The Australian Open Series - Dead on Arrival?

Imitation is the highest form of flattery but has it gone too far?

The good folks at TAT have started threads labeled the ATP Sick Bay and the WTA Sick Bay. They're among the most active on the site.

Let's see what's been going on in hospital as they say in Europe.

WTA

Venus Williams – Recurring wrist injury kept her out of Hobart and may keep her out of Melbourne

Ruano-Pascal – Knee kept her out of ASB

Anastasia Myskina – Toe injury had her fly back to Moscow. Status unsure

*Nicole Vaidisova – Mysterious finger injury kept her from playing doubles but she was okay for singles. Fell in the shower.

Chanda Rubin – Knee and foot injuries

Jamea Jackson – Right hip surgery

Justine Henin – Emotional distress

Virginie Razzano – Lower back strain

S. Sun – Left shoulder inflammation

Camille Pin – Left abductor strain

Tathiana Garbin – Breathing difficulties

Victoria Azarenka – Mystery

Ryoko Fuda – Mystery

*Nadia Petrova – Abdominal Strain

*Svetlana Kuznetsova – Upper respiratory tract infection



ATP

Nicolas Kiefer - withdraws from Hopman Cup - wrist injury

Taylor Dent - withdraws from Hopman Cup - back injury

*Jarkko Nieminen - top seed withdraws from Adelaide – Virus

Mark Philippoussis - knee injury. Surgery followed. Flip was given a WC into the Oz Open over Guga Kuerten.

*Janko Tipsarevic - retires against Hewitt in Adelaide - inner thigh

David Skoch - retires against Santoro in Chennai - back injury

Jan Hajek/Dominik Hrbaty - retire from doubles match during supertiebreak - Hajek, dizziness

*Tim Henman - knee injury

Florent Serra - retires in his match against Gilles Simon in Adelaide

*Lleyton Hewitt – Calf injury

*Joachim Johansson - withdraws from Sydney with severe blistering on his hands and feet

*D. Tursunov - left wrist injury

*Paradorn Srichaphan - wrist

*Xavier Malisse - reason TBA

*Rafael Nadal – thigh/groin injury.

Why the asterisks? Every one of these people will play the Australian Open which begins on January 15. Nadal was honest when he said the AO is primary for him right now. It's how they all feel. The question is how do the Tournament Directors of Medibank and Adelaide feel with their top seeds more or less throwing in their collective towels and heading for Melbourne?

He or she should ask their counterparts in Canada who saw their event field second-tier players while all the top-tier players went to play elsewhere. Nadal's statement implies more than just the primacy of preparation for the Australian Open. It says that it is sheer stupidity to field a tournament a week before a Grand Slam event. Nadal's schedule had already been said to be too aggressive – he played both singles and doubles in Chennai and arrived in Sydney late. Does this mean that Larry Scott is right and that his "Roadkill 2010" plan is the way to go since it supposedly would eliminate situations like this?

There has to be a happy medium between the "Roadkill" plan and having fans get gypped out of seeing the best players at non-Grand-Slam prices. But what is it? Americans are arguing that the US Open Series, a potential fatality of both the ATP plans to revamp the schedule, is too much of a fan favorite to be destroyed. I would think the players would like it to survive too since the winner gets a cool million dollars for their trouble. I haven't seen any attendance figures yet for the Australian Open Series and I don't know how much the pot of gold is to the ATP and WTA winner. I think that will determine the fate of both Open Series. How ironic is it that the clay court season boasts events that regularly draw the top players who actually show up to play. The "French Open Series" boasts the matches fans have voted best for the year 2005 and 2006 and they were not played at Roland Garros. Except that there really is no French Open Series.



Hallowed Wimbledon stands alone in its splendor. The players all reverently don their whites and play on a slippery surface for a fortnight, as the Brits love to say, with so few matches leading up to it I don't see why anyone pretends that there is a grass court season. Grass court play has its fans just like all the surfaces do. But with Asia pressing hard for a Slam somewhere other than Australia the arguments about the best surface, the length of the season and the wear and tear on the player's bodies will not go away.

I would like to see a grass court season. Newport has the most tradition attached to it in the States. Should it come before or after Wimbledon? What about Queens? Do you lop off part of the clay court season to squeeze in more grass court play?

I don't pretend to be an expert. I like that there are four Slams and that each requires a different skill set from the players.

Will a fifth Slam throw the calendar completely out of whack and eliminate old and cherished events that unfortunately don't fit in with the demands of modern tennis? With the arrival of a fifth Slam will the TMC move to London adding a second major in Europe that won't put so much stress on viewers in the Western Hemisphere? Is it better for the US Open series and the nascent Australian Open Series to die natural deaths? The only major tennis event in the upper midwest is in Cincinnati. Does it die because Canada wants to pump up its Open? Do the players really want to stop the regular season earlier so they can play the Exo season and still have time to rest? And does that mean the Australian Open is held the first two weeks of February?

I don't get paid to answer these questions but as a tennis fan I think I can say no solution will please everybody. What is fair for one group will be heresy to another. We're an idiosyncratic bunch, as individualistic as the sport we love. I do know that if I had saved to go to Sydney expecting to see Rafa have to get by Blake and Berdych at a price that put me in the good seats instead of the nosebleed section in Melbourne, I would be a tad pissed.

We're also very loyal to our sport. I don't think we should have to check the infirmary before deciding whether or not to purchase tickets for an event. I'm sure Medibank and Adelaide will have good attendance figures and that the matches will be competitive. But the fans at Kooyong will see the players they paid to see.

But then again, it's an exo. And everyone shows up for an exo.


Click to enlarge. William West/AFP/Getty Images