[JakeBarkings]

From ITF Grand Slam Media
2009 AUSTRALIAN OPEN
DAY 9 MEN’S NOTESTuesday 27 January 2009Quarterfinals Bottom Half
No. 2 Roger Federer (SUI) v No. 8 Juan Martin del Potro (ARG)

No. 3 Novak Djokovic (SRB) v No. 7 Andy Roddick (USA)

• Federer is bidding to reach his 19th consecutive Grand Slam semifinal.

• Djokovic has won his last 6 Grand Slam quarterfinals and is bidding to reach the semifinals for the 7th time in the last 8 majors.

• Roddick is aiming to maintain his sequence of reaching the Australian Open semifinals every two years.

• Del Potro is bidding to become the youngest semifinalist since Richard Krajicek in 1992.

Quarterfinal line-up almost complete…


Player
CountryAgeBest Aus Open
performanceBest Grand Slam performanceHard
titles(1) Rafael Nadal
ESP22SF 085 Grand Slam titles
7(2) Roger Federer
SUI27W 04, 06-0713 Grand Slam titles
38(3) Novak Djokovic
SRB21W 08Champion 2008 Aus Open
8(5) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga**
FRA23RU 08Runner-up 2008 Aus Open
2(6) Gilles Simon
FRA24QF 09QF 09 Aus Open
2(7) Andy Roddick
USA26SF 03,05,07Champion 2003 US Open
16(8) Juan Martin del Potro
ARG20QF 09QF 08 US Open, 09 Aus Open
3(9) James Blake**
USA29QF 08 (09?)QF 05-06 US Open, 08(09?) Aus Open
10(14) Fernando Verdasco
ESP25QF 09QF 09 Aus Open
0
** prior to Tsonga v Blake round of 16 match

• If Tsonga defeats Blake in Monday’s night match, this will be just the 5th time in the Open Era that 7 of the Top 8 seeds have reached the quarterfinals in a Grand Slam in the Open Era.

• All 8 players in the quarterfinals have recorded at least 6 match wins this year.

• Four of last year’s quarterfinalists have returned to this year’s last eight (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Blake/Tsonga.)

• Simon, del Potro and Verdasco are making their 1st quarterfinal appearance at the Australian Open. It is Simon and Verdacso’s 1st quarterfinal appearance at any Grand Slam.

• 6 nations are represented in the last eight. Spain and France or USA (depending on the outcome of the Tsonga vs Blake match) will be the 2 nations that have 2 players in the last eight.

• Federer and Djokovic are the only 2 to have already won here, Nadal and Roddick are the other 2 Grand Slam champions remaining in contention.

• Nadal is the only player yet to drop a set. Del Potro is the only player to have already won a tournament this year (Auckland). Verdasco is the only player not to have won a hard court title.

• All eight of the quarterfinalists are in their 20s.

• 3 players in the last eight have been ranked No. 1 – Nadal, Federer and Roddick.

NO. 2 ROGER FEDERER (SUI) v NO. 8 JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO (ARG)

Head-to-head: Federer leads 3-0
2007 Wimbledon Grass (O) R64 Federer 62 75 61
2007 Basel Hard (I) R16 Federer 61 64
2008 AMS Madrid Hard (I) QF Federer 63 63

Del Potro first faced Federer on his Wimbledon debut in 2007, while ranked No. 56 in the world. It is a slightly different story today, with del Potro playing here on a career-high ranking of No. 6 and so far undefeated this year. He will be looking to boost his great start to the season by scoring his first victory over a Top 3 player and at the very least, take a set off the Swiss for the first time.

FEDERERvDEL POTRO
27Age20
2ATP Ranking6
57Titles5
166-25Career Grand Slam Record15-10
45-6Australian Open Record6-2
628-153Career Record92-53
371-81Career Record - Hard59-34
7-12009 Record8-0
7-12009 Record - Hard8-0
13-11Career Five-Set Record2-1
4Comebacks from 0-2 Down0
243-129Career Tiebreak Record19-24
4-12009 Tiebreak Record0-1

• Three-time champion FEDERER is through to the quarterfinals here for the 6th straight year.

• Federer has a 20-2 win-loss record in Grand Slam quarterfinals. His two losses came in 2001 at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.

• Federer is bidding to advance to an all-time record 19th straight semifinal. No other player, man or woman, has appeared in as many consecutive semifinals. The previous best men’s semifinal streak was held by Ivan Lendl (10).

• The last time Federer failed to reach the semifinals at a Slam was 2004 Roland Garros, when as top seed he fell in the 3rd round to Gustavo Kuerten.

• Federer recorded his 4th comeback from two-sets down in his 4th round match against No. 20 Tomas Berdych. He defeated Andreas Seppi, qualifier Evgeny Korolev and 2005 champ Marat Safin in the first 3 rounds.

• Federer’s victory over Berdych on Sunday was his 45th overall at the Australian Open, which positions him in joint 4th place with Pete Sampras for most match wins here (Open Era). He is also in joint-6th place with John McEnroe for most Open Era Grand Slam match wins (167).

• Last year, Federer reached the Australian Open semifinals for the 5th successive year, falling to eventual champion Novak Djokovic 75 63 76, ending a run of 10 straight Grand Slam final appearances.

• If Federer reaches the final here, he will match Pete Sampras for Grand Slam final appearances (18) and be within one Grand Slam final of matching Ivan Lendl’s all-time record of 19.

• Federer has lost 4 of his last 5 matches against Top 10 players. His last victory over a Top 10-er was to another Argentine, David Nalbandian, in the final of 2008 Basel.

• Federer is on a 7-match winning streak against Argentines.

• If Federer wins today, he will meet either Andy Roddick or Novak Djokovic in the semifinals. Roddick ended an 11-match losing streak against Federer in their last meeting at 2008 AMS Miami, but Federer leads the American 15-2 in their series. Federer leads Djokovic 6-2 and has won 3 of their last 4 meetings.

• Federer won his first Australian Open title in 2004 (d. Marat Safin), his 2nd in 2006 (d. Marcos Baghdatis) and successfully defended the title in 2007 (d. Fernando Gonzalez).

• Federer is bidding to become the fifth man in history to win 4 or more Australian Open titles:

Australian Open title leaders (all time)

Player
Titles won
Years
Roy Emerson
61961, 1963-67
Andre Agassi
41995, 2000-01, 2003
Jack Crawford
41931-33, 1935
Ken Rosewall
41953, 1955, 1971-72

• Federer won the 2008 US Open (d. Andy Murray in the final), his 13th Grand Slam title, placing him just one short of Pete Sampras’s all-time record of 14.

• Federer is playing his 37th consecutive Grand Slam, the second longest active streak behind Fabrice Santoro (42 straight majors).

• Despite winning four titles and maintaining his streak of winning at least one Grand Slam title a year since 2003, Federer lost his No. 1 ranking to Rafael Nadal in 2008, after a reign of 237 consecutive weeks.

• Federer could lose his No. 2 ranking to No. 3 Novak Djokovic, provided the Serb wins the 2009 Australian Open.

• Federer started his 2009 season at Doha and advanced to the semifinals before losing to eventual champion Andy Murray 67 62 62. He then won the Kooyong exhibition event over a week ago (d. Stanislas Wawrinka in the final).

• Federer has won 57 career titles, placing him equal-8th among Open Era title leaders. 38 of his titles are on hard court, only Andre Agassi has won more titles on the surface (46). Federer has won double the number of hard court titles of the next active player Lleyton Hewitt.

• Federer has been without a permanent coach since splitting from Tony Roche in May 2007 but is being assisted here by Swiss Davis Cup captain Severin Luthi, as he has at the last few majors.

• DEL POTRO

• has advanced to the Australian Open quarterfinals for the first time and matched his best Grand Slam result.

• Del Potro reached the 2008 US Open quarterfinals and is bidding to go one better here. If he reaches the semifinals, he will have done so on just his 3rd appearance here. Plenty of players have achieved this more quickly though, including 2006 and 2008 runners-up Marcos Baghdatis and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and fellow quarterfinalist Andy Roddick, who reached the semifinals in just their 2nd Australian Opens.

• Del Potro defeated Mischa Zverev, qualifier Florian Mayer, Gilles Muller and No. 19 Marin Cilic to reach the quarterfinals here.

• At 20 years and 131 days, del Potro is the youngest quarterfinalist here since Richard Krajicek in 1992. If he makes the semifinals, he will be the 5th-youngest semifinalist in Australian Open Open Era history and first since Krajicek who also reached the semifinals in 1992.

• Del Potro could become just the 3rd different Argentine to ever reach the semifinals of the Australian Open. Guillermo Vilas did so 4 successive times in 1977-1980, and David Nalbandian in 2006. Del Potro was the only Argentine to advance beyond the 3rd round of a Slam last year.

• Del Potro is so far undefeated this year. He won his 5th career title and 3rd on hard court at Auckland just over a week ago (d. Sam Querrey 64 64 in the final).

• If del Potro advances to Thursday’s semifinal, he will be the first Auckland winner to reach the Australian Open semifinals the same year since Magnus Norman in 2000. 1998 Auckland champion Marcelo Rios finished runner-up here in 1998.

• Del Potro has never defeated the world No. 1, 2 or 3. If he wins today it will be his first victory over a Top 10 player at a Grand Slam. Overall, he has a 6-19 record against Top 10 opponents.

• A victory for Del Potro today would see him face No. 3 Novak Djokovic for the 3rd time or Andy Roddick for just the 2nd time. He trails Djokovic 0-2 but won his only previous meeting with Roddick in the final of 2008 Los Angeles.

• Both of del Potro’s previous Australian Opens ended in retirements. In 2007 he retired in the 5th set of his 2nd round match against Fernando Gonzalez with cramping, and last year retired in the 2nd round with a back injury when trailing David Ferrer two sets to love.

• Del Potro’s defeat to Murray in last year’s US Open quarterfinals ended a winning streak of 23 matches, which saw him win 4 titles in a row (Stuttgart, Kitzbuhel, Los Angeles, Washington) and his ranking improve from No. 65 to No. 13. He finished the year ranked No. 9.

• Del Potro has been coached by Franco Davin since March 2008. Davin helped Gaston Gaudio to the Roland Garros title in 2004.

NO. 3 NOVAK DJOKOVIC (SRB) v NO. 7 ANDY RODDICK (USA)

Head-to-head: Djokovic leads 2-1
2007 AMS Montreal Hard (O) QF Djokovic 76(4) 64
2008 Dubai Hard (O) SF Roddick 76(5) 63
2008 US Open Hard (O) QF Djokovic 62 63 36 76(5)

Djokovic and Roddick have only ever met on hard court. Both have won a Grand Slam title on the surface, Roddick capturing the 2003 US Open and Djokovic taking the Australian Open title last year. They are 2 of the 4 Grand Slam champions through to the quarterfinals, along with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

The winner of this match will go forward to a semifinal against Roger Federer or Juan Martin del Potro:

Possible semifinal head-to-heads
Federer
Del Potro
Djokovic
2-62-0Roddick
2-150-1
DJOKOVICvRODDICK
21Age26
3ATP Ranking9
11Titles26
55-15Career Grand Slam Record94-30
14-3Australian Open Record29-7
196-72Career Record467-149
116-41Career Record - Hard315-92
6-22009 Record8-1
6-22009 Record - Hard8-1
8-3Career Five-Set Record10-12
1Comebacks from 0-2 Down2
80-39Career Tiebreak Record225-137
2-22009 Tiebreak Record2-0

• 2008 champion DJOKOVIC has advanced to the quarterfinals of a Slam for the 8th time, and the 2nd time at the Australian Open. He defeated Andrea Stoppini, Jeremy Chardy, Amer Delic and Marcos Baghdatis in the first 4 rounds here.

• Djokovic is bidding to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam for the 7th time in the last 8 majors, only failing to do so at 2008 Wimbledon. He has a 6-1 record in previous Grand Slam quarterfinals.

• Djokovic is one of 4 active players to have completed a set of Grand Slam semifinal appearances, along with David Nalbandian, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

• Djokovic became the 50th member of the Grand Slam title club when winning the 2008 Australian Open over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 46 64 63 76 in the final.

• The defending champion has now advanced to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open 27 times in the Open Era, and on 23 occasions, has gone on to reach the semifinals. (Note: the champion did not return to defend his title on six occasions.)

• Djokovic has a 20-30 win-loss record against Top 10 players. He is 19-3 against American players, he has lost just 1 of his last 19 matches against Americans.

• Djokovic has been ranked No. 3 for all but 1 week since 9 July 2007. He has 3 times come within one victory of claiming the No. 2 ranking (2008 AMS Hamburg, 2008 Roland Garros and at Sydney last week). He could earn the No. 2 ranking here if he defends the title.

• Djokovic became the 2nd Serbian man to reach the Australian Open semifinals in the Open Era last year after Slobodan Zivojinovic in 1985, when the tournament was still played on grass at Kooyong.

• En route to the Australian Open title last year, Djokovic ended Roger Federer’s run of 10 straight Grand Slam finals in the semifinals. Djokovic is the only man other than Federer or Rafael Nadal to win a major since 2005 Roland Garros.

• Djokovic played 2 events before coming here, losing in the first round at Brisbane (to Ernests Gulbis) before taking a wildcard into Sydney and reaching the semifinals (l. Jarkko Nieminen 64 76).

• Djokovic ended the 2008 season by winning the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, his 11th career title and 8th on hard court. He also won Serbia’s first medal in tennis when picking up bronze at the Beijing Olympics.

• Djokovic advanced to the semifinals of the boys’ singles here in 2004 (l. Josselin Ouanna (FRA)), which was his best performance at a junior Grand Slam event.

• Djokovic is coached by Marian Vajda.

• World No. 9 RODDICK has advanced to the quarterfinals with victories over Bjorn Rehnquist and Xavier Malisse, Fabrice Santoro and No. 21 seed Tommy Robredo.

• This is Roddick’s 5th quarterfinal appearance at the Australian Open, and he is bidding to match his best result and reach the semifinals here for the 4th time. Since his 1st semifinal appearance in 2003, he has reached the last four here every other year and would continue that sequence if he defeats Djokovic today. Last year, he fell in the 3rd round to Philipp Kohlschreiber

• This is Roddick’s 16th Grand Slam quarterfinal appearance overall. He is 8-7 in previous quarterfinals.

• Roddick won his sole Grand Slam title to date at the 2003 US Open (d. Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final).

• Roddick was the last American male winner of a Grand Slam tournament (see above). 21 majors later, this is the longest gap between Grand Slam triumphs for American men. Roddick is also the last American Grand Slam finalist – he finished runner-up to Roger Federer at the 2006 US Open.

• Roddick and James Blake were the only Americans through to the round of 16 from the 12 to start in the men’s draw. If Blake defeats Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Monday’s night match, it will mark the 7th time in the last 10 years that 2 American men have reached the quarterfinals here. The last time that 2 American men advanced to the semifinals here was 2003 (Roddick and Andre Agassi).

• With Serena Williams also through to the women’s quarterfinals, USA is 1 of 3 nations with representatives in both singles events here, along with France and Spain.

• Roddick has faced 4 different Serbian opponents and has a 4-4 win-loss record. As well as his 2 defeats to Djokovic (see head-to-head), Roddick has also lost to Viktor Troicki and Janko Tipsarevic.

• Roddick has an 8-23 win-loss record against Top 3 players, he was 3-3 in such matches in 2008.

• The No. 7 seed last reached the Australian Open semifinals in 2002.

• Roddick began his 2009 season with a runner-up finish at Doha (l. Andy Murray).

• Roddick finished 2008 ranked No. 8, his lowest year-end ranking for 6 years but his 7th consecutive year in the Top 10 (the most among active players with Roger Federer). He won 3 titles – all on hard court – at San Jose, Dubai and Beijing, to maintain his record of winning at least one title for the past 8 years.

• Roddick is one of the 3 players remaining in the men’s draw to have ranked No. 1 in their career, along with Nadal and Federer

• Roddick sits in 3rd place for most career hard court titles among active players (16), behind Roger Federer (38) and Lleyton Hewitt (19). He has won a total of 26 titles in his career.

• Roddick is the only former Australian Open boys champion remaining in the men’s draw. Roddick captured the junior title in 2000, defeating Mario Ancic in the final. Stefan Edberg is the only player in the Open Era to win both the junior and senior titles here.

• Roddick began working with Larry Stefanki at the end of 2008. He split from Jimmy Connors last summer.