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The balance Danny has is honestly hard to comprehend, watching him ride along the length of a railway track and doing a 180 spin to land on the opposite track is amazing, though topped by bouncing along the metal ribs on the top of an old train carriage which was blown out of the water by riding along a wobbly steel cable!

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From the womens side of the competition, Dinara Safina, Elena Dementieva, Serina Williams, Jelena Jankovic and Australians Sam Stosur and wildcard Casey Dellacqua. The mens players with lights shining on their names were Marcos Baghdatis, Richard Gasquet, Tomas Berdych and Australians Lleyton Hewitt and Peter Luczak.

The womens Medibank International final was between world number one Serena Williams (USA) and Elena Dementieva (RUS). It was expected to be a close match, with Dementieva beating Williams in a previous encounter however Serena Williams was rightfully the favourite for the match. As the match unfolded, there was fantastic baseline hitting from both of the women and it appeared that Williams was being unsettled by the great movement of Dementieva and ability to continually run the balls down and put them back into play. This resulted in Williams pressing harder and harder, which ultimately lead to errors which when coupled with her below par movement due to a leg injury she was carrying meant the Medibank International winner was Elena Dementieva in 6-3 6-2.

Medibank International mens final was between Marcos Baghdatis and Richard Gasquet. Both players have had a great run into the final, being pushed along the way – making sure the were hitting the ball cleanly for the final. Baghdatis came out with all guns blazing in the first set and his angles, depth of shots and pace were enough to push Gasquet well behind the baseline, at times 3-4 metres even during rallies. The first set was over before it began and it looked as though Baghdatis was going to steamroll Gasquet when at the beginning of the second set, there was a rain interruption for a little over an hour. When play resumed, Gasquet was a change man – hitting the ball more aggressively, standing up to the baseline more regularly and hitting some of the most spectacular topspin backhands the game has seen. Baghdatis was a slow starter in the second set, letting Gasquet get away for a 4-1 lead and it looked as though we were in for a three set thriller for the Medibank International final. Baghdatis persisted and finally got his rhythm back and managed to take claw his way back into the match. After forcing his way into a tie break in the second set, Marcos Baghdatis was annouced the Medibank International Winner 6-4 7-6.

Both finals were good to watch, however I think the free hitting in the first set by Baghdatis and subsequently Gasquet in the second made it a more enjoyable final to watch – especially when combined with the serve volley and all court action the two were creating every at least once a game.

I can’t wait for the Australian Open for 2010 to start on Monday night.

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You might be wondering how a swimming suit can actually make you swim faster, well there is an impressive amount of technology and science behind them. As it turns out, human skin even when shaved or waxed isn’t as slick through the water as other surfaces. The first iteration of the super suits essentially provided a lower drag coefficient to the swimmer which essentially meant less of their energy was lost to the water slowing them down. The current generation super fast race suits take that to a whole new level and there are suggestions that the costumes are in fact making the swimmers more buoyant – however independent studies so far can’t prove that.

To my surprise, there has been a mixed response from the swimmers themselves – some suggesting that they are great and others such as Michael Phelps all but condemning their use and verging on suggesting that their use was cheating.

The majority of the coaches are in agreement that they shouldn’t be allowed. I was however, interested to hear Laurie Laurance’s take on them – his point of view wasn’t so much that they should or shouldn’t be allowed but that their use right now and pending banned use is going to remove the opportunity for young, future athletes to break the more than 30 world records that have fallen at the 2009 Rome World Championships alone. That is something that I think has been underestimated and not covered enough in the press.

My personal opinion is that it is just a progression of the sport, which like virtually every other sport on earth is being driven forward through technology – some more so than others. What is the difference between the advancements in a cyclists bike construction, the shoes from a track star to a swimming suit? I don’t see it and so long as the advancement doesn’t change the basic sport, then it can only be seen as a good thing.

I do however have one simple criteria that the super fast swimming suits be allowed into the sport and that is that every athlete has access to them. Some may choose to use brand A over brand B or not use them at all but the choice and availability needs to be there. It would seem as though not all athletes have access to the slick race suits due to commercial agreements their team or swimming organisation may have with another manufacturer. In that scenario, if there is any chance that the super fast suits are in fact faster in anyway at all and not everyone at least as the option of using them – its unfair and no one should not be allowed to race in them.

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Leading into the match, a lot of the press going on was touting Roger Federer as an easy win over Andy Roddick due to an imposing 18-2 win/loss ratio against him in the past. While it might have seemed a logical choice, you can never underestimate what a grand slam final will do to a player, drive them to greatness or crumple under the pressure.

Looking at how Andy Roddick had played leading into the final, I wasn’t confident that Roger Federer would walk over him to win Wimbledon 2009 at all – Roddick was playing some of the best tennis in his career. He dismantled Tomas Berdych in straight sets, ground out a hard fought five setter against Lleyton Hewitt with great shot making and knocked off the third seed Andy Murray in four – Roddick was a changed man and on a mission. While Andy Roddick played an extra five sets on the way to the 2009 Wimbledon final over Roger Federer, the previous two losses in 2004 and 2005 to Federer were sure to light the fire within for the third encounter.

Roger Federer had an impressive run in to the finals, dropping only a single set which was swiftly reclaimed without mercy 6-1 the following. Federer had been playing great tennis for the entire Wimbledon tournament, backing up from his first French Open win earlier in the year. Due to how the draw unfolded, Roger Federer didn’t come up against a top 10 seeded player before the final, the highest being the 13th seed Robin Soderling. There was speculation that the lack of a dominant oppontent was going to severely hinder the finals performance of Federer, however being a consummate professional and 14 open champion – I was confident that he’d find the muster if and when required.

After more than four hours had lapsed on centre court at Wimbledon, Roger Federer set the record books alight by claiming his 15th grand slam title and surpassing the long standing record of Pete Sampras. The match game score was 5-7, 7-6, 7-6, 3-6, 16-14.

The overall match statistics were incredible from both players, especially the serving statistics from Roddick with 70% first serves in averaging 203kph and a fastest serve of 228kph. Despite the blazing speed and a high percentage from Roddick, Roger Federer nearly doubled the number of aces at 50 and combined with an imposing percentage win ratio on service and return – handed Roger Federer the win.

Roger Federer was without question the greatest player of his era, which is a milestone that Rod Laver always measures a player by. However after winning his 6th Wimbledon grand slam title and 15th in total, which as restored his world #1 ranking, has now also rightfully earned the title of the greatest player in history.

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The evening was fully catered and included waiters in each of the boxes, which was a nice touch. The other great aspect of the corporate tickets was VIP parking, situated right behind the Gold Coast football stadium. Getting into the parking was straight forward but getting away from the stadium was even better, straight into the car, onto the road and completely missed the typical traffic chaos.

The first quarter of the match was quite scrappy, with a lot of stray kicks and handling errors. I thought that was going to set the tune for the entire match, which would have been disappointing but I was pleased to see the quality lift by half way through the first quarter.

My one paragraph breakdown of the match is as follows. Fremantle won the match through great defence within their 50m circle and cleared the ball well. While Carlton were able to get the ball into the Fremantle half quite easily, their approach to getting the ball into the 50m circle was very ordinary. I think their approach strategy tonight (if you can call it that) ultimately lost the match for them – which compounded by poor ball control and ball movement choice made disposal a simple task for Fremantle.

I’m not a massive AFL fan, however I do enjoy watching the matches on the TV – however I couldn’t tell you the names of all the teams or who plays for what team and in what position. After seeing a match in person now, I can completely understand why it is such a massively popular sport in the southern states – the aerial acrobatics and sheer fitness of the players is quite astounding.

I could definitely see myself going along to another game at some point – the crowd are vocal and passionate about their teams, which makes the experience that much more memorable I think.

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My finals match was against a young Scottish doctor that I first mentioned back toward the end of 2007 after I jotted down some squash strategies following our first encounter. Coincidentally, he is also one of the opponents I mentioned in my semi-final post that I had lost to in a recent string of poor performances. If I was to stand any chance of winning the match, I really needed to bring the form from my semi-final match back onto the court.

A couple things I noticed I wasn’t doing in my semi-final was boasting enough and I was frustrated with my lob. This evening, while I still didn’t boast as much as normal – I certainly added more of that back to my game. However the point I’m most pleased with myself about tonight are the lobs, I think I hit more lobs tonight than I have in any other game and with the exception of a handful – they were all on the money. The side effect of a good lob is that it gives me a chance to recover court position, forces your opponent to run back to cover the ball and if the lob is well positioned, also limits the return heavily.

I think that I played at least as well as I did in the semi-final against Steve, however tonight it wasn’t quite enough. We were both moving around on the court so much that by half way through the fourth game I was hurting, a lot. The game score was 2-1 in favour of my opponent and I was up on points in the fourth – poised to draw the match but it wasn’t to be. I lost my serve and that was the tipping point – I lost five points in a row and the fourth game. While the game score was 1-3 against me, I’m happy with my performance tonight as I know that I lost the match as opposed to him winning all of it. What has become quite clear, if I want to move up to B grade the season after next – I absolutely must improve my aerobic fitness.

Despite my loss tonight, our team absolutely hammered our opponents – yielding only 5 games in total! In my time with the Robina Squash Club, teams I’ve played in have made it through to the semi-finals twice but never into the finals. It was a great feeling tonight, not only to be in the finals for the first time but also to win the squash season!

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A bonus of making it into the semi-finals is that there is no set order of play, each team takes it in turn to decide who plays next. This might seem like a small thing, however it can be used to your advantage if handled well as it allows a team to apply quite an amount of pressure to the opposing team by playing in an order that provides them with the greatest lead. As it panned out tonight, Steve and I were on last – which meant we walked onto the court at about 9:30PM.

Steve is notorious for being a very crafty player on the court and has the ability to create a lot of angles and drop shots off unexpected balls. While he isn’t the faster on the court, those two features of him game and a consistent serve unsettles a lot of people in my grade at the club.

I went into the match knowing that I had to lift my game and had a very loose game plan in my head:

• vary the pace and placement of my flat serve
• include plenty of slower high serves
• make a point of varying the depth of my ground strokes, driving the ball deep isn’t a silver bullet
• capitalise on stray balls to create angles and shorten the point
• better foot movement, poorly managed feet significantly limits shots
• run

This evening I served with consistency and solid accuracy, which meant only a few loose serves. Variety on the serve was very effective and it seemed to be enough to keep Steve on his toes as he wasn’t stepping in. Changing the length on the ground strokes was a good move as well, if for no other reason than it makes your opponent move on the court and pulls them out of position. It took a little mental effort tonight but making a point of getting my feet into a ‘better’ position really helped open up the court through shot variety, which also allowed me to shorten the points.

Those were the things that worked really well tonight but it wasn’t all sunshine and lollipops. I normally boast the ball regularly, however tonight I didn’t do it enough and was fortunate enough that it didn’t seem to effect the score. The trusty lob, not a shot I get to play all that often but is something I have identified that I really need to work on. I can hit the lob itself no problem, what I can’t do consistently is get it deep into the back corner of the court without going a little too high on the wall – frustrating!

The good and bad above produced the following results:

1. 13 – 1
2. 13 – 2
3. 12 – 13
4. 13 – 3

Now I just need to work out how to deliver that type of game week in an week out, but for the moment I’ll focus on the final next week and go from there!

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