Australian Open 2010 Day 9 Open Thread

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It's Australia Day, the day Aussies celebrate the landing of the First Fleet with Captain Phillip and the convicts.

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We have arrived at the quarterfinals. MadProfessah's picks are here and here.

For today's bottom half matchups, I'm going with Rafael Nadal in four, Marin Cilic in four, Justine Henin in three, and Zheng Jie in three.

For Roddick to avoid the upset, he's going to have to block out his knee pain and hope that his experience can carry him through if Cilic tightens up at the end of sets as he did against Juan Martin del Potro.

If Murray is to have a chance of dismissing a man determined to defend his title.... Scratch that. He has no chance. Oh, he'll make it interesting and give Rafa's fans a few strokes, but he has no chance.

Miss Nadia will have to win in straights -- which I believe she can, here's hoping she does, too -- and MariaK's going to have to believe she belongs in the final four of a Slam.

Who you got?

Order Of Play For Tuesday, 26 January 2010

Rod Laver Arena 11:00 Start Time

1. Women's Singles - Quarterfinals
Justine Henin (BEL) v. Nadia Petrova (RUS)[19]
2. Women's Singles - Quarterfinals
Jie Zheng (CHN) v. Maria Kirilenko (RUS)
3. Men's Singles - Quarterfinals
Andy Roddick (USA)[7] v. Marin Cilic (CRO)[14]

Rod Laver Arena 19:30 Start Time
1. Men's Singles - Quarterfinals
Andy Murray (GBR)[5] v. Rafael Nadal (ESP)[2]

Australian Open 2010: Men's Quarterfinals Preview

by Mad Professah

Here are my predictions for the men's quarterfinals at the Australian Open this year, which is one of the strongest fields in recent memory, with 6 of the top8 seeds making it to the final eight.

Roger Federer SUI (1) vs. Nikolay Davydenko RUS (6). Haven't we seen this movie before? Roger Federer, the Greatest Of All Time, playing late in a major tournament against Kolya the Obsure Russian. Yes, we have, but since the last major was played Davydenko has won not one but two tournaments where he beat both Rafael Nadal and Federer. That still gives him the uninspiring record of 2 wins 12 losses against The Mighty Fed, including 0-4 in majors. In fact, in 2006 Davydenko lost in this very same round to Federer in four relatively tight sets. Of course neither player is the same player they were four years ago. One would really have to say that it is Davydenko who has improved more in that time, rather than Federer. I suspect this match will be closer than most people expect, but that Federer will pull through, bringing his already incredible streak of 22 consecutive Grand Slam semifinals to a ridiculous 23. PREDICTION: Federer in 5 sets.

Novak Djokovic SRB (3) vs Robin Soderling SWE (8) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga FRA (10). You know things are good when a reprise of the 2008 men's final is not even the best match-up of this round. It's interesting that Robin Soderling was seeded to have this position, because I always expected "Jo-Willie" to be right here from the beginning of the tournament. Unfortunately for him, I don't think the result will be any different from the last time the charismatic Frenchman played the talented Serb on the big stage in Melbourne. Djokovic is playing devastating tennis and is anxious to remain in the conversation when talk turns to the Nadal-Federer monopoly on major titles. Unless Tsonga is playing the tennis that had him dismiss Nadal in that magical semifinal in 2008, he will probably not even win a set. Then again one never knows what could happen because last year the defending champion bizarrely threw in the towel against Andy Roddick at this stage of the tournament. However, I am pretty sure he is eager to erase memories of that result from the tennis-watching public's mind. PREDICTION: Djokovic in 4 sets.


Andy Roddick USA (7) vs. Juan Martin Del Potro ARG (4). Marin Cilic CRO (14). I really never expected to see Juan Martín del Potro make it this far in the tournament and he really never looked very comfortable in any of his matches in Melbourne. Cilic was impressive in maintaining his composure as he blew breakpoint after breakpoint against the reigning US Open champion and beat his once and future rival for the first time at a major. A lot of people (including myself) have favorably re-assessed the play of Andy Roddick after the incredible competitive spirit he showed in the best match of last year, the 2009 Wimbledon men's final. However, Marin Cilic is undefeated in 2010 and he is absolutely not satisfied with only being a quarterfinalist. I'm sure he truly believes that if Juan Martin can win a major (over Federer no less!) than he can as well. If so, he'll have to get through at least three more excellent players to get there, as well as have some good luck. Fortune favors the brave. PREDICTION: Cilic in 5 sets.

Andy Murray GBR (5) vs. Rafael Nadal ESP (2). This is the match-up of the tournament (so far). The one player who is playing even sharper tennis than Djokovic is Andy Murray, who hears the clamor of "best player not to have won a major" getting louder and louder every single day. Although Nadal sports a 7-2 career head-to-head lead, Murray's two wins have occurred on hard courts. However, Nadal did beat Murray in a 5-set match in Melbourne in 2007. However, the Andy Murray of today is not the same player Nadal dispatched then. Also, Nadal has not really been that impressive in getting this far in the tournament, although maybe that is because he has not been seriously tested. That will end in this match. Either way, the defending champion will not go out without a tremendous fight. This should be the best match of the four and a great one overall. PREDICTION: Murray in 5 sets.

Australian Open 2010: Women's Quarterfinals Preview

by Mad Professah

Here are my predictions for the women's quarterfinals at the Australian Open this year.

Serena Williams USA (1) vs. Victoria Azarenka BLR (7). Serena is playing like a woman on a mission. Her performance against 13 seed Samantha Stosur in the round before was, in a word, scary. Pam Shriver called it the best serving she had seen by a female player, ever. Although at the start of the tournament I did not predict Serena to win this title, mostly because she has only defended a title once in ten attempts and I was also entranced by the odd-year symmetry of her wins down under, after seeing what she did to the Aussie's No. 1 player, I think the rest of the field should be afraid, very afraid. Interestingly, one of the few players who is not afraid of playing Serena is the feisty No. 7 seed from Belarus, who almost derailed Serena here last year, leading by a set and a break before she was overwhelmed by the heat and retired ignominiously. Azarenka did get her revenge by dispatching a clearly injured Serena in straight sets to win the "fifth major" in Miami later that year so I am confident that Serena will take this match very seriously. Azarenka finished off her last match by inflicting a bagel on Vera Zvonareva in the third set, a not uncommon occurrence. What is an uncommon occurrence in this tournament is Serena in trouble on her serve. She is the only player, male or female, who has not had her service broken, and eliminated the three breakpoints she faced yesterday with three aces. An incredible performance indeed. The only question for Serena is whether she is peaking too early, or whether she is going to continue to play at this high-level for the rest of the tournament. If the latter is indeed, true, then Serena Williams be the 2010 Australian Open women singles champion, regardless of what happens in the rest of the draw. PREDICTION: Serena in 3 sets.

Na Li CHN (16) vs Venus Williams USA (6). I really like the play of the veteran Chinese player (so much so I named my dog after her!) and except for the hiccup against Francesca Schiavone in the previous round, Venus has been playing pretty good, if not overwhelmingly aggressive, tennis. With her natural power and athletic ability that is enough to get the older Williams sister through most matches by simply overwhelming most opponents and the relatively diminutive Li Na will most likely be no exception. PREDICTION: Venus in 2 sets.

Elena Dementieva RUS (5) Justine Henin BEL vs. Kim Clijsters BEL (15). Nadia Petrova RUS (19). I really expected to see Elena Dementieva and/or Kim Clijsters in this quarter of the draw, but it looks like the hard-hitting and extremely talented Petrova may have finally quieted the doubting voices in her head and is simply letting her tennis do the speaking for her. She has the game to beat just about anyone when she is playing her best and is one of the prototypical "big babes." Henin is playing in her first major tournament in two years, and is trying to repeat (or overshadow) her Belgian compatriot Clijsters who was able to win a grand slam within a few weeks of her return to the tour from retirement. Henin has looked to be about 80-90% as effective as she was before she left, and I have no doubt that she will be a threat to win any major she enters this year, and a lock in Paris. However, her wins have become increasingly labored with every successive round. This match is the hardest of the four to predict the result (and most likely will be the hardest to watch, as well). PREDICTION: Petrova in 2 sets or Henin in 3.

Jelena Jankovic SRB (8) Jie Zheng CHN vs. Maria Sharapova RUS (14) Maria Kirilenko RUS. The surprise quarterfinalists! I definitely expected a different Maria from Russia to be occupying this quarterfinal berth, but good job for "the Other Maria" to finally break out of the shadow of her best friend on the tour and not only eliminate Sharapova in the first round but continue all the way to the final eight. The second Chinese player in the quarterfinal represents the first time two Chinese players have made it this far simultaneously in a major tournament, with Zheng also having played in the 2008 Wimbledon ladies semifinal. I believe this match will be determined by who wants it more, not by the tennis of the two players. In that case, I prefer to go with the person who has not been here before. Either way, I have serious doubts the person from this quarter will be making it to the final. PREDICTION: Kirilenko in 3 sets.

Melbourne: “Mr PlodStation”

Davydenko d. Verdasco 6-2 7-5 4-6 6-7 6-3

A pretty crummy performance from Davy if you ask me.

(Photo: Reuters)

“Mr Playstation” is no more, or has regressed temporarily into a ZX Spectrum.

There was nothing ‘high’ or ‘radiant’ about the highlights reel I saw, with both players struggling to keep the ball in court and Dasco gaffing his way to 81 UFEs.

He raised his game by one barely detectable notch in that final set, but one wonders if Davy would have made the finish line had Dasco displayed just a little more belief.

Loyalties aside, would we really want him to win his first Slam playing like this?

I can only hope this is something of a blip - he’ll be lucky to get a set off Federer playing this way.

Quote For The Day

Getty

“It's important when you're playing a local girl to not let the crowd get too involved or else they'll kill you. That was the plan: to not let them get involved. I knew she was capable. She beat me last time and anything can happen. So she's a really, really good player and so dangerous. I was like, you have to be focused when you're playing Sam[antha Stosur], for sure.”--Serena Williams

And focused she was. Like a laser.

It was a serving display like none I've seen from anyone before, woman or man. 10 aces. 1 double fault. Three breakpoints saved with aces. Seven points total lost on serve, only two in the first set. She remains the only player left in the draw, woman or man, to not have her serve broken.

Breathtaking.

Notice served.

With the victory, Serena will remain world No. 1 no matter what happens this weekend.

Women's Singles Fourth Round
(1) Serena Williams (USA) d. (13) Samantha Stosur (AUS) 64 62
(16) Li Na (CHN) d. (4) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) 64 63
(6) Venus Williams (USA) d. (17) Francesca Schiavone (ITA) 36 62 61
(7) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) d. (9) Vera Zvonareva (RUS) 46 64 60

Reuters

Nicolas Almagro and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga played this year's surprise epic. After the first two sets, it appeared to be a routine beatdown. But Tsonga started doing what Tsonga does, while Almagro became a player I hardly recognized.

Men's Singles Fourth Round
[1] R Federer (AUS) d [22] L Hewitt (AUS) 62 63 64
[3] N Djokovic (SRB) d L Kubot (POL) 61 62 75
[6] N Davydenko (RUS) d [9] F Verdasco (ESP) 62 75 46 67(5) 63
[10] J Tsonga (FRA) d [26] N Almagro (ESP) 63 64 46 67(6) 97

Men's Doubles - Third Round
[3] L Dlouhy (CZE) / L Paes (IND) d J Isner (USA) / S Querrey (USA) 63 75
F Gonzalez (CHI) / I Ljubicic (CRO) d [11] S Aspelin (SWE) / P Hanley (AUS) 64 63
M Kohlmann (GER) / J Nieminen (FIN) d S Bolelli (ITA) / A Seppi (ITA) 46 76(3) 76(6)

Women's Doubles - Third Round
(15) Kirilenko/A.Radwanska (RUS/POL) d. (3) Llagostera Vives/Martínez Sánchez (ESP/ESP) 61 62
(6) Raymond/Stubbs (USA/AUS) d. Chan/Niculescu (TPE/ROU) 75 63
(8) Mattek-Sands/Yan (USA/CHN) d. (9) Vesnina/Zheng (RUS/CHN) 64 64

Mixed Doubles - Second Round
(1) Cara Black (ZIM) /Leander Paes (IND) d. Akgul Amanmuradova (UZB)/Rik De Voest (RSA) 64 62
Ekaterina Makarova (RUS)/Jaroslav Levinsky (CZE) d. (2) Daniela Hantuchova (SVK)/Daniel Nestor (CAN) w/o
Chuang Chia-Jung (TPE)/Filip Polasek (SVK) d (3) Bethanie Mattek-Sands/Bob Bryan (USA) 75 76(4)
Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (CZE)/Oliver Marach (AUT) d. (6) Alisa Kleybanova (RUS)/Max Mirnyi (BLR) 36 63 10-7
(8) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/Andy Ram (ISR) d. Anna-Lena Gronefeld/Christopher Kas (GER) 36 75 10-6
Flavia Pennetta (ITA)/Marcelo Melo (BRA) d. (WC) Jarmila Groth/Samuel Groth (AUS) 62 63

Mixed Doubles - First Round
Raquel Kops-Jones (USA)/Dick Norman (BEL) d. (5) Maria Kirilenko (RUS)/Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) 63 36 11-9

Australian Open 2010 Day 8 Order Of Play

AP

Rafael Nadal of Spain signs autographs for fans after beating Ivo Karlovic of Croatia during their Men's singles fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday Jan. 24, 2010.

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Can today's matches hold up to yesterday's? Um.... No. This is the boring half of both draws, relatively speaking.

I suppose the most intriguing matchup is Fernando Verdasco and Nikolay Davydenko. I suppose. Folks on Twitter have taken to calling Kolya XBox360 because he never misses. I haven't seen him strike a single ball at this event. Nor have I seen the swollen-faced Spaniard. But I suppose, based on current form and past history, it could be a barn burner. But I'm going with XBox360 in straights.

For the rest, I'm picking Venus Williams in straights, Serena Williams in straights, Roger Federer in straights, Vera Zvonareva in straights, Li Na in three, Novak Djokovic in straights, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in straights.

Schedule for Day 8: Monday, 25 January 2010

Rod Laver Arena 11:00 Start Time

1. Women's Singles - 4th Round
Francesca Schiavone (ITA)[17] v. Venus Williams (USA)[6]
2. Men's Singles - 4th Round
Fernando Verdasco (ESP)[9] v. Nikolay Davydenko (RUS)[6]
3. Women's Singles - 4th Round
Serena Williams (USA)[1] v. Samantha Stosur (AUS)[13]

Rod Laver Arena 19:30 Start Time

1. Men's Singles - 4th Round
Roger Federer (SUI)[1] v. Lleyton Hewitt (AUS)[22]
2. Women's Singles - 4th Round
Vera Zvonareva (RUS)[9] v. Victoria Azarenka (BLR)[7]

Hisense Arena 11:00 Start Time

2. Women's Singles - 4th Round
Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)[4] v. Na Li (CHN)[16]
3. Men's Singles - 4th Round
Novak Djokovic (SRB)[3] v. Lukasz Kubot (POL)
4. Men's Singles - 4th Round
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA)[10] v. Nicolas Almagro (ESP)[26]

Melbourne: Purple Rain.

Roddick d. Gonzalez 6-3 3-6 4-6 7-5 6-2

It’s difficult not to crow too loudly about the way A-Rod weathered the torrential storm Gonzo brewed up on court yesterday.

(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

Anyone other than about two or three players I can think of would have been reduced to a sickly, gibbering wreck in the aftermath of that third set – a period in which Gonzo went through a patch so purple, it was difficult to breath.

A-Rod wore almost the same WTF’ed expression he had when Sue Barker held a mic to his face on Centre Court at Wimby all those many months ago.

Was it 2007 all over again?

Evidently not.

Call him a ‘grinder’, a ‘blue-collar player’, a ‘G.I. Jo’, call him nothing more than ‘a serve and a forehand’ if you must – but let no one accuse him of rolling over.

Marin next for A-Rod, who downed Delpo in five – not quite the call I made, though not the greatest of shocks.