The 2013 Australian Open is near the half-way point, and it is certainly not lacking for excitement !!

Young British phenom Laura Robson knocked off former Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova, only to suffer a shoulder injury and go down in a subsequent round to American Sloane Stephens.

Maria Sharapova has advanced to the quarterfinals, losing only 5 games in her four matches, including a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Venus Williams.

And, Novak Djokovic out-lasted Stan Wawrinka 1-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-7, 12-10 in an epic five-hours-plus match. The final set was outstanding, with inspired play by both of them, including the final game which lasted over ten minutes. Stan valiantly fought off two match points in that final game, but finally succumbed to a brilliant passing shot by Djokovic on the 20-stroke final point. What a classic !!

I've been watching this on DirecTV's Experience package - they run it for different tennis and golf tournaments. It's great to be able to pick the match you want to watch, and it's a rare opportunity to watch doubles, too. Sadly, tonight is the last night for it - until the French Open. It's great for the French and Wimbledon because the matches are on in the morning through mid-afternoon, so when I'm working at home, I have it on most of the day.

Aggh-I missed that match but I have been watching. Love the Australian Open-one of my favorites-maybe it makes me think of warmth during the misery that is winter. Cannot believe I missed that Djokovic match!

Thanks to my dog, I caught the last half of the final set this morning.
It was very good.
If Djokovic can recover enough to win three more matches, I will be surprised.

Great match tonight, if only because Serena had a sore back.

Wow, she lost.

Yeah, Serena was hurting, but I don't think she was going to win anyway. This Sloane Stephens is the real deal and might really get interest back in US tennis from the casual fan. I hope she get to the final which would be awesome. Some great mtaches ahead as they get down to the end.

She's also the daughter of ex-NFL running back for New England John Stephens!

The top 4 seeds in the men's draw have reached the semis. Should be some great tennis ahead.

And unfortunately he died in a car accident in 2009.

I watched the whole match, and she definitely is the real deal. Serena could not overpower her.
She needs some match seasoning to learn how to put players away.
I will look forward to a rematch with a healthier Serena. Hopefully at the US Open.

Her back may have been sore, but Serena's attitude was healthy. She couldn't get off the court fast enough at the end.

Li Na smoked Sharipova on wednesday (thursday in Australia).
She hit all her spots, and never looked frazzled.

Not many surprises so far in the 2013 French Open, but watched a phenomenal match this afternoon between Tommy Haas and John Isner.

Both Haas and Isner had played second-round matches on Friday (Isner's had gone to five sets, which seems to be a recurring theme with him). In Saturday's match-up, Haas outlasted Isner 7-5, 7-6, 4-6, 6-7, 10-8 in a grueling marathon which lasted over 4.5 hours. Both players showed amazing fortitude throughout, though clearly by the end they were running out of steam and ending points as quickly as possible.

In the fourth set, Isner fought off nine match points for Haas in the final game, and saved another three match points in the tiebreaker, to send it to a fifth and decisive set. That final game and tiebreak in the fourth set lasted nearly half an hour. Isner held a 4-1 lead in the fifth set, but the 35-year-old Haas never gave up and eventually broke Isner's serve. What an amazing match !!

Only caught the tail end of the match - I came home during the tiebreaker - but that was awesome. What surprised me is that Isner's record in five-set matches is only 5-12. There were several points in that fifth set where he looked like he just didn't have the oomph to compete, and Haas never looked like that.

If you didn't see the end of the Nadal-Djokovic match on Friday, it was a classic. Djokovic took a 4-2 lead in the final set, but Nadal played incredible tennis down the stretch and won 9-7.

Funny - during the Haas-Isner match mentioned above, the announcers were going on and on about how unfair it was to make them play a fifth set without a tiebreaker after all the time, energy and emotion the players had spent on the court. Not a word about that today.

That was actually the final, the real final was boring EXCEPT for the fantastic French ball girls My God, I couldn't keep my eyes off them. One was better looking than the other.

Rick A.

I did not get to watch any of the Nadal-Djokovic semi-final match live, but my dad did and he said it was epic. All of the highlights I saw were great, it wasn't that Novak choked any opportunities, rather Nadal simply refused to back down. He really is one of the greatest clay-court players ever.


Rick must own a crystal ball, the mens' final between Nadal and Ferrer has yet to be played

I will agree, though, that the finals match will have a difficult time living up that classic semi-final showdown

Nadal gets to shots that no human should get to. There was one shot that he chased down and not only hit at full extension, but returned the ball with enough pace for the winner. Unreal.

Listening to Wimbledon thru their app.
Nadal is in a huge two set hole on the first day.

Holy crap-Nadal went down in the 1st round to Steve Darcis 7-6, 7-6, 6-4. Never thought I'd see that. I can't believe that!

LONDON -- In one of Wimbledon's greatest upsets, an ailing Rafael Nadal was knocked out in straight sets Monday by a player ranked 135th -- the Spaniard's first loss in the opening round of a Grand Slam event


Steve Darcis of Belgium stunned the two-time champion 7-6 (4), 7-6 (8), 6-4. He ended Nadal's 22-match winning streak and eliminated one of the Big Four of men's tennis on the very first day of the grass-court Grand Slam.

Nadal was sidelined for seven months with a left knee injury after losing in the second round of Wimbledon last year. He seemed to be struggling physically. He was unable to turn on the speed or use his legs to spring into his groundstrokes, limping and failing to run for some shots


Roger Federer, meanwhile, showed no signs of struggled. Ten years after his first Wimbledon championship, Federer began his bid for a record eighth Wimbledon title with the same dominance that has defined his grass-court greatness.

Opening the tournament on Centre Court as defending champion, Federer looked right as home as he dismantled Victor Hanescu of Romania 6-3, 6-2, 6-0 in just 68 minutes.



Sixth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France eased into the second round with a 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-3 win over David Goffin of Belgium.



Tsonga served 18 aces and hit 48 winners on Court 2.



Marathon man John Isner finished a quick Grand Slam match for a change, beating 66th-ranked Evgeny Donskoy of Russia 6-1, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2).


In his attempt to join Bjorn Borg (1978-80) as the only players in the Open era to win the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year three different times, Rafael Nadal came up short in his first match against unheralded Steve Darcis.

A year after stunning Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon, Lukas Rosol lost his first-round match against a qualifier ranked 121st.

Rosol, who came in ranked 35th, was beaten 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 6-4 Monday by Germany's Julian Reister.

The 6-foot-9 Isner, who is seeded 18th, had 22 aces with just one double-fault. He didn't face a break point.

The match took only 1 hour, 43 minutes -- a far cry from Isner's record-breaking 11-plus-hour, 70-68 fifth-set victory over Nicolas Mahut in the first round at the All England Club in 2010.

Isner has left each of his past five Grand Slam tournaments with five-set defeats, including at the French Open on June 1, when he saved 12 match points against Tommy Haas before losing the 13th.

Federer offered a grass-court clinic. He had 32 winners, seven aces and just six unforced errors. He won 90 percent of the points when he put his first serve in.

When his serve is clicking, Federer usually is unbeatable. On this day, he won 15 of his first service points and 24 out of the first 25.

The Rosol-Reister match was on tiny Court 19, a short walk away from Centre Court, where the then 100th-ranked Rosol pulled off a surprising five-set victory over two-time Wimbledon champion Nadal in 2012's second round. Nadal then took a seven-month break from the tour because of a left knee injury.

Against Reister, Rosol played the same sort of high-risk game he used so successfully against Nadal. This time, Rosol was not nearly as accurate, accumulating 74 unforced errors, 30 more than Reister.

Last year, Federer equaled Pete Sampras and William Renshaw with seven Wimbledon titles. He is now contending to become the first man to win the tournament eight times, which would bring his total of Grand Slam titles to 18.

In keeping with tradition, Federer had the honor of playing the first match on the sport's biggest stage as the reigning men's champion. This was the seventh time he strode out first on Centre Court.

"It's slightly different," he said. "Nine years ago when I came out the first time, it was the most special thing in the world. It still feels amazing. It was an absolute pleasure playing on Centre Court."

Federer came out wearing a white collared jacket with orange trim, then quickly got down to business. He never faced a break point and broke six times.

Federer has a habit of making things look easy. And so it was in the opening game when, stranded at the net, he reached behind him for a reflex forehand volley that landed in for a winner. In the third set, Federer lifted a perfect backhand lob over the 6-foot-6 Hanescu for a break and a 5-0 lead.



Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

My son said Nadal looked really bad - said he couldn't push off his left leg and tried everything he could to avoid hitting his backhand.

Now Sharipova loses to the 134th ranked woman in the world in the second round.
6 of the top 12 are now out.