Close but no cigar. Rafael was one match away from even greater legendary status. A win in Australia meant that he would have been the only male player in the open era to win two of each Grand Slam events and he would be the only man to do it at a time when the majors are all on different surfaces. (Roy Emerson and Rod Laver won each major event at least twice when three of the four events were still played on grass.) It would also have allowed Rafa to tie Pete Sampras with 14 Grand Slam titles. Alas, it was not to be. Rafa ran up against an on-fire Stanislas Wawrinka who blew him off the court in the first two sets. Rafa had some physical problems that prevented him from competing at the highest level but maybe in the end it wouldn't have mattered anyway.
As such, Stanislas Wawrinka becomes the first man outside "The Big Four" - Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, and Murray - to win a Grand Slam event since 2009 when Juan Martin Del Potro won in the US Open. He also goes up to #3 in the world and becomes the highest ranked Swiss player for the first time in his career.
Nadal of course increases his lead at the top of the rankings. He now has an almost 4000-point lead over Novak. The catch is that Rafa has a ton of points to defend between now and the French Open but if he can manage to hold off Novak until June, he may actually hold on to the top spot at least until the US Open since he has no points to defend in Wimbledon.
On the women's side, Li Na wins her second major title. You can argue that Australia is her most successful tournament since she has gotten to the finals of this event three times already. She beat Dominika Cibulkova in the final. What? No Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, or Victoria Azarenka? I guess you could say the women's tour featured more than its fair share of upsets, none more shocking than Serena's loss I guess. Sharapova hasn't been doing well and was coming back from injury, Azarenka was seeded 3rd but she lost to an inspired #5 Agnieska Radwanska (who was then tossed out an an even-more-inspired Cibulkova). But Serena Williams, who was on a 25-match winning streak, was upended by a resurgent Ana Ivanovic.
It was one of the most unpredictable Australian Open tournaments in the last few years. While I am disappointed that Rafa lost (and that he was booed by people who seemed to think he was resorting to gamemanship when he took a medical time-out), Wawrinka definitely deserved to win. Congratulations to Stan and also to Li Na, Aussie Open Champions of 2014. Here's hoping though that Rafa can rebound from this loss and win the French Open.
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