Posted by Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com
We've devoted a lot of space and time to the winners at the Australian Open, those warriors who left Melbourne with their chests flung out, leading with the chin. But to everything, turn, turn, turn, and it's time to acknowledge the big losers -- those who could be forgiven for slinking out of Australia under the cover of night, tails between their legs. Here they are:
Svetlana Kuznetsova: Seeded No. 2, the puzzling Russian former U.S. Open champ was playing well early in the year, and she had let the world know she was skipping Fed Cup in order to concentrate on capturing the World No. 1 ranking. Well, she crashed and burned in the third round without winning a set from Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.
Li Na: All right, she's faced great obstacles, starting with the fact that she endures immense pressure from her home nation, China. But she won the Australian Women's Hard Courts a few weeks before the first Grand Slam, only to sputter and collapse against Marta Domachowska (what is it with these Polish girls?) to join Kuzzie on the sidelines in the third round.
Amelie Mauresmo: How does a multiple Grand Slam champion go to pieces like some high-strung poetess forced to attend a Super Bowl party at a frat house? Your guess is as good as mine. In the second round, Mauresmo choked so badly against Yaroslava Shvedova that even her opponent was laughing (maybe she should have kept a straight face, seeing how Mauresmo went on to win, anyway), but she lasted just one more round before Aussie unknown Casey Dellacqua put her out of our misery.
Anna Chakvetadze: Seeded 6th after making great strides last year, Chakvetadze was in a prime position to join Serbs Jankovic and Ivanovic as a contender at this Grand Slam. Plus, last year she won Hobart and made the Australian Open quarters (as well as the French quarters and U.S. Open semis). After winning the first set, but getting just three games thereafter, off Maria Kirilenko in a third-round this year, you have to wonder if Chaka wasn't just one of those "flavor of the month" players in 2007.
David Nalbandian: He promised so much last fall, with those beatdowns of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. He crowed about being in great shape and re-energizing his career with a coaching change (to Martin Jaite), but showed up in Melbourne looking like all he'd done with his coach is chow down on pasta. Seeded No. 10, he went out unceremoniously to Juan Carlos Ferrero -- you know, The Mosquito. 'Nuf said.
Fernando Gonzalez: Last year, Gonzo made a big statement, getting to the final of the Australian Open. This year, he lost in the third round to Marin Cilic. Mind you, Cilic is going to give players plenty of problems with his big serve, but Gonzalez wasted all the capital he accumulated last year and he's back on the hit-or-miss treadmill.
Mardy Fish: Oh, you could say his glass was half-full after Fish beat No. 11 seed Tommy Robredo so convincingly in Round 2, but the glass quickly became half-empty. Fish would have had to beat nobody tougher than No. 24 seed Jarkko Nieminen, on a court well-suited to Fish's game, to lock up a quarterfinal date vs. Rafael Nadal. But his game fizzled after a strong start, winning just four games in the last two sets against Nieminen in a dispiriting third-round loss.
Andy Murray and Dmitry Tursunov: Why package these two hard-luck cases together? Because they have almost the same story line. Each of them won tune-up tournaments before the first major, but they cumulatively won one match in the main event (Tursunov's accounted for that with his win over Xavier Malisse). Murray lost in the first round to eventual finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga; Tursunov lost to Sam Querrey. The blow was especially hard for Murray because it reinforced the notion that he has trouble bringing his A-game to Grand Slams.
