Used to be one of my favourite players to watch, she remained on tour for many years after that as well. And in '08 Sharapova got the championship in the last one to be played during day time and Bruce hosted during the afternoon, called by Sandy and Tracy.
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Let’s be honest - no one was going to catch Sharapova that year after the mauling she got from Serena Williams the previous year.
Justine Henin, the number one seed that year (2008), copped a mauling from the Russian who went into that match knowing she wouldn’t have to face Serena in the semis because she had been beaten by Jelena Jankovic (one of Serena’s victims in her run to the 2007 title) in the earlier quarter-final.
The 2008 tournament will forever be remembered for the Serbian breakthrough; in addition to Ana Ivanovic reaching the final (coming from 0-6, 0-2 down in her semi against Daniela Hantuchova en route), Novak Djokovic, of course, won his first Major title beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final.
TA won’t have the balls (pardon the pun) to do anything.
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I’d like to see Tommy Paul knock out the Djoker tonight,probably won’t happen though 
It’s great to see another up and coming young male player coming through,Ben Shelton is another one to watch out for in the future .
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Why are they so often referring to the Australian Open as ‘AO’ in their interviews? I know it’s in their branding but the other slams don’t do this.
Isn’t it also just a nickname, I also refer to it both verbally and in type sometimes, certainly conveniently succinct. Like Aus Open / Oz Open, The Open, Aussie Open / Ozzie Open, The Tennis, etc etc?
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That’s true, but it feels strange to hear them interviewing someone and discussing their time at the AO. Like I said it’s their branding but I’d much prefer they used one of the existing nicknames rather than creating a new one.
Weird that they have put the more evenly matched tsitsipas v khachanov semi final during the day and the likely one-sided djokovic v Paul in prime time. I’d be happy to be wrong but I’d say there will be some disappointed spectators tonight.
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From a TV perspective at least, Joker’s straight sets Quarter did between 500k-600k metro the other night (significantly higher than Tsitsipas’ thriller), should be even higher tonight, so right call by TA and for their domestic partner Nine at least. And being a Friday, that should also see some huge shares again tonight, regardless of the contest/result.
But I think it’s more Djokovic prefers and plays better under lights on RLA, likes the moisture in the air and heavier/slower ball. As higher seed and progression, believe they give his camp the choice of timeslot?
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Tsitsipas is the higher seed, he is #3, djokovic is #4. But I’d be disappointed if it works that way anyway.
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So Tennis Australia didn’t act on Djokovic’s dad - he self imposed his absence from the court tonight.
Honestly.
Fair enough, well maybe Tsitsipas chose the day time slot, he conversely performs better in the sun/heat of the day conditions.
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Anyone who went through the political BS he did last year would be vengeful.
This has now been disproven, Novak’s dad actually said “Živeli Ljudi”, which means “Cheers Guys” in Serbian, these people in the photos lied about what he said to get clicks for their Youtube channel and of course the hateful media ran with it.
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I have heard that originally Djokovic’s match was going to be scheduled for the day, but the US broadcasters complained because it would be in the middle of the night for them so it got moved.
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I just looked up the Men’s Grand Slam winners going back to Federer’s first in 2003.
Since then, the “big three” of the 21st century (Federer, Nadal and Djokovic) have won an incredible 67 out of 79 Grand Slams. Amazing dominance over almost 20 years by those 3.
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That’s interesting - as at the start of the Djokovic game it’s 12.45am in LA and 3.45am in New York
ESPN will be hoping tonight’s semi-final will go the distance so that fans in the east coast will be tuning in at breakfast (6am in New York is 10pm AEDT).
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