27 January 2008

Australian Open 2008 - Men's Final

Yipeee! Novak Djokovic defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2)) to win the Australian Open 2008 men's singles title, his first major.

I didn't watch the entire match (it started at 3:30am EST) but watched the last four games and the tie-breaker. From what I saw both players were playing well, though the pressure might have affected Tsonga near the end. Maybe Tsonga's fans were merely louder, but it also appeared to me that most of the crowd was rooting for Tsonga - fairly annoying since I wanted Djokovic to win. :o)

Congratulations, Djokovic!

All in all this year's Australian Open turned out quite well. We have a non-Roger Federer champion, and a non-Federer-non-Rafael Nadal final, to boot. I don't really have anything against Federer, he's an amazing player, but anything that delays him breaking Pete Sampras' record has to be good, right? Plus, a final without the world number one and two only generates more excitement and interest.

My favourites on the women's side are Justine Henin and Maria Sharapova, so the latter winning the championship was great. During this tournament I kept on expecting Sharapova's serve to break down, but it pretty much held up. I guess it never quite sunk in with me how much Sharapova's shoulder injury last year was affecting her. Now that Sharapova is injury-free it's novel to see her serving well. I'm still not used to it. All Sharapova needs now to complete a career grand slam is to win the French Open (the toughest of the four for Sharapova, I think, though she reached the semis last year).

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