Despite the prohibitive run that Rafael Nadal has put down on the clay over the past few years, the recent performances of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have given reason for a glimmer of hope. If nothing else we can always look to the Law of Averages - everyone must lose sometime even when you are Nadal and playing on the red clay. To better gauge the field's chances of upsetting Nadal, what follows, is a quarter by quarter dissection of the draw and an analysis of each section along with my predictions for these.

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Quarter1:

Nadal could not have wished for an easier passage to the quarters. A couple of minor hurdles in Ferrer or Soderling are all that really stand in his way. Fernando Verdasco should be waiting for him in the last eight provided he gets through a potential showdown with Davydenko in the 4th round. Experienced hand Lleyton Hewitt faces a tough task as he plays Ivo Karlovic first up.

Destiny seems to be on Serena Williams' side, as the 2nd seed fought back from a set and 5-3 down to beat former US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 5-7, 7-5, 6-1 in a match that lasted a little over 2 hours.

On an extremely hot day in Melbourne, Kuznetsova served for the first set at 5-4, but was broken by Williams. She broke back in the following game and served for the set again, this time holding to love. The first set was littered with unforced errors and though close, the tennis was anything but inspiring.

With the roof closed at the start of the second set and the climate more conducive to play, both players raised their games, and held serv

The last 16 of the men's and women's singles made their intentions known at the Australian Open today, as a rare calm day saw most of the seeds carve their way through the draw.

Rafael Nadal was made to work hard, especially in a 51 minute first set as he overcame German veteran Tommy Haas 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 in a match which just continues to reaffirm the Spaniard's domination of the men's game.

Haas, a three time former semi-finalist at Melbourne, played the best he could, but he just wasn't in the same league as the Spanish thoroughbred. Played in front of a boisterous full house in the mood for a party, the match saw plenty of great rallies and 25 w

Venus Williams faced off against Carla Suarez Navarro from Spain in the 2nd round of the Australian Open today. The 20-year-old Navarro is going to be a star of the future and her unconventional backhand is going to be the stuff of legends.

Williams won the first set easily enough at 6-2 and it seemed to be just another day at the office for her. But then Navarro started going for broke in the second set, matching and beating Williams at her own game - power hitting. Her unique backhand and awesome retrieving ability saw her edging out a stunned Williams 6-3. On numerous occasions Williams could just wryly smile as the ball zoomed past her. But soon the smile turned to a

Seedings for Tennis' first major extravaganza of the year, the Australian Open were announced today with world No.1s Rafael Nadal (ESP) and Jelena Jankovic (SRB) topping the men's and women's lists in what will be very strong draws. Tennis fans can expect to see the world's best players at this year's Australian Open, with all but one of the top 32 ranked men, and 30 of the top 32 ranked women seeded.

Russia's Nikolay Davydenko has withdrawn due to a recurring heel injury; Maria Sharapova's ongoing shoulder complaint will prevent her from defending her Australian Open 2008 title, and China's Na Li has a knee injury.

Men's defending champion Novak Djokovic is seeded 3rd and last years losing finalist Jo-W

With Rafa, Roger, Novak, Andy and Nikolai all making the last 16, there have been no major upsets in the US Men's draw as we head into week 2 of the last Grand Slam of the year.

Rafael Nadal seems to be enjoying his number 1 status and after a fairly tiring first round match against Bjorn Phau where he was appearing jaded, Nadal has rebounded well to demolish his opponents in rounds 2 and 3. He next faces 6ft 6 inches of American Sam Querrey who has beaten No.22 seed Tomas Berdych in Round 1 and 14th seed Ivo Karlovic in Round 3.

A victory for Nadal could setup an interesting clash against super fast retriever Gael Monfils in the quarters. Ofcourse Monfils will first need to find a way past another America