Chapter 826: Ambiguity
A very, very sad fact is that the last time an Australian player made it to the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park was ten years ago:
in 2005, third seed Hewitt performed well and made it to the quarterfinals, and also made it to the finals.
Unfortunately, in the final, Hewitt lost to Safin in four sets.
As for the champion?
That goes back to 1976, when Mark Edmondson defeated his compatriot John Newcombe to win the title.
Australia has been hungry for a homegrown Grand Slam singles title for far too long - and the same can be said for women's singles.
Of course, among the four Grand Slams, only the US Open does not have such troubles. Roddick and Serena Williams are both local champions who have reached the top after the millennium. In addition, Wimbledon and French Open are also facing the same dilemma as Australia, and the performance of local players is far below expectations.
It was also because of this that the whole nation celebrated when Murray won the Wimbledon championship in 2013.
But what makes Australia slightly different from Britain, France and even the United States is that their young generation has grown up comprehensively. The players born after 1990 and 1995 are extremely talented, and one by one they have already demonstrated their abilities in the tour.
Naturally, Australia also has higher expectations for the performance of young players.
Perhaps, it is too early to dream of a Grand Slam title now, but reaching the Australian Open quarterfinals should not be too much, right?
So, did the Australian Open organizing committee really manipulate the situation behind the scenes and deliberately draw all the young local players into the lower half?
Of course not.
This is just a joke, a complaint and a mockery by the Australian local media to make fun of the situation.
The lower half of the draw, which is home to the Big Three, can be described as a crematorium. When the draw came out, the local media wailed, as this was clearly not good news.
If the organizing committee really did this, they would be sending the little lambs into the tiger's mouth, which would be worse than beasts.
To be more precise, local media outlets are celebrating:
Two of the most talented and promising players of the new generation, Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios, had good luck in the draw.
Both players were unseeded players, but were very, very lucky not to have drawn the Big Three.
"Lucky! Tomic didn't draw Federer!"
"Kyrgios managed to avoid Nadal!"
Such headlines can be seen in Australian news media. Amid the disaster of all the young players congregating in the lower half, they still found some positive factors, cheering for the local players and looking forward to them achieving good results.
and!
There is another thing that the media is celebrating:
"7/9, all gathered in area 3/4, maybe the opportunity has come."
What does it mean? Among the Australian players, nine players were drawn into the lower half, and seven of them were all concentrated in the 3/4 zone, which is really a minefield.
On the one hand, they managed to avoid the quarter that included Federer and Murray.
On the other hand, zone 3/4 seems to be an area open for competition.
In the 3/4 zone, Nadal faces Gao Wen.
Not only the Australian local media, but also professionals believe that this is the area most likely to be caught in a melee.
reason?
Nadal is an unknown quantity.
In the past two years, the Spanish king has reached the finals in Melbourne Park, but lost to Djokovic and Wawrinka respectively. This year he is still the undisputed favorite; but after suffering from injuries, Nadal's condition is unpredictable. He lost unexpectedly in Doha after only playing one game in the new season. After coming to Melbourne, his condition is questionable.
Even Nadal himself said in the pre-match press conference that he could be easily defeated by anyone, especially in the first few rounds, because he still needed more time to adjust his condition; but if he could enter the later rounds, he believed that he would slowly find his condition.
The problem is that Nadal was facing many crises in the first few rounds. His first-round opponent Youzhny and potential third-round opponent Rosol had both defeated the Spaniard in Grand Slam tournaments.
Gawain is also an unknown.
As the new US Open champion and winner of the Paris Masters, Gao Wen has initially proved himself, but he and Wawrinka face the same situation: pressure.
They all have to deal with incredible pressure, not only from the media and fans, but also from opponents. The pressure is everywhere.
Of course, Gawain had just shown good form by winning the double in Doha, but people were unsure how he would perform at Melbourne Park.
After all, the US Open is a home tournament. No matter what, Gao Wen has played in North America for so many years and is more accustomed to the weather and venues. But at the Australian Open, everything is new, which means that all adaptations must start from scratch, even the fans and spectators are all new.
The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!
As one unknown meets another, the prospects for this area are indeed full of variables.
More importantly, this is also the division with the highest concentration of potential rookies. It seems that all challengers are gathered in this division.
Australian local favorites Tomic, Kyrgios and Koggenakis have all entered this division, attracting all the attention of local fans.
In addition, German rising star Jan-Lennard-Struff, Serbian rising star Krajinovic and Czech rising star Jiri-Vesely also entered this division.
Among them, Vesely, who was born in 1993, turned professional in 2009, but did not emerge until the past two years. Last week, he won the first men's singles championship trophy of his career in Auckland and is in high spirits.
Perhaps, for the present in 2015, Vesely is not significant, but in 2022, the name Vesely is very special to tennis fans, very, very special, not because he became a Grand Slam champion, but because he witnessed history invisibly.
The two biggest wins of Vesely's career both came against Djokovic.
In 2016, Vesely ended Djokovic's 26-match winning streak at the Monte Carlo Masters and defeated the world No. 1 for the first time in his career.
In 2022, Vesely defeated Djokovic in straight sets in Dubai, and this victory also directly created history——
Because Djokovic was eliminated, Medvedev will top the latest ATP world rankings.
Eighteen years and three weeks have passed since Federer became the world's No. 1 on February 4, 2004. Finally, the first "non-Big Four" world No. 1 appeared. Medvedev, born in 1996, finally broke the monopoly of the Big Four.
Eighteen years, the change of an era.
At the same time, for Vesely himself, he remains unbeaten in his career against Djokovic, winning both matches.
There is no doubt that Vesely has impact power, which cannot be underestimated, and this is true on both clay and hard courts.
Therefore, Zone 3/4 is indeed full of crises. Perhaps, there is a lack of famous generals here, but there are also unknown factors hidden here.
(End of this chapter)