Australian Open 2012: Men Guaranteed to Fail in Epic Tourney

What better way to ring in the 2012 Australian Open than with a breakdown of the big names destined to fail in Melbourne this January. 

If history is any inclination, one of the Big Three—Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer—will be taking home the hardware in the final of this year's Open.

Those three players, ranked Nos. 1, 2 and 3 respectively, have taken turns winning every Slam event since the 2009 US Open. The Australian Open has not been won by anyone else since 2005 when Marat Safin took the tourney by storm.

That's enough history for now though, here are the names that will fall short at this year's epic Slam.

Andy Murray

The 24-year-old Brit is ranked fourth in the world, but there's one little problem. The three most dominating tennis players in today's game are all in front of him. Murray has yet to win a Slam in his young career, but has experienced the heartbreak of falling in the last two Aussie Open finals. 

In 2010 Murray came up short against Federer, losing in three straight sets before getting back to the final match in 2011, where he lost in straight sets to Djokovic. Already in Murray's career, though, it seems as if he lacks the ability to come up big in big moments. They do keep a stat for that, and it's called wins.

Despite his 323 career singles victories, Murray has no major wins under his belt, and that won't change at the 2012 Aussie Open.

Mardy Fish

Another top-ranked player on the men's side without a history of winning big tournaments is American Mardy Fish. Fish is ranked eighth in the world yet has only made it as far as the quarterfinal at the Australian Open, and that was way back in 2007.

At age 30, Fish is the same age as Federer but has hardly the resume to boast. Fish will come in highly ranked as already mentioned, but that will not translate to a successful tournament for him. Fish will float easily through the early rounds given his experience and talent, but his inconsistency will doom his tourney run. 

Andy Roddick

The lowest-ranked player on this list and the only one with a Slam win under his belt is the overrated American Andy Roddick. At 29 years old, Roddick is in danger of losing his athletic edge. His 571 career singles wins are impressive, however, and he deserves the respect of the men's bracket this January regardless of how well or poorly he plays.

The bottom line, though, is that Roddick hasn't won a Slam since the 2003 US Open, and that is the only one of his career. Roddick has made the semifinal round of the Aussie Open four times in his career, but has not been that far in the tournament since 2009, when he was 26.