This year at the Open - Australia

When the Australian Open started this year, there was talk about new forces emerging in the tennis world. I was really excited at the prospect of new challenges that the top 4 would face. Mainly because towards the end of the year, two unlikely heroes sprung up.

Nikolay Davydenko and Juan Martin Del Potro.

Nikolay was one of the top players until about 3-4 years ago. All of a sudden he lost form, lost motivation or what ever it was, he slowly slipped down the rankings. He lost to unlikely opponents and never showed the talent he initially promised. Then, all of a sudden he had back to back victories. He won the year ending ATP World Tour Finals (formerly the Masters Cup) and then won in Doha. In both the tournaments, he beat Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Del Potro, or the "Tower of Tandill" sprung into the limelight a couple of years ago by winning back to back tournaments and then successfully defending a couple of those titles. He slowly started making progress and his prowess was never fully realised until he beat Roger Federer at the US Open denying the Fed a chance to gain his 16th Grand Slam Crown.

So when the tournament started all eyes were on these two. People (and I) wanted to see how much damage they could do. The first few rounds were as usual. Uneventful. No major upsets, until Cilic upset Del Potro in one of the finest 5 setters I have not completely seen. After that match all eyes were really Cilic to see if he could take that form and game forward. The same round actually produced one of the most anticipated matches (well in Australia, by the Aussies at least) of the open. Roger Federer vs. Leyton Hewitt. That turned out to be a walk in the park for the Fed. Federer literally destroyed Hewitt in one of the most one sided matches ever seen.

And then came the big matches. Two of the most anticipated matches in the tournament. Federer vs. Davydenko and Murray vs. Nadal. From the beginning, the tournament was billed as one of these four's tournament. For about the first set and three quarters Davydenko looked like he was going to pull of the upset of the tournament. A 6-2 first set and a 3-1 lead in the second and it looked like it was curtains for the Fed. It was one of the most amazing turnarounds from there on. 13 games in a row was what Federer took to get a 2 sets to 1 lead and a 2-0 lead in the 4th. The match was all done and dusted for Davydenko when he decided tot fight back. He broke back and took the fight back to the No. 1. But Federer was not to be denied this time. He kept on the money and closed out the match at 7-5.

The other match was more one sided, but partly because of a knee injury to Nadal. But before it reached the climax Rafa had to retire. This was one of those rare occasions that you would see Rafa retire. But he took the decision to retire rather than press on with a mind on making sure he does not aggravate the injury. So at 0-3 down in the 3rd set with 2 sets down, he retired and handed the match to Murray.

So it all came down to the US Open finalists from 2008. At that time Roger had steamrolled Murray for the title. But Murray made a lot of progress since then. He came up in leaps and bounds and worked his way almost to the top. So I was expecting a real tight match this time around. But the master had other ideas. A British Grand Slam champion had to wait. Roger finished the match in much simpler fashion than in any of his past meetings with Murray. Championship No. 16 had come.

How many more will the "best of all time" win? Only time will tell...