Why did Djokovic bounce the ball so much when serving in the final of the Australia Open against Tsonga? It looked like he was deliberately trying to upset Tsonga and therefore was 'cheating' by taking too much time, and should have got a code violation!

For those who watched the Men's Singles final of the 2008 Australian Open, you couldn't help but notice that Djokovic was bouncing the ball 17 or more times before serving on the BIG points. We could see Tsonga become visibly upset and in the third set complain to the umpire to no avail!  Realising the pressure of playing in a Grand Slam final the umpire wisely bent the time rules for both players from time to time -- Tsonga would often towel off excessively mid game.

Was Djokovic deliberately cheating? NO! The modern game has thrown up many psychological techniques for dealing with playing under pressure which Djokovic, Nadal, Sharapova and the Russian women at large have mastered.  Djokovic's ball bounce routine is designed to help him shift into a state of readiness by giving him a process triggered by a simple cue such as bouncing the ball. In Sharapova's case, it's standing with her back to the court/opponent and adjusting her strings.

It certainly didn't hurt Djokovic that in the process, he broke Tsonga's rhythm!  And while the rule is that you are obligated to 'play at the pace of the server', you are not obligated to receive serve when you become 'unready' through an opponent taking an inordinate amount of time!  I defy anyone to stand there for say 20-25 secs waiting to receive a serve and not eventually run out of patience in a very short time. You have to be able to 'switch on' and 'switch off' when you're playing.

The other part of your question is how could Tsonga have handled the situation better? [By the way, The French Tennis Federation is a great believer in the modern game techniques and no doubt Tsonga would have had some coaching in this area. If you think back to the Nadal match, you might recall the times he deliberately tried to engage in eye contact with Nadal -- a basic 'invasion of privacy' approach to unsettle an opponent!]

Tsonga could have looked to Federer. Federer is a great model for studying how to adjust the rhythm of the game to suit your own rhythm. If you watch carefully next time he plays Djokovic, you'll notice that he does a lot of racket twirling while waiting for service and only gets 'set' just before Djokovic goes into his final wind up to start his serving motion. All servers have a "tell', an unconscious action, that lets you know when the action is going to start and you need to switch on!

The bottom line, modern competitive tennis is very much a psychological game and we have to conserve our mental energy probably even more so than our physical energy.  A good 'player' armed with an understanding of psychological rhythms will always beat a much better 'hitter!

Why did Mark Knowles struggle to hold his serve in the Australian Open Dubs Quarterfinals again the Bryan Bothers? He has a big serve with a good action but was constantly in danger of losing his serve?

For those who managed to catch this match, it was one of the better doubles matches illustrating several of the major key points in a great doubles pair: communication, encouragement, two 'weaker players' forming a stronger pair. [Btw, Knowles/Bhupathi won 7/6 in the third after being down 4/1 in the tiebreaker!]

Yes you're so right Knowles has a big classical serve! His basic mistake was on the lower bouncing Plexicusion surface, his serve always bounced into the hitting zone of either side of the returning Bryan Brothers.  Regardless of whether he hit the big fast-paced serve to 'challenge' their eye, the ball was bouncing nicely into what players call the other guys 'wheel house'. The result a dipping, stretching cross court return with either Bryan sitting on top of the net ready for the put away volley.

To counter this challenge, you would have noticed that Bhupathi adopted an 'Australian' or I-formation on either Knowles first or second serve and asked Knowles to serve down the T or centre of the court predominately.  They figured since they couldn't stop the Bryans from teeing off on Knowles, they would try to force them to hit through Bhupathi at the net by cutting down the returning angle.  Bhupathi is quick and has great hands to help him carry out this strategy.

Since most of us are not endowed with these skills, we need an alternative strategy when our serves are getting punished. If you can't easily 'move your position' at the net, then the corollary is to 'move the ball' around particularly on the second serve.  You can either hit a slice, kick, wide, straight at 'em, or yes, even a short serve particularly into the wind; just add variety to unsettle your opponent's return! Your goal is to move your opponent around so the ball is out of their wheel house -- and increase the chances of a serve return error or a weak return for your partner to volley away at the net. 

Tennis is very much a 'thinking person's game' and a good player will always beat a good hitter -- especially in doubles!