The Official Site of Brad Gilbert

The elite eight are set in both the men’s and women’s draws . It’s kind of unusual that the two winners in each draw will be into the semifinals and will only have to play two matches in the last five days of the tournament. It’s the only Grand Slam that splits the semifinals and it is unusual.

What another interesting day of tennis. Crazy match between the “Little Machine Gun” Nikolay Davydenko and Fernando Verdasco. I don’t think I’ve ever saw a guy (Verdasco) serve 20 double faults and have a legitimate chance to win the match. Verdasco was down two sets tied it up but went down in five. The best match of the day was Jo-Willy Tsonga, who played his first five-setter of his career and kind of strange to play your first five-setter at 24 years old. But he came good with an epic 9-7 in the fifth over Nicolas “I’m playing with a broken left wrist” Almagro. And a great effort by the Spaniard to get into the second week.

It was blowout city yesterday for the Aussies as the last two remaining hopefuls went out quietly. Sam Stosur lost to Serena and Hewitt was beaten by Rog Fed in straights. Venus Williams must not have gotten her wake-up call that she was playing at 11 a.m. but she did say one day that “I’m living in the moment.” That was never more evident as yesterday as she put that terrible first set behind her and came through in three sets. Now that set’s up a big showdown with Na Li. Interesting stat on the women that we never had a Chinese woman in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open and now we have two.

The men’s quarterfinals are set and to my knowledge this has to be the best and deepest elite eight that I have ever seen. The big mystery today is how is Andy Roddick’s knee when he takes on the young Croat Marin Cilic. Andy didn’t come out to the ball park yesterday and I think everything in this match depends on his knee. If Andy’s knee is 100% I like his chances because the courts play quicker in the day and he’s been serving at that 70% first serve clip. When he hits that mark he’s almost unbeatable except when he plays Federer. But it is possible that we are seeing the emergence of Cilic just like we saw delpo at the US Open.

The match of the tournament is tonight with defending champion Rafael Nadal taking on Andy Murray. When the draw came out everyone looked at this match-up and said, ‘oh my goodness Murray and Nadal in the quarterfinals.’ This is only possible because Murray dropped out of the Top 4 for the first time in 16 months when the seedings were done. Murray was my pre-tournament favorite to win it and the one stat that jumps out is that Nadal is 7-2 lifetime against him. Nadal has more experience in big matches. Nadal has amazingly lost five in a row vs. Top 10 opponents but they are 1-1 on hard courts in majors. I’m hoping for an epic clash. I would love to see a five-setter. This match will determine for me how the rest of the tournament plays out. I think if Murray wins this match he wins the tournament. But I think Nadal is going to come good in four long, tough sets. This is Murray’s hurdle and it’s a high hurdle.

On the women’s side, I’m not sure if anybody would have had Kirileinko against Jie Zheng. You probably could have gotten a million to one that these two unseeded players would be playing for a place in the semifinals. But props to Kirilenko for beating Sharapova and continuing her great work. She’s continued her dream run. But I love Sparky Henin’s draw on the bottom and she’s getting to the final.

G’Day Mate