Happy Slam turns emo as Rafael Nadal beats Roger Federer to win Aussie Open

Roger Federer was crying.

His girlfriend Mirka was crying. Rafael Nadal was crying.

I read that some of the crews at the Australian Open were crying too.

And of course The Mighty Fed's fans can't hold back their tears too seeing their King breaking down in pool of tears.



I know how important it is for Roger to equal Pete Sampras’ 14 Grand Slam titles.

But the truth is, Nadal is also paving his way towards the same direction.

At only 22 years old, Nadal has already achieved 6 Grand Slam titles, with the latest win moments ago beating Roger 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-2 at Rod Laver Arena.

This is Nadal’s third straight win over Federer in a Grand Slam final. He also beat Roger in the French Open and Wimbledon last year.

Will Nadal be able to win the French Open, Wimbledon Open and US Open this year too?

Well, you and I probably don't see it coming. It's because we don't even realised that Nadal has already mastered all the surfaces.

(Images via Yahoo! Sports)

Jelena Jankovic on CNN TalkAsia

Anjali Rao of TalkAsia interviewed Jelena Jankovic when she was in Hong Kong recently for the JB Group Classic exho.

Coincidentally I was browsing through the channels on a boring Saturday night and I came upon this half-hour chat show.

I thought it's was an interesting interview and I particularly love the part when Jelena felt embarrassed when the camera crew checked out her hotel room.

Check out the show here in three parts. Initially I tried to embed the CNN videos but it seems the malformed error bug has yet to be resolved. So I've to upload these videos on youtube instead.

Part 1: Top of the world




Part 2: Life on the tour




Part 3: Celebrity status



The other player featured on the show was Venus Williams.

Asian boys come out top at Aussie Open

Top-seed Yuki Bhambri became India's first Australian Open boys champion after breezing past Alexandros-Ferdinandos Georgoudas in just 57 minutes to win 6-3, 6-1.

His previous best junior grand slam performance came at last year's Australian Open, when he lost in a semi-final to Bernard Tomic, who went on to win the event.

"Winning the Australian Open is obviously a very big achievement, regardless of being the first Indian," Bhambri said.

"I dreamed of winning it, and it's come true."

The Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy's student said one of the toughest aspects of the match had been overcoming his nerves about playing on Rod Laver Arena.

"I was actually quite nervous in the beginning . . . the first time actually playing on such a huge stadium," he said.

"You don't (normally) get opportunities like this to play. As the game and match progressed I felt much more comfortable over there."

In the boys' doubles final, the Philippines' Francis Casey Alcantara and Taiwan's Hsieh Cheng-Peng combined to down Russian Mikhal Biryukov and Japan's Yasutaka Uchiyama 6-4, 6-2.

If you think Cheng-Peng looks familiar, he is the little brother of Hsieh Su-Wei.


(Via news.com.au, Aussie Open website)

Serena Williams bagels Dinara Safina; wins 10th Grand Slam title

After a gruelling match between Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco last night, today's women's singles final is such a disappointment.

I'm disappointed because Dinara Safina let Serena Williams dominated from the start till the end to win 6-0, 6-3 in the Australian Open final.

This is Serena's 10th Grand Slam title and her fourth Australian championship — and this also means her return to the no. 1 ranking!

Serena and her sis Venus also won their eighth Grand Slam women’s doubles title yesterday, beating Daniela Hantuchova and Ai Sugiyama 6-3, 6-3.


What a way for her to start the new year!

(Images via Yahoo! Sports)