Wild Wednesday at the Australian Open !!!

Wednesday, 27 January 2010 00:00

Li Na made history staging an amazing comeback to upset Venus Williams and become the second Chinese woman to reach the semi-finals at the Australian Open.

World No1 Serena Williams came back from the brink of defeat, one set down and 4-0 down in the second, to beat Azarenka and secure a spot in the semi-finals. Top seed Roger Federer fought back from a set and 1-3 deficit to beat sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko in four sets, reaching his record 23rd straight Grand Slam semi-finals.

The last quarter-final encounter brought another upset in a thrilling five-setter, as tenth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated three seed Novak Djokovic to take the last spot in the Men’s semi-finals.

WOMEN’S SINGLES

Sixteenth seed Li Na was down a set, and sixth seed Venus Williams was serving for the match at 5-2. The American was unable to close it, and the Chinese won the eventual tiebreak to pull even.

The dramatic third set saw nine breaks of serve, including six in succession. Williams had trouble serving and five double faults in the deciding set helped Li to cause the upset in a 2-6, 7-6, 7-5 victory.

China has now two women in the final four of a Grand Slam for the first time in history, with Zheng Jie taking on Justine Henin for a spot in the final. Li now faces another Williams, Serena, and an all-Chinese final is a possibility, not that I would bet on that.

Serena Williams had an even more spectacular comeback, down a set and 4-0 against seven seed Belarusian Victoria Azarenka.

Azarenka broke Williams’s serve, for the first time in the tournament, in the opening game. The remainder of the set saw four more breaks of serve, and Azarenka took a 5-2 advantage but it wouldn’t be until three games later that she would serve it out, winning 6-4 after Serena saved 3 set points on her own serve.

Azarenka dominated early in the second set, breaking the defending champion’s serve twice to lead 4-0. But as the match looked like it was heading for the second upset of the day, Williams put on nuclear power and hit 22 winners in that set to force a tiebreak that she won at 7-4 to pull even.

The top seed showed her fighting spirit and her class, pouncing in the third game of the final set to break Azarenka’s serve and lead 2-1. She wouldn’t look back from that point on, as she broke again to take the match 6-2 in the decisive set.

Williams hit 57 winners to Azarenka’s 22, served 17 aces to her opponent’s one, and made 38 unforced errors to Azarenka’s 24.

The American won 105 points, while the Belorusian won 102, but Williams accumulated most of her winners in the second half of the contest, breaking down Azarenka’s confidence with her astonishing comeback in the second set.

What a performance!!

“I’m surprised. I’m just happy to still be here.” Said Serena. “I didn’t expect to win when I was 0-4. I was like, ‘oh well, at least I’m still in the doubles.

Serena Williams still has a shot at both titles, she will be huge favorite against 16-seed Li Na in the singles’semi-finals.

MEN’S SINGLES

World No 1 Swiss Roger Federer kept alive his Grand Slam semifinals record streak-23 consecutive appearances- with a spectacular comeback from a set and 1-3 deficit to beat sixth seed Russian Nikolay Davydenko 3-6, 6-3, 6-0, 7-5 in the Australian Open Men’s quarterfinals.

Davydenko had snapped from a 12-0 losing record against Federer by beating him in their last two meetings, first in the semifinals of the ATP World Tour Finals last November and in the season- opening Qatar Open in Doha.

It looked that the Russian had the upper hand again in Wednesday’s contest, taking the first set and 3-1 lead in the second, but Federer reeled off 13 straight games from that point, winning the second set 6-3, the third 6-0 in just 24 minutes, and taking a 2-0 lead in the fourth.

Davydenko fought his way back to 3-3 and earned 3 breakpoints with the Swiss 0-40 in the eighth game, but five big serves helped Federer to 4-4. The Russian saved one match point on Federer’s serve to level the set at 5-5, but the World No 1 got the break in the next game and served out for a place in the Semis, improving to 13-2 against the Russian.

“I knew I wasn’t looking good at 6-2, 3-1 down and 15/40 on my serve,” Federer said. “But that’s the beauty of best of five sets. I wasn’t panicking, even though I maybe would have lost the second set had I lost another point there at that stage. I just relaxed and thought maybe if the sun goes and his level drops just a little bit, the whole thing might change for the better. It did. I couldn’t believe the way it changed…”

Indeed it did.

The drama reached its peak with the last QF contest, when tenth-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat the third-seeded Serb Novak Djokovic in a thrilling clash 7-6, 6-7, 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 on Wednesday night. The crowd got its money’s worth on this wild Wednesday in Melbourne.

In the process, Tsonga avenged his loss to Djokovic in the 2008 Australian Open final, and denied momentarily the Serb an opportunity to reach a career-high No 2 in the ATP Rankings.

Tsonga rallied twice from a break in the first set to force a tiebreak, and what that have been the difference in the contest occurred when he served at 6-7. There was no call as Tsonga was credited an ace to tie Djokovic at 7-7. The Serb, out of challenges, told the referee the ball was well out, and the replay showed Tsonga’s serve was indeed out and would have given the point and the set to Djokovic with a correct call or a challenge.

The Frenchman eventually won the tiebreak and the set in 67 minutes.

Those two players are so well matched that they got to another tiebreak in the second set, this time going to Djokovic who leveled the score at one each in 57 minutes. The Serb took advantage of a tiring Tsonga to take the third set at 6-1, capitalizing in 37 minutes on the momentum acquired in the second set.

In the first game of the fourth set, Djokovic returned to his chair holding his stomach. After Tsonga broke his serve for a 2-0 lead, the Serb rushed off the court, and declared afterwards that he went to vomit and had diarrhea before the match.

When he came back, Tsonga broke his serve again to go 4-0 and finally closed the set at 6-3, but not before Djokovic reeled off three straight games.

Tsonga took a two-break of serve 4-1 lead in the fifth on Djokovic’s double fault in the fifth game, who walked to his chair with his head in his towel. Tsonga fired the crowd in Rod Laver Arena with an outstanding scrambled winner off a Djokovic drop shot. The Serb dropped to 15/40 at 1-5 after the Frenchman hit a forehand winner down the line, and victory was Tsonga’s one point later.

Tsonga, who had never played a five-set match in his previous 20 Grand Slam appearances, won his last two matches going the distance, setting up a semi-final clash with top seed and three-time former champion Roger Federer Friday night. That will the pair third meeting, they have split the first two, Tsonga beating the World No 1 in the last one in Montreal last summer.

This Wednesday at the 2010 Australian will be remembered by the fans for a long time, as one of the most exciting day of tennis ever seen.

I have to go with Justine Henin and Serena Williams in the Women’s semis, Federer and Murray in the Men’s.

That would set up the crowd’s choice for the finals in both categories.

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Wild Wednesday at the Australian Open !!!

Wild Wednesday at the Australian Open !!!

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