The Downfall Of Australian Tennis

The tennis season’s curtain-raiser and Grand Slam opener—the Australian Open—is well on its way.

The likes of Rodger Federer, Anna Ivanovic and Rafael Nadal will be keen to lay a marker down for the new season with victory in the years opening competition.

However this year’s Australian Open has already highlighted a keen problem in the sport, relating to our host nation.

In the men’s draw we saw seven Australian players in the first round proper, with just three making it through to the next stage, with former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt crashing out to Fernando Gonzalez, a huge blow for the tournament organisers and competition as a whole.

On the women’s side we saw 10 players line-up with a higher success rate of four progressing, but without Casey Dellacqua who reached the fourth round last year.

The sad thing of course, is as encouraging as it is that Australia has players coming off the production line, they don’t have any potential champions in their ranks, or anyone who could record victory at any of the major slams in the next few years.

What I’m asking is where is the next Hewitt or Mark Philippoussis coming from? For years we’ve seen time after time players coming through to challenge for top honours, why is there this sudden lapse?

Hewitt, a two-time Grand Slam winner was one of a number of top Australian players of the last few years including Philippoussis who reached two Grand Slam finals.

One of those includes one of the great days for Australia in the Grand Slam era, the 1998 U.S Open Final.

The final involved two Australians, Philippoussis and the eventual winner Pat Rafter, who turned out to be one of the finest players of the late nineties, topping the world rankings after his US Open win.

This trio followed the less successful Pat Cash whose character in the game superseded his talent in which he picked up just one Grand Slam in 1987 at Wimbledon.

In-fact Cash has only recorded one of the five slams by an Australian in last 25 years, with just five of the last 80 Slam winners coming from the land down under.

Have we seen the end of decent Australian competition in this sport?

Considering the amazing talent and flair that Australia seems to have for their sport in general, why are they slipping when it comes to a sport where they are producing talent but not necessarily at an elite level?

And maybe even more worryingly for the event, why haven’t we seen an Australian winner of the Australian Open for 33 years?

Ok, I hear you ask—why not lament over winners of both the French and Wimbledon slams that come from the host country?

Well you have a fair point, but surely the expectancy level from these two countries has died down a little, comparing to the exceeding potential that Australia hold.

When looking at the women’s side, things couldn’t be much worse. Evonne Goolagong Cawley was the last Australian Grand Slam winner, all the way back in 1980.

Again maybe I’m being a little harsh—only America can boast to have strength and depth on both sides, and even they have struggled on the men’s tour.

Australians are recognized worldwide for their sport and grass roots development, so it’s no surprise the numbers that they can boast in the first round.

For years it’s been Britain that has followed Australia’s youth development model for their own players, the irony being that a player who didn’t follow that new model, is now the new shining light in tennis, Andy Murray.

Murray went to train in Spain for most of his teenage life—under the guidance of his mother—so Murray was never exposed to the British development system that we know today.

We all know the potential for another Australia Grand Slam winner is certainly there, how long it will take for one to emerge is very uncertain.