Tennis Abides

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrGBE1R4-7E&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Players take a stroll down memory lane and recall their favorite Wimbledon moments.

Rafael Nadal will compete at three ATP World Tour tournaments in February 2013 at Vina del Mar, Sao Paulo and Acapulco.

Radael Nadal has not competed at an ATP World Tour tournament since a seven-month absence from professional tennis he will return on his favourite surface. This is going to be the first time that Nadal will compete in South America since 2005.

No Roger Federer, no problem? Doubtful. Switzerland has Stanislas Wawrinka for its first-round Davis Cup tie against the Czech Republic, but the home team is a considerable underdog with the defending champs on the other side of the net.

Roger Federer's Davis Cup participation is limited almost exclusively to saving Switzerland for relegation. Last year (after making a rare World Group appearance in a first-round loss to the United States), Federer won two singles rubbers against the Netherlands to put his country back in the field of 16 for 2013.

A familiar male captured the title after some unpredictable and unfamiliar situations -- see five-hour match with Stan. Azarenka took a beating, so we'll back off here, provided the mysterious injury timeout doesn't happen again. And here are 10 other things from the hippest major to date:

Five things we will see again in 2013:

• Novak Djokovic winning a major. Where?

The Australian Open final between Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic will be the eighth meeting between the two players in the past year and the 18th meeting overall.

The Serbian edges the head-to-head contest between the pair 10-7, but with Murray going for his second successive Grand Slam final victory over the top seed, we’re set for another enthralling contest in Melbourne.

The Australian Open women's final pits the defending champion and No. 1 Victoria Azarenka against 2011 finalist Li Na, in a match that offers both a chance to join Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova as the only active players with more than one Slam.

For Azarenka, it hasn't been as complicated on the court as it's been off of it (see photo above).

The world number one Novak Djokovic is through to his third successive AO final by pretty much running through the Spaniard David Ferrer. The result didn’t surprise me as I didn’t think Ferrer had the game to beat Novak if the Serb was anywhere near his best. While I expected a straight sets win, I thought it would be closer than the eventual score line of 6-2, 6-2, 6-1.

MELBOURNE: Novak Djokovic lived on in the fight to defend his Australian Open crown with an extraordinary five-hour, five-set win over Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka to reach the quarter-finals early Monday.

The Serb world number one had to dig deep to see off 15th-seeded Wawrinka's brave challenge before prevailing 1-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 12-10 in a draining 5hr 2min match that finished at 1:41 am local time.

Storylines and matches to watch on Day 8 of the Australian Open (click here for the order of play):

• Roger Federer vs. another young gun: Two days after dismissing 20-year-old Bernard Tomic in straight sets, Federer will take on another riser in Canada's Milos Raonic. As opposed to Tomic, the 22-year-old Raonic has actually had success against Federer, pushing him to three sets in their three ATP meetings last year.