2022 AUSTRALIAN OPEN

1. Novak Djokovic

RIP, tennis heaven needed an antivaxer

1hr 40 min 1st set btw delbonis/martinez

Cam Norrie continuing to have a bit of a shocker as far as 2022 is concerned. Figured Korda would beat him, but three, love and four? Not sure what's happening there.

Wang takes out Gauff and Keys edges Kenin.

Wang looked terrific today against a very lacklustre Gauff.

And Berrettini overcomes stomach problems to scrape out his win and announce his new sponsorship tie-up lol

The camera lens signature competition has been won by Matteo Berrettini on day one. #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/3pKA0BVkLG

— The Tennis Podcast (@TennisPodcast) January 17, 2022

Karatsev - champion in Sydney 48hr ago - is going to have to go five sets and well over four hours to get through Munar here. Down 1-2 and just blew a double-break in set four.

Badosa - also champion in Sydney at the weekend - is in a battle vs Tomljanovic. My score app says "medical timeout", but I've missed who it was for.

Talking of players who had a great warm-up run: Kokkinakis (sf Adelaide 1, champ Adelaide 2) - out in straights to a 30yo German qualifier. Oof.

Karatsev through in 4hr 55... 87 winners, 107 UEs...

Wow can't believe Gauff is already out, especially after all the hype about how she's in the best shape of her life.

kokk getting upset is good for rafa, who looked p good from what i saw vs giron

so who's betting rafa is going to win this

I wouldn't bet on him necessarily, because there are plenty of guys in the draw who have beat him on hard courts — including Medvedev in straight sets in November — but I am rooting for him. Both because I like Rafa and because if he wins this and the French, that would put Djoker two more in the hole to catch up to.

(Sorry, that wasn't straight sets, it was 2-1 — and it was November of '20, not '21. Still. Nadal is beatable.)

love him deeply but would not bet on nadal

Khachanov and Hurkacz/Karatsev (who could conceivably play themselves out by then) lurk in Nadal's section - it's not an easy draw. I know he won three matches (plus a w/o) for the Summer Set title in his first event back, but I wouldn't be totally surprised if he failed to make the quarters.

Kyrgios-Medvedev in r2? No idea where NK's game is atm, not sure anyone does. Broady could knock him out tomorrow.

mannarino taking out hurkacz in straights is not a result i saw coming, tho adrian does seem to be at the stage of his career where he gets up for majors & the corresponding prize $ boost

shapo barely squeaked into the next round, but he did dominate most of that last set

lol kyrgios is such a shitheel

played well, all things considered. as ever, imagine if he gaf

o'connell/cressy feels like more of a 3rd round qualifiers match than main draw but props to both guys

Osaka out to Anisimova who just stopped missing after saving two match points in the third. Very fun match. Osaka badly needs to work on her defence - she can usually just power her way through a match but she can’t keep doing that against players who hit as big as she does.

Will fall out of the top 80 after the AO, gotta work hard the rest of the year to get her ranking back up.

mannarino-karatsev are 4:15 in and are only at 4-3 in the fourth

mannarino wins in four sets/4:38, setting up some hot lefty-on-lefty action vs nadal next

wow osaka will be outside the top 80? jeez

surprised mannarino/nadal have only played twice previously (2-0 rafa natch)

monfils is now the favorite to win his quarter

yessssss shapo took out zverev :D

Barty lost her streak of 63 consecutive service holds but remained impenetrable otherwise, takes out Anisimova who wasn’t playing too badly at all. Good match.

that rafa/mannarino first set tiebreak was epic

Yeah some excellent matches (reading about it as I've no easy way of watching).

Nadal over Shapo in five in a pretty crap match - neither player playing well at the same time at any point. Rafa was very clearly physically troubled towards the end (MTO in the fourth) but never underestimate Shapovalov’s ability to beat himself lmao

The service game he lost in the fifth had absolutely nothing to do with Nadal smh

Yeah from the reports it doesn't sound that good. Don't feel Nadal will win the Australian unless it's handed to him over the next two matches.

Yeah I reckon this is Medvedev’s Slam to lose.

I do find it amusing that Nadal’s game is starting to resemble Federer’s more and more as he gets older and can no longer last through long rallies for extended periods - towards the end of that match, he was just throwing down massive first serves and aggressively serve and volleying to get himself out of trouble. Really weird to see.

Meanwhile, Monfils and Berrettini are currently battling it out in a ten-minute plus game (it might be over now idk, my stream is a couple of mins slow) with some beautiful rallies

and after nearly 20 mins, Matteo finally holds! Amazing.

Shame though, I was hoping Monfils would break and even this match out.

let’s go to the fifth

now THIS is a five-setter

sigh Monfils gonna Monfils, I guess

Medvedev is bombing, two sets down against Auger-Aliassime!

yeah, been following reports. sadly still stuck at work and can't watch

goddamnit Daniil, now I'm gonna be forced to root for Tsitsipas

on to the fifth, this is some high-level stuff

Sounded like a thriller on the radio. 4hr 40min+, FAA still had b-p chances at the end there (and a m-p in the 4th set).

Did not expect Tsitsipas to dismiss Sinner like that.

Lol

Medvedev speaks: “I have no idea [how I hung in there]. I was not playing my best and Felix was playing unbelieveable. He was all over me and I do not know what to do. So I thought to myself – and some people won’t like this – what would Novak do?” Cue boos and cheers from the crowd (but probably mostly boos). “I just fight to the last point and manage to raise my level for the next game. I played better [when the roof was closed]. My hand was slippery [when the roof was open] so the roof closing helped my hand be less sweaty.” He faces Tsitsipas now, who he played in the semis last year, losing in three sets. “It’s the semi-final of a grand slam so even if if I am tired I am going to give it everything. Last year I managed to play pretty well. Let’s hope we can have a good match.”

He did add (edited from the Guardian transcript)... "Novak... or Rafa or Roger, you know, those guys", which drew a different response :)

Good day for the Aussies - Barty sweeps past Keys. She may well win the title without dropping a set, or facing a top-20 opponent (Collins off to a flyer vs Swiatek). I'm still hoping Iga can make it through and we have a decent final.

Also: we have an all-Aussie MD final. In my head Kokk-Kyr vs Ebden-Purcell is some sort of generational clash (Cash vs Hoad, Hewitt vs Rosewall), but Purcell is the youngest of the four!

I just tuned in and wow was not expecting this scoreline from Swiatek-Collins o_O

That's a real shame.

Iga has won 11% of pts behind her second serve :/

And there it is. Credit to Collins, she was fully zoning and barely reacted when she won lol

Iga looked a tad slow today, exhausted after her match against Kanepi yesterday perhaps

happy for collins, could see this type of run in her after her hard court season last year tbh

she also got fortunate that her draw really opened up, didnt have to face any of kontaveit, rybakina, mugu or halep

i dont give her a chance vs barty really

medvedev has won his first five service games without dropping a point

It can go either way with him. I've seen him completely lose focus after an altercation or distraction. Sometimes it's not really his fault, like colliding with the TV camera in Cincinnati when ahead vs Rublev.

Be interesting to see what happens if Nadal is pushing the shot clock at key moments on Sunday.

xxxxp

Netflix really picked the best tournament to start filming their tennis doc - don’t think I’ve ever seen this happen before (for context, Eva Asderaki speaks Greek so she can hear what Tsitsipas’ dad is saying from the box)

🚨 Caught red-handed! 🚨

Check out the vision that shows the Tsitsipas camp caught in a STING by the umpires! 😲#AusOpen - live on Channel 9 and 9Now. Ad-Free Live & On Demand on Stan Sport pic.twitter.com/4AYq6oRp9b

— Wide World of Sports (@wwos) January 28, 2022

was rooting for felix in the quarters but medvedev was been awfully impressive (especially considering how gangly and simply weird he sometimes looks)

also appreciate how quickly he serves. watching closeups of nadal do his routines for four hours is maddening

Heard on the radio that no one, in the Open era, has followed up their maiden Slam with another one immediately afterwards. Not sure if that's just the men. (Connors immediately sprang to mind... beat Phil Dent to win the AO in Jan '74, didn't play Roland Garros (banned as he was part of World Team Tennis), then won Wimbledon and US Open that summer, so he's the closest).

Just the men, Osaka won her first two back-to-back just a few years ago

Murray was the last man to follow a maiden slam with a final at the next (where he met Djoko at the Australian)

Remarkable comeback from Barty after being down 1-5 in the second set, thought for sure we were going into a third there. Well deserved win!

Collins was game but it always felt like the match was on Ash’s racquet - even when she got broken, it looked like it was more due to nerves than anything else.

Not a set dropped, has won a slam on all surfaces and far more consistent than anybody else. Likeable, for an Aussie.

Up ya Bartyyyyyyyy!!!!!!

Hoping Kokkinakis/Kyrgios take this. Anti-Kygrios rhetoric makes me laugh

Up ya Bartyyyyyyyy!!!!!!

Hoping Kokkinakis/Kyrgios take this. Anti-Kygrios rhetoric makes me laugh

“For an Aussie”? Leave it alone mate we’re a good breed

No.

Fair enough

;-)

Medvedev zoning, broke Rafa twice to take the first set.

Rafa breaks and holds for 4-1

Absolutely idiotic/terrifying scenes at break point as Nadal tries to serve it out

Some bozo just jumped out of the stands onto the court (probably about three meters), got dragged out.#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/u4xzjTaIEf

— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) January 30, 2022

Epic exchanges. 5-5.

Nadal to surely close the set 5-3 tb

Medvedev turns this around again. Now he has a SP

And Medvedev wins to boos lol I love this guy!!

That was an insane TB - until the final point it wasn’t really clear which way it was gonna go

Unsurprising that Med would take it though after Nadal squandered so many leads

Onto a 4th set..

Lots of resistance from Nadal. 10 mins but he holds: 1-1

2BPs Nadal

Lol at ace and DF. Trainer out for Medvedev...

And then breaks back: 2-2

Nadal seems to be playing incredibly here. About to break, 0-40

One more break..

4th BP..

One saved, one more..

7th time lucky..

Lol an ace from Nadal to hold: 5-3. If we got to a final set that will be remarkable.

This match is hilarious - I’m cringing every time Medvedev makes a net approach.

FIFTH. SET.

Lol

Lol/Sigh

meh feels like Daniil really should’ve broken there :/

Holy shit

rafa !

I hope no one is allergic, because that was nuts!

God, Rafa be Rafa.

I can be happy that he’s one up on Djokovic at least lol

Lmao Medvedev looks so mad onstage, he’s so great

Extraordinary final (listened to it on the radio on a long walk, hoping to encounter a pub showing it), but mixed feelings about the result. Really wanted Medvedev to push on and take #1. Nadal's lovely fake-out dink cross-court off a drop-shot at 6-5 30/15 was the key moment. Medvedev holds there and he likely wins the match.

Medvedev had more winners, fewer UEs (+24, to Nadal's +1), won 189-182 total pts... and lost. Tbf, I think he was behind in almost every category vs FAA, and pulled that out.

I wonder what kind of schedule Nadal will commit to from here? Rest up until spring and clay?

guys

so who's betting rafa is going to win this

― Punster McPunisher, Monday, January 17, 2022 10:02 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

great match though. i only caught 1.5 hours of it because i couldn't stay awake past, like 3:00am. rafa is such a beast. i kind of wanted med to win it, though. but i'm happy rafa got his 21

nice call punster

yeah id assume we’re not seeing rafa til monte carlo…

Khachanov and Hurkacz/Karatsev (who could conceivably play themselves out by then) lurk in Nadal's section - it's not an easy draw. I know he won three matches (plus a w/o) for the Summer Set title in his first event back, but I wouldn't be totally surprised if he failed to make the quarters.

― Michael Jones, Monday, January 17, 2022

How similar this Nadal run is to Fed five years ago! Limping out of a Slam semi you were favourite to win, six months injured, then back at the age of 35 "with no expectations". I don't think this ends the same way though.

― Michael Jones, Friday, January 28, 2022

I was right until I was wrong.