Australian Open

It's the semis at the Australian Open:
For a moment I thought the glint had come back into Roger Federer's eyes as he was up 3-1 in the tiebreaker of the third set against Serbia's Novak Djokovic.
The faint smile quickly disappeared.
World No. 1 – Switzerland's Roger Federer – lost in straight sets against Djokovic.
Goodbye Calendar Year Grand Slam.

It's been three years since Federer bowed to anyone at Melbourne Park. In 2005 he lost the five-set semi-final against Russia's Marat Safin, that is until early Friday morning.
Djokovic, 20, who has only been successful in beating Federer, 21, once before, couldn't be stopped. He won 7-5 6-3 7-6 (7-5)...
"Well, honestly, everything is going so fast for me, Djokovic said. "As I was saying, if you tell me at the start of last year that I will play four consecutive semi-finals in Grand Slams and two finals, I would accept it right away."
Federer held his own, but only in the first eight games. Had he of won, it would have been his fourth Australian Open win in five years.

Though I knew the results before the match aired on ESPN 2 yesterday, I still had to watch the match.
It was a depressing two hours. How could the World No. 1 lose in straights sets?
Luke Buttigieg said in an Associated Press article that: "Federer's last straight-sets loss at a Grand Slam came when he went down to Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten in the third round of the 2004 French Open."
Here are some of the match facts:
- Djokovic won 118 points to Federer's 104
- There were six breaks of serve, four to Djokovic, two to Federer
- Federer hit 38 winners, Djokovic 50
- Each player made 32 unforced errors
- There were 23 aces, 13 to Djokovic, 10 to Federer
Federer – though some may not agree – is on the brink of being named the best tennis player of all time –Yes that means he could even surpass the great Pete Sampras and Rod Laver.
But he still has some work to do.
It would have been nice to see Federer break out the "Sampras Serve" and ace Djokovic into oblivion. The opposite happened. I was so amazed for Djokovic seemed to know all the right plays. Federer would run in the opposite direction, thinking he could read his opponent's mind, only to lose the point quite embarrassingly.
In the last 18 Grand Slam finals, Federer has won 12 of them, just two shy of Sampras' record. Besides the loss to Safin in 2005, No. 2 Rafael Nadal has been the only one to keep Federer from his ultimate dream. The French Open is the only slam he has yet to win.
Nadal vs. Tsonga Semi-Final
But Nadal hasn't had the best year either. He also lost his semi-final match to unseeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfred Tsonga on Thursday – I know, let's not even talk about it.
In fact, Nadal has not won a title since July. I'm a little worried on Monday when the latest ATP results come out that Nadal will finally give his No. 2 ranking up to Djokovic if he wins tonight in the Australian Open final.
I also watched the match between Nadal, 21, and Tsonga, 22, and was somewhat blown away. Tsonga won 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.

Commentators said during that game that they've never seen Nadal play so well and so poorly in one match. Nadal even dropped his racquet once during the game only to hit ball, though it was out.
I couldn't help but feel exhaustion when I saw Nadal laughing after Tsonga made some incredible shots that even stumped the Spaniard.
Match Facts
- Tsonga served 17 aces to Nadal's 2
- The Frenchman converted 5 of 7 break points while Nadal was unsuccessful with 0 of 3
- In the second set Tsonga had 22 winners and 11 unforced errors to Nadal's two winners
and one unforced error
- Both players committed only one double fault for the match
- The match lasted one hour and 57 minutes
In less than two hours Tsonga and Djokovic will play for the championship. What is the tennis world coming too? I'm afraid Tsonga is going to think that he is going to be able to beat Nadal at the French.
All I have to say is the French belong to Nadal.

So who will win tonight? I think both men are equally determined.
Roger Federer said in an after match interview if he was asked if he thought Djokovic was going to win: "I don't care really."
Sarah Stegall
All images off the Australian Open Web site and from Getty Images.