The Nadal-Federer rivalry, Serena's title and more from Down Under

Top-ranked Rafael Nadal seems to thrive on his rivalry with No. 2 Roger Federer. David Callow / SI Jon Wertheim's Mailbag Jon Wertheim will answer questions from SI.com users in his mailbag every Wednesday. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND Follow Jon Wertheim on Twitter

Some scattered thoughts on the heels of another Australian Open:

• All hail Rafael Nadal, the men's singles champ. Another Slam, another courageous performance. And suddenly, at 22, he's won half a dozen Slams on three surfaces.

• Serena Williams wins her 10th career Grand Slam, moving her past Monica Seles and into truly rarefied territory. We've seen this before from her, but isn't it funny that her most lopsided score of the tournament came in the final? Beat her early or don't beat her. Her record in Grand Slam finals? 10-3. (And two of those losses were to her sister.) She and Nadal are twin studies in the power of mental fortitude.

• You could write a book on the Federer-Nadal rivalry. But I wonder if, at some level, it doesn't boil down to this: Nadal relishes the relationship and having a nemesis against whom to match skill/will/mettle/wits. Federer hasn't warmed to the concept.

• They've gotten the forehands and backhands part down, but can the top Russians get a group rate on a tennis shrink? Svetlana Kuznetsova serves for the match against Serena in the quarterfinals; she falters and wins one more game the rest of the match. Elena Dementieva beats Serena in the tune-up; when the stakes are higher in a Grand Slam semi, she loses in straight sets. Dinara Safina looks sharp for six matches and simply fails to show up for the final.

• Props to Fernando Verdasco for a run to the semis that included wins over Andy Murray (remember him?) and J-W Tsonga. And as a bonus, it's nice to see Gil Reyes, one of our old favorites, back in the news.

• Over the years, we've all had a good laugh at the expense of Vera Zvonareva and her propensity for mid-match crying. However, it's time we acknowledged that she's played top five ball over the past year. For a player not exactly blessed with an ideal tennis body, she ought to be proud of herself.

• The Williams sisters beat Ai Sugiyama and Daniela Hantuchova to win the doubles title. We'll say it again: they're the best doubles team of all time. When they decide to compete together, everyone else is playing for the runner-up trophy.

• While the Williams sisters won their eighth Grand Slam trophy, the Bryan Brothers won their seventh, beating Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles in the final.

• Bhupathi and Sania Mirza won the mixed title.

• Speaking of Indian tennis, Yuki Bhambri won the junior boys event. Ksenia Pervak of Russia won the girls. (Who knew girls even played tennis in Russia?) She beat Laura Robson of the UK in the final.

• And you thought main draw players were affected by the heat? How about some props for the wheelchair field? Esther Vergeer, the most dominating player in tennis, won still another title. Shingo Kunieda of Japan took the men's.

• Like many of you, I thought they were playing on "Hyacinth Arena" and thought how nice that they would christen a venue after a flower. Naturally, I was incensed to see that Hisense is a Chinese electronics manufacturer.

• Aldo of New York thinks Carla Suarez Navarro resembles Amy Winehouse. We were still admiring her one-handed backhand and pluck-two Grand Slam quarters over the past nine months to notice her looks.

• Picking on Novak Djokovic has become a parlor game in tennis circles. (Hard to recall a player's image plummeting so quickly: the wacky, fun-loving impersonator has become the devil incarnate in 16 months.) In Djokovic's defense, it bears keeping in mind that he's still young, still learning on the job, and still speaking in a foreign tongue when he makes remarks such as "the conditions affected me more" than Andy Roddick. In Djokovic's detriment, Josh of Melbourne has our stat of the day: "Novak Djokovic is 47-3 in Grand Slam matches when winning the opening set. In each of the three losses he has retired. Giving up when you can't win is hardly the sign of a champion." And Marc Luis of San Diego notes that Djokovic need only retire from the U.S. Open to pull off the "retirement Slam."

• How hard does Roddick serve? Or how slow does Nadal play? The Roddick-Younes El-Aynaoui classic from 2003 ended 21-19 in the fifth set, yet it was a shorter match than Nadal's win over Verdasco that ended 6-4 in the fifth.

• For a sport that is dealing with a gambling issue, did the (otherwise excellent) Australian Open Web site really need to provide the odds of matches?

• Bestowing on Gilles Simon the nickname "Simple Simon" was probably inevitable. But in this case, it really seems to fit. Hard to recall a top player who's been so efficient and clinical, playing a classic game without any wasted movement.

• And now this news: Lleyton Hewitt is reportedly considering leaving Australia and relocating to the U.S. Collectively, the American Bar Association is breathing a sigh of relief.

• Can this be right? For the first time ever there are no Australian men in the top 100.

• Dinara Safina on what happens when a player crosses a partisan crowd. "They kill you. [But] not in a bad way."

• Tricia Martin of Albany, N.Y., raises this very valid point: "Whenever Marion Bartoli plays, the commentators go on, ad nauseam, about the 'unconventional training regimen' imposed by her father/coach, who also happens to be a physician. Yet they never mention the most glaringly obvious fact -- the girl is totally out of shape. I assume the talking heads need to be PC and can't tell a young player to lose weight, but come on -- the only reason why she lost that match is because she's at least 20 pounds too heavy."