Australian Open Update

As for a potential Roddick-Fish collision, Roddick surely has a huge psychological edge. They did have a spectacular final round meeting at Cincinnati in 2003 when Roddick saved two match points in a tense encounter. Fish is playing his finest tennis since that time, is competing with renewed spirit, and has revamped his forehand admirably with the help of his coach Todd Martin. Still, every sign points to a Roddick four set win in that one.

Serena’s Comeback

How to explain the enigmatic Serena Williams? As she appears on television, she looks at least 20 pounds overweight. She played only one warm up tournament before the Australian after being out of action since the U.S. Open. And yet, she is covering the court surprisingly well, keeping herself in points by running down balls persistently, using her defensive skills to compliment what she does so well on offense. And her win over No. 5 seed Nadia Petrova--- her first triumph over a top ten player since she won her last tournament and last major at the Australian Open of 2005--- was a gritty piece of business.

Petrova should have been the victor. She crushed Serena from the baseline and made some timely advances to the forecourt in taking a 6-1 first set. Then the Russian rallied from 0-3 and break point down in the fourth game to sweep five consecutive games in the second set, establishing a 5-3 lead. At 5-4, Petrova served for the match and reached 15-15, standing three points away from victory. At that stage, Serena demonstrated that when her back is to the wall she almost inevitably plays her boldest and best tennis. She cracked a two-hander cleanly down the line for a winner to reach 15-30 and quickly broke back for 5-5. Petrova then helped her out considerably. At 5-5, she served two costly double faults including one at set point down.

On they went to the final set. After an early exchange of breaks, Williams took over, collecting four of the last five games to complete an uplifting 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 win. Although she had trouble holding during the first two sets of this meeting, she is serving quite well overall, using her slice serve wide in the deuce court skillfully, mixing up her delivery on both sides, and coming up with aces and service winners at crucial moments. I still expect her to lose her round of 16 match against the rapidly improving Jelena Jankovic but Jankovic will need to be concentrated and composed to get the win.

In any event, Williams has at least given herself a serious boost by virtue of beating a top of the line player like Petrova. If she keeps working hard and plays a full schedule in 2007, she could easily reclaim a place for herself among the top ten in the world and she might even crack the top five.