Women: Dominika Cibulkova d. Victoria Azarenka 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
This match, while only a fourth-rounder, felt like a watershed. The shotmaking and athleticism were so good, and the competition so spirited and fast-paced, that no one could call it “mindless ball-bashing”—how about mind-full ball-bashing? And while there was grunting involved, to complain about it seemed churlish and utterly beside the point. Is this the match that will make the shriek OK? I doubt it, but’s it’s nice to think so.
Men: Andy Murray d. Grigor Dimitrov, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 7-5
Modern men’s tennis at its best, with full-flight, all-court shot-making grounded in physical grit. I’d like to see these two play a major final; at the very least, I hope their pleasing contrast in styles becomes a real, regular rivalry.
Amidst the glowing riot of neon, Maria Sharapova’s primary-red dress has stood out.
This is the first time I’ve caught the Aussie Open on TV since the advent of WatchESPN. Flipping between the coverage on that channel on AppleTV, and the coverage on ESPN2 on basic cable, is like flipping between television’s past and future. It’s easy to forget now, but ESPN’s wall-to-wall, single-channel coverage of this tournament was once a huge step forward for tennis. Now the commentary-around-a-desk you get on ESPN2 feels like a step backward when you can flip between every court, and see every match live, on WatchESPN. That’s more than you get in the press room at Melbourne Park.
It will be months, if not years, before the verdicts are in on the game’s new coaching arrangements; in a couple of cases, player and coach have worked together for literally a week. So far Tomas Berdych has looked energized by his switch to Dani Vallverdu, and Agnieszka Radwanska looks like she needs to work on her volleys before she takes any more of Martina Navratilova’s advice about getting aggressive.
The player who has already made a leap is Madison Keys, who is working with Lindsay Davenport and her husband, Jon Leach. In part, that’s because Keys, at 19, is still raw material as a player, and in part it’s because she offers so much raw material to work with. We’ll see if it lasts, but Keys has looked more purposeful with her swings, and she’s getting more shape on her shots. The one I’m going to remember was a forehand pass down the line to break Petra Kvitova at 2-2 in the first set of their third-rounder. Keys took the ball off of an overhead and changed directions with it. That was the shot of a player, not just a hitter, and if she wins the whole thing, I'll say it was the one that started it all.
I picked Milos Raonic as the sleeper on the men's side at the start of the event, and the Canadian, who will play Novak Djokovic in the quarters, could still be that. But I’ve switched my most-likely-to-break-out allegiance to Kei Nishikori. He hit a couple of speed bumps over the course of the first week, dropping sets to Ivan Dodig and Steve Johnson. But he also played the most lights-out tennis of this tournament in finishing off Dodig, and yesterday he made impressively routine work of David Ferrer. Now Knish enters familiar territory: In the next two rounds, he could have a chance to repeat his wins over Stan Wawrinka and Novak Djokovic at last fall’s U.S. Open.
It’s an age of heroes, rather than villains, in men’s tennis. Over the last five years, Djokovic, Andy Murray, and Rafael Nadal have clipped their locks and smoothed their edges, and Roger Federer has expanded into a walking brand known as RF. The men who followed in their wake, Juan Martin del Potro, Raonic, Dimitrov, and Nishikori, also stick to the good-guy script. Is it time for a bad guy? Nick Kyrgios isn’t one in real life, but he does have a neon swagger and a salty way of communicating—his rough edges are very much intact. Some fans, possibly of the younger variety, will love him; other fans, possibly of the older variety, will not love him at all. That’s what being a star is all about; for some people, you shine too brightly.
His age is a mitigating factor, but of the Top 8 seeds, Roger Federer was the only one not to reach the quarterfinals. It’s a surprise more than anything else. He came to Melbourne looking sharp, but struggled in his second-round match, against Simone Bolelli, and lost his third-rounder, to Andreas Seppi, who had taken just one set in their 10 previous meetings. By itself, this isn't a sign of decline from Federer, and he put a good face on it in his press-conference afterward, but it's a long way to the next major that he might be expected to win, which is Wimbledon in June. (Post-loss presser)
While the world has been caught up in Twirlgate (Twirlghazi?), Ekaterina Makarova has moved unnoticed through the same side of the draw as the twirler, Genie Bouchard, without dropping a set. The Russian, who reached the semis of her first major at last year’s U.S. Open, plays Simona Halep next, and while she wouldn’t be favored to win, or even take a set, from Serena in the final, Makarova does own a win over her Down Under.
By the fall, we’ll look back at Tim Smyczek’s first-serve give-back to Rafael Nadal and ask, “That happened this season?” Hopefully, we won’t forget about it completely. Smyczek reminded a lot of us that it’s not so bad being a tennis fan, after all. It’s worth it, sometimes, to stay up late.
