Enough Politics, Let's Recap What's Up At Australian Open

I guess I’ve had enough of Trump and it’s only day two of his presidency. So let’s talk some tennis. Down under at the Australian Open, the top seeds have been dropping like flies, starting in the second round. First, the oft-injured Denis Istomin, ranked 117th in the world, took out #2 seed Novak Djokovic in five fabulous sets. Both players displayed their high level of play in a first set that lasted nearly an hour and a half and ended up with Istomin coming back to win the tiebreak 10-8. Istomin followed that historic win up with another 5 set victory against the #30 seed Pablo Carreno Busta. The second round was no kinder for the #3 women’s seed, Aga Radwanska, who was simply crushed by Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-3, 6-2.

Roger Federer returned to Grand Slam action after an over six month layoff to recover from surgery and simply let his body rejuvenate after a decade and half on tour. Federer’s draw allowed him to get a couple of winnable matches under his belt before he ran into a true quality opponent, although on the men’s tour virtually every opponent is easily capable of winning on any given day. In the third round, Federer’s faced #10 seed Tomas Berdych who has occasionally give Fed some problems. But Federer was in old form and dispartched Berdych in 3 routine sets that took just 90 minutes. His reward was to play the #5 seed Kei Nishikori. Fed may be just a fraction of a step slower than in his prime but he never let Nishikori ever really get comfortable during the entire match. In the end, Federer was actually the fitter of the two as Nishikori had some hip problems and Fed prevailed 6-3 in the fifth set after nearly three and a half hours.

Federer had some real motivation in this match because the draw had the winner playing #1 seed Andy Murray in round 4. But another oft-injured journeyman, Mischa Zverev capitalized on Andy Murray’s sub-par play do to the ankle he twisted in the prior round, taking out the tournament favorite in just four sets. In the third round, Mischa’s younger brother and budding phenom, Alexander, jumped out to a two sets to one lead against Rafa Nadal but started to cramp up in the fifth set and eventually lost 4-6, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2. Women’s #1 seed Angie Kerber followed Murray to the exit with a lackluster 6-2, 6-3 loss to Coco Vandeweghe who simply overpowered her. Coco had survived a tough three setter in the prior round, coming from a break down in the third to beat the resurgent Eugenie Bouchard. It has been an underwhelming start to the season for Kerber who may be feeling the pressure of defending her #1 position in the rankings as well as the drain of the off-court responsibilities and opportunities that comes with it. This pretty well opens the tournament up for Serena Williams to finally get her 23rd Grand Slam victory to break the tie for second place all-time with Steffi Graf.

If Coco Vandeweghe can keep it together mentally, which is a big if, it could set up an all-American final against Serena and a clash of two of the biggest servers and hitters on the women’s tour. As for the American men, despite some promising wins early on, only two American men survived until the third round, Jack Sock and Sam Querrey. Querrey was summarily dispatched by Murray while Sock played Tsonga close for three sets before succumbing in four.

The quality and depth in men’s tennis today is simply phenomenal. Even the top players have to work incredibly hard to simply win a point especially on this Australian Open surface, as the first set of the Djokovic-Istomin match so clearly illustrated. The roster of players who are still alive in the tournament today is full of talented, powerhouse players: Federer, Nadal, Wawrinka, the French pair of Monfils and Tsonga, Raonic, who has kind of flown under the radar so far, the up and coming Dominic Thiem, and the resurgent  Gregor Dmitrov as well as Istomin and Zverev. Besides Istomin and Zverev, you wouldn’t be surprised if any one of these made it to the final. It all sets up for a fun and exciting second week down under.