Day 9- summary!

That was another exciting night with Aussie Open 2008! 4 matches and 3 surprises. Thank God I forgot to bet on those matches :)

The first match, which took place on Rod Laver Arena, was between Serena Williams and Jelena Jankovic. We expected Serena to come through, but it was the Serbian who after 1 hour and 39 minutes finished it in straight sets 6/3 6/4. In fact Williams managed to fight only in second set, but it still wasn't enough for number three seed. "I thought I played very well. I came out very strong, and I was going for my shots, especially my backhand down the line was working unbelievably, and that's how I hurt my opponent" Jelena told the reporters.

Jankovic will now meet Maria Sharapova, who showed absolutely fantastic tennis in an outstanding win over nr.1 Justine Henin. We can deffinitely say that she demolished her. She won first set 6/4 and then it was only Maria on the court. Second set which lasted 37 minutes, finished with a score 6/0! "I think that I have no excuse. You know, she won the match. She's been the best. I can tell I wasn't at my best level, and that's for sure. But the story is she won the match, and I'm going back home now. So it's kind of a disappointment for sure." said Henin on Sharapova's performance. The winner herself said: "I think it was one of the most consistent matches where I did all the things I wanted to do, and I did them correctly from the beginning to the end except having a little letdown in the end of that first set. I felt like I did many things right, and I just played the way I can play."
Maria, that was really brilliant performance.

In Men's field the first one to secure spot in semifinal was Rafael Nadal. The lefty from Mallorca prooved one more time that he is aspiring for the first Grand Slam title outside Paris. He won 7/5 6/3 6/1 against Jarkko Nieminen. Only the first set was really tight, just to say, Nieminen had two setpoints, but Rafa played then outstanding tennis. "It's better than I thought," Nadal told reporters, after reaching the last four without dropping a set. "I am happy, because always it is important to cross the quarter-finals. If I'm in the final on Sunday, it's going to be a dream for me here. I'm very happy about my start here, playing the final in Chennai and being in the semi-finals here."

In the last match on Centre Court Mikhail Youzhny from Russia played against French Jo Wilfried Tsonga. Nr 38 in the world still continues his dream run. Although, Youzhny seemed to be a bit tired, Tsonga was deffinitely to strong for him. He finished this match with a lovely passing shot winning 7/5 6/0 7/6!

~shaw