With the conclusion of the Launceston Challenger overnight, it officially brings to an end the main Australasian ATP circuit for 2017. The Tour for now moves to the Americas and Europe, with events in Memphis, Buenos Aires, and Rotterdam signalling a move West for most.
So what has the first section of the season revealed in 2017?
Match-fixing rears its ugly head again. In 2016 a Buzzfeed/BBC investigative report claimed that corruption was rife in tennis, with allegations of match-fixing at high levels of the game surfacing just as the 2016 Australian Open got underway. The tennis world spent much of the next twelve months trying to repair the integrity image of the game. Thus, when Australian Open Junior Champion Oliver Anderson was charged with match-fixing in relation to a Traralgon Challenger event, it brought back awkward questions about how effective the efforts of the Tennis Integrity Unit have been in the last year. Anderson has been officially suspended from tennis activity, but the TIU has said as things stand this neither a confirmation of his guilt or innocence of the charge as of yet.
Australian juniors break the big time. Fortunately for the Aussies, there was much promising news to deflect attention from the Anderson story. Nick Kyrgios may have suffered a disappointing early exit, but Alex De Minaur and Omar Jasika both gave the home nation of the year’s first Grand Slam yet more promise for the future. De Minaur qualified for an ATP event for the first time at the Brisbane International, defeating Mikhail Kukushkin and Frances Tiafoe. He then defeated Gerald Melzer in a classic five-set thriller in the Australian Open first round, coming back from Melzer serving for the match in the fourth set to race through the fifth. Jasika didn’t excel at the same Grand Slam, having been dealt an unlucky draw with David Ferrer. However, he made a Challenger final in Happy Valley, and then won in Burnie to suggest he is worth as much attention as De Minaur. Other notable mentions go to Max Purcell, Marc Polmans, and Andrew Whittington, who all showcased the depth of tennis in Australia.
American Juniors rival the Aussies. Reilly Opelka, Frances Tiafoe, Noah Rubin, Ernesto Escobedo. These Americans are all under twenty-one and each distinguished themselves well at the Australian Open. With the exception of Rubin, they featured in their first Australian Open, all qualifying and three of the four making the second round, Opelka only narrowly lost a five-set thriller in the first round to David Goffin. Tiafoe, Rubin, and Escobedo all had hard second round draws with Alexander Zverev, Roger Federer, and David Ferrer respectively, and they bowed out at that stage. Yet it is the first real time that these players have qualified for a Grand Slam in their own right away from the familiar confines of Flushing Meadows. Rubin also followed up his run with the Launceston Challenger title.
Familiar, but unlikely names dominate as shocks reign in Melbourne. If you had said a decade ago that a Nadal-Federer final would seem distinctly improbable, you would have been laughed off. Yet the two stars have struggled with injury and form over the last two years and neither was expected to reach the finals. Yet shock defeats for Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic to Mischa Zverev and Denis Istomin respectively opened the draw up. Roger Federer ultimately took full advantage, winning a classic final against his old nemesis for a nostalgic tournament, also aided by an all-Williams clash on the Women’s side that saw Serena Williams move above Steffi Graf on the Open era titles list.
Fed can still last the distance. At thirty-five, many had begun to assume that Roger Federer could no longer cope with the demands of five-set tennis against quality opposition consistently. He lost at Wimbledon in 2016 to Milos Raonic in a five-set thriller and some had thought that his last chance had passed. Yet the Swiss maestro took down both Kei Nishikori, Stan Wawrinka, and Rafael Nadal in three of the last four rounds, with only a quick demolition of Mischa Zverev in the quarters a reprieve. Given the notorious heat of Australia, the quality of the opponents faced, and his ability to find a way to win in fifth sets, we have to assume that Federer is fit and able to compete with the best in five sets again. He didn’t have to face Murray or Djokovic, but that was their fault not his, and he beat all three of Top Ten opponents he faced in the draw. Injury and form may be a barrier to success, for Federer, mere age certainly isn’t.
New potential contenders emerge, questions arise about others. Grigor Dimitrov once reached the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2013, but the Bulgarian never really cemented his place as a genuine contender. After a enthralling semi-final with Rafael Nadal though, Dimitrov’s credentials must be re-examined. He took the Brisbane title, defeating Nishikori in the final there. Working with Andy Murray’s former coach Dani Vallverdu appears to have reignited the fire in Dimitrov and we will have to see how he does over the next six months to confirm if he has developed into a true contender, though the signs are promising. Alexander Zverev fought hard with Nadal, but cramped up in the fifth set. A struggle with Robin Haase in round one shows that the German still lacks the consistency to compete for the highest honours just yet.
The Australian Open must be considered a disappointment for Dominic Thiem, as the Austrian went down rather meekly to David Goffin in the fourth round. Clay is still considered his best surface, but he has a lot of points to defend, starting with Buenos Aires, and extending to a Roland Garros semi-final. He will be under pressure just to maintain his Top Ten ranking.
Player of the swing: Grigor Dimitrov
Disappointing for: Andy Murray/Novak Djokovic
