Tennis in Australia: Players Who Need a Break
This month, some of the World’s best tennis players will make their yearly pilgrimage to Australia for both warm-up tournaments and the first Grand Slam of the year. For many pros, this starting week is a shaky one; most tennis players build up their confidence
through wins. For many players, January starts after almost two months of a hiatus on competitive tennis.
For many players taking part in the Hyundai Hopman Cup which pitches Australia against Belgium, the tentativeness of coming back from a break goes well beyond the first few sets. These initial matches may, in some cases, stand out as a defining point in
many careers.
Let’s take a look at some of the players at the Hopman event in Perth (slated to start later today). Australian local Lleyton Hewitt, for example, is almost thirty years old and has spent almost half his life on the ATP circuit. Despite this great tenure,
September 2011 will mark the tenth anniversary of his solo Grand Slam at the US Open. What makes his lack of victory after 2001 more surprising is that he played against, and outdid tennis legend Pete Sampras.
Now World Number 54, Hewitt’s career is dependent on his performance this year. If he fails to climb the tennis ranking charts, he may want to consider hanging up his racquets and calling it a day; it remains to be seen whether or not his accurate ground
strokes and legendary willpower will be enough to pull him back towards the top.
A similar story can be told for Hewitt’s partner, Alicia Molik. She will be hoping for success and a return of both form and confidence after a series of losses in lower-tier tournaments. The player was once in the World’s Top Ten, before an ear infection
had her pulling out of tournaments in 2005. She is now on a comeback and struggles to retain a ranking within the World’s Top Hundred players; a spot in the handful of Grand Slam contestants is well beyond her reach.
Another player worthy of analysis is Serbian French Open winner, Ana Ivanovic. She has been through two messy years; once the darling of the courts, she now straggles behind major players. However, she has shown signs of a return to form over the past few
years.
However, questions rose once again after she split up with Heinz Gunthardt (the coach responsible for Steffi Graf’s record-making career). Ivanovic is currently trialling new coach Antonio van Grechen to take her through the Australian season. When asked
about the change in her team, she says, “We only started two or three weeks ago, so it’s still the process of getting to know each other and getting to know each other’s routine and everything. Obviously it’s going to be great to test it throughout the
matches and tournaments and pressure situations.”
Ivanovic will be representing her country with World Number 3, Novak Djokovic. Like his compatriot, the Djoker has also been the subject of scrutiny where his progress is concerned. This may seem preposterous, especially after he reached the US Open title
match and went up to World Number 2; however, as legend Boris Becker points out,
“Murray and Djokovic have been showing potential for the last few years, but neither of them really progressed this season. Obviously it is difficult with Nadal and Federer ahead of them, but I would hope they will make more of an impact next year.”
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