Chasing Steffi Graf’s Golden-Slam
Ever since Olympics incorporated Tennis as one of its competitive sports in the eighties, only 14 men and 13 women had the honour of standing on the Olympic podium with a gold medal round their necks and had their national anthem played.
The Golden-Slam s the feat of winning the four Grand-Slam Titles and the Olympic Gold in the same year. So far only one player has achieved this rare feat – it is Steffi Graf of Germany.
It is Steffi’s achievement that coined the term Golden-Slam in 1988. This year, with the Olympics in Brazil, the Golden-Slam is possible.
It would be difficult to guess who could repeat Steffi Graf’s feat. The road to the Golden-Slam will begin in Melbourne with the Australian Grand-Slam title. Whoever who takes this title will be on the road for the Golden-Slam of Tennis in 2016.
Aussie-Open challenge
In sport, it is not usually the norm to make players face a major challenge suddenly. Timing of the Australian-Open the first Grand-Slam of the year, was in the events calendar from last year.
It is no surprise. Preparation for it demands bringing the mind, body and skills to its peak to perform at each event. Last year’s season officially ended just a few weeks ago and the professional calendar in both genders show over eight events in the first two weeks of January.
These two weeks are the only time players have to prepare for the first Grand-Slam of 2016. This means at best, a player would have two tournaments to prepare for. Australian-Open starts on the 18th of January.
No one will under-estimate the pressure the event would have on the top professional players with so little time for preparation.
Top players and issues
The strain of training has already made a list of celebrity casualties. In the women’s it is very profound. Serena Williams lost one and walked away from another match in Darwin Australia with knee pains.
Maria Sharapova is saddled with arm discomfort and is resting. Simona Halep has Achilles tendon inflammation and is taking time off.
This means that the world’s number one, two and three are out of action just one week from the Australian-Open. Can they make it?
It is logical to think that the top twenty will be in Australia to acclimatize to the hot summer. This too is not happening as some of the ‘top guns’ are currently scattered in Chennai, Doha, Shenzhen, Brisbane and Auckland.
Southern summer
It is now the peak of the southern summer. The demand, for a country to have a tournament in summer, is very much one of the reasons for this multiple event weeks of early January.
What’s more, the best slots are the weeks before a Grand-Slam. Event organizers prefer this period as they are certain players will be in their own regions of the globe.
Unlike in Europe and North America, the southern hemisphere does not keep the players soon after the Australian-Open Grand-Slam is over. One would not be wrong to say that the Australian season fizzles out soon after the Australian-Open.
The Olympics too uses the professional rankings of the WTA and ATP as their qualification marker. It is undoubtedly a great honour to be a participant in the Olympic Games.
The number of countries in the Olympic Tennis draw will not be that many and it will have the two singles and the three doubles of the open events.
For the players, keeping the ranking high is a top priority for Olympic eligibility and in August, Rio de Janeiro will crown the next Tennis Olympic winners.
‘Rebound-Ace’ of Melbourne Park
The Australian-Open will be played in Melbourne Park, originally known as Flinder’s Park and has ‘Rebound Ace’ synthetic surface courts.
A good many do not come to terms with this surface and in addition, the extreme heat did have some ill-effect on the surface which may have been the reason for some strained ankles.
The surface does not allow sliding when it is very hot. This is no more an issue as the two professional bodies WTA and ATP do not permit matches to be played when the temperature reaches 40 Celsius and above.
Also as a solution Melbourne Park now has covered and acclimatized high capacity seated stadiums which makes the event go uninterrupted. It is named after the Australian maestro Rod Laver and has now become the symbol of the Australian-Open.
The draw
Officially the main draws will be out on the 15th of January and the tournament will begin on the 18th of January. It will be ‘best of five sets’ all the way and a player will have to win seven rounds to be the winner.
The draw will have 128 elites and depending on the strength of entries, players in the top one hundred and fifty may enjoy direct entry.
The gaps among the top 150’s skills, personality, game making ability and consistency, has narrowed very much. This makes every match a fight for survival and there will be no easy passage in the Australian-Open. Watch our live telecast which will be in the morning hours daily.
George Paldano, Former int. player; Accredited Coach of Germany; National, Davis-Cup, Federation Cup coach–. gptennis.ceylon@gmail.com