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The Australian Open is a fantastic sporting event. On what other occasion during the year do we get such a conga line of superb athletes parading daily and nightly across our TV screens?
Look at the names: the juggernaut that is the Williams sisters; the beauty and grace of Ana Ivanovic; the quirky Jelena Jankovic.
Roger Federer, surely one of the greatest sportsmen of all time; the gentlemanly brutality of Rafa Nadal; the Frenchmen Tsonga and Monfils; Marat Safin … who could dream up someone like him?
Add to it the drama and tension of a close tennis match. Riveting.
There have been a few upsets so far. Venus Williams is gone, nerves surprisingly seeming to get the better of her at the end of the third set.
Ana Ivanovic and David Nalbandian have hit the road, and no doubt a few more favoured players will do likewise over the next day or two.
The men’s favourites have been strong.
The gang of four look steeled for the semi finals, where they intend to fight it out amongst themselves. Murray looks as physically strong as an ox, but patient and restrained in his shotmaking.
Federer’s feet are dancing like they never did last year. Nadal is intense and his forehand demands submission. Djokovic seems to be playing himself into some form, but at this stage he’s a notch below the other three.
The usual men’s singles bolter, the new Baghdatis, Gonzalez or Tsonga, is yet to emerge. Tsonga is in form but his back is in question.
We’ll soon know if it’s a real injury.
It has been said constantly that Australian tennis is at its lowest ebb right now, which is indisputable.
Many are writing Lleyton Hewitt off, suggesting he should give it away or risk becoming some sad and pathetic figure trying to regain the highs of yesteryear. But I think he still has it in him to be top 50, maybe better, and what is wrong with that?
Hewitt is still the best Australian player by a country mile, why on earth should he give it away?
And if there is some kind of shame in not being in the top 10, then tell that to the hundreds of other players out there on the tour.
Tomic has shown that he is coming along nicely, and looks on target for the top 100 in a year or two. Unlike the rest of the current crop of young Aussies, he’s aiming much higher than to just eke out a good living on the pro tour.
There’s been some criticism of the scheduling of Tomic’s match against Muller as the centre court night match.
There’s no doubt there were plenty of higher quality matches to choose from, and putting Tomic on TV at night was probably a commercial decision aimed at boosting the audience via parochialism.
But it won’t have damaged Tomic. That was just the taste he needed.
One last observation about the current state of Australian tennis: many factors have been blamed, from courts to coaches. All are part of the problem. But a large part of it simply comes down to participation.
Tennis just doesn’t get anywhere near the numbers of kids taking it up as it used to. The age group with by far the most competitors, both men and women, is the over 65s.
This is no accident.
These are the people from the golden age of Australian tennis, the ones that, as kids, watched Hoad and Rosewall. They are the contemporaries of Laver, Court, Emerson, Newcombe and Roche.
Their passion for the game exists to this day and they still flock in droves. No generation before or since took to tennis in such a way.
Unless such an unlikely thing happens again, don’t expect too much.
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