The Australian Open Ends...

So the 2006 Australian Open has sadly come to a close. I was lucky enough to be able to watch a good bit of it live...and I may have seemed like an addict, watching at late/early hours of the day..glued to the set sometimes.

Roger Federer (Yahoo Sports/David Gray)

The men's final between Federer (who else) and unknown Baghdatis opened with two very intense sets. When Federer lost the first set, I started to get worried. After all, Baghdatis had taken down Roddick, Nalbandian, and Ljubicic. Fortunately, Federer cranked it up a notch and took back the 2nd set and sailed through the 3rd and 4th to win his 7th Grand Slam!! Fun match to watch...Baghdatis is one to watch in future tournaments, for sure; seems like a very cool guy as well! Federer now is halfway to reaching the record 14 Grand Slam wins that Sampras achieved in his day.

Amelie Mauresmo (Yahoo Sports/Getty Images/Clive Brunskill)

The women's final was the most disappointing match I've ever witnessed (complete opposite of last year's Wimbledon final). Justine Henin-Hardenne, who was quite obviously not playing at her normal level with which she beat Davenport and Sharapova, called it quits because of stomach pains. This, after being getting her ass kicked hard by Mauresmo...based on her comments and how she looked afterwards, she most definitely could've hung in there for 4 more games to let Mauresmo win in a proper manner. It was really cheap, in my opinion, for the bitch..er, H-H to sit out because she wasn't playing as well as she should be due to her discomfort. Ugh!! Mauresmo won her first major title, though...despite the bittersweet ending of the match. Awesome!

Just another comment regarding Mauresmo: H-H was not her only opponent to retire in this tournament (Clijsters out with an ankle injury, and Krajicek out with heat exhaustion). Maybe Mauresmo has taken a liking to dark magics or something? Hmmm...that's the Buffy fan in me talking...yeah, I know...dork.

There weren't all that many exciting matches in this tournament, and it sucked to see many of my favorites go down early. Next up in the Grand Slams is the French Open (May 29 - June 11) in Paris. Clay play..woohoo!!

The next big sport event I'm greatly anticipating is the Winter Olympics...I love, love, LOVE the winter sports!!! As for the Super Bowl, I don't really care for it any more...too much of a very drawn-out production for me; the BCS is a hell of a lot more exciting than the Super Bowl! And besides, I really don't get off on seeing boobage...