Last year's Australian Open semi-finals were amazing, especially Novak Djokovic's titanic tussle with Andy Murray, and the final between the Serb and Rafa Nadal was a classic, too.
Minds
Federer, whose strength and fitness I praised in a column last week, will tackle Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarters after despatching Milos Raonic, and is now my favourite to take the title; the courts are speeding up and that plays right into his hands.
Tsonga has beaten Federer at Wimbledon but the Swiss has improved his attacking skills in the last few years in order to stay at the apex of the game, while his opponent is struggling to beat top 10 players at the moment - a fact that will be in both players' minds.
Plus, Tsonga's backhand is average and if you are coming up against an in-form Federer every part of your game has to be top notch; Jo-Wilfried ticks a lots of boxes but I don't think he has enough to topple the 17-time Grand Slam champion at this point.
The final last-eight clash will be an all-Spanish affair with David Ferrer meeting Nicolas Almagro and you have to make the former favourite as he has won each of his 12 clashes with his opponent - 10 on clay and two on hard courts.
Almagro has gotten better and seems to relish being amongst the world's top 10 - something you cannot say about all players, notably Wawrinka circa 2008.
He is a great striker of the ball, too, but he doesn't have THE great shot, one that can really rock Ferrer, so he will have to hit seven or eight very good forehands or backhands in a row to win a point - and keep on doing that for four hours.
It may happen but I just don't see it.
