The open also threw up many other surprises. Probably the biggest took place even before a tennis ball was served at the open. Justine Henin-Herdenne, now just Justine Henin, withdrew from the Australian summer of tennis due to personal reasons. We now know that the reason was she had separated from her husband Pierre-Yves.

Getting back to the on-court action the biggest upset came in the fourth round when the defending champion and no. 2 seed Amelie Mauresmo was defeated by then world no. 70 Lucie Safarova 6-4, 6-3. As I expected Safarova could not carry her form through to the next match and she lost in the quarter’s to Nicole Vaidisova. Another interesting upset came when Israeli women Shahar Peer defeated the former US Open champion and no. 3 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova also in the fourth round. Peer became the first Israeli women to reach a grand slam quarter final. Peer met Williams in the quarter final and almost took the match before bowing out 8-6 in the third set.

Now that the Australian Open has been claimed by Serena Williams it is time to look at who we can expect to feature in big time tournaments later in 2007. Vaidisova is someone who has impressed me. She lost in the semi’s to Williams and as a result has pushed her ranking up from 12 to 9. Vaidisova reached the semi’s at Roland Garros in 2006 and will now be looking to take the next step to reach a grand slam final. Li Na of China is steadily moving up the rankings as is Peer. Can they push into the top ten of women’s tennis? Anna Chakvetadze is another player to keep an eye on. She gave Sharapova a tough match when losing her quarter-final matchup. Even though Samantha Stosur lost in the second round I think she will have a breakthrough year. Jankovic is still in my books as a player of the future.
As Williams is the only player now able to win the grand slam for 2007 I look forward with interest to see how she plays on the clay courts of Roland Garros.

Next year I will look to be reporting to you from court side at the Australian Open. Ideally I would love to be one of the photographers in the trenches.

In the end Federer just showed how he is a class above the rest of the players on the ATP tour. Federer became the first player since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to go through a grand slam tournament without dropping a set.

So we know Federer is good, who stood out as a player to challenge Federer in the future? Obviously the number one candidate is Gonazalez. His winners to errors ratio was amazing in the tournament. If he can continue the form shown in the Australian Open and play consistent tennis and continue to hit the tennis ball as he did this past fortnight who knows how good Gonzo can be.

Andy Murray impressed me. Even though he lost to Nadal in five sets he showed he has the skill and tennis know how to be a top player in the months and years ahead. He reminds me of McEnroe with his touch around the court. Murray also is able to come up with huge ground strokes when in a position to hit a winner. 2007 maybe too early for Murray to be challenging Federer but you never know. He might answer England’s prayers and put up a good show at Wimbledon.

Andy Roddick was looking like someone likely to challenge Federer at the Australian Open however when the two players went face to face Roddick left the court with his tail between his legs. It now remains to be seen how Roddick bounces back and moves on in 2007. I don’t see Roddick doing anything at the French Open but he could be someone to stop Federer claiming his Grand Slam by taking the Wimbledon or US Open titles.

Rafael Nadal was looked at as someone to challenge Federer although he ran into a hot Fernando Gonzalez. The French Open champ is obviously the most likely to get in the way of Federer’s attempt to win the Grand Slam as he will be tough to beat on the clay. At the Australian Open he looked very strong when playing Andy Murray. He was not able to carry this forward when playing Gonzalez.

Of the other players who stepped out on court at the Australian Open Tommy Robredo showed he can hold his own against Federer. Robredo may also give Federer trouble if they meet again on clay at Roland Garros. Someone else to impress was the big Croatian Mario Ancic. He was unlucky to lose against Roddick but he showed in this match he can play at a level to be one of the top players on tour.

Wrapping up the Australian Open for 2007 I guess there is not much to say other than Roger Federer is awesome. Even the great Rod Laver raves about Federer and says he has so many shots in his arsenal. Unless injury gets in the way he is going to overtake Pete Sampras in the all time grand slam titles leader board. The main item of interest for the remainder of the year is whether or not Federer can claim all four grand slam tennis titles and be the first player since Laver to win a Grand Slam.

Even though Federer served at 51 per cent he totally dominated the match. He hit 45 winners to 12 errors compared to 11 winners to 18 errors from Roddick. The American could not cope with the power and variety of Federer’s shot making. At one stage Roddick almost had an air swing such was his state of mind.

Even though Federer totally dominated the match tonight it will count for nothing if he does not hold up the winners trophy on Sunday night. Tomorrow his final’s opponent will be decided when Fernando Gonzalez goes up against Tommy Haas. If Gonzalez can continue his standard of play shown so far this tournament he should defeat Haas. If so he could push Federer in the final. On the other hand Haas will be wanting to improve on his two previous semi final appearances. In 2002 he lost in five sets to Marat Safin.

What do you have to say about the final. Will it be a one sided affair like tonight’s semi or can we look forward to a close matchup?

From the start of the match Gonzalez out hit his opponent and he easily took the first set 6-2. In the second set Nadal looked like he may get back into the match however Gonzalez kept hitting winners when it mattered and he won the second set 6-4.

At this year’s Australian Open Gonzalez has been showing the influence of playing under his new coach Larry Stefanki. Instead of trying to hit a big winner off every shot using his big weapon forehand Gonzalez is using the slice backhand to stay in a point and when he sees his chance he unleashes the forehand. Using this style he was able to contain Nadal and win comfortably. The final set went his way 6-3.

In his match against Nadal, Gonzalez hit 41 winners compared to only 16 unforced errors. Constrast this with Nadal who hit 14 winners and had 21 unforced errors. These statistics sum up the dominance of Gonzalez. His break point conversions were 5 of 8 while Nadal was 0 of 3. The only stat Nadal won for the night was the service percentage which was 71 to 66 per cent.
By reaching the semi final this is now his best grand slam result. Gonzalez has reached the quarter final stage at all of the grand slam events however until now he has not reached a semi final. If he can keep his nerves under control he would be favoured to defeat in next round opponent Tommy Haas and could even go all the way and claim the Australian Open Tennis title for 2007.