Australian Open 2008 - The Djoker Aces Them All

Wow, as usual I find myself saying "it's been so long since I last blogged." Everything is just so busy nowadays. I don't know where the time has gone. I've finally found the time to write about the Australian Open. I actually went to the centre court day 3 night matches, but was glued to the tv watching tennis for two weeks so decided to write it up once the whole tournament was all finished.

Firstly, what a great tournament it was this year. So much drama and some thoroughly enjoyable matches. As you may know, Novak Djokovic won the men's championship and Maria Sharapova won the womens. It's a changing of the guard on both the mens and womens side. It's probably good for the game to have new champions but I'm such a Federer fan (see here, here, and here for proof) that I wanted him to keep winning.

The mens finalist of Novak Djokovic "The Djoker" and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga "Ali" was thoroughly deserved. The two of them played the most aggressive and totally amazing tennis thoroughout the tournament. Djokovic's experience helped him over the line in a very entertaining final. He was able to withstand the firepower from Tsonga and most of the crowds support as well. Djokovic has proven that he is no joker and is now a genuine contender for every title. He has joined "the two" in Federer and Nadal. He can now be mentioned in the same breathe as those two and has separated himself from the rest of the pack. It's up to the rest of the players to catch up to the top three.

There is now pressure on Federer and Nadal to hold their places at the top of the tree. As of late last year, Federer's form has dropped slightly. But like the great man said himself, he has made it hard for himself but setting such a lofty standard. Now when he loses one set or a match, there's so much talk that he is losing it. This is so strange to me. Even when the great Pete Sampras was dominating the sport, he would only win one or two grand slam a year. Now Federer has been winning three each year and yet people still talk about his fallability. He may have lost a couple of matches last year to Nalbandian, but he did come back and win the Masters Cup. This year, he made it to the semi finals, his 15th consecutive grand slam semi final. For anyone else, that would be an amazing feat, but yet it's not good enough since its Federer. That makes me so mad.

Anyway, I look forward to The French Open now to see what will happen. Federer must be fired up to win it and Nadal will have fierce competition in Djokovic. Nadal hasn't been as dominant a force lately, especially on surfaces other than clay. His style is made to look almost docile when player big hitters. This all adds up to make the mens side much more interesting.

On the womens side, it also has heated up. With the Williams sisters unable to just turn it on and dominate, there is a new crop of champions. The fact that they are all leggy glamourous players has probably helped boost the profile of women's tennis. It's now a battle of who can play but also look the best. Think of "Aussie" Ana Ivanovic, Maria Sharapova, Nicole Vidisova and Maria Kirilenko. The focus is as much on their looks as there tennis. But unlike Anna "the original" Kournikova, these girls have managed to actually win tournaments. No one can argue that Sharapova is just relying on her looks. If looks (to and coming from Maria) could kill, Maria has it. There is so much intensity in her play and she is not out there to please the crowd like Kournikova use to be. Sharapova is out there to win. All her childhood hardship is showing through as she has worked hard and struggled to get where she is. I guess that is one reason for the explosion of great players from the Eastern European countries. They have had to fight for what they got, making them all so mentally tough.

Finally, here are a few photos from my night at the tennis.

Anna Chadvataze.

Igor Andreev.

Andy Roddick.

Maria Sharapova and Lindsay Davenport.