World champions take Australian Open titles in crushing finals
Camden Riviere and Claire Fahey win singles finals dropping one game between them
World Champions Camden Riviere and Claire Fahey have defended their respective Australian Open titles in an imperious display of tennis in front of a packed house at the Royal Melbourne Tennis Club on Monday, dropping just a single game between them.
The first final of the evening was a rematch of the previous two finals, both won by Claire Fahey over Lea Van Der Zwalmen. Both of those editions had taken place in Hobart, making the match the first time the two had played on the Melbourne court. The galleries were full for the match, as the Boomerang players combined with the local members to cram into every vantage point possible to see the match.
Fahey took control of the match from the very first ball. No matter how many serving variations Van Der Zwalmen pulled out of her locker, Fahey had an answer to all of them. Her cut volley was extremely difficult to deal with, putting Van Der Zwalmen immediately under pressure in the forehand corner. The Frenchwoman needed to find a finish to the rally by the third stroke or else suffer an intense interrogation of her technique from an opponent who was playing flawlessly. From the service end, Fahey was equally dominant, gathering particular success with a high serve that found Van Der Zwalmen’s volley return wanting. When Van Der Zwalmen did manage to slide a ball into the winning gallery, she got a huge cheer from a crowd who were baying for a contest. Unfortunately for her, such moments were few and far between, picking up just 5 points in the first set and 13 in the second as Fahey worked her way to victory, winning the final in 50 minutes.
Fahey’s victory brings her tally of Open singles titles to 49, one behind her husband Robert Fahey’s career total of 50 as the most prolific of all time. Her first opportunity to equal the record will come at the US Open in Boston in March.
As part of a new initiative from the Australian Real Tennis Association (ARTA), the prizes were awarded by prominent emissaries of the game. Fahey was presented with her trophy by 3-time champion Penny Lumley. “To Lea, it’s a tough scoreline and results can be misleading, that was an amazing match of tennis you played,” said Fahey. “It’s another incredible run, another Open final, so huge congratulations on your game. I know it’s not the outcome you wanted but it was a great contest and I look forward to the next one.”
The already full crowd seemed to grow even further for the open singles final between Camden Riviere and Steve Virgona, especially given it was Riviere’s first tournament in Melbourne in seven years. The two had last played in Melbourne nine years prior, in a match that Riviere won in four sets. Many in the crowd were hoping that the Australian Virgona would do one better.
However, they had not accounted for just how domineering Riviere would turn out to be. Even given how strong Virgona had been through his earlier round matches, Riviere was beyond stratospheric. Gone were the trick shots and exhibition style Riviere had played his matches earlier in the week, and in its place was a ruthless determination to chase down every ball possible and return it with enough interest to make a pay-day loan company nervous. Where in the past, Riviere had been happy to out-rally his opponent and wear them down like a wolf tracking its prey, here he was more like a tiger, attacking targets with reckless abandon and killing off points as quickly as possible.
There wasn’t much Virgona could do to counter. Riviere’s serving was too tight for Virgona to step inside and force off his forehand, and anything marginally loose was sent in the direction of the grille. When Virgona did hit what would be a winner against every other human on the planet, Riviere would step in at the last minute to pick the ball up an inch off the ground and turn it into an impossible winner of his own. The Australian won just the one game — the fourth — in the match, in what would turn out to be the only game won by a losing finalist the whole day.
Riviere’s victory was the 33rd Open title of his career. It was also his fifth Austrlian Open title, and the first time he has won back-to-back Australian Opens. The scoreline of 6/1 6/0 6/0 equalled the 2014 US Open as the most one-sided scoreline in an Open final of the 21st century — an honour also won by Riviere, in that instance against James Stout. Riviere also finishes the Australian Open having won more sets, 9, than games lost, 8.
Riviere’s trophy was presented by five-time champion Chris Ronaldson. “To play in front of so many people, tying the Australian Open in with the Boomerang has to be one of the best ideas anybody has ever had,” said Riviere, “I want to say a big thank you and a huge congratulations to Melbourne and to ARTA for continuing to push the Australian Open forwards, creating better prize funds, better environments for us to play in and to have all of these people around, thank you all for making it such an amazing experience.”
The Australian Open concludes on Tuesday with the two doubles finals, with each of the singles finalists taking to the court again with their partners.
Match results:
5:00 PM: Claire Fahey (1) def Lea Van Der Zwalmen 6/0 6/0
7:00 PM: Camden Riviere (1) def Steve Virgona (3) 6/1 6/0 6/0
Order of play for Tuesday (all times AEDT):
5:00 PM: Claire Fahey & Saskia Bollerman (1) vs Lea Van Der Zwalmen & Katherine Carney (2)
Followed by (approx 6:30 PM): Nick Howell & Steve Virgona (1) vs Camden Riviere & Chris Chapman (2)