With the first week of the 2016 season out of the way and the Australian Open just around the corner it may still be early days to jump to any conclusions but the long-awaited start to the new campaign and the uncontainable excitement of seeing all the stars back on the court leave us wanting more. With the ATP and WTA Tour moving on to Sydney, Auckland and Hobart (as well as qualifying taking place at the Australian Open), here are a couple of things we learned from the opening week.
Novak Djokovic’s limits are where he decides to set them. Domination in any sport by an athlete or team can always lead to disinterest and on the ATP Tour it seems quite clear that the only man who can stop Djokovic from sweeping through the season (including a possible calendar Grand Slam) is the Serb himself. It may sound disheartening but his performance in Doha, especially in the final against a seemingly recovered Rafael Nadal, showed that we are most probably witnessing the most complete tennis player ever to grace the courts.
Keeping on the topic of Doha, we also learned that Rafael Nadal has come a long way from 2015, with an evident increase in his confidence with regards to his groundstrokes (notably his backhand). The final however was a worrying reality check as to the current gap that separates him from Djokovic, with the Spaniard elegantly being the first person to recognize today’s hierarchy in the game. Nadal though will be there or thereabouts again at the business end of Grand Slams and Masters 1000 events, and I expect him to be a huge force once more in the clay season.
Nick Kyrgios enjoys playing at home. It didn’t take this week to discover that, or that the Aussie loves playing on a big scene with a clamorous crowd, but the huge hope of Australian tennis proved at the Hopman Cup that he’s ready to take the next step. Kyrgios steered his nation to a first Hopman Cup title in 17 years and posted wins over Alex Zverev, Kenny de Schepper, world number 3 Andy Murray in straight sets and Alexandr Dolgopolov. Australia is a sleeping giant awaiting to wake and they will look to come to with a bang in Melbourne next week when the nation’s hopes will lie on the shoulders of the eccentric 20 year old.
Chennai are going to rename their tournament the Stan Wawrinka Open. The Swiss player has almost grown to expect winning the opening event in India after he took the crown for the third successive season, the fourth in total, with an immaculate run that saw him drop no sets. One of the few players to have shown Djokovic is a mortal, Wawrinka will hope to prove it once again at the Australian Open where his name, and not the Serb’s, is the last to appear on the roll of honour.
And finally, dropping down the categories ever so slightly, Taylor Fritz continued with his unstoppable rise to stardom with his third career Challenger title coming at Happy Valley. The Californian is now at 154 in the world and will try to navigate through qualifying at the Australian Open to show himself to the world on the biggest of stages.
The circus moves on this week through the Antipodes as many players try to write the first chapters of their 2016 book with paragraphs of success.
