The tournament is over for me, when the maestro waves goodbye. TV viewer ship plunges, ticket sales go down and a million hearts are broken. The attachment Federer fans have with him is unlike any other player's following. People might be fanatical about Nadal and love watching Djokovic embarrass opponents, but they don't suffer mournful days like Federer fans do when he loses.

The ATP has been worried for the last few years about what they're going to do when Roger retires because it will have a serious fallout on the tour's popularity, viewership and therefore, revenues.

Now that Roger is out, the class gone, and the Australian Open ruined, many believe they have a shot at the slam. With Nadal knocked out as well, there is only one immortal left, in Djokovic. He is as solid as ever and it will take someone to play out of their mind for four hours straight to have a chance of beating him. But other than him everyone is beatable.

One person who could have really done some damage here was Del Potro. He is one player who has the ability to beat the big four on any given day. He has done it in the past and he is feared because of that. Unfortunately for him and fortunately for the active players, he's not there. Wawrinka has developed himself and made a place in that category. He's a regular now. Tsonga used to be in that league but he's fallen off in the last couple of years.

Good news for the home crowd, two Aussies reached the fourth round, Tomic and Kyrgios. Tomic fell to the 7th seed Berdych which was no surprise. He then sent Nadal packing to further cement his mark on the tournament.

Kyrgios probably sent Seppi flowers before and after their fourth round match. Before, to thank him for removing Roger from his path, and after, to apologize for not returning the favor. He gave him hope by going down two sets to love but took the next three in a very viewer friendly match. Meaning, a match where no one was emotionally too attached (except a few Aussies) because the players didn't matter too much to most, and the display of high quality tennis could be enjoyed in a relaxed manner.

Normally at this stage of the tournament, every match involves one player at least, who has immense fan following and is a serious contender for the title, so throughout the match there are tons of nervous viewers. Not in this case. Two unseeded players with no legitimate chances, battling it out to make it to the quarters and record or tie a career best outing at a major.

Aisam and Zimonjic won two close matches before going down in straight sets to an unseeded French pairing. Better performance at the big stage though, which is always a good sign. Both of them are veterans and have seen success at the high level and it is these tournaments where you want to be at your best, so good on them.

The doubles side is quite unpredictable these days, much more than the singles. On the singles side you see seven of the top eight seeds going through to the quarterfinals, whereas on the doubles side only three out of the remaining eight teams are seeded in the top eight.

This could be because of the change in the dynamics of the doubles game. The classic serve and volley and charging the net style of play still exists, but many teams are seeing success by hanging back a bit. Of course these teams know how to volley and get to the net whenever they get the chance, but they have realized that they can stay back and attack from the baseline too. A lot of these guys are predominantly singles players and they'd rather hit big ground strokes than having to dig out low volleys every point.

Guys like Aisam, the Bryan brothers, Nestor, Paes, Bopanna etc., the classic doubles players who love the net, are having to make adjustments against these base liners.

Not sure if I'm going to watch much of what's left of the open because of Roger and I'm sure there are many others who've lost interest too. You can't find that class anywhere else. Fed is in a league of his own. He doesn't belong in this generation. Dmitrov is pleasing to watch because of his likeness to Roger, but his mental likeness to Monfils makes him too erratic to be classy. So, he's not a substitute either.

I announce the Australian closed.