Australian Open 2012: Andy Murray and Other Stars Not Worth Rooting For
For a star tennis player to be worth cheering for, you need to have some confidence that they will be around for a long time. At the very least, they need to give you a nice storyline to follow.
These players all offer neither. If you decide to cheer for them at the Australian Open, you're going to be disappointed.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Murray has not won a Grand Slam, but that's not why he's not worth our time. It's because when he's gotten deep into the Grand Slams and encountered Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer, his body language has been awful and it seems like he hasn't cared after falling behind.
Losing to a better player is one thing, but mailing it in at a Grand Slam time and time again is an entirely different problem.
Until Murray gives us a big match against one of those players with his best efforts, he's not worth pulling for. Don't expect that to come in Australia. Any of tennis' top three players has a slight physical edge and a gigantic mental advantage.
Roddick is no longer America's best hope, and certainly not at Australia. At Wimbledon or the U.S. Open, it would be a different story, but his serve won't get him far enough in Australia.
Roddick is similar to Murray, although they show a bad attitude in different ways. While Murray seems to cave in and go through the motions, Roddick loses his cool and let's his frustrations show to anyone within a five-mile radius.
He'll get through some early rounds—he already downed Robin Haase 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 in the opener. But eventually, he's going to have to go against Djokovic, and that's only if Roddick gets that far. When that happens, Roddick's Australian Open will come to a crashing, quick end.
Caroline Wozniacki
Unlike either of the two Andy's, there's nothing to dislike about Wozniacki personally. She just doesn't have enough game to win a Grand Slam. If you don't believe that, look at her record in them, it's not pretty.
Wozniacki has only one finals appearance on her Grand Slam resume. She's No. 1 in the world because of a great amount of consistency on the regular tour, but consistently falls short in the big events.
That's going to happen again here. Like Murray, we'll see Wozniacki for a while, but she's not going to be a factor in the tournament.
Azarenka falls into the same category as Wozniacki. There's nothing particularly polarizing about her, but she's got no chance at winning down under.
Her success in Grand Slams is similar to Wozniacki's, but she doesn't even have the few bright spots. Azarenka has only made it past the quarterfinals once in a Grand Slam, and only to the quarterfinals once in Australia.
Cheer for you if you want to, but don't look for Azarenka to be around for a long time. The rankings mean absolutely nothing on the women's side of the bracket.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
