By Scoop Malinowski
Each Grand Slam certain players inch closer to fulfilling their dreams and their potentials, while others float away, farther and farther away from being contenders and challengers for the big titles.
Each tournament is a constant ebb and flow.
It’s not yet known what direction Ivo Karlovic, a month away from age 39, is heading. In the second round yesterday, the oldest man in the draw won a marathon 76 67 75 46 12-10 epic vs Yuichi Sugita. Karlovic, who saw his ATP ranking fall more than 50 spots last year, apparently is nowhere near ready to hang up his Head racquets or Mizuno gear.
Neither is Gilles Muller, who endured a wild roller coaster slugfest with Malik Jaziri. Muller was up two sets and deadlocked at 5-5 in the third set breaker but then lost that set and the fourth before finally prevailing 75 64 67 36 62. No. 23 seed Muller, who achieved his career high ranking last year at age 34, is another aging sharpshooter who could conceivably play for at least another two or three years if he remains healthy.
Ryan Harrison, who was on the verge of dropping out of the top 200 two summers ago, has resurrected his career and game with outstanding results. Reaching the finals of Brisbane last week, Harrison has sustained the fine play in Melbourne with wins over Dudi Sela and 31 seed Pablo Cuevas 64 76 64. Passionate, intense, fit and very confident, Harrison is back on track to fulfilling the potential that Mats Wilander predicted for the Louisianian, of reaching the top five in the world.
Andreas Seppi dropped all the way to 87 in the world last year and at 33 now, the Italian veteran who beat Federer in Australia a few years ago, has won two rounds against a pair of lefties, Corentin Moutet and Yoshihito Nishioka.
Daniel Nestor, 45 years old, lost again first round with Jonny Ehrlich 63 76 to Albot and Chung. Nestor has been stuck in a horrid slump since last summer and could be at the end of his Hall of Fame career.
Marcos Baghdatis, once a top ten player, is now ranked 103 in the world and at 32 years of age could be entering the stage of journeyman status. Bagdhatis lost in four sets yesterday to 20-year-old Andrey Rublev.
The biggest shock of the tournament so far has been Luksika Kumkum of Thailand. The 24-year-old ranked 125 in the world shocked Belinda Bencic 61 63 and will play her first ever Grand Slam third round match.
The second biggest surprise so far has been the fifteen year old Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, who has defeated 25 seed Peng Shuai and Olivia Rogowska to reserve her spot in the third round against pre-tournament favorite Elina Svitolina, age 23. If Kostyuk can manage to upset Svitolina, we could be looking at not only the youngest champion in history but also the possible heir apparent to Serena Williams.
Caro Wozniacki scored one of her best comebacks in her career yesterday, coming back from against 21-year-old Jana Fett 36 62 75. The 27-year-old ranked 3 in the world was down a seemingly impossible 1-5 and 15-40 in the final set yet still found a way to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. You have to believe that a win like this could instill that unbeatable feeling inside Wozniacki who is still seeking her first major title.
Kyle Edmund keeps quietly progressing his status and knocking off marquee players. This week, the 23 year old ranked 50 in the world has sent US Open finalist Kevin Anderson and Denis Istomin home early. Could the low-key Brit win a major title?
You can’t count out any player mentioned in this article. Or any others, young or old. The ebbs and flows of pro tennis, like the weather, are sometimes predictable and not predictable.
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« Previous 1 2 3catherine · January 20, 2018 at 9:44 am
Scoop – something the match lacked was a contrast in style and personality. Not a great subject for a book, for that reason. Enthralling contest though.
I still feel Simona has untapped potential. She’s got lots of shots, rarely uses them. Don’t know whether Cahill thinks it’s unneccessary or what. I can’t seriously see her winning a GS unless she can plug into greater variety in shotmaking and the ability to win matches with less running. Her body is not going to stand up to it.
Scoop Malinowski · January 20, 2018 at 10:14 am
Catherine; I spoke with Brenda Schultz last year in Miami, she was coaching Davis at the time and she told me Davis had confidence issues but major talent. The confidence issues kind of came from so many people, in her words, “kicking her down” for being so small. They all wrote her off because she was so small, just 5-2. Well, she showed last night at 5-2 she was playing no. 1 in the world tennis for several hours. Halep has that weird pressure of clinging on to the no. 1 ranking, if she loses, she will lose it. That’s a lot of pressure. Who knows? She may never get it again. That was one of the best matches I’ve ever seen, just two lil juggernauts, fighting it out, toe to toe, slamming it back and forth and playing otherworldly defense. Absolutely fascinating display of fighting spirit and sustaining it for so long. Davis is an interesting player that people don’t know much about. Very rare for 5-2 players to do anything special in majors. Halep is also an intriguing person. It’s also quite miraculous that Halep is no. 1 in the world right now. With all the stellar competition out there. It’s a wonder Halep is in the top ten really.
Duke Carnoustie · January 20, 2018 at 10:27 am
Chung looked great yesterday. If you want to train for this portion of the season, here’s how you do it, anybody who has been to Bangkok can attest to the conditions…
Q. You look very physically tough. After Milan, how did you prepare for this year?
HYEON CHUNG: I training in Thailand, Bangkok, with some other great player. Nishioka was there, and Randy, Nik Basilashvili, some more players. Also like three weeks. Weather is really hot, same like Melbourne. Just training hard in Bangkok.
Duke Carnoustie · January 20, 2018 at 10:29 am
Djokovic: As I said, I’m really pleased with where my game is at at the moment. I know that matches from this moment onwards will get tougher and tougher. I’m not first time in this particular situation. I’m looking forward to the next challenge, you know. Hyeon Chung, who has beat Zverev today, a big win for him, someone that is very disciplined, one of the NextGens. He won in Milano last year. He’s playing great. He’s fit. He doesn’t have too many holes in his game. He’s very nice guy. You can see he’s a hard worker. It pays off.
Andrew Miller · January 20, 2018 at 10:38 am
Federer said he benefitted from best of five sets finals at regular tournaments. Maybe another way of expressing that he feels his training is better than his young opponents.
Maybe other players don’t think they have a chance. Start believing fourth round is like winning a masters etc.
There’s no way around it. They need to improve.
catherine · January 20, 2018 at 10:44 am
Chung first showed his talent in Houston a few years ago.
Can’t remember much about his matches but I remember his name and someone picking him out as one for the future.
Scoop – interesting about Lauren. I wonder how her future will turn out. The only other player I know who was about Lauren’s height was years ago and that was Rosie Casals at 5-2 3/4 and even for those days she was considered too small to succeed in singles although she was a great doubles player, as you know. I believe Rosie would have done better in singles if she’d had access to the coaching and training around nowadays. Then, of course, those things didn’t really exist and many players could not have afforded them anyway.
catherine · January 20, 2018 at 10:48 am
It’s ironic that a number of Polish and German tennis followers are busy tearing Angie in half and claiming her for both Germany and Poland.
Somehow I don’t think this would be an issue if she had a ranking somewhere in the 300s 🙂
Andrew Miller · January 20, 2018 at 11:31 am
Obviously, Nadal, Federer, Djokovic are most dominant the men’s tour has seen and likely will ever see. The fact they can lock out several generations of would be champions is unbelievable. They have dispatched all rivals over the better part of two decades, from 2004 to now.
I’m not sure if words will ever do justice to this era. As much as Laver, Sampras gave tennis new legends, these guys are twice as good. The fact that we have to reach so far into the past to find worthy challengers is a testament to their role in rewriting the record books.
Andrew Miller · January 20, 2018 at 11:34 am
Only comparison that fits is the dominance of Evert, Navratilova, and Graf. Three overlapping super champions. Seles would have joined if not for the obsessions of one man.
Andrew Miller · January 20, 2018 at 11:39 am
Amanda Coetzer was a shorter player with a solid career. I like Coetzer a lot.
Chazz · January 20, 2018 at 11:41 am
You’re right Andrew. I think it’s likely 3 of the 4 semifinalists will be the usual legends and the fourth will be the Dimitrov/Kyrgios winner.
Chung was very impressive but Zverev is going to have to figure out how to play best of 5 matches. I saw somewhere he is 6-12 in matches > 3 sets. Sandgren is a great story, what a grinder! And Berdych, wow. He destroyed del Potro and no one saw that coming. I actually think Berdy could give Fed a tough match and Cilic could give Nadal a tough match but I would never bet on the legends losing to those guys.
Hartt · January 20, 2018 at 2:20 pm
I am watching Berdy vs Delpo now. Tomas is playing very well, and on the AO site they called him “steely.” But Delpo looks tired, that long match in the heat has taken a toll. And I read that Delpo sustained a thigh injury in that match against Khachanov. In any case, it will be interesting to see how Berdy does in his next match.
Scoop Malinowski · January 20, 2018 at 5:19 pm
Catherine, No, Chung first shined at Miami I think it was three years ago. He crushed Granollers with a bagel. That was when I first noticed this kid was special. Granollers was tough in singles back then and he ate the Chung bagel.
Scoop Malinowski · January 20, 2018 at 5:21 pm
Davis wallops the ball a lot harder than Coetzer did. And she moves as well if not better. Tougher era today though. Coetzer would be a fringe player today. Maybe I’m disrespecting Coetzer’s game 🙂
Scoop Malinowski · January 20, 2018 at 5:22 pm
Saw Berd vs Delpo in DC about seven years ago. Wonder who leads the head to head?
jg · January 20, 2018 at 6:03 pm
The crowd for the Hewitt Groth doubles match was going crazy, amazing they won that first set, they were down 5 2 to a very good team. It really is too bad they didn’t allow Roddick to play with Fish a few years back, he’s probably too far removed now to do any damage. Hewitt is more than holding his own.
Scoop Malinowski · January 20, 2018 at 6:11 pm
Hewitt beat Djokovic in that mini exo and he’s still a force in doubles, played well in that DC tie last year, his partner was the weak link.
Chazz · January 20, 2018 at 6:20 pm
Head-to-head is now 5-4 Del Potro vs. Berdych.
Scoop Malinowski · January 20, 2018 at 6:33 pm
I just looked that up. And they did not play in DC. I think they were a round away maybe. Can’t see Berd beating Fed though he has stung Fed in majors before.
Scoop Malinowski · January 20, 2018 at 7:41 pm
From the highlights I saw, Hewitt was going CRAZY. Guy was jacked up as much as any pro or junior I’ve ever seen jacked up. Running around the court like a tornado and even expressing some new celebrations. Hewitt is more animated than ever and his passion is still there. He should officially unretire ASAP and get back on the Tour. He will have some doubles points after this event so he just may do it. Very happy to see Paes has won two rounds as well. He really needed those wins because he’s struggled to win any matches lately at the main tour level.
Andrew Miller · January 22, 2018 at 11:02 am
Dissing Coetzer! C’mon you like her!
Andrew Miller · January 22, 2018 at 11:04 am
Djokovic is…troubled. He knows the burden is on players like Chung to show they can win slams (still unlikely) and he also must recognize he’s looking like JC Ferrero these days.
Scoop Malinowski · January 22, 2018 at 11:57 am
Yes I did like Coetzer but don’t remember her game being particularly effective against the elites though she did have a few good wins over the likes of Steffi and Conchita but not sure if she ever beat Seles. Coetzer had a boring personality on the court, she never dialed into her emotional adrenaline reserves. She played like a robot. But she was quick as a cat and very consistent for a player with a height and reach disadvantage.
Andrew Miller · January 22, 2018 at 3:30 pm
Dissing Coetzer! it’s ok there is no requirement to be pro Coetzer. She was like a Rochus brother.
Scoop Malinowski · January 22, 2018 at 3:58 pm
Facing Coetzer, To be published in 2020 🙂