Week #03-04: Sharapova stands out in Australian Open

Maria Sharapova defeated Ana Ivanovic in a final between two young, talented and beautiful players and got the title on the first Grand Slam tournament of 2008, the Australian Open. Sharapova played at very high level the whole 2 weeks and got remarkable victories over Lindsay Davenport and Justine Henin, dropping just 4 games on each one.
Ivanovic reached a Grand Slam final for the 2nd time, but she will have to wait a little bit more for a Grand Slam title. Also a good tournament was completed by the semifinalist Jelena Jankovic, who got a dramatic win over teenager Tamira Paszek in the 1st round but recovered and scored a great win over Serena Williams in the quarters, and Daniela Hantuchova, who made profit of a lucky draw to reach Grand Slam semifinals for the first time.
Remarkable performances also by Agnieszka Radwanska, who went past 2nd seed Svetlana Kuznetsova and 14th seed Nadia Petrova to get a place in the quarterfinals, Maria Kirilenko, who upsetted 6th seed Anna Chakvetadze and reached Last 16 in a Grand Slam for the first time, and home hero Casey Dellacqua, who also reached Last 16 after upsetting 15th seed Patty Schnyder and 18th seed Amelie Mauresmo. Other surprising players among the Last 16 were teenager Caroline Wozniacki and qualifiers Su-Wei Hsieh and Marta Domachowska. Another qualifier, Sabine Lisicki got to the 3rd round in her first Grand Slam appareance after upsetting 16th seed Dinara Safina.

Australian Open (AUS), Grand Slam, A$20,600,000

Singles final: Maria Sharapova (RUS) def Ana Ivanovic (SRB) 7/5 6/3
Doubles final: A.Bondarenko/K.Bondarenko def Peer/Azarenka 2/6 6/1 6/4
Mixed doubles final: Zimonjic/Sun def. Bupathi/Mirza 7/6 6/4