The Australian Open Tennis Championship is now under way and we all wait patiently to see who will prove victorious, in the Men's tournament, at least. For some reason, perhaps not unconnected with the absence of any serious challengers from these shores, the Ladies event attracts far less attention in Britain and, indeed, mots people here would probably be hard put to name even half-a-dozen of the top female players.
As it happens, Britain had 2 women in the main draw, twice as many as in the men's event. Elena Baltacha, a doughty Scot who has overcome serious illness to become our No 1 female player, fell this morning though it was hardly a disgrace to go out to former World No 1 Justine Henin. Baltacha has made remarkable strides in the last couple of years and is now well-established in the world rankings; she may not be a world-beater but for sheer guts and determination it's hard to imagine a finer example.
Ann Keothavong, formerly the UK No 1, will be in action in round 2 against 30th seed Andrea Petkovic and we can but wish her well. Keothavong is still on her way back from a long injury lay-off but victory is not impossible.
While our ladies are present in numbers, our men have to rely on the sole representation of Andy Murray. Unlike Baltacha and Keothavong, Murray has a realistic chance of victory, come Sunday week. So far, he's safely through round 1 and should have no problems in round 2; he also doesn't have to worry about either of the 'Big 2' in his quarter of the draw, so progress to the semi-final, at least, has to be on the cards. Murray has the ability to win the tournament but, to do so, he has to overcome past history as well as the 2 greatest players of the modern era, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. If Nadal wins, he will hold all 4 Grand Slam titles as the same time, something that hasn't happened since Rod Laver's Grand Slam year of 1969; if Federer wins, he'll take his total of Grand Slam titles to an astonishing 17. But if Murray wins ................ !!
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