2 champs of different shades
WE now have two Australian Open winners with contrasting characters, distinct playing styles and politicslaced nationalities.
Men’s champion Novak Djokovic thrives on long rallies * that he wins mostly through his blistering forehand. And women’s titlist Aryna Sabalenka makes bomb-diving blasts her bread and butter, rendering lengthy stroke-trading as rare as taxis during rush-hour.
While Djokovic deeply relies on consistency, constancy, Sabalenka leans heavily on her beastly power, both on her service and groundstrokes, to demolish her opponents.
Djokovic is the defiant Serbian whose anti-vax stance last year saw him getting deported from Melbourne on the eve of the
Australian Open, thereby preventing him from defending his title a record 10th time.
And Sabalenka is the big-serving but double-fault prone Belarussian, who was allowed to play in the Australian Open without her country’s flag and with her nationality unacknowledged in any manner at all.
It is a politically-motivated compromise since Australia does not support the invasion last year of Ukraine by the combined military forces of Russia and Belarus.
Men’s singles players Daniil Medvedev and Karen Khachanov from Russia received the same treatment as Sabalenka.
So, who said sports is politics-free?
Elena Rybakina was born in Russia but she recently embraced Kazakhstan citizenship before proceeding to win Wimbledon in July 2022 at 22 and becoming the youngest to do it since 2011.
But Rybakina was denied a second Slam when she succumbed to Sabalenka’s brutal power in an epic threesetter, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, in their Saturday final.
To win her first major, Sabalenka, 24, buried her horrific past of committing 428 double faults in 2022, 151 more than any other player on the women’s Tour—including 96 double faults in six matches that, in frustration, saw her serving underarm at one point.
She dumped her psychologist and, thankfully, if not miraculously, it paid off. She had 29 double faults in seven matches in an impressive improvement in Melbourne, pocketing 11 straight matches en route to her maiden Slam win.
“I am still a Belarussian, no matter what happens,” she said, sobbing for maybe 20 seconds before receiving the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup.
The Rod Laver arena was virtually flooded with tears as Djokovic also cried after dismissing Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas, 6-3, 7-6(7-4), 7-6(7-5), intensely embracing his Mom at the box as the win gave him 22 Slams to tie Spain’s Rafael Nadal for the all-time record in majors won.
The 35-year-old Serbian will go for the solo record 23rd major in the French Open from May 28 to June 11, his chances of winning looking good as Nadal is having health issues that caused his early exit in the Aussie Open.
Well, let’s see.
THAT’S IT Lebron James’ Miami jersey in the 2013 National Basketball Association Game 7 Finals fetched $3.7 million last week in Sotheby’s auction in New York. Michael Jordan’s 1998 NBA Finals jersey sold for $10.1 million in 2022, becoming the most valuable basketball uniform ever.