Australian Open 2018: Profiling the dark horses
The new Tennis season has begun with a bang. Steadily sprinting towards the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open, many lead-up events are keeping the tennis fans and pundits engrossed and making the countdown more bearable.
Enthralling fans and satiating the famish for tennis that the holiday season had induced, we are all set to take flight onto the land of some mouth-watering action at the season-opening Slam in Melbourne.
While most of the times, we glorify the major contenders for Grand Slam glory, there are those dark horses that remain largely underrated.
Nick Krygios and Elina Svitolina winning the titles in Brisbane, Simona Halep conquering Shenzhen, Julia Goerges stamping her authority in Auckland, Gael Monfils lifting the trophy in Doha and the great Roger Federer alongside Belinda Bencic giving Switzerland the much elusive glory at the light-hearted Hopman Cup in Perth, the beginning of the season has indeed been dramatically entertaining.
While fans are left pondering these results, deciphering what lays in store, it is more than natural delving into the territory of the dark horses both on the Men's and Women's tour for the upcoming Major.
Will we have surprise champions clinching Grand Slam Glory then?
Let us dive a little deeper into the profile of a few names that are the dark horses for the Australian Open title. We all will most certainly have different views, nonetheless these are few observations from a tennis fan like me.
1) Nick Krygios | Rank #17 (Best Aus Open Finish QFs 2015)
With a scintillating win in Brisbane, Nick Krygios has opened his season in the most promising fashion ever. Lifting his first ever on home soil and a fourth ATP title, Krygios seems to be making a statement that he is here to make it large.
With a string of poor performances at the Majors in recent times, the 22-year-old Australian now seems determined to shake that jinx away. Krygios has managed to reach past the third round only twice since reaching his second Major quarter-final at the Australian Open in 2015.
A lack of determination and also a tryst with injuries to be blamed, Krygios has thus never really been able to convert his tremendous talent into concrete results.
In a recent revelation, the mercurial Krygios was quoted asserting that he had found his purpose in life. With his plans of Nick Krygios Foundation that shall be dedicated to underprivileged and sick children, Nick said that he finally has found the boost to play tennis.
During his final with Ryan Harrison at Brisbane, Krygios was on a verge of losing his temper when the American opponent took time off court, something that we all are very used to about the man but he did keep his composure and went on to display some stellar tennis to lift the title in front of his home crowd.
It will be time when we shall know if this renewed Australian can go deep into Melbourne and clinch that elusive zenith of a Major Glory.