We Are the Champions..

I felt somewhat frustrated at not being able to make the equivalent of “closing comments” on the Australian Open—wait . . .did I just write closing comments? What am I, some kind of pedantic twit?

Let’s just say I still feel like I have some loose ends to tie up from the Australian Open, and this process will probably run well into next week. The way I feel right now, tomorrow has “sick day” written all over it. Here are some random thoughts I never got to before I left Oz.

The Bryan twins won the doubles (in a great match, 6-4 in the third) over Martin Damm and Leander Paes. Because the truncated women’s final ended so abruptly, the doubles was played before an SRO crowed in Rod Laver Arena. The guys put on an amazing show, a highlight of which, for some, was Damm and Paes imitating the Bryans’ chest bump—a move that had the Bryans bugging out, and firing balls at their opponents’ heads.

It never really got ugly out there, but it was awfully close. It did get ugly in the presser—so much so that you ought to check out the transcripts. Oddly enough, the Damm/Paes transcript has gone missing (conspiracy theory, anyone?), and it looks like our friends at ASAP haven’t updated their archives yet. If you care, bug me in a few days' time.

If you read the Bryans transcript, though, you’ll get a sense of the bad blood that was flowing. Here’s a money quote from Leander Paes (I have a hard copy of the transcript)—and bear in mind that Paes is Indian, from a culture that puts a premium on civility:

Wow. The bottom line is that the Bryans' Homo Jockus Americanus gestalt does wear a little to a lot on some of the other, mostly non-U.S. players.

But the Bryans have almost triple-handedly energized the doubles game (the third Bryan is father Wayne), just as much because of their showmanship and tireless promotional efforts as their skills. Not only that, they led the counter-attack when the ATP last June tried to destroy doubles as we know it.

In less than six months, the ATP has—there’s no other way to put it—turned tail and fled from the wrath of the Bryans. In fact, the ATP’s official position on doubles made a 180-degree turn, partly because of the ruckus (and lawsuit) kicked up by Wayne Bryan, the hardest working man in the tennis business. For that reason, I had hoped to name Wayne Bryan my Person of the Year for 2005, only I never got around to writing the post. Sorry, Wayne!

Moving along, the women’s doubles winners were Shtrait Outta Szechuan Chinese girls Yan Zi and Zheng Jie (over Samantha Stosur and Lisa Raymond). It was China’s first-ever Grand Slam title, and while I had high hopes of gleaning some insights about Chinese tennis culture from the polite, reserved pair, I struck out. These two make a Kim Clijsters press conference sound like a poetry slam, that’s how unforthcoming they are—and the “language problem” is just a part of it.

The mixed doubles went to Martina Hingis and Mahesh Bhupathi in a cakewalk over Daniel Nestor and Elena Likhovtseva, 6-3,6-3.

You can feast on the junior game at Colette Lewis’s invaluable Zootennis blog—Colette made the long trip to Australia, so this is all eyewitness intel, fresh from the source.

The junior boys' champ is Alexandre Sidorenko, who tagged Aussie wild card Nick Lindahl. Get this: Sidorenko was ranked down around 130 in the ITF ranking before he traveled to Australia. He earned a special exemption into the main singles draw because he reached the doubles final in the previous tournament.

You want to know about pressure? Before the doubles semifinals in that previous event, the referee told Sidorenko that if he and his partner won, he had the exemption. If they lost, he would have to try to qualify for the Aussie Open junior event. Sidorenko and his partner won the semi, 7-6 in the third.

And get this quote:

Because going to Australia is such a long and costly trip, the top juniors don’t always show up in force. The results here have to be taken with a dose of skepticism. On the other hand, becoming a junior Grand Slam champ is an honor unto itself, and it’s definitely an accomplishment on which a player can build—much like Amelie Mauresmo built on winning the WTA Championships. It didn’t matter that the WTA field was depleted. You seize your moment and take it where it leads—it’s often a good place.

The junior girls’ champ is Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who won over Caroline Wozniacki in three tough sets in brutal heat. The money quote from her presser (transcript here), regarding how ill she felt at the start of the match:

Funny—contrast that with Justine Henin-Hardenne’s actions and attitude.

Junior doubles . . . sorry, I won’t go there. But I’ll bet Zootennis has got that wired, for those of you who care.