‘AO’- Glory of Serena and Federer
The Chinese New Year that just dawned, this is the year of the ‘Rooster’. According to their birth chart, Serena Williams and Roger Federer were born in the year of the ‘Rooster’. What a coincidence that they won the Australian-Open [AO] titles this year. It did not just happen with the luck of the birth sign. Both of them fought skillfully and withstood the heavy challenge of the AO draw and the unforgiving court. Of all the achievements of these two, which are illustrious and stellar, this will echo the most in Tennis history. They were never meant to win these coveted titles at the age of 35. Without doubt, they surprised all.
The William sisters in the finals had 72 years of age between them. It could be one of the highest aggregates in Grand-Slam history. The sisters proved it time and again, that the game of Tennis matures with age. While talent is the accepted norm to spot a good player, recent history shows in Tennis, maturity to be the consistent winner. With maturity, all it needs is a body to support, for which the Williams are known for, from the time they appeared on the Tennis scene. Their life story is an enduring one, with trials and tribulations, on and off the court.
None of the critics even mentioned that Venus Williams could be playing another Grand-Slam final. She did it at 37 years of age. In fact, she had better control of the overall game. Serena was always physical, built for speed and power. Going by the scores, Venus was not left behind the starter line. Serena won with only one service break in each set. In Tennis, this is a narrow escape. Venus had to gather the game in the finals from a difficult situation at AO. The semifinal against Coco Vandeweghe, which went to 3 sets, weighed on her in the final.
Serena’s performance in the last 18 months has not been plain sailing at all. With the AO title, she regains the No.1 spot again from Angelique Kerber. She had to motivate herself right through the match against Venus. Fight, fight was heard repeatedly. Her title win, her 23rd, one more than Steffi Graf's 22, and one less than Australian Margret Court’s 24 in the pre open era, makes her the winner of most number of Grand-Slam titles in the open era. Serena Williams has etched her name for posterity.
Federer is from South African-Swiss origin. In the Men’s draw, from the 3rd Round, the matches were very closely contested. It is here that, World No.1 Andy Murray and No.2 Novac Djokovic were taken out of the draw. Federer and Nadal, the two finalists, had to play over 20 sets in the last 5 Rounds. On that surface, it must have burned every ounce of their energy.
The Tennis in the Men’s draw of this AO was exceptional, exciting and remained very open to the end. It was dominated by the all-court game. The pace maintained by them took greater toll than anything else. At that pace, playing from inside the baseline is an incredible feat. A good 50% of the time, Federer played from inside the baseline. This gave his opponents hardly any time to recover. He had no problem maintaining a winning aggregate with his exceptional sighting, canny anticipation and in restricting his opponent's playing ability. He consistently changed tactics when engaging the opponent, with his ability to rally and hit winners at the right time, as if it was child's play. This is the edge that made him get the well deserved title.
Many good players in the last 3 decades used fewer variations in tactics, like Nadal now. When it comes to variations and tactics, Federer is comparable with Pete Sampras, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson and John McEnroe. They had unlimited variations. For this type of play, a player needs to be quick thinking, physically fluid and evaluate situations accurately and choose tactics effectively.
In the past few years, with a history of back issues, Federer, 35 now, has been very selective in appearing for tournaments, because his reaction speed was slowing down. Reaction speed is the key to playing well in the professional circuit. Unable to perform, he slipped down to 17 in the Ranking. In all probability, he will aim to remain in the top 20, rather than top 10, this year, and boost himself at the Grand-Slams in the future.
USA’s CoCo Vandeweghe pulled out a big surprise, beating Kerber to be in the semifinals. Mirjana Lucie Baroni was the other semifinalist. She put everything into the tournament and got the well deserved semifinal berth.
On the Men’s side, Grigor Dimitrov played a 5-Set match in the semifinal against Nadal. He found Nadal little more consistent in the 5th Set. These two set the court and the stadium on fire. Nadal too, in his comeback strait, is looking good as new. Wawrinka was expected to beat Federer in his semifinal. Wawrinka was burned out well before this match. He called for the trainer once, which gave Federer the upper hand.
The glory of Serena and Federer will always be remembered.