https://twitter.com/NickKyrgios/status/1747172861532626958?s=19
1 Like
Thanasi Kokkinakis has just won his first round match in 5 sets.
6 Likes
Popyrin getting a bit too cocky. It’s good to celebrate the wins but don’t be a dick about it. No need to be a Kyrgios 2.0.
We all know what Djokovic is capable of. He can turn matches around.
4 Likes
Ukrainian Kostyuk and Belgian Merterns going the distance
1 Like
Popyrin had three set points in the third set to take a 2 set to 1 lead, but couldn’t convert any of them, and Djokovic claimed the third and fourth sets to win the match.
Kostyuk prevailed 10-6 in the third set tie break.
4 Likes
The Australian Open seems to really have a lot of momentum this year. It’s doing very well in viewers on TV and crowd numbers are really up too. I was there yesterday for the day Rod Laver session and for the first few hours it was pretty quiet on the grounds due to the rain, however as I was leaving at around 6pm as the sun came out there were masses of people everywhere. It felt like the sort of crowds you’d get on a weekend.
7 Likes
Max Purcell, wow 
1 Like
After losing to Iga Swiatek in three sets today, 2022 AO runner-up Danielle Collins revealed that she would retire from tennis at the end of this year.
5 Likes
I think a lot of that is due to the Australian men’s contingent being stronger than it has for quite some time, even without Kyrgios.
1 Like
I get a feeling too that it’ll still do well, even if a worst case scenario happens (all Australians and big names like Djoker, Tsitsipas, Alcarez, Medvedev, etc get bundled out), as viewers are now fully aware and invested, like a daily habit, helps that the competition on TV is also really weak, plus Big Bash doing poor numbers (and abandonments) and the one-sided looming very early finish Windies Test.
2 Likes
The matches have been outstanding. I mean Day 1 itself had 2 epic battles. And it’s just continued all week. Tennis all round is in a really good and exciting era.
2 Likes
And its looking a lot more even, other than Djokovic… It was almost always between him, Rafa and Federer.
3 Likes
Wow, that was an epic tie break between Anna Blinkova and 3rd seed Elena Rybakina in the women’s!
It took 31 minutes in the 3rd set 10 point tie-break to separate the pair, with Blinkova eventually prevailing 22-20.
6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (22-20)
5 Likes
That 3rd set tiebreak between Blinkova and Rybakina is now the longest tiebreak in a singles match (both men and women) in Grand Slam history.
3 Likes
I think the previous, at least at the AO, was 2007 between Andy Roddick and Jo Wilfried Tsonga, which went to like 18-16
1 Like
Yeah although nothing will go past the Isner-Mahut match
3 Likes
Correct. While Tsonga won the tiebreak, Roddick won the match (it was a first rounder), and eventually went on to reach the semis losing to Roger Federer.
Tsonga beat Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal the following year, the latter in straight sets for the loss of just seven games.
That match, as well as another marathon match in which Isner was involved in 2018 (a semi-final against Kevin Anderson where the final set went 26-24), triggered a series of rule changes at the Majors so that we will almost certainly never have another sequel to that 70-68 marathon at Wimbledon in 2010.
Prior to 2018, the only Major that used a final set tie break was the US Open.
2 Likes
The late finish to the Blinkova-Rybakina encounter pushed back the men’s match between Daniil Medvedev and Emil Ruusuvuori. The latter match didn’t end until 3.40am.
2 Likes
A decade ago today: incumbent world number one and hot title favourite Serena Williams crashed out of the 2014 Australian Open after losing to former world number one Ana Ivanovic in three sets.
In four previous meetings (of which three were at the US Open), Ivanovic had never won more than four games in a set against the legendary American.
This result turned the tournament on its head but Sharapova and Azarenka would later crash out in the following few days, with Li Na emerging as the champion.
2 Likes
In 2019, a movie was made about Li Na’s shock win at the 2014 Australian Open, called Li Na: My Life, with Peter Chan directing. The full-scale interior of Rod Laver Arena was actually constructed on a movie studio in China for the shoot. The movie however still does not have a release date.
3 Likes