A very, very sad fact is that the last time an Australian local player broke into the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park, it was already ten years ago:
In 2005, the third seed Hewitt performed well and advanced all the way. Not only did he enter the quarterfinals, but he also made it to the finals.
Unfortunately, in the final, Hewitt lost to Safin in four hard sets.
As for the championship?
That goes back to the distant 1976, when Mark Edmondson defeated compatriot John Newcomb (John-be) to win the championship.
Australia longs for a local Grand Slam singles champion, and the wait has been too long - the same goes 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 the same as Australia.
Facing the same dilemma, local players performed far below expectations.
It is precisely because of this that when Murray won the Wimbledon championship in 2013, the whole country reveled.
But the slight difference between Australia and the United Kingdom, France, and even the United States is that their younger generation has grown up in an all-round way. The players born after 1990 and 1995 are extremely talented, and one or two of them are already playing in the tour.
Show your abilities here.
Naturally, Australia also has more expectations for the performance of young players.
Maybe it's too early to dream of a Grand Slam championship, but a top eight at the Australian Open shouldn't be too much, right?
So, did the Australian Tennis Open Organizing Committee really operate behind the scenes and deliberately draw all young local players into the bottom half?
of course not.
This is just a joke, a complaint and a mockery made by the Australian local media.
The lower half of the district is full of the three giants, which can be called a crematorium. When the lottery came out, the local media howled. This was obviously not good news.
If the organizing committee really does this, it will be sending the little sheep into the tiger's mouth with their own hands, and they will be worse than animals.
To be more precise, both local media outlets are celebrating:
Two of the most talented and promising players of the new generation, Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios, have good fortunes.
Both players are unseeded players, but they are very, very lucky not to draw the Big Three.
"Lucky! Tomic didn't draw Federer!"
"Kyrgios managed to avoid Nadal!"
In the Australian news media, you can see such headlines one after another. In the disaster of young players all gathering in the bottom half, they finally found some positive factors to cheer for the local players and look forward to them creating good things.
score.
and!
There is another thing the media is celebrating:
"On July 9, all gather in area 3/4. Maybe, the opportunity has come."
What's the meaning?
Among the Australian local players, all nine players were drawn into the bottom half, and seven of them were all gathered in the 3/4 area, which is simply a minefield.
On the one hand, they successfully avoided the quarter area where Federer and Murray were located.
On the other hand, Zone 3/4 seems to be an area open to competition.
In area 3/4, Nadal faces Gawain.
Not only the Australian local media, in the opinion of professionals, this is also the area most likely to fall into a melee.
reason?
Nadal is an unknown quantity.
In the past two years, the Spanish king has reached the finals at Melbourne Park, but lost to Djokovic and Wawrinka respectively. This year he is still the undoubted favorite; but after suffering from injuries, Nadal's status is unpredictable.
, Doha only played one game in the new season and lost unexpectedly. After coming to Melbourne, his status was questionable.
Even Nadal himself said at the pre-match press conference that he could easily be defeated by anyone, especially in the early rounds, because he still needs more time to adjust to his condition; but if he can enter the later rounds, he believes he will
Slowly find the status.
The problem is that Nadal has been facing many crises in the first few rounds. His first-round opponent Youzhny and his potential third-round opponent Rosol have both defeated the Spaniard in Grand Slam matches.
Gawain is also an unknown quantity.
As the new US Open champion and the Paris Masters champion, Gao Wen has initially proved himself, but he and Wawrinka are facing the same situation:
pressure.
They all need to deal with unimaginable pressure, not only from the media and fans, but also from opponents. Pressure is everywhere.
Of course, Gao Wen has just won the double championship in Doha and showed good form, but people are not sure how he will perform at Melbourne Park.
After all, the US Open is a local competition. In any case, Gao Wen has also played in North America for so many years and is more accustomed to the weather and venues; but at the Australian Open, everything is brand new, which also means that all adaptations
Everything has to be started from scratch, even the fans and audiences are brand new.
When 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, and it seems that all challengers are gathered in this division.
Australia's local darlings Tomic, Kyrgios, and Kogkinakis all entered this division, focusing all the attention of local fans.
In addition, German rising star Jan-Lennard-Struff (Jan-Lennard-Struff), Serbian rising star Krajinovic and Czech rising star Jiri-Vesely have also entered this division.
Among them, Vesely, who was born in 1993, has already turned professional in 2009, but has only made his debut in the past two years. He just won the first men's singles championship trophy of his career in Auckland last week and is in full swing.
Perhaps, for 2015, Veseli is not significant, but for 2022, the name Veseli is very special to tennis fans, very, very special, not because he became a Grand Slam player
Champion, because he witnessed history invisibly.
Vesely's two biggest career wins both came against Djokovic.
In 2016, Vesely ended Djokovic's 26-game winning streak in 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. This victory also directly made history——
Because Djokovic was eliminated, Medvedev will reach the top spot in the latest ATP world rankings.
Since Federer reached the top of the world on February 4, 2004, eighteen years and three weeks later, the first "non-Big Four" world number one finally appeared. Medvedev, who was born in 1996, finally interrupted
The monopoly of the Big Four.
Eighteen years, a change of times.
At the same time, for Vesely himself, he remains unbeaten against Djokovic in his career, winning both games.
There is no doubt that Veseli has impact, impact that cannot be underestimated, and this is true on clay and hard courts.
Therefore, Area 3/4 is indeed full of crises. Maybe there is a lack of famous generals here, but there are unknown factors hidden here.