Rafa-Roger I (Hard-court Slam Edition)

The final is set at the Australian Open 2009, with 13-time Grand Slam winner and World No. 2 Roger Federer taking on World No. 1 Rafael Nadal, who has 5 Slam titles of his own. After all the buzz created by the up and coming players in men's tennis, Rafa and Roger are left standing - the old guard if you will - as if to tell the world that their domination of the sport is here to stay.

The two have met in six previous Grand Slam finals before, but never on a hard court. From 2006 through 2008, Nadal won all three battles on the red clay of Roland Garros, while Federer won the first two out of three grass court finals at Wimbledon. Last year's Wimbledon final, arguably the best tennis match of all time, saw Nadal beat Federer in an epic five-set marathon which ended in near-darkness, denying Federer his 6th straight Wimbledon title. Can this year's Australian Open final between these two tennis heavyweights be even better?

More Trivia
* Federer is trying to match Pete Sampras' all-time Grand Slam titles record of 14. He has already matched Sampras' Grand Slam finals appearances of 18 by reaching the Australian Open final this year. (The record is held by Ivan Lendl, who has 19)
* Federer is 8-for-8 in Hard-court Grand Slam finals (3-for-3 in Australian Open finals)
* This is Nadal's first appearance on a Hard-court Slam final
* Nadal owns a 12-6 career record against Federer (2-3 record on hard courts)
* Federer and Nadal competed in four finals last year, all won by Nadal

The Federer-Nadal rivalry lives on! May the best man win.

Australian Open Ranking Projections

With the third round singles matches completed, the top four seeds are still on pace to reach the semifinals. If there are no upsets, top seed Rafael Nadal will take on Andy Murray while Roger Federer will face Novak Djokovic in a rematch of last year's Australian Open semifinal (which Djokovic won en route to his first Grand Slam trophy).

Let's take a look at the "Big 4" ranking scenarios with projected results from the first Grand Slam of the year:

* Nadal will remain at No. 1 regardless of the tournament's outcome.

* No. 2 Federer and No. 3 Djokovic will switch places in the rankings only if Djokovic defends his title and wins his second Aussie Open crown.

* Murray will be No. 3 if he wins the tournament AND Djokovic fails to reach the semis. Otherwise, Murray will just remain at No. 4.

The second week of action is heating up Down Under. The round-of-sixteen is a strong field of players, with only one unseeded player left in the men's draw (2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis), and the top eight seeds all poised to reach the quarterfinals!

Argentines Sweep Titles Last Week

David Nalbandian beat Jarkko Nieminen in the final at Sydney while fellow Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro defeated Sam Querrey to win in Auckland. Del Potro moves to a career-high sixth in the ATP World Tour rankings.

World No. 3 Novak Djokovic fell one win short of surpassing Roger Federer in the rankings, failing to reach the final at the Medibank International in Sydney. As of 1/19, Djokovic trails Federer by 50 ranking points:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p7B6JwEslHXr0Dk6pWgRmdg

Djokovic Playing at Medibank International

World No. 3 Novak Djokovic was granted a wild card entry at Sydney and is the tournament's top seed, while second-ranked Roger Federer is playing at an exhibition in Kooyong. The other members of the "Big Four" are idle this week.

At the moment, Federer leads Djokovic by 110 ranking points at the number two spot. If Djokovic reaches the final at Sydney, he will be World No. 2 when the rankings are published on 1/19:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p7B6JwEslHXorj3SzeIzOVg

Murray, Stepanek, Cilic First Tournament Winners of 2009

World No. 4 Andy Murray defended his title at Qatar Open in Doha, beating Andy Roddick in the final. World No. 2 Roger Federer lost in the semi against eventual winner Murray, while top-ranked Rafael Nadal was beaten by Gael Monfils in the quarters. Nadal won the doubles title at Doha with partner Marc Lopez.

Marin Cilic defeated World No. 202 Somdev Devvarman to win at Chennai while Radek Stepanek beat Fernando Verdasco to win the title at Brisbane. World Number 3 Novak Djokovic was eliminated in the first round at Brisbane, missing the opportunity to surpass Federer at number two. He gets another shot at Sydney this week.

ATP World Tour 2009 Season Underway

Happy New Year from Tennis Fun!

The ATP World Tour 2009 Season has begun with three ATP World Tour 250 events being played in Doha (Qatar), Brisbane (Australia) and Chennai (India). The spotlight is on Qatar Open, where three of the big four are playing. If the seeds prevail, it will be (1)Nadal-Roddick in one semi and (2)Federer-Murray in the other semi. Djokovic is the top seed at Brisbane.

Let's take a look at the big four going into the 2009 season:

(1) Since assuming the number one ranking on August 18th last year, Rafael Nadal has not won a tournament. For him to retain his ranking, he has to go back to his winning ways. He will also try to win his first hard court slam in 2009.

(2) A healthy Roger Federer looks to reclaim his spot at the top of men's tennis, and will attempt to tie (and then break) Pete Sampras' record of 14 slams.

(3) Novak Djokovic will be looking for more consistency in the middle part of the season, and has a ton of ranking points to defend early in '09 -- 2000 points from Australian Open and 1000 points from Indian Wells (ATP World Tour Masters 1000).

(4) 2008 Breakout player Andy Murray looks to win his first slam this year. He beat Nadal and Federer in an exhibition last week.

As of January 5th, the ranking points have been doubled. World number two Federer has a slim 20-point lead over Djokovic, and they could switch places by the end of this week if Djokovic wins at Brisbane and Federer falters at Doha:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p7B6JwEslHXpgnllw2h4vJg

FEEL IT in 2009!

The ATP wants us tennis fans to FEEL IT in 2009 with the unveiling of a renewed ad campaign to promote significant changes in the ATP Tour starting next year. From January, its name will change to ATP World Tour to reflect the global aspect of men’s tennis. Ads will position world-class players like Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer as tennis giants, playing tennis that is "out of this world".

In an effort to make the tour more fan-friendly, the tournament categories will be renamed to indicate the number of ranking points the tournament winner will receive, while ranking points will be roughly doubled from last year. In addition to the Grand Slams (where the champion will earn 2000 ranking points), there will be three tournament categories:

- ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (formerly ATP Masters Series)
- ATP World Tour 500
- ATP World Tour 250

The season finale will be renamed from Tennis Masters Cup (previously held in Shanghai from 2005- 2008) to Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, which will be held in London from 2009-2012. Appropriately, the year-end number one player will be called ATP World Tour Champion.

The Davis Cup will also award ranking points for the first time in 2009.

With these changes, how is the transition going to happen from the previous rankings system to the new one? To make it simple, players' ranking points will be doubled at the end of the year. It's not a perfect solution - for instance, winners of this year's 300-level International Series Gold events who defend their titles next year will lose out on this proposition because they will only get 500 points in place of 600 points (300 x 2).

Here is the breakdown of points for the different tournament categories from the winner down to the quarterfinalists:

Grand Slam: 2000 (W), 1200 (F), 720 (SF), 360 (QF)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000: 1000 (W), 600 (F) 360 (SF), 180 (QF)
ATP World Tour 500: 500 (W), 300 (F), 180 (SF), 90 (QF)
ATP World Tour 250: 250 (W), 150 (F), 90 (SF), 45 (QF)

The transition to the new rankings system is going to be fun!