The flopping five of Melbourne
For the first time since the beginning of the open era (1968), the top five men's seeds were eliminated after only three days of play. Herewith, then, the saga of five flopping stars.
And-a-one: Lleyton's spotty month
Top seed Lleyton Hewitt figured to be the pre-tournament favourite, and began his year well with two straight wins at the Hopman Cup. But before the second of those matches, the 20-year-old from Adelaide felt ill, and after the match was taken to hospital with what was diagnosed as chicken pox. This, just 13 days before his country's Open was to commence.
While Hewitt was able to play a warm-up match just before the Open against Todd Martin, and win it convincingly at that, doubts were certainly permitted about his ability to reproduce this performance over five sets and two weeks, given his recent illness and his hasty return to competition. The doubts proved valid, as the world number one crashed out at the first hurdle, losing 6-1 1-6 4-6 6-7(4) to Spaniard Alberto "Beto" Martín.
Hewitt complained bitterly after the match about what he felt was gamesmanship on the part of Martín. The Spaniard called for the trainer to massage a cramping leg, at 5-4 in the final tie-break. But the complaint was a red herring, as Hewitt rarely looked like a potential winner after his strong first set. In any case, there is something odd about a young man famous for yelling "Come on, give it to me!" when his opponent makes an unforced error complaining about poor sportsmanship.
And-a-two: Guga's Oz nightmare
Hopes were not particularly high in the camp of former #1 Gustavo Kuerten this month. Guga had never been past the second round in Melbourne, and had ended 2001 in execrable fashion, losing 8 of his last 9 matches. Make that 9 of 10, as the Brazilian was bundled out in the first round by a man who was always going to be a difficult opponent, Julien Boutter of France, 3-6 4-6 7-5 6-3 6-3.
Like Hewitt, Kuerten got off to a strong start but physically faded as the match went on. The mitigating circumstance in Guga's case was a hip injury he has been dragging around for the last 10 months, and that seems to worsen on the relentless pounding of hard courts.
Kuerten's attending physician in Brazil has ordered him not only to skip the upcoming Brazil-Czech Republic Davis Cup tie in February, but also to avoid hard court tournaments this year until his condition improves. This would appear to mean that Kuerten's ranking will take a hit in March, as he will likely be forced to miss the big-money, big-points Tennis Masters series events in Indian Wells and Miami.
And-a-three: Agassi high-tails it home
Once Hewitt's chicken pox became public knowledge, two-time defending Australian Open champ Andre Agassi was installed as the betting favourite. Indeed, the third seed showed up in the land of the kangaroo in the same excellent condition he had displayed the last two years in Australia. Agassi's preparatory matches went just fine, as he reached the final of the Kooyong exhibition, where he lost with honour to eternal rival Pete Sampras.
But Andre shocked the tennis world by withdrawing from the Open on the eve of the event, on the pretext of a wrist injury. Puzzling, as he had shown no signs of any injury the day before in his loss to Sampras.
Ever since Andre's dramatic withdrawal, rumours persist that he no more has an in jury than he has a full head of hair. The real reason for the withdrawal, according to this speculation, was that he was simply tired of being away from his wife and baby and tired of the grind of the tour, and that he may have played the last match of his storied career.
Time will tell of the "word on the street" has any validity in this case.
And-a-four: Kafel crashes to Kim
Well then, how about 1998 champion and fourth seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who was neither injured, ill nor homesick? Certainly the abrupt departures of the top three seeds and an easy-looking draw had made him one of the men to beat down under.
Alas for Kafelnikov and his backers, Yevgeny picked a poor time to produce one of his worst-ever Grand Slam performances on the first Wednesday, a desultory 6-3 7-5 6-3 second round loss to a qualifier, 234th-ranked Alex Kim of the United States. Kim is a perfectly nice, bright (economics degree from Stanford) fellow, but he is not in Kafelnikov's league, and the enigmatic Russian had no business losing to the journeyman by such a score. Heck, Alex is not even the #1-ranked Kim on the tour. Kevin Kim,
no relation, is #186.
After the shocking loss, Yevgeny was pressed for an explanation of the disaster. He didn't really have one to offer. "I felt no energy," the baffled Russian explained. "I haven't felt that bad in a long time; maybe never. I had no energy in the legs, I had no energy in the arms and I could not play three consecutive shots, and I really cannot explain why?. Like someone was playing instead of me." Indeed, it did look as though Jan-Michael Gambill's famously incompetent brother Torrey had invaded Kafelni
kov's body.
And-a-five: Grosjean completes the flopping five
Rounding out the dismal three days for the top five is fifth Sébastien Grosjean, who, like Kafelnikov, was a second round casualty. At least the little Frenchman put up a fight, but was finally ousted by a 33-year-old Spaniard playing his final season on the tour, Francisco "Pato" Clavet, 6-4 3-6 6-0 5-7 6-4.
So Sébastien, what is your excuse? A semifinalist last year, the Frenchman arrived in Melbourne short on preparation because of an abbreviated off-season (he was part of the Davis Cup final that ended on November 28). ''The season was long for me," explained the French dynamo. "It's not that I played more tournaments, but I often went deep in the draw. I came here without much ambition because I hadn't recovered sufficiently to prepare myself."
Indeed, those who had an extended season and consequently a short post-season break were not very brilliant at the Australian Open this year. All of the players who disputed at the Masters Cup in November and/or the France-Australia Davis Cup final were gone by the fourth round.
To the rested and healthy go the spoils!