Top Seeds are Winning in Melbourne, as Expected

Written by: Staff on 26th January 2012

Remember when everyone used to complain that women’s tennis was too predictable, the top players won too easily and you knew who would be in the semis? Well, the top men at the Australian Open have all won easily, no-one would have doubted they would reach the semis, yet there are no voices complaining that it was all too predictable. But Novak Djokovic says it isn’t easy.

“It became more common nowadays, whatever, last four or five Grand Slams is us playing in semi-finals,” he admitted after his straight-sets quarter-final win over David Ferrer. “(But) people don’t realize how difficult that is. It’s not easy to get to the semi-finals, even though we’re expected to. There’s a lot of competitive players out there, a lot of players who are very motivated to win against all of us.

“So I guess that makes us a success even bigger. We have this probably mental strength and advantage. You know, we have that self-belief on the court, playing in the finals of the majors for several times, winning some majors, especially Roger and Rafa. It’s just a different approach, a different feel about being on the center stage when you’re playing somebody that hasn’t had that experience. So that counts, let’s say, as your advantage.”

Martina Hingis, in Australia to play the Legends event, says the women have produced more competitive matches than the men.

“I mean, now with the great matches we see, Lisicki played already against Kuznetsova. That was a great match. Now she plays Sharapova and it was a great match. I don’t know. First rounds, come on. How about Djokovic killing everyone in the first three rounds or Federer not losing a set, more than three games in a set.

“I mean, it’s just sometimes that’s the way it is. If champions are champions, they’re well-prepared and they’re going to play well from the beginning.”