Federer wins - again

For a moment it looked like we had a match going in the men's Australian Open Final. Fernando Gonzalez took Roger Federer into a first set tiebreak only to gain two meager points. Starting off the second set, Federer looked as if any worry about losing had passed and he proceeded to break the Chilean calmly, going 6-4, 6-4 in the last two sets, becoming the first man since Ivan Lendl in 1980 to win a major without losing a single set.

Gonzalez, for his part, played an exciting first set, giving Federer perhaps his toughest challenge of the tournament, but it was if the Swiss Maestro had simply been using the match opener to take the measure of Fernando, because afterwards, it was all Federer. Among our office staffers, we are excited at what the Australian Open showed in terms of promise on the men's side, Gonzalez will hopefully be able to to follow up his strong showing, as we hope Safin and Murray will. Blake and Nadal ought to continue their strong play and we are curious to see what happens now to Roddick.

For the women, however, it seems unfortunate that our angry comments about the lack of consistency in the women's game proved too true in the final. After her father and coach asked her to tweak her serve prior to the match, Sharapova fell apart under Serena's withering stare. But we are left to wonder, what sort of coach would undermine their player's confidence so soon before a major match? We too echo commentator Mary Carillo who asked why parent/coaches are so common in the women's game, and nearly absent on the men's side?

The big question though, still centres around Federer. Many consider him to be the best men's player of all time, and so the question becomes, can he be considered the greatest without either a French Open title, or a Grand Slam? What will it take for naysayers like Pete Sampras to hold their tongues?