2007-a highlight year and now the Australian

Wow! Still invigorating how the year 2007 unfolded. We had our 1st Grand Slam champion do battle at Rec Park. A few closing thoughts on what has to be a highlight in the history of the event, a 2007 sports highlight for Broome, a highlight for many tennis fans of the region. Thomas Johansson. After winning here, Thomas went on to reach the ranking of #39 in October. During that stretch, he made the 3rd round of the US Open, he beat James Blake for the 1st time in Davis Cup, and he then beat Blake again to reach the finals of his home ATP event in Sweden. Amazing results that match Andy Murray when he was here in '05. TJ was playing some great tennis just before, during, and after our event. What will he bring to the Australian as a former champion there? Unfortunately, he picked the worst week of the fall to have an off match. He bailed in the 1st round of St. Petersburg, which is where he had a lot of points to defend and hence... his ranking dropped to the 60s.

Tennis on a broad level still had a good year in 2007, despite the turmoil with match gambling. Tennis grew at many levels in the US. USTA released a statement on tennis being the fastest growing participation sport, now at an estimated 25 million in the USA. The growth for the last 4 years is the best since the 1970s. That is kind of interesting at the broad level, and hopefully is taking hold locally. We go into 2008 with Levene Gouldin & Thompson as a title sponsor again, always good to have a title. The last 3 years have had Andy Murray, Jan Michael Gambill, Mark Philippoussis, and Thomas Johansson as participants... can't get any better than that for quality of players. That has to be at the top for all Challengers.

Speaking of Murray, he again looks poised to make progress. Getting back into the top 10 prior to the Australian. Ivo Karlovic, also a Binghamton champ, making waves as well going from 98 to 22 in 2007. Not much movement with the Americans. Paul Goldstein might be the significant one, a very familiar face here, he has played less and the ranking is dropping significantly.

More to come on Australian notes