It's anybody's game
No clear-cut favorites emerging at Australian Open
Posted: Sunday January 17, 1999 10:03 PM
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Second-seeded Alex Corretja is gunning for his first Australian Open title AP |
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Pete Sampras is beat up and burned out, too weary of body and mind to make the long trip Down Under.
U.S. Open champ Patrick Rafter wishes he were back in New York, or snorkeling in the Bahamas, anywhere far from the pressure of winning at home.
Andre Agassi is prancing again on his bandy legs, wondering if he can find the game he left behind four years ago at the Australian Open -- the last time he won a Grand Slam title.
Petr Korda, the sad-eyed and skinny defending champion, is under siege, scorned by his colleagues after escaping harsh punishment for taking a banned steroid. A year ago, Korda joyfully scissor-kicked his way to his first major title at age 30, and everyone loved him.
Now, as play begins again Monday under the retractable roof of the National Tennis Center, his racket-wielding comrades want him tossed from the circuit for a year or two.
Korda proclaims his innocence loudly, saying he never "knowingly" took the steroid nandrolone, which was found in his urine sample after Wimbledon last year. And he shrugs off the fact that he's not even seeded in the Australian Open this year after falling to No. 21 in the rankings. For Korda, the only words that matter are "game, set, match," followed by his name.
Top seed Marcelo Rios has a bad back, or maybe a strained hamstring, whatever. He quit during a first-round match at a tuneup in Auckland, collected a fat appearance fee and skipped town without saying much.
He says he'll play at the Australian Open, where he reached the final a year ago but lost all his prize money at the casino. Maybe he'll play, maybe he won't. Rios has never been easy to figure out.
This year's whole Australian Open is a mystery mingled with the intrigue of the attempted Korda coup and the predictable unpredictability of the weather, which can swing from 120 degrees to chilly rain in a single session.
The absence of Sampras leaves no clear favorite among the men, even if the oddsmakers lean toward Agassi and Mark Philippoussis. The winner could just as well emerge from the Spanish camp, perhaps No. 2 seed Alex Corretja or No. 4 Carlos Moya, both of whom lost their most famous matches to Sampras.
It was against Corretja that Sampras vomited on court at the 1996 U.S. Open, yet still won after 4 hours, 9 minutes, when the Spaniard double-faulted on match point. And it was Moya that Sampras thrashed in the Australian final two years ago.
But with Sampras out, the way is open for any of the top players.
"I can only speculate that [Sampras] must not be feeling too good to give up the opportunity to win a slam," Agassi said. "I didn't think I would see the day when he would choose rest over a slam, but that must speak volumes for the way he is feeling. But I can say from my perspective that I'm glad that he's not here."
The women at the Australian Open are no less of a puzzle, though for more commendable reasons: the greatest depth and balance in WTA history. Not much separates No. 1 Lindsay Davenport and No. 2 Martina Hingis, the two-time defending champ, from the rest of the top contenders: Venus and Serena Williams among the younger generation, Steffi Graf and Monica Seles among the older crowd.
Throw in Mary Pierce, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, Jana Novotna, Anna Kournikova, Irina Spirlea and Dominique van Roost, and you have a dozen players capable of walking off with the winner's trophy.
Seles has never lost in the Australian Open, taking the title in 1991, '92 and '93 before she was stabbed, and in '96 after her comeback. She missed the last two years due to injuries, but might be ready to challenge once again.
So, too, Graf, a winner of 21 Grand Slam titles, including four Australians.
Graf, coming back after major knee and wrist surgery in the past two years, beat both Williams sisters in three-set tuneup matches in Sydney before falling to Davenport. Those matches and her strong finish in 1998 have given her the confidence that she has what it takes again at 29 to win another major.
"I've pretty much beaten everybody in the last few tournaments," Graf said. "And that gives me a good outlook for what's coming."
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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