US Open Report: Days 4 and 5

Just a quick update on days 4 and 5 of the US Open before the start of a hopefully beautiful holiday weekend of tennis.

The big story of course was Andy Roddick sudden announcement that he will retire after this tournament. He made the announcement on his 30th birthday and a day before he played his second round match against Bernard Tomic. That match, which was played last night was a blow out as Roddick feeding off from the appreciative crowd and perhaps playing free from pressure dominated the young Aussie feeding him a bagel for the third set to win. It was another story when it came to another Aussie as Lleyton Hewitt outlasted Gilles Muller to win in five sets. Veteran James Blake also found success upsetting 24th seed Marcel Granollers.

Speaking of upsets, the biggest one of the tournament so far has been Jo-Wilfred Tsonga's 4-set defeat in the hands of Martin Klizan of Slovakia. For the women, Olympic silver medalist Laura Robson took out another big name in 9th seed Li Na after beating Kim Clijsters the round before. Next match for Robson will be against defending champion Sam Stosur. As for Clijsters, she is still around albeit playing in doubles. She lost in the first round of women's doubles, but won a match in mixed with Bob Bryan.

Venus Williams was defeated by 6th seed Angelique Kerber in the tournament's most competitive night match on Ashe so far this year. Venus, however, is still alive in doubles with sister Serena Williams who, along with many of the top contenders including Roger Federer, Victoria Azarenka, Novak Djokovic, Maria Sharapova, David Ferrer, Petra Kvitova, and Tomas Berdych, easily moved into the next round with very little problems.

Along with Roddick, Blake, and Serena, the American presence is significant. Top American men John Isner, Sam Querrey, and Mardy Fish moved on with the latter becoming the 10th man in the tournament to come back from being down 2 sets, a US Open record.  Newcomers Steve Johnson, Sloane Stephens, and Jack Sock also won their matches. It wasn't all good news however as Varvara Lepchenko and Mallory Burdette were denied getting to their first ever major fourth round while Comeback Kid Brian Baker's progress was halted by 8th seed Janko Tipsarevic. Meanwhile, Ryan Harrison was beaten by 7th seed Juan Martin Del Potro.

Other notable results include 18th seed Stan Wawrinka, 19th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber, and 30th seed Feliciano Lopez surviving their grueling five-set matches, 15th seed Lucie Safarova losing to 19th seed Nadia Petrova, and 14th seed Alexander Dolgopolov winning in 4 sets against Marcos Baghdatis. Perhaps the most surprising result so far are the lack of retirements (not including the career kinds) especially with the hot and humid conditions. There also hasn't been a single drop of... wait, I should stop now before I jinx it, right?

Davis Cup Recap and Draw

This past weekend, less than a week from the thrilling and physical Monday US Open final, the top men had to play Davis Cup prompting a few players, namely Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal, to comment on the crazy scheduling issues that has plagued the tour for years. Maybe it should've been top seed and US Open champion Novak Djokovic who spoke out since his incapability to play cost the defending champions Serbia to default against a determined Argentinian team. Led by Juan Martin Del Potro and David Nalbandian, Argentina took a 2-1 lead on the third day that forced the hand of Djokovic and Serbia. Motivated by hubris or carelessness, an injured Djokovic was substituted in and promptly had to retire in the middle of the second set giving Argentina the win and Djokovic his only third loss for the year.

Argentina will look to get its very first Davis Cup championship by facing Spain in the finals. Led by a superb Nadal at home on his beloved clay, Spain dominated their semifinal clash with France over the weekend. The French did well to handily take the doubles with the help of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, but Spain was just impenetrable in the singles.


Roger Federer led his Swiss team against a very tough Australian team in one of the World Group Play-off matches that also took place over the weekend. Federer needed to win both of his matches, which he did, to level 2-2 after Stan Wawrinka lost his first match and both of them lost their doubles. The final match between Wawrinka and Lleyton Hewitt would determine the winner of the tie and it was literally down to the wire with the epic match being suspended at 5-3 in the fifth set due to darkness. When they reconvened the next day, Wawrinka was able to break Hewitt's serve to put Switzerland back to the World Group next year.

Speaking of, the draws for next year's World Group ties were held today at Bangkok, Thailand. Nadal-led Spain will meet first-time World Group contender Kazakhstan at home while Del Potro and the Argentinians will travel to Germany for a tricky match-up with them. Djokovic will take on Robin Soderling when the Serbians travel to Sweden while the American team of Mardy Fish, John Isner, and possibly Andy Roddick will go to Switzerland to face Federer and his team. Other first round match-ups include Russia-Austria, France-Canada, Italy-Czech Republic, and Japan-Croatia.

Wimbledon Report: Day 4

As I said yesterday, I wouldn't be able to watch today's matches because of a family matter, but it did give me a chance to take advantage of Radio Wimbledon. It wasn't pitch perfect and just listening to a tennis match was a bit odd, but it was better than nothing. So with that said, what did transpire today other than rain YET AGAIN interrupting play?


It was another eventful day on Centre Court as two matches went the distance. One of those matches was 5th seed Robin Soderling against former Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt. Hewitt did great to win the first 2 sets, but Soderling mounted a heroic comeback winning the next three tight sets to move on. 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and 16th seed Nicolas Almagro also fought hard, winning in four grueling sets. Almagro defeated American John Isner who awaits another year to make a deep run on the grass. 24th seed Juan Martin Del Potro, losing the first set last night against Olivier Rochus, wins the next three sets today in easier fashion to move through.

Favorites Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic showed great and consistent form sweeping past their opponents today as they've done so far in the tournament. In the next round, they'll get a bit tested as they'll respectively meet David Nalbandian and Marcos Baghdatis who also won today. 13th seed Viktor Troiki, 20th seed Florian Mayer, and 26th seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez all fell.


The other long-distance match at Centre Court today was between wildcard recipient Sabine Lisicki and French Open champion Li Na. After winning the first set, it looked as if Li would go on cruise control, but Lisicki jumped ahead and eventually won the 2nd set. Li, for her part, composed herself and quickly led the 3rd set with a break. On Lisicki's serve, Li had 2 match points she just couldn't convert and then subsequently dropped served twice while serving for the match. At 6-7 with her forehand collapsing, Li had to serve again, this time to stay in the match. Happily for Lisicki, it wasn't meant to be for Li, as the German wins on her 3rd match point. A tough loss for sure for Li, but she can now fully savor her French Open win and hopefully be a bit more confident for the summer hardcourt season.

Funnily enough, a few former French Open champions did well to win today. 6th seed Francesca Schiavone, 12th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, and 18th seed Ana Ivanovic all made their matches look easy which is so unlike them. Elsewhere, Serena Williams, inexplicably relegated to Court 2, had to comeback yet again after dropping the first set. She clearly is still rusty, but every match is helping. There were a few seeded upsets, namely 13th seed Agnieszka Radwanska, 14th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and 31st seed Lucie Safarova.

Because of rain and/or extraordinarily long matches, a few players' matches were outright cancelled or will continue tomorrow. Among those displaced were Maria Sharapova, David Ferrer, Caroline Wozniacki, Marion Bartoli, Jurgen Melzer, and Shuai Peng.

Wimbledon Report: Day 2

Even though the wind made play a bit tricky for some players, thankfully the rain stayed away after postponing many of the matches the day before. Water was shed though from a very unlikely source.


Defending champion Serena Williams played her first Grand Slam match at Centre Court since she won the title last year. It wasn't easy as she had to gut out a 3-set win and by the end her emotions overwhelmed her. She was still tearing up when she spoke to the media after the match. And who could blame her after being unable to play for a year and getting a couple of surgeries that could've threatened her career.

Other top contenders who joined Serena in the second round include top seed Caroline Wozniacki, 3rd seed Na Li, 4th seed Victoria Azarenka, 5th seed Maria Sharapova, 8th seed Petra Kvitova, 9th seed Marion Bartoli, 11th seed Andrea Petkovic, and 18th seed Ana Ivanovic who all moved routinely in straight sets. The latter absolutely demolished American upstart Melanie Oudin. Unfortunately former Grand Slam finalists 10th seed Sam Stosur and 15th seed Jelena Jankovic weren't so lucky as they were unceremoniously bounced from the first round.


Unlike the women, no huge upsets for the men today as the top contenders including 2nd seed Novak Djokovic, 3rd seed Roger Federer, 7th seed David Ferrer, 8th seed Andy Roddick, 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and 24th seed Juan Martin Del Potro who all moved through with minimal drama. 5th seed Robin Soderling had to win in four sets after seemingly injuring himself in the third set. Other four-set winners include 11th seed Jurgen Melzer, 12th seed Gilles Simon, 18th seed Mikhail Youzhny, and former champion Lleyton Hewitt. The latter outlasted the younger Kei Nishikori in one of the outer courts.

The long awaited and much-anticipated rematch of The Longest Tennis Match Ever between John Isner and Nicholas Mahut lasted about 9 hours less than their historic match last year with Isner winning again, this time in 3 relatively straightforward sets. Joining Mahut on the sideline are 22nd seed Alexandr Dologopolov (beaten by former top 10 Fernando Gonzalez), 23rd seed Janko Tipsaveric (retired against Ivo Karlovic), 27th seed Marin Cilic (beaten by veteran Ivan Ljubicic), 29th seed Nikolay Davydenko, and unseeded James Blake who lost in a tight 5-set match against 32nd seed Marcos Baghdatis. 21st seed Fernando Verdasco won his close 5-set match against Radek Stepanek, 9-7 in the fifth set.

Though it's the longest day of the year, there are still some first round matches that will need to be played tomorrow due to the packed schedule today. But for the most part, it's on to the Second Round!

Australian Open Report: Day 2

The top seeds continued to dominate, some bagels were dished, and a couple of Grand Slam champions were taken out. Onwards to day two...

In a trend that started on day one, the top men continued to breeze through their first round matches. Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray won when their opponents retired, with Nadal not giving his opponent any games. Robin Soderling also won in three easy sets, a far cry from last year when the two-time French Open finalist was bounced in the first round.

Other players with a straight-set wins include 10th seed Mikhail Youzhny, 11th seed Jurgen Melzer, 15th seed Marin Cilic, 20th seed John Isner, 31st seed Feliciano Lopez, Radek Stepanek, and Juan Martin Del Potro. Del Potro is playing his first slam match since he lost here last year in the fourth round.

A few others, however, were made to go the distance including David Nalbandian and 2-time Grand Slam champion Lleyton Hewitt with Nalbandian winning against the Aussie 9-7 in the final set. 13th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 21st seed Marcos Baghdatis, and 30th seed Thomaz Belluci also had to win in five sets. With that said, the lone seed to fall yesterday was 24th seed Ernests Gulbis in straight sets.


It was pretty much the same story in the women's side as the top women moved on easily. Kim Clijsters embarrassed struggling Dinara Safina dishing out a double bagel to the former world no. 1. Vera Zvonareva, Samantha Stosur, Shahar Peer, Nadia Petrova, Flavia Pennetta, Alize Cornet, Lourdes Dominguez Lino, and Iveta Benesova delivered similar beatdowns to their opponents who only managed to get three or less games the entire match.

The big "upset" of the day was the resurgent 19th seed Ana Ivanovic who fought off four match points against Ekaterina Makarova before the Russian eventually winning on her fifth match point 10-8 in the final set. Other notable losses include 27th seed Alexandra Dulgheru, Patty Schnyder, Melanie Oudin, and Kimiko Date-Krumm. Date-Krumm however still put up a fight against 12th seed Agnieszka Radwanska (nearly 20 years her junior!) losing 5-7 in the final set.

Other notable winners yesterday include 7th seed Jelena Jankovic, 16th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 18th seed Maria Kirilenko, 25th seed Petra Kvitova, 26th seed Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, Lucie Safarova, Vera Dushevina, Carla Suarrez Navarro, and Shuai Peng.

Australian Open: Rally for Relief

With the tennis world descending on Melbourne for the fortnight for the first Grand Slam tournament of the season, the devastating floods that have rocked the country for the past few weeks was first and foremost on their minds. Reminiscent of last year's impromptu exhibition match to benefit the victims of the Haitian earthquake, this Rally for Relief brought together a dozen or so of the top players to raise money.

Team Gold, led by Lleyton Hewitt, included Roger Federer, Caroline Wozniacki, Novak Djokovic, Sam Stosur, Justine Henin, and Ana Ivanovic. Team Green, led by Patrick Rafter, included Rafael Nadal, Kim Clijsters, Vera Zvonareva, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, and Victoria Azarenka.

The exhibition was expectantly great fun full of insane tennis shots, hilarious jokes, and general feel of camaraderie. The highlight, in a day full of highlights, came when Federer-Stosur took on Nadal-Clijsters delivering solid, albeit exhibition-stlye, tennis. It was even more of a treat when they traded partners and Federer-Nadal were on the same team. Could you just imagine a world where these two played doubles? For highlights of the match, click here.

Rally for Relief was a huge success raising $750,000 from the match and $2 million overall. There's still time to make a contribution over at Rally for Relief.

Wimbledon Report: Day 5

© AELTC / Pro Sport

Former champion Lleyton Hewitt who defeated Gael Monfils in straight sets led the top men into the second week in a relatively easy and drama-free day. Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Roddick all won as well as Jurgen Melzer who defeated Feliciano Lopez and Yen-Hsun Lu who becomes the first Taiwanese to reach the fourth round at a Grand Slam.

12th seed Tomas Berdych won, but was pushed to the fifth set. 13th seed Mikhail Youzhny wasn't so lucky as he lost in the fifth to Paul-Henri Mathieu. There was some drama on Court 18 again as 31st seed Victor Hanescu lost a 2 sets to love lead as he retired down 0-3 in the final set. Finally, 23rd seed John Isner expectedly lost in straight sets to Thiemo De Bakker, serving 0 aces, evidently still recovering from the longest tennis match ever.

© AELTC / M. Hangst

There was even less drama in the women's side as every match was one in straight sets. Among the winners are Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters who are seeded to meet in the next round for a blockbuster of a fourth round match. Venus Williams, Jelena Jankovic, Marion Bartoli, Vera Zvonareva, Jarmila Groth, and Tsvetana Pironkova all move through with 15th seed Yanina Wickmayer and 12th seed Nadia Petrova falling, the latter to Henin.

Wimbledon Report: Day 3

© AELTC

First I want to talk about the women, because they were pretty drama free. Top contenders such as Venus Williams, Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin, and Nadia Petrova all got through in straight sets. 4th seed Jelena Jankovic needed a third set, but also won. Marion Bartoli didn't even need to play any sets to move on with her opponent withdrawing. A few seeds fell though namely 13th seed Shahar Peer, 30th seed Yaroslava Shvedova, and 33rd seed Melanie Oudin.

Now onwards to the men. Sure, we can talk about how Roger Federer looked human two early rounds in a row. We can talk about Novak Djokovic, Andy Roddick, and Tomas Berdych moving through routinely or even about how lucky Lleyton Hewitt was that his opponent retired in the third set. We can even lament the loss of 7th seed Nikolay Davydenko in straight sets.

But it was all about those matches that went the distance. Jurgen Melzer, Albert Montanes, and Philipp Kohlschreiber had to win in the fifth set with the latter winning 9-7. Sounds tough, right? Not even. In a continuation of their suspended first round match yesterday, Thiemo De Bakker and Santiago Giraldo had to play their final set today. The fifth set score? A whopping 16-14 with De Bakker winning.

© AELTC

And yet that was nothing compared to what transpired on Court 18 today. John Isner and Nicolas Mahut's first round match was also suspended yesterday due to bad light. They played their fifth set today... and play... and play... and play. It went on for so long (10 hours total, 7 hours just for this final set), with both guys solid on their serve, they had to suspend their match a second time due to bad light! They stopped it at 59-59. That's just unreal. Of course they broke all kinds of records: longest tennis match ever, most games played, longest set, etc. Both players even broke the old record for most aces in a match (78) by about 20 aces. Epic. I feel so sorry for the one of them who will lose tomorrow.

Xan Brooks over at The Guardian live-blogged the entire day, but you should really read his humorous take on the epic Isner-Mahut match starting at 4:05pm. Zombies!

Wimbledon Report: Day 1

© Getty

The top half of the men's draw led by Roger Federer played on Monday and to most of the seeded men, it was the longest day of their lives.

Top seed Federer was down two sets to love to Alejandro Falla before he managed to stage a miraculous comeback saving four break points in a crucial game during the third set and then breaking Falla as the Colombian was serving for the match in the fourth set. Federer took care of business in the final set by winning six straight games, but he was only a couple of points away from exiting early. Fellow top ten players, Novak Djokovic and Nikolay Davydenko also had to come back from 2 sets to 1 down, but both managed to squeezed out a win. Djokovic and Olivier Rochus played under the roof due to bad light.

Top players that weren't so lucky include 11th seed Marin Cilic, 17th seed Ivan Ljubicic, 20th seed Stanislas Wawrinka, and 30th seed Tommy Robredo. Others such as 5th seed Andy Roddick, 12th seed Tomas Berdych, 15th seed Lleyton Hewitt, 21st seed Gael Monfils, among others, moved on much more routinely.

© AELTC

For the women, the bottom half of the draw led by Venus Williams saw a pretty uneventul Monday as most of the seeds went through.

The favorites such as Williams, 4th seed Jelena Jankovic, 8th seed Kim Clijsters, 11th seed Marion Bartoli, 12th seed Nadia Petrova, and 17th seed Justine Henin all moved on without dropping a set. Other seeded winners include 13th Shahar Peer who defeated former number one Ana Ivanovic, 33rd seed Melanie Oudin, 21st seed Vera Zvonareva, and 15th seed Yanina Wickmayer. Kirsten Flipkens join Wickmayer and their more popular Belgian counterparts into the second round.

The lone upset of the day in the woman's side was the ouster of recent French Open champion and 5th seed Francesca Schiavone, losing to Russia's Vera Dushevina. While grass is not her favored surface, this must be quite disappointing for the Italian after her results at Roland Garros and her quarterfinal showing here the year prior. Like Ivanovic, other recent former top players exited early including Patty Schnyder and Agnes Szavay.

Wimbledon: Men's Preview

After losing in the quarterfinals at this year's French Open and losing his number one ranking, top seed and defending champion Roger Federer will want to prove he's still top dog by capturing his record-tying 7th Wimbledon crown. His draw looks good until the third round where he could face 30th seed Tommy Robredo or dangerous floaters such as Janko Tipsarevic and Arnaud Clement. Fourth round opponents could be 16th seed Jurgen Melzer who is coming off a semifinals appearance in Roland Garros or 22nd seed Feliciano Lopez who reached the semifinals at Queen's Club recently. In the quarterfinal round, he could meet up recently struggling 7th seed Nikolay Davydenko, 12th seed Tomas Berdych, or his compatriot and 20th seed Stanislas Wawrinka.

Former semifinalist and 3rd seed Novak Djokovic will be tested early by Olivier Rochus of Belgium in the first round. If fit, however, he should do well to reach fourth round where he could meet 21st seed Gael Monfils or more likely former champion and 15th seed Lleyton Hewitt who recently won a title on grass in Halle beating Federer in the finals. Djokovic's most likely quarterfinal opponent is last year's finalist and 5th seed Andy Roddick. Roddick will have to get through hard-hitting Philipp Kohlschreiber in the third round and then 11th seed Marin Cilic, 17th seed Ivan Ljubicic, or good friend Mardy Fish in the fourth round first.

Hometown favorite and 4th seed Andy Murray will try and do one more round better than last year and reach the final especially with the Queen planning on attending. No one should trouble him in the early rounds if he's healthy. His first seed would be 26th seed Gilles Simon who has been struggling more than the Scot. The fourth round will be a bit more challenging 14th seed Juan Carlos Ferrero or more likely 18th seed Sam Querrey who will be looking to redeem his slam season after a terrible showing at the French Open. Murray's quarterfinal opponents could be red hot 8th seed Fernando Verdasco, 10th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, or 19th seed Nicolas Almagro.

Finally, top ranked but second seeded Rafael Nadal will be looking to extend his 7 match win streak at Wimbledon after withdrawing last year unable to defend his title from 2008. He has a potential tantalizing match with unseeded James Blake in the second round, but if he makes it through, he should cruise to the fourth round where 13th seed Mikhail Youzhny, 23rd seed John Isner, or unseeded Dudi Sela awaits. It just gets harder from there on in as he'll have to defeat 6th seed Robin Soderling, 9th seed David Ferrer, 24th seed Marcos Baghdatis, or 25th seed Tomaz Belluci. It'll probably be Soderling, which would be a French Open final rematch. The Swede, however, will have to get through another Robby first in Robby Ginepri in the first round.

Quarterfinals:
Roger Federer d. Tomas Berdych
Andy Roddick d. Lleyton Hewitt
Andy Murray d. Fernando Verdasco
Rafael Nadal d. Robin Soderling

Semifinals:
Roger Federer d. Andy Roddick
Rafael Nadal d. Andy Murray

Finals:
Roger Federer d. Rafael Nadal

Top Seeds Fall on Grass

As unbelievable as it sounds, the top four seeds have fallen at the AEGON Championships taking place at the green courts of Queen's Club in London including former champions Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, and Andy Roddick as well as former finalist Novak Djokovic. Nadal was ousted in the quarterfinals by Feliciano Lopez while the other three all lost in the third round. These results should be worrying for all except for probably Nadal who recently won the French Open and will still be seen as one of the top contenders at this year's Wimbledon.

Over in Halle, Germany, Roger Federer bucked the trend of top seeds falling early on grass as he defeated Philip Kohlschreiber in a little more than an hour 7-5, 6-3. He reaches the final four at the Gerry Weber Open along with 8th seed Lleyton Hewitt and two unseeded Germans Philip Petzschner and Benjamin Becker. The latter defeated 2nd seed Nikolay Davydenko in the 2nd round. Federer is looking for his only 2nd title of the year, his first being the Australian Open earlier this year.

French Open: Second Round Report

Rain caused havoc in the schedule of play forcing the tournament directors to extend some second round matches into a third day. Despite an almost wash-out on Thursday, all of the second round matches were completed by Friday due to good weather.

The seeds in the men's side held strong with dominant showings from top ten players Robin Soderling (5th seed), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (8th seed), and David Ferrer (9th seed). Combining their second round results, they only lost 11 games! 6th seed Andy Roddick, 17th seed John Isner, and unseeded Robby Ginepri show Americans can play on clay by moving on to the third round. Another American, Mardy Fish, was this close to joining his compatriots. Instead he lost 8-10 in the fifth and final set to veteran and 14th seed Ivan Ljubicic.

Speaking of fifth sets, 28th seed Lleyton Hewitt was able to grind out a win in a match that had a rollercoaster quality of up and down. The scoreline was 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2. Fifth setters were less kind to 13th seed Gael Monfils who ended up losing to Fabio Fognini 7-9 in the fifth set. Their match lasted two days, rescheduled due to "insufficient light," which according to reports, was an understatement. They resumed their match 5-5 in the fifth set on Friday. Other seeds that fell in the second round were Fernando Gonzalez (12) and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (32).

For the women, it was business as usual as favorites such as Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and Justine Henin cruised to the next round. After upsetting Dinara Safina in the first round, 39-year-old Kimiko Date Krumm was unable to extend her Cinderella run losing to Jarmila Groth of Australia 0-6, 3-6. This score is a bit of a mirror image of the beating that 28th seed Alisa Kleybanova delivered to former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic.

Another former French Open champion, last year's champion, 6th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova was this close to getting ousted. Her opponent, Andrea Petkovic, had four match points, but got tight and was unable to capitalize on what certainly would've been one of the biggest wins of her career. These seeded players weren't as lucky as Kuznetsova: Agnieszka Radwanska (8), Vera Zvonareva (21), Lucie Safarova (24), and Jie Zheng (25).

Australian Open: Third Round Report

The third round is the first time seeded players can meet one another. For the men, things more or less went according to plan with 9 of the top 10 men still alive. Things are heating up though especially with two retirements including Marcos Baghdatis who down 0-6, 2-4 to Lleyton Hewitt before he called it quits and one walkover by 20th seed Mikhail Youzhny putting unseeded Lukasz Kulbot into the fourth round for the first time. The only other upset other than Youzhny came at the hands of John Isner who used his ferocious serve to knock off 12th seed Gael Monfils.

It was a bit more dramatic for the women with a couple of major upsets happening this round. The biggest and most shocking was probably US Open champion Kim Clijsters going down to lower-seeded Nadia Petrova 0-6, 1-6 posting her worst defeat in years.


Clijsters had company though as Jelena Jankovic (8), Agnieska Radwanska (10), and Marion Bartoli (11) all fell to lower ranked players with Bartoli the only one who seemed to put up any sort of fight. The Justine Henin Don't-Call-It-A-Comeback Train is still rolling as she fought to defeat 27th seed Alisa Kleybanova after being down a set and a break.

The second week and thus the fourth round begins tonight. This is where the top players are set to meet one another. I'll post second week previews for both the men and the women later today.

Hit for Haiti

On the eve of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the season, some of the world's top tennis players joined together for "Hit for Haiti," an exhibition to raise money for the victims of the Haitian earthquake.

It was the brain child of world. no 1 Roger Federer who organized the the last-minute event and spoke to other players to participate. The mixed-doubles event took place at Rod Laver Arena with tickets costing $10 and all proceeds going to relief efforts.

The Red Team containing Federer, Serena Williams, Lleyton Hewitt, and Samathan Stosur won 7-6 against the Blue Team of Rafael Nadal, Kim Clijsters, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Roddick. They put on quite a show for fans who were there or watching in the live stream kindly provided by the Australian Open.

It was just really nice to see these top players relaxed and have fun for a worthy cause. Some highlights include Djokovic showing off his ass whenever he could, Federer grunting in inhuman and hilarious ways, Williams and Clijsters ganging up on Djokovic, and so much more. See some of the highlights here.

In the end, they raised about $185,000. You can make donations online with Partners in Health or Red Cross.

Wimbledon: Semifinals Preview

Prediction: Your [women] semifinalists will be the top four seeds.

And indeed the top four seeds have moved on to the semifinals. It's been quite awhile this has happened in the women's side. Three of the four have moved through the draw with menacing dominance. Venus, Serena, and Dementieva have not dropped a single set. But then there's the no. 1 seed Dinara Safina who has had to gut out most of her wins. She has been completely underestimated this whole tournament. But here she is, in her first Wimbledon semifinals.

Safina will have the nearly impossible task in beating 5-time Wimbledon champion Venus en route to getting her first Slam title. Venus will win that match. The other semifinal match between Dementieva and Serena will probably be more competitive, but I think Serena will win setting up my first day prediction of an all-Williams final.

Prediction: Your semifinalists will be Roddick, Murray, Haas, and Federer.

I predicted these final four since day one and I have to say I'm rather proud of this fact. Predicting Federer, Murray, and even Roddick wasn't too much of a stretch, but I just knew that if Haas continued his strong form from the French Open and Halle, he could beat Djokovic, which he did in four convincing sets.

With their easy wins, Murray has reached his first Wimbledon semifinals while Federer logs his staggering 21st consecutive appearance at a Grand Slam semifinal. Finally, Roddick was able to overcome a match tough Hewitt to win in 5-tight sets. Roddick's tiredness will determine how competitive his match is with Murray while I fully expect Federer to end Haas' fairytale run setting up for the every juicy Federer-Murray final.