Every major has a moment when it begins to feel, well, major. All of the matches seem to tighten at once, and you don’t know where to look next. For the 2018 Australian Open, that moment came midway through the day session on Wednesday. At roughly the same time, two well-known players, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Caroline Wozniacki, fell behind in their final sets to two younger opponents who were clearly outplaying them. Then, at roughly the same time, they dug themselves out of their shallow graves and pulled off unlikely victories. The Aussie Open was officially on.

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Experience, Shmexperience

Tsonga's second-round match against Denis Shapovalov was billed as a shot-maker’s special, and it delivered the shots. I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many miraculous, shoestring, full-stretch, on-the-run winners traded back and forth. The 18-year-old Shapovalov, looking more imposing than he did last season, began by slashing his way forward and rifling winners to both corners—Jo didn’t know which way to turn next. But the 32-year-old Tsonga was determined not to repeat his loss to the teen at last year’s US Open. He dug in and made the match a physical contest, of power serves and heavy ground strokes.

“I think it was an advantage to play him for the second time,” Tsonga said, “because I knew he was able to do things, crazy things like he did today.”

Shapovalov did enough of those crazy things to lead 5-2 in the fifth, and serve for it at 5-3. That’s when, out of nowhere, he had a hiccup and Tsonga had a brainstorm. On the opening point, rather than crushing another ball, Tsonga gently sliced a backhand; forced to create all the pace, Shapovalov missed. Then he double faulted for 15-40. That was all the opening that Tsonga needed, and he pounded his way through it.

Was it experience that made the difference? From the outside, the answer would seem to be an obvious—young player chokes, old player takes advantage. But that’s not how Tsonga saw it.

“Not really, not really,” Tsonga said when he was asked if he could chalk up his win to experience. “I think I just played well after that. I returned, [which is] what I didn’t do most of the match. I didn’t return that well. At the end I returned well. That’s it.”

Tsonga downplayed his own clever change of pace at 3-5. But he also has a point—experienced players choke as often as inexperienced ones, and sometimes the blind confidence and desire of youth trumps the more intelligent and measured attitudes that come with maturity. Any player of any age can execute well, or execute poorly. While it’s dull to talk or write about, as Tsonga says, sometimes tennis just comes down to making a return or two at the right time.

Match Point:

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Status Consciousness

Would we see a different, more aggressive Caroline Wozniacki in 2018? After her career-best victory at the WTA Finals in Singapore last October, which she won by attacking in a way she had rarely attacked before, this was one of the intriguing questions of the new season.

But it wasn’t just about whether Wozniacki would be more aggressive. It was also about whether, now that she was back up to No. 2 in the world, she would prioritize winning a major title. With Serena Williams out of the Australian Open, this seemed to be her best chance for her first Slam.

For much of her second-round match against Jana Fett, though, it appeared that Wozniacki hadn’t changed much, after all. She lost the first set, and then fell behind 5-1, double match point in the third. It was the 21-year-old, 119th-ranked Fett who was the more creative shotmaker, while Wozniacki was spinning her wheels at the back of the court and growing more frustrated with every game.

In that frustration, though, there was something different. Wozniacki did try to be more aggressive; she did fight as if she was defending her newly regained status as a top-ranked player; she did play as if this match meant more to her than a match at a smaller tournament. She moved forward, she flattened out her backhand, she didn’t settle for looping the ball and waiting for an error.

It almost didn’t work. If Fett hadn’t missed an ace by a millimeter on match point at 5-1 in the third, Wozniacki would be out of the tournament, and we’d be talking about how she still can’t do it at the Slams. What matters, though, is what Wozniacki did when she was given, as she said, a “lifeline.” She latched onto it and won the last six games.

Like Tsonga, Wozniacki said that it wasn’t experience that made the difference.

“It wasn’t so much that,” she said. “I was more thinking about obviously she’s about to beat the No. 2 player in the world. That’s what I was thinking. Obviously she’s about 100 in the world. That’s a big moment for her.”

In other words, being highly ranked doesn’t just give you confidence in your own play; it gives you confidence that your opponent will be intimidated by the idea of beating you. If Wozniacki can keep using that knowledge to her advantage, her win in Singapore really might make a difference in 2018.

Match Point:

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Youth is Serving Again

The game is getting older? This week it’s getting younger by the hour. On Tuesday, we were wowed by 17-year-old Destanee Aiava. By Wednesday, she looked like a veteran compared to the latest teen sensation, Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine. This week the 15-year-old become the youngest player to reach the third round at a major since 1997.

Kostyuk, as you might imagine, is a character and a chatterer. She fist-pumped in her press conference when she talked about never having to play the juniors again. On court, though, she already looks and acts and plays the part of a pro. I like the way she steps in and attacks her topspin forehand, and she has that X factor from the baseline—the ability to inject pace into a rally—that generally augurs well for a player’s future. Numerous times in her second-round match, Kostyuk looped a backhand and followed it up with a bullet forehand. If anything, she can be too aggressive on the shot; when her opponent hits the ball hard at her, she steps forward and tries to hit it back harder.

But Kostyuk has plenty of time to learn. Her next lesson will come against her top-ranked countrywoman, and one of the favorites to win the tournament, Elina Svitolina.

The Overnight: How Tsonga and Wozniacki survived their second rounders

The Overnight: How Tsonga and Wozniacki survived their second rounders

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No Room on the Marquee

Novak Djokovic vs. Gael Monfils has all the makings of an evening-session special. On one side, you have a six-time Australian Open champ; on the other, you have one of the sport’s most popular entertainers. Yes, their US Open semifinal two years ago was a dud, but this time Monfils is coming off a title run in Doha, and would seem to have a legitimate shot at his first win over Djokovic.

So why is their match on during the day, and Roger Federer vs. 55th-ranked Jan-Lennard Struff on at night? Federer is always the biggest individual draw, of course, but that’s all the more reason to use this opportunity—when he’s facing a lesser-known opponent—to move him into the day session and let someone else get used to playing at night (the semis and final are at night). As it is, Federer will avoid the 100-degree heat that’s forecast for Melbourne on Thursday.

As Chris Clarey of the New York Times tweeted, Federer preferred the night session, because he played his first round at night (and who knows, maybe Djokovic wanted to play during the day rather than late at night). Last year, Federer played virtually all of his matches in the evening. Djokovic, meanwhile, was welcomed back to Melbourne Park this year with a trip to Margaret Court Arena for his opener, rather than a spot in Rod Laver—which went, strangely, to 20-year-old Alexander Zverev instead. Federer has obviously earned his marquee court assignments, but Djokovic has, too.

Conversation of the Day: 15-year-old Marta Kostyuk on her love-hate relationship with tennis.

“It’s not like I didn’t like it,” she said. “I actually said that I wasn’t enjoying it, you know. So, I mean, I was loving tennis. I keep loving it. But I never—like, I always want to win, no matter what. If I was losing, it was, like tragedy, you know. It was, like, I don’t want to play anymore. Why am I playing?”

Spoken like a true—i.e., compulsive and fanatical—competitor.

Read Joel Drucker and Nina Pantic on TENNIS.com as they report from the Australian Open, and watch them each day on The Daily Mix:

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