Well it’s that time of the year again when the little, fluffy, green ball dominates Australian sporting telecasts.
Li Na and Stan Wawrinka with their 2014 Trophies - credit: www.tennis.com.au
All the closet tennis fans come out in their droves, suitably equipped with sunscreen, hats, fans and the parochial chants of Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi and Kiss me Katut.
On the eve of the first Grand Slam of 2015, anticipation surrounds the Aussie assault, with no fewer than 5 Aussie males sitting inside the global top 100, led by Nick Kyrgios (50) and 3 females, spearheaded by Former US Open Champion Sam Stosur (20).
Much has been made of the amazing talents of Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic, particularly over the last few years, in fact these two are lead the rankings for the green and gold contingent, but just beneath the surface lies a crop of other young Aussies knocking on the door, including Thanasi Kokkinakis, James Duckworth, Luke Saville, Jason Kubler and Jordan Thompson. As many of you may have seen over the last couple of weeks each of these guys have shown great form coming into the Aussie Open, with wins over much higher ranked players. We also shouldn’t forget former world number 1 Lleyton Hewitt, Marinko Matosevic and the big service game of Sam Groth, who’s enjoying a second coming, and linger dangerously in the draw. He’s one player capable of causing some upsets this summer.
In fact the men’s draw is as wide open as it’s been in years, with 4 different winners throughout 2014. All eyes will be on what they call the big four, Djokovic, Federer, Nadal and Murray as they’ve long dominated at Grand Slam level, but there was a definite changing of the guard last year with Stan Wawrinka breaking through here last year for his maiden Grand Slam victory, Marin Cilic winning the US Open, along with Kei Nishikori, Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic who are beginning to show their credentials at the biggest events on the tennis calendar.
Women’s competition is just as wide open with another quartet of different winners in each of the Grand Slams last year. We’ll be hoping that our very own Sam Stosur, Casey Dellacqua and Jamila Gajdosova can go a long way and do some damage in the draw, up against the likes of the usual suspects Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Petra Kvitova. This impressive trio will look to keep up their impressive Grand Slam records and widen the gap on a fast chasing pack that includes former world number ones Caroline Wozniacki and Ana Ivanovic, Agnieszka Radwanska, Simona Halep and Eugenie Bouchard.
So Aussie sports fans are encouraged to sit back and enjoy the talent, glamour, grunts, speed guns and hawkeye as some of the best athletes in the world go at it again on our much-loved shores!!