Reflecting Lights

So, things are heating up, and I’m getting pretty damn disappointed, personally.  While Jankovic’s victory over Serena made me happy, Sharapova’s victory over Justine did NOT.  I didn’t get to see the match, but looking at the scoreline, Justine came out even worse than Serena.  That said, Justine hadn’t really played well all tournament, and I’d rather she not win when she isn’t in top form (much like the Colts losing to the Chargers didn’t bother me, because they didn’t deserve a victory with as poorly as they played.)  My dream of her getting a Golden Slam this year are gone.  There’s something about the Australian Open that just doesn’t seem to work well for her.

And now that I think about her, I realize I dreamed about her last night.  I’ve dealt with the Rochus brothers in dreams a lot, but that’s the first time I dreamed of Justine.  It was nice, we hung out, and she was surprised I knew who she was, and I was trying not to seem  too much like a rampant fangirl.

Anyway, back to reality.  Tonight Venus will take on the other Serb, Ana Ivanovic, and Hantuchova will take on Radwanska.  I think the Vensu-Ana match will be good, although I’m not sure who will win.  Venus might come out extra strong after Serena’s loss, or she might bow out meekly like little sis.  As for the other match, who knows.  Hantuchova likes to make it difficult for herself, and Radwanska has proven she can beat anyone in the top 10, so Hantuchova certainly isn’t an unsurmountable challenge for her.

On the men’s side of things, two semi-finalists have been selected.  Rafa took out Jarko Nieminen in a match with a great first set that seemed to slide.  And the other match?  The Frenchman that came out of nowhere, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Mikhail Youzhny!  The kid’s got guts, and I think he stands a real shot against Nadal in the semis.

The other two matchups that haven’t yet been played will also be pretty damn good, I think.  While I usually question Blake’s mental strength (he’s melted down a few too many times for me to have confidence in him currently), he has played competitively against Roger before.  It seems he paid attention to what Tipsarevic did to nearly take down Federer, and if he can come out strong and really believe in himself, we might have another major upset in the quarterfinals.

I’m not sure how exciting the Ferrer versus Djokovic match will be.  What am I saying?  Just because most Americans don’t know who Ferrer is (and only know Djokovic because of his Maria impression that was all over Yahoo! the other day) doesn’t mean he isn’t a joy to watch.  Both of them are.  I think Djokovic might have a bit of an edge in way of skill, but Ferrer has a lot of his own, plus solid energy and a great personality.  While I don’t really have a favorite between the two, and in a sense don’t care who wins, I do think it will be a good match to watch if both men come out firing on all cylinders.

With that, I think it’s time I do a bit of reading to figure out WTHIGOW Justine.

I’m a little behind due to a busy Friday schedule, not to mention rung out from watching the emotional roller coaster that was the Hewitt vs Baghdatis much, so I’ll combine both days and and probably be brief.

Day 5:

Women hold to form fairly well, except Mauresmo falls to Aussie young heroine Dellacqua.  Roddick and Fish both go down in emotional matches, Roddicks stretching a long fifth set.  Frenchmen continue moving forward: Simon falls to Nadal as was expected, but Gasquet, Tsonga, and Mathieu all make it through to the fourth round.  Justine’s serve is continuing to give her fits, but she managed to hold out.  Hsieh becomes the first player from Chinese Taipei to make it to the fourth round of a Slam.

Day 6:

Holy moly!!  I’m still trying to recover from this session.  There were upsets, there were extremely long dramatic matches galore–and all of that from an extremely shortened session due to rain delays!

The upsets: Kuznetsova was taken out by Radwanska (Safina lookalike).  Sveta just wasn’t perfectly on her game, and Agnieszka really took it to her.  Chakvetadze was also upset, her by compatriot Kirilenko.  The first set was fantastic with no breaks of serve.  While technically it was an ‘upset,’ I really felt Kirilenko had a good chance of winning.  Her ranking has fallen a bit, but she’s certainly nearly Chakvetadze’s level.   On the men’s side, the upset was Fernando Gonzalez.  Last year he made it to the final, this year he bowed out to up and coming Croatian player Marin Cilic.

The long and dramatic: Federer finally got pushed!  Janko Tipsarevic pushed him to a 5th set where Federer pulled out a victory 10-8 in 4h 27m.  Federer’s really not used to having to work that hard, so it will be interesting to see what he’s got left in the tank.  Blake versus Grosjean was also a classic.  Grosjean came out firing on all cylinders while Blake looked like he’d rather be anywhere but on the tennis court.  Alas, Grosjean’s fantastic play in the first two sets came with a steep price: he ran out of gas.  He actually was just a few points from the match in the fourth set before losing in five.  That’s two five-set wins for Blake now–both against French veterans.  Hmm…

The final long and dramatic match was the one I was looking forward to the most and didn’t think I would get to see it at all.  Imagine my surprise when I flipped on the television this morning (just in case) to find that the Baghdatis-Hewitt match was still in the second set!  Now that was an amazing match.  Hewitt’s fire, Baghdatis’ joy… I was so hoping Baghdatis would win, particularly coming back from 1-5 down to force a fifth set, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be.  Regardless, it was my favorite match of the tournament thus far.  It had the latest start time (just before midnight) and latest finish time (around 4:30 a.m.) of any match at a Slam.  (I don’t think that’s limited to just the Australian Open).  Baghdatis is now 5-1 in five set matches at the Aussie Open.  Yeah, that was his very first five-set loss there.

Also played: Venus defeated Sania Mirza, Ivanovic destroyed Srebotnik, Berdych rolled over Monaco, and Djokovic stopped Querrey’s run.

Day 7 preview:

There’s going to be a lot of good tennis on day 7 given how many matches had to be shoved back a day due to the rain on Saturday.  First up with be Nalbandian versus Fererro, which I can’t wait to see.  The one problem with it being first on Laver?  I’m more than a bit worried that it’ll go long and wreak havoc on the scheduling for the main stadium.  Particularly since the battle of Frenchmen, Tsonga versus Gasquet, follows it up.  That could go five as well.  Vaidisova versus Serena Williams (the final day match on Laver) could prove long and interesting as well.  I’ve picked Vaidisova to win, but who knows…

Mathieu versus Nadal will probably shape up to be interesting, as will Dementieva (if she can keeps her wits about her) against Sharapova. Davydenko-Youzhny could be…weird, actually.  I’m just not sure how that one will turn out.  Nieminen versus Kohlschreiber could feature some pretty fantastic play as well.

Anyway, it’s been a great past few days of tennis, and the upcoming Sunday matches will probably continue that trend.