Australian Open Review Day Seven: Fed lives to fight another day but Jankovic doesn't

Australian Open Betting / Sean Calvert / 25 January 2009 / Leave a Comment

Sean Calvert talks us through Sunday morning's action that included a real scare for Roger Federer, an upset that saw the number one seed in the women's draw crash out and another late finish for Marcos Baghdatis.

Day Seven in Melbourne was another all-action affair, which included a Swiss struggle and a somewhat surprising Serbian defeat amongst the highlights of another entertaining day's play.

Starting proceedings on Rod Laver was women's number one seed, Jelena Jankovic, who was a [1.22] favourite to take out former Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli.

Many would have assumed a fairly routine win for the second favourite for the title, but nothing could be further from the truth, as Bartoli came out firing and Jankovic had a shocker and was dumped out of the tournament in straight sets.

The number 16 seed had one of those days where everything she hit found the target, while Jankovic couldn't buy a winner.

It was a bad day at the office for the Serbian, who was comfortably beaten 6-1, 6-4 by an opponent whose form conjured up memories of her win over Justine Henin on Centre Court a couple of years back.

Straight afterwards on Laver it was the turn of Dinara Safina, who in truth played little better than Jankovic and had her backers exhibiting more than a light sweat against Alize Cornet.

Although the number three seed took the first set 6-2, she was spraying the ball all over the place and soon found herself at 1-1 when her French opponent took set two by the same margin.

Soon afterwards it got much more serious for the Russian, who found herself 2-5 down and facing match points, at which stage she was backed at a high of [100.0] for the title.

Cornet wasted her chances though before the Safina fightback saw her take the next five games for victory and the tears flowed for Cornet.

While all of this excitement was going on, there was a heavyweight clash of two of the up and coming stars of the men's game taking place at the Hisense Arena.

Juan Martin Del Potro was [1.5] to take out Marin Cilic, but it was the Croatian who claimed the first set 7-5.

The Argentine managed to assert himself though and went on to record a four set success.

Next up on Rod Laver Arena was Roger Federer, who soon found himself in trouble against Tomas Berdych.

The Swiss maestro was anything but majestic early on, as the Czech moved into a 4-1 lead with the help of some poor tennis from Federer, particularly on serve.

Berdych served it out to love to take the first set 6-4 and while the number 20 seed was playing well, this was a lethargic effort from the tournament favourite.

It didn't get much better for the world number two in the second set, as despite going a break up early, the errors were still in evidence, while Berdych's forehand was finding its mark with increasing regularity.

Indeed, it was the Czech who took the set on a breaker to go two sets up and the Swiss was in a bit of bother.

The market didn't have a great deal of confidence in Berdych though, as Federer was still trading at only [2.2] to win the match, despite being two sets in arrears, while he was matched at a high of [9.0] for the title.

Berdych's problem has always been between the ears though and similarly to Richard Gasquet, you always sense that he will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory despite possessing an abundance of natural talent.

Sure enough, the Czech was broken in the very next game and although he managed to break back, it was all downhill from there, as Federer staged an entirely predictable comeback to take the set.

What followed was a typical Berdych performance of calling for the trainer for mystery ailments (anyone remember him retiring on his stool against Roddick in New York a couple of years ago?).

This time it was an upper thigh complaint that assisted Federer's comeback, as Berdych's challenge slipped away to give the Swiss a 4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 victory, but Federer will need to up his game one feels against Del Potro in the quarter finals.

That performance, although he came back from two sets down for the first time since 2005, means that he now trades at [3.35] for the title from a low of [2.7].

The first night match on Laver saw home favourite Jelena Dokic take on the still-appallingly-dressed Stephen Lee look-alike Alisa Kleybanova, who had the nerve to give that purple and yellow outfit another airing.

I was eagerly awaiting the arrival of Marcos Baghdatis and Novak Djokovic on court, but as usual when you're waiting for the next match in the schedule, the one before seems to go on forever and this miserable encounter was no different.

It was the usual WTA rubbish and purely for the record there were 13 breaks of serve before Dokic emerged victorious, despite posting 11 double faults and 58 unforced errors.

Still, at least it gave the Aussies something to cheer about, in a similar vein to Wimbledon in the 80's with Jeremy Bates and Chris Wilkinson. Dokic has about as much chance of glory here as either of those two.

Because of the awful scheduling yet again by the organisers in Melbourne, Djokovic and Baghdatis arrived on court around 11pm, which of course is a disgrace. What's wrong with switching courts and putting them on Hisense? Poor thinking as usual from the organisers.

Anyway, the delay appeared to bother Baghdatis rather more than Djokovic as the Serbian took the first set with ease 6-1.

The Cypriot went a break up in the second, but he was making way too many errors and Djokovic, despite again performing below par, took the second on a breaker.

The third went pretty much the same way, but somehow Baghdatis took the tie break this time, despite only three of the breaker's 12 points being won on serve.

He was unable to capitalise on the lifeline though, as the defending champion stepped it up a gear to advance 6-1, 7-6, 6-7, 6-2 to a clash with Andy Roddick.