Mal's Picks
	Washington Former ATP Tour pro MaliVai Washington provides ESPN.com with in-depth analysis during the Australian Open. Washington, a tennis analyst for ESPN, reached the 1996 Wimbledon final.

MELBOURNE, Australia -- No Grand Slam has ever seen such a decimated field advance to the fourth round. There's a great chance for someone who has never won a major -- or never even come close to winning a major -- to advance to the final and potentially win. That says a lot for the depth in men's tennis.

Fourth-round picks
Jiri Novak (16), Czech Republic, vs. Dominik Hrbaty, Slovakia
This match is a complete toss-up. These players have Grand Slam experience but not lot of success. Only on one occasion has Hrbaty advanced to the quarterfinals of a major. Novak has never advanced past the round of 16 in a major. They don't have a lot of experience in the second week of a major tournament. This could possibly be the longest match of the championship because both are basically baselines.
Pick: Hrbaty (in four sets)

Stefan Koubek, Austria, vs. Fernando Gonzalez, Chile
Koubek, amazingly, is still in this championship after being down 0-2 in his first two matches, which is unheard of in tennis. He had a relatively comfortable victory in the third round over Kristian Pless. Koubek is a very talented player who now becomes dangerous. He has that mental edge right now that he can overcome anything on the tennis court and that is a nice advantage walking onto the court. He's taking on Gonzalez who is in uncharted territory. He's a qualifier who has never been in a Grand Slam besides the Australian Open in 2001 where he didn't make it past the first round. You've got to pick Koubek in that match.
Pick: Koubek

Tim Henman (6), Great Britain, vs. Jonas Bjorkman, Sweden
Henman was one of my picks at the beginning of the tournament. He played the match of the tournament last night beating Greg Rusedski in four sets.

Henman is still my pick to get through to the final. Henman and Bjorkman have similar styles in that they both like to be aggressive and make their way into the net when they have the opportunity, but Henman is doing it better in this championship than he ever has. It should be a good matchup because Bjorkman appears to be playing like he did four years ago when he was No. 4 in the world. We haven't seen that type of play since.
Pick: Henman

Thomas Johansson (16), Sweden vs. Adrian Voinea, Austria
Typically in this match the pick would be Johansson over Voinea out of respect for Johansson and his tennis game. But it was surprising how Voinea was able to come back from a set down and beat Taylor Dent in five sets in the third round. He was composed, played better than expected and had a strong counter-punch. In a match where normally Johansson should win hands down, this match is a real toss-up.
Pick: Toss-up

Amazingly, one of these eight players will be in the finals of the 2002 Aussie Open. Many of the names are ones only the hard-core tennis fan would know about and a couple of the names have legitimate records and abilities to advance through to the final -- specifically Henman.