Tennis will hold a special Rally for Relief charity event to benefit the Queensland flood victim on Sunday at the Australian Open.

The 26-year-old Soderling stopped a sluggish Monfils, who defeated Roger Federer in a three-set semifinal. “I’m in a learning process. Every time I get to a final like this something goes wrong, and this time it was the preparation. I had to rush too much,” Monfils said. “And also, at one stage in the match I tried to change my plan. I should maybe not have done that and keep with simple things…Yesterday I used up a lot of energy, and today I wasn’t able to find the extra stamina that I would have needed to be more competitive.”

“Going into the final against Pat I know he’ll have the home crowd on his side so of course it will be tough,” McEnroe said. “I feel like I’m tough to beat at the moment though and I’m fitter now than I was 15 years ago.”

Patrick Rafter tries the Roger Federer trickshot.

Pat Rafter was pushed all the way before completing a 7-6(4), 7-6(1) victory in a thrilling final against John McEnroe at the ATP Champions Tour event in Delray Beach on Tuesday night.

With everyone doing top 10 lists of the decade or the year, I decided to take a slightly different approach.

Playing in his debut tournament on the Outback Champions Series, Rafter used his trademark serve and volley game on the hard courts of the Palmilla Tennis Club to dictate play and set up a possible final-round showdown with Pete Sampras, his top rival during his ATP career. Sampras will play Mats Wilander of Sweden in the tournament’s other semifinal on Saturday.

I am quite certain that at some point today, Thomas Muster, Sergi Bruguera and perhaps a few other former Grand Slam champions all scratched their head upon hearing the news that Michael Chang officially entered the Tennis Hall of Fame.