While the rest of the world is on vacation, head set on Christmas and New Year celebrations, the Australian activity is in full swing, with the junior championship and the playoffs for a main draw wildcard at the Australian Open 2016. The men’s tournament was played at best of 5 sets, as in the Grand Slam tournament. Melbourne Park is still mostly “work in progress”, but courts 6 and 7 already have the new plexicushion and (shaded!) areas for spectators. Here the “best after the best” Australian players competed for a spot in the main draw of the Open starting on January 18.
The tournament was characterised by hot weather conditions and by … family events.
Australian Summer has come, and all week temperatures were around 30 C to surge to 41C on Saturday, with humidity of 10% and the classic warm Northerly wind: practically a convection oven. Today (Sunday) the situation is not very different until the end of the match, to then quickly change with a thunderstorm and temperature drop of 20 degrees in an hour: “four seasons in a day” for which Melbourne is famous. Whoever is coming to Oz for the Open in January it has been notified!
Family events have affected the tournament even more than the weather.
The men’s final has not even been played as Ben Mitchell withdrew to rush home, or better to the hospital, to be with his partner for the birth of their baby. Thus, James Duckworth, seeded n.1 in the playoff and ranked n. 120 ATP sends his regards, congratulations and thanks for what will be his fifth appearance at the Australian Open. ” I didn’t play so well the last four months of the year so to come here and win a few matches, especially some tight ones, some tight tiebreakers, really helps the confidence a lot.” Duckworth reached the final after defeating former ATP n.39 Marinko Matosevic in 4 sets 4-6 6-3 7-6 (7) 7-6 (8). 2015 has been a year to forget for Matosevic, characterized by injuries and illness which made him plunge to n. 296 of the ranking. Ben Mitchell had defeated the 19 years old Brad Mousley in the semifinals, in 4 sets 2-6 7-6 (3) 7-6 (2) 6-4. Mousley returned to competition in June after a one-year ban for ecstasy consumption. I remember watching Mousley losing from Italian Gianluigi Quinzi 6-4, 6-0 at the Australian Open juniors in 2013 and I remember Quinzi saying between his teeth, “How the heck hits the ball this guy?!?”. Well, Mousley has developed in these two years, has a big serve (some thirty ace in the semi), a powerful forehand and covers the net well (just loved his serve and volley). IMHO today it would be him making that remark on the Italian.
Let’s face it: the level of the women’s tournament was … so-and-so. Alas, Australia is struggling to generate talent in women’s tennis. Yes, we can rejoice with the naturalization of Daria Gavrilova, who got her Aussie citizenship last month, and with Ajla Tomljanovic who is not far. But it’s not enough.
The two favourites were the twenty-four years old Olivia Rogowska (n.275 WTA) and the twenty six year old Arina Rodionova (n. 309 WTA). In the end, though, the winners was 17 years old Maddison Inglis, n. 768 WTA and n.103 junior ITF. The archetype of the Australian girl (as dreamed overseas): blonde, blue eyes, big smile, Maddy Inglis fulfils a dream lasted a week, helped by the premature exit of all the seeded players on her side of the draw, and by another family event: the other finalist – Arina Rodionova – got married the day before the final, after the semi-final victory against Storm Sanders, with AFL player (Australian Rules football a.k.a. footy) Ty Vickery. Maybe because of the Champagne bubbles, maybe the excitement and tension of the marriage, maybe the stress for a final which she could not lose, maybe the heat, but Arina was not really on the court today. The match was played up to 3 all in the first set. Then Rodionova’s serve was broken by Inglis who eventually took the first set 6-4. The second was a monologue of Inglis, very effective on return, focused on the ball and displaying a serve (actually not really booming, but well placed) which saved her in a couple of tricky situations. It was also a monologue of unforced errors and tactical mistakes by Rodionova, who got literally crushed in the second set, 3-0, 5-1 with Inglis sealing a final 6-4, 6-2 victory with a serve on the T. Just in time to avoid the downpour.
Other wildcards went to the winners of the junior tournaments Marc Polmans and Priscilla Hon (who defeated Inglis in the final).
A final note goes to Destanee Aiava: write down the name if you do not know her already. Fifteen years old, physically strong, a serve that would be the envy of a number of top 150 WTA, she reached the QF at the playoff (defeated by Rodionova). If she improves on her mobility and grows mentally as she is growing physically, we will see her soon – but very soon – on the main stage.
From Melbourne
Robbie Cappuccio