Federer, Dokic draw huge TV audience (Australian Open Notebook)

MELBOURNE - Jelena Dokic and Roger Federer provided a power punch for Australian Open ratings this week, with those contests watched by only a slightly smaller number of viewers than the 2008 men’s final.

The Seven network scored a hit with the programming one-two, which attracted 2.31 million viewers across the five major metropolitan markets.

When Novak Djokovic beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the men’s final a year ago, the audience was a slightly higher 2.34 million.

Dokic’s loss in the quarter-finals to Dinara Safina was the most watched women’s match at the Australian Open since the OzTam ratings system began in 2001.

Figures indicates that on blockbuster nights at the tennis match, almost half of the viewers in the country of 20 million were tuned to the action on court.

-*-

Australian Open semi-finalist Elena Dementieva credits the winter warmth of Miami for giving a turbo boost to her tennis in 2009.

Instead of fighting the Moscow weather and training indoors with snow outside, the world number four got herself to Florida for uninterrupted weeks of solid preparation.

The system paid off, with two titles so far this season and a semi-final spot at the Open.

‘After Miami, it was much easier for me to come here and play similar weather condition,’ she explained. ‘It was the right decision to come to Auckland and play a smaller tournament in the beginning just to get, yeah, confidence and just get some matches.

Dementieva made her Grand Slam debut in Melbourne a decade ago, a memory she will never forget.

‘I remember my first time here because it was my first Grand Slam. I did qualifying and I played Martina Hingis on Rod Laver Arena, I remember this day like it was yesterday.

‘I remember crying after I lost to her. I was so upset to lose, I really wanted to go on and continue to play a couple more matches.’