Australian Open 2008 Review
The first Grand Slam of the year is over in Melbourne and its Serbia’s Novak Djokovic who wins the men’s title and Maria Sharapova winning the women’s title. But it will be most remembered for the winner, Djokovic, winning his first grand slam by beating the world number one, Roger Federer in straight sets in the semi-finals and French sensation Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the finals, who had earlier beaten Rafael Nadal in the other semi-final. The final itself was quite extraordinary, as for the first time since the 2005 Australian Open that neither Federer nor world number two Rafael Nadal featured in a Grand Slam final. Although things were quite uneventful in some respects in the women’s tennis, but the manner in which Sharapova took the title was quite impressive. The Russian has improved her game vastly and all of it was evident and visible when she thrashed world number one Justine Henin 6-4 6-0 in the quarter-finals. Serbian Ana Ivanovic, who had earlier beaten Daniela Hantuchova 0-6 6-3 6-4 in the other semi-final, was also no match for Sharapova who played well again in the final to win the title 7-5 6-3. Both the Williams sisters made it to the quarters but lost out with Jankovic beating Serena and Ivanovic beating Venus. Local favorite Lleyton Hewitt could only make it to fourth round after eventually loosing out to Novak Djokovic. Nikolay Davydenko also lost in the fourth round to compatriot Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets. The Open didn’t suffer any first round exit for the big seeds and it stayed that way for the first few days, but it was very entertaining after that with the big guns fighting out with each other, but like the nature of grand slam tennis, it does produce some stars of the tournament and it will certainly be Novak Djokovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
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