The Australian Open finals are going to be great this year. Dinara Safina, who has been getting better over the last couple of years. She’s very disciplined and interested in winning this. She will be playing Serena Williams in the Final this weekend. Williams took out Dimentieva in the quarterfinals. It was kind of a close match but it was still in straight sets. On the men’s side, we will see a classic matchup of Federer vs. Nadal. This is a clash of the titans again, and Federer is looking for revenge. He lost his top spot last year and has declared that he wants to come back. Both of these matches are going to be really amazing. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing both of them!

The quarterfinals have a bunch of players that are pretty typical for tennis these days. Roger Federer is in, Rafael Nadal is in, Andy Roddick is also in. There’s nothing really surprising about this. Except for one thing. Over the last several weeks to months, there have been lots of questions about whether Federer was ready to jump up and try to win his way back to #1, which is what he wants to do. If he wins another Grand Slam, he can also tie the record set by Pete Sampras back in the day. We’ll see if Federer can keep it up, but he’s been looking strong this tournament and he says that he’s pleased with his own play. In the next week, it will be decided and then we’ll have some idea where this season is going.

The Australian Open started a couple days ago. It’s looking to pit some of Tennis’ best players against each other in a great tournament. Rafael Nadal, with a new look, is back to continue defending his world #1 ranking. But Roger Federer has vowed to take back the #1 ranking this year, after some difficult moments for him last year, including a tough loss at Wimbledon. On the women’s side, the regular faces are playing and it’s going to be just as exciting as the men’s competition. The Williams sisters are the most famous here in the US, but there are other great players, especially out of eastern Europe, who are the best players in the world right now. The competition lasts until February 1st, but you need to act now. Buy your Australian Open tennis tickets right away!

Well the Federer “good or bad?” game continues. Clearly this is going to be the big story of the beginning of this year. Will Federer come back to his previous glory? It’s kind of hard to tell. He did lose his #1 ranking last spring in the Wimbledon Final against Rafael Nadal. But then he went on to win some other tournaments last year, against opponents who were apparently much better than he. So it’s hard to tell what he’s going to do this year. He lost in Doha just a few days ago in the first tournament of the year. Will he be able to take it back? It’s getting hard to tell, and lost of people really believe that he doesn’t have the goods anymore. Well, let’s keep an eye out.

Filippo Volandri of Italy has been severely punished by the ITF for abusing an asthma drug. ITF has claimed that Volandri’s use of salbutamol was far beyond the use of therapeutic needs and he will now be suspended for three months of play. Additionally, he will be forced to repay all the earnings he has made in the last months, as well as forfeit those ATP points.

There is a very cool posting on the Tennis News website that tells how junior level tennis is getting to be as bad as other sports for kids. There is a large amount of cheating going on, which is what the article is headlined as. And of course the US Tennis Association should come in and make sure that this kind of thing doesn’t get more prevalent and that everyone is getting a fair shot. But the part that got me more surprised was about parents and kids who are involved. You have parents shouting at the parents of the opposing player across the court, cheering when the opponent really chokes and celebrating way too exaggeratedly when their kid wins. When will we start seeing brawls in this game. Yuck!

Well that was somewhat short lived. After his proclamation that he, Roger Federer, wanted to reclaim his position at the top of the tennis world, he was easily defeated (for the fourth time in a row) by Scottish player Andy Murray. In a three set match, Murray quickly disposed of Federer 7-6, 6-2, 6-2. According to Federer, “it is not a big thing,” however, falling short to Murray seems to spell disaster if he wishes to beat Nadal in upcoming matches. Murray will now play Andy Roddick for the Qatar Open championship.

And you thought Swiss people weren’t all that competitive. After all, they remain neutral in a lot of different recent wars. But Roger Federer from Switzerland has decided that he wants to go retake the top spot in the world rankings this upcoming season. It’s going to be fun and we’ll see whether he can do it. Having watched him against #1 Nadal, I don’t know how likely it is. Fed was looking rather tired and not really in the game as he should have. It will be a good time to watch, as they are very fun to watch compete. They are both very good and have very different styles of playing. I definitely look forward to seeing it!

With the new year here, it’s time to look back at one of the most exhilarating and indelible moments in recent (if not entire) tennis history. The stage was Wimbledon and the players were Federer and Nadal (then numbers 1 and 2 respectively). Though Federer was on familiar turf, defending his Wimbledon crown for the fifth straight year, Nadal was still riding high on the uttlerly debasing 6-1, 6-0, 6-3 defeat he handed Federer only four weeks prior. No pundit could predict the winner, and no one in general could’ve have predicted the epic battle. Nadal jumped out to an early lead, winning the first two sets and came close to winnig the third, thereby shutting Federer out. However, Federer battled back and won the next two sets, forcing the final set for the match. When all the smoke cleared and camera flashes cleared, it was Nadal holding the trophy over his head, after taking the last set 9-7, making simply impossible shots in doing so.