Australian Open Day Nine Review: Federer into the semis without breaking sweat

Australian Open Betting / Sean Calvert / 27 January 2009 / Leave a Comment

Sean Calvert looks back at day nine of the Australian Open where Djokovic felt the power of the Roddick serve, not to mention the heat, and retired. Roger Federer in the meanwhile, reminded everyone that he has only once retired, and also that he's the best player at the tournament on current form.

The temperature was cranked up in Melbourne on Day Nine and it proved way too hot for a Serbian and an Argentine, while home hopes were also extinguished.

First up on Rod Laver Arena was my only remaining chance of profit as far as outright bets are concerned - Vera Zvonareva - who was facing Marion Bartoli in the quarter finals.

The French number 16 seed had dispensed with Jelena Jankovic in the previous round, but as was the case in their earlier meetings, Bartoli was never really in it against Zvonareva.

On another frighteningly hot day in Melbourne, Bartoli did start well and found herself 3-1 ahead, but the Russian took the next 11 games consecutively to advance to the semi finals.

Bartoli was far from happy with the organisers for giving her a day match and the night match to Dinara Safina and Jelena Dokic, but those are the breaks I'm afraid Marion.

Next up was Andy Roddick [3.4] against Novak Djokovic [1.4] and of all of today's matches, this appeared to be one for the underdog and so it proved, but in the most unsatisfactory of circumstances.

Djokovic was another victim of the schedulers, who had him play a night match that finished in the early hours a couple of days ago and thanks to a 'local' girl making the quarter finals, the Serbian's request for another night game to allow recovery time was denied.

So, off they went in 40-degree heat to play a five setter and consequently Djokovic suffered physically.

The Serbian took a first set dominated by serve on the breaker, before Roddick finally managed to conjure up the match's first break point in the middle of set number two.

He took his chance and the set by six games to four to level the match and things were about to get much worse for Djokovic.

The trainer made his first appearance on court early on in set three and of course we have seen this many times before from the number three seed, so it was too early for panic to set in amongst Djokovic backers.

He didn't look too clever out there and after an exhausting third game of set three the officials and a doctor were crowding around the defending champion, who had a bag of pills in his bag the size of which would not have disgraced General Noriega in his prime.

It's no wonder he was sick, taking all that lot in the midday Melbourne sunshine.

After a lengthy medical timeout, which no doubt infuriated Roddick, an outspoken critic of 'tactical timeouts', Djokovic returned, but it was clear to all that he was cooked and after losing the set 6-2, he retired three games into set four.

Roddick did his best to put an understanding face on at the end, but it's clear to all that there's no love lost between the two.

Chris Bradnam quoting Kipling; Sam Smith constantly repeating herself; and that god awful skin care advert 'starring' Serena Williams. It can only be Eurosport's coverage of WTA and I had to suffer it once again whilst waiting for some real tennis.

Yes, it was Safina v Dokic and all I'm prepared to say about this pointless nonsense - clogging up prime time and handing a late night finish to Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro - is that the winner served 11 double faults and the loser hit 53 unforced errors in three sets.

The winner was Safina and she goes on to face compatriot Zvonareva in the semi finals.

Time for some proper tennis and when Federer and Del Potro finally emerged on court, the Argentine quickly wished that he hadn't bothered, as the Swiss maestro was in superb form early on.

Del Potro's questionable tactic of hitting the ball as hard as he possibly could straight down the middle has been negated by Federer so many times against so many players, it was never likely to raise a sweat on the brow of the number two seed.

Federer was exposing his lanky opponent's lack of mobility with embarrassing ease and his opening price of around [1.25] was looking a great investment when the Swiss bagelled his opponent in the second set after easing through the opener.

It didn't get any better for Del Potro and he looked like he was about to burst into tears as Fed bagelled him again for a comprehensive 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 victory.

Federer was majestic and has regained favouritism for the title at around the [2.14] mark, while Del Potro's performance was lacking in any kind of fight or character and once he realised that he wasn't going to be able to blast Federer off court, he simply gave up.

Just to add a bit of spice to proceedings, Fed couldn't resist a dig at Djokovic during his post match interview in which he reminded viewers that he's only retired once in his career and that was because he could barely walk (against James Blake in Paris last year).

He went on to also remind people of the time that Djokovic retired against him in Monaco because of 'a sore throat or something'.

So an enjoyable day all round for Federer then, who goes on to face Roddick ([25.0]) in a semi final match-up that the Swiss will be looking forward to rather more than the American, while his battering of Del Potro has seen Rafa Nadal's price ease out to [2.8] ahead of the Spaniard's quarter final with Gilles Simon.