It has been quoted that the second most important job after the Prime Minister of Australia is that of the captain of the cricket team. This is a measure of the importance Australians give to their sporting heritage and a stroll through Melbourne Park and the Melbourne Cricket Ground will be proof positive of this.
All around the stadia there are statues of the greats of Australian, cricket, tennis and Australian Football, “footie” as it is known. All around the MCG the greats of Australian cricket are immortalised. There is Donald Bradman, raising his bat after yet another hundred, Keith Miller, Dennis Lillee, Bill Ponsford, a heavier scorer even than Bradman in domestic cricket, with two four hundred plus scores to his name. Shane Warne, of course, is there. He was also selected, along with Bradman as one of the five cricketers of the twentieth century. There is Bill “The unbowlable” Woodfull, captain of Australia during the Bodyline series of the 1930s.
As we stroll along to Melbourne Park, just a short walk across the Yarra river, we see statues of the greats of Australian tennis. Lew Hoad, Frank Sedgman, Ken Rosewall, Roy Emerson, Pat Cash, it is a long and distinguished roster. But the greatest of them all is the one on whom the Melbourne Park Arena is named after, Rod Laver. Laver accomplished two Grand Slams, something no man has since done even once. And Rocket Rod has been present at the Australian Open this year, where he has had his achievements extolled by the top players of today.
The Grand Slam in those days was not as difficult as it is today. Three of the four majors were played on grass and the lack of depth in the draw meant that the top players faced each other only in the quarters or the semis. But regardless, it had to be done and Laver did it twice. Federer, with all his dominance of the last decade, has been unable to do so, although he did win the French Open to compile a career Grand Slam.
Luke Saville won the Australian Open junior title, to add to his Wimbledon crown. Saville is the real thing and he showed glimpses of his potential as he edged Filip Pliwo of Canada in the finals in three sets. Esther Vergeer continued her record unbeaten run in wheelchair tennis by winning without losing a game in the final. Vergeer has been the world number one wheel chair tennis player since 1999. In singles, she has not been beaten since January 2003 and is on a winning streak of 434 matches. She is often mentioned as the most dominant player in professional sports. The wheelchair matches are essentially similar to normal tennis except that the player has the option of letting the ball bounce twice.
In the women’s final Victoria Azarenka lost the first two games to Maria Sharapova and then produced a flawless display of power hitting from both wings to overwhelm Maria Sharapova to win what should be the first of many major titles. Azarenka’s was an almost completely error free performance that should mark her and Petra Kvitova as the two dominant women players in the game. So total was Azarenka’s dominance that Sharapova could only win one more game in the rest of the match. Azarenka also took over the world number 1 ranking from Caroline Wozniacki.
