Matches to watch - Day 6

Day five at the Australian featured the biggest upset of the tournament, and I expect that it will remain so through the finals. The defending U.S. Open champion lost to Nadia Petrova, which is in itself not a huge upset, but the manner in which she lost was quite surprising. Kim Clijsters didn't even show up for her match, losing 6-0, 6-1. It was her worst loss as a professional player! Very strange result, since she was one of the favorites to win the tournament.

The majority of the other matches yesterday went as expected, except for a few slight upsets. John Isner beat Gael Monfils in a great match, Jelena Jankovic lost to a Bondarenko sister, and Ivan Ljubicic fell to Dr. Ivo. All technically upsets, but none of them a huge surprise. Dinara Safina, Justine Henin, and Svetlana Kuznetsova are all still in the draw, and one of the three will almost certainly be in the final.

The third round in the top half of the draw should be interesting, though it's unlikely to see a blowout against one of the tournament favorites like we saw last night. Here are the matches to pay attention to.

Serena Williams v. Carla Suarez Navarro - The defending champion and world number faces her first potential challenger. Navarro beat Venus Williams at least year's Aussie Open, so Serena may be looking for revenge. The young, small Spanish player burst onto the scene in 2008, making the quarters at her first grand slam event. She hasn't been able to build on that success yet, though.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga v. Tommy Haas - The 2008 finalist will be playing a three-time semifinalist. Both players have proven themselves to be very skilled strikers of the ball as well as being extremely popular with the fans. It's tough to predict what's going to happen in a match like this, but I lean towards Tsonga coming out on top.

Lleyton Hewitt v. Marcos Baghdatis - Who wasn't looking forward to this match? Last year's late night thriller was an amazing contest, and their meeting earlier this year was tough. Hewitt should be even more pumped after losing to Baggy so recently, while Baghdatis is eager to show that he's ready for the top ten again. This is going to be the one to keep an eye on tonight.