MELBOURNE – My trip to Australia continues. I arrived in Melbourne last weekend. Everyone I spoke to said that Melbourne had more of a laidback air to it than Sydney. It almost sounded in the same vein one hears every so often in comparisons between Lahore and Karachi.
Melbourne has a lot to offer in terms of arts, culture and history. The Yarra River lazily makes its way across, neatly dividing the more residential sectors from the hub of business at city centre. Instead of the official tournament hotel, Aisam’s camp decided to take an apartment in the Southbank area, a pleasant 15 minute riverside walk from the Melbourne Park – the heart of all things sporting here.
Along with the Rod Laver Arena, the Hisense Arena and accompanying courts, Melbourne Park is also home to the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Olympic Park – home to the football clubs Melbourne Victory and Melbourne Heart. Next to the Olympic Park is the Westpac Centre, which, after its early days as an Olympic swimming, diving and water polo event venue, now houses the Victoria Institute of Sport.
Walking from Melbourne Park towards the city centre, one passes Federation Square, with its cultural offerings: art galleries, weekly salsa and tai chi classes, book fairs and cafes. A marvellous view of Melbourne can be had from 300 feet above at the Eureka Tower’s Sky Deck, particularly ‘The Edge’, a glass cube that sticks out from the huge tower and is sizeable enough to fit a few adults.
On the Sunday before the event, while the top men’s and women’s players were busy in the Rally for Relief, raising funds for Queensland’s flood affected, Aisam and I saw Shane Watson score an outstanding big hundred in yet another excellent match of what has been a thoroughly entertaining series against England.
When cricket moved out of town, it was time for the Australian Open.
The top players are vulnerable in two particular stages of the season: one at the end around October and the other at the start in January – with either a long year having its toll or rustiness that creeps in from lack of competitive tennis. Davydenko and Querrey became victims of the latter phenomenon, the first seeds in the men’s singles draw to fall.
In the women’s singles, Hantuchova was the only seed to drop out on day one. For all her talent, reflected in her top 30 ranking, she still has not managed to perform at the big stage. Hantuchova could have some schadenfreude at Dinara Safina’s 0-6, 0-6 demolition by Kim Clijsters. With Henin losing to Kuznetsova and Venus Williams retiring from her last match, Clijsters is a good bet for winning the title.
This year Roger Federer is sporting four small Swiss flags on his shoes, to signify his four Australian Open triumphs. He came up against Frenchmen Gilles Simon, a former top 10 player. After being outplayed by the free-flowing Federer for two sets, Simon showed more grit and skill than he did as world number 6, and made a match of what would have otherwise been a whirlwind loss.
Still Federer found a way to win, and marches on. Nadal has not yet faced as stern an examination, and has looked the most dominant by far. Although Verdasco’s comeback victory over Tipsarevic is hailed as the best show of tenacity here so far, my personal favourite is the match between Nalbandian and Hewitt. A rivalry dating since their days on the junior tour was anything but dead.
The match went right down to the wire and Hewitt suffered defeat at the hands of one of the most talented under-achiever of the game. Unfortunately, Nalbandian’s laidback approach meant that he did not have the fitness to recover from that epic joust, exiting meekly in the next round. In the men’s doubles, where Pakistanis take a keen interest, Aisam and Bopanna have marched into the second week of the tournament after overcoming first a pair of Brazilians and then a French pair.
Seeded number 10 this time, the Indo-Pak Express steamrolled Andre Sa and Franco Ferreiro 6-3, 6-0 in the first round. In the semi-finals at Sydney, the key reason for their loss had been inability, even hesitation, to finish points off at the net. There was not even a hint of that here, and the duo powered through two sets of near flawless serves, returns and crossing on the volley.
Next against Frenchmen Arnaud Clement and Jeremy Chardy, Aisam and Bopanna dominated for the first two sets, and it was only a couple of outstanding returns by Clement and Chardy that sealed the vital break to send the match into the decider. Worryingly for the Pakistani and Indian crowd in attendance, there appeared to be a sudden dip in the energy and enthusiasm of the Indo-Pak Express.
This was compounded by the quick break of serve the Frenchmen managed to race ahead 4-1. At this point, all looked lost for the sub-continental duo, but a hold of serve to make it 2-4 showed they had not given up quite yet. The next game, one particular winner from Aisam’s racquet proved pivotal. The zest and vigour missing for the six games since the start of the set was back there. Bopanna joined the party with some heavy hitting, to make it even at 4-4.
The twosome pounced on Chardy’s service game to blaze service returns back to the Frenchmen, who only parried the ball into the net time and again. Another break of serve secured, Bopanna was emphatic in closing out the match to setup pre-quarter final encounter with the much-fancied pairing of Llodra and Zimonjic.
Aisam was not as lucky in his mixed doubles encounter with the Australian pair of Stubbs and Guccione. Aisam and Kveta Peschke, the finalists of 2010 US Open, lost in the deciding tie breaker. Victory was there for the taking, but as so often happens, it slipped from Aisam and Kveta’s hands oh so deviously.
Still, this is the third time in as many Grand Slams that Aisam has made it into the second week. That is heartening for he has now cemented his place at the highest level. Some interesting match-ups are in the offing in the men’s singles. Berdych and Verdasco both hit the ball hard from the baseline, and have plenty of fighting spirit to pit against each other.
Roddick and Wawrinka are both looking confident for the most part, and their match should be a good one to watch. Soderling and Tsonga are a match away from facing each other. Should that come to pass, this will be a slugfest well worth watching.
Federer’s match against Robredo cannot be billed as a real contest, but Federer himself has seemed capricious at times and there is evidence enough to prove he is human after all. Watch this space next week for a retrospective take on the entire event.
