Nadal Again Proves Federer's Nemesis

THE question this match posed was only marginally about who would play possibly Novak Djokovic in the final and potentially win another cup to go on shelves in either Basel or Mallorca that already bow with the bounty of previous victories.

This match rather posed the question of whether Roger Federer at 30 and having not defeated the younger man in a grand slam since Wimbledon in 2007, could still beat Rafael Nadal — in a grand slam that is. It was a question you sensed Federer wanted to know the answer to more than anyone.

The answer is no. Nadal last night won in four sets 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4. "It's just amazing [the long history with Roger]," said Nadal afterwards, characteristically humble and deferential to Federer. "It's fantastic to have one player in front of me. You saw him with no mistakes he had the complete game. I always saw one player in front of me better than me."

Not now he doesn't. And not for some time. Twice in the last two years Federer had defeated Nadal at consecutive ATP World Tour finals. But in the last dozen meetings between them the record was 9-3 to Nadal and in grand slams the record was poorer — Nadal had won all four matches at slams since that Wimbledon loss.

On this court in 2009 Federer wept upon defeat and the thought that he had ceded his turf — or hard court as the case happened to be — to his rival. On this court, in the first grand slam rematch for them, Federer last night sought to re-claim his ground and re-establish that he was back on even terms with Nadal.

He fell short. Nadal brings something out in Federer that other players, not even world No. 1 Djokovic, elicits.

It is a hesitancy and a uncertainty in his play. He second guesses his movement and choice. Against Nadal he seemed to need to remind himself to get forward, to get to the net, to rumble Nadal's momentum, in ways that he does seemingly without conscious thought against others.

Maybe it is the left-hander thing and that Nadal, playing at the technical and physical level he does, offers angles others do not. Technically that may be the case. Practically the effect of the losses to Nadal is that Federer seems to be play this game on a mental not physical level.

Illustrating the mindset in each of the first three sets, Federer claimed the early break of serve only to cede his later, twice it was in the very next game.

The match was of a level befitting of the players and the moment, and clearly the best of the tournament. Which is not to say it was tennis without fault — Federer's serving was poor, his forehand at times ragged and Nadal tight on his backhand. But the contest was superb. There were fireworks outside the arena which interrupted the match but only appeared dull by contrast to that happening inside. As it should be.

After the first set, which Federer won in a tie-breaker, there was a palpable sense that mentally and in terms of confidence — as if a man with 16 grand slam titles needs confidence — it was more important to Federer that he had done so.

Occasionally the tennis beggared belief. Such as when, in the second set, Nadal lifted a ball almost from the cameraman's lens way off court and squeezed it into the court to set up three break points. Federer saved two but not the third. Nadal had the break. He soon had the set. Federer was under siege. The match was back level but it was Nadal who was on the front foot and Federer clinging on.

Nadal closed it out on his second match point. Once more he had vanquished Roger.

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Hewitt Ruins Perfect Record of Top 3 in Melbourne

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Novak Djokovic's third-set wobble against Lleyton Hewitt spoiled a neat statistic. Had the defending champion won in three sets, the top three men would all have reached the quarterfinals without dropping a set.

The top-seeded Djokovic eventually won 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 Monday to join Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the last eight.

No. 4 Andy Murray lost the first set against first-round opponent Ryan Harrison and hasn't conceded one since. He beat Mikhail Kukushkin on Friday when the Kazakh retired while trailing 6-1, 6-1, 1-0.

The Big Four have reached the quarterfinals at five straight majors, underlining a gap between them and the rest of the field. Djokovic says it's an attention to detail that makes the difference.

"Nowadays it's very physical so you have to work very hard, you have to be dedicated, you have to take care of the smallest details off the court as well, how you organize your life, you have to be emotionally balanced," he said. "All these kind of things play a very significant role in your performance on the court."

Djokovic hasn't been out of the top four since the middle of 2007. He did admit, though, that he's still getting used to sitting at the top of the pack after a standout 2011 in which he won three of the four majors and overtook Nadal and Federer for the No. 1 ranking.

"I have to accept this life as simple as possible because you can easily get carried away," the 24-year-old Serbian said. "There is a lot of temptations, especially when you're at the top. Obviously you get more attention and more temptations to do some things that can affect your performance in a negative way."

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GLORY DAYS: Maria Sharapova is already starting to talk like her career has peaked.

Sharapova won her first major at Wimbledon in 2004, added the U.S. title in 2006 and the Australian in 2008, a year after losing the final at Melbourne Park. She had surgery on her right shoulder later that year and hasn't added to her Grand Slam collection since.

Asked about how she feels after spending about one-third of her life on tour, Sharapova said she felt "fortunate to be sitting in this position and saying that I achieved great success at 17."

"Obviously maybe if I had achieved it a few years later, I wouldn't feel like I've been on the tour for so long. But I'm certainly not complaining for that because that will probably be the highest note of my career."

Why?

"Because I never had expected that that would come to my career. I was so naive," she said. "I mean, I don't think at that point, when I had won Wimbledon, I understood what it meant.

"I thought it was just an incredible feeling, and it's Wimbledon, but I don't think I actually logically knew what I had done."

After a few years interrupted by injuries, Sharapova says she's started to regain her energy and passion after a period of time "kind of at a standstill."

She reached the final at Wimbledon last year, losing to Petra Kvitova, in her best run at a Grand Slam in three years.

"I'm 24 years old, almost 25. I love this sport as much as I loved it, you know, when I was at that age," she said. "I've also been through a lot of tough times. I've also said the success that I can achieve, the fact that I got myself back to being top five in the world, playing tennis again, playing at a high level, competing at this level is pretty remarkable from where I was on a surgery table, not knowing if I'd ever be able to hit a serve again.

"So just a lot of perspective. If I do achieve a Grand Slam win, something on that level, there's no doubt that that will be another big moment in my career."

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SOLE SISTERS: Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki share a sporting interest outside tennis.

Both date professional golfers — Ivanovic is involved with Australia's Adam Scott; Wozniacki with Rory McIlroy, the Northern Irishman who won the last U.S. Open.

Ivanovic has been with Scott for a while, spending the last couple of offseasons in Australia, so had some advice when Wozniacki came asking about the traps of dating a golfer.

"She did ask me like what kind of shoes should I take to walk on the course," Ivanovic said after her fourth-round loss to Petra Kvitova on Monday, when Scott was in the crowd at Rod Laver Arena. The answer, for the record: "Just the most comfortable ones."

Hewitt, Tomic Last Aussies Standing

So often the last man standing at an Australian Open, Lleyton Hewitt remains upright in the tournament’s third round in defiance of many tipsters.

Hewitt joined Bernard Tomic as the only remaining Australians in the singles draw with a second-round victory on Thursday night after 15th seed Andy Roddick retired with a hamstring injury.

Hewitt held a two sets to one advantage at the time.

Tomic’s credentials as the spear-carrier for Australian tennis will be put to the test on Friday night when he takes on 13th seeded Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov on centre court.

But Hewitt, whose 16th Australian Open is one of very few in which he has not been under pressure to deliver, has reached the third round despite coming off 12 months marred by injury and lacking game time.

The 30-year-old next faces Canadian Milos Raonic on Saturday.

Roddick won the first set on Rod Laver Arena but the match changed complexion when the American stumbled awkwardly during the second – tweaking a hamstring tendon.

Hewitt clambered back into the match taking the second and third sets before Roddick succumbed to the inevitable after two hours and 10 minutes.

“In the last four years I’ve had five surgeries and last year I played just two Grand Slams and two Davis Cup ties,” Hewitt said.

“I came in here with nothing to lose, I’ll play with my heart on my sleeve and see where it gets me.”

Tomic says he’s ready for one of the biggest matches on his career against Dolgopolov – a player who has beaten him three times in the past 12 months on hard courts.

“He seems to play good tennis and bad tennis for a set. So it’s very difficult,” Tomic said.

“You have to just hold your game against him and hope for the best.

“He is a very good player and a lot of people struggle with him.”

Others in third round action on Friday include Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Caroline Wozniacki and Kim Clijsters.

The Tomic Train Rolls on Further - Fuelled by Self-Belief

WHERE Sam Stosur struggles, Bernard Tomic thrives. Stosur, famously, owns a US Open title, while Tomic's best-known possession is a $150,000 orange BMW familiar to the Gold Coast police, but the innate self-belief that Tomic seems to have in abundance is what Stosur sometimes lacks. Here, especially.

As a first-round singles loser, Stosur has been left to compete for the mixed doubles consolation prize, while Tomic last night repeated his third-round singles effort of a year ago to remain in the main game.

The teenager toppled American Sam Querrey 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 at Rod Laver Arena and tomorrow will play flashy Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov.

Is he looking forward to it? ''Absolutely not,'' Tomic admitted candidly. ''I think he doesn't like my game, I don't like his. He is a very good player, and a lot of people struggle with him, but I've got to do smart things when I play him and I think the last few times I played him I didn't do the right thing after winning the first set.''

Against Querrey, Tomic displayed his usual array of spins, paces and placements; the problem is that Dolgopolov plays a similarly quirky, unconventional game, and the 13th seed who last night saved a match point before outlasting German Tobias Kamke 4-6, 6-1, 6-1, 3-6, 8-6 was by some margin Tomic's least preferred third-round foe.

Coached by eccentric South Australian Jack Reader, Dolgopolov has won all three of the pair's previous meetings, most recently in Shanghai in October when, in Reader's words, a beaten Tomic ''didn't see any reason to keep trying'' late in the three-set match.

But that was a smaller stage; this is a big one, and size can sometimes matter where Tomic is concerned. Certainly, he is growing all the time - no longer in centimetres but in stature. He has already succeeded Lleyton Hewitt as the national No. 1, and has now equalled his best Australian Open result.

Querrey, ranked 95th but was as high as 23rd just a year ago before losing three months to elbow surgery, had spent just 87 minutes on court in his first-round match against French wild card Kenny de Scheppers, compared with the four hours, 11 minutes Tomic needed to give Fernando Verdasco a two-set start, play dead before a comeback in the third, and then roll on to a famous five-set victory.

But if conditioning was not an issue in the far cooler evening conditions, then at times Querrey's renowned serve proved to be. Blink. That was the first set. Gone in just 24 minutes, Tomic broken in the fifth game and unable to get a look back in on the American's towering serve.

Among a minimal Querrey error count there were seven aces among 14 winners to three in the first nine games.

But Tomic has been a winner for as long as anyone can remember, the fact that he is just 19 notwithstanding, and by the start of the second set he was starting to settle in.

Querrey's first serve percentage began to drop away, and Tomic took advantage of a few more looks at the second, as well as a climbing mistake count, to draw level on his fifth set point. By then, the match was still just an hour old.

Tomic is remarkably tennis-mature for his age, and, already with an impressive record in tie-breaks, he last night improved to 19-7 to take an important two-sets-to-one advantage. Ahead for the first time, he stayed there.

''It was a tough match,'' Tomic said. ''He's a world-class player, and to come back after that first round and recover the right way, I think I did a good job. After that first set, I was thinking, 'Please don't make it another two-sets-to-love [down], I don't want to play five sets.'''

Tomic said he would prefer to meet Dolgopolov at night than in the faster daytime conditions. In the same round 12 months ago, he met top seed Rafael Nadal. ''One year older,' he said. ''It's the same feeling, and same round. [But] no Nadal, so better chance than last year.''

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Tomic Ticks all the Boxes with his Gutsy Win

WORLD No.8 Mardy Fish has already hailed Bernard Tomic a superior talent, but Tomic yesterday showed competitive qualities even he was not sure he possessed.

What yesterday propelled the young Australian into the second round of the Australian Open should carry him much further still. This, unquestionably, was a major step.

For the second time in his career, Tomic recovered from a two-sets-to-love grand slam deficit against a higher-ranked opponent, but in far more testing circumstances on a scalding Rod Laver Arena. He beat 22nd seed Fernando Verdasco 4-6, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 in more than four hours. It drew a standing ovation and was greeted, inside the locker room, with approving nods.

''He's a great player. He's going to be a great player. He already is,'' Fish said. ''He's gotten so much better since I played him in the fall. He was a good player then, too. He showed out there that he enjoys playing down here. He enjoys this surface. He enjoys playing during the day in the heat, all the conditions and variables that this tournament has. I mean, he's light years ahead of me now, but especially when I was 19, at that time. Very impressive.''

So that's another box ticked, then. Ability, we knew. So, too, a cagey, unorthodox style that can lure his opponents into error. But few could have been certain that his fighting qualities were a match for his instinctive court craft, world-class backhand and love of the big occasion. Now we know something more. Tick, tick, tick.

''You can learn about yourself, and how in the future you can play,'' said Tomic, who will play American Sam Querrey in tomorrow's second round. ''I think there's a lot of guys that get two sets to love down - especially in a grand slam it's the toughest thing to come back like that - and they throw the towel in. Anything's possible if you keep trying … Showed me what I'm capable of doing.''

Indeed, what used to be Lleyton Hewitt's time - the Aussie warrior routine in the afternoon-fightback slot - is now Tomic's. Baton handed. ''A lot of [Hewitt's] matches, same stories, did the impossible: turned around a match in this situation. I think it's a good thing that I can believe in myself at this age. It can only be better for me in the future … When I'm down, I can lift myself and give it a go always.''

Against Russian Igor Andreev at Wimbledon, when he trailed by two sets and a break, Tomic was able to recharge with an overnight break before resuming for the final two sets. This was tougher, better, more satisfying, and the first time in four years that Tomic earned direct main draw entry was also the fourth consecutive time the wildcard graduate had won his opening round. ''Today wasn't fun, it was torture,'' he quipped later. ''I really don't know how I won, so I'm going to recover. I'm the happiest person alive now.''

Indeed, he could have won the first set, and should have won the second; wounded by two awful forehand misses: one on break point in a lengthy ninth game of the first set, and another when holding a set point at 30-40 in the 12th game of the second. That one, which could have levelled the match, was a sitter, but instead plonked into the net. And by early in the third set, he was twice forced to save potentially decisive break-point chances, fortunate that Verdasco was suffering in the sweltering conditions, he later revealed, and unable to put foot on throat.

Tomic's rally came after what commentator Todd Woodbridge called a ''semi-tank'' early in the third, and what the world No.38 admitted was a display of foxing. ''I eased off and seemed I didn't care, and I think that's what [drew] him in a little bit tonight. He thought he was going to win that third set, and when the right time came, I broke him. After that, he started … not hitting his shots.''

While his pre-match decision to question Verdasco's recent form and divulge his exploit-the-backhand game plan did not backfire, Tomic admitted his request for a day match had not been smart. ''Silly me,'' he smiled, while acknowledging the benefits of a ramped-up fitness campaign with post-match treadmill sessions to prepare for such best-of-five situations. ''Did not know that the heat was going to be like this.''

Yet he cannot help but be conscious of the national investment. Australia is sweating on the success of Wimbledon's youngest quarter-finalist in 25 years and, although not yet the finished product, there are constant additions being made to the preliminary sketch. ''It's not a good feeling, especially when you're losing,'' he said. ''You see the fans just disappearing one by one. It's a tough feeling. Then you start winning and they come back one by one.''

Those who returned would have liked what they saw. Impossible not to. One to remember.