Inside the Australian Open | Tennis world's best battle their way through Melbourne

    While the 2009 Australian Open saw some familiar faces atop the podium, what the American non-tennis fanatic might have missed while 16 time zones apart from the action is just how close the world's current No. 1s — Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams — came to being dethroned.
     While Nadal played with incredible heart, fighting five-set victories in both the semis and the finals and eventually defeating No. 2 seed Roger Federer, Williams won her matches by somewhat different means.
    After seeing Williams struggle in the fourth round and quarterfinals of the tournament, sports analysts would have been diagnosed with Australian heat stroke had they predicted that she would go on to utterly dominate the world No. 3 Dinara Safina in the finals.
    The tournament's No. 2 seed cruised through the first three rounds as expected, picking up a trio of straight-set victories over unranked opponents. In the fourth round, the younger Williams sister seemed unprepared for the young gun she was slotted to face.
    Victoria Azarenka went into the tournament on fire, having won the Brisbane International Tournament the week prior to the start of the Grand Slam event. Azarenka handily dealt with her first three opponents, two in straight sets and one by way of forfeit, and went into her round of 16 match as an underdog — but an underdog with great confidence nonetheless.
    Playing with the zest of a 19-year-old, the righty from Belarus caught Williams completely off-guard. In the first set, a stunned Williams could do little to combat the precision of her opponent. Azarenka took the set 6-3, breaking Williams twice.
    The biggest statistical discrepancy undoubtedly was Azarenka's masterful serving, as she got an incredible 82 percent of her first serves in during the first set while Williams managed just 56 percent.
    The American looked incredibly unsettled, bouncing the ball as many as 20 times before most of her serves. On one occasion, she took an unfathomable 37 bounces before serving — a stat that would make even Sergio Garcia, the undisputed king of shot procrastination, stare in awe.
    Thanks to the first-serve discrepancy as well as Azarenka's first-set advantage in winners, unforced errors and double faults, the teen handed Williams her first lost set of the tournament.
    In the second set, Azarenka looked a bit out of tune as the two stepped back onto the court, and she called for a medical timeout with Williams up 3-2. After briefly leaving the court, Azarenka staggered back on looking weak and devastated. The distressed Azarenka haphazardly dropped one more game before she approached the net and forfeited the match.
    A terribly-timed virus spelled the end to an incredible start to the match and allowed Williams to escape what could have been an early Aussie Open exit.
    Williams then faced Russia's No. 8 seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova and, for the second time in three days, lost the first set.
    Once again, a force outside the players' hands in the second set boosted Williams to victory. The hot Australian sun was heating the court to a staggering 41 degrees Celsius (106 Fahrenheit) and Williams seemed unable to cope. Before the start of the second, however, officials decided to close the roof to lower the temperature — a move that infuriated Kuznetsova.
    Despite the change, the Russian gained a 5-4 lead and was serving for the match, but she was broken by a determined and no longer overheated Williams, who then easily took the final set and the match.
    After Williams went on to destroy her final two opponents in straight sets, including a 6-0, 6-3 final victory over Safina in under an hour, critics may have stopped attributing Williams' success in the tournament to luck and nature. But the fact of the matter is that the now-No. 1 player in the world was outplayed in two of her middle-round matches, and only after two strokes of good fortune was she able to turn the tide and leave with a win.
    Perhaps it was her destiny, as Williams also won the Australian Open in 2003, 2005 and 2007 and has now continued her every-other-year crowning. Whatever the case, the sports gods down under were on her side in 2009.