What we learned from Melbourne
AGEING WARRIOR
ANDY MURRAY lit up the first week with his heroics, outlasting Matteo Berrettini and then coming back to beat Thanasi Kokkinakis over the best part of six hours — all while playing with a lump of metal in his hip. The way he moved and played will excite hopes that he still has it in him for some kind of Indian summer. It is hard to imagine, at Wimbledon in particular, that too many players will want him near them in the draw.
LATE NIGHT FROLICS
THOSE in charge of scheduling still fail to understand that matches go on longer than they used to (tennis is the only business not to realise attention spans are shrinking). We saw, yet again, unrealistic programming and sights such as droves of spectators leaving before the end of the women’s semi-finals, and two Australians in the men’s doubles final playing before a half-empty stadium. That is before concerns regarding the players, with early-hours winners at a disadvantage with their sleep patterns disrupted.
ABSENT FRIENDS
THE likes of Carlos Alcaraz and Nick Kyrgios withdrawing did not help, and neither did the early exit of Rafael Nadal, whose body seems to be finally breaking down under the strain. This was not a tournament chock-full of great matches in either singles event.
THE CURSE OF NETFLIX
NOT one of the players featuring in the documentary Break Point will have been pleased with their tournament, and so was born the Curse of Netflix. They all either lost earlier than they would have hoped, or did not make the starting line at all through injury. Coincidence? Almost certainly. It is hardly that the slightly bland first five episodes could have offended anyone.
VERY BRITISH PROBLEMS
A STRONG tournament for players from Russia and Belarus will hardly have allayed the anxieties of those present from Wimbledon about what lies ahead. In the British game they are mindful to back down on their stance of banning players from those two countries, out of fears that they will lose ranking points and tournament sanctions. Champion Aryna Sabalenka could easily win Wimbledon too, and the nauseating pictures of Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko toasting her Australian success will not have calmed fears at the All England Club.
PAR FOR THE COURSE
MURRAY apart, nothing special. By and large the British contigent won matches they were supposed to win and lost matches they were slated to lose. Cam Norrie fell slightly short, and so did the doubles players. Jack Draper again showed his potential by challenging Nadal and Emma Raducanu acquitted herself respectably against Coco Gauff.
A QUIET REVOLUTION
THE current trial of allowing coaches to give instructions to players from the stands (lengthy conversations not allowed) looks set to become established policy. The evidence presently suggests it does not make too much difference either way.
It only occasionally enhances the entertainment value and probably does not affect the outcome of matches much. But it does mean tennis loses a unique point of difference with other sports.