After a few days of a news-less Grand Slam, fans woke up last Friday to the start of a streak of Australian Open upsets – unusual for the under-rated first 'big one' of the year.

The first big upset after Andy Murray's first-round departure came when Andy Roddick lost to German Phillip Kohlshreiber in the third round, and left the American's supporters once again wishing he had more than just a big serve. Then Juan Carlos Ferrero gave a tennis lesson to Argentinian David Nalbandian, who had almost said goodbye to Melbourne in his previous round against Australian Peter Luczak.

And if Marcos Baghdatis hadn't been injured since he hit the first ball in his first match Down Under, his loss to Lleyton Hewitt at 4am on Saturday might have been regarded as more of a surprise than it actually was.

'This ''rain'' of upsets is good for tennis, although it seems that until anyone upsets Federer – the King himself – it doesn't really count'


More? Last year's finalist Fernando Gonzales of Chile was upset by Croatian Marin Cilic to end a crazy Saturday that almost saw the biggest upset of all when Serbia's 'mad professor' Janko Tipsarevic gave Roger Federer and the tournament organisers a heart attack. After four-and-a-half hours of play, Federer won 10 -8 in the fifth set in one of the better matches seen this year on the Rod Laver Arena.

And the upsets kept coming, with Jo Wilfried Tsonga of France beating compatriot Richard Gasquet and Mikahil Youzhny defeating his own Russian friend Nikolay Davydenko.

On the women's side, Amelie Mauresmo's loss can be regarded as the only big upset after a week of play. The Williams sisters look great and confident, Maria Sharapova is playing better than we have seen her in a long time and Justin Henin still looks unstoppable.

This 'rain' of upsets is good for tennis, although it seems that until anyone upsets Federer – the King himself – it doesn't really count. Nevertheless, it still makes the tournament much more interesting, especially when we see very good tennis in the process.

There is still one more week to go and that in itself is exciting. One thing can already be said about the 2008 Australian Open – this time it delivered and shouldn't be regarded as a second-class Grand Slam.

Federer and Henin for the respective men's and women's singles titles in Melbourne? Or do you fancy someone else to grab the glory? Post a comment below or submit an article of your own to Sportingo.