By Caroline Cameron

For Roger Federer fans, it’s a crushing loss.

In their 27^th career meeting, Rafael Nadal beat Federer 6-7(5), 6-2, 7-6(5), 6-4 in the Australian Open semifinals.  Nadal is now 18-9 against Federer.

Despite their match record, Federer came into the semis as the favourite.  Federer ended 2011 on a 17 match win streak and appeared to be playing some of his best tennis in Melbourne with an impressive win over Juan Martin del Potro in the quarterfinals.  Meanwhile, Nadal looked off leading up to the semis and he suffered an injury to his right knee just two weeks ago.

Federer started the match strong and appeared to be playing more aggressive than usual.  His forehand was crushing and Nadal wasn’t able to control Federer’s backhand like he usually can by hitting high, topsin forehands. But after going up 4-1, Nadal responded.  And although Federer won the first set, Nadal gained control.  Federer is a good player when he is ahead but Nadal may be the greatest comeback player on tour and Rafa proved that in the semifinal.

“I’m disappointed, but it’s only the beginning of the season,” Federer explained in his post match interview.  “I’m feeling all right, so it’s OK.”

I don’t buy it.  I think Federer is crushed.  This was his match to win and he lost.

So while Federer won’t add to his 16 Major titles in Melbourne, Nadal will look to win his 11^th Grand Slam title in Sunday’s final.

By Caroline Cameron

Get ready tennis fans.

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will continue their rivalry, this time in the Australian Open semifinals.  This will be their 27^th career meeting and they haven’t met in a Grand Slam semi since the 2005 French Open.

The last time the two former world No. 1s met was last year at the year-end ATP World Tour Finals where Federer came out on top.  The Fed Express finished the 2011 season on a 17 match win streak and earned back his No. 3 ranking.

In Melbourne, Federer has continued to be solid, showing fans flashes of his former brilliance.  In his quarterfinal match, Federer embarrassed Juan Martin del Potro 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.  It was also Federer’s 1000^th tour-level match.  Nadal, meanwhile had a tougher time in his quarterfinal match beating Tomas Berdych 6-7(5), 7-6(6), 6-4, 6-3.  Nadal has looked off as of late so it’s Federer’s match to lose.

In the other half of the draw, I expect Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray to meet in the semis.  Murray will take on No. 24 seed Kei Nishikori in the quarters.  Nishikori is the first Japanese man in the Open Era to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals.  Djokovic will take on David Ferrer in the quarters.

Women’s Side

There will be a new world No. 1 when the Australian Open concludes after defending champ Kim Clijsters ousted current world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets to reach the semis.  Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova, and Petra Kvitova are all in the running to finish the tournament as world No. 1.

Clijsters will take on Victoria Azarenka in the semis. This is Clijsters final Australian Open as she is set to retire at the end of 2012.  From a fan’s prospective, it would be great to see Clijsters win her fifth Major title in Melbourne.

Sharapova and Kvitova will meet in the semis.

So tennis fans, between the Federer and Nadal match and Clijsters’ final Aussie Open, enjoy, cause it doesn’t get much better than this.

By Caroline Cameron

It was the start Milos Raonic was hoping for at the Australian Open.

In only 1h31, Milos hit 13 aces and 13 winners to easily beat Filippo Volandri 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 to advance to the second round of the Aussie Open.  A fast match is exactly what Milos needed.  His fitness in five setters is still a concern and in the hot Melbourne weather, the shorter the matches the better.

This was Milos’ first Grand Slam appearance since suffering a hip injury at Wimbledon last summer.

Milos will play Phillipp Petzschner in the second round.  They’ve met twice before in Stockholm and Halle last year with Milos winning on the hard courts in Stockholm and Petzschner taking it on the grass in Halle.  Milos will be the favourite this time around in Melbourne.

Meanwhile, fellow Canuck Aleksandra Wozniak has advanced to the second round after an easy 6-3, 6-3 first round win over Shuai Zhang.  She’ll play Maria Kirilenko in the second round, a player best known for her doubles play.  Kirilenko beat Wozniak in their only previous meeting at the 2009 Kremlin Cup.

Rebecca Marino will not advance in Melbourne as she lost 4-2, 2-6 to Greta Arn.  At the time of posting this blog, Stephanie Dubois had not begun her first round match against Elena Vesina.

By Caroline Cameron

Milos Raonic is through to his third career ATP final.

The 2011 ATP Newcomer of the Year defeated Nicolas Almagro 6-4, 6-4 in the Chennai semifinal.  Raonic hit 17 aces to beat the top 10 player.

“He played really well and he served like a monster,” Almagro explained.  “With that serve you have many, many chances to win a match.”

Raonic will meet Janko Tipsarevic for the first time in Sunday’s final.  Tipsarevic had an impressive 2011 jumping from world no. 49 in the rankings to no. 9.

Raonic won his first ATP title in San Jose last year and reached the Memphis final a week later.

If Raonic can continue to control his service games he will capture his 2^nd ATP title.  Not a bad way to start the year.

Other tennis news:

• Andy Murray is through to the Brisbane final where he’ll face Alexandr Dolgopolov
• Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has won the Doha title after a 7-5, 6-3 win over Gael Monfils
• Roger Federer had to pull out of Doha prior to his semi-final match due to back spasms
• Daniel Nestor and Max Mirnyi are through to the Brisbane doubles final

Quote from AP.

By Caroline Cameron

My PVR is set: January 7^th, 6:30am.

A year ago, Milos Raonic was ranked 156^th in the world.  Today, he’s no. 31 and already through to an ATP singles semifinal just a week into the season.

And here I am, taking it for granted and planning to sleep in Saturday morning.  I blame whoever invented the PVR; it’s made me lazy.

But lets move away from my sleep patterns and back to the tennis.

Raonic’s 2011 breakout season started at the Australian Open.  This year, Raonic will be seeded in Melbourne and this quick start in Chennai is the perfect start to the season.

In his quarterfinal match, Raonic beat Dudi Sela 7-6 (4), 6-3.  Raonic had 15 aces in his win, but his powerful serve alone won’t be enough to get him past his semifinal opponent and no. 10 in the world, Nicolas Almagro.

Almagro is coming off of a career season.  In 2011 he claimed three ATP titles and lost in two finals.  All of this success came on clay and you can bet one of Almagro’s New Year’s resolutions is to also succeed on the hard courts.

Regardless of who wins on Saturday, expect to see a lot of both Almagro and Raonic in 2012.