The Australian Open is considered by many of the participants as the friendliest of the four Grand Slam events that punctuate the tennis year. Although Wimbledon rightfully stakes its claim to being the most prestigious of the four, the Australian event is equally well organized, with the easy going, “no worries”, Aussie way of doing things, making it a relaxed, sunbathed fortnight.
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic might take issue with the relaxed bit, having fought out the longest Grand Slam final in history, lasting almost six hours. Such was the intensity of the encounter that it left both players unable to stand during the prize distribution ceremony.
The women’s final was an anticlimax with Maria Sharapova taking the first two games before Victoria Azarenka rolled over her for an easy victory in very little time at all. Both Azarenka and Djokovic received the same amount of prize money, about two million dollars.
Questions were inevitably asked as to the fairness of giving equal prize money to both sexes whereas the effort and energy exerted is not comparable. This is probably a moot point now because a change now would probably have legal repercussions. But the fact is that men’s tennis is in the midst of an absolute golden age while the top players in the women’s game play a tiresomely similar brand of baseline slugfests.
Among Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and the evergreen Roger Federer, tennis has three of the greatest players ever to play the game and the fourth,Murray, pushing hard to get amongst them. That he almost knocked out the Djoker in the semis should give him confidence for the rest of the year.
Federer cruised through the draw, taking out the dangerous Del Potro and starting off well in the semis against Nadal before the ghost of past torments raised its head and Federer’s backhand started shanking balls all over the place. It is now clear that Federer has lost the belief that he can beat Nadal and even Djokovic on the big occasion. Oddly, while Djokovic handles Nadal pretty easily (this final an exception), he finds Federer tough to handle, so it is a triangle, with the fourth, Murray fancying his chances against all three. Murray has shown a better attitude and body language on court, since taking on Ivan Lendl as his coach. This should be a positive omen for him in his quest to win his first major title.
Contrasting fortunes
Two sub-continental teams are playing some significant Test series, with Pakistan taking on England and India facing Australia. The results have been contrasting to say the least. A resurgent Australia made short work of an aging Indian batting line up, winning all four Tests convincingly, while Pakistan’s spinners routed England in the first two Tests to take the series.
India were also handicapped by a toothless attack which was badly mauled by the Australian batsmen. But it was the lack of form of their frontline batsmen that let India down.
Many batsmen will tell you that it is the eyes that go first when they reach the wrong side of 35 and when they are facing top class attacks on bowler friendly wickets that can make all the difference. Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman could probably make a lot of runs on Indian wickets, but overseas, their age has begun to tell. As the eyes and the reflexes have deteriorated, the confidence has eroded. Dravid has been bowled more in this series than ever before, a testimony to the ever increasing gap between bat and pad of the “Wall”. Laxman, a splendid performer against Australia in the past, has developed a bad back and is expected to announce his retirement. Virendar Sehwag has also been found wanting. Tendulkar still looks good and may have a few more series left in him. But India must now start blooding some younger players. Kohli has looked very solid, but there is very little matured talent apart from him. The bowling looks really weak, with the fragile Zaheer Khan the only match winning bowler. Even Zaheer struggled in conditions that should have favoured him.
It was expected that with the loss of Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, Pakistan would struggle in the fast bowling department for some time to come. But the breach has been admirably filled by Cheema and the ever reliable Umar Gul. Then they have two outstanding spinners in Ajmal and Rehman. Ajmal’s bewildering variety often makes it that much easier for Rehman at the other end. In the battle for the spinner’s top spot, Ajmal is winning the contest against Swann by some margin.
Pakistan’s batting is increasing in reliability, with Azhar Ali and Shafiq showing good Test match technique and temperament. Misbah has been the backbone of the batting while Younus has had a run of bad form. It remains to be seen whether Younus can rediscover his touch, he is not getting any younger. Probably the most optimistic aspect of Pakistan’s performance has been the commitment and attitude displayed by the players. The days of the contrived no balls are over, hopefully forever and the players should now be aware that there are no indispensable players, good as Asif and Amir were.
Things have been quite at the PCB front, with the new Chairman slipping quietly into his seat. It seems that he is aware that his strength is in management and has left cricket affairs to the experts. Certainly he is not making as many waves as his predecessor. As a good manager, he undoubtedly realizes that he has to make the right decisions, the biggest currently being the appointment of the coach. Mohsin Khan has been on a roll as coach and it would be a difficult option to replace him with Dave Whatmor. If Whatmore is indeed given charge of the team then the PCB should not interfere when he forms his team of specialist coaches. To impose assistant coaches on him would be counterproductive. But like the Chairman stated when he took on the job, he does not believe in change for the sake of change. This decision should put him on the spot.
