2015 Australian Open Round Up

So, the Australian Open finishes for another year and two familiar faces have won the event.  Twelve months on that is quite a different scenario to 2014.

This time last year Li Na defeated Dominica Cibulkova in a fun three set final, and a big upset occurred when Stan Wawrinka defeated Rafael Nadal to claim the mens trophy.  I recall Pete Sampras who travelled to Australia to hand over the trophy looking on in some bemusement during the presentation ceremony, having fully expected Rafael Nadal to equal his tally of fourteen major championships. But Warwinka had other ideas, coming out swinging in the first set and hitting second serves at 110mph in the corners, taking risks to win.

Bottom line was it was a great start to the year to have two new Australian open winners and it really set up the mens year nicely culminating with another first time winner at the US Open in Marin Cilic.

2015 has not started as excitingly as 2014 (unless you are a fan of Serena or Novak).  Serena completed her customary win over Maria Sharapova to win her 19th major title and go past Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert in the slam count.  Maria Sharapova did put up a great fight in the second set but we all knew (well surely most of us) that it was just delaying the inevitable and Serena would win anyway.  Match point was amusing as Serena thought she hit an ace only for it to be called a let, and then she stepped up and hit the ace in exactly the same spot!  As for the mens final, it looked close until inexplicably Murray started acting like a spoilt brat midway through the third set and permanently handed the initiative to Djokovic.  The fall out has been that Murray claimed he was distracted by Djokovic’s antics of appearing injured and then recovering at various points.  If that’s true it is not very professional by Murray; meanwhile our “Best of British” press got excited as usual by a non-story and ran it for a few days.

What are the implications for the rest of the season for the WTA and ATP tour and the majors?  Well taking one tour at a time, it tells us that even at the ripe old age of 33 going on 34; Serena Williams is still the player to beat.  As long as I have been watching tennis, I have never seen a player dominate in their 30s.  There also does not seem to be any real challengers either.  Madison Keys definitely seems a prospect for the future but at this stage as is always the case with a young player, we have no idea whether she will become a champion, just to wait and see while we watch her improve her game; but she definitely has big potential.

Petra Kvitova flattered to deceive again, losing to Keys in the third round of the Australian Open.  Petra has stated she wants to be number 1 but obviously she has to be consistent at all of the tournaments, and she is still too inconsistent to be able to claim number 1 right now.  This could be the year Serena finally gets within touching distance of Steffi Graf’s 22 majors.  Sharapova will be a contender to win the French and Kvitova at Wimbledon but I cannot think of any other contenders at this stage.  The year is early of course and that could change. 

In the mens side, I hope the optimism of 2014 where we saw two new grand slam champions does not disappear.  In the 2014 Australian final, despite Nadal’s injury during the 2nd set, the final provided riveting and compelling viewing, not least because of Warwinka’s great shotmaking and risk taking.  This year I thought Warwinka would beat Djokovic in the semifinal and defend his title but that didn’t prove to be the case and again Djokovic has proved too strong mentally and physically.  The final itself was in danger of been another five hour dual until Murray blew and that was that.  Murray has now played in eight major finals since 2008, and incredibly I have seen no improvement in his 2nd serve delivery between then and now.  Hence, his % of points won on his 2nd serve was under 40% again and is quite frankly doomed to keep losing finals until he makes real adjustments to his game and mentality.  His coach Amelie Mauresmo also said during a BBC interview at last year’s US open that she does like his brattish behaviour when things are not going right. 

What we also learned is once again, match ups are vital in tennis.  Wawrinka’s game matches up well with Djokovic making for a great spectacle.  However, the final was not a spectacle but a war of attrition and who can physically last.  It is highly possible that Nadal will win the French; either Djokovic, Murray, Federer or Nadal for Wimbledon and maybe a couple of extra guys contend the US Open.  We also saw that neither Raonic, Nishikori nor Dimitrov have what it takes to win at this stage.  In Dimitrov’s match against Murray, he could only sustain attacking tennis for the first three games before becoming inconsistent and incoherent for the remainder of the match, having no discernible game plan on dealing with the Murray 2nd serve.  Meanwhile Raonic lost easily again to a top 4 player (Djokovic).  To give themselves confidence for the majors, these guys really need to win one of the Masters titles on offer which of course would be a first for any of them.

So, 2015 starts with the old faces winning their fifth and sixth Australian Open titles respectively.  Not the same start as 2014 where we had two first time winners, let us hope we have a great year of tennis but with some new winners in both the mens and womens game.