Australian Open 2011: Midterm Grades Down Under

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: January 24, 2011

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1) Tennis professionals are simple, uncomplicated creatures. Really, they are!

Francesca Schiavone, perhaps one of the more surprising major winners on the WTA Tour in recent history could have come up with a cliche, run-of-the-mill response when asked how she kept herself motivated after her Roland Garros crescendo.

"When you have one dollar," she said instead, "you want to have two dollar and then three dollar and then blah blah. So this is the sport. Always can happen everything." 

Her five-hour, fourth-round victim, Svetlana Kuznetsova, should know a thing or two about it. Searching for her third major since the 2009 French Open, the ever-consistent Russian threw everything she had in the searing heat until she could hold on no longer at 16-14. The match gets an A plus, Schiavone an A and Kuznetsova an A minus. 

2) The Australian Open has a habit of giving rise to young talented upstarts, providing them with an initial taste of glory and then snuffing it out before they can go any further.

In 2004, one 18 year old Spanish prodigy had to swallow the bitter pill of disappointment against Lleyton Hewitt while almost a decade earlier, in 1995, local favorite Pat Rafter came up horribly short against Agassi in the fourth round. Perhaps the only exception occurred a year later when a 19 year old powerful Philippoussis shocked Sampras in the round of 32. 

And this year?

Bernard Tomic, 18, had the second set in the bag before Nadal ran away with the match. Milos Raonic, the ace-leading 20 year old Canadian, took out Llodra and Youzhny before Ferrer ended his run. Alexandr Dolgopolov stunned Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and then saved his best for World No. 4 Soderling in a five-set thriller. He now faces Murray in the quarters and you can rest assured his fairy tale run will finally end. 

So Dolgopolov gets the A while Tomic and Raonic get A minuses. They'...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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