Aljaz Bedene: The Slovenian Cat among the Seeds

Not much is known in the Tennis world about the 23-year old Slovenian, Aljaz Bedene. But within minutes of his surprise upset over crowd favourite Stanislas Wawrinka, seeded fourth at the Chennai Open, in the quarter-finals, it was evident that the Slovenian was not someone to be brushed off lightly.

His relative anonymity in the playing field a perfect foil for his strong and powerful game, the Slovenian’s two upsets against two really strong contenders for the Chennai Open in as many days has left the draw quite wide open and possibly, made it even more challenging. Especially for Janko Tipsarevic, who remains the only top-seed left in the main draw and who will play the Slovenian next; in the semi-finals.

The Serb was particularly candid about his semi-final opponent even going to the extent of saying that while, on paper, playing against Bedene seems to be easy; the fact that the Slovenian isn’t afraid to play his natural game against the bigger players would be a difficult challenge to counter. And though statistically, Bedene has lost the only ever match that he has played against Tipsarevic (Vienna 2012 Quarter-finals), the Serb admitted that the result was courtesy of Bedene’s injury retirement and as such couldn’t be rated as a comparable outcome to potentially predict an outcome in this forthcoming encounter between the two of them. Tipsareveic even went on to add that this being the first tournament of the year, players’ rustiness still lingers which becomes even more difficult to play as free-flowing as the player would want himself to.

Bedene broke into the top-100 for the first time last season and is now ranked 86^th in the world. He has a career high ranking of 79, which he achieved in August last year and if he continues to play as solidly as he has done this far in the Chennai Open, Bedene does have a very good chance of breaking into the top-50. As it is, his good run at the Chennai Open will ensure that his rankings get a definite boost, just right before the first grand slam of the year.

Armed with a good serve and a powerful forehand, two factors that are counted as the biggest weapons in his cache of arsenal, the Slovenian’s ability to adapt to the conditions and modify his game accordingly has also accounted for successes against the higher seeds at the Chennai Open.

But while the Slovenian has played only at Court 1, his quarter-final match against Tipsarevic will be held at Centre Court, a comparatively slower playing surface than Court 1. And while the crowd has been going strongly for the Serbian throughout the course of this tournament, Bedene’s heroics against Wawrinka and Haase haven’t exactly gone unnoticed by the fans, drawing a certain few into rooting for him with fervour.

A winner of five Challenger and Futures titles, the up and coming Slovenian, to quote a cliché, is the proverbial dark horse. Not just because of his performance at Chennai but also because the world’s yet to see him fully, so as to be able to evaluate him further. And till such a time comes, it’s possible that the Slovenian will continue to be a surprise amongst the player ranks, causing upsets even no one’s least expecting it to be so.