This week marks the start of the Quarterfinals (Top 8) in the Australian Open. And by the end of the week, we will know who the Australian Open champs would be!
I usually watch WTA more compared to the ATP. I find the women’s is more interesting and has a much more open field, not one dominant player. A lot of the players can take away the trophy. Unlike in the men’s field, it’s always the four of them – Nadal, Djokovic, Murray and Federer.
First few rounds was usually lopsided, except for a few nice matches and even upsets.
Round 1 proved to be a tough round for one of my favorites – Agnieszka Radwanska. She battled it off with Mattek-Sands from the USA winning on a very tight 3 set match.
Speaking of upsets on Round 1, reigning US Open champion Sam Stosur lost to Sorana Cristea on straight sets. Big upset here. I was hoping Stosur could move on a few more rounds, at least to the quarters. But things happen in these tournaments! There’ll always be upsets here and there.
Another great match during day one was Fernando Verdasco versus Tomic of Australia. 5 set match – and I felt bad for Verdasco because he was up 2 sets before Tomic made his comeback. I guess the heat was taking its toll on him because he’d wear ice packs around his neck and throw water at his face. Come to think of it, how can you survive playing top notch tennis under the blistering heat of the sun and temperatures in the near 30s? Tough conditions for sure.
Best Match So Far
Round 4 was a blockbuster round with reigning champ Kim Clijsters battling it out with our favorite Chinese tennis star, Li Na. It’s a repeat of the finals last year, and this time with Li Na, looking like she’s in way better shape, and much stronger than Clijsters.
Set 1, with 3 games a piece for each player, Clijsters rolls her left ankle during a rally point. Everyone’s heart probably stopped at that point (Clijsters is a very popular player in Australia, having even been dubbed as “Aussie Kim”, although she is Belgian). This is supposed to be her last Australian Open so she mustered enough strength to continue on with the match! She still lost the first set to Li Na who was playing superb!
Set 2 went into tie breaker with Li Na gaining ground having a 6-2 lead! That’s four match points!! And miracle of all miracles, Clijsters somehow manages to save those four match points, and score 6 straight points to win the second set!
I guess the disappointment of the second set proved to be too much for our favorite Li Na, as she eventually lost the set, and the match to the great and loved champ Kim Clijsters. Now Kim Clijsters is off a quarterfinal square off with the number one seed Caroline Wozniacki.
Highlights of Round 4
A Japanese by the name of Kei Nishikori has made history books by being the first Japanese man in the open era to move on to the quarter finals of a grand slam by beating fan favorite Tsonga of France! His powerful ground strokes proved to be too much for the big man Tsonga. That was a very entertaining match. Folks who bought tickets surely got their money’s worth.
Serena Williams goes down against Russia’s Makarova. This is the same woman who took out Kanepi and Zvonoreva! She’s definitely on a roll. Watching the game, Williams just wasn’t in it, she made a ton of unforced errors but to Makarova’s defense, she was hitting baseline forehands crazy accurate! Congratulations to Makarova. She’ll now be facing off with Maria Sharapova in the quaterfinals.
Quaterfinals
Quaterfinals is about to start and I’m waiting for two blockbuster games coming up – Azarenka (who could potentially win the grand slam) versus Radwanska (who I love watching because of her very calm demeanor) and then a little later, another blockbuster game worth watching: Clijsters versus Wozniacki! It will be a very busy day for me!
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