On Sunday, Jan. 28, the Australian Open wrapped up in Melbourne, Australia and left no room for disappointment. The two-week-long tournament held women’s and men’s singles and doubles, mixed doubles, as well as a junior and wheelchair tournament.
In the wake of tennis being added as an official U SPORTS event, even tournaments taking place across the world are of interest to university athletes, including William Healey, president of UNB tennis.
Healey watched most of the tournament, including the men’s and women’s singles draw. Italian Jannik Sinner took home his very first Grand Slam title, defeating Daniil Medvedev in a reverse sweep, five-set thriller. Sinner made it through the quarterfinals without dropping a set and knocked off number-one seed and ten-time Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic.
It’s been a year to remember for Sinner, who just made his first appearance in a Grand Slam semifinal in July at the 2023 Wimbledon tournament. That bumped him up to a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) fourth-place ranking, which is where he currently sits.
Healey is in support of some new winners after over a decade of dominance from the ‘Big 3’ – Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
“I think I’m ready for some new faces,” said Healey. “I’m hoping we keep seeing the guys like Alcaraz, Sinner and Medvedev pop through.”
It was a slight surprise for him when Sinner won the title, especially in an era where three players have been dominant for so long, said Healey.
“Always seeing the guy get over the hump for the first time, it would be considered a surprise.”
What wasn’t a shock to Healey was a dominant performance from Aryna Sabalenka, who took home her second Australian Open title after not dropping a single set all tournament. She beat fourth seed Coco Gauff in the semifinals 7(7)-6(2), 6-4 to go on and win the final against Qinwen Zheng, of China.
“I was a little surprised at how easy she made it look not dropping a set throughout the whole tournament,” said Healey.
“But she’s definitely one of the top two players in women’s tennis and wasn’t really surprised to see her take the Australian again.”
Healey is an American and therefore had his eye on his country’s homegrown players, Alex Michelson and Frances Tiafoe. Michelsen made it to the third round, while Tiafoe was defeated in the second.
The Canadians ran into similar troubles in Melbourne, with Felix Auger-Aliassime losing in three sets to Daniil Medvedev, who went on to the finals. Denis Shapovalov lost in the first round, experiencing some trouble returning to full form after past injuries. Bianca Andreescu, who won the U.S Open in 2019, would miss the tournament with nagging injuries, while Leylah Fernandez lost in the second round.
Seeing Double
Australian Matt Ebden took home the men’s doubles title with his Indian partner Rohan Bopanna, winning 7-6(0), 7-5 to capture both player’s maiden Australian Open title.
“It’s been such a dream come true to win here in Australia in front of our home fans,” said Ebden after the win.
On the women’s side, Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens defeated Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko in the final to take home their second major title as a team. Su-wei claimed both the women’s doubles title and the mixed doubles title, winning the latter with her partner Jan Zieliński.
What would Atlantic University Sport tennis look like?
While it seems like the U SPORTS championship plans are well underway for varsity tennis in Canada, Healey is unsure what that will look like in the AUS. Compared to other U SPORTS divisions in Canada, the AUS is quite small with limited indoor training facilities and a small budget.
“I don’t know if it’ll be possible for us to take it on because … the facilities and the budgets are much smaller, even the number of players in the region is much smaller,” said Healey.
However, he noted that there is already a strong club infrastructure and he is hopeful that tennis in the Maritimes can get to that level.
“Hopefully we can keep moving forward and the development of Canadian tennis can help the infrastructure grow, to build more facilities and more interest.”
