‘Fired-up’ Tennis in Melbourne
Love of sports and its manifestation; seem to be a passion in Australia. Australian-Open Tennis of 2015 was exciting to those in Melbourne and viewers worldwide with good matches played in well orchestrated arrangements. The event brought the best of plaers in uncompromisingly dedicated arrangements towards good Tennis. Even in difficult conditions everything worked out to be attractive. Even the prize money figure is an attraction – 39 million Australian Dollars!
Not having a world beater was a worry Australians had from the outset of the Open. That too was taken care of by 19-year-old Nick Krygios appearing in the quarter finals of the men singles to become the first Australian to do so in ten years. He beat the giant killer, Italy’s Andreas Seppi who beat maestro Roger Federer in the previous round. This kept the Australian flag flying high into the second week.
Ice-breakers
In the women’s draw only 10 of the 32 seeded players survived into the 4th round of 16. Three times quarter-finalist, Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova seeded 10 in the women’s singles, with enough is enough attitude beat the 3rd seeded and much favoured Romanian Simona Halep convincingly with a score of 6/4 6/0 to enter her first Grand Slam semi-Finals. Halep was seen at her best until then. In fact Halep was formidable in the early rounds.
USA came up with 19 year old Madison Keys out of the blues. Currently ranked 35 and has not got passed second rounds in major events up to now. The William sisters challenge to survive came from their backyard- Florida USA. Keys, a native of Rock Island, Illinois beat Venus Williams in an exciting close match, now stands against sister Serena Williams in the semi-finals, as I write this. Key’s is coached by former world’s number one Lindsay Davenport. She is from Germany’s Steffi Graf’s era.
Tough early rounds
Some promising and other seasoned campaigners could not withstand the challenge of the early rounds. Some of the best women’s singles matches were in the second and the third rounds. Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki and Belarus’s Victoria Azerenka both former world number ones had to meet as early as the second round because of Azerenka’s absence for a year in competition due to injury and that did not place her well in the draw. It was Azerenka who got the best of the encounter with Wozniacki. Wozniacki moved well to defend producing long rallies but failed to hit winners. She could not get into the court or find her way to the net to finish. Azerenka made it clear that she is here again this year. She was stopped by the ‘pocket rocket’ Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova in the fourth round. The Tennis between these two was a game of high speed rallies ending up with winners all the time. These encounters produced the best women’s Tennis in the early rounds of the 2015 Australian-Open.
Wawrinka on a repeat trail
In the men’s side with Swiss Roger Federer home bound, his fellow countryman and the defending champion Stan Wawrinka has taken the responsibility to keep the Swiss identity in Melbourne. He has entered the semi finals playing very convincing Tennis. The upbeat player of last year Japan’s Kei Nishikori was beaten by Wawrinka in straight sets. Australian-Open courts are fast but that did not stop Wawrinka from playing ground strokes with long swings which gave him the edge on ball control. His first service registered 81%. This is very high considering the speed at which he serves, around 220 kmph. He covers the court well and often went to net with well executed approach shots.
Talking about playing at net, this year’s Australian-Open rewarded net play more than other events. Spaniards are clay court players and solid base liners. Feliciano Lopez is also a Spaniard but a net runner. This is unusual. It is like Sweden’s Stephan Edberg in the eighties making net game as his first preference during an era when his countrymen Bjorn Borg and Mats Wilander were dominating the world with ground strokes. Lopez’s net play is natural and had no problem sustaining it for five sets against Canadian Milos Raonic. Canadian had an edge with his ground strokes, venom of his service and luck to beat Lopez.
The semi-finals lineup of Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka, Andy Murray and Berdych is somewhat an expected outcome. One could say Federer could have been there. All four semi-finalists are really solid in performance. Their service, return, ground strokes and net ability are matching. Winning in such situation will come out of the lower count of unforced errors, higher count of winners and sustaining court coverage ability to end. It means very good tennis will have to be played by these four to win the three million prize money.
Turning point of Doubles popularity
Australian-Open will be considered the turning point of doubles popularity. The stands were full for the doubles matches. The women’s, men’s and mixed-doubles were facing the ‘vanishing act’ in the last fifteen years. Now these events are bouncing back. The main reasons for their revival probably will be the appearance of the top singles names, size of the prize money and the prominence the doubles is getting being played on recognized courts in a venue.
Doubles have evolved a lot now. I saw very interesting variations on court. The formations what we see are new and very unique to the pairs and no more ‘standard for all’ as it used to be. Bryan brothers bought in lot of vibrancy to doubles. They would not walk between points and for change over, they run. This has eliminated the ‘sleepy mood’ of doubles. Traditionally Doubles was played with fixed geometric formation of court coverage between the players. Now it looks like a Jigsaw puzzle and that fits well. Which segment of the court is covered by the players is never known before the rally begins. These surprising combinations of court coverage, whispering with mouth covered just before the service and return has made doubles an inquisitive game to watch. The future will see many big names returning to doubles with these developments. Doubles has caught on well with the Asians as an alternative to singles. A trend set by India’s Leander Paes and Mahesh Boopathi. At the moment India’s Sania Mirza is riding the crest in women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
New heat rule
Tennis has a new rule. Matches will have stop when heat gets to 40 degrees centigrade. Heat is an issue that players’ faced in Australia before with disastrous effects. Melbourne has three covered courts to overcome this now. The rest of the Australian-Open will present very good Tennis in appropriate surroundings to enhance Tennis this week-end. Craig Tiley is the ‘Tennis Australia’ CEO. He is a South African with very impressive record in US college and Open Tennis fields. His hands seem to have magical touch on Australian-Open.
- George Paldano, former international player; Accredited Coach of Germany, ITF and USPTR; National, Davis Cup and Federation Cup Coach–gptennis.ceylon@gmail.com -