australian Open against the American, Sam Querrey (an excellent server with a strong forehand).

He has already displayed moments of brilliance against the current top three in the last year.

Against Djokovic in Wimbledon, where he reached the quarters and took a set off him. Against Rafa in Melbourne, where he spanked his way around for a greater part of the second set to force his opponent to raise his game. And against Federer in Davis Cup, in Sydney, he took a set off in the fourth rubber. He lost that match but he did give Australia hope when he defeated Stanislas Wawrinka in the opening rubber.

Add to his game a little bit of maturity and he could well be the next Grand Slam champion from Australia (who need to go back only as far as 2002 for one, unlike Great Britain).

Five: Steps I need to take to cover the whole court.

Meanwhile, other Aussie Open news:

1. Federer and Rafa are in the same half of the draw. Which means they could meet in the semis. Which will be the first since Roland Garros 2005.

2. The most dangerous crown these days seems to be that of the reigning Grand Slam champion in women's tennis. Kim Clijsters won here last year . She went out in the 2nd round in Paris, where Li Na won. Li Na lost in London in the 2nd round where Petra Kvitova triumphed. She promptly crashed out in New York in the 1st Round. Aussie Sam Stosur won there and in her home slam, completed the cycle by going out in straight sets in the 1st Round.

3. Caroline Wozniacki has been at No. 1 for more than a whole year now. During which time the above ladies won the slams. Come on Caro, for Rory's sake!

4. From Twitter: Sania Mirza exited the Australian Open after losing her first match, as the Indian cricket team looked on with jealousy.