Is Australian Open sounding another alarm for Serbian tennis?

Photo: MN Press, Tanjug/AP

For a while now there has been talk about the need to replenish the forces in Serbia's tennis, but that process is rather stagnant or making minimal progress. Novak Djokovic is a player in a league of his own, there is still an almost permanent group of Grand Slam participants, but there are no major successes unless Nole achieves them, at least not in the four biggest world tournaments.

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We wait and we hope. Two more Serbians are left competing at the first Grand Slam of the season, one in singles and one in doubles.

All the others have been eliminated in the early stages of the Australian Open or in the qualifications, and we just can't get that new player to support toward new successes.

First, Nikola Milojevic, Miljan Zekic and Natalija Stevanovic lost in the first round of qualifications, and Olga Danilovic tripped on the last step toward the main draw.

When the main singles battles began, Serbia had five representatives in the men's and none in the women's competition.

Of course, the highest hopes are placed on Novak Djokovic and his historic campaign, but it's not far off to think that Miomir Kecmanovic could finally rush to the Top 20, because he is not that removed from there.

Along with those two, there were also Filip Krajinovic, Laslo Djere and Dusan Lajovic.

Krajinovic, Kecmanovic and Lajovic were eliminated immediately at the start, Djere had no chance and was already out in the second round against Grigor Dimitrov, so the tennis heads of Serbia once again got worried.

There's the eternal question of, "what will happen once Novak retires?"

Djokovic only needs to overtake Nadal in the number of Grand Slam titles and no one will be able to challenge him for the place of the best in the history of tennis.

He now remains the only representative of Serbia in the men's singles after only four days of the tournament, and there is great concern about whether he will be able to see the campaign through because of a lingering injury, but he is not giving up and his success continues to act as the bulwark of this sport in Serbia.

We should not boast, it is very important to move forward now if we intend to make sure that tennis remains one of the main pillars of Serbian sports.

In the mixed and women's doubles, we also had no representatives at the first big competition of the year, while in the men's doubles Dusan Lajovic was eliminated, while Nikola Cacic remains and has a chance to reach the round of 16, playing in tandem with Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi.

That's it from the seniors and it's not the first time it's happened. Novak and Nikola are the only ones there and we're yet to see what the situation will be by Monday, when the final stage of the tournament officially begins.

What is to be done?

There is no instant cure, as everyone mentioned so far has been building their own path for years, but there is hope that we could see something good at the Australian Open junior show where we have our own representatives.

Young Zoran Ludoski will start his journey to the top against Zachary Viiala, a wild card Australian, and at the same time he will try to clear Branko Djuric's path against the Italian Federico Cina.

Among the young ladies, we also have our representatives, so that can already be encouraging for building some new Serbian moments on the big tennis stage.

Darja Survidjinkova, who represents Serbia, will play against Anja Murphy in the first round, and we will see how much our player can do in order to be able to swuare off against the Japanese Saito in the round of 16.

The bottom line is to get a new influx while the ones that are here are still here. We must have confidence in a sport that has brought so much happiness to this country.

A bigger breakthrough is expected from Kecmanovic in the future, and the awakening of Olga and our women's tennis is also expected.

We're still alive out in Melbourne, and we'll see how much luck this little band of players, along with Novak, will bring us during the first Grand Slam of the season.

(Telegraf.rs)