Thank you linesmen, thank you ballboys, now we can all get some sleep.

The Australian Open has become a giant yawnfest, an insomnia cure-all that has had Melburnians by the thousands turning in for an early night.

The match-ups in the second week of the Open would seem to have been made in tennis heaven: Murray v Melzer, Nadal v Cilic, Zvonareva v Kvitova, Li v Petkovic, Federer v Wawrinka, Djokovic v Berdych, Nadal v Ferrer, Federer v Djokovic and so on. But the matches themselves have manifestly failed to deliver anything to register on the excitement-ometer. On the contrary, viewers have been reaching for matchsticks to prop open drooping eyelids. Pulses have not been set racing, they've flatlined.

After Alexandr Dolgopolov and Robin Soderling played a see-sawing five setter as the opening match on Rod Laver Arena on Day 8, the last three days have been so lacking in drama, we might have been watching an old episode of Home and Away.

Three of the men's quarter finals were done and dusted in the minimum three sets, the exception being Andy Murray's four-set win over the flakey Dolgopolov (where the result was never in doubt anyway).

In the fourth round, Wawrinka dusted Roddick off in straight sets, Djokovic hammered Almagro in three, Murray blitzed Melzer in no time and Nadal didn't give Cilic a look in.

On the women's side, the quarter finals produced similarly lopsided results: three were finished inside two sets, the exception being Caroline Wozniacki's brave win over Francesca Schiavone.

In those eight quarter finals, the average number of games won (per set) by the losing player was 3.5. Someone pass the No-Doz, please.

Not even the Seven commentary team - well schooled at talking up even the most inane contest - have found it difficult to manufacture any faux excitement over that lot.

In fact, it has been Schiavone, the tenacious Italian, who has featured in three of the tournament's best matches so far, including the 16-14 final-set thriller against Svetlana Kuznetsova which became the longest women's match in Grand Slam history.

Otherwise, the highlights have been few and far between: David Nalbandian's five-set win over Lleyton Hewitt in the first round was a cracker; Cilic and Isner played a brilliant third-round match where the third and fourth sets went to a tiebreaker and the final set went 9-7 Cilic's way. Gilles Simon and Federer also had an intriguing five-setter in round two.

On the women's side, Andrea Petkovic's powerful demolition of Maria Sharapova was worthy of note, as was Kuznetsova's courageous third-round win over Justin Henin. Na Li's brilliant comeback against Wozniacki in the semi-final can also be added to that list.

Then just as the Rod Laver crowd on Wednesday night were settling in and getting ready to rejoice in Rafael Nadal's brilliance, the Spaniard goes and twangs a hammy in the second game - his tilt at a concurrent Grand Slam of titles effectively ending after 10 minutes.

As if that wasn't hard enough to digest, Melbourne Park's other crowd favourite, Roger Federer, gets blown away in straight sets in his semi-final. Again, Seven was forced to delve into its vault of replays to give the dwindling at-home audience something to watch, while Rod Laver Arena ticketholders slunk away into the night, shaking their heads.

It's just been that sort of tournament.