Professionals and survival – Keys’ and Sinner’ bounce back
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Madison Keys with the AO title
Australian Open 2025 credits go to Madison Keys, Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Elina Sivitolina and Elina Rybakina in women tennis. These gave creative impressions and exhibition of resilience, innovation and true to sporting spirit mental toughness. The same came from Jannik Sinner, Alex Zevrev, Lorenzo Sonego, Ben Shelton, L. Tien and Casper Ruud. Novak Djokovic walked out injured in the semi-finals.
Jannik Sinner
He has made speed the winning criterion. In the Men’s final, Alexander Zevrev could not withstand accuracy, consistency tactics and speed of Sinner. As the match went on Zevrev’s waned further. The three straight set victory of Sinner clearly shows his ability.
Carlos Alcaraz is nursing his injuries, played in the safe zone low gear. Quarter-finals was good enough for him to keep the ranking, make some money and take time to recover – we have accept life of a professional sportsman. With loss of speed in Alcaraz, his game was very weak. Being smart is to avoid injuries; how and how is the riddle!
Women’s semi-final and final
Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek both won by outpacing opponents. Both lost to Madison Keys. Keys’ main concern was to restrict the WTA No.1 and No.2. Keys, a third set specialist, an old endurance tactician, is the 2019 US Open finalist. She sustained an injury to her upper thigh some time ago. [Right-handers who serve very hard have this issue] Keys played from baseline or inside the or from baseline, this is new in her. Her new coach has brought about this. Her tennis got stronger in the second and third sets. Her win over Swiatek and Sabalenka came from her effectiveness in the latter part of the match.
‘Keys win over Elina Svitolina was the trigger match that changed her and gave her the AO 2025 title. This is tennis, one good match can do what player and coaches cannot for years. Guys, play more events!
Asians in the AO draw
This year Asian Grand Slam accreditation goes to Lebanon, India, Japan, China, Taiwan, Kazakhstan, Philippines and Thailand. Players from these countries entered the main draw. Almost all the countries in Asia play tennis and in numbers.
Chinese challenge went missing even before the quarter-finals in the women draw. I saw no specific reason for it. They were all competent players with one firmly in the Top 10 of the WTA ranking.
Change in the learning curve
ITF junior ranking is to identify a prospect. Then what? In development, a player coach relationship evolves. Unfortunately, it can cause stagnation too. German Junior No.1 of 1982 Christian Jessel ATP 130 with good few other Germans, current Bruneian national coach Wong who was in Sri Lanka last week, were my students. They were good prospects in their regional evaluation. Now I wonder whether I made the mistake of staying or keeping them too long with me. The message is players must move on. Tennis is not a coach’s journey.
Player coach relationship inevitably will come to the stalemate of being unproductive. Arjun Fernando who played up there in the ATP, too feels change of coach is paramount in player development to reach the next level. His experience is worthwhile in present player development process. Change of coach means fresh breeze of ideas and effectiveness.
Coaching in matches
Since coaching is permitted during a match, a coach with experience can be a pathfinder. Unfortunately, their contribution is extremely limited in winning. In this process player might lose the grip on the realities of the game at hand and confuse playing. To change tactics, a player needs to feel the opponent, with the racket hand. A coach seated on the sideline will not get this.
Playing Position
Rafael Nadal played way behind the baseline. It caught on for a while. Players like Sinner and Alcaraz are firmly on or around the baseline. This was the original tennis approach and the use of half volley effectively. To half-volley, a player must be an evolved stroke maker. On all hard court, it uses opponent’s speed, making the game even faster to the opponent.
Surge in young talent
Youngster Fonseca is from Brazil, L. Tien from USA and a few more from Europe and the USA ramped up the elite talent base in Australian Open of 2025. Tennis is going to remain healthy.
Name, fame and life
Australian Open of 2025 had 618 players in all. These players must accommodate rest of gruelling 2025 competition calendar to be effective and earn most. Tennis has been going good for over 180 years. No one name carried it through.
To make heads turn towards tennis now, appealing players locally and internationally are paramount. Stadiums and courts have their limitation in making the game popular. A good match makes tennis inviting.
–George Paldano, European and Asian competition player; Coach German Tennis Federation; National coach Brunei and Sri Lanka; Davis Cup, Federation Cup coach, coached ATP, WTA and ITF ranked players in Europe and Asia; WhatsApp +94775448880–