Australian Open 2010: Day 14 Finals

At long last after 13 days of some pretty amazing tennis, the Australian Open 2010 is coming to a close with the mixed doubles final followed by the men's singles final. The finals of the Australian Open usually will feature at least 1 surprise finalist Ala Gonzalez, Tsonga, Baghdatis. However, it was not the case this year. The finals this year featured Roger Federer the 1st seed against Andy Murray the 5th seed.

There was the mixed doubles final before the men's final. The men's final was scheduled to start at 7.30 with a little bit of pre-final entertainment before hand. Seeing as how I had no interest whatsoever in the mixed doubles final, I arrived just in time for the pre-final entertainment.


The pre-final entertainment featured the cast of the Jersey Boys singing a medley of songs. It was quite nice actually. I did however have one little problem. It was too freakin short. The "entertainment" lasted for barely 5 minutes.


The "entertainment" was followed by the national anthem of Australia, sung by the cast of Jersey Boys.


After the entertainment was done with, the throphy was brought out for display before the players made their enterance.















I even took a couple of videos. You can see them right below.





Murray had a chance to end Britain's long wait for a Grand Slam. Alas, the Swiss Maestro was too good for the Brit. Federer beat Murray in the first 2 sets 6-3, 6-4. Despite the score line of the first 2 sets, the games themselves were quite closely contested. Well some of them anyways. Most of the crowd (myself included) was hoping that Murray would win the 3rd set, so that they would get their money's worth =p It was all not meant to be as Murray lost the 3rd set 6-7. With the tie break going to an amazing 13-11 in favor of Federer. Federer's composure and experience in Grand Slam finals helped him claim his 16th Grand Slam title.


Murray's speech was a little bit emotional as you could see he was struggling to hold back his tears. He eventually ended his speech prematurely and succummed to his tears.


After winning his 16th Grand Slam title, there is little doubt that Roger Federer by general consent is considered to be the greatest tennis player of all time. The scary thing is if he able to remain injury free for the rest of his career, it wouldnt be impossible for him to win 20+ Grand Slam titles. After tonight, I am definitely going to frame up the cap that he signed.

Australian Open 2010: Day 12 Semi Finals

Day 12 was the day 2 of the semi's. Today it would be either Tsonga or Federer facing Murray (who won the previous day) in the Final on Sunday. There was actually the female doubles final and a mixed double semi before the Roger Federer vs Tsonga match but I didnt really feel like watching either one of those.So, I skipped the first 2 matches and arrived just before the Federer Tsonga match started.

This promised to be a good match up, seeing as Tsonga (yellow) has been playing quite well in the tournament and had just 2 tough back to back 5 set victories in which he displayed how tough he is. Federer............ well Federer is Federer. Lets just leave it at that.







Many would have predicted that this match would end in Federer's victory and it did. However, few if any would have predicted the manner in which he achieved that victory. He simply destroyed Tsonga. I mean absolutely and completely obliterated him. It seemed like Federer could do no wrong and Tsonga could do no right. He was hitting all sorts of winners and when Tsonga tried to make a comeback, he just put him back down again. Final score: Federer victory 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.


Federer dominated Tsonga to such a degree that the match lasted only for 1 hour and 28 minutes and the last set took barely over 30 minutes.


Since the match ended rather quickly, Jim Courier made the interview a bit longer then normal. I have to say that he is one of the more entertaining interviewers that I have seen.

Australian Open 2010: Day 10 Quarter Finals

When the schedule was released for Day 10, I was elated yet still a little sad. Why sad? Because I bought the day session ticket and the Tsonga vs Djokovic match was during the night session. However, the last match of the day session more than made up for that match. Well to me it did anyway. First match of the day featured Na Li vs Venus Williams. Followed by Venus Williams vs Victoria Azarenka. And the last match.......................... Roger Federer vs Nikolay Davydenko. Finally!!!!!! I get to see The King in action. I was so excited because he was the player I wanted to watch the most and also the last time I attended the Australian Open I didnt get to see him play. Thats not all, it gets awesomer (well for me anyways).

Li vs V.Williams (yellow'ish) was the first match off the bat. This would be my first time watching either one of the Williams sisters play.





Li lost the first set 2-6 and everyone thought it was going to be a simple straight sets victory for Venus. However that wasnt the case. Li fought back to win the 2nd set 7-6 and then went on to win the 3rd set 7-5. Final score: Li 3 sets victory, 2-6, 7-6, 7-5.


2nd match of the day session featured the younger of the 2 Williams sisters, S.Williams (orange) vs Azarenka.





Serena is a scary player. She plays like a friggin man. However, she seemed to be off her game when she lost the first set 4-6 and was down 0-4 in the 2nd set. At that point everyone was expecting a back to back exit from the tournament by the Williams sisters. The number 1 seed that Serena received was not just for show as she fought back to claim the set 7-6 and just simply destroyed Azanrenka in the 3rd set. Final score: S.Williams victory, 4-6, 7-6, 6-2.

And last but not least, Roger "The King" Federe (blue) vs Davydenko.










I was so happy that I was finally able to watch Federer play live. Watching some play live is just so different compared to watching them play on television. He looks like he's gliding when he moves around the court and the sheer number of shots he has at his disposal is just unbelievable. However, despite his inherent awesomeness, he dropped the first set 2-6. It was a combination of him making uncharacteristic errors and Davydenko playing out of his skin. Federer did eventually play like himself, winning the next 3 sets to claim a 4 set victory over the Russian. There was even a bagel set in 3rd. Final score: Federer victory: 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, 7-5.

The awesomenest did not end when the match did. It ended when I managed to get Federer's autograph. The last autograph I would get and it was the best one of all. I plan to frame this up someday.
Autographed cap by Federer