TENNIS NEEDS A CLEAN SLATE
ON New Years Day 2019, a day synonymous with wiping the slate clean, The Hopman Cup, named after Harry Hopman, one of Australia’s greatest doubles players and coaches, launched its last hoorah.
If this was to be the final tourney in three decades, between international teams, representing top male and female players, before being superseded by the ATP Cup, wherein females don’t feature, prize money is bigger and males can earn ranking points, it was imperative females should be on the charm offensive.
Serena Williams, seven-time Australian champion, who has contributed to no less than six of the United States’ Hopman Cup wins, out of an unprecedented 12 appearances, was going to start her year with public relation guns blazing, if only to purge memories of her controversial US Open showdown with umpire Carlos Ramos, blemishing her hitherto spotless copy book.
Williams and partner, Frances Tiafoe, met Swiss team Roger Federer and Belinda Bencic in a mixed doubles face off, the first time the two icons had confronted each other across the net.
Williams had challenged Andy Murray to a singles match, post his Wimbledon victory, which never transpired, but not since Billie Jean King took on American Bobby Riggs in the Houston Astrodome, Texas, has a mixed doubles showdown drawn the highest attendance from any indoor match played in Western Australia.
It’s insignificant, Team Federer won in straight sets. More importantly for the greater good of tennis, was the reaction of the crowd, riveted by every point of this titanic clash. Serena was gracious, as she typically is in defeat, hailing Federer as her hero and demanding selfies, to the extent, Tennis Australia, in the wake of this major PR coup, is having to reconsider killing off the Hopman Cup.
Moreover this Happy New Year event proved to be an elixir for the sad news, Nick Krygios, the proverbial bad but talented ex-australian No 1, upon whom Australia had pinned their hopes, for the Australian Open, had crashed out, as defending champion of the Brisbane Open and out of the ATP top 50.
The Aussies they are getting bashed around on home courts. Hope lies in the fact, that Nadal, Wawrinka and Murray are limping into the starting blocks of the pending Oz Open, nursing injuries incumbent upon baseliners, “looking like hard worked, high milage pick up trucks. No sooner is one thing fixed, another breaks down.”
Nadal, who withdrew from Abu Dhabi, after losing to Kevin Anderson, pulled out of Brisbane despite a first round bye, to safeguard his Slam chances, saying “Small things can develop into big things…” - presumably knee niggles can render one kneeless.
Murray too has been saving himself for a now make or break year, having missed three 2018 Grand Slams and crashed out of the last (hip problem).
And as the top baseliners disintegrate, tennis is more divided than it has ever been - coaching – illustrated by Serena’s recent meltdown – being one example of the growing sense of discord among increasingly independent administrative bodies, who lack consistency in major decision making.
To quote Wimbledon’s Philip Brook: “It’s high time powers that be get together to figure out what is going to be in the best interest of tennis rather than disparate sponsorships.”
Sentiments already echoed by World No 1, Novak Djokovic, the new philanthropist on the ATP stage: “I’m not prioritising success for the sake of it, as I did five years ago, I now want to use the platform to share a message”… We wait with baited breath to hear it, but at least his New Year’s resolution for the collective good - is reprieve from the social media focus of me, my injury and my selfies…