Recently the beloved and said to be ” greatest player of all time” Roger Federer won his 16th major against the youngster Andy Murray. Should will still question if Roger Federer is the greatest player of all time? I think it goes without saying that he is the greatest male tennis player of this generation. However, looking back at his impressive resume, who has been there to challenge him up until Nadal? Who was his formidable opponent that could potentially knock him out of a tournament? Who did he have that competitive memorable rivalry with? To be quite honest there wasn’t a single player that really contested Federer until the Nadal era. Is he just that good or does it says something about the rest of the players on the tour? Whatever the case maybe this man has accomplished greatness. The question remains how long can he can he keep it up for.

If you follow tennis then you know  that someone else will come along that has the top players number. We know that Rafael Nadal has the potential to beat Federer every time he steps on the court. But who else will rise to the occasion? It could be Novak Djokovic the Serb, the Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro, or could it be someone completely out of the wood work. In tennis, history does have a tendency to repeat itself. Usually, someone unknown player comes out of nowhere and works there way up to the top of the rankings and all of a sudden something clicks. Then they sweep the tennis game by storm. This is all fine and dandy until it becomes too predictable. Don’t get me wrong I like Federer as much as the next tennis fan. But I ask you readers when will the Roger Federer Madness end?

Last time when I mentioned these two they could have potentially met in the second round of Sydney, the warm up tournament for the Australian Open. Unfortunately for the die hard tennis fans like myself we didn’t get a chance to see that potential clash between these two ladies because Justine Henin pulled out due to an injury. Whatever the case maybe that potential match up has now become a reality and we will have a chance to see because they both are scheduled to play in the Australian Open Finals on Saturday.

Who will prevail? Who will hold serve? I say this because both players as of late have had a little trouble holding their own serve. Justine more so than Serena in that department. Until Serena’s match against Victoria Azarenka she didn’t get broken and was the only player male or female remaining to do that in the Championships. It will really come down to who will be able to hold their own serve. This will be the key for the potential winner.

Justine Henin has had some trouble here at the Australian Open with her serve, which has been the only shaky part of her game. Yeah, she has missed some easy volleys and has had some unforced errors, but you have to give her credit for making it to the finals. It seems like she is getting better with every round that she plays. She showed this with her dominate win over China’s Jie Zheng which lasted a total of 51 minutes 6-1 6-0.

Serena Williams on the other hand has alot more wear and tear on her body. Serena really hasn’t had a day off since she stepped on to the court at the Australian Open. Must players have a day off but on her off day’s she been playing doubles matches with her sister Venus. It paid off because they won the doubles titles against black/huber. People have criticized Serena for not playing enough tennis, but has she played too much tennis? Justine seems to be the fresher of the two because she has had a chance to rest on her off days. Also, the defending champion has just above everything wrapped in her lower extremities.

So who will win the 2010 Australian Open title Serena Williams or Justine Henin? It is a very tough call to make in my opinion. You can side with Justine because she is the fresher of the two and she is looking pretty impressive here. But on the flip side her serve hasn’t looked all the great. Serena could be all over Justine’s first and second serve. You could also side with Serena because she has never lost a final at the Australian Open and she is an incredible fighter. If she is in the zone like she was at the 2007 and 2009 Australian Open Henin might not have a chance. However, Serena has not had chances to rest and looks fatigued and seems like she is just relying on her indomitable spirit and her ability to fight. But will it be enough against a solid Justine if Serena doesn’t bring her A game.

As I said tough call to make but this final has all the potential of being very entertaining. Henin leads Serena 7-6 in their life time head to head. Could Serena turn the ties and even the playing field. This is a Final you don’t want to miss!

The Australian Open started last week and we are know into the second week of the tournament. Anybody who follows tennis knows that the second week of a Grand Slam is crunch time. This is a time where the level of tennis starts to pick up, only the elite players are left standing. I predicted that this year would be a little different on the ATP tour, due to the quality of play from the other players on tour. From watching the Australian Open this week my prediction has held true. There have been players who have risen to the occasion who weren’t expected to win on both the ATP and WTA tour.

In case you have been missing out on the action you can catch coverage on ESPN 2 usually from 3 pm-7pm and 9 pm until 6am est time. If those times don’ t fit within in your schedule you can take an alternative route, and watch it via your computer with a program that I use when I can not seem to find coverage for tennis matches. I explain it more here. This is just an alternative route if you don’t have the Tennis Channel or if ESPN just isn’t cutting it for you at times.

If you are wondering where to find the draw for the Australian Open you can go to ESPN.com/Tennis or you can just go straight to the Australian Open’s official site AustralianOpen.com. However you are going about watching the year’s first major is fine, just as long as you’re watching it. Mark my words you don’t want to miss out on the action. There is just too much drama! Why would you want to miss it?

Recently at the 2010 Australian Open 3 time grand slam champion Maria Sharapova was defeated in the first around against a very feisty Maria Kirilenko. It just seemed that she was more into her fashion statement than she was in her tennis. Sharapova’s shots not coming to her opponent as hard as it usually does. Maria probably lost this match due to her her lack of match preparation. She decided to particapate in an exhibition tournament rather than to play in a tune up event. Bad choice from the Sharapova camp. I bet that will be the last time that she does that. In Maria’s case she needs matches underneath her belt to play her best tennis. Not everyone is like Serena Williams who can work her way through a major with no match preparation.

Maria Kirilenko has a sort of counter puncher style, all she was doing was getting the ball back and making Sharapova play extra balls. That probably doesn’t seem like a good tactic but against a power player who relies on her winners and hits big babe tennis, it’s a great strategy. Kirilenko  played aggressive when she received a short a ball from Sharapova, which made all the differences in this match. Sharapova was the clear favorite to win this match, but just couldn’t come up with the goods. Hopefully she can re group and get ready to play the tennis of her life. Maria Sharapova is going to have to step it up due to the fact that the Belgians are back and they aren’t taking any prisoners when they step out on the court. A bad day at the office for Maria Sharapova. Will she bounce back?

Australian Open

We all wait desperately to see what the players have been up to on their time off , how they are all coping. and if all the top players will be playing. We got our wishes, all the top players were healthy and ready to go. We had a couple of good matches on the men’s side, but everyone was wondering will there be another Federer-Nadal final. Well it happened and to everyone’s surprise Nadal took the title. We all were thinking will this be the end for Federer or will this have something up his sleeves the next time they meet.

On the womens side there were some clear favorites and people were talking about the number 1 and number 2 player in the world at that time. The talk of the town was about Dinara Safina and Serena Williams. Would Serena Williams take the number 1 rank? Would Safina proof that she should really be at the top and win a grand slam? Well these two ladies met up in the final ironically, but Safina was no competition for Williams. Serena crushed Dinara in the finals only giving up 3 games. This was a good opening to the season as the players were just getting warmed up.

French Open

It was time for the players to start practicing their sliding skills and getting ready to play on red clay. Clay is totally different from any other surface and is difficult to maintain. Players have to more patient and deal with all the different spins that happen on clay. Everyone just knew that Rafael Nadal had this in the bag as he had been winning this tournament every year hands down. But a feisty Robin Soderling came into the picture and knocked out the defending champion. This took the tennis world by surprise and left the door wide open for Roger Federer to win his first French Open title. He took full advantage of not having to face Rafael Nadal in the final this year and defeat Robin Soderling in the Finals to finally win the French Open. All credit goes to Robin Soderling for defeating the “clay king” Rafael Nadal. Even Federer has not been able to accomplish that feat.

The women’s side was wide open as Justine was the Nadal so to speak when it came to clay. The defending champion Ana Ivanovic had her work cut out for her as this slam was up for the taking. Unfortunately she wasn’t able to defend her title in the final as she was dismissed by Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. The two clear favorites to win the tournament going into the second week was again Serena and Dinara. This could have been a rematch of the Australian Open final. But people forgot about one other person who is just as tough on clay, Svetlana Kuznetsova. Kuznetsova faced Serena in the Semi-finals and somehow managed to pull through. This gave her a chance to win a second major and she did. Her last Grand Slam victory was in 2004 where she won the US Open. Unfortunately, Safina could not come up with the goods again. Svetlana was just too tough for Dinara in the finals.

Wimbledon

It was time for the players to play on the grass courts at Wimbledon. We all know and love Wimbledon as this is the most prestigious of the grand slams. Everything seemed to be lining up perfectly until word got out that the defending champion Rafael Nadal would be unable to defend his title. This was a real downer as he worked so hard the year prior to defeat Roger Federer on his best surface.

But as I always say the Grands Slams wait for no one, so Wimbledon just had to be played without him. There was some interesting things happening on the men’s side over the course of the two week tournament. There seemed to be more believe, with Nadal out for the count that left a empty spot for another player to be in the final. Even though Nadal was missed, incredible tennis was played on the “green stuff”.

We had intense matches and battles and we also had another all Williams final. Although, this year it was Serena who came out on top and put the pressure on big sister Venus. On the men’s side to peoples surprise it was Andy Roddick not Murray who made it into the finals. Before Nadal came along it was Roddick who was facing Federer in the Wimbledon finals. This was the one of the longest and intense matches that Wimbledon has seen since 2005 where Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport had their epic match. Andy came so close and in my eyes should have won the match. But as usual Roger some how finds a way to come through and win and he did. Wimbledon was the most exciting Grand Slam so far and over the two week wonderful tennis played.

US Open

When the US Open comes around this marks the ending of the season as this is the last Grand Slam of the year. This tournament held in New York is said to be the players favorite Grand Slam. They get to be in the New York atmosphere and all the fast pace and exciting things that happen there. The clear favorites to win this tournament on the men’s side where either Andy Roddick, Roger Federer, or Rafael Nadal and the women’s side was flat out Serena Williams. Basically everyone was wrong and what ended up happening on both sides was a complete shock. We had some teenagers peak at the right moment USA’s own Melanie Oudin. This was the girl who wore the believe on her shoes and boy did she put on a show. Melanie was the talk of the town and ended up making it to the Semi-Finals where she faced another rising star Caroline Woznacki and lost.

Then we had the returning veteran Kim Clijsters who was not even considered the under dog she was completely under the radar until right around the Semi-Finals where she faced Serena Williams. That match was full of drama where Serena had it out with the lines judge for calling a foot-fault on a second serve causing her match point. As a result of Serena losing her cool she lost the match on a technicality which really disappointed the fans. After all the drama Kim Clijsters was up against an inexperience teen in the finals where she won her second major of her career. Not a bad coming of retirement gift for Kimmie.

On the men’s side everything was going on course for a Roger Federer- Rafael Nadal final until someone name Juan Martin Del Potro came into the mixture. Del Potro went into his Semi-Final match with nothing to lose and used his big forehand to defeat Nadal. He used these same tactics to defeat Roger Federer in the Finals. Who would have thought that Del Potro would defeat Federer in the finals? As I mentioned earlier both sides winners were a surprise. However, if you really take a look back at the tournament they do stand out as the most consistent players through out the tournament. (and I am not just saying that because they won) The US Open was the perfect closing the Grand Slams.

All in all, the 2009 season was filled with great matches and tons of drama. I hope that 2010 will bring a lot more of it.

Serena Williams could possibly face Justine Henin in the 2nd round at next week’s Sydney International. This could be a final in the second round if these two are to meet. Serena and Henin usually have some heated battles between one another when they face each other.
Everyone remembers their French Open incident where Justine Henin raised her hand during Serena’s serve and lied to the umpire and said she didn’t. But it seems that they have put that since they have played countless times since then. Or have they?

Their last meeting was in 2008 where they played at Miami in the Quarterfinals. Serena demolished Henin 6-2 6-0 pretty handling. This was around the time where Henin was thinking of retiring and wasn’t “interested in tennis and training”.

Some believe it was the power ad evolution of the game that drove Justine to an early retirement. We have witnessed a similar scenario with Martina Hingis. But maybe her results will be completely different than Martina’s. In her return she has battled her way to the final of the Brisbane International where she will face her rival and country woman Kim Clijsters.

In order for this match to take place Henin will have to beat the Spanish left handed serve and volley player Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in the first round. Since Williams is the top seed she will automatically receive a first-round bye.

The question is if these to ladies play who will come out on top and will this be a good match?