The Good, the Bad & The Ugly from Australian Open '13

This year’s edition of the Australian Open was the first Slam since Wimbledon 1998 or so in which the top seeds in Men’s singles, Women’s singles, Men’s Doubles and Women’s Doubles lived up to their seeding and won the tournament! Near perfect, isn’t it? But that doesn’t mean the Open had only its good moments. Here is an account of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly from the Open at Oz!

The Good:
Djokovic’s three-peat

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – JANUARY 28: Novak Djokovic of Serbia poses with the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup in the changerooms after winning his men’s final match

Novak winning the Australian Open for the third consecutive time, a feat that has never been achieved in the modern era, makes this year’s edition fit itself into a nice chapter in the record books. All the other Slams have had four and five-peats with Rafa and Roger contributing. So, it had to be Nole who had to do it here, isn’t it? Not so far in terms of effort paying off rich rewards is Azarenka’s two-peat in a pretty solid two weeks show.

Li Na’s Resurgence & Sloane’s entry into the grand stage
The fact that Li Na steam-rolled over Maria Sharapova, thereby giving her a taste of the medicine Masha was serving opponents till Quarters, makes for a pleasing story. Under the tutelage of Carlos Rodriguez, her improvements are evident, and in playing a nice competitive final that could have gone either way if not for injuries and time-out niggles, she presents her case strongly for the reminder of the season. In other glad news, the 19 year old Sloane Stephens had a dream run and pulled off an improbable upset by taking out Serena Williams in her quarter final clash! Her progress over the season would be an interesting thing to watch out for.

Stun gun Stan
We are yet to get into even a month of action this season but we already have a strong match of the year contender – the R4 clash between Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka and the eventual champion Novak Djokovic. At 1-6, 2-5 what looked like a potential drubbing of an upset got turned over into an epic the way the two fought in the 3rd to 5th sets, giving us deja vu moments of the previous year’ s final. One comment from Vijay Amritraj sums up this first-Sunday match perfectly: ” You can’t play the Australian Open Final on the first Sunday”!

The Bad:
Roger’s ageing gracefully

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – JANUARY 25: Roger Federer of Switzerland leaves the court after losing his semifinal match against Andy Murray of Great Britain

Let’s face it. The signs are all evident. Firstly, why ageing? Even though he’s been with the top-4 trading matches, when it comes to Grand Slam matches on the hard court, the fitness of the younger legs of Novak and Andy are getting a little too much for Roger and the fact that his last hard-court Slam final came in 2010 tells quite a story! Why gracefully? The form Roger was in this week was definitely not a case for worry, as he danced his way through younger opponents and survived a tough five-setter against Tsonga. His clutch play in tie-breakers too was evident as he was 6/6 in the tournament including the two he won against Murray in the semi-final. His game is still up there and an odd hard court Slam-win in the future is not to be counted out!

Murray’s Second Serve
The final, even though it went for four sets, was the first Grand Slam final with less sparks since the Australian Open 2011, and a major reason for that is the sluggish second serve that resides in Andy Murray‘s armoury: The weaker ones in the 120Ks to 135Ks following his 210-215Kph 1st serve bombs! Roger pounced on it to take the semis to a fifth set, and Novak was a lot less subtle in using it to perfection in the last two sets in the final. If Andy has to become a multiple Grand Slam champ, that is the one thing he needs to improve on.

Perennial Pretenders
Nicolas Almagro had 3 opportunities to close out his quarter final match and record his first win over David Ferrer in 13 attempts; he let them all go and continued his role of being a pretender and just that! The bad thing is, he isn’t alone. In both the Men’s and the Women’s side of the draw, there are these people who make people place bets on their abilities to cause upsets: And like a lot of times in the past, these guns failed to do any harm at this year’s Australian Open too: Del Potro, Berdych, Tsonga, Raonic, Ivanovic, Radwanska, Kvitova and the likes.

The Ugly:
Pain to the eyes
The injury marred all-French R4 clash between Gael Monfils and Gilles Simon may well go down as the most risk-free & painstaking five setter to have ever been played at the Open! There were a lot of long and boring rallies which neither player wished to end, and one of them that went for 71 shots showed how ugly tennis can become if players resort to a zero-risk plan!

The Victorious Choke

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – JANUARY 24: Victoria Azarenka of Belarus receives medical attention in her Semifinal match against Sloane Stephens

The defending Women’s singles champion Azarenka was booed and lost the love of Aussie fans when she literally admitted the fact that she took a long medical time-out before serving out for the match in her semi-final against Sloane Stephens for the reason that she choked (which she later attributed to real choking related to breathlessness!). Her explanation was less than satisfactory and it took her a victory in the final and an ‘Australia Day’ wish to get some of the fans back! That apart, the Open saw a lot of people taking a lot of medical time-outs that seemed untimely, unsporting and more importantly, unnecessary. Hope the administration looks into it and cuts this ugly trend before it looms large!

Press Room shockers
The Press Room at the Australian Open this year was no different from any other Slams from the past in terms of its ability to bring out the worst and shocking quotes from players: Some of the best were Tsonga’s answers relating to women’s ‘hormones’ making them more unstable than men & Tomic’s assessment of Federer’s ability to reach R3! A consolation to such shockers came in the form of Andy Murray’s answer on what Roger Federer told him during the match at a heated moment! His answer had class – class of the sort a lot of nice matches exhibited over the fortnight Down Under!