Australian Open 2024 -- competitive maturity
Success in Grand Slam events show competitive maturity of players, country and the continent. In participatory numbers, the Australian Open 2024 draw weighed heavily in favour of Europe, the two Americas.
Having said that professional tennis arena does not reflect the player development potential of a nation or a continent. It is very much a private endeavour with the apex of the professional participatory triangle. The main draw did have players from many countries, the dominant were Europe and the Americas.
For players, entry, survival and achieving reputational and financial success in professional tennis is round the world, round the clock effort stretching into over 20 years of labour, initiated at an age of 10.
Development process, from the starting block to the finishing line depends on the designs and availability of facilities, initiations into competition, development road map and above all players’ energy and commitment. It was so, is so and will be so.
WTA, ATP contributions
The two professional bodies ATP for men, and WTA for women, contribute immensely at every level of development with competitions and reward to the players. This is the unseen part of global tennis. Getting into this circle, as early as possible is the secret of success.
The successful nations have best Davis Cup and Kings Cup team events. An Indian, Nagal with the ranking of ATP 137 beat 30 in the first round. Lost to a Chinese having won the first set. India should have good depth in their national team. [It the late 1960s, India played in the challenge round of Davis Cup]
Change of direction - Tactical trap
The 2024 AO courts were fast and this set the trap giving less time to coordinate and for effective contact with ball. Every change of shot direction at such speeds can cause of an error. Some elite returning from a break appeared in AO 2024 but paid a price unable to accommodate intensity of the competition. The losses of Osaka, Wozniacki, and Pliskova were due to this.
Coming to competition, the best way is to face the challenge at grass root level and grow with it. To start, the discipline of ‘sighting the ball at contact and sensing the court dimensions’ is the mantra. Court does not move, the ball does, all the time in vertical and horizontal planes making good contact sophisticated and challenging.
Semi-finals of AO 2024
It is expected Top 10 of the WTA ranking to be present in the fourth round of a Grand Slam event. Swiatek, Rybakina, Pegula, and Jabeur are Top 5 in the current WTA ranking went out tamely before the third round of AO 2024. It happened last year too. [A school of thought blames a Grand Slam event in the third week of the calendar year is too soon and not the right slot for the event] As I write this, Coco Gauff and Sabalenka are in the semi-finals with Zheng [13] and Yastremska [93] of Ukraine, a surprise.
Men’s AO 24
In men’s short strokes and intense speed dominated the game. Short strokes means body weight used for power and firm racquet head control to guided ball. All semi-finalists were all court players with tremendous confidence. In-court positioning game will be the future of tennis. Any in-court positioning automatically reduces opponent’s comfort zone targets drastically.
Short swing stroke needs less time and deliver more speed. At present, Djokovic, Alcaraz and Sinner have shown the best over this sophistication. In men’s semifinal berths of AO 24 are occupied by Djokovic, Sinner in top half and the other by Medvedev and Zverev.
Alcaraz’s performance did not match his Wimbledon final win over Djokovic in the final for the title. Zverev got the better of him in a thriller in AO 2024. Alcaraz returning from injury break is holding back. Once a player is injured, a suspicion hangs in the mind. Instinctively players hold back in performance. Zevrev’s calculating game out lasted Alcaraz in an exciting quarter-final match.
Body mass, speed, skill triangle
Quantum measurement skills in tennis is never a possibility. Opposition a player faces differs all the time, within a match and in every match. To be fearless is a good strait in a player. A tennis match played without time limitation. Melbourne has only three courts under cover of its 36 plus court stadium complex. Rain forced rescheduling can disturb players. This year Medvedev finished one match at 3.20a.m., playing closer to five hours. Not only the time zone that can make day the night and night the day in professional tennis.
What is good?
When a question placed how good a player is, regardless at what level of tennis, a good answer will indicate, player’s resilience to accommodate adversities will weigh heavily.