There was a time when Happy Slam was the Australian Open’s moniker, and the definition seemed perfect; but those were different times, evidently. In 2020, the days before the tournaments were characterized by the problem of bushfires. Haze and poor air quality jeopardized the tournament. Then, in 2021, the pandemic happened.
Everything became more complicated when you talk about sport events in comparison with January 2020. In tennis, particularly, there were undeniable difficulties for all tournaments held worldwide. During a pandemic, in fact, nothing is more intricate than trying to keep a nomadic circus alive: any border crossing turns into a challenge because each country has different health rules, devised (rightly) in according to the current situation of the different nations.
Therefore, this year, for the second time in a row, the Happy Slam will be a little less joyful and light-hearted, but the effort made by Tennis Australia to organize the tournament is a plus. However, it is clear that the required preventive measures will have an impact on the technical aspects. The quarantine, mandatory for those who do not live in Australia, spurred an unorthodox approach at the tournament. Only at the end of the Australian Open we will be able to find out which protagonists attuned herself to these particular circumstances.
Three WTA 500s have been scheduled the week prior to the Australian Open, the Yarra Valley Classic (aka Melbourne 1), the Gippsland Trophy (aka Melbourne 2), and the Grampians Trophy (aka Melbourne 3), organised for those players who were unable to train during the 14-day quarantine. After Andreescu removed herself from the Grampians Trophy field (she decided to focus on training and start her season at the Australian Open), the eight seeded players were Bencic, Azarenka (who defaulted her quarter finals match), Rybakina, Sakkari, Kontaveit, Brady, Kerber, and Riske – the latter also withdrew. At the beginning of the Australian Open, we have to keep in mind their names (plus those of 20 others), because in a few days it is almost impossible to reach the ideal physical condition in a few days, and therefore an underwhelming performance wouldn’t be a surprise.
For all these reasons, we are facing an anomalous Grand Slam. Most of the players usually prefer not to play any official tournament in the week before the Grand Slam, the opposite of what is happening in these days. The crowd will be back for the event and this is a positive aspect to highlight, even if not at 100% capacity. Their attendance certainly helps to make the matches more intense.
If we consider the recent activity of the Australian Open contenders, a manifold general picture comes out. Sabalenka, for example, won the last three WTA tournaments played (Ostrava and Linz in 2020, Abu Dhabi in 2021) before losing her first match this week, while other top players have been inactive for quite a while. Several tennis players have not played any official tournaments since the French Open (which ended in early October). Osaka played the last match at US Open (early September), Barty hasn’t competed since February 2020; Andreescu will contest her first match since the 2019 Finals.
Thus, this situation makes very difficult to predict what will happen. It is a Grand Slam open to any result. It’s too bad that with so many interesting players in the draw, it has not been possible to give them the opportunity to play at their best. In this context of utter uncertainty, we should remember the recurring theme of the generational confrontation. In fact, all the latest Grand Slams went the way of young tennis player: since the 2018 US Open, the only exception was the triumph of Simona Halep at Wimbledon in 2019. Will the next Major reinforce this trend?
I tried to summarize the psycho-physical condition of the top sixteen seeds, which do not correspond to the top 16 of the ranking because Kiki Bertens (who underwent Achilles surgery) and Madison Keys (tested positive for Coronavirus) will not be there.
Page 2 – a closer look at seeds 9-16