Australian Open 2010 (January 18th-31st)

The king still rules

Roger Federer has proved, once more, that he is invulnerable. Andy Murray tried to get hold of his first grand- slam title, but he had to congratulate the Swiss in the end. The women's competition was marked by the come back of Justine Ennan. In the end the trophy went to Serena Williams, who managed to defend the last year title


By MARKO ANDREJIĆ (marko.andrejic@wavemagazine.net)
from Belgrade, SERBIA
Translation: IVANA JELENKOVIĆ


The new tennis season has begun. Traditionally, it was set off on the smallest continent- where the first Grand-slam of the year was held - Australian Open 2010, from 18th to 31st January. The same as every year, it is hard to predict the winners at the start of the season. It is about to be seen who used the two-months break the best and who is the best prepared for the long and hard race for the titles and position at the world rankings. It seems that the betting shops didn't earn much because the results were realistic, and in a way expected - the men's title won the Swiss Roger Federer, the World's No.1. This was his 16th title on the biggest tournaments (grand-slam). In women's competition, the best was Serena Williams, who managed to defend the last-year first place.

By no means does this mean that there were no excitements in Melbourne, where the record in the number of the viewers was, once more, knocked down. The organizers were lucky with the weather as well. Only during the first two days they had troubles with rain and by the end of the tournament the weather conditions were almost perfect. That means- there was no extreme high temperatures, which can be a problem in Australia.

Once again, Roger Federer has proved to be invulnerable. He was compelling, and the biggest test was in the quarter-finals against Nikolai Davydenko, who began the season very well and who was considered the dark horse of the competition. Federer won that match losing one set. Novak Djokovic was stopped in the quarter-finals, in the replay of 2008 final, by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, in five sets. The crucial moment in this exhausting and tiring match was after the Djokovic's health problems, which prevented him from playing his best. Later, it was proved that Tsonga wasn't good enough to beat Federer in the semi-finals.

Andy Murray played an excellent tournament. The bettings showed that he was the second favourite. He completely proved that this was true. One more unpleasant fact was that Rafa Nadal had to retire against Murray, due to his new injury. At that moment Murray had two sets love. The Spaniard wasn't lucky once again and will have to make several-weeks break in order to recover. The Croatian Marin Čilić made his best score in his career, getting into the semis. On the way he beat the champion of the US Open Juan Martin Del Potro in five sets, and repeated the same result against the American Andy Roddick. The long and tiring matches left the marks, which led to defeat against Murray, even though he won the first set.

The Final showed that Murray has still a lot to learn in order to get closer to Roger Federer, who returned into his winning form. The result of three to love maybe doesn't show the real picture. However, the suspense was seen only in the third set. The first two won Federer 6:2 and 6:3, and then in the tie-break, after saving a few set points for Murray, Federer won the first match point and 16th grand- slam title. In this turn-out, Novak Djokovic gained the most. This result brought him to the second place at the ATP ranking.

The women's competition was marked by the come back of Justine Ennan. The Belgian, after a year of absence, got the wild card for the tournament in Melbourne, and completely justified the trust. She reached the finals by confident playing. However, Serena Williams was better in the finals in three sets. In that way she kept the title won last year against Dinara Safina.

A lot was expected from the other Belgian, Kim Clijsters. She didn't manage to continue successful series from the beginning of the season. Neither Serbians Ana Ivanović and Jelena Janković nor many Russian players managed to make a significant result. The surprises of the tournament were two Chinese, who got into the semis - Na Li and Zheng Jie. They were stopped before the last step, but China now, for the first time, has the player among the top ten.

"Aussie Open" has justified its reputation, and the season began with the moments which promise interesting continuation of the season. Will someone manage to get the king and the queen off the throne?


(Published: 09.02.2010.)