Three down, four to go

Rafa Nadal has breezed through his first three matches in the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam event of the calendar year. So far, he's been in incredible form, losing an average of only two games in each set that he plays. If he keeps playing at this level, he has a very good shot at winning the AO. Hopefully his form doesn't run out.

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What the hell is wrong with Roger Federer?? He's supposed to be an ambassador of tennis and yet he starts a completely unprovoked word-war with world #4 Andy Murray.

It all started when Fed was asked what he thought about British odds-makers putting Andy Murray, currently #4 in the world. as equal favorite to win the title. Fed apparently didn't take to well to that, scoffed at the idea, and said that with no Grand Slams to his belt currently, he could not be considered a favorite. (Read more here.) Funnily, it wasn't Murray who declared himself the favorite. And funnier still, British odds-makers aren't the only ones who think Murray has as good a chance as anyone else for winning. Fred Stolle, the Australian Tennis great who now does commentary work, has said that he believes Murray is a favorite. This is obviously based on his recent form. Andy has beaten Nadal the last time they played, Federer the last three times they played, and Novak Djokovic the last two times they played. That's not even counting the exhibition during which Murray beat both Roger and Rafa back to back. Clearly, Andy Murray has the best record against the Big 3 right now.

As a response to these remarks from Federer, Murray saying "Well, I mean, I don't have a problem whether I'm a favorite or not. You know, I guess Roger would prefer to be favorite himself. That's absolutely fine."

And now Roger has made more comments, saying that he would take on Andy Murray in a best-of-five match any day (Read more on Roger's challenge here).

And to make matters worse, Novak Djokovic has joined in the fray, remarking that he should be more of a favorite than Andy based on rankings (Novak's remarks here.) I guess the current #3 in the world, who choked in this two opportunities early this year to take the #2 ranking away from Fed, doesn't like being left out of the spotlight in discussions of title favorite either.

I just don't understand why Federer, who is supposed to be such an even-keel polite and upstanding ambassador of the sport, would start a word war with the new kid on the block. He doesn't have anything to prove, so he should care less as to who some people think is the favorite to win a tournament. I guess maybe he's so used to being worshiped and feared by everyone in tennis that when someone declared that they don't fear playing against him, he considers it disrespectful. Apparently, Murray is also at a loss to understand why Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic were put out by his status as Australian Open favourite (read more about this here).

Am just glad that Rafa has remained more logical than his contemporaries and defended Andy Murray and his "AO favorite" status, saying "When you win Cincinnati, when you win Madrid, when you win Doha playing against Federer, playing against Roddick, you are ready to win a grand slam". (Read Rafa's defense of Murray here.) Well said.