For Whom the Book Tolls, circa 2007

It's that time of the season again. The official 2007 WTA/ATP Tennis Guide is out, and the moment is here when we see which players are on the rise -- and which are on the decline -- in the "official" judgment of the WTA tour... I mean, if you can read the inclusion or exclusion of a player's bio in the new Guide as an indication, of course.

( Again, as is often the case, many of the photos used in the bios in the '07 Guide aren't the same ones that are on the player's official bio on the WTA website, so don't judge every book by it's internet cover... or something like that. )

For the record, in 2006 there were 130 active player bios in the Guide. In 2007, there are 132. Thirty players are new additions, while twenty-eight were ejected either because of retirement, inactivity or career downturns. Here are the numbers, and a few observations and opinions:

**NEW 2007 BIO ADDITIONS**
Victoria Azarenka ('07 Oz Mixed Doubles RU)
Vasilisa Bardina ('07 Hobart RU)
Eva Birnerova ('07 Oz 3rd Round)
Kateryna Bondarenko
Alberta Brianti
Yung-Jan Chan ('07 Oz Doubles RU)
Clarisa Fernandez
Yuliana Fedak
Kirsten Flipkens
Jarmila Gajdosova
Edina Gallovits
Vania King
Varvara Lepchenko
Ting Li
Maria Jose Martinez-Sanchez
Bethanie Mattek
Tzipora Obziler
Romina Oprandi
Lilia Osterloh
Tatiana Poutchek
Olga Poutchkova
Agnieszka Radwanska
Aravane Rezai
Anastassia Rodionova
Olga Savchuk
Milagros Sequera
Tamarine Tanasugarn
Julia Vakulenko (professional slam qualifier)
Aleksandra Wozniak (Oh, Canada...)
Meng Yuan
==MOST ADDITIONS==
4...Ukraine
3...Russia
3...USA
2...Belarus
2...China

**2007 EJECTIONS**
Maret Ani
Shinobu Asagoe
Kristina Brandi
Ludmila Cervanova
Yoon-Jeong Cho
Stephanie Cohen-Aloro
Mariana Diaz-Oliva
Jelena Dokic
Amy Frazier
Rika Fujiwara
Sesil Karatantcheva
Evgenia Linetskaya
Conchita Martinez
Conchita Martinez-Granados
Akiko Morigami
Martina Navratilova
Saori Obata
Tatiana Panova
Arantxa Parra-Santonja
Dally Randriantefy
Chanda Rubin
Maria Sanchez-Lorenzo
Antonella Serra-Zanetti
Alexandra Stevenson
Bryanne Stewart
Maria Vento-Kabchi
Mashona Washington
Klara Zakopalova (Koukalova)
==MOST EJECTIONS==
5...Spain
5...USA
4...Japan
2...Australia
2...Russia

**2007 BIOS - BY NATION**
18...Russia
15...USA
11...France
8.....Italy
7.....China
7.....Czech Republic
6.....Spain
6.....Ukraine
4.....Australia
4.....Germany
3.....Argentina
3.....Belarus
3.....Belgium
3.....Isreal
3.....Japan
3.....Slovakia
3.....Switzerland
2.....Croatia
2.....Poland
2.....Serbia
1.....Austria
1.....Bulgaria
1.....Canada
1.....Colombia
1.....Estonia
1.....Finland
1.....Greece
1.....Hungary
1.....India
1.....Netherlands
1.....Romania
1.....South Africa
1.....Slovenia
1.....Sweden
1.....Taiwan
1.....Thailand
1.....Uzbekistan
1.....Venezuela
1.....Zimbabwe



*BEST '07 GUIDE BIO PHOTO*

1. Ana Ivanovic
2. Maria Kirilenko
3. Anna Chakvetadze

*BIGGEST SMILE*

Karolina Sprem

*BEST PHOTO CHANGES*
Alona Bondarenko
Anna Chakvetadze
Eleni Daniilidou
Daniela Hantuchova
Maria Kirilenko
Michaella Krajicek

*GLAMOUR-SHOTS-R-US*

1. Michaella Krajicek
2. Olga Poutchkova
3. Ana Ivanovic

SHOULD BE BETTER: Tatiana Golovin
SO THAT'S WHAT IT TAKES FOR A TEENAGER TO BE EVICTED: Sesil Karatantcheva
FINALLY OUSTED: Jelena Dokic & Alexandra Stevenson
HOLDING ON FOR DEAR LIFE: Jennifer Capriati
ON THE COMEBACK TRAIL: Elena Bovina
CANADIAN PRIDE... and wait 'til next year: Aleksandra Wozniak made it, but Stephanie Dubois didn't
BEST GIRL-NEXT-DOOR SHOT: Olga Savchuk


THEY DIDN'T GET IN???: Tamira Paszek, who won a tour singles title before her 16th birthday, and Brenda Schultz-McCarthy, who set the tour's all-time fastest serve record
BUT SHE DID???: Kirsten Flipkens, who imploded in the Fed Cup final and failed to even reach a tour QF in '06 (and her only career tour SF came back in 2004)

**THE PIGEONS STRIKE AGAIN... oh, poo**
Sure, she suffered a knee injury late in the season, but maybe Mashona Washington wouldn't have had her bio cut if she hadn't blown that 5-3 3rd set lead and three match points against Maria Sharapova at Roland Garros around the time those devious birds landed on the court

LAME DUCK BIOS: Lindsay Davenport & Kim Clijsters
2008 CANDIDATES: Madison Brengle, Alize Cornet, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Urszula Radwanska and, of course, an overdue Tamira Paszek... well, unless the pigeons have their way with her.


All for now.

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2007 Dorothy Tour Awards

The Yellow Brick Road was indeed made of gold bars, at least as far as Australian Open champion Serena Williams is concerned.

But what about the rest of the tour's technicolor dreams Down Under?


**TOP PLAYERS**
1. Serena Williams
2. Jelena Jankovic
3. Kim Clijsters
HM- Maria Sharapova

**RISERS**
1. Jelena Jankovic
2. Shahar Peer
3. Nicole Vaidisova
4. Anna Chakvetadze
5. Dinara Safina
6. Na Li
7. Vera Zvonareva
8. Sania Mirza
9. Maria Kirilenko
10. Alicia Molik

**SURPRISES**
1. Camille Pin
2. Yung-Jan Chan/Chia-Jung Chuang
3. Madison Brengle
4. Anastasiya Yakimova & Eva Birnerova
5. Sybille Bammer

**VETERANS**
1. Cara Black/Liezel Huber
2. Martina Hingis
3. Tathiana Garbin
4. Elena Likhovtseva
5. Anne Kremer

**FRESH FACES**
1. Lucie Safarova
2. Victoria Azarenka
3. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
4. Vasilisa Bardina
5. Madison Brengle
6. Alize Cornet
7. Tamira Paszek
8. Ksenia Milevskaya
9. Alla Kudryvtseva
10. Evgeniya Rodina

**DOWN**
1. Amelie Mauresmo
2. Lisa Raymond/Samantha Stosur
3. Zi Yan/Jie Zheng
4. Svetlana Kuznetsova
5. Anastasia Myskina

**TOP MATCHES**
Australian Open QF - S.Williams def. Peer
...3-6/6-2/8-6. Serena rose to a different level after this one. Will Shahar?
Sydney Final - Clijsters d. Jankovic
...4-6/7-6/6-4. Jankovic couldn't convert a match point, then went on to bow out with little verve against Williams in Melbourne.
Sydney SF - Jankovic d. Vaidisova
...6-4/4-6/6-4. In the last two slams, they've both advanced to a SF.
Australian Open 1st - Sharapova d. Pin
...6-3/4-6/9-7. The heat and Pin didn't get Sharapova, but Serena sure did.

**BEST COMEBACKS**
Australian Open 3rd - Peer d. Golovin
...3-6/7-5/7-5. Golovin held 2 MP.
Serena in Melbourne
...not just the title, but doing it after both Nadia Petrova (3rd Round) and Shahar Peer (QF) served for the match against her.

**BIGGEST CHOKE (IN REGULATION TIME)**
Australian Open 3rd - Hantuchova d. Harkleroad
...6-7/7-5/6-3. American Splendor led 7-6/4-0, then again 3-1 in the 3rd. A few days after this, Harkleroad and her partner were double-bageled in doubles.

**BEST COMEBACK/WORST CHOKE (IN EXTRA TIME)**
Gold Goast SF - Safina d. Peer
...4-6/7-6/6-2. Peer led 6-4/5-1, but was felled by a momentum-ceasing rain delay.

**BIGGEST UPSETS**
Australian Open Doubles SF - Chan/Chuang d. Yan/Zheng
6-3/6-4. A pair of unseeded Taiwanese players knocked out the #2-seeded defending champion Cookies.
Australian Open 4th - Safarova d. Mauresmo
...6-4/6-3. Amelie needed a little more of that "retirement magic" in this one. She didn't get it.

**WORST DECISION**
...Jelena Dokic, quickly running out of chances (if this one wasn't already one more than she deserves), up and left the Pilic Academy either because the contract she was offered wasn't good enough or because she doesn't like people butting into her personal life. Either way, does it really matter anymore?

**MOST CONGRATULATIONS**
...to Lindsay Davenport, who announced her pregnancy and apparent retirement from her tennis career. Somehow, she seems to have managed to play sixteen years on tour without legitimately pissing off a single person. Amazing. That has to be a modern day record, right?




...your friendly neighborhood Backspinner is still holding the early lead over Tennisrulz Head Honcho Pierre Cantin in the Royale.

4th Round (16): Backspin 15-13
QF (8): Tied 5-5
SF (24): Pierre 11-10
FINALS (14): Backspin 9-5
CHAMPIONS (7): Backspin 3-1

We both missed on Sharapova winning in Melbourne, but I'm still pretty excited considering my fabled '06 misfires led me to notch only three champions in ALL of last season's Royale weeks. Unless things go REALLY wrong from here on out, I've already got that number beaten for '07 and it's not even February yet.

With Pierre fresh off breaking as many Australian cultural rules as possible (hmmm, what IS culturally looked down upon Down Under, anyway?), I'm back to going it solo for this week's Tier I in Tokyo... unless he manages to pull himself together and buy all his Colts Super Bowl XLI memorabilia in time to make some picks, of course.


TOKYO, JAPAN (Tier I-Carpet)
2006 FINAL: Dementieva d. Hingis
2007 TOP: Sharapova/Hingis
=============================
SF: Peer def. Jankovic; Hingis def. Dementieva
FINAL: Peer def. Hingis

...yeah, I'm going with Shahar over Sharapova in the QF. Sure, I might be crazy, considering the Supernova's uncanny ability to win titles in Asia, but I've got a gut feeling that Maria's serve might still be a problem this week. Either that, or something I ate this weekend didn't agree with me. I just so enjoyed Peer's Melbourne run that I'm itching to pick her to win something big.


[LATE UPDATE: Pierre's back from Melbourne, so he's in the mix this week, after all]



I'm back and getting everything under control. Ok, so here are my picks :)

SF:
Jankovic def. Sharapova: Yep, you read right, I continue to see great things from Serbia's star
Hingis def. Dementieva: Ok, not that original here...

FINAL:
Jankovic def. Hingis

Now, let's hope I will fare better here than I did for the Australian Open!


Gee, neither of us picked Sharapova. What were the odds of that? Oh, well.

All for now... and I'm not talking about Barbaro, who finally went off to the great glue factory in the sky today, either.

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Tranquility Base... Roger Has Landed

Roger Federer may not be the first man to step onto the surface of the tennis landscape, but the footprints he'll leave might be the longest-lasting.



Seriously, what WILL the ATP record book look like after Federer is through with it? He has the chance to put career marks so far out of reach that the fanciful stories told about him to future generations will sound like the myths of the Greek Gods.

"Timmy, there was once a man who could hold up the heavens with his racket... and stack together the building blocks of life with his free hand."

Sunday's Australian Open Men's final was just another inevitable step further into history for Roger the Stupendous. Facing off against Fernando Gonzalez, the eighth different player he's met in his eleven career slam finals, was thought to potentially be a challenge for the generation's most well-tuned tennis machine.

It was, too. For about nine games.

Gonzo tried to stay with Federer and, for a while, when the world #1 was serving at under 50% and had more errors than winners on his match ledger, he did. He broke Federer to take a 5-4 lead in the 1st set, and held two set points on his own serve at 40-15. Then Federer used a firm wrist to swat away a shot at the net, and Gonzalez netted a makeable forehand down the line.

Deuce... and Gonzalez's fate was sealed.

Federer passed Gonzalez at the net to break, won nine of ten points after the netted forehand, and began to round his game into stellar form. The Swiss Mister failed to convert four set points on the Chilean's serve at 6-5 in a seven-deuce game that ended with Gonzalez converting on his own fifth game point. But Gonzalez had already let his opportuntiy pass him by.

Federer won the tie-break 7-2, then proceeded to run his opponent to the edges of the court (and beyond) over the next two sets, wearing him down until the only question remaining was whether or not the errant moth that had landed on Rod Laver Arena's court would suffer as public a demise as the helpful man from Chile who'd stopped play in order to remove his insect friend from the court.

(For the record, after nearly being stepped on by a ballkid, the moth was carried off to what was likely a more private end.)

After having seen his serve broken in the opening set to give Gonzalez a chance to serve for the set, Federer proceeded to win 49 of his remaining 53 service points in the match. After his 7-6/6-4/6-4 win, Federer's streak of sets won in Melbourne stood at 24 going back to last year (with the final 21 making him the first man to claim a slam without dropping a set since Bjorn Borg at Roland Garros in 1980...some fourteen months before Federer's birth).

Not that Federer needs any more numbers to back up his dominance, but here are a few more: he's the first man to win three different slams at least three times, he'll break Jimmy Connors' mark of 160 consecutive weeks at #1 by the end of February (and is just two and a half years -- a blink in Federer time -- from Pete Sampras' all-time mark of 286 weeks in the top spot), has won six of the last seven slams (plus 8/10, 9/13 and 10/15 to be precise) and is riding a 36-match winning streak that is the longest of his career.

Yes, he's better now than he's EVER been before. And that's saying something. Look out, Paris. Here he comes. Rafa, that means you, too.

Surely, the upcoming clay season's subplot of Federer's quest is a juicy one. Only winning Roland Garros (defeating Nadal there in the final... and, if there's any justice, the Spaniard will still be looking to continue his record clay winning streak when/if they meet) is left to eliminate from Federer's list of "things to prove" before he can simply worry himself (is he capable of "worry?") with the ghosts of tennis past, present and future.

Connors. Sampras. Borg. Laver. They're all in his sights now. Sampras and Andre Agassi have talked of Federer winning 18 slams in his career (jokingly referencing that he, along with his friend Tiger Woods, is going after Jack Nicklaus' golf major record of 18), but maybe it's Steffi Graf (22) and Margaret Court (24) whose slam records are REALLY in jeopardy, expanding this chase not only across sports boundaries, but gender ones as well. Federer stands at 10 (Tiger has 12). Let the race begin.

A win in Paris will make Federer as odds-on favorite as there's ever been in the history of sport to claim the men's game's first Grand Slam since 1969. Who'd think he's lose at SW19 or Flushing Meadows with the Australian and French titles in his pocket? No one. That would Federer's slam total at 13, just one behind Sampras' 14... and Roger will be only 26.

Melbourne was always meant to be the first step for (hardly) a mere man, but one giant leap toward "Roger Slam." Not only did Federer not disappoint Down Under... he amazed.

Did we expect anything less?



**MOST SLAM SINGLES TITLES**
14...Pete Sampras
12...Roy Emerson
11...Bjorn Borg
11...Rod Laver
10...ROGER FEDERER
10...Bill Tilden

**MEN'S GRAND SLAMS**
[won all 4 slams in a season]
1938...Don Budge
1962...Rod Laver
1969...Rod Laver

**WEEKS AT #1 ON COMPUTER**
286...Pete Sampras
270...Ivan Lendl
268...Jimmy Connors
170...John McEnroe
156...ROGER FEDERER

**CONSECUTIVE WEEKS AT #1**
160...Jimmy Connors
157...Ivan Lendl
156...ROGER FEDERER
102...Pete Sampras

**FEDERER SLAM FINAL VICTIMS**
2003 Wimbledon - Mark Philippoussis
2004 Australian - Marat Safin
2004 Wimbledon - Andy Roddick
2004 U.S. - Lleyton Hewitt
2005 Wimbledon - Andy Roddick
2005 U.S. - Andre Agassi
2006 Australian - Marcos Baghdatis
2006 Wimbledon - Rafael Nadal
2006 U.S. - Andy Roddick
2007 Australian - Fernando Gonzalez
==Slam Final Loss==
2006 Roland Garros - Rafael Nadal

**SLAM DOUBLES TITLES**
[Open Era]
11...Woodbridge/Woodforde (1992-00)
5....BRYAN/BRYAN (2003-07)
5....Eltingh/Haarhuis (1994-98)


MEN'S SINGLES: (1)Roger Federer d. (10)Fernando Gonzalez 7-6/6-4/6-4
WOMEN'S SINGLES: Serena Williams d. (1)Maria Sharapova 6-1/6-2
MEN'S DOUBLES: (1)Bryan/Bryan d. (2)Bjorkman/Mirnyi 7-5/7-5
WOMEN'S DOUBLES: (3)Black/Huber d. Chan/Chuang 6-4/6-7/6-1
MIXED DOUBLES: Likhovtseva/Nestor d. Azarenka/Mirnyi 6-4/6-4
BOYS SINGLES: Brydan Klein d. (2)Jonathan Eysseric 6-2/4-6/6-1
GIRLS SINGLES: (1)Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova d. (16)Madison Brengle 7-6/7-6
BOYS DOUBLES: Dyce/Heliovaara d. (8)Donald/Roy 6-2/6-7/6-3
GIRLS DOUBLES: Rodina/Rodionova d. (1)Cohen/U.Radwanska 2-6/6-3/6-1

All for now.

============================

TOMORROW: Dorothy Tour Awards

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The Demolition Heard 'round the World

You don't tug on Superman's cape. You don't spit into the wind. You don't pull the mask off of the ol' Lone Ranger... and you don't mess around with S.W..



Understandably, workers today were busy hanging a plaque along a side wall of Rod Laver Arena. It reads: "Here lies Maria Sharapova, who on the 27th of January in the year 2007 fell victim to a natural force beyond her comprehension."

The name of that force? Serena Williams.



Oh, Serena may have looked sweet AFTER the fact, but for a little over an hour in Melbourne on Saturday she was a superbeing to be feared... and NOT denied. The tennis masses came to the Australian Open Women's final hoping for a classic match. What happened was a classic ass-kicking. A 6-1/6-2 virtual knock-out in one hour & three minutes in which Williams ran across the ring and knocked the Russian to the canvas, Mike Tyson-style, with one withering shot. Sharapova never got up.

Sure, Sharapova contributed mightily to her own demise. Her inability to right her service woes made her akin to a three-legged critter trying to cross the highway of life, but with Williams playing the tractor-trailer bearing down on her it probably didn't really matter. On this day, Serena could seemingly do no wrong. She wouldn't allow it.

In her first serve game, Sharapova set an awful tone, tossing in two double-faults and being immediately broken for 2-0. If Serena ever needed a bell to ring, the teenager surely rang it loud and clear at this moment. The title was there for the taking. Williams was off and running, and she left Sharapova in her wake.

2-0 became 3-0, then 4-0... and 5-0.

Finally, Sharapova scored her first winner with an overhead smash that hit Williams in the middle of the court. Poor, Maria. She'd only made Serena mad. Sharapova was a Dead Girl Walking... and after losing the 1st set 6-1, and then double-faulting again on the first point of the 2nd, she really wasn't even that. This day was all about Serena. With barely a pulse, the Russian lost a 40-15 advantage on her serve and was broken for 3-0. It was just matter of how bad her final epitaph -- err, I mean, the final score line -- was going to be.

Thing is, the "contest" wasn't even as close as the 6-1/6-2 numbers say it was. Of course, do we really need any more proof that numbers can lie than the fact that, as of today, Sharapova is "officially" the #1-ranked player in the world? Williams is #14. If the shell of the Supernova that was left on Laver is the "best," what's Serena?

That IS the prevailing question at the moment, isn't it?

No one else in the sport (what with Andre Agassi retired) could have done what Serena did at this Australian Open. (Well, at least no one NOT named Williams.) After arriving in Melbourne two years removed from her last title, she survived two opponents serving for the match against her, reached the final with a ranking of #81, then destroyed the new world #1 to forever make the lasting memory of what she did over the past two weeks one laced with the dominance, near-perfection and unmatched ability she showed on Saturday.

Roger Federer makes things look so easy at times that we almost take his brilliance for granted, but what Serena did to Sharapova was so physically and emphatically devestating that you couldn't help but notice and savor every shot, every intimidating glare, every this-is-MY-title act of will, every bead of sweat, tensing muscle and clenched fist's role in the in-your-face, full force, destruction. You were encouraged -- practically begged, really -- to stare at the spectacle... if you dared.

Maybe Maria should have covered her eyes, though.

And so the wild, sometimes frustrating, often exhilerating story of Richard and Oracene's youngest daughter continues. Now, we've got another improbable chapter for future generations to ponder. Melbourne '07 was Williams' eighth career slam, but this one comes two years since her last, and is the first won by an unseeded woman since it last happened at this same tournament nearly thirty years ago. And leave it to Serena, just minutes after treating us to the sight of the fierce competitor that lurks within, to also give us a glimpse of her softer side when, while trying to fight back tears, she dedicated her championship to sister Yetunde, who was murdered in September 2003.

It's at moments like this that we realize how different women's tennis is when the REAL Serena is around. But is this the REAL Serena, or just a cameo of what used to be? Either way, things have suddenly changed on the WTA tour.

The "Sharapova Scenario" never took Serena into account. Nor did the expected Justine vs. Maria slam battles for '07. How could they ever have? For all of Williams' talk of wanting to prove her doubters wrong, what else could anyone be? No one could NOT respect what she was capable of, but after the large part of three years of rarely seeing the same player who fashioned the "Serena Slam" in 2002-03, who ever could speak with any authority that THAT Serena could reappear again almost out of thin air? (I mean, I feel proud that I even brought up the possibility of a "Soul Survivor" sequel back on Day 1.)

What we DO know is that when healthy and focused, Serena is STILL the best female tennis player in the world. We also know that Sharapova has some work to do, mostly on the second serve that contributed to the worst slam defeat of her career. But what about the rest? How does Justine Henin approach a Serena with a head of steam? What about the Russians and the new wave of teenagers (speaking of, what ultimately happened in Melbourne makes Shahar Peer's down-to-the-wire QF slugfest with Serena all the more impressive in retrospect, doesn't it?)? What about Venus, who watched all of this on TV in Florida? The last time this happened, Big Sis was inspired enough to go out and win another Wimbledon.

Oh, my. What has Serena wrought? If she can manage to stay in the mix of things, the season will only get more interesting from here. A Soul Survivor once more, Williams said after the match that her "best years are still to come."

But it's better not to dwell on what COULD come next, but instead marvel at what we just saw from Serena. Again... and maybe better than ever. Indeed, one more time, the message from Melbourne was clear:

Don't Mess With Serena.




...meanwhile, #1-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova defended her Girls title with a 7-6/7-6 win over #16 Madison Brengle and, a year after Nick Lindahl came up short in the final, a fellow Aussie DID take the Boys title when unseeded Brydan Klein defeated #2 Jonathan Eysseric 6-2/4-6/6-1.

In Doubles, Bob & Mike Bryan defended their '06 crown (and won their fifth slam as a team) with a 7-5/7-5 win over Jonas Bjorkman & Max Mirnyi.

On the final day of action, the Mixed Doubles title will be determined when Victoria Azarenka & Mirnyi face off with Elena Likhovtseva & Daniel Nestor.

And, of course, the Men's final will feature Fernando Gonzalez walking into the lion's den. We'll have to wait and see if Gonzo emerges with the King of the Forest's head on the end of his racket... or without HIS OWN.



**MOST AUSTRALIAN OPEN TITLES**
[title span]
11..Margaret Smith-Court [1960-73]
6...Nancye Wynne-Bolton [1937-51]
5...Daphne Akhurst [1925-30]
4...Evonne Goolagong [1974-77]
4...Steffi Graf [1988-94]
4...Monica Seles [1991-96]
3...Joan Hartigan [1933-36]
3...Martina Hingis [1997-99]
3...Martina Navratilova [1981-85]
3...SERENA WILLIAMS [2003-07]

**LOW-RANKED SLAM FINALISTS (OPEN ERA)**
NR......Evonne Goolagong, '77 Australian*
#111..Chris O'Neil, '78 Australian*
#81....SERENA WILLIAMS, '07 AUSTALIAN*
#78....Betsy Nagelson, '78 Australian
#68....Barbara Jordan, '79 Australian*
#66....Venus Williams, '97 U.S.

**WEEKS AT #1 ON COMPUTER**
[slam titles]
377..Steffi Graf [22]
331..Martina Navratilova [18]
262..Chris Evert [18]
209..Martina Hingis [5]
178..Monica Seles [9]
98...Lindsay Davenport [3]
57...Serena Williams [8]
56...Justine Henin [5]
39...Amelie Mauresmo [2]
22...Tracy Austin [2]
19...Kim Clijsters [1]
17...Jennifer Capriati [2]
12...Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario [4]
11...Venus Williams [5]
8....MARIA SHARAPOVA [2]
==PRE-COMPUTER YEAR-END #1's**
Margaret Smith-Court [24]
Billie Jean King [12]
Evonne Goolagong [7]

**LAST SEVEN SLAM CHAMPIONS**
[6 different winners]
2005 Wimbledon...Venus Williams
2005 U.S. Open...Kim Clijsters
2006 Australian Open...Amelie Mauresmo
2006 Roland Garros...Justine Henin-Hardenne
2006 Wimbledon...Amelie Mauresmo
2006 U.S. Open...Maria Sharapova
2007 Australian Open...Serena Williams



**LATE-ROUND (SF-F) AWARDS**

TOP PLAYER: Serena Williams
RISER: Nicole Vaidisova
SURPRISES: Yung-Jan Chan/Chai-Jung Chuang & Madison Brengle
VETERANS: Cara Black/Liezel Huber & Elena Likhovtseva
FRESH FACES: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova & Victoria Azarenka
DOWN: Lisa Raymond/Samantha Stosur & Zi Yan/Jie Zheng

MISS OPPORTUNITY: Serena Williams
IT GIRL: Shahar Peer
REVELATION LADIES: Belarussians
UPSET QUEENS: Czechs
COMEBACK PLAYER: Serena Williams
DOUBLES PLAYER: Liezel Huber
JUNIOR BREAKOUT: Madison Brengle
FIRST SEED OUT: #25 Anabel Medina-Garrigues
LAST QUALIFIER STANDING: (2nd Rd.) Anna Kremer, Alla Kudryavtseva, Tamira Paszek, Julia Vakulenko, Renata Voracova




All for now.

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Day 12: Clash of the Titans

They're ready for battle. The #1-seeded player vs. the surprise finalist. A second straight slam championship at stake for a Russian, and the "return to prominance" of American women's tennis in the hands of the other.

No, not Maria vs. Serena. Anastasia vs. Madison, of course.

Ironically, in the same Australian Open that will bring us a main draw match-up of soon-to-be #1 female player in the world Maria Sharapova versus unseeded Serena Williams, the Girls final is following along in near-lockstep with top-ranked Hordette girl Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova facing off against #16-seeded American Madison Brengle in the final.

Like Sharapova, the world's best junior girl is looking to claim her second straight slam singles crown, having defeated Tamira Paszek in the U.S. Open Girls final last September. 15-year old Pavlyuchenkova is also the defending Australian Open Girls champ (she was RU in Roland Garros in '06, as well). Like Williams, 16-year old Brengle wasn't expected to get this far. The core of American girls showed themselves pretty well in Melbourne (unseeded Chelsey Gullickson made the QF, and Julia Boserup upset #7-seed Sharon Fichman in the 1st Round), with Brengle separating herself from the pack to reach her first slam Girls final just weeks after having claimed the U.S.'s wild card berth into the main draw by winning a playoff tournament (she lost to Patty Schnyder in the 1st Round). Both Brengle and Pavlyuchenkova, in Federer-esque fashion, have yet to drop a set in Melbourne.

Gee, it's like the "Cold War" has been renewed on an entirely more desirable level.




Love-Love... Australia Day celebrations and a dwindling number of matches remaining to contest left little to be done on Day 12, but what was scheduled was pretty important.

For one, Fernando Gonzalez reached his first career slam final with a 6-1/6-3/6-1 smackdown of Tommy Haas. It was a pretty good Federer impression... but how will it hold up against the real thing in the final? Gonzo put on a late surge in '06 to finish in the Top 10, but it should be noted that even during that breakthrough string of results he faced -- and lost to -- Federer on back-to-back weekends in Madrid and Basel last October when the Chilean made three straight finals (he lost the other to Ivan Ljubicic). I'm just sayin'.
=============================
15-love

... the first official champions were crowned in Women's Doubles, as Cara Black & Liezel Huber finally put down the unseeded Taiwanese team of Yung-Jan Chan & Chia-Jung Chuang, 6-4/6-7/6-1.
=============================
15-love... both the Girls and Boys Doubles champs were decided, too.



The all-Russian team of Evgeniya Rodina & Arina Rodionova upset #1-seeded Julia Cohen & Urszula Radwanska, 2-6/6-3/6-1. On the Boys side, unseeded Graeme Dyce & Harri Heliovaara defeated #8-seeded Stephen Donald & Rupesh Roy, 6-2/6-7/6-3.
=============================
30-love...

**MEN'S DOUBLES FINAL**
#1 Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan
vs.
#2 Jonas Bjorkman/Max Mirnyi

**MIXED DOUBLES FINAL**
Victoria Azarenka/Max Mirnyi
vs.
Elena Likhovtseva/Daniel Nestor

**BOY'S SINGLES FINAL**
#2 Jonathan Eysseric (FRA)
vs.
Brydan Klein (AUS)

=============================
40-love...

**2007 AUSTRALIAN OPEN FINALISTS**
[total slam s/d/m titles]
15..Serena Williams
9...Jonas Bjorkman
9...Roger Federer
7...Bob Bryan
6...Mike Bryan
6...Max Mirnyi
5*..Cara Black
2*..Liezel Huber
2...Maria Sharapova
1...Elena Likhovtseva
1...Daniel Nestor
0...Victoria Azarenka
0...Yung-Jan Chan
0...Chia-Jung Chuang
0...Fernando Gonzalez
[DOUBLES TEAMS]
4...Bryan/Bryan
2...Bjorkman/Mirnyi
2*..Black/Huber
0...Azarenka/Mirnyi
0...Chan/Chuang
0...Likhovtseva/Nestor
--
*--includes '07 Australian title

=============================
MATCH, "And the winner is"... hmmm, who am I going to pick in the singles finals? Well, Federer, of course. Isn't that always the safe (and usually correct) bet? Gonzalez has been stellar, but there's a wide gulf between very good (and maybe even great) and the land of giant toadstools and talking oak trees where Roger the Honorific resides. Sure, Federer's going to need to lose soon or I'm going to run out of things to call him (I don't think I've repeated myself yet)... but I don't think it'll be in Melbourne. FEDERER IN... um, well, why not... THREE SETS. Move over, Bjorn Borg.

As for the women, I'm going to pick the Supernova largely -- well, maybe even more than that -- because I picked her to win at the beginning, and I'm hoping to be able to declare the "Sharapova Scenario" ON within the next 24 hours. But the "Serena Scenario" might be even more likely considering what's happened the last two weeks. It'll be a close match, and hopefully a classic with a high level of play from beginning to end. In the end, I think Sharapova will get her serve going just in the nick of time to match Serena's and barely beat her to the finish line. SHARAPOVA IN THREE SETS... and maybe even an extended 3rd with a score of 7-5, 8-6 or something like that.

=============================




All for Day 12.

Read more...

Day 11: Tell Him Something Pretty

"Tell him something pretty."

That was the last line of the final episode of "Deadwood," said by saloon owner Al Swearengen to an underling when asked what a somewhat "less jaded" employee should be told about how Swearengen had just been forced by "external forces" of survival to murder a prostitute the man had befriended.

"Tell him something pretty," Swearengen muttered before he dropped to his knees to wipe up the pool of blood on the floor.

After Roger Federer's 6-4/6-0/6-2 destruction of Andy Roddick -- who might have been led to believe that his Kooyang win over the Holy Trinity of Tennis could mean the dynamic had changed a little in this "non-rivalry" -- in the men's semifinals, I wonder if Jimmy Connors managed to come up with something appropriately "pretty" to tell his charge?

Whew! Beating Federer in that exhibition could have been the worst thing that Roddick's ever done. I mean, with that 12-1 career record against the American, Federer might have been able to take winning a match against him for granted. But Roddick's unofficial victory put him back on the All-Powerful One's radar... and this is what happens when He looks at an opponent as a threat. Hello, 13-1, with a twist of the knife in Roddick's gut for good measure. You know, just as a reminder of where he REALLY stands.

Honestly, sometimes your jaw just reflexively drops and you can't help but shake your head at how easy Federer makes things look sometimes. It used to be that only Lleyton Hewitt was subjected to this sort of public schooling by Headmaster Federer in a slam. Welcome to the club, Andy... see if there's any open seats where you can sit down.

For the record, Federer has won 35 straight matches. He's appeared in seven straight slam finals. He's three sets away from winning his 10th slam title, and if he can do it in straights he'll become the first maan in 27 years to win a slam without dropping a single set. Yeah, just what Federer needs... MORE records.

Get used to it. After a few years of the likes of John McEnroe and Andre Agassi talking about how Federer might just be the best ever it's becoming clear that they could be right.

I know I'm a believer. I'm drinking the Kool-Aid. As for Andy, Andy, James and maybe even Rafa... well, I hope someone tells them something pretty.




Love-Love... in the end, all four of the women's semifinalists played to type.

In the first match, Nicole Vaidisova stayed close to Serena Williams. But she couldn't quite close out the opening set (she had a set point) when she had the chance, reacted emotionally and then fell behind in the 2nd, caught herself before things got ugly and battled herself back into the match before ultimately losing 7-6/6-4 to Williams. Serena, displaying the muscle memory of a champion two years removed, used her big match, big point experience to hold off the Czech teen's ascension for at least one more slam. After coming this far, she's going to be very difficult to beat in the final.

In Match #2, Maria Sharapova continued to be shaky on her serve, tossing in more double-faults than in her lackluster effort against Chakvetadze in the QF... but she was able to hold herself together and play the big points with more ease than her opponent. Kim Clijsters was able to break the Russian twice in the 1st set, only to immediately give the advantage right back in the next game both times. Sharapova ultimately took a tight 6-4 1st stanza. The Belgian took a 40-0 lead on Sharapova's serve to open the 2nd, but lost the game and then squandered more break point opportunities throughout the set as the 19-year old closed out the match with a 6-2 set, thereby ending the 23-year old's Australian Open career.

So, bring on Serena vs. the Supernova, Part V... their first clash since Sharapova had three match points ripped from her grasp by Williams in the Oz SF in 2005 -- the last tourament that Serena won. Really, is there any other women's tennis matchup with so much going for it? What with Serena's in-and-out presence the past two seasons, this treat is a rare delicacy. But the Aussie Open couldn't ask for a better final than the game's biggest star (the odds-on favorite when the tournament began) versus its most talented player (who came to Melbourne as a longshot, but also as the most dangerous floater in the history of tennis draws).

Sure, Serena isn't quite in TOP form at the moment, but she's so "special good" that anything close allows her to put on an extended performance like the one she's given us in Melbourne. Hey, Sharapova isn't exactly making anyone compare her to Federer at the moment, either. But here they are, Justine Henin (how oddly short that seems now) aside, the two most fierce competitors in women's tennis meeting on the big stage.

This could be a classic. Should be fun.
=============================
15-Love...


**MOST CAREER SLAM TITLES - WOMEN**
24...Margaret Smith-Court
22...Steffi Graf
19...Helen Wills-Moody
18...Martina Navratilova
18...Chris Evert
12...Billie Jean King
12...Suzanne Lenglen
9....Monica Seles
8....Maureen Connolly
8....Molla Bjurstedt Mallory
7....SERENA WILLIAMS
7....Maria Bueno
7....Evonne Goolagong-Cawley
7....Dorothea Lambert-Chambers

**SLAM FINALS - ACTIVE**
12...Martina Hingis (5-7)
11...Venus Williams (5-6)
10*..SERENA WILLIAMS (7-2)
9....Justine Henin (5-4)
6....Mary Pierce (2-4)
5....Kim Clijsters (1-4)
3*...MARIA SHARAPOVA (2-0)
3....Jennifer Capriati (3-0)
3....Amelie Mauresmo (2-1)
--
*-including '07 Aust.Open final

**RUSSIAN WOMEN IN SLAM FINALS**
1974 Wimbledon - Evert d. MOROZOVA
1974 U.S. - Evert d. MOROZOVA
2004 R.G. - MYSKINA d. DEMENTIEVA
2004 Wimbledon - SHARAPOVA d. S.Williams
2004 U.S. - KUZNETSOVA d. DEMENTIEVA
2006 R.G. - Henin-H. d. KUZNETSOVA
2006 U.S. - SHARAPOVA d. Henin-H.
2007 Australian - SHARAPOVA vs. S.Williams

**RECENT UNSEEDED SLAM FINALISTS**
1997 Australian - Mary Pierce (lost to Hingis)
1997 US Open - Venus Williams (lost to Hingis)
1999 Australian - Amelie Mauresmo (lost to Hingis)
2007 AUSTRALIAN - SERENA WILLIAMS

**AUSTRALIAN OPEN FINALS IN 2000's**
2000 Davenport def. Hingis
2001 Capriati def. Hingis
2002 Capriati def. Hingis
2003 S.Williams def. V.Williams
2004 Henin-Hardenne def. Clijsters
2005 S.Williams def. Davenport
2006 Mauresmo def. Henin-Hardenne
2007 SHARAPOVA vs. S.WILLIAMS

**SERENA vs. MARIA**
2004 Miami 4r - Serena 6-4/6-3
2004 Wimbledon F - Sharapova 6-1/6-4
2004 WTA Chsp F - Sharapova 4-6/6-2/6-4
2005 Aust.SF - Serena 2-6/7-5/8-6
2007 AUSTRALIAN OPEN FINAL

=============================
30-Love...

**MOST CAREER SLAM TITLES - MEN**
14...Pete Sampras
12...Roy Emerson
11...Bjorn Borg
11...Rod Laver
10...Bill Tilden
9....ROGER FEDERER

**SLAM FINALS - ACTIVE**
11*..ROGER FEDERER (9-1)
4....Marat Safin (2-2)
4....Lleyton Hewitt (2-2)
4....Andy Roddick (1-3)
--
*-including '07 Aust.Open final

**AUSTRALIAN OPEN BOYS CHAMPIONS**
2000 Andy Roddick
2001 Janko Tipsarevic
2002 Clement Morel
2003 Marcos Baghdatis
2004 Gael Monfils
2005 Donald Young
2006 Alexandre Sidorenko

=============================
30-15... a big upset happened in the Women's Doubles SF on Day 11, as #2-seeded defending champions Zi Yan & Jie Zheng were knocked out by a Taiwanese team, 17-year old Yung-Jan Chan and Chia-Jung Chuang, 22, by a 6-3/6-4 score.

Individually, the doubles players still in contention for multiple titles are Liezel Huber, Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi. All three are in Doubles finals, and still alive in the Mixed SF.
=============================
40-15

... just as the Belarussians impressed in the early rounds of the main draw, one has done so in the Girls competition, as well. 16-year old #3-seed Ksenia Milevskaya advanced to the SF with a win over Urszula Radwanska. She'll play the lowest-seeded semifinalist, 16-year old American #16-seed Madison Brengle. The other two Girls semifinalists are defending champion and #1-seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and #6-seeded French Pastry Alize Cornet (who also was a qualifier for the main draw).

Aussie Brydan Klein advanced on the Boys side, and will face #10-seed Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania. The other semi will be contested by #2-seed Jonathan Eysseric of France and Italian #8-seed Thomas Fabbiano.

**GIRLS DOUBLES SF**
#1 Julia Cohen(USA) & Urszula Radwanska(POL)
vs.
Evgeniya Rodina(RUS) & Arina Rodionva(RUS)

**BOYS DOUBLES SF**
#8 Stephen Donald(AUS) & Rupesh Roy(IND)
vs.
Graeme Dyce(GBR) & Harri Heliovaara(FIN)

=============================
MATCH, "Down to the Wire"...

**MEN'S FINAL**
#1 Roger Federer vs. #10 Fernando Gonzalez or #12 Tommy Haas
**WOMEN'S FINAL**
#1 Maria Sharapova vs. Serena Williams
**MEN'S DOUBLES FINAL**
#1 Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan vs. #2 Jonas Bjorkman/Max Mirnyi
**WOMEN'S DOUBLES FINAL**
#3 Cara Black/Liezel Huber vs. Yung-Jan Chan/Chia-Jung Chuang
**MIXED DOUBLES SEMIFINAS**
#4 Francesca Schiavone/Jonas Bjorkman vs. Victoria Azarenka/Max Mirnyi
-----------------------------
#7 Liezel Huber/Kevin Ullyett vs. Elena Likhovtseva/Daniel Nestor

=============================




All for Day 11.

Read more...

Day 10: Banana Splits

Well, Maria Sharapova and Kim Clijsters won't see their QF matches from Day 10 anywhere near their career highlight package... but they did what they had to do to set up their long-awaited semifinal clash in Melbourne.



For all the surprise and inexperience in residence in the bottom half of the draw's final four, the top half's included four players who've combined for eight slam crowns... yet they all played like newcomers to the big stage on this day.

Sharapova's 7-6(5)/7-5 win over fellow Russian Anna Chakvetadze was "highlighted" by a parade of blown opportunties by both players. In the 1st set, the two 19-year olds traded off throwing in double-faults on break point. In the resulting tie-break, eleven of the twelve points were won by the player RECEIVING serve... and it wasn't because they were rocketing back blistering returns, either. The 2nd set was little improvement, as Sharapova crossed the finish line first, but didn't exactly feel compelled to believe she's fully prepared for her SF meeting with Clijsters after such a lackluster performance.

But at least she's not Chakvetadze, who has to be kicking herself today after leaving a golden opportunity for a slam SF on the court. Where Shahar Peer tried (but ultimately failed) to take away HER QF match from Serena Williams, Chakvetadze never followed the same path against Sharapova. When she had the shots, she didn't take them. When she needed to be aggressive, she was passive. When her mind needed to focus, it seemed to go into "pause mode." She'll likely get another QF shot in a slam, but she might never get a better shot to push Sharapova off her pedestal than this one.

Clijsters, after looking great in earlier rounds, was no great shakes against Martina Hingis, either. She won 3-6/6-4/6-3 with a late surge in the 3rd that erased the hardly-stellar Hingis' 2-0 lead. But her 62 unforced errors were more akin to the "old" Kim than "my gal" Kim. As she said herself, only that she "fought and tried" can be taken as a positive from this performance.

But when the court seems to be littered with banana peels, and your game seems to manage to slip on all of them... yet you STILL win, you just take a deep breath and move on.

Both Maria and Kim will have forgotten about Day 10 by Day 11... if they know what's good for them.




Love-Love

... Junior notes: #in the 3rd Round, 11 Urszula Radwanska, 16, upset #5 Tamira Paszek (who qualified for the main draw and won a match last week) in the only three-set ter of the eight Girls matches. In a somewhat surprising occurrence, the Girls' final eight includes as many Americans as Russians (which includes defending Girls '06 champ Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova).

**GIRLS' QUARTERFINALS**
#1 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova(RUS) vs. #12 Nikola Hofmanova(CZE)
#6 Alize Cornet(FRA) vs. Chelsey Gullickson(USA)
#11 Urszula Radwanska(POL) vs. #3 Ksenia Milevskaya(BLR)
#8 Evgeniya Rodina(RUS) vs. #16 Madison Brengle(USA)

Meanwhile, three Aussies are in the Boys' final eight, with Brydan Klein's 6-2/6-7/6-1 upset of #1-seed Martin Klizan highlighting Day 10 action.

**BOYS' QUARTERFINALS**
Brydan Klein(AUS) vs. #5 Greg Jones(AUS)
#3 Roman Jebavy(CZE) vs. #10 Ricardas Berankis(LTU)
#8 Thomas Fabbiano(ITA) vs. John-Patrick Smith(AUS)
#12 Yan Bai(CHN) vs. #2 Jonathan Eysseric(FRA)

**AUSTRALIAN OPEN JUNIORS - by nation**
[Girls/Boys combined]
3...Australia (0/3)
2...Russia (2/0)
2...USA (0/2)
2...Czech Republic (1/1)
2...France (1/1)
1...Belarus (1/0)
1...China (0/1)
1...Italy (0/1)
1...Lithuania (0/1)
1...Poland (1/0)

=============================
Love-15...

**AUSTRALIAN OPEN GIRLS FINALS**
2000 Jelena Jankovic d. Sofia Arvidsson
2001 Aniko Kapros d. Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez
2002 Barbora Strycova d. Maria Sharapova
2003 Barbora Strycova d. Victoriya Kutuzova
2004 Shahar Peer d. Nicole Vaidisova
2005 Victoria Azarenka d. Agnes Szavay
2006 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova d. Caroline Wozniacki

=============================
Love-30... the top four seeds have all advanced to the Men's Doubles SF, along with three of the top four Women's seeds (they're joined by the unseeded Taiwanese team of Yung-Jan Chan and Chia-Jung Chuang, who handed Ashley Harkleroad another Oz indignity with a 6-0/6-0 QF win over the American and Galina Voskoboeva). On Day 10, top-seeded Lisa Raymond & Samantha Stosur were bounced by #3-seeded Cara Black & Liezel Huber.

**MEN'S DOUBLES SF**
#1 Bryan/Bryan vs. #3 Knowles/Nestor
#4 Hanley/Ullyett vs. #2 Bjorkman/Mirnyi
**WOMEN'S DOUBLES SF**
#3 Black/Huber def. #1 Raymond/Stosur
#2 Yan/Zheng vs. Y-J.Chan/C-J.Chuang
**MIXED DOUBLES QF**
#1 B.Bryan/Raymond vs. Mirnyi/Azarenka
#4 Bjorkman/Schiavone vs. Knowle/T.Sun
Nestor/Likhovtseva vs. #3 Paes/Stosur
#7 Ullyett/Huber vs. Healey/Stewart

=============================
15-30...

**MID-ROUND AWARDS**
[3rd Rd. to QF]
TOP PLAYER: Serena Williams (RU: Nicole Vaidisova))
RISER: Shahar Peer (RU: Anna Chakvetadze)
SURPRISE: Lucie Safarova (RU: Yung-Jan Chan & Chia-Jung Chuang)
VETERAN: Cara Black & Liezel Huber (RU: Martina Hingis))
FRESH FACE: Nicole Vaidisova (RU: Urszula Radwanska)
DOWN: Amelie Mauresmo (RU: Lisa Raymond & Samantha Stosur)

TOP MATCH: QF - S.Williams def. Peer... 3-6/6-2/8-6. The match that marked the official return of one champion, and possibly the arrival of a future one.

=============================
15-40... the men's singles SF were set, and either #12 Tommy Haas or #10 Fernando Gonzalez will be making a breakthrough with their first slam final against the winner of Federer/Roddick.
=============================
30-40...

**SEMIFINAL PICKS**
[WOMEN]
#1 Sharapova d. #4 Clijsters in 2 sets... not that the QF gave any indication one way or the other how this'll go. Clijsters has a 4-2 career record vs. Sharapova, but Sharapova was 2-0 against "my gal" Kim last season (both on hard court, both tight straight set victories).
S.Williams def. #10 Vaidisova in 3 sets... Vaidisova's serve gives her a chance, but Serena's been getting better with every round.
[MEN]
#1 Federer def. #6 Roddick in 3 sets... sure, he's improved and beat the Prince of All He Surveys in Kooyang, but Federer is 12-1 vs. the American when it counts.
#10 Gonzalez def. #12 Haas in 5 sets... Gonzo has been routinely mowing through players in this tournament, including Nadal on Day 10 right after Rafa's five-set win over Andy Murray. Haas, though, has shown little awe of the Swiss Mister and had more success against Federer in the past than the Chilean. Hmmm, wonder if that's a coincidence?
=============================
MATCH, "Tag, Shahar. You're it!"... Peer was branded as the Oz "It Girl" with Chakvetadze's off performance against Sharapova in the QF. The 2007 Australian Open designations:

IT GIRL: Shahar Peer
MISS OPPORTUNITY: Serena Williams or Nicole Vaidisova
UPSET QUEENS: Czechs
REVELATION LADIES: Belarussians
FIRST SEED OUT: #25 Anabel Medina-Garrigues
LAST QUALIFIER STANDING: (5 advanced to 2nd Round)
COMEBACK PLAYER: Serena Williams

=============================




All for Day 10.

Read more...

Day 9: Shalom, Serena

Yep, she's back.



Outlasting Nadia Petrova made it seem possible. Shutting down Jelena Jankovic made it seem probable. But there was still an inkling of doubt heading into Serena Williams' QF matchup in Melbourne with 19-year old Israeli Shahar Peer that the seven-time grand slam champion truly had regained enough of her former soul to be a legit contender for the Australian Open title. Her 3-6/6-2/8-6 win in the nearly three-hour match leaves little remaining doubt.

Look out, Nicole. You just might be next.

The best thing about this memorable match, though, was that it truly WAS a great one. The proven pro versus the young upstart with a never-say-die attitude combined to produce a seesaw contest that displayed both players' hotspots.

Peer wasn't intimidated by the moment, and raced off to a 3-0 lead in the 1st set. Serena pushed back late, but Peer narrowly averted a near-break while serving for the set to take the 1st stanza 6-3. In the 2nd, things were even at 2-2 until Peer blinked just once during a serve game. Williams pounced on the opportunity, breaking and taking control of the match. She won the 2nd set 6-2, and took a 4-1 lead in the 3rd.

But Shahar, who's been on the opposite end of a similar final set score in a slam before and came back to win (and survived match points just a few rounds ago), wasn't going to exit the stage without someone pulling her off in a headlock.

Peer, as has proven to be her wont, battled Serena nose-to-nose and leveled the score at 4-4, raising the question about William's fitness in a long match on a hot day, and causing the notion that experience -- thought to be in Serena's advantage -- might actually favor the teenager, who'd been in tight matches far more often than the former Oz champ had been during the two years since she last won in Melbourne.

For a little while, it looked like the "new" was going to outduel the "old." But Serena wasn't finished proving herself.

Peer had break points for 5-4, but Williams pulled out three aces to win the game. The 19-year old finally broke Williams on her thirteenth break point in the match for 6-5, and served for the semifinals. Surely, Jerusalem sat on the edge of its collective seat in the early morning hours on Tuesday... eyes glued to TV sets, wondering whether this new, hard-nosed star was going to become the first Israeli slam semfinalist ever. All the "Shalom, Shahar" headlines were being written (including here)... but then Serena showed why she's, well, "Serena."

Williams has become an all-time great because competition brings out the best in her. When she's fit and focused, she doesn't give away matches... someone has to TAKE them from her. And THAT, Sharapova at Wimbledon notwithstanding, very rarely happens. Petrova didn't do it when she had the chance a few rounds ago, but Peer tried.

It still didn't matter.

Serena broke Peer's serve, then applied that headlock. She added the next two games to win the 3rd set 8-6 and set herself up to write another glowing chapter in a storied career. One final set number highlights the key to the slight difference between Williams and Peer in this match: Serena was 3-for-3 in break chances, while Peer was 2-for-10. Throw in Williams' eight 3rd set aces, and it's pretty clear that Williams is back, playing her best on the big points and bringing back memories of her "good ol' days."

Who knows what'll happen AFTER Melbourne, but by the end of this weekend Serena might just have pulled off that "Soul Survivor" sequel, after all.

Peer, too, should be proud. Obviously, she'd rather have won. And she nearly did. But no player with this much fight in her is going to go away after one shot on the big stage. Her trial-by-fire performance against Williams leads you to believe that she'll will herself back to this stage. Soon. And as a player who learns a little from every match she plays, next time she'll figure out how to eliminate the match-turning moments that cost her her first grand slam semifinal appearance.

Unless, maybe, she's again facing a version of Serena Williams on a mission. Again.

THAT is a force very difficult to overcome... and it could be NO ONE will find a way to do it this week in Melbourne.




Love-Love

...in Day 9's other women's Quarterfinal, Nicole Vaidisova made sure Lucie Safarova remained in 2nd place in the Czech Maiden hierarchy by the tune of a 6-1/6-4 victory. But rather than play the teenager she faced off against for the Oz Girls title two years ago, she'll get to experiece Serena for the very first time. But this time it won't be her first grand slam SF as it was against Svetlana Kuznetsova at last year's Roland Garros, where she learned the hard way precisely how NOT to close out a match to get to the first slam final of your career. Leave it to the Dynamova to have a shot at a do-over to claim her expected place in the spotlight before her 18th birhday. Maybe this time, if she gets a shot down the line at a crucial instant she'll actually take it.

Of course, Serena might just have something to say about it, too. Williams said she wasn't even tired after her long, tense match with Peer. Maybe it was true, or maybe that she said that was the proof that she already has her game face on. Either way, it's a good sign for Serena's prospects... and a bad one for everyone else's.
=============================
15-Love...

**WOMEN'S DOUBLES QUARTERFINALS**
#1 Raymond/Stosur def. #7 Groenefeld/Shaughnessy
#3 Black/Huber def. #6 Hantuchova/Sugiyama
Y-J.Chan/C-J.Chuang vs. Harkleroad/Voskoboeva
S.Sun/T.Sun vs. #2 Yan/Zheng

=============================
30-Love... meanwhile, half the Men's Doubles spots have been filled, as #1-seeded Bob & Mike Bryan, along with #3-seeded Mark Knowles & Daniel Nestor, won their QF matches.
=============================
40-Love... in Girls action, #2-seed Yung-Jan Chan (who's a doubles quarterfinalist in the main draw) was upset by 17-year old Ling Zhang of Hong Kong. And American Chelsey Gullickson had a very nice day indeed, knocking off Alexandra Panova in come-from-behind fashion 4-6,7-6(0),6-0. Also, she and junior doubles partner Valeria Pulsido Velasco double-bagled Kristina Antoniychuk & (again) Panova, 6-0/6-0. Needless to say, Panova's day was just a little bit ruined... three bagel set losses and a tie-break shutout will tend to do that.
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MATCH, "Nearly there, and one more battle"... unless Anna Chakvetadze upsets Maria Sharapova on Day 10, Shahar Peer's rise to fame -- QF loss or no loss -- is enough to qualify her as Oz's 2007 "It Girl." Meanwhile, Serena and Nicole will battle it out for "Miss Opportunity" in the SF for the right to be named the survivor of the it-looked-wide-open-and-it-was 2nd half of the draw.
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All for Day 9.

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Day 8: The Other Meets the One

There are two 19-year old Russians in the women's quarterfinals. Everyone knows who one of them is, but what about the other?



Maria Sharapova can't breathe in Melbourne without being noticed doing it, but Anna Chakvetadze has won four matches there to run her current WTA-best match win streak to nine (Clijsters is 11-0, but three of those wins were in an exhibition) with nary a soul barely batting an eye.

Sure, Sharapova is a proven slam commodity, while Chakvetadze's best career slam result is this one. Sharapova will regain the #1 ranking after the Australian Open and won the last slam she entered prior to Melbourne, while #13 Chakvetadze is itching to enter the Top 10 for the first time and won her hometown Moscow Tier I last October with the help provided by Sharapova pulling out of the tournament on the eve of a match with her Russian counterpart.

Of course, being one of the "other" Russians is nothing new for Chakvetadze. When you're a Russian tennis player named Anna, but not "Kournikova," it sort of goes with the territory.

It would seem she's destined for "Tier II" status on the world stage no matter what she does on the court... unless, of course, she defeats the Supernova in the quarterfinals. Everyone will know who she is then, and headline writers around the world over will be closely scrutinizing their work to make sure the correct combination of t's, z's, d's and v's are present in her name.

Barring that, I suppose she COULD nearly pass out on the court, too. No, make that actually PASS OUT. Now, THAT might shine the spotlight on the Doll. But I could be wrong... I mean, considering her opponent the next time out.




Love-Love

... while the draw's top half of quarterfinalists is 50% Russian teens, the bottom half is 50% Czech teens. So, a year after Nicole Vaidisova raced to the Roland Garros SF, another Maiden (or the Dynamova once again) will reach a slam semi. The WTA's Czech revolution is indeed following in the footsteps of the Russian one. Who knows, maybe we're only a few seasons away from half of a slam's final eight consisting of two Chinese and, um, maybe two Romanians or Americans?
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15-Love... okay, so maybe it's not likely that the current group of young Americans will produce a handful of slam contenders, but six of the Americanas advanced to the 2nd Round of the Girls Doubles: Julia Boserup, Madison Brengle, Kimberly Couts, Julia Cohen, Chelsey Gullickson and Reka Zsilinszka. Only one American boy advanced past the 1st Round -- Mateusz Kecki.
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30-Love... interestingly, the American juniors aren't joined by any Canadians in the 2nd Round of either the Girls or Boys competition. 15-year old American Boserup upset the best Canadian hope, Sharon Fichman, 6-2/6-2 in the 1st Round.

Amongst the 1st Round Girls winners were top-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Tamira Paszek, Alize Cornet, Yung-Jan Chan and Urszula Radwanska.
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30-15...

**QUARTERFINALS - HEAD-TO-HEAD**
[WOMEN]
Sharapova leads Chakvetadze 2-0
...Anna advanced past Sharapova with that Moscow walkover last year, but that couldn't possibly happen again, right? Just as Camille Pin.
Clijsters/Hingis tied 4-4
...Clijsters was 3-0 vs. Martina in '06
Williams leads Peer 1-0
...but it happened in 2005, when Peer was ranked #140
Vaidisova leads Safarova 2-1
...the Maidens split their two matchups last season

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30-30... Vera Zvonareva not only lost to Sharapova on Day 8, but she and Andy Ram also lost their 1st Round Mixed match to Aussies Chris Guccione and Casey Dellacqua.
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40-30...

**QUARTERFINALISTS -- BY NATION**
[WOMEN & MEN combined]
3...Russia (2/1)
3...USA (1/2)
2...Czech Republic (2/0)
2...Spain (0/2)
2...Switzerland (1/1)
1...Belgium (1/0)
1...Chile (0/1)
1...Germany (0/1)
1...Israel (1/0)

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Deuce...

**MEN's DOUBLES QUARTERFINALS**
#1 Bryan/Bryan vs. Coetzee/Wassen
#3 Knowles/Nestor vs. #6 Santoro/Zimonjic
Benneteau/Mahut vs. #4 Hanley/Ullyett
Bhupathi/Stepanek vs. #2 Bjorkman/Mirnyi

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Ad... so, I went 7-1 on yesterday's men's & women's 4th Round picks (only missing Gonzalez over Blake), making the combined 4th Round match picks a healthy 14-2. On a side "Royale" note, both Pierre and I correctly picked five of the eight women's quarterfinalists. In our original SF forecasts, he had Sharapova-Clijsters-Vaidisova-Jankovic, while I had Sharapova-Clijsters-Peer-Mauresmo. So onward to the QF:

[WOMEN]
#1 Sharapova def. #12 Chakvetadze...sorry, Anna
#4 Clijsters def. #6 Hingis...hey, "my gal" Kim wins yet again
#16 Peer def. S.Williams...I can't blink NOW, can I?
#10 Vaidisova def. Safarova...there goes that January prediction of no slam SF for Nicole in' 07 Oh, well.
[MEN]
#1 Federer def. #7 Robredo
#6 Roddick def. Fish
#3 Davydenko def. #12 Haas
#2 Nadal def. #10 Gonzalez

...my original SF picks for the men were Federer-Roddick-Davydenko-Blake.

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MATCH, "Opportunities for sale."... Backspin's final two slam awards will soon be determined as virtually the same group of players are neck-and-neck for the "Miss Opportunity" and "It Girl" titles. Teenagers Chakvetadze, Peer, Vaidisova and Safarova are in the race for Oz's 2007 "It Girl," while Serena and Martina join them in trying to snatch the "Miss O" crown for their potential SF-or-better runs. Much will be determined over the next two days... in more areas than just some little WTA Backspin awards, too.
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All for Day 8.

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