Midnight Madness

So I can't devote an entire post to that epic five-set match between Roger and Janko Tipsarevic without talking a little bit about the other great match that day - the match between Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis. Technically, it was a day six match and this is my day seven post, but considering it started at about midnight and finished at four thirty I think that puts it in the grey zone.

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It is so much easier to watch and appreciate a good five set match when you're not emotionally involved! I was going for smiley happy Marcos, but I wasn't devastated that Lleyton won or anything - whereas if Roger had lost I would have been weeping for days! (Because I'm just that lame...) This one was a real struggle, a real tussle, a real battle of minds, and it was so good to watch that I sacrificed a whole lotta sleep for it!

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(That said, I did doze off in the second and third sets. But they were the boring sets.)

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The fourth set, I think, was the most emblematic of the match. Even though Marcos won that set - he lost the match - I think it was a microcosm of the whole. Hewitt was up a double break. Baghdatis fought back to take the match in a breaker. That was it, really - the constant shifting of advantage in the match. You couldn't tell who was going to win until that crucial fifth... and even then, you knew there was the possibility of a Baghdatis comeback.

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I think it came down to legs, really. Not that Hewitt is fitter than Baghdatis (though one could maybe make a case for it) but Hewitt's second round against Istomin was much easier than Baghdatis's against Safin... see 'Brilliance and Tragedy' from a few days ago! I think the fatigue maybe got to Marcos in the end, after the adrenaline comedown from the fourth set breaker. But I could be doing him a huge disservice. I was, after all, half asleep by this point.

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Looking ahead to the fourth round, I think is the one time in the tournament I'm going to be genuinely going for Lleyton. I don't like him, as I've said many a time, but I really, really, really want someone to knock Djokovic down a few notches. Roger's had his scare. I thought maybe Rafa was going to get his scare against Mathieu last night, but Mathieu retired, so I was proved wrong... but Novak needs a scare. His arrogance is most unappealing. And I was very glad Nalbandian got knocked off yesterday. Not that I'm happy when Roger's problem players get knocked out. Not at all.

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And how about Jo-Wilfried Tsonga? The unseeded giant-killer? Knocking off Murray and now Gasquet? Now Dellacqua and Kohlschreiber are both gone, I think Jo-W is my new candidate for this year's Marcos... because obviously, there has to be one!

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Australian Open Results - Day Seven

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Men's Singles

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Juan Carlos Ferrero def. David Nalbandian, 6-1 6-2 6-3

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga def. Richard Gasquet, 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (8-6) 6-3

Rafael Nadal def. Paul-Henri Mathieu, 6-4 3-0 ret.

David Ferrer def. Vince Spadea, 6-3 6-3 6-2

Mikhail Youzhny def. Nikolay Davydenko, 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 6-1

Jarkko Nieminen def. Philipp Kohlschreiber, 3-6 7-6 (9-7) 7-6 (11-9) 6-3

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Women's Draw

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Jelena Jankovic def. Casey Dellacqua, 7-6 (7-3) 6-1

Serena Williams def. Nicole Vaidisova, 6-3 6-4

Justine Henin def. Hsieh Su-wei, 6-2 6-2

Maria Sharapova def. Elena Dementieva, 6-2 6-0

Daniela Hantuchova def. Virginia Ruano Pascual, 6-2 6-3

Nadia Petrova def. Ekaterina Makarova, 6-1 7-6 (10-8)

Marta Domachowska def. Li Na, 6-2 2-6 6-4

Caroline Wozniacki def. Sabine Lisicki, 4-6 6-4 6-4