Above, Frank Dancevic and Simon Larose hug hello after Sharon Fichman’s match Thursday in Oz.
Below, Dancevic and Larose air it out on the practice court seven loooooooong years ago, at the 2008 Oz Open.
Back in 2008, Dancevic was ranked No. 74 (close to his career high). He faced Jarkko Nieminen in the first round of the main singles draw, dropped the first two sets, pushed it to a deciding fifth set, and lost 6-3, 6-1, 5-7, 2-6, 6-1.
Larose was the coach of Stéphanie Dubois at the time. He’s currently the coach of Françoise Abanda.
(The two actually played some doubles together back in 2003, when Dancevic was a wee lad of 18 and Larose was a seasoned 25. They beat the very good pair of Radek Stepanek and Jiri Novak in a third-set tiebreak in the first round of the Rogers Cup in Montreal before having to retire in their second-round match. They also played several Challengers and Futures events leading up to it. That was the year Larose, ranked No. 314 got to the third round in Montreal in singles, upsetting Gustavo Kuerten (No. 14) in the first round and Jose Acasuso (No. 80) in the second round before losing to Andre Agassi.)
Speaking of which, here is Shahar Peer, Thursday (at left) and at the 2008 Oz Open (at right).
She was 20 then, and ranked in the top 20. During the 2008 Australian Open, Abanda (whom Pe’er outlasted Thursday in the first round or qualifying) was 10 years old.
(Open Court pics)