Full men's singles draw Full women's singles draw
IT IS 17 years since two-time Australian Open champion Ivan Lendl visited these shores, and if the keen golfer, cyclist and father of five daughters remains an avid tennis watcher, then he does most of his viewing from the couch. From there, Lendl has noted with interest the records that continue to tumble in the men's game, and the fact that Rafael Nadal could be the next player to create a piece of history.
First, Pete Sampras overtook Roy Emerson as the grand slam singles leader. Then, in 2009, Roger Federer completed a career slam at the French Open and, later, bettered Sampras. ''And now Rafa is possibly going to win four in a row, and if he wins a few more majors we will start talking about him possibly passing Roger,'' Lendl said at Melbourne Park yesterday. ''I think it's a fantastic time in men's tennis. For me, it's fascinating to follow and watch.''
Lendl, who won eight singles majors from 19 finals and was twice the runner-up at Wimbledon, believes the ''golden slam'' completed by Steffi Graf when she also won the Olympic gold medal at Seoul in 1988 will never be matched. He said that if ever any man was in a position to achieve a calendar-year grand slam at the US Open, he would be ''the first one there''.
This fortnight, if there is any significant history to be made at Melbourne Park, then it will be by Nadal, who is bidding to become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four major titles simultaneously. Lendl will be long gone by then, for he is due to return to his US home on Monday. But the former No.1 will be watching. ''I think it would be fantastic,'' he said. ''I think in the men's game we have had the pleasure of watching records which many people thought would never be broken, being broken, and we are maybe on the edge of another one.''
Sixteen years after his retirement, Lendl played in an exhibition event in Adelaide this week, in which John McEnroe, Pat Cash and others were also involved. At Melbourne Park, he considers Nadal a slight favourite, ahead of Federer, and then bunches Novak Djokovic, Robin Soderling and Andy Murray as the only other serious contenders.
''In my mind they're pretty far clear, but as you saw at Wimbledon, for example, [Tomas] Berdych played extremely well and came to the finals, yet it was Rafa who won,'' Lendl said, recalling, too, the recent Australian Open finals appearances of bolters Marcos Baghdatis and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. ''So it's one thing to get to the semis and the finals and it's another thing then to make that final step, because it takes experience as well.''
Lendl believes fourth-seeded Soderling has a ''fantastic'' game, expects Djokovic will be galvanised by Serbia's Davis Cup success, and considers Murray ready to break through - ''I don't think he likes being labelled the guy who hasn't won a major yet'' - with former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro the player best-equipped to rejoin them once he works his way back from a serious wrist injury.
As for sixth-ranked Berdych, his fellow Czech and Wimbledon finalist: ''He needs to play better than he did the second half of this season, but if he has another performance like he had at the French or at Wimbledon you could start putting him into that group. So then you would really have a big group of players, and any one of those can come out and do really well. But Roger and Rafa are ahead of them because they do it every grand slam, not just once or twice.''
