Across Generations

There's been a lot said over the last several years, especially in the men's game, about when the long-dominant players will finally hand over the reins to the next generation of tennis greats. But if we've seen anything in the first few days of the Australian Open, it's that it's not only the Big Three who are unwilling to go yet softly into that good night -- and that there are some new young guns in the mix ready to take the spotlight from those we've been championing so loud.

What a performance 😱@KanepiKaia defeats Kenin 6-3 6-2 in just 64 minutes to continue a hot start to the summer for the Estonian 🇪🇪#AusOpen | #AO2021 pic.twitter.com/ZFuidJnVZC

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) February 11, 2021

I'll start with the result from last night (this morning...) that most perfectly pairs the two ends of the spectrum -- defending champion Sofia Kenin against veteran Estonian Kaia Kanepi. As I mentioned a few days ago, this wasn't a match I would've watched closely, but boy am I glad I did. The 35-year-old, coming off a runner-up finish in the Gippsland draw with wins over red-hot Aryna Sabalenka and Ekaterina Alexandrova, was a strong underdog in her second round, but you wouldn't have known it to watch her play. With ten aces, an eighty percent first serve percentage and more winners than errors, she needed barely an hour to score the win against the young American. And with a next round against a recently-struggling Donna Vekic, I like her chances to keep going. Whether she'll keep her momentum going, who knows -- this is the only Major where Kanepi hasn't reached the quarters -- but she's certainly hungry to give it a try.

Another veteran who showed his chops on Thursday, Feliciano Lopez is also well off his career high ranking, hanging out in the low double digits after peaking at #12 in the world six years ago. But if his 75 straight Grand Slam main draw appearances don't prove his continued relevance, perhaps his performance against 31^st seed Lorenzo Sonego does. Down two sets to the man who stunned Novak Djokovic just a few months ago, Feli found a way to rally and pulled out the last three sets in a match that lasted over three hours. In what will be his first third round in Melbourne since 2016, and the road only gets harder from here -- his next opponent, Andrey Rublev, has been on fire over the past year, and while he was tested in his second round, I imagine he'll come out swinging against the Spaniard. But if Lopez can recoup after his marathon last night, perhaps he can surprise us again.

Last among the under-the-radar Old Guard standouts is top doubles star Su-Wei Hsieh who, at #71 on the singles scene, was certainly expected to have her biggest successes when partnered up. But after what I thought was a pretty astounding win over 2020 Comeback Queen Tsvetana Pironkova in the first round, she took on 2019 U.S. Open champ Bianca Andreescu, who was playing her first event in some fifteen months, and was wholly on point. The 35-year-old, who's never made it past the fourth round at a Slam on her own, got off to a strong start against the Canadian, fifteen years her junior, and in under ninety minutes was able to capitalize on the rust that had accumulated after her long hiatus. She opens up Friday's play against qualifier Sara Errani, whose run to the French Open final in 2012 seems so, so long ago. While it won't be a walk in the park by any means, it's certainly a more manageable ask than what she's already battled.

Of course, it wasn't only the veterans pulling off big wins, and as at every Grand Slam we've already seen a peak of the talent that's still to come. Twenty-year-old Kaja Juvan, who beat Venus Williams last year in Acapulco and stunned Angelique Kerber in the first round of the French Open, was the top seed in the qualifying rounds for Melbourne and managed to advance without dropping a set. She got a bit of a pass in her opener against thirteenth seeded Johanna Konta, who was up a set but had to retire with an ab injury, and her second round against Mayar Sherif was filled with even more drama -- the exhausting two and a half hour plus match left everything on the floor for both players, but ultimately ended with the young Slovenian as the winner. She's not more challenges ahead, though, with a tough Jennifer Brady waiting for her in the third round. I'm not sure she'll recover in time, but I'm hoping her performance is a sign that we've only started to see what she can do.

And then there's Mackenzie McDonald who, at 25, admittedly isn't necessarily "young" anymore -- sorry, millennials -- but at least young in experience. Though he had a brief stint in the top sixty back in 2019 and even made the fourth round at Wimbledon the year before, he's had trouble staying consistent and currently sits just inside the top two hundred. But he has had some nice wins over the years -- my dear Juan Martin Del Potro in Delray Beach, Milos Raonic in Shanghai, and Borna Coric in the second round here on Thursday. It was his first top twenty-five win in quite some time and with his next round against Lloyd Harris, a man who went three hours in his five-setter against Alexei Popyrin in his last match, he might just be able to get the better of the sort-of-favorite. And a good showing there might help him set the stage for an even bigger year to come.

Desert Training

I'm still not sure I entirely understand all the reasoning behind the move, but with the pandemic throwing our lives into disarray in so many ways, I suppose rearranging the schedule ahead of this year's Australian Open is the least strange thing that's happened in the past year.

And so we find ouselves at the start of the qualifying rounds for the first Grand Slam of 2021, held not the week before the main draw kicks off, but nearly a month ahead of time -- and not on the courts of Melbourne Park, but in the heat of the Middle East, with the men battling in Doha while the women face off in Dubai.

The conditions are oddly similar -- it is, after all, the heat of the summer Down Under -- but it still remains to be seen how those who make it through these rounds will fare when they make the trip down to Australia. Still, there are a couple early results, both from players new to the game and those who've been around a while, that might be reason to sit up and take notice.

The Women

Part of the young guard ready to take up the reins, twenty-year-old Kaja Juvan is the top seed in the women's qualifying draw, and after a year in which she scored wins over Venus Williams and Angelique Kerber, she might be ready to capitalize. But it's also worth watching Renata Zarazua, who made history at Roland Garros last year as the first Mexican to win a main draw match at that event. She could challenge Juvan for one of those open slots here, too. There's also teenager Clara Burel, who stunned Juvan at the French last year to make the third round. She'll face off against Anna Kalinskaya to make the final round.

Maybe highest profile of the young bunch, though -- at least in the U.S. -- is nineteen year old Caty McNally, who has won a handful of Grand Slam matches already in her short career -- she also made the quarters in doubles at the French last year. She's been overshadowed a bit by her doubles partner, Coco Gauff, and might just be ready to break out on her own now.

Of course, there are a couple of more familiar, or at least more battle-worn, faces in the mix trying to make another run for glory too. Chief among them is Sara Errani, a quarterfinalist in Melbourne back in 2014 and 2015, but now ranked #131 in the world. She had to fight for her win in the first round of qualifying and next plays a Georgina Garcia Perez, a woman who's only ever played one Major main draw, but is coming off a double bagel victory in her last match. There's also Genie Bouchard, one of my comeback stories of 2020. Her semifinal run here seems a lifetime ago, but she's making a real effort to make herself relevant again, and I'd like to see her keep going.

But if you want my pick for the vet to watch, it's got to be Tsvetana Pironkova. The undisputed Cinderella of the U.S. Open last year, it seems wrong that she has to endure qualifying rounds in Melbourne, but she crushed her first round opponent and seems poised to continue her comeback. Whatever happens though, I imagine we're going to see a lot more of her over the next few months.

The Men

Many of the young men I was hoping could make a statement this year, unfortunately, will have to wait a little longer to be heard. Brandon Nakashima, who capped off 2020 with a Challenger title in Orlando, fell in three sets to Russia's Aslan Karatsev, while Lorenzo Musetti, who beat Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori in Rome, squandered an early lead to lose his first round in the qualifying draw. Even Thiago Seyboth wild, my pick for one to watch this year, fell just short, losing in a third set tiebreak to veteran Robin Haase.

But not all hope is lost for the men. Seventeen year old Carlos Alcaraz, who stunned Albert Ramos in Rio last year, took one step closer to making his first main draw at a Slam with his win Sunday. While he's expected to meet second seeded Hugo Dellien if he advances past the next round, something tells me he might just be able to add another upset on his resume.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are a couple of veterans worth watching in the men's qualifying draw, too, though their prospects may be a little more tenuous than the tried-and-true women. First off there's Viktor Troicki, who peaked just outside the top ten nearly a decade ago and now sits below the #200 in the world. He hasn't qualified for a Major in two years, and even when he was playing them regularly, he never got past the fourth round. He won his first match in Doha, and it'll be interesting to see if he can find what it takes to get a few more wins in now.

And hot-headed Bernard Tomic, once heralded as the next big thing in the sport, has only won one match at a Slam since 2017. The one-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist hasn't played at all since last March, when he lost early at a Challenger event in Monterrey, but did notch a win in qualifying over Jozek Kovalik earlier today. There are no more seeds left in his section of the draw, so the path's wide open for him, if he chooses to take it.

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I know I don't often spend a lot of time covering qualifying events, but a variety of circumstances make the results this week seem a little more worthy of our attention. And the fact that we've seen some truly inspirational performances recently from the players who've emerged from these draws makes them even more noteable.

Will any of these players stand a chance when they hit the courts in Melbourne? Who knows. But if we've learned anything over the last year it's that [almost] anything is possible. And wit a little bit of luck, maybe one of these guys will be the one that makes a splash.

One Round Down

In a French Open that we knew was going to be strange even before it got started, it should be expected that we'd be treated to more than a couple surprises in the first few days of action. From colder than normal conditions to questionable calls, from breakthrough performances to amazing flameouts, we've aleady gotten our fair share of drama, and we've only just completed the first round!

Giustino #RG20 (🎥@Eurosport_RU ) pic.twitter.com/cRbu8KcQIP

— doublefault28 (@doublefault28) September 28, 2020

Twelve of the women's seeds and eleven of the men's have already been kicked out of the draws -- and while I'm not sure where that ranks on the list of records, it sure feels high up there -- and even those who survived were pushed to their limits. And a couple of players have already proven themselves to be ones to watch.

Of course, there are the ones you might have expected would shine in early rounds. Coco Gauff, the 2018 Girls' champion here, refound the magic that seemed to be flagging in "Cincy" and New York, ousting ninth seed and 2019 semifinalist Johanna Konta in her opener, while nineteen-year-old Jannik Sinner, who beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in Rome, got his second straight win over David Goffin, having previously bested him in Rotterdam at the start of the year. But they weren't the only ones.

Young Iga Swiatek, a surprise fourth rounder last year, is trying to prove that run was no fluke. After an upset of Donna Vekic in Melbourne and a tough fight against Victoria Azarenka in New York, she started her run here with a straight-set, hour long drubbing of last year's runner-up Marketa Vondrousova. She is now the highest ranked player in her immediate section of the draw and could very well get back to the second week.

And don't forget about Kaja Juvan, still trying to crack the top hundred in the rankings, but playing well above her position. She got a win over Vondrousova in Palermo -- not to mention one over Venus Williams in Acapulco, and took a set off Serena last year at Wimbledon. But her biggest win by far came in her first round here, when she beat three-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber in about an hour. She'll face wildcard Clara Burel next and potentially Alizé Cornet after that -- and I kind of like her chances.

It's not just the ladies getting things done -- Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka is trying to make his first big statement at a Major. The 25-year-old has only made the third round once before, this year in Melbourne, but a win over Felix Auger-Aliassime in his first round may give him the confidence to go a little better. Clay's never been his best surface -- he's barely won one in five matches on these courts -- but with a second round against wildcard Hugo Gaston, he's got a chances to improve.

In the same half of the draw, qualifier Sebastian Korda -- son of former world #2 Petr -- was able to go at least one better than his only other Major main draw. Still ranked outside the top two-hundred, the 20-year-old, who took a set off Denis Shapovalov in New York, was able to get the best of Andreas Seppi in a pretty straightforward four sets. He'll take on big-serving John Isner in an all-American final next, but as I've opined before, he's an imminently beatable foe.

But then there are the stories no one saw coming.

Let's start with 17-year-old Clara Tauson, who battled through qualifiers for the right to meet U.S. Open standout Jennifer Brady. The young Dane faced match points in the decider but pushed her opponent into extra innings and finally closed the deal after nearly three hours. She next meets Danielle Collins, a semifinalist in Australia last year but not one who can't be overcome. And then there's Russia's Kamilla Rakhimova, who beat top-seeded qualifier Ann Li to make the main draw here. She went on to easily dismiss another summer breakout, Shelby Rogers, a quarterfinalist here in 2016, in a match that lasted barely over an hour. Next up is Maria Sakkari, who'll be a much tougher opponent, but this could just be the start of her successes.

On the men's side, there's veteran Lorenzo Giustino, seen above collapsing after winning a six hour epic against Corentin Moutet, 18-16 in the fifth -- the first tour-level win of his career. I don't know that I give him too much of a chance against Diego Schwartzman in his next round, but it sure will be fun to watch him try. But perhaps we could see better results from lucky loser Marc Polmans, who is somewhat unusually the only Australian left in the men's draw -- surprising given the recent successes of Alex de Minaur, John Millman, and others. The 22-year-old ousted my dark horse pick Ugo Humbert in his opener and might actually stand a chance against Cristian Garin in the next round.

Whether any of these guys can last well into the second week of this crazy French Open still remains to be seen, but at the very least, they've all given us something to talk about. Some might really be setting themselves up for big things down the road -- others might just prove to be flashes in the pan. But at a Major where we've already seen crazy things, they may never have had as big an opportunity as they do right now.