It's Not Over Til It's Over...
The lesson of the matches on Saturday at the 2008 Australian Open was that age old motto that tennis players are told repeatedly as juniors, i.e. it's not over until the last point so play the match point by point regardless of the score. James Blake was down two sets to love and then double break at 1-4 in the fourth set. Nonetheless, Blake kept his composure and managed to win in five sets. It was the first time James had come back to win from two sets to love and only the second
five set match Blake's won in his career (the first was in 2007). Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis played a memorable and wrenching marathon five set match which ended after almost five hours at nearly five am in the morning. For Hewitt, it was the challenge of hanging in there after he blew a 5-1 lead and one match point in the fourth set. For Baghdatis, it was the fact that he managed to hang in there after turning his ankle badly earlier in the match and still have faith when he was down 1-5 to force a fifth set which he narrowly lost 6-3. At the end of the match Hewitt and Baghdatis embraced at the net and one couldn't help but feel for Marcos who left the court in tears. Any tennis fan watching that match had to feel the emotions at the end regardless of whether he/she was rooting for Hewitt or Baghdatis.
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