THE SMASH OUR ACES & FAULTS
OUR WRITERS’ TAKE ON THE OPEN
LIKES 1 SOMETHING BIG AT A PRESSER
Normally the media room is a place where players go to offer straight bats, go through the motions and generally spin answers, or even not really answer questions properly.
It’s a part of the gig that the players least like, and generally press conferences are fairly dull affairs.
Not this year. Serena Williams put the media room in the headlines across the world when she fled in tears after being asked a fairly innocuous question about her “bad day at the office” against Naomi Osaka. SCOTT GULLAN
2 ASLAN KARATSEV
What a story. The world No.114, who few outside of ATP Challenger fanatics had heard of and who nearly threw in the towel three years ago because of a knee injury, came from the clouds to become the story of the Australian Open.
Karatsev, a 27-year-old qualifier, did what no one in history had done before him to reach the semi-finals on grand slam debut. With an $850,000 windfall, a provisional ranking of 42 and a devastating backcourt game, his world has changed forever. JOE BARTON
3 RETURN OF KOKKI
Incredible not only to see the Aussie back on court after such an injury-plagued career, but to see him smiling and winning.
Special K dispatched Soonwoo Kwon in his opener to claim his first Australian Open singles win since 2015.
It was an incredible moment, the Aussie overcome by emotion on court and reduced to tears. It was clear just how much this comeback on home soil meant to him.
He wasn’t done. Two days later, in front of an incredible crowd, he took eventual semifinalist Stefanos Tsitsipas to five sets in an epic battle.
Playing doubles with Nick Kyrgios was an added bonus, and for anyone who caught them in action, it was clear to see the joy was back for Thanasi. No one deserves it more. EMILY BENAMMAR
4 FATHERLY LOVE
One of the best images from the Open was the embrace between Tsitsipas and his father Apostolos after the biggest win of his career against Rafael Nadal.
The match was an epic fivesetter, and the Greek gun won plenty of admiration for his reaction after it.
SCOTT GULLAN
5 PASSING THE TORCH
OK, so the torch was probably passed a little while ago, but Naomi Osaka rubberstamped it with an absolute demolition job on Serena Williams in their semi-final.
Williams has been the dominant force in women’s tennis for more than two decades, but the Osaka era is upon us. The Japanese star will rule tennis for the next decade and there’s nothing we can do about it — just sit back and appreciate it. JOE BARTON
6 SILENCING WHINGERS
The tournament has been no stranger to criticism in recent weeks. Players in particular have been overly vocal in their negative views of hard lockdown on arrival in Melbourne. Some complained they were being treated like criminals, others compared it to prison.
Jennifer Brady? Silence. She made no such complaint.
She got on with training and making the best of a tough situation. Where did the positive mental attitude get her? Her first grand slam final.
Defying the odds, the American silenced the whingers.
EMILY BENAMMAR
DISLIKES 1 MAGIC HANDS
As Jim Courier remarked in the commentary, he would love to spend some time with the trainer who produced a miracle treatment on Czech Karolina Muchova during the second set of her quarter-final against Australian Ash Barty.
Muchova was gone for all money in the match when she called her
controversial 10-minute medical timeout. She said she was dizzy and “lost” on the court.
But she returned after the trainer’s intervention — we were told ice to cool Muchova was part of the treatment — playing like a world-beater who proceeded to break Aussie hearts everywhere. SCOTT GULLAN
2 INJURIES
There’s nothing worse than watching an athlete vainly struggle in a contest while being repeatedly let down by their body.
We saw it all too often. Grigor Dimitrov slowed to a crawl as he limped around the court in his quarter-final exit, struggling with serious lower-back pain.
Earlier, Dominic Thiem looked a shell of himself as he went out in straight sets.
Experts suggested it was the impact of the two-week hotel quarantine — which pushed players, in some cases, beyond their limits.
JOE BARTON
3 WHEEL MISTAKE
On paper it was a great idea from Australian Open organisers.
Put Dylan Alcott’s wheelchair quad singles final as the second match on Rod
Laver Arena’s night session and get maximum eyeballs in prime time.
Rafael Nadal was a shortpriced favourite to race through his quarter-final.
However, no one could have predicted we’d see one of the greatest comebacks ever from Stefanos Tsitsipas, which meant Alcott’s match had to be moved and didn’t start until around 11pm.
Once it was locked in on the schedule, there was no way organisers could move it.
But it would have been great for this to either have been played in front of fans or been seen at a decent hour.
To miss both was bad luck for everyone. LIAM TWOMEY
4 FEDERER’S RECOVERY
It seems like Roger Federer’s recovery from knee surgery is suddenly looking a lot brighter than he predicted a few weeks ago.
His fitness was used as an excuse for why he wasn’t at Melbourne Park, but we all know the grand slam great simply had no interest in doing quarantine in Australia.
Federer has confirmed he will be ready to fire in Dubai and Doha in a couple of weeks.
Hopefully Australians get one last chance to see greatness next year.
SCOTT GULLAN
5 THE ITALIAN SPAT
Don’t get me wrong, this made for great TV. But seasoned professionals should know better than to go at each other on court the way this pair did — especially when you’re being broadcast around the world.
Fabio Fognini and compatriot Salvatore Caruso had to be separated at the end of their five-set epic as tensions boiled over and insults were traded.
It all started with eventual winner Fognini saying his opponent had been lucky on a few points after the fourhour marathon concluded.
The theatrical exchange in Italian lasted about two minutes and continued even when Caruso attempted to leave for the locker room.
Fognini accused his mate of “breaking his balls”, among other things, as officials came on court to keep them apart.
EMILY BENAMMAR
6 LET THE PLAYERS PEE
Rules are always important. But if a 10-minute medical timeout for feeling hot gets the tick of approval, then I think we can relax the rules on bathroom breaks a little bit.
For Denis Shapovalov to have to face a code violation just for needing to go to the toilet is tough to swallow.
And while “I’m going to p--- my pants!” was one of the quotes of the Open, in future there is probably a commonsense solution to make sure this doesn’t happen again.