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The pair Zip-lining throughout the Yarra River aren’t removed from the location of the Australian Open. Within the distance is the famed 100,000-seat Melbourne Cricket Floor and to the decrease proper the Tennis Australia headquarters constructing at Melbourne Park.
In hindsight, 2023 was not fairly a classic yr for the Australian Open. The principle cause being the principal gamers who didn’t play in any respect or who did however have been absent as soon as the occasion obtained all the way down to its nitty-gritty last phases.
On the ladies’s aspect that would come with world No. 1 Iga Świątek and No. 2 Ons Jabeur in addition to No. 3 Jessica Pegula and No. 4 Caroline Garcia – all gone before the last eight besides dropping quarter-finalist Pegula.
The lads’s match was determined for a official menace to the all-conquering Novak Djokovic. However subpar, defending champion Rafael Nadal went out in spherical two, No. 1-ranked and US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz (proper leg damage) didn’t even make it to Australia and Holger Rune, who beat Djokovic within the Paris last in November, catapulting him to the frontline of challengers, was ousted in a thriller by Andrey Rublev within the round-of-16.
There was additionally no-show, host-nation drawing card Nick Kyrgios (left knee) in addition to the premature exits of emerging stars resembling second-seeded Casper Ruud, No. 6 Félix Auger-Aliassime and No. 8 Taylor Fritz, all three of whom had all proven numerous promise on the finish of 2022.
Constructive for the ladies was that the downer recollections of massive names light, changed when No. 5 seed Aryna Sabalenka defeated reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 with charming, hyper-aggressive tennis within the last. The 24-year-old Belarussian’s winsome personality and back story were hard to resist.
Her struggles on the AO a yr in the past – six double faults in a single recreation – in comparison with simply seven this yr in the entire two-hour and 28-minute last, arrange a Sabalenka fairy-tale ending to the 2023 match and its slogan, “The Story Begins Right here.”
Rod Laver Area was the place to be for Sunday evening’s males’s last between Djokovic and No. 3 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas. Sadly, there was little of the drama of the ladies’s championship match. Djokovic, over any qualms remaining about his left hamstring damage after his quarter-final win over Rublev, reached a degree that was untouchable for the 24-year-old Greek, or anybody else at this yr’s occasion.
He beat Tsitsipas 6-3, 7-6(4), 7-6(5) and the historic significance of his victory – 10 Aussie Open titles, 22 Grand Slams total and a return to the No. 1 rating – overshadowed what occurred through the two-hours and 56-minutes of on-court motion.
St. Kilda Seaside, on Port Phillip Bay, is a hip, cool place to hang around in Melbourne. The saxophonist right here, engrossed in her music, is only one instance of the wildlife to be discovered on fashionable Acland Road.
CANADIANS AT THE AUSSIE OPEN
BIANCA ANDREESCU: The best thriller among the many Canadians was Andreescu and her 2-6, 7-6(7), 6-4 second-round loss to No. 100-ranked qualifier Cristina Bucsa of Spain. That adopted her spectacular 6-2, 6-4 opening-round win over No. 25 seed Marie Bouzkova.
The primary set in opposition to Bucsa went as anticipated however then Andreescu progressively misplaced her aggressive tennis and her confidence. It appeared all of the extra mysterious when Bucsa then misplaced 6-0, 6-1 to top-seed Iga Świątek within the third spherical. A match-up in opposition to the world No. 1 was what Andreescu actually yearned for.
GENIE BOUCHARD: Match and motivated to begin the brand new yr, she lost in the first round of qualifying – 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 to 18-year-old Ashlyn Krueger. 13 years after she first performed within the junior occasion at Melbourne Park, Bouchard, 28, got here on robust after a sketchy first set and appeared poised to complete off the gangly 6-foot-1 American. She had a break level and a put-away forehand close to the web at 4-all within the last set, however she missed it into the web.
Krueger then held and broke serve within the following recreation to finish Bouchard’s hopes. After successful a spherical of qualifying in Auckland the earlier week, Bouchard needed to withdraw with a case of meals poisoning – not the best preparation for the AO.
GABRIELA DABROWSKI: It was a disappointing fortnight for the No. 7-ranked doubles participant. She and Mexican companion Giuliana Olmos, the No. 3 seeds, have been crushed 7-5, 6-2 by the American/Russian duo of Caroline Dolehide and Anna Kalinskaya within the third spherical. They did have a stable second-round win over the Swiss pairing of Belinda Bencic and Jil Teichmann.
In blended doubles, Dabrowski and Australian Max Purcell, seeded No. 8, have been ousted within the second spherical by wild-card Aussies Lisette Cabrera and John-Patrick Smith.
LEYLAH FERNANDEZ: After dropping simply 4 video games in her first two-rounds pre-Aussie Open on the Auckland WTA 250, Fernandez confronted the left-handed, brute drive of Belgian powerhouse Ysaline Bonaventure – indoors – and was crushed 6-4, 6-2.
Within the second spherical on the AO, she lost 7-6(5), 7-5 to No. 4 seed Caroline Garcia after main the primary set tiebreak 4-0 and having a set level within the second. Two rounds later, a nervy Garcia misplaced 7-6(3), 6-4 to No. 45-ranked Magda Linette. Laborious-luck Fernandez was enjoying effectively sufficient to have adopted Linette’s eventual path to the semi-finals had she gotten previous Garcia.
REBECCA MARINO: With a 1-1 file in opposition to Zhu Lin of China of their earlier conferences, this time Marino was dominated from the baseline 6-2, 6-4 by the No. 87-ranked Chinese language’s correct, up-tempo ball-striking. Zhu proved what effective kind she was in by happening to achieve the fourth spherical with upsets of seeds No. 32 Teichmann and No. 6 Maria Sakkari.
KATHERINE SEBOV: The Canadian revelation of the 2023 Australian Open, the 24-year-old qualified with wins over No. 58-ranked Czech Linda Noskova, contemporary from a runner-up end in Adelaide to Sabalenka, No. 170 Priscilla Hon of Australia and No. 128 Simona Waltert of Switzerland.
It was an occasion of firsts for Sebov – her first Grand Slam principal draw, her first rating contained in the top-200 at No. 190 and her first expertise in a Grand Slam principal stadium, Rod Laver Area, the place she was beaten 6-3, 6-0 by Garcia.
CAROL ZHAO: Bidding for her first principal draw at a Grand Slam, the 27-year-old Zhao lost a soul-crushing, qualifying second round to No. 130-ranked Clara Burel 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6[10-2]. Hardly ever does a match flip so dramatically as this one did. Zhao was on her solution to victory forward 4-0 and some extent for 5-0 within the second set in opposition to a very dispirited Burel.
There appeared no means again for the 21-year-old Frenchwoman, however Zhao then hit a regulation forehand over the baseline. A re-energized Burel received six video games in a row and the set earlier than she took the third seesaw set in a one-sided match tiebreak.
FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME. He by no means obtained anyplace near establishing a cruising altitude in Australia. He misplaced within the first spherical to No. 113-ranked Aussie Alexei Popyrin in Adelaide after which was outplayed after the primary set in a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(2), 7-6(3) loss to fast-rising, No. 71-ranked Czech Jiri Lehecka, 21, within the fourth spherical at Melbourne Park.
A late 2022 season end on the Davis Cup Finals, after which an exhibition occasion in Dubai proper earlier than Christmas, could have meant he wasn’t as contemporary for Australia as he wish to have been.
GABRIEL DIALLO: The 21-year-old from Montreal has made superb progress prior to now six months, going from No. 669 at first of August to No. 227 earlier than the AO qualies.
Diallo performed Aleksandar Vukic within the first spherical and had 4 break factors within the 26-year-old Aussie’s first two service video games. He couldn’t convert any of them and Vukic, who went on to qualify, simply wanted a single break in every set to win 6-3, 6-4. It was a primary actual style of the bigtime for the 6-foot-7 Diallo and will present him with stable expertise to construct on.
ALEXIS GALARNEAU: The 23-year-old was enjoying his first Grand Slam qualifying and won his opening round 7-6(5), 6-2 over 27-year-old Ryan Peniston of Nice Britain. Within the second he confronted one other 27-year-old, Juan Pablo Varillas.
Galarneau received the primary set on his fifth set level, after saving a set level, however progressively the No. 103-ranked Peruvian began to play extra persistently from the baseline. That was the distinction in the 6-7(8), 6-3, 6-4 outcome. Galarneau was recreation however Varillas had a bit of extra moxie in key moments.
VASEK POSPISIL: After going via a 2022 late-season push – together with successful the Nationwide Financial institution Challenger in Drummondville in his final occasion – to get direct entry to the 2023 Australian Open, Pospisil drew compatriot Félix Auger-Aliassime within the first spherical. He began nice, taking a 5-0 first-set lead earlier than starting to undergo (leg) cramps at 5-4 within the second.
He wound up sweating via 9 shirts earlier than losing 1-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(3), 6-3 on a mild-ish night. Each the (unhealthy) luck of the draw, and his ongoing subject with cramps, conspired to make issues completely irritating for an in-form Pospisil.
DENIS SHAPOVALOV: He reached the third spherical earlier than going out to No. 10 seed Hubert Hurkacz 7-6(3), 6-4, 1-6, 4-6, 6-3. A poor sixth recreation within the fifth set to get damaged ruined the momentum of his dominant play within the third and fourth units.
However it was at all times going to be robust to win in 5 after dropping the primary two units, particularly having served for the primary at 5-4 and having some extent for 3-0 within the second. Submit-match, Shapovalov admitted to nerves being a difficulty, one thing he continues to work on.
The Younger and Jackson lodge is on the crossroads of downtown Melbourne – Flinders and Swanston Streets. It has turn out to be extra gentrified in recent times however within the days of 2002 champion Thomas Johansson, a energetic group of younger Swedes used to bunk there – getting fueled on the bar at 10 a.m. earlier than heading off to close by Melbourne Park to cheer and chant for his or her compatriot.
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