Justine
Henin not concerned about boo-birds, while Andy Murray is
concerned about Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Cynthia Lum/WireImage.com
FROM THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN – Upon hearing after
landing in Melbourne that Roger Federer and Justine Henin were highlighting
the Sunday press conferences, I tried to recall the last time that two
players came into a Slam as such significant favorites after such dominant
stretches. I had to go back more than decade to 1995, when Pete Sampras
and Steffi Graf had come off convincing Wimbledon victories, came into
the US Open levitating and spellbound the fields.
Those two still are, in my never humble opinion, the two best players ever,
although it won’t last for long, as Federer is sure to catch Sampras
in overall major crowns in the next two years, and very likely do so
this year. Henin will never catch her heroine Steffi in overall Slam
titles, but given her stiff her competition was last year compared to
Graf’s
in 1995, you would have to concede that the Belgian had a very Steffi-like
year in 2007. Not quite a "Graf runs the table and knocks off all the silverware in
her foe’s laps" type of season (especially that
fork still sticking out of Arantxa’s thigh), but a "sort of a sweet and serious Steffi snuffs out the main contenders"
type of season.
Federer talked tough despite a stomach virus that laid him up about a week,
and Henin was quick to put aside thoughts that she’s still brooding
about the crowd’s reaction to her controversial retirement in the
'06 final to Amelie Mauresmo, who, by the way, is flying about as far
under the radar as any two-time Slam champ can. The buzz is all about
Lindsay Davenport, her baby, and her potential heavyweight bout against
Maria Sharapova in round two. It’s not about Mauresmo’s
potential march to reclaim the top spot. Few believe she is physically
up to it. We’ll know a
lot about her state of affairs if she faces Jelena Jankovic in the in the
fourth round, or Serena Williams in the quarters. However, Jankovic
is under serious threat in the first round from Tamira Paszek and the
word off the court is that hamstring injury aside, JJ still looks very
tired from her endless schedule, which has yet to cease. She may survive
a few rounds, but she may not be up for Mauresmo, and certainly not
for Serena, who may get a stern test herself from the now recovered
Victoria Azarenka.
QUESIONING THE SURFACE Federer may take a few matches before he’s
running as quickly as the wind blew of the Pacific today, too. But his
opinions are coming hard and strong and he took a big rip at the change
of Aussie Open surface today, saying “it’s not the same tournament
anymore and they’ve
changed the surface too many times in the last years. So they had better
keep this one for the next 50 years.”
Will they? Who knows? Plexicushion, which has replaced Rebound Ace, is
not much different from the rubber that they played on last year, but
it doesn’t
bounce as high and is slower. But from my experience, is pretty close to
the US Open surface (DecoTurf) in speed. I haven’t hit on it enough
to say that the feel is much different, but it does have a little more
stick to it than traditional hard courts. Federer thinks it’s too
slow and like most of the players who have weighed in, says that the
longer the rallies go, the heavier the balls get. “Everybody’s
complaining that we’re playing too much from the baseline, so we’ll
only see more of that in Australia, that’s for sure.” Federer
can win on this surface, but can Sharapova, Davenport or Andy Roddick
against players that can usually bully their opponents on quicker surfaces?
We’ll
know very soon.
Lleyton Hewitt has consistently complained that the AO surface was too
slow for his liking and now he enters his home country Slam without much
to cheer about. He hasn’t made an impact since last summer, when
he made a marginal one by reaching the semis of Cincy. He had been for
second-week lock at the Slam for so many years and, then in 2007,
failed to reach at least one Grand Slam quarter for first time since 1999.
A good effort would be to reach the fourth round and get a crack at Novak
Djokovic, who bested him at ’07 Wimbledon. He’s going to have
to up his level a ton though to win that contest and now he has the likes
of Wayne Arthurs saying that by being more aggressive, he may have lost
that consistency which made him the best player in the world.
“I'm still pretty consistent, though, compared to most guys out there,
still play the percentages a lot better than most guys out there,”
Hewitt said. “So there are probably a handful of guys that are up
there in terms of consistency with me. But the game's always changing,
as well. And Roger Federer's obviously the guy that's taken the game to
a new level. And you've got to look at little ways of improving your game
to be able to match it with the best players. And being slightly a bit
more aggressive and maybe not so predictable is maybe one way of doing
that.”
Ron Cioffi/TR
Has Vera Zvonareva's ankle
healed?
Hewitt’s right there. He really has no choice because with his multitude
of injuries, being an explosive backboard isn’t going to cut it
anymore. Hewitt’s
results have been so marginal that the nation is starting to turn its eyes
to Chris Guccione, who reached the Sydney final before falling to Dmitry
Tursunov. Imagine that – backing a guy in Melbourne who just re-entered
the Top 100. Upon whispering that thought while standing amongst the
multitude of statues of all-time greats in the plaza, I could have sworn
I saw Rod Laver’s bronzed head quiver. Guccione could face last
year’s
finalist, Fernando Gonzalez, in the second round. … Is Jelena Dokic’s
year over before it began? The former No. 4 crashed out of the qualies
with a 6-2, 6-1 loss to veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn. With little funding
and a virtually non-existent ranking, it will be a long climb back for
a woman who has said she’s gone from hell and back at least on four
different occasions during her career, which means that hell isn’t
far behind and could be right around the corner again. I wouldn’t
be surprised to see her drop off the face of the earth again and not
resurface during the next Aussie summer, but I hope she doesn’t,
because Dokic still has some talent left.
QUICK PICKS FOR MONDAY
Andy Murray will confront Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a contest that is worrying
the British press corp. Sure, Tsonga is explosive but, over five sets,
the young Scot should be able to figure him out. Alicia Molik has to
be concerned about streaky Kaia Kanepi, too, in night match, but the
Aussie should survive in three. … How about an early upset like
the red hot Michael Llodra over Nikolay Davydenko out on Margaret Court
Arena? No, I’ll stay away from that one, but will say it will
go five before the Russian chops his legs from under him. … The
Americans Down Under badly want to see a Roddick v. Donald Young second-round
match, but Young has to best Germany’s Michael Berrer first.
That’s
a tough ticket, but Ill take D-Young in four. … Anyone for a
Ai Sugiyama v. Vera Zvonareva sweat-fest? Sure, if Vera’s bum ankle
was better, but she won’t
be able to play for two hours, which is what it will take to win. … Britain’s
Jaime Baker qualified and now will have the pleasure of watching Ivo
Karlovic’s
service bomb's explode in the corners. … Young American lefty
Jesse Levine takes to Court 10 against the scandalized Martin Vassallo
Arguello. Think Levine got some tips from his practice partner, Federer?
All it will take is one decent win and Levine will put himself on the
US map. … Good
for Stanford alum Sam Warburg for qualifying. He’ll play the
unknown Argentine, Juan Pablo Brzezicki. … If you are looking
for a terrific small court match-up, go watch Igor Andreev's cannon
forehands blasted at Andrei Pavel’s wondrous backhand on Court
14. … The chat rooms love the new look of Dominika Cibulkova,
but she’ll
face another veteran chat room favorite, Flavia Pennetta. Bye, bye
to the fresh face. … Both
Ashley Harkleroad and Virginie Razzano have had decent starts to the
year and they will play the last match on Court 21 out by the railroad
tracks. Where’s the respect for Pebbles and Ra-Ra? Take Razzano
in three.
