And so it goes...

The 2011 Australian Open was a gut wrenching, surprising, heartbreaking, eye opening, forehead slapping, fun filled fortnight.

And in a flash, my favorite Grand Slam of the year has ended.

Gut wrenching
Venus Williams groin injury. She pulled in during the tiebreaker in the 1st set, but came back to bagel her opponent in the 2nd set and took the 3rd 6-4. Did I mention that she won in convincingly? I said it before, happy to say it again: Venus Williams is a BEAST.

Franchesca Schiavone's 3 set loss to "Sunshine" Wozniacki. Frankie was coming off that EPIC match against Kuzenetsova, which was the longest women's match in open era history, at 4:44. Having saved 6 match points, Francesca won and recovered enough in less than 48 hours to give Calorine Wozniacki a real fight. Forza Frankie.

Rafael Nadal's loss to David Ferrer in straight sets. Rafa got injured last year at this point in the tournament. It appeared to be a hamstring this time. And while you could tell his game was not his norm, he still gave Ferrer one hell of a fight. It also hurt to watch Rafa visibly fall to pieces on the sidelines.

Surprising
Alexandr Dolgopolov Jr's run to the quarter's. Eliminating Kukushkin, Becker, Tsonga, and Soderling before taking a set a set off of, yet ultimately falling to Andy Murray. @TruBlu and I started the Hair Bandwagon a while ago. If you hadn't heard of this kid before, he should definitely be on your radar now!

Heartbreaking
Svetlana Kuzenetsova's loss to Francesca Schiavone. As mentioned above, this was the longest women's match in open era! By the time the 3rd set rolled around, these two women had taken their level of tennis to unbelievable heights! Painting lines, running to hit droppers, no one could tell they'd been on court for over 4 hours. You knew someone had to win, but no one lost this match. Frankie pulled out the 3rd set 16-14.

Eye Opening
Li Na's honest charm. We all knew Serena would miss this slam. Everyone in the WTA draw knew Serena Williams would be absent. Commentators said the field was "wide open" and would ask projected winners what Serena's absence meant to them. Of all those women, Li Na was the only one to flat out say that Serena was out and that was the best chance she'd have to get a Grand Slam title. And you know what? She didn't win, but she did eliminate the current world #1 on her way to becoming runner up.

Forehead Slapping
Gael Monfils for squandering his talent. Just talk to @A_Gallivant about that.

Andy Roddick for not listening to anything anyone tells him. Ever.

Stanislas Wawrinka for being Roger Federer's bitch. Harsh? Did you see how well Stan played at the USO and throughout AO? Yes, Fed is Fed, but Gilles Simon took him 5.

Fun Filled
Twitter friends! I seriously wish I'd embraced Twitter sooner. I never had an outlet for my outrageous sport obsession. And with that 17 hour time difference, it certainly helped to have people to chat with at 3:30am when I could barely keep my eyes open. Great conversations and even an argument or two.

Lime green, honeysuckle (thanks @ConspiracySmile) and yellow. This year's Australian Open ran the gamut of color and emotions, and in the end delivered the men's final I wanted all along.

Now that January is over, we've got 3.5 months until the next Grand Slam. Thank God there are several tournaments to keep me busy until then. But for now, I plan to enjoy my first full night's sleep in two weeks.

I wish there was some sort of methadone clinic for tennis fans. The first few days after a Grand Slam are so depressing! Tennis withdrawals are almost as painful as caffeine withdrawals. Good thing there's this little ol' game called THE SUPER BOWL this weekend.

On to the next one, y'all!