TENNIS in DEPTH.

During the presentation ceremony, with Rod Laver present, the emotional Federer could not get his words out and stepped away from the microphone. Once Nadal had received the trophy, he consoled the Swiss and encouraged him to return to the microphone to share his thoughts with the crowd – before later doing so himself.

“I love this game. It means the world to me, so it hurts when you lose,” said Federer. “This is one of the matches in my career where I feel like I could have or should have won.

“But you can’t go through your whole life as a tennis player taking every victory that’s out there. But they hurt even more if you’re that close, like at Wimbledon or like here at the Australian Open. So that’s what’s tough about it. But I have no regrets.

“In the first moment [afterwards] you’re disappointed, you’re shocked, you’re sad then all of a sudden it overwhelms you. The problem is you can’t go in the locker room and just take it easy and take a cold shower. You can’t. You’re stuck out there. It’s the worst feeling.”

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Over the two weeks fans devoured 12,204 meat pies, 18,417 hot dogs, 12,892 ice cream cones, 171,166 bottles of Evian water, 80,000 bottles of Heineken and 225,ooo drafts. Proving once again that Aussies drink more beer than water, and eat more pies than hot dogs.

The reincarnation of Jelen Dokic, her play against players way above her in the rankings, and the excitement she created among the Aussie fans was so unexpected that she was the highlight of the tournament.

Spanish hero Fernando Verdasco played like a man possessed in dismissing Murray and Tsonga, then almost beat his friend and fellow country man Nadal in the longest singles match ever played. He showed that there is a way to beat Nadal, and whether he can continue to play at such a high level over the balance of the year and meet him again, is something I look forward to with great anticipation.

The biggest disappointment was the play of the three Serbian stars, Jankovic, Ivanovic and Djokovic.

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In an incredible display of stamina, strength and agility, Rafael Nadal left no doubt as to who is the best tennis player in the world. After enduring a 51/4 hour semi final match with Verdasco he managed to recuperate and beat Federer on the hard courts of the Aussie Open. Roger Federer had no answer to Nadal’s game, he tried everything he knew but nothing worked against the shot making and the pressure applied by Nadal.

Rafael Nadal thwarted Roger Federer

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Indian youngster Yuki Bhambri turned in a dominating performance to beat Germany

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Serena Williams has won her fourth Australian Open title following an utterly masterful mauling of Russian Dinara Safina.

The American blitzed the No. 3 seed 6-0 6-3 in under an hour, smacking 23 winners and four aces while committing just seven unforced errors.

From the first point, Williams looked amazingly sharp, her groundstrokes grooved, serve dominant and return devastating.

Safina had no answer to Williams

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Second seeds Bob and Mike Bryan will contest their fifth straight Australian Open final against third seeds Mark Knowles and Mahesh Bhupathi, who will be appearing in their first Grand Slam championship title-match, on Saturday.

The Bryan twins defeated fourth seeds Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes 6-3, 6-3 in 54 minutes on the Hisense Arena, in what was a repeat of the 2008 US Open final. Dlouhy and Paes committed nine unforced errors, as the Bryans converted five of eight break point opportunities.

The 30-year-old Californians finished runner-up in 2004 (l. to Llodra-Santoro) and 2005 (l. to Black-Ullyett) and won back-to-back titles in 2006 (d. Damm-Paes) and 2007 (d. Bjorkman-Mirnyi).

They are currently fourth in the all-time doubles Grand Slam title leaders of the Open Era behind Australians John Newcombe and Tony Roche (7), Americans Peter Fleming and John McEnroe (7) and Australians Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde (11).

The Bryans opened their 2009 ATP World Tour season by capturing their 50th ATP World Tour title at the Medibank International in Sydney (d. Nestor-Zimonjic). They are only the fourth team in the Open Era to win at least 50 titles, joining Woodbridge-Woodforde (61), Fleming-McEnroe (57), and Bob Hewitt and Frew McMillan (57).

Knowles and Bhupathi earned a comfortable 6-3, 6-1 win against the unseeded Polish-Austrian duo of Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach. They raced out to a 3-0 lead in the opening set, and then capitalised on three of their four break point chances in the second set to secure the victory in 58 minutes.

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