Another week has passed in tennis, and a lot has happened. When we say a lot, we truly mean a lot. Letโs go over some of the events from the past week in the world of tennis.
Championโs Corner
As always, we have to give a shoutout to some of the best performers from the past week. There were a couple of events held on the ATP and WTA Tours, and a few players won trophies.
Gael Monfils proved that age is just a number for him as he won his 13th career trophy in Auckland by beating Zizou Bergs in the final. Felix Auger-Aliassime also won a trophy. It was his sixth career trophy as he bested Sebastian Korda in the Adelaide final. Another player who won last week was Madison Keys, who bested Jessica Pegula in the womenโs Adelaide final.
McCartney Kessler also won a trophy, paying homage to the Tasmanian devil by playing devilishly good tennis against Elise Mertens in the final at Hobart. It was her maiden title.
Sinner or Skier?
Novak Djokovic made a lot of people laugh this week when he was asked to give one-word responses to a few tennis playersโ names. First, he was given the name Roger Federer, and he immediately said “elegance”. Quite fitting.
Then it was Rafael Nadal, and his word was “tenacity” – no surprises there. The next player he was given was Carlos Alcaraz, and his word for him was “charisma”, which again is rather fitting. And now comes the bang. He was given the name Jannik Sinner, and he picked “skiing”.
It was an interesting choice but not entirely unfitting because Sinner was a junior skiing champion who opted for tennis because it was less dangerous. So again, rather fitting.
But plenty took the comment as a slight on Sinner, given how complementary all of Djokovicโs other words were. So much so, that the Serbian himself gave a statement clarifying he meant no ill by the remark, and it was genuinely just the first word that came into his head.
Sinner Addresses Kyrgios’ Comments for the First Time
Ever since Sinner tested positive for a banned substance, Nick Kyrgios hasnโt stopped talking about it. The Australian, who is very outspoken, has made comments which many found to be a bit too much. For example, he famously said that he would lose all respect if he played against Sinner, trying to win at any cost.
He also said he would try to rile up the crowd against him, which, again, are all technically fine things to say. However, many fans didnโt like it because, after all, respect is an important thing in tennis.
To his credit, Sinner didnโt really take the bait in any way, simply stating what heโs said before: that he doesnโt feel guilty in any way.
“I don’t think I have to answer that, to be honest,โ he said. โIn my mind, I know exactly what happened and that’s how I block the noise from other people. I haven’t done anything wrong, and that’s why I am here and allowed to play. I don’t want to answer Nick or other players. The most important part is to have my people around. That’s it.”
Watch Out! Ants!
If youโve ever watched any kind of documentary about the top 10 deadliest animals, youโll notice that a lot of them are native to Australia. There are simply a lot of interesting animals living down under, and Emma Raducanu had a chance to meet some of them up close.
The British player had an encounter with jumping ants, which actually bit her, with Raducanu opting against antiseptics in fear that they might contain something contaminated which would result in a positive doping test.
After the horror stories of Sinner and Iga Swiatek testing positive through no fault of their own, players are seemingly very careful and maybe just a bit too paranoid. In any case, if youโre going to Australia, watch out for those jumping ants. Whatever they are.
The Year of the Teenagers
Down under, itโs the year of teenagers as three have secured historic qualifications at the Australian Open.
Joao Fonseca capped off an amazing start to the year with a stellar run in the qualifiers to make the main draw. Learner Tien also made the main draw where he will try to finally win his first match on the Grand Slam level. Martin Landaluce is another teenager who qualified for the event, marking the year of the teenager.
This is the first time since 2015 that a menโs Grand Slam has three teens in it.
Australian Open Begins
The Australian Open officially began on Sunday, January 12th in Melbourne with a pretty interesting opening day. There were some stellar matches, some dramatic comebacks, but also rain. The world-famous land of much rain, Australia, saw a six-hour delay on the first day because of the rain.
Two full weeks of Grand Slam action await, with more tennis than you could possibly imagine waiting in Melbourne. Check out our draw preview of the event here.