As a reminder, here is what I wrote on January 10th, three days prior to the start of the Australian Open -  “Ok, to finish I’m going to pick the Grand Slam Winners, and the top 5 for the year end rankings…Australian Open: Djokovic, Sharapova”
Well, clearly I am brilliant.  A quick side note before I delve into what to take away from the year’s first major - you know who isn’t brilliant?  ESPN 2.  I applaud them for showing the Men’s Final live at 3:30 am Sunday morning.  Moreover, I applaud them for showing a replay at noon, knowing that most people would already know the result.  However, I do not applaud them for showing me the result on the bottom line ten minutes before I was going to start watching the replay, after I had done such a good job all morning of avoiding the outcome.  Anyway, here are some of my top story lines coming out of the Australian Open: (more…)

I lied, I’m not going to preview this weekend’s Australian Open Final matches.  I’m going to provide a bunch of links today only, I simply don’t want to jinx the picks I made two weeks ago (Djokovic & Sharapova).  One quick note on Federer’s straight sets loss last night…never has one upset freaked me out so much, because as the writers and commentators keep saying “He had to lose sometime, blah blah blah.”  Well if Federer had to lose sometime, that means the Patriots have to lose sometime as well, let’s just hope it’s not until the 2008 Preseason.

We will get the depressing news out of the way first.

Bonnie Ford’s preview of the Women’s Final.

Did Scoop Jackson really write about Ana Ivanovic? Yes, and it’s awesome.

Australian Open Report Cards.

Wertheim mailbag.

Gimelstob spends some time with Federer.

Some thoughts on the Federer/Djokovic match.

Ok, so it’s been pretty busy for me here at the GSTT home base, since half our office is down under enjoying the tennis live, while I man the phones in sub zero whether.  I promise I’m not bitter though, as I was able to watch the Patriots advance to 18-0 and Super Bowl XLII live.  Anyway, I have some random thoughts on the tournament so far:

- My predictions thus far are looking solid, as both Djokavic (not surprising) and Sharapova (a bit more surprising, given her dismantling of Henin) are both in the Semifinals.  I guess my whole “Nadal will get off to a slow start” idea is not too accurate - although, in my defense, he has cruised to the semifinals without playing anyone ranked inside the top 20.

- The Serena Williams/Jelena Jankovic last night on ESPN 2 was pretty fun to watch.  Certainly not the best tennis, but a gritty performance from Jankovic was really worth it for me to tune into that, as opposed to the new “American Gladiators.”  One thing that did get me a bit was the commentating.  They (I’ll refrain from using names) kept referring to the match as the biggest upset and biggest story of the tournament thus far.  Really?  The # 3 seed beating the # 7 seed is the biggest upset and story?  I know Serena is the defending champion, but if I weren’t so lazy, I’d come up with 10 bigger stories than this supposed magnificent upset.

- As it stands, I am lazy, so I’ll just touch on one.  At last year’s US Open, while watching Nadal dismantle Jo-Wilfriend Tsonga, I told my friend that if he stays healthy, Tsonga will be top 15 by end of 2008.  He may not remember me saying it, but it was said, I promise.  He has ripped his way through to the Semifinals again by beating both the 8th and 9th seed, Andy Murray and Richard Gasquet, and then absolutely abusing Youzhny last night.  Speaking of his match with compatriot and friend, Gasquet, my favorite moment that I’ve seen of the tournament thus far is after match point, Gasquet crossed over to the other side to give Tsonga his congratulations, and a man-hug to boot.  Anyway, here’s to hoping Tsonga gives Nadal a run for his money tomorrow.

- Another note on the Tsonga/Gasquet match - I wish I had seen more of it.  Unfortunately, unless there is only a Men’s match being played, ESPN 2 seems to be focusing on Women’s tennis.  If I remember correctly (it was around midnight on Saturday, I was kind of, um, tired), the Women’s match they were showing was Ivanovic/Wozniacki.  I think what ESPN is trying to do is lure viewers in with sex appeal.  On the surface it makes sense - some guy at home without much on TV might come across Ivanovic and watch for a few minutes.  But the problem is, the tennis is not good enough to keep him tuned in or to get him back another night.  I would argue that the intensity and quality displayed by Gasquet and Tsonga would draw the same viewer in for longer periods of time, and more frequently.  And I promise, this was not the only case of ESPN showing poorer quality tennis in favor of sex appeal.

Ok, enough rambling for today…only one link, from Bonnie Ford with a preview of Blake/Federer.  I encourage all to read it, if only to read some of Blake’s own words at the end.

I’m over the whole Jim Rice debacle, so I will continue -

- Everyone is so high on Andy Murray.  I’m not.  Don’t get me wrong, he has plenty of talent, but until he proves to me that he can last through an entire season without getting hit with injuries, I don’t see how he can crack the top 5.  Top 10, yes.

- This is a very important year for Marcos Baghdatis, who, after a career year in 2006, definitely took a step backwards in 2007.  He has too much talent not to be a threat to go deep at every major (quarters at Wimbledon was his best result).  Baghdatis reminds me of the Boston Celtics, so much talent but just can’t seem to put it all together.  Oh, wait, the Celtics are 29-4, my mistake. (more…)

Sorry it has been so long.  But honestly, nothing has been going on in tennis, and I’m sure no one wanted to read my ramblings on what it’s like being a Boston Sports Fan right now.  Besides, I needed to recharge my creative juices.  Without further adieu, here are some random predictions for the 2008 season:

- Roger Federer will, at the very least, tie Pete Sampras’ record of 14 Grand Slam Titles.  I simply cannot see him losing at Wimbledon or the US Open.  Those two alone will give him a share of the record.  As far as breaking it, that will be a bit tougher.  Everyone knows he is not the favorite at Roland Garros, and while he has won two Australian Open titles in a row, he is not playing a warmup event this year (pulled out of Kooyong with a stomach virus) and the simply fact is upsets are most likely to happen at the beginning of the year.  Just like an upset of the Patriots, if it did happen, probably would have happened in September, not in the playoffs.

- The Williams Sisters, while they may threaten at the Grand Slams, will come up empty handed.  I just feel like at this point in their careers, they have a hard time focusing solely on tennis.  As a result, it might be very difficult for them to repeat some of the Grand Slam success they had last year.

- I do believe that Justine Henin will contiue her domination of the WTA Tour.  She may not have a twenty match win streak in 2008, or win multiple Grand Slams, but when I am writing my season review in November, she will be the clear-cut number 1. 

- James Blake will not three peat at Sydney this week.  Oh wait, he already lost his first 2008 match to the wiley veteran, Fabrice Santoro.  Unfortunately, I think this trend may continue for both Blake and Roddick, who put everything they had into a Davis Cup Championship, thus far shortening the already miniscule offseason.  So they may both get off to somewhat slow starts, but I think they would both trade a few subpar tournaments for what they were able to accomplish in Portland last month.

- The three big Serbs (Djokovic, Ivanovic & Jankovic) will continue to have success on their respective tours.  There are those out there claiming Djokovic is in danger of going through a bit of a sophomore slump.  I completely disagree.  While Djokovic did wear down a bit at the end of the season, there is a reason he is about 1500 points ahead of Davydenko.  That reason being, he is extremely talented, and at his age only stands to get better and stronger.

I just found out Jim Rice got shafted by the Baseball Hall of Fame again, and I’m too distraught to write anymore, so I’ll post Part II tomorrow.  Until then, here are some links:

Some early reports from Kooyong.

Thoughts on the first Grand Slam, courtesey of Bonnie Ford.

Ad In/Ad Out from Jon Wertheim.

Ivanovic’s goals for 2008, which sadly do not include meeting me.