2068 Australian Open
A bit of background before we get to the results. The doubles team of Solberg (#10 singles) and Solheim (#20 singles) has abandoned solo play, not at all an unusual thing at this point in their careers. But this does open up two seed positions. Which leads me to ...
de Boer, de Boer, and da Bore
I've seen an increasing amount of
Peter de Boer(NLD) in various places. Or rather, I seem to have. See the thing is there is also the case of
Pieter de Boer (NLD). Same country, same last name, one letter difference in the first. And it gets weirder. Ages are just a single week apart, with two different managers. Both were created by the same manager, but one was discarded. And now, at age 22 and a half years old, they are just three spots apart in the rankings, 35th and 38th. Gonna be fun telling those two apart.
So back on topic,
Satyagit Guha had a couple of close qualifying singles matches. He won the second round in the three sets, but a close two-setter ended him in the final round. I thought he did well to get that far. In doubles, the younger duo lost in the first round of the main draw to one of the better unseeded teams, and did so pretty badly (3-6, 6-2, 6-0). A good demonstration that they are probably not going to move up much further in the rankings than they are.
Nasir Chittoor had a very average draw, matching up with Chile's ill-prepared
Raul Gil. Gil, ranked around 60th, became his first Slam victim in very routine fashion, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4. Nasir has now won a Slam match … and he lost to Aviles in the second round, but it was still a reasonable result for him.
Mark Smith elected for a practice week, something I considered doing again but it didn't look to me like there were enough players going that route to make it worthwhile. In other unseeded Anilophiles news,
Tommy Fitzpatrick lost just a single game to an unseeded German player, then upset the last seed in the draw, Rublev, to earn a third-round date with Perez. A respectable 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 showing there and definitely a good result for the young Irishman who is looking strong to follow in his predecessors footsteps and quite possibly replace the man he just lost to eventually as the next world no. 1.
Willy Weigl had a tough four-set win over former young star
Stanislav Dobos(ROU) … Dobos never had that talent materialized and has a career-high ranking of 42nd. Weigl was knocked out by his much more well-known countryman Wentz in the second round, taking just four games. Similarly,
Helmut Edlund won a four-set first match, then went out to Haas in the second round. Good to see all of our unseeded players avoid going up against a top opponent at the first hurdle, that's some good fortune for the club. On the other hand, Edlund is a bit of a special case. He was looking good for a seeded spot, but then one of the de Boer's won a 250 the week before to move above him. That put the Swede in a tie with the Russian Rublev for the last spot … and apparently he lost a coin-toss or something. That's a really rough way to miss out on an opportunity for a much better draw.
Meanwhile,
Joao Narciso was moved up to the 31st slot, and made it to the third round as did all but two seeds. There it was L. Perez who knocked him out in straight sets. And there was a lot of other carnage at that stage. (17)
Algot Hakanson went down in four sets to Dogic, while (19)
Seamus Hughes didn't duplicate the doubles success in an epic 11-9 5th-set defeat to Aviles.
John Hart, still ranked third in the world, was badly fatigued and it showed in his early exit to … Chiba. Three sets no less. Hart was 1 of 13 on break chances but was actually definitely outplayed in that one. Assuming the doubles success continues, I doubt we'll see too much more of him in singles events. Mathou also escaped Gonzoles in five in a fine match. I was a bit befuddled by the relatively poor showing of Csollang, who was defeated in straight sets by Moniotte. And Kasaravalli had a solid 'upset' of (7)
Tim de Jong in four, a match that I considered him a slight favorite in and which presented an interesting opportunity.
After the third round, the final quarter held four players that you would not have expected to see in the semifinals, but one was about to make their year if not quite possibly their career in most cases. Chiba was the long-shot but he was still alive, and Moniotte based on how he's been playing the favorite I think. In between, flip a coin between Kasaravalli and Perez. Leaving aside Chiba, between the other three they came in with one Slam QF combined (Moniotte at RG last year). So no matter what, somebody was taking a big step forward.
Form held in the fourth thankfully, except for the matches involving my players
along with one other one. Mpakati was pushed to five by
Srba Dogic who is still a threat on hard courts, while
Il-Sung Jung lost in similar fashion to Velilla. A surprising close three-set win for Chiba over
Clavet Moniotte found Sushant once again was the better player and once again scattered opportunities against him with only one break of serve surrendered. I don't know what he's eating this week, but I want some. Then Kasaravalli stopped
Lucas Perez in a very close 6-4, 7-6(8), 7-6(6) decision that should have probably gone the distance. It was one of those where I'm sure his mental edge played into it, but Perez is above-average in that category as well. I had this match as basically a pick-em, and it was … it just fell his way. Then the quarterfinals held a couple expected results, and a couple of surprises. Perez in three over
Ollie Haas, Wentz in four over
Calisto Aviles meant the favorites moved on. In a close three,
Chisulo Mpakati went out to Velilla, the 'other Argentine' making his second straight … and second ever … Slam semifinal. And in the totally-predicted (NOT) all-Sri Lanka match at the bottom of the draw, I got the result I didn't want but still had to clap.
Amrik Kasaravalli was outlasted by the nearly 32-year-old Chiba, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-3.
And then came the thunderbolt in the first semifinal.
Nicolas Perez, top player in the world and winner of the last four hardcourt Slams including two here in Australia, was ousted by his countryman
Tobias Velilla. Perez controlled the first set but was outplayed from there on, throwing the predicted result out the window. Meanwhile Wentz did what you'd expect, tossing
Sushant Chiba in three. Chiba had a chance to steal the first set but, after saving a couple of set points against while serving to get into a tiebreak, he double-faulted on the next one. The script was also ignored in the final, as
Harald Wentz figured to get his maiden title. How much better a chance are you going to get then having Perez knocked out beforehand? Well, after taking the first two sets he missed his chance in a third-set tiebreak, ultimately falling to a comeback by Velilla 3-6, 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4, 6-4! The trophy stays in Argentina, just with a different player. In a very even overall match, both players had half a dozen breaks … but Wentz required a reasonable 15 chances while Tobias converted every.single.one of his. I don't think I've ever seen that before, 6-for-6 in a slam final. The Austrian actually slightly outpointed him overall, 150-148, but of course that isn't what really matters.
A number of ranking shakeups. Kasaravalli actually stayed where he is though he did gain ground and still appears to be on his way to the next tier. Chiba is up to 16th after his first SF showing in exactly three years. How ironic it is that he pulls this after I've started throwing everything into doubles? Jung slips a few spots to 9th after failing to defend last year's strong showing, while the new champion Velilla pushes his way up past Haas to 5th overall. Mpakati is up to third and the gap between the top two narrows. There are suddenly a lot more questions at the top of the sport, questions that players, pundits, and managers must all contemplate as not much happens for the next month while we take a break heading into the first two Masters of the year.