Mondays With Bob Greene: This is unbelievable, to be in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam

STARS

(Australian Open)

Marion Bartoli beat number 1 Jelena Jankovic 6-1 6-4

Alisa Kleybanova beat number 5 Ana Ivanovic 7-5 6-7 (5) 6-2

Carla Suarez Navarro beat number 6 Venus Williams 2-6 6-3 7-5

Kateryna Bondarenko beat number 9 Agnieszka Radwanska 7-6 (7) 4-6 6-1

Lu Yen-hsun beat number 10 David Nalbandian 6-4 5-7 4-6 6-4 6-2

SAYING

“When I’m on the top of my game it’s very hard to beat me, because you really have to kind of spill blood if you want to win the match. But at the moment, I’m not there yet.” – Jelena Jankovic, after losing to Marion Bartoli 6-1 6-4

“The times when you’re number one in the world, you put your head down, you try to win as many tournaments as possible. Maybe sometimes you forget to enjoy it.” – Roger Federer.

“This is unbelievable, to be in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam. I was going to have the week off.” – Jelena Dokic, after her unexpected fourth straight win, meaning she will play in the second week.

“It’s just lucky that I went through. I guess she was just not ready to beat me.” – Dinara Safina, who won the last five games to beat Alize Cornet 6-2 2-6 7-5.

“For me, I’m number 61 in the world and I have no pressure. I just go on the court and play my game and it’s not about who is better.” – Lu Yen-hsun, after upsetting tenth-seeded David Nalbandian.

“I just thought, my eyes, my innocent eyes.” – Serena Williams after a man, wearing only a shirt, dashed onto the court during her doubles match with sister Venus.

“Any chance she gets she just does it to get under my skin, and she does it very successfully.” – Andy Roddick, on Serena Williams boasting that her best career victory came over Roddick when they both were 10 years old.

“I don’t like this bye-bye part. It’s just a sad story. It’s not for me. I prefer to leave this way, quietly, nice, with a great match.” – Marat Safin, who says he has played his last Australian Open.

“When I was top 10 before, I was not comfortable because it had never happened, a Japanese player in the top 10. Always I put too much pressure to me, I must win, I must win, always I was thinking. Of course I don’t like to lose. But too much pressure. I didn’t like so much traveling… always I felt alone.” – Kimiko Date-Krumm, who played – and lost – her first Grand Slam tournament match in 12 years.

“As we all know, Bosnians and Serbs have had some differences in the past. However, this is not the place nor time to settle those differences.” – Bosnian-born American Amer Delic, after boisterous fans disrupted his match against Paul-Henri Mathieu of France.

SURPRISING DOKIC

Back in Australia, Jelena Dokic is back in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament. By herself, thank you. Dokic warned her estranged father Damir to stay away after he told an Australian television network that he was considering showing up in Melbourne to watch his daughter. Jelena told reporters after her 7-5 5-7 8-6 win over Russian Alisa Kleybanova that her father was not welcomed. In 1999, Damir was ejected from the stands at a tournament in England for shouting during his daughter’s match. The following year he fought with a television cameraman at the Australia Open, was evicted from Wimbledon and kicked out of the US Open, the latter for abusing staff over the price of a plate of salmon. He was subsequently banned from attending tournaments for six months by the WTA Tour. Jelena split with her family in 2003 and returned to Australia a year later.

STREAKING

Venus and Serena Williams had their doubles match briefly interrupted by a man wearing no briefs. The man, wearing only a shirt, jumped onto the court, sprinted across the sidelines and made several dance moves before he was arrested and banned from the event. Australian Open officials said the streaker was on the court for 14 seconds. When play continued, the Williams sisters easily won their match, defeating Japan’s Ayumi Morita and Germany’s Martina Muller 6-3 6-3.

SHAMEFUL

The streaker wasn’t the only problem Australian Open organizers faced in the first week. Violent clashes between ethnic factions marred the tennis as Serbs and Bosnians hurled chairs at each other in the beer garden outside center court. Police arrested two men and ejected another 30 people from the grounds after the rivals traded punches and kicks. Tensions between rival ethnic factions from the former Yugoslavia had been rising all week, breaking out when Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, the defending champion, beat Bosnian-born American Amer Delic.

SHIRT WITH SLEEVES

Rafael Nadal has a new look. The world’s number one player showed up for his Australian Open matches wearing a T-shirt and shorts instead of his trademark sleeveless tops and Capri pants. “For sure, when you have a change some people like (it), other people don’t,” Nadal said. “Not everybody liked the sleeveless. … Important thing in the end is not the clothes, (it) is the ball and racquet and playing well.”

SSSSHHHH!!

France’s Sebastien de Chaunac had problems with one of his very vocal fans. It seems that when the Frenchman was serving to James Blake at the beginning of their third set, a spectator began to encourage him. The man was so loud de Chaunac asked the chair umpire to intervene. Later, during a rally, the man started again. De Chaunac walked over to the fan and spoke to him. “I just told him in a bad way in French to shut up,” the player said. The man apologized but later was escorted out of the stadium when he continued to talk during points. Blake won the match 6-3 6-2 6-3.

SHUTEYE

The Hawk-Eye line-calling system was asleep during Roger Federer’s five-set escape from the upset-minded Tomas Berdych. The ball-tracking system failed to register a shot on center court, probably due to a heavy shadow over the line in question. Berdych, who had disputed the line call, was furious when it was found out the machine was not working. “If they bring some new system and it doesn’t work, why should it be on the courts,” the Czech player complained. Federer, who is a long-time opponent of the system, said the incident only confirmed his doubts. “It’s horrible. I don’t like it,” said Federer, who escaped with a 4-6 6-7 (4) 6-4 6-4 6-2 victory. “Tomas doesn’t like it since today. Finally one guy understood.” The Hawk-Eye technology reconstructs the ball’s most likely path by combining its trajectory with images from cameras positioned around the court.

SERENA THE WINNER

Serena says her greatest victory in tennis came over Andy Roddick. He reluctantly agreed that he had lost to the reigning US Open champion, but noted they were about 10 years old at the time. “There’s an argument about the score,” Serena said. “I think I beat him like 6-1. He says it was 6-4. He always says he’s ready for a rematch, but there’s no need for a rematch.” Holding up his little finger, Roddick said, “When we were 10 I had to literally run around in the shower to get wet – I was this big. She was bench-pressing dump trucks already at that time.”

SETTLING UP

When Nicole Vaidisova decided to skip her mandatory post-match news conference, she was fined USD $2,000 by the International Tennis Federation. Vaidisova was the first woman to be fined at this year’s Australian Open, joining 18 men who had been penalized for bad behavior at the year’s first Grand Slam tournament. The heftiest fine was meted out to Russia’s Dmitry Tursunov, who was fined USD $500 for racquet abuse and another USD $2,500 for verbal abuse. American Ryan Sweeting, who lost in the final round of qualifying, received three separate fines totaling USD $1,000 for racquet and verbal abuse.

SAFINA SURVIVES

Dinara Safina barely made it to the quarterfinals, having to stave off two match points and rallying from a 5-2 third-set deficit before edging French teenager Alize Cornet 6-2 2-6 7-5. Cornet twice served for the match, and squandered two match points in the 10^th game of the third set when Safina played aggressive tennis. Safina, who could take over the number one ranking if she wins the Australian Open, won the last five games of the match.

STILL WINNING

Elena Dementieva ran her match winning streak to 14 in a row when she advanced into the Australian Open quarterfinals by crushing Dominika Cibulkova 6-2 6-2. The fourth-seeded Dementieva won titles at both Auckland, New Zealand, and Sydney, Australia, in tuning up for the year’s first Grand Slam tournament. Against Cibulkova, the Russian won nine straight games before being broken while she was serving for the match. That only delayed the inevitable for 10 more mintues. Dementieva won the Beijing Olympics singles gold medal last year.

SITES TO SURF

Australian Open: www.australianopen.com/

Heilbronn: www.heilbronn-open.de/Live/de_Homepage.CMS?ActiveID=1001

Zagreb: www.zagrebindoors.com/indoors.htm

Vina del Mar: www.movistaropen.cl/

Johannesburg: www.zagrebindoors.com/indoors.htm

Wroclaw: www.kghm-atp.pl

Fed Cup: www.fedcup.com

TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK

(All money in USD)

ATP

Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia (second week)

$112,000 Heilbronn Open, Heilbronn, Germany

WTA TOUR

Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia (second week)

TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK

ATP

$581,850 PBZ Zagreb Indoors, Zagreb, Croatia, hard

$500,000 SA Tennis Open, Johannesburg, South Africa, hard

$496,750 Movistar Open, Vina del Mar, Chile, clay

$137,704 KGHM Dialog Polish Indoor, Wroclaw, Poland, hard

FED CUP

(First Round)

World Group

Russia vs. China at Moscow, Russia

France vs. Italy at Orleans, France

United States vs. Argentina at Surprise, Arizona, USA

Czech Republic vs. Spain at Brno, Czech Republic

World Group 2

Slovak Republic vs. Belgium at Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Switzerland vs. Germany at Zurich, Switzerland

Serbia vs. Japan at Belgrade, Serbia

Ukraine vs. Israel at Kharkiv, Ukraine

Europe Zone Group 1

At Tallinn, Estonia

Austria, Belarus, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Great Britain, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Sovenia and Sweden

American Zone Group 1

At Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Bahamas, Brazil, Canada, Paraguay, Puerto Rico and Venezuela

Asia/Oceania Zone Group 1

At Perth, Australia

Australia, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Thailand, Uzbekistan, India, New Zealand and Korea

Asia/Oceana Zone Group 2

At Perth, Australia

Kazakhstan, Hong Kong China, Iran and Singapore