Nadal and Federer fall, is this the end of an era?

Australian Open 2008 update: Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer both got dismantled in their respective semifinal matches. This is the best showing of Rafael Nadal in a major grand slam outside of the French Open, but he became yet another name in the list of giants slain by unknown Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Roger Federer hasn't been setting the world on fire this Australian Open, but he's been winning. This not-so-A game wasn't enough this time around as Novak Djokovic got a measure of revenge over the dismantling he got from the Fed during the U.S. Open 2007 finals.

Now, what? This is a final no one saw coming. Here's my prediction: Tsonga would win tomorrow and be like Gustavo Kuerten, who was an unknown player when he won the French Open and became a top ten player. He won't become the World number one, but he'd be there in the top ten. I'm not sure about the ratings, but I'm guessing that Novak Djokovic would go to number 2 and Nadal falls to number 3.

Does this mean that the Federer/Nadal era is over? Hardly. This is just one major tournament. If the French Open comes along and neither one is in the final, then let's talk about a new era.

10:00AM Manila Time is the scheduled match between Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic. I say that Sharapova wins this major just because of the dominance she has shown. If you get the world number one Henin to lose 0-6, then yes, I'll pick you to win the tournament.

Women's World number one falls to Sharapova

Justin Henin falls to Maria Sharapova, 4-6 0-6 in the Australian Open. It is a matchup of two players I expect to go far in the tournament and either one winning was fine with me. What surprised me with this is that Justin Henin seemingly lost in an easy manner, being beaten 6-0 in the second set. With defending champion Serena Williams booted out of the tournament, I fully expect Maria Sharapova to come out strong and win the tournament, despite Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic still on the draw.

The Fed gets pushed to the limit on the third round of Australian Open '08

I was about to take a bath when I happened to catch a part of the action from the third round of the Australian Open. It had Roger Federer, the king of tennis, playing against the world number 49 Janko Tipsarevic. At first, I thought there was some sort of typo on the scores. It showed that it was 2 sets apiece and Roger Federer was trailing 7-6, though he's the one on the serve. The commentators spoke up and it was correct; Roger Federer is trailing on the fifth set on the third round of the Australian Open. That can't be right. Against an unseeded player, no less.

I watched for a bit and saw two things that probably caught my eye as to why The Fed was trailing. His backhand wasn't working as efficiently as it normally does [he hit the ball into the net over and over during important stretches], and that Tipsarevic has a knack for hitting shots with difficult angles on them. The fifth set of a Grand Slam tournament in Tennis does not have a tiebreaker, so one has to break serve. I personally was hoping that Tipsarevic would somehow upend Federer just so that I can see an upset, and he seemed determined to do so as well. That was until the 17th game of the deciding set.

The score was 8-8, Tipsarevic to serve. Roger Federer just whomped through the last game, service ace after ace [he had two aces and two serves that didn't get returned] to even the match. Tipsarevic raced to a 40-0 lead and seemed to be on his way to putting the pressure back to the Fed. Then, something happened. Federer fought back again and dominated. He had two break opportunities and he converted on the second one. The last game was just gravy as the King proved once again why he is the man to beat. He calmly served and dominated the last game en route to a spot to the round of 16. It was a great match to see.

The match itself lasted 4 hours and 27 minutes. Is this a chink in the Fed's seemingly invincible armor? We'll see. People who watched the match should take note that even if Federer wasn't on his A-game, he wouldn't be pushed to the limit by an unseeded player like Tipsarevic. People need to watch that match again to see what he was doing right.

I'm all for Rafael Nadal winning this tournament. I've seen more than enough Federer winning everything outside of the French Open and I'm tired of watching Nadal winning ONLY that Grand Slam year in and year out. I'll hope that Nadal and his giant arms would once again flap the normally unflappable king of tennis, Roger Federer.