TENNIS in DEPTH.

Andy Roddick has made the semifinals of Australian Open 2009 after ill opponent Novak Djokovic was forced to retire in the fourth set of their quarterfinal clash on Tuesday afternoon at a warm Rod Laver Arena

With temperatures hovering in the mid-30s, Roddick was leading 6-7(3) 6-4 6-2 2-1 when Djokovic, the men

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Rafa is playing as well as he ever has and should win over Giles Simon.

This is a tough one to pick, but I’m going with Tsonga.

Djokovic is not playing his best yet with his new racquet, and Andy is the freshess of any of the men, so I’m picking Roddick in an upset.

Del Potro has never beaten Federer, so I have to go with Roger.

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These 8 women have made it through to the quarter finals. Which of them is playing well enough to go all the way?

Bartoli looked awesome as she demolished Jankovic, and she has experienced a Grand Slam final previously, so I’m picking her to move on.

I want to see the Cinderella story continue, I’m picking Dokic over Safina.

Elena Dementieva should have no trouble with ‘giant-killer’ Navarro, and I’m picking her to move on to face Serena in the semi final.

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You have to hand it to Fernando Verdasco, who bounced back from being two sets to one down against a player he had lost to on five previous occasions and was rated, pre-match, as one of the favourites for the tournament. Much will be made of the fact that he upset Andy Murray, the Australian Open

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To say that Federer was tested by Berdych is like saying that the Swiss is quite good at tennis. For all of two sets and most of the third, Federer was made to look a little silly by the tall Czech, running this way and that like an end-of-the-pier conjuror chasing spinning plates and missing shots which he has probably made thousands of times. Let us not make the mistake of blaming it all on Federer, for Berdych played

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An exhausted Jelena Dokic rallied from a break down in the third set to win 7-5, 5-7, 8-6 against Russian youngster Alisa Kleybonova. It was a match filled with drama from the opening serve, and the crowd who didn’t know quite what to expect from their new ‘hero’ wasted no time in trying to rally Jelena into defeating yet another top ranked player. Kleybonova is a strong young player with devasting cross court shots on both sides. She repeatedly forced Dokic into making errors, it was evident that Dokic was having difficulty in reading Kleybonova’s shots and guaging the pace of the ball. At 6-6 in the third Dokic rolled her ankle while trying to reach a hard hit ball to her backhand side, and the crowd was hushed as they had visions of Jelana being forced to retire. After some minor treatment she brushed herself off, and proceeded to win the next two games.

She now moves on to face Dinara Safina in the quarters, and whether she wins or loses, she will have put her stamp on the 2009 Aussie Open and she will also rise in the rankings into the top 100!

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In a very one-sided match at Rod Laver arena, Marion Bartoli of France dominated #1 Jelena Jankovic who was trying to win her first Grand Slam title. Bartoli’s return of service was so good that Jankovic could not find a safe place to serve the ball without the ball whistling by her for a point. She ran out of challenges, she ran out of patience, and she ran out of time. The tournament is now wide open with both Venus Williams and Jelena Jankovic gone from the final eight. The Serb flags are flying at half mast now as both of their female hopes are gone.

The final score was 6-1, 6-4, and for a while it looked as Jankovic was about to be bagelled in the fist set, but she won a game at 0-5 to save a little face. She failed to hold her servive at 4-4 in the second set, and went on to be outclasssed and outplayed by the French woman. This was hardly the performance expected from the world’s number 1 player!

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An unprecedented 10 out of the top 10 women

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