Sweet Sixteen

He is the man. He is the master. This is his moment.

He is Roger Federer, and he is now the winner of sixteen Grand Slams - an achievement that has never before been seen, and may never be seen again. And we are lucky enough to watch him play, to live his era, to experience his greatness.

Let me talk about the match before I go waxing too lyrical and making obscure literary references again. I don't think anyone expected this match to be straight sets, but I think the scoreline belies the competitiveness, especially in the third set. That tiebreaker may have been the most epic one I have ever seen, even if, at 13-11, it didn't numerically live up to Jo Tsonga and Andy Roddick's 20-18 incident a few years back. It was epic because every point was vital - it was a set point, a match point, a point to stay in the match, a point to take the match. And it took a really long time before someone blinked on serve.

It cannot have been easy on Andy Murray, coming into this match having a realistic chance of winning and having the entirety of Great Britain hoping and praying for him. Channel 7 ran a piece on the Dunblane massacre before the match that I pray he didn't see - I get their thought, but talk about putting pressure on the lad! They made it sound like he was the one good thing that had happened in that town since that terrible tragedy and that him winning would bring joy and light and healing into a dystopic post-apocalyptic world. He did not have the luxury that Federer had of winning his very first Slam final, and he will be aware of people like Dinara Safina, who crumble repeatedly at this level. It's not good pressure.

And he showed, with his tears, that he feels it. I'm not normally a Murray fan, but I loved him a little in that moment. I have a terrible weakness for crying men... as evidenced by AO '06, when I became Jodi the Fedgirl.

But Andy Murray will win a Slam one day. I think we can say this safely. Just not this one. Not in this moment. His time will come, but it is not quite now.

Now belongs to Roger Federer, the undisputed king of tennis. This is his sweet sixteen, and he played beautifully tonight - much better than he has played against Murray in many matches in the past. I confess - I didn't expect him to play this well.

But even when I doubt, even when heaps of people doubt, even when the entire nation of Great Britain is sticking pins in voodoo dolls of him, Roger does not doubt. This is why he is the greatest of all time - not just the greatest tennis player, but possibly the greatest athlete alive on the planet today. This is why he is a champion.

This is why he now has sixteen Slams, an incredible, unbelievable record. And I do not know if we will ever see his like again.

Today belongs to the Maestro. Today belongs to the King, Today belongs to Roger Federer. And ain't it sweet?!

Justine Serves Notice

I don't think Justine Henin has anything left to prove to anyone. She might have lost this match tonight, but she has sent a message to the WTA world - JuJu is back, and she means business.

There was only one difference between Serena and Justine that I could see today, and it was on serve. If Justine could get a few more free points on her serve (and if Serena hadn't had quite so many) then the result could have been quite different. JuJu needs to get her percentage up on her first serve, though she is getting some great pop on the second. Because, seriously, I think that was the only real difference here today.

Perhaps the things that were lacking in JuJu's serve were highlighted by the excellence of Serena, because, seriously, she served like a real champion today. Probably because she is a real champion. She was especially great on the break points and assorted other big points - when it counted, she came up with those excellent serves into the corners. She played some really excellent stuff today - I agreed with the commentators that said she'd peaked when she played Stosur and hadn't been quite so good in the two ensuing matches, but she really came to the court tonight.

And so did Justine. These two are clearly the two greatest female tennis players of the noughties, and it is so great that their rivalry can continue into the next decade. Both have the minds, the games and the hearts of champions, and it is only appropriate that they faced off here. And I don't think this is the last we've seen of this rivalry.

Bring on Roland Garros. Bring on JuJu on clay. Bring on - I'm going to say it - the WTA. Because JuJu's home and she's going to make everyone play better. Because she is one of the best there is.

Allez!

His Mine of Precious Stones; His Empery

Watching Roger Federer playing in the zone is like watching tennis porn. And the only person who feels dirty afterwards is the dude on the other side of the net, who has been made to look comprehensively ordinary.

Jo-Dub Tsonga is not an ordinary player. He is one of the most obscenely talented players on tour right now - save Federer himself and the now-retired Safin, I can't think of anyone with more natural talent. Today he was not at his best - he was a half-step slow, exhausted by the two five set matches he played to get through to his match.

But against a lot of other players, that might have been good enough. It would have been good enough to compete, at any rate, to grab some games, maybe a set.

Against Federer, he looked like a schoolboy.

There is an aura around the zoning Federer that is palpable. It is tangible, you can sense it , almost like a smell. When he dances around his (excellent) backhand to crunch that forehand in the corner, when you know that the next serve is going to be unreturnable, that that backhand is going to sail sweetly into the corner, that that volley he hits is going to be untouchable... you can sense it. As viewers, you can look at Federer and know exactly what he is thinking. Because he is not thinking. He just knows. He knows that this court is his kingdom and there is nothing he can try that will not work.

He is John Donne's To His Mistress Going To Bed with a tennis racquet. And it is achingly, achingly perfect.

Across the net is a guy trying to turn Donne into Marvell, to mute the perfection, to make it look less than it is, to mitigate it, to combat it, to do something, anything. But unlike Marvell, there is no one that can succeed when Roger Federer is in his happy place.

And here's hoping that when Roger Federer lines up in the final on Sunday against Andy 'Toothface' Murray, that he is not thinking. He is knowing - knowing that he is home, in his happy place.

Has The Real Andy Murray Finally Stood Up?

I am going to come out right now and say it - Marin Cilic will win a major one day.

I don't think it will be this week, as he is now two sets and a double break down to Andy Murray. But had he not played three five set matches this week, and had Murray not managed a shot (which gave him a break) which can only be called miraculous, I think we might have seen a match more in the mode of the US Open, where Cilic blasted Murray off the courts in straights. Because this kid is seriously good.

Serve? Sweet - even though the deep backbend he gets makes him look like he's in The Matrix. Forehand? Pretty damn excellent. Backhand? He can hit some great winners off it. Volleys? More than capable. Wingspan? Huge. Temperament? Calm. Mind? Bob Brett is his coach, so you want to bet that he's a thinking player.

Cilic came out and absolutely dominated Murray for a set and a bit - and had not Murray pulled off that over-the-shoulder pass, he could have easily been up two sets to love, I think. He did this by aggressive play, forcing Murray to play his game and also understanding the Murray game very well (cutting off the cross court pass, for example). But three five setters is going to take it out of anyone, and about halfway through the third set, Cilic hit the wall. Had Tomic and delPo and A-Rod not taken him the distance, this would have been a really different match.

I realise I'm making it sound like this match was on Cilic's racquet - and you know what? I think it largely was. He's got bigger weapons than Murray, when it all comes down to it. And in the long run, I think he's going to get the better of their head to head. And although Murray certainly lifted - he won (or, to be fair, is about to win) this match, Cilic didn't tank it - I think there have been some interesting questions raised.

Especially this one from Jim Courier - what is Andy Murray's A Game? What kind of tennis does he like to play?

Murray is an amorphous player, becoming whatever is necessary to defeat his opponent. He doesn't have one game that he tries to impose on his opponents at all costs, like someone like Rafa does. He doesn't necessarily play tennis in his own terms all that often because no one really knows what Murray's terms are. And I don't know if Murray really knows either.

He just won, by the way - he hit a round the netpost winner in his last service game which was totally stupid. And maybe this is what Andy loves - stupid winners. It is certainly what fired him up tonight. His extreme aggression against Nadal was what won him that match, even though Rafa's knees gave out at the end of the second set. And yet we often see him playing counterpunching tennis that is Hewittesque. The thing is, Hewitt wasn't capable of too much more than counterpunching, excellent as he was (is) at it. Murray is clearly capable of so much more, and he doesn't often go for it.

Perhaps this is the next stage in the evolution of Andy Murray - when instead of being reactive, although he's been excellent at it, he becomes active. What we have seen in this tournament is the beginnings of Murray really dictating the way he likes to play tennis - and it's working for him. And when he stands up on Sunday - he is in with a good chance. Even if he stands up against my beloved Federer.

Oh, and we're getting Serena and Justine in the women's final - I can't believe I nearly forgot! (Though to be fair, if you blinked, it wouldn't have been hard to miss JuJu's match...) Now that should be a barnburner...

Fix the Roger, Fix the World

I have a terrible nervous tic with Federer Slam matches that I'm sure a psychologist would find interesting. When things get tight - when Roger's not looking good - I start trying to fix things.

Not him, obviously - as he is far far away and, you know, on a tennis court, away from my frazzling. But things around me. I distinctly remember the Federer/Tipsarevic match a few years back that went deep into the fifth - in fact, there's a ye olde worlde blog post on here about it somewhere - going out into my overrun backyard and weeding. I couldn't fix Roger, so I had to fix my yard.

The same thing happened today. Roger was down a set, he was down a break, and he was playing like what could politely be described as 'absolute crap'. He was misfiring off every possible wing and would have made a few shots... if the court were three metres wider. Added to which Nikolay Davydenko was on fire like whoa. It was completely depressing.

So I started cleaning.

I started with the last vestiges of my unpacking from the Epic Tennis Adventure. I put on a few loads of laundry. I folded some only ones. I sorted through epic stacks of paper on my desk and threw most of them away. I put books back on bookshelves. I rehung clothes. I went all spring-cleaning-like.

And while I cleaned, while I fixed up my house, Roger fixed up his game and won a casual thirteen games in a row.

Then I stopped cleaning and all of a sudden! Kolya held serve. Well, we couldn't have that, so I started the pile of mending that had grown up around me over the past few months. I sewed on buttons. I hemmed things. I mended torn seams. I fixed things up.

It didn't work immediately - apparently it's not a fine art, my fix life = fix Roger act - and Davydenko won some games, and did some breaking, and it was all on serve. I looked up nervously from my mending and looked for more things to clean. But I persevered with the mending and Roger persevered with his winning. He got one break and was serving for it... but Davydenko suddenly became a zombie who wouldn't lay down. I set down my mending for a second to polish my window sill before I picked it back up again.

And it worked. I fixed it. As I sewed on the last missing button, as the last vestiges of sun set over Canberra, Roger Federer defeated Nikolay Davydenko in four crazy sets to reach his twenty third consecutive Grand Slam semi final.

I don't want to claim any credit for this (well, maybe a tiny bit). But it did seem oddly poetic. And made me wonder whether I should check myself into a mental hospital.

Back to, ah, more sane tennis talk - this was a really topsy-turvy match, but it really did show just what the difference is between Roger and Kolya, and the difference is this: gears. Roger was playing craptastically, so - seemingly without warning, after Kolya missed one single shot - he shifted gear and suddenly became King Roger of the Land of Fedgasm. Kolya certainly missed more after this, but it was a combination of forced errors and what I saw called 'mentally forced errors' the other day. Kolya played worse because Roger made him play worse.

Kolya did lift his game in the fourth set - and considerably - but it was kind of like he found himself (and the lines) a bit more after being shellshocked for thirteen games there. Federer came down from Cloud Nine (to approximately Cloud Seven) and so Kolya was able to compete more. But what is so good about his game - his consistency - may also be what is stopping him from going from extremely good to great. He has no upper level to shift to. This also means it's harder for him to go down, but if he can't work out the answer to a player, then he's in big trouble. He doesn't, at this stage, have anywhere to go.

I know one thing he can improve. He can get rid of those Viking axe chop two handed volleys and get some nice new ones. Then we'll be cooking.

But all this criticism aside, Kolya had a great tournament, and had he been in a different section of the draw, I think he could have gone further. I would have been very interested to see Murray and Davydenko play each other. That would be a really interesting match up of games.

But I digress. Kolya has found himself lately and while I think he's still getting used to some aspects of it - his newfound status as media darling, for example - he is here to stay. I would not be surprised at all to see him win some more big tournaments and to have some more deep Slam runs. And Irina Davydenko might just be my favourite WAG since Mirka. Any man that can pick Kolya up by his head (see photos from Kolya's victory in Shanghai) is fine by me.

Roger will now play the winner of the currently-in-progress Djokovic/Tsonga match. Who comes out of this match is anyone's guess at the moment - it's a total gunslinging shootout at the OK Corral at the moment. I'm not overly fussed over which it is - I think Roger can beat either of them. But I wouldn't mind them tiring each other out a little.

And a quick word to the women - Venus Williams and Victoria Azarenka, you should be ashamed of yourselves. You both had your matches completely won today before you threw them away. Not to take anything away from Li Na and Serena Williams respectively, who stole these matches back, but there has to be some serious losing going on to throw away leads that big. Oh, WTA. What a sad little place you can be.

Please, Knees

As rightly noted by Dootsiez of All I Need Is A Picket Fence, people are fond of calling Rafa the 'fittest guy on tour'. Toughest, I would agree with. Most resistant to pain - you have an argument there. Fittest? I think David Ferrer would have something to say about that.

Fitness and injury are inextricably linked. And with Rafa's injuries... through no fault of his own...

We are in the third set of Nadal/Murray at the moment. Murray is up two sets to one and Rafa has taken a mid-game medical timeout. This is not a happy thing and I am worried about the big man from Spain. With his game, with the way he grinds, just how long can Rafa hold up on tour?

We've always known he's not going to have the longevity of a Federer - his game is not easy on the body. But he is only 23 years old. That is younger than me. And he has been carrying this pain for years. Just how long can he sustain his style of play before he has to a) retire or b) change his style of play to something more sustainable?

I worry about him. I really do.

I've been experiencing something of a Rafa renaissance lately, ever since the Hit for Haiti, where he was so adorable. He really is a worthy heir, a player in the style of Federer when it comes to gentlemanliness and statesmanship for the sport. He is five years younger than Federer, and, given this, the heir apparent. He's been nipping at his heels and even overtaking the great man for five years.

Please, Rafa's knees, don't give up on him before his time is up.

The winner of this match will play Marin Cilic, and whether it is Murray or Nadal, the winner will start a big favourite, especially since Cilic went five against Roddick. Cilic did upset Murray at the US, but you can't think that this deep in a tournament, that he can challenge either of these guys.

Please, Rafa's knees. Please.

Over in the girls, Henin is through, as well as Zheng Jie. That ought to be an interesting match - but you have to favour Henin.

Please, knees.

ETA: My pleas went unheard. The knees went. Rafa retired.

Oh, Rafa. :(

Reverse Psychology

Channel 7 have this thing every year where they try to convince the world that Lleyton Hewitt is going to win the Australian Open, despite huge amounts of evidence to the contrary. This year was no different, but they managed to do it via the most ridiculous 'inspirational' montage I have ever seen.

'Roger will beat Lleyton.'

'Lleyton might get a set if Roger gets so bored he falls asleep.'

'Lleyton has no chance.'

'Roger will smash Lleyton like a guitar'.

(Words mine, but message = everyone they interviewed, from Jim Courier to Brad Gilbert to Darren Cahill to Roger Rasheed).

And this was supposed to be a pro-Lleyton inspiration montage. Perhaps reverse psychology was involved? Or something?

Anyway, no matter what was involved, the predictions of Everyone Who Means Anything came true and Federer's victory over Hewitt was total. There is nothing that Hewitt can do that really troubles Federer - he doesn't have the arsenal. His speed used to be his biggest weapon but he's a good half step short of where he used to be.

And then there is that whole thing where Federer has now beat him fifteen times in a row. There's some psychology for you, Channel 7.

Hardly any of the other men's quarters were quite so simplistic, however. Roger will now face his recent bugabear Nikolay Davydenko... though he will be very glad to see that Kolya went five sets when he really shouldn't have. Jo Tsonga also played a completely unnecessary five sets. Both Kolya and Jo were up two sets to love before Verdasco and Almagro, their respective opponents came back strong.

It's the first time I've ever seen Kolya spray so much, and I think it might have something to do with his mental strength rather than his game. This is his first experience of being talked about as a serious chance and I don't think he likes it much. It will be interesting to see how that plays out in his match against Federer - I think he will either be incredibly strong, because of his previous two victories, or incredibly weak, because to a degree, there is expectation that he will pull off the upset.

Intriguing.

I felt a bit sorry for Nando getting knocked out... but then I realised that he hit over twenty double faults and nipped that in the bud at once. Almagro really had no right to take Jo so deep so he can justifiably be proud - that was a great achievement from the little claycourt dude.

In the women, we - surprise, surprise - have the Williams sisters through, and I think you justifiably can predict a Serena/Justine final at this point. We also, for the first time, have two Chinese women in the quarters - great achievement! - and Vika Azarenka came through in a tight one, though Caz-Woz, her fellow teen queen got knocked out.

I blame the pom poms on her socks.