The Australian Open 2016, the first Grand Slam of the calendar year, had everything a tennis fan could ask for. Shocking upsets, new rising stars, epic matches and scandals kept the fan on tenterhooks from the start of the tournament till the very end. With three of the show courts flaunting their roofs, tournament director Craig Tiley earned his yearly dose of praises from players and rightly so.The rain made sure that it played its part in the Australian Open drama as it entailed change of conditions and brought forth challenges to qualifiers and champions alike. Towards the latter stages of the tournament, the organizers called upon a pantheon of champions like the great Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall and other legends like Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong, Kim Clijsters who added a smattering of history.Tennis fans got an opportunity to see new champions being crowned and some old ones retaining their stranglehold on the title. But above all the tournament gave us some great learning about the sport, its intricacies and a hint of the direction in which it is heading this season.If you missed out on any of the action, you need not worry! You can easily relive all the matches of the tournament on the Sony LIV website and App. You can find all the highlights, winning shots, key moments, interviews, and much more.
#1 No mind Djokovic embraces the Last Samurai
The Serb started the brand new season in style. He picked up from he had left the previous season. At the end of a phenomenal 2015 the critics, as part of their off season musings, raised questions regarding Novak’s ability to stay put at the helm in the coming season. Their queries were answered when he annihilated Rafael Nadal in the Doha Open Final.
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Novak’s quest for a sixth Australian Open title was ridden with obstacles – both physical and mental. Though he was well rested during the off season and had trained at Monte Carlo, he seemed to run out of gas against the French journeyman Gilles Simon. With a jaw dropping unforced error count that exceeded a ton, Novak was way below his best and yet pulled off a five set victory.
The match fixing scandal rocked the tennis world in the very first week of the Slam down under. Rumor mills ran extra shifts and 16 players who are or were among the top 50 in the World were alleged to have been involved in various instances of match fixing. A day later, an Italian tabloid carried news alleging the current World No.1 and the reigning Australian Open Champion Novak Djokovic to have thrown away a match against Fabrice Santoro in 2007.
Let’s face it. It is not easy for a player who is currently at the pinnacle of the Sport to keep his mind off such distractions. Novak probably saw the whole situation in another light. He seemed so unperturbed with all the noise that he marched on round after round taking down opponents at will and proving the point that ‘consistency’ is indeed his middle name. Following the minor hiccup against Simon he blasted Nishikori off the court, made Federer’s artistry seem inadequate and mollycoddled Murray into yet another teary speech.
The key to the Serb’s mindboggling success is the little dialogue – Too many minds, have no mind - from the movie The Last Samurai, in which Tom Cruise was learning to be a swordsman.
With the sixth Australian Open on his mantle, Novak earned his place in history as he tied Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver with 11 Grand Slam titles. Novak lived up to the Djokovic standard.
He has definitely coined his own standard and the process, as we learn, has no shortcuts but only includes hard work, sheer determination, extraordinary will and an unwavering focus.
#2 Every rose has its thorn
How many times would you try to earn your first match win in the main draw of a Grand Slam?
Zhang Shuai, the 27 year old Chinese qualifier, won her First Round match in a Grand Slam for the first time at the Australian Open. She was unsuccessful in her 14 previous attempts at making it past the First Round of a Grand Slam. What made her feat more significant was the fact that she beat top seed Simona Halep in straight sets in their First Round encounter.
With more wins coming off the Zhang racquet, the media celebrated the discovery of their new darling and spread the word that her nickname was ‘Serena’. Zhang finally clarified that her nickname was not ‘Serena’ and that it was ‘Rose’. She had no idea why she was being called ‘Serena’ and was not fond of ‘Rose’ either.
Showing no signs of zoning out, in spite of the three extra matches she had played in the qualifying stages, Zhang made most of her run in the Australian Open by reaching the Quarter Finals. She had even started to believe that she could win the Open if she continued to play at the same level. Unfortunately her level did wane but we did learn from her two important lessons.
One, to try, try again – at least 14 times - till you succeed.
Two, there is only one Serena on the WTA.
#3 Tennis is a family affair
This edition of the Australian Open saw what was probably the highest number of siblings in the Main Draw of a Grand Slam across Singles and Doubles.
Over the years the Williams sisters and the Bryan brothers hogged most of the limelight. Just these two pairs of siblings have an astronomical number of Grand Slams between them. In the case of other siblings, while one did great and reached new heights with every Slam the other always struggled and remained relatively obscure.
This changed for the Pliskova sisters at Melbourne this year as both Karolina and Krystina Pliskova moved to the Second Round of a Grand Slam. Karolina has been raking in the moolah over the last year or so by making deep runs in multiple WTA tournaments. On the other hand, Krystina saw light at the end of the tunnel when she beat the home favorite Sam Stosur in her First Round.
Among the other sibling pairs were the Kichenok sisters from Ukraine, Radwanska sisters from Poland, Chan sisters from China and of course the Murray brothers.
Andy Murray and his older brother Jamie Murray were the first brothers to reach the Finals in both Singles and Doubles Championships of a Grand Slam tournament in the Open Era. This time around Jamie Murray, who is not as famous and accomplished as Andy, basked in glory as he won the Doubles Championships along with partner Bruno Soares.
Andy, unfortunately, had a tumultuous two weeks. In the first week of the tournament his father-in-law Nigel Sears, who also coaches former No.1 and French Open Champion Ana Ivanovic, collapsed during Ivanovic’s match against Madison Keys. The second week was not bright either as he lost a fifth Australian Open Final to his nemesis Djokovic.
With a Final to play the very next day, Andy was up till 1am to watch his brother Jamie Murray being anointed as the new Champion in Doubles. Indeed, tennis is a family affair.
#4 Age is just a number
Some things just get better with age. Especially the Swiss.
Roger Federer and Martina Hingis continued to stay relevant to modern day tennis. While the Swiss Maestro, 34, banished the ghosts of a Third Round exit last year to reach his 12th Semi Final at the Australian Open, the Swiss Miss, 35, stretched her magical run at the Grand Slams with Sania Mirza as they won their third Grand Slam together and remain unbeaten with a winning streak of 36 matches.
Serena Williams, 34, reached her 26th Grand Slam Final. Though it did not end the way she would have wanted, she still owns a staggering win rate of 80% in Slam Finals. How grand is that?
Nine of the top 10 players in the current ATP rankings are all above the age of 28.
David Ferrer, 33, reached yet another Quarter Final but invariably ran into one of his insurmountable obstacles. Tomas Berdych, 30, lost to Federer in the Quarter Finals, the same stage in which he had scored his first victory over Rafael Nadal in 19 matches last year. Irrespective of the outcome, these players of the 30-plus club are consistent and manage to keep the 20 somethings out of the top 10.
Daniel Nestor, 43 and Radek Stepanek, 37 reached the Finals of the Men’s Doubles Championships. They lost to the eventual winners Jamie Murray, 29 and Bruno Soares, 33. Soares won in both the Men’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles Championships for the first time in his career. He showed us that it is never too late for more Grand Slam glory to come your way if you hunker down and work as hard as you can.
#5 Dj vu is a double edged sword
Been there, done that. Willing to be there again and do the same thing?
As far as the recently concluded Australian Open is concerned, almost every one, apart from Novak Djokovic and Angelique Kerber, would say No!
Rafael Nadal’s exit in the First Round of this year’s Australian Open would have reopened old wounds of Wimbledon and the US Open. After a humiliating defeat to Djokovic at the Doha Open Final, a First Round exit at the Australian Open would have dire consequences on his confidence.
Maria Sharapova lost for the 18th consecutive time to her long-time nemesis Serena Williams in the Quarter Final of the Australian Open 2016. Last year, Sharapova surrendered to defeat with one of her most dignified extempore and this year she just kept her responses curt.
After being ousted in the Semi Final of the last US Open, Serena Williams did much better, by her own standards, in advancing to the Final. Standing a match away from creating history, Williams was yet again hounded by nerves and she lost to first time Finalist Angelique Kerber.
The great Roger Federer was hardly allowed to play his game by his Serbian nemesis from the beginning of the match. Though Federer found another gear in the Third Set to turn the match around, the Serbian ammunition was too hot to handle in the Fourth Set. In spite of all the hard work and his relentless pursuit for an 18th Slam, Federer had to bite the dust.
Andy Murray was in the Final of last year’s Australian Open and this year too. The outcome, however, was the same. This year he succumbed to Djokovic in straight sets. With the same Runner Up plaque in his hand, Murray found the courage to say, “I feel like I have been here before.”
All these five great players, with an impressive resume, were waylaid by self-doubt.
On the verge of a record sixth Australian Open title, Djokovic summarized his performance by saying that his convictions were stronger than his doubts. His convictions not only helped him secure his 6th Australian Open and an 11th Grand Slam but also pulled him into a higher orbit in which he is the only player currently.
And with that he imparted to us our most valuable lesson and takeaway from the Aussie Open 2016.
