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Brian Swartz · 11-15-2022, 04:47 PM

Australian Open: Early Rounds

The first Slam of the year started off well for the established players. I think all of the Top 10-plus showed up, and the seeds were perfect in the first round. In the second round, (27) Patrik Rask and (32) Mahjab Thabet were knocked out, neither particularly surprising. The only third-round surprise was veteran American (28) Vinnie Goodbody knocking out (12) Raul Ramirez in four sets; that's probably the first real upset of the tournament. There were some more competitive matches, most notably (23) Morten Eljersgard pushing Stricker to a long fifth set before losing 11-9.

The fourth round was mostly as expected as well, but there were a couple of party-crashers in the top half of the draw. Toni Bardales and Ene Caballero met up, with Caballero taking a competitive straight-sets decision that could be an official announcement that he's already Spain's best player. That puts him in his first Slam quarterfinal ever, and he'd never made it past the first round here in two previous attempts. Then the trend of decline we noted with 8th-seed Solitris Papadias continued with a loss to Dominic Stricker. Fresh off barely surviving the previous match, Stricker prevailed 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-0, 6-4. It's his first Slam QF as well. As for Papadias, it breaks a streak of nine straight Slams that he'd made the final eight in.

So #6 and #8 are out, with two double-digit seeds still playing. The Top 5 continue on though to week two.

Elsewhere ...

Sushant Srivastava has had a nightmarish start to the year. A second-round exit at his first futures event against one of those players who has no business in a futures. Then this week he played his first FT1, because why not? Thought about qualifying for the AO but I figured he isn't ready yet, and a lot of the competition would be sucked into that with a weaker field remaining for him to deal with ... in theory. He was the top seed, and proceeded to get bounced 6-2, 6-1 by wild-card Jan Schleicher, former world #1 juniors player who just recently turned pro. Awesome sauce. Did better in doubles in both events than singles, but just really a nice collection of misfortune there. Leaves a bad taste in the mouth having it happen in back-to-back tournaments.

Aparna Chandrasekharan made it to the second round of his first futures, then got blasted in the first round this week by the 3-seed. Overall his luck in the draws has been quite unkind also.

Girish Raychaudhari hasn't played yet this year, his first tournament will be a JG4 next week.

11-15-2022, 04:47 PM	#1326
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Australian Open: Early Rounds The first Slam of the year started off well for the established players. I think all of the Top 10-plus showed up, and the seeds were perfect in the first round. In the second round, (27) Patrik Rask and (32) Mahjab Thabet were knocked out, neither particularly surprising. The only third-round surprise was veteran American (28) Vinnie Goodbody knocking out (12) Raul Ramirez in four sets; that's probably the first real upset of the tournament. There were some more competitive matches, most notably (23) Morten Eljersgard pushing Stricker to a long fifth set before losing 11-9. The fourth round was mostly as expected as well, but there were a couple of party-crashers in the top half of the draw. Toni Bardales and Ene Caballero met up, with Caballero taking a competitive straight-sets decision that could be an official announcement that he's already Spain's best player. That puts him in his first Slam quarterfinal ever, and he'd never made it past the first round here in two previous attempts. Then the trend of decline we noted with 8th-seed Solitris Papadias continued with a loss to Dominic Stricker. Fresh off barely surviving the previous match, Stricker prevailed 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-0, 6-4. It's his first Slam QF as well. As for Papadias, it breaks a streak of nine straight Slams that he'd made the final eight in. So #6 and #8 are out, with two double-digit seeds still playing. The Top 5 continue on though to week two. Elsewhere ... Sushant Srivastava has had a nightmarish start to the year. A second-round exit at his first futures event against one of those players who has no business in a futures. Then this week he played his first FT1, because why not? Thought about qualifying for the AO but I figured he isn't ready yet, and a lot of the competition would be sucked into that with a weaker field remaining for him to deal with ... in theory. He was the top seed, and proceeded to get bounced 6-2, 6-1 by wild-card Jan Schleicher, former world #1 juniors player who just recently turned pro. Awesome sauce. Did better in doubles in both events than singles, but just really a nice collection of misfortune there. Leaves a bad taste in the mouth having it happen in back-to-back tournaments. Aparna Chandrasekharan made it to the second round of his first futures, then got blasted in the first round this week by the 3-seed. Overall his luck in the draws has been quite unkind also. Girish Raychaudhari hasn't played yet this year, his first tournament will be a JG4 next week. Last edited by Brian Swartz : 11-15-2022 at 04:48 PM.