Day 8 of the Australian Open

Nikolay Davydenko had just won the first 2 sets against Fernando Verdasco, and the momentum was about to shift to Verdasco, but nobody knew about it.  While the 3rd set was about to begin, and a match also being played at Hisense Arena, ESPN chose to throw Patrick McEnroe, Pam Shriver, and "Killer" Cahill on tv and just bullshit about the happenings of the tournament.  After a little bullshitting, they chose to put Billie Jean King on and tell some stupid ass stories.  King I realize is a tennis legend, but of late she really doesn't have a lot to say that is worth listening to.  Just useless banter.  ESPN would rather air this garbage for almost a half hour rather than show live tennis.  Hey ESPN, this is the type of shit you do when there are NO matches going on.  Not when Fernando Verdasco is beginning his comeback to push the match to its very limits.  Just because its not the Williams broth..eh, sisters or "Douchebag" Roddick playing doesn't mean people want to see the matches being played.... Just another reason on how ESPN manages to fuck up tennis coverage in the United States.

Lets get to the match that ESPN chose to not show in the middle for most of the 3rd set:  Davydenko who has been on a hot streak the last few months and has managed to put himself in the discussion as one of the favorites for this tournament, was facing Fernando Verdasco who last year at this time was on his best run in a Grand Slam making it to the semifinals in the '09 Australian Open.  Verdasco came out and took an early break in the first set, but Davydenko stormed back in impressive fashion and controlled the rest of the first set taking it easily 6-2.  The two players battled, holding serve for most of the 2nd set, until Davydenko was able to break late in the set and capture the 2nd set 7-5.  The 3rd set began, and I have no clue what happened, because of ESPN's ineptness, but when they finally decided to show the match again Verdasco had raced out to a 4-1 lead.  Davydenko managed to break and get close, but Verdasco was able to hold on to win the set 6-4.  The 4th set was a battle between Verdasco double faulting, and Davydenko showing signs of fatigue.  Battling through service error after service error, Verdasco was able to win the 4th set in a tiebreaker (7-6) and force the weary Davydenko to go the distance.  At this point Davydenko is looking tired and run-down.  Verdasco not playing extremely well, has managed to make this a 5 setter and his elite conditioning was helping stay in the match.  But it was Davydenko who stood strong and capitalized on Verdasco's errors to win the match by winning the last set 6-3.

Davydenko will now have to face Roger Federer who took Lleyton Hewitt in straight sets 6-2, 6-3, 6-4.  Federer's dominance over Hewitt continues and now the #1 player in the world who should be fresh will face a wore down Davydenko in the quarterfinals... Novak Djokovic went up against Lukasz Kubot, and as predicted destroyed the Polish contender in straights 6-1, 6-2, 7-5... Next up for Djokovic will be the man he faced and beat in the 2008 final to claim his first and only Grand Slam championship, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.  Tsonga was taken to deep waters for the first time in his career.  Shockingly Tsonga had never been 5 sets until the #26 seeded Spaniard, Nicolas Almagro gave him all he could handle.  Tsonga took the first 2 sets, and just like his fellow Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco he turned it up a notch, and won the 3rd and 4th sets.  Tsonga now in his first 5th set of his career had to struggle to win 9-7 in the 5th over Almagro who would not quit.  Almagro made a good showing of himself in this tournament, and now looks to continuing this momentum throughout the year.  Match score: Tsonga 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 6-7, 9-7.

Biggest upset of the day came on the womens side of thing.  Na Li took out the #4 seeded Caroline Wozniacki.  Wozniacki was struggling with a injury and managed to hit a measley 4 winners throughout the match.  The match itself was ugly with a ton of serves being broken, but the Chinese woman Li was able to outlast Wozniacki 6-4, 6-3... Li's will have to face Venus Williams in the next round after Venus beat Francesca Schiavone in a match that saw the Italian come out strong in the first set and just crumble in the 2nd and 3rd.  Venus was able to win the 3 setter 3-6, 6-2, 6-1... Serena Williams had little trouble taking out the last Australian woman Samantha Stosur in straight sets. 6-4, 6-2... Victoria Azarenka was able to get passed Vera Zvonareva in 3 sets 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.  I did not see the match, but it looks as if once falling behind or losing the 2nd set Zvonareva just mailed it in.  She seems to be a total whack-job.  With the win Azarenka gets to exact revenge on Serena for what happened last year.  In the '09 Australian Open, Azarenka was kicking Serena's ass in the early going, until Azarenka had to retire due to a bout of heat exhaustion,flu, diarhea, or all of the above.  The gratification of watching Serena get her ass pounded was personally taken away from me.  So now hopefully Azarenka will be fit and ready to pick up where she left off last year.

Day 9 Preview:

The quarterfinals begin today for half of the women and men, with all 4 matches being played at Rod Laver Arena.

The first match of the day will be the continuation of Justin Henin's comeback, and Nadia Petrova who is on a hot streak of her own.  This will be a rematch of Justine's comeback match that happened just a couple weeks ago.  In that match Henin was able to figure out the Russian and win.  I don't see much different happening.  I like Henin in 3 sets.

The 2nd match of the day will between two unlikely opponents to reach this far.  Jie Zheng and Maria Kirilenko are both unseeded and blazed a upset trail to get to this point.  This match will see the end of the line for Jie Zheng.  Kirilenko to advance in straight sets.

Andy Roddick and Marin Cilic will take the court following the completion of the two womens quarterfinal matchups.  I will be rooting for Cilic to pull the upset and send "asshat" Andy back home, but I think the young Croatian is still a little too green and inexperienced.  Unfortunately, Roddick will advance with a 4 set victory.

The match of the day will be the first night match at Rod Laver Arena.  Andy Murray and Rafa Nadal will battle to see who advances to the semifinals.  Its tough to call a winner on this one, but I will go with Murray to eliminate the defending champion and advance in a 5 set classic.

Have I ever mentioned how bad ESPN is?