Predictable as UN-usual

When the Australian Open began this year, parity was the talk of the town. Two weeks later, Roger Federer and Serena Williams hoisted the cup, shattering the dreams of many sportswriters. The Bryan twins even captured the men's doubles title.

In case you haven't noticed the trend here, they were all number one seeds.

With the rapid improvement of multiple players on the men's side and the return of Belgium's finest (Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters) to the women's side, few saw number one as a lock to win. Read more at http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4841206&name=tennis.

Can I blame them? No, it is a rarity for the Australian Open to turn out such a result. In fact, the top-seeded man and woman haven't captured the same major since the 2007 U.S. Open. In that tournament it was Federer and this year's runner-up, Henin, who turned favorite into champion.

Federer squeaked out of a tough first round win against Igor Andreev and cruised from there, upending young Brit Andy Murray in the final without relinquishing a set.

Serena battled back from a 4-0 deficit in the second set after losing the first to Victoria Azarenka in the quarterfinals. She went on to prevent her second consecutive loss to an unseeded Belgian in a major by defeating Henin, who just came out of retirement, in the final.

As the Australian Open is the first major tournament of the season, there is never an outright favorite. Coming off the short offseason, players are well rested and generally as healthy as they will be all season.

As Nikolay Davydenko did this year, one player usually pulls one or two big upsets and is anointed a "dark horse" in the Australian. Read more about Davydenko's upset at http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2010/01/Doha-Final-Davydenko-Saves-2-MP.aspx.

The Australian Open has not generated two one-seeded singles champions since 1994. That year Andre Agassi's rival and future wife Steffi Graf both won in straight sets. Pete Sampras and Graf were dominant forces from a completely different generation of tennis. Read recaps of every Australian Open at http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/event_guide/history/year_by_year.html.

Since then, a variety of players and styles have found their way to an Australian Open final. In 2010, the new decade started with arguably the most dominant players of last decade on top yet again.

How will this year of tennis go? How can one match make people's chatter go from Federer's demise to a possible Calendar Year Grand Slam? What did it take for Serena to finally defend an Australian Open title after failing to do so the previous three times? These are all questions racing through the mind of any tennis fan.

I see this year producing at least five different Grand Slam singles champions. Parity is here, it just hit a little delay.

Do you agree? Let me know with your comments.