A Week of Few Surprises

A fighting spirit can take you places. It sure can. It gives you an immediate and potent advantage in everything that you do and helps you accomplish the impossible on many occasions. But is it enough ALL the time? Today, Fernando Gonzalez proved that sometimes, it is sheer naked ability that trumps over a refusal to lose. Lleyton Hewitt tried the best he could; he chased down impossible balls, and came up with stirring shots at the most desperate of times. But for every gritty salvo that he fired, Gonzalez answered with a breathtaking scorcher that even the super-fast Hewitt had no hope of reaching. Ever so often, Hewitt was simply helpless. Admittedly, Hewitt has not been in the greatest form and his off-court troubles haven't helped his cause much. He had huffed, panted and steeled his way to the third round after two unexpectedly difficult encounters against rank outsiders in his first two matches. His serve has been, quite frankly, pathetic all tournament, and this was no more painfully obvious than in the first two sets today. He managed to lift his level considerably in the third set, and would have completed another come-from-behind victory if he hadn't been playing against the tremendously inspired Gonzalez. It was just one of those days - days when everything seems to fall in place for one player. For Hewitt though, this is the end of yet another disappointing home Grand Slam run. Take heart, Hewitt, your incredible never-say-die attitude will help you fulfil your dream of winning in Australia. After all, it's only sometimes that players can have that perfect day and defeat your stupendous fortitude. Unless, of course, it's Roger Federer, who seems to have that kind of day everytime.

Federer has waltzed his way, almost indifferently, to the fourth round and and is just four strikes away from his tenth Grand Slam title. Why do I get the feeling that this is going to be another ridiculously easy campaign for the rampaging Swiss? The one player who I thought could have given Federer a bit of a tough time, Marat Safin, has been bounced out after an unfortunate third round match-up against a remarkably improved Andy Roddick. In the best match of the tournament so far, Roddick displayed all of his new-found toughness and together with Safin put on a brilliantly fast-paced display. Jimmy Connors, you're doing a great job. Safin was his usual touchy self, and kept breaking out into explosive tirades against everyone within his sight, including himself. In one guffaw-worthy moment, Safin, in reply to the referee's question whether he wanted to call for the trainer for his bruised finger, Safin grumpily pointed his bleeding finger at the referee and asked, "What do you want me to do?" Safin may be a lot of things - absurdly gifted, mentally unstable, heroic rebel. But he's also a real entertainer, as was proved further by his furious post-match comments about the decision of the officials to resume play after the rain delay. There's got to be something special about a man who can unflinchingly call the officials 'stupid', 'blind' and 'pathetic' in one fuming breath. Cheers, Marat!

There were few surprises in the other early round matches, with the exception of the early exit of Ivan Ljubicic, who many feel is hardly fourth-rank material anyway. The real fun will begin from tomorrow, kicking off with the Andy Roddick-Mario Ancic and Serena Williams-Jelena Jankovic matches. And that brings me to the women's arena, and I must say that this has been one of the most competitive draws in recent Grand Slam history. It's almost impossible to pick a winner at this stage, with Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters, Amelie Mauresmo, Martina Hingis, Jelena Jankovic and Serena Williams all having established themselves as strong contenders. I suppose this has partly to do with the absence of Justine Henin-Hardenne, who seemingly is always the tournament favourite, and not without reason. Sania Mirza, of course, made a disappointingly early departure, and I dearly hope she does better next time. So a very competitive set of matches awaits us in the final rounds, though if I had to put my money on any player I'd go for either Clijsters or Williams.

There could hardly be a more striking contrast in the men's field - whichever way you choose to look at it, there seems to be one winner, and one winner alone. At the beginning of this post, I had talked about Hewitt's fighting spirit, and how it fell short of Gonzalez's stunningly awesome play today. Most champions have that spirit - Agassi never stepped on a court without it, and Serena Williams used it in combination with her extraordinary power to reach unchartered heights. But with Federer, it's difficult to say whether he has the fighting spirit to go with his frightening talent, because, well simply because he's been in difficult positions on so darned few occasions, at least in the Grand Slams. Can anyone even muster up the courage to try and make it difficult for him? God help the men's field!