MURRAY COMES UP SHORT DOWN UNDER

 

 

It's Janurary and the European and US stars of world tennis are all a long way from home. The 2009 tennis season has officially started! It's the Australian Open! Taking place in Melbourne, slap bang in the middle of the Aussie summer, the surface is similar to that of the US Open in theory. Which is why Andy Murray was considered one of the favourites for what would be his first Grand Slam title, particularly after having already defended his Qatar Open title before making it to Melbourne. Still, he's only been given the 4th seed, but at this point there's no one that he cannot beat so what's stopping him from making history? In theory, not much but nothing could be taken for granted.

First order of business was Romanian veteran Andrei Pavel. The first set didn't open particularly smoothly for Andy but once he'd broken serve, the first set was his. As for the second set, well Pavel won the first game but Murray broke at the second time of asking and then Pavel retired due to injury with the game 6-2 3-1 to Murray. Dissapointing that we didn't get to hear "game set match" but Andy was taking care of business anyway so I can't complain too much. The surprising thing about this match is that it was Andy's first win at the Australian Open since '07. The question was how much further could he go from here? It seemed to be so far so good.

In the 2nd round came a Spaniard, Marcel Granollers. Though I'd never heard of this guy from Barcelona before he was able to give Andy quite a headache, exchanging breaks in the first set before the Scotsman finally pulled through. The second set was much more straightforward, Andy breaking his opponent at the first time of asking and not picking up much resistance afterwards. Granollers won the opening game of the third set but didn't have the fuel for a real comeback and this time round it was "game set match Murray" to the tune of 6-4 6-2 6-2, Andy making the third round of a Grand Slam for the fourth tournament in a row, not so bad.

In the third round came Jurgen Melzer. Well Andy broke the familiar Austrian early on but Melzer had other ideas, coming back to level the tie and 4-4 before Andy found a second win to take his hardest set of the tournament so far. The second set however, was a cinch for the Brit. The third set looked to go the same way untill Melzer finally remembered that he was meant to be playing a tennis match, but by then it was too little too late and Andy banked another win to the tune of 7-5 6-0 6-3. That meant that Andy matched his '07 run in reaching the fourth round and now he had the chance to go into unchartered territory for him in this tournament!

In the fourth round came a Spaniard called Fernando Verdasco. Another guy who I'd never heard of but he was the 14th seed. The first set still proved to be pretty smooth for Andy, first impressions were that it would be more of the same. Problem was, Verdasco broke Andy's serveat the first time of asking, and the Scot lost a set for the first time in the tournament, getting blown apart! Murray replied by getting payback in the third set, seemingly giving Verdasco a reality check. Surely the match was his to lose now? Not so, the game returned to second set form early on in the fourth and though Andy managed to attempt a comeback this tie around, he was still forced into a fifth set! And it proved to be a tight one. The two players matched each other up till 3-3. And then Verdasco broke serve, and Andy had no response! The Scot crashed out of the Aussie open to the tune of 6-2 1-6 6-1 3-6 4-6.

So then came a Brit-free quarter finals lineup. First up, Rafael Nadal had a pretty straightforward run, beating French 6th seed Giles Simon 6-2 7-5 7-5. Roger Federer had an even easier time against Juan Martin del Potro, beating him 6-3 6-0 6-0. The other guy still standing who fancied a shot at the title was reigning champion Novak Djorkovic, but he crashed out injured, allowing Andy Roddick to make a Grand Slam semi again, he was winning the match 6-7(3-7) 6-4 6-4 2-1 when the Serb white flagged. As for Verdasco, well he ran into last years runner up, Frenchman Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, and won 7-6(7-2) 3-6 6-3 6-2 to become the tournament's main surprise package.

Then came the semi finals. First up Nadal faced Verdasco. The 14th seed was in no mood to bow down to his world number 1 rated compatriot and three out of the first four sets went to tiebreaks, the match going all the way before Nadal finally won 6-7(4-7) 6-4 7-6(7-2) 6-7(1-7) 6-4. Federer faced Roddick in the other semi and American fans would have been glad to seen their Andy in a Grand Slam semi for the first time since the Australian Open of '07. On this occasion he didn't prove to be anything that Federer couldn't handle though, the Swiss start taking care of business 6-2 7-5 7-5 to set up another major rumble with Nadal with the hope of regaining his place at the top of the game.

The women's final was between Serena Williams and Darina Safina, the Russian having started the tournament as the 3rd seed and reaching her second Grand Slam final. The American proved to be ruthless though, sweeping the first set and not allowing much mercy in the second set, winning 6-0 6-3. It meant that Serena had secured her second Grand Slam in a row and her fourth Australian Open title, the first since '07. It was one of the most dominant wins of Serena's career which amazingly stretches back a decade now. Her win made up for older sister Venus going out early on, as for Safina, it'll be interesting to see if she makes a sustained impact over the year.

Well the men's final was between Nadal and Federer in a rematch of the classic that ended Wimbledon '08. Fans were again treated to a classy yet tight affair in which Rafa managed to get an edge to take the first set. Roger's game continued to be iffy in the second set but he managed to keep it together enough to level the match. The third set was as tight as ever, eventually going into a tiebreak which Nadal managed to win. Federer wasn't done yet though, he had won this title before and stepped up his game, breaking Nadal's serve at the first time of asking in the fourth. Nadal broke right back but Federer broke serve for a second time to take the match into a fifth set, making this the tightest Aussie Open final since 1988! It was here though that Federer seemed to run out of fuel, Rafa going on a surge before securing game, set match and championship to the tune of 7-5 3-6 7-6(7-3) 3-6 6-2.

So, congratulations to Rafael Nadal who takes not only the first Grand Slam title of the year but becomes the first Spaniard to ever win the Australian Open title(he'd been the first Spaniard to make the final since Carlos Moya in '97) . That completes his set of Grand Slam trophies. The question is now, what's his 2009 going to be like? He's the defending champion of two of the Grand Slams with Federer still feeling he has something to prove, Murray hungry from a Slam title of his own and Djokovic wanting a piece of the action as well. If Nadal gets a second Slam this year with that sort of competition he'll be doing very well indeed, in the meantime, that's the biggest gap in his record filled.

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