He's No Joke

Two of the greatest players in tennis history,
made history Sunday night in Melbourne.

It was brutal, gut-wrenching, heartbreaking and triumphant.

In Rod Laver's fortress, two of the greatest professional tennis players of this generation battled it out in not only the longest match in Australian Open history, but the longest for a Grand Slam final.

It took five hours, 53 minutes, but (1) Novak Djovokic continued his recent dominance over (2) Rafael Nadal, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (7-5), 7-5, becoming only the fifth player since the Open Era to win three straight Grand Slam finals and four out of the last five.

After Nadal captured the first set with Djovokic still feeling the effects of his marathon match with Andy Murray just two nights earlier, the 2011 Player of the Year found his rhythm and took control of the second and third set, winning them both convincingly.

We'd seen this seen before.

But with the crowd firmly in Nadal's corner, his trademark personality of tenacity and heart turned the tide, at least for the moment.

Facing a two set to one deficit and Djovokic leading the fourth set four games to three, Nadal dug deep. The 10-time Grand Slam champion finned off three straight break points down 40-love to hold serve and knot the set at four games apiece.

The fourth would eventually be decided by a tiebreak with Nadal dropping to his knees after Djovokic's shot went wide, forcing a decisive fifth set. In their previous 29 career meetings with Nadal holding a 16-13 advantage, the both had to play a fifth set.

Nadal imposed his will on the fifth, breaking Djovokic the second chance he got and eventually going up four games to two. But it was a shot that Nadal makes in his sleep that will give hime nightmares for the rest of his life. Leading the game 30-15 and Djovokic on the ropes, the Spaniard missed an easy backhand that would have had him one point away from taking a commanding five games to two lead.

Instead, Djovokic gathered his fifth wind and got the look in eyes that his opponents saw all of 2011. A look that lead him to a 10-1 record against Nadal and Roger Federer last year. The look of a champion.

Djovokic would break Nadal twice in the matches' final six games, seizing the lead and his third career Australian Open. He has now won seven straight matches against Nadal, all coming in finals, 14 straight Australian Open matches and 20 straight Grand Slam matches.

The 24-year-old Serbian had never won back-to-back five-set matches in a major tournament until he thwarted Murray and outran Nadal.

The two have now combined for the last eight Grand Slam titles.

As for Nadal, he becomes first player in the Open Era to lose three straight Grand Slam finals, but has nothing to hang his head about. Wearing his emotions on his sleeves, Nadal's poise and graciousness in defeat is what makes him a true champion and heartbeat of professional tennis.

Usually it was Nadal's high energy and overall physical condition that has enabled him to outlast his opponent. This time is was Djovokic, beating him at his own game.

Seizing Union State Supremacy

Azarenka captured her first major title win
Saturday with many more on the horizon.

Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova may come from the same culture, but on the court they looked like much different players.

In her first ever Grand Slam final appearance, Azarenka, looked like the more experienced player, routing Sharapova, 6-3, 6-0, seizing her first Australian Open title and the No. 1 world ranking. To start the match, Azarenka dropped her first service game before righting the ship and winning 12 of the matches' last 13 games.

Sharapova, who is clearly the more polished player with three Grand Slam titles, is only the ninth woman in Australian Open history to win three or fewer games in the tournament's final.

Azarenka, 22, first turned pro at age 16, but it has taken her more than six years to capture her first Grand Slam title. As for Sharapova, she was just 17 when she won the 2004 Wimbledon tournament as the 13th seed, defeating the top seeded and defending champion Serena Williams.

En route to Azarenka's first major title, she had to over come the tournament's defending champion Kim Clijsters in semifinals. She is now 3-0 against Sharapova in tournament finals and starts the 2012 season with a 12-match winning streak.

Azarenka is a native of Belarus and Sharapova of Russia, both whom are forever linked not only for their unbelievable tennis play, but from where they spent most of their lives. Both countries formed and signed a treaty back in 1996, something we know now as the Union State.

So a rivalry that wrote another chapter Saturday in Melbourne, started long before they met on the court.

Forever Young

The "Tat Man" came up huge with the teams
second grand slam in as many nights.

A night after salvaging their season and denying the Milwaukee Brewers a NLDS sweep, the Arizona Diamondbacks have made baseball fans everywhere believers in their 10-6 Game 4 victory Wednesday, forcing a decisive Game 5 Friday night in Miller Park.

It was the gutsy managing of the gritty first-year skipper Kirk Gibson and big lumber of his offense that have kept Arizona's season alive.

Milwaukee got out of the gate quickly with a first inning run off starter Joe Saunders, but the lefty was able to induce an inning-ending double play off the bat of the slugging Rickie Weeks to limit the damage. Carrying the momentum into the bottom of the inning, Arizona promptly loaded the bases against veteran south paw Randy Wolf with only one out.

Rookie Paul Goldschmidt, who became only the third rookie in postseason history to hit a grand slam Wednesday, struck out on four pitches, sucking the air out of the Phoenix crowd. But it was the big thump from one of the littlest guys on the field that sent out the biggest roar of the night.

Ryan Roberts or the "Tat Man" as they call him hit a no-doubt grand slam into the Diamondbacks' bullpen, picking up his rookie teammate by turning a one run deficit into a three run advantage.

Arizona is now only the second team in postseason history to hit grand slams in back-to-back games, joining the 1977 Los Angeles Dodgers, who did it that year in the NLCS against the Fightin' Philadelphia Phillies.

The D-backs were among the majors best with three ducks on the pond in 2011. They led the league with a .387 average and ranked third in grand slams with six behind only the New York Yankees (10) and the Florida Marlins (7).

Center fielder Chris Young followed with a home run of his own, capping a five-run first inning.

While Roberts and Young are responsible for hitting the home runs, it was the decision making of their manager that put them in that position. Prior to the game Gibson made a change to his starting lineup, flip-flopping Roberts and Young, thinking it might ignite a spark and boy did it ever.

But it might have been Gibson's ingenious move in the bottom of third that may have changed their fate this postseason.

With the Brewers slowly chipping away, getting a run in each of the first three innings off Saunders, Gibson elected to pinch-hit for his starter with two on and two out. With only 92 career major league at-bats, rookie Collin Cowgill was called upon in possibly the games biggest moment.

Cowgill delivered a two-run single to left that drew even a grin from his usual stoic manager.

Second baseman Aaron Hill added a home run in the sixth while Young hit his second home run of the game, this time a two-run shot in the seventh, having Arizona total four home runs in the game. Young is the first player in D-backs history to have a multi-home run game in the postseason.

Young claps his hands after hitting becoming
the first D-back in history to hit two home
runs in a postseason game.

Brewer center fielder Carlos Gomez hit a two-run shot in the eighth pulling Milwaukee into within four, but it was too little too late as Gibson used five different relievers over the games final seven innings to get through Game 4 and knot the series at two games apiece.

While Arizona flexed their power at home, Milwaukee continues their swoon on the road. Arizona will look to become one of the rare teams to overcome an 0-2 series deficit in a best-of-five series. Game 5 will once again be a battle of the aces.

Milwaukee is now 1-4 all- time in potential series-clinching games, but are headed home where they had the majors best record during the regular year at 57-24 with one last shot to close out these pesky snakes.

For the Diamondbacks' Ian Kennedy it's a chance at redemption while it's a chance of a lifetime for Yovani Gallardo.

In Grand Fashion

Oh Roger!

Federer has mastered the grass court in
England, but has yet to even reach the
 semi-finals the last two years.

For the second straight year Roger Federer will not be playing for his seventh career Wimbledon title. Federer was ousted from the tournament Wednesday in five sets, 3-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, by French men Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

It wasn't so much shocking that Federer won't be in the finals once again, like he is seemingly every year at the All England Club, but more how he lost.

The world's former No. 1 had won the first two sets and seemed to coasting to yet another semi-finals appearance. Tsonga never lost faith and fought all the way back, accomplishing something no other player has against Federer in a Grand Slam tournament.

Federer had been 178-0 when holding a commanding two-sets to none lead in a Grand Slam heading into Wednesdays' quarter-final match. That all came to a screaming halt when Tsonga did the impossible defeating a very passive Federer. It was not the first time the twelfth-seeded Tsonga had beaten Federer in dramatic fashion.

In August of 2009, Tsonga rallied from 5-1 down in a third set against Federer and eventually came back to win the set and match. Tsonga is also no stranger being down two-sets to none and make a great comeback. Wednesday marked the second time he had accomplished that feat in his young career.

For Federer, he has now not won a Grand Slam title in his last six chances matching the longest drought of his career before he won the first of his record 16 Grand Slam singles titles in 2003 on this very stage. It is the second straight year the six-time Wimbledon champion has lost in the quarter-finals.

It was the second time Tsonga had defeated
Federer in his career.

With Federer knocked out three of the top four seeds have now reached the semi-finals and are ready to begin battle. Rafael Nadal currently has 19-match winning streak at Wimbledon with him winning two of the last three. The defending champion was unable to defend his title in '09 due to suffering a knee injury causing him to pull out of competition.

Federer doesn't seem far removed from his reign as the world's No. 1 for a record 237 consecutive weeks, but it looks to be a changing of the guard. Move over Switzerland, the Spaniard has taken control.