Well two days of rain,  player complaints, and water seeping into a broken court has resulted in a Monday finish for the US Open so we've just had the men and women's semi-finals.  Predictably on the men's side it was the top 4 players to get to the last four spots, Djokovic took on Federer after another rain delay in the first semi.  I only heard the match on the radio- really wish I could have seen it because it sounded like a cracker.  Djokovic started off slowly, while Federer was on top form and Fed took the first two sets 7-6 6-4.  But suddenly Djokovic was on fire and Federer was in a slump and Djok took the next two sets 6-3, 6-2.  And then it was all to play for in the fifth set with Federer having the advantage serving first.  And at 4-3 Federer broke to love, and served to 40-15 with two match points on his serve.  Dkokovic threw his cap into the crowd, perhaps believing he had lost the match, but managed to break back.  Then won the next 4 games winning the fifth set 7-5 and match.  Djok into the final and Federer without a GS title for the first time since 2002.

In the second semi- Nadal took on Murray, whilst I was tucked up in bed.  But no surprises when I woke up Nadal had beaten Murray in four sets.  This is the third time this year Nadal has beaten Murray in a Grand Slam Semi. So the men's final will be played tonight (9pm UK time) between Nadal and Djokovic for the second year in a row. 

In the women's game Serena Williams, who I don't like for the record and who lost in the Semis in 2009 after being docked a point for racquet abuse and then foot faulted to give the match to Clijsters and then was fine £53,000 and put on probation for subsequently verbally assaulting the line judge, beat World Number One Caroline Wozniaki.  Wozniaki may be irk some people for being a world number one without winning a grand slam, and be rather bland, but has never threatened to kill anyone on court, as far as I know.  And Australian Sam Stosur beat German Angelique Kerber, unseeded surprise semi-finalist, to get to her second grand slam final.  Stosur was beat by Schiavone in the 2010 French Open Final and struggled to find form after that. 

Stosur and Williams battled it out last night, with Stosur outplaying Williams and winning 6-2 6-3, a shock win as most people will have assumed that Serena would over power anyone she came up against this week.  Serena showed her aggression and intimidating nature in the controversial element of the match that had not much to do with actual playing- during one point Williams hit an unreturnable forehand winner and screammed 'Come On!' in that way Americans do before the point was over.  The Umpire ruled this an intentional verbal hiderance.  In all fairness the point should probably just have been replayed, instead Stosur won the point and game.   It did not end there, however, as Williams continued to rant at the umpire through the change of ends:

"If you ever see me walking down the hall look the other way. You're out of control, you're a hater and you're unattractive inside."
"Who would do such a thing? And I never complain. Wow. What a loser."
"You get a code violation because I express my end, we're in America the last time I checked."
"Can I have a water? Or am I going to get violated for drinking a water? Really don't even look at me."

Really clever barbs 'Im sure you'll agree.  She is still on probation for the 2009 incident, and today officials will decide whether she'll be fined again.  So I am rather happy for Stosur, although it's a shame for her that the main story (ok the tiny section of one page that a women's grand slam final gets, about a third of what Andy Murray Sneezes gets) is Serena Williams Tantrums rather that her victory. 

Showered but not stirred...

Rain has interrupted and stopped play the past few days, but the roof on centre court has allowed a few matches to continue. 

Mixed fortunes for the British players- all the men went out in the first round apart from Andy Murray, Elena Baltacha, Anne Kepthothong, and Laura Robson all won their first round matches though.   Unfortunately for Heather Watson she hurt her elbow in the middle of her first round match, a real shame since she had been winning comfortably, but lost rather uncomfortably 6-2 4-6 4-6.  And Anne Keothothong has lost her second round against Kvitova, but Murray of course is through to the third round.  Laura Robson's match against Maria Sharapova was postponed due to rain until tomorrow when Baltacha will also play against Shuai Peng.  Jamie Murray also won her first round match in the men's doubles (which was reduced to best of three sets to get this damn grand slam back on schedule).

In other news there was a mega match between Lleyton Hewitt against Soderling, with Soderling winning 6-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4., followed by a cracker between this years French Open champ Li Na and German star Lisicki.  The young German got the quarter finals in 2009 but didn't play last and had dropped out of the top 200 with a bad ankle injury.  She's now up to number 62 and rising as she knocked out Li Na in a nail biter 3-6, 6-4, 8-6.  This was followed by a short regulation win for Federer against French Mannarino in straight sets. 




And a round up of other results:
John Isner (who beat Mahut in three sets this time around) lost to Almagro in the second round, Ivanovic won her match easily, as did Djokovic, and Nadal, Serena on the other hand needed another three sets to get through her match against Simona Halep, Schiavone won in two though, and Azarenka won 6-0, 6-3, Juan Martin Del Potro continued his come back with a four sets win over Olivier Rochus although the match was held over from last night and after Rochus had won the first set- Del Pot responded by taking off his shoes and throwing them into the crowd, which was odd, Fish, Gasquet, Roddick, and Berdych all won in three, but Stanislav Wawrinka isn't having a great grass season as he lost to Bolelli 6-7, 3-6, 6-7, big shock when Jelena Jankovic lost her first round match, and Zvonareva beat her doubles partner Vesnina in straight sets. 

New Year

What have you been up to ya lazy lot, we're already a week into the tennis new year (and erm the regular new year, in the West) but it's all going on at the moment.

Andy Murray winning his matches in the Hopman Cup (some kind of Davis and Fed combined, with one lady singles match, one manly singles, and one mixed doubles, against other countries.  Only this is Dav-Fed lite as it all happens within a week not the whole year) but his partner Laura Robson (the young one that won junior Wimbledon when she was 6 or something, and she's pretty and unnervingly at ease with herself in the public eye so she's held up as the future of British tennis despite the rather quieter and better progress of compatriot Heather Watson, more on her later) lost all hers, and they lost most of their mixed doubles, and then Laura hurt herself so they're not gonna win.  It would have been US vs Serbia, with Djokovic (magnificant hair grown back in super fast time, since post Davis Cup win head shave in December) and Ivanovic but she hurt herself too, so they had to pull out and Belgium took their spot. 

Heather Watson (who won junior US Open just after LaRo won Wimby but no one seemed to care that much) won 5 matches at the WTA Tournament in Auckland, 3 qualifying and two real rounds getting into the quarter finals beating the 9th seed along the way.  She broke top 200 last year, is around 170 now, and will be top 150 by Monday as a result. Deserves a good pat on the back imo.  Top seed Maria Sharapova got a couple of wins in before been beated by Greta Arn, who's about 30 but said beating Shazza was like a little girls dream.  She sounds slightly annoying.  Poor Ole Dinara Safina, former number one, now ranked around 60 after terrible back injury last year, lost in the first round to the second seed Yania Wickmayer.


On the Mens tour, Andy Roddick has cruised through to the semis in Brisbane, and will play South African Kevin Anderson  While Soderling plays Stepanek in the other semi.  But in Doha Rafa Nadal, suffering from a fever poor lamby, lost in the semis today to Davydenko (who has been playing well all week), but Federer beat Tsonga in the other semi.  Hope Davy can bring it tomorrow. 
And how was your week?

End of Tour Finals

Its the boys turn for their end of tour final- and the 8 are:

 

Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Soderling, Murray, Berdych, Ferrer, and Roddick- no I dont know who Ferrer is either, he seems short in the pre tournament pics.  He's the little one on the right, the guys behind are the doubles players.  Who noone seems to care about- its not on tv, not mentioned, and probably much more exciting, I'd be an angry doubles player.  Currently on TV is Murray against Soderling- cue a lot of Murray love from commentators Andy Castle and Tim-why on earth am I still being hired as a commentator- Henman, as well as a 30 minute opening set to Murray.
More importantly tomorrow Djokovic takes on Berdych, and I shall be in attentdence.  Hoping for a good match, ie more than 30mins a set as we are spending 4 and a half hours on the national express coach to get there.  Also hoping that my awesome banner- totally hand made- gets a showing on TV.  Although we are sitting in seats so high up they tell you not to take them if your scared of heights...Also they dont seem to have the lights on much...

Go Djoko Go (Best Hair in Tennis)

Go Doubles Go (Best Hands in Tennis)

Dont they deserve to be seen on TV?