The Mens' Final, Australia, 2008

Novak Djokovic beat Tsonga. Another wrong prediction of mine. I will say that Tsong was feeling the pressure and did not play as freely as he did whilst kicking Nadal's butt in the semis. Tsonga has such wonderful charisma, but I felt sorry for the Serb, as he was really not getting any crowd support. The fact that he managed to win anyway speaks volumes. The commentators acted as if his lack of crowd support were his fault. It wasn't his fault. But he did show some irritation at the heckling and that is dangerous, although, I think, understandable. They were very obnoxious to him. Also- his ball bouncing? Who cares! Nadal takes a long time. Nadal also thought that Tsonga was "fast serving" him. I've seen Serena get pissed at Jankovic (although not at this tournament) for supposedly fast serving. Slow serving , fast serving - you must adjust to the pace of the server. Of course, within the guidelines of the ATP and WTA. But obviously there will be different paces for different people. Mr. Tom, an old friend, pointed out that Tsonga did not shake the umps hand. Is he right? Can anyone else confirm this? I must go rewatch. More on that later.

Regardless, Novak, Nole as he is nicknamed, deserved his win. He played fabulously. My husband pointed out to me that is really a Greek, as many of the Serbs are, an ancestor of a Greek that was chased up into the mountains centuries ago, for some reason, like stealing someone's goat or some other thing. And I LOVE the Greeks. I Love Greece- it is my favorite place in the world. Zakynthos in particular. So now that I understand that Novak is actually a Greek, I understand why he is so jolly, and jokey, and happy go luckish, like Ivanovic and Jankovic. They are all Greeks and therefore easygoing like the Greeks. And that's why they have that dark hair, too. And sort of swarthy skin. Jankovic has a bit of the Mongol in her (like my favorite player, Myskina, who I miss dearly) and that is very cool, too. Genghis Khan was all over their land and left his mark, too.
Yours Truly,
Paula