MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Wearing a navy blue Roger Federer jersey and a gray stroller, he pushes his 1-year-old daughter Martina (as in Hingis) along the court at Rod Lever Arena at the Australian Open. Angelica Ibarra spoke for many tennis fans when she described her mood on Day 1 of a Grand Slam tournament as two of the sport’s most important players retired.
“I grew up watching Roger play, so to me tennis is Roger and Roger is tennis,” said Ibarra, who said he is from Colombia and now lives in Melbourne. “Roger’s return to tennis is a bit emotional. I also love women’s tennis and the Williams sisters aren’t here either. But I’m really excited to see the upcoming talent of the new generation. I’ll be watching some new players for the first time.”
The 2023 edition of the Australian Open, which kicked off on an overcast Monday morning (Sunday evening EST), isn’t the first Grand Slam to be contested without Roger Federer or Serena Williams, of course.
So was the 2022 Australian Open, to name just one example.
The difference now is that this is the first major tournament since Federer and Williams. bigger-than-two-game, larger-than-life numbers, with both 41 and a combined 43 singles championships and weeks spanning years. The No. 1 ranked player has announced that they are going to retire (or, to use his preferred term, “evolve”).
“They were great for the sport. They still exist. You think these people will never retire, somehow. And to see them actually stop, it kind of puts it right,” said 21-year-old Canadian Bianca Andreescu, who beat Williams in the 2019 US Open final and upset 25th-ranked Marie Buzkova on Monday. 6-2, 6-4. . Roger didn’t play for long before he retired, and even that time was a bit odd. Serena was kind of up and down, too.”
So while in past years one absence or another was accompanied by a shrug of the shoulders, “Don’t worry, he’ll be next” or “Hey, he’ll definitely be back, right?” now there is a concreteness to it all, a finite knowing that they are indeed done. (No matter how much people may keep looking for signs that Williams really and truly didn’t.)
“Look, Serena Williams is irreplaceable. I mean, she’s an icon on and off the court,” said Steve Simon, head of the women’s tennis tour. “The way I look at it. I don’t see us losing Serena. we’ll just celebrate him and all his achievements for many, many years to come and look back at what he brought to the game.”
Similar sentiments can be and have been about Federer.
“Obviously,” eight-time major champion John McEnroe said of Federer, “there’s a void that will never be filled.”
However, sport must go on.
And so the start of proceedings on Melbourne’s blue hard courts reveals the faces and games that will fill the void.
Players seeking their first Grand Slam titles, such as top 10 American Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula, both won in straight sets in matches that started just after 11 a.m. local time. As is Giannic Sinner, a lanky 21-year-old Italian who is considered among those who may eventually reach the top. Intended for later action. Federer’s long-time rival, top seed Rafael Nadal, is still 36 years old and the holder of a men’s record 22 Grand Slam titles.
Even other players have a hard time scanning the Australian Open brackets and are well aware that there is no point in looking for the names Federer or Williams.
“Of course, it’s strange. They were great athletes, great players, legends of the game. “But tennis is still going on and there will be new players to look out for, new players who are going to win Grand Slams,” said Kasper Ruud, the Norwegian No. 2 in Melbourne and the French Open runner-up. and the US Open last season. “Hopefully we’ll see more first-time winners. That would be a dream.”
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Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter https://twitter.com/HowardFendrich
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AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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