The Australian Open is already kind of geared for weirdos, at least on these shores, given that you have to sacrifice sleep and any usefulness the next day to enjoy it. But this year’s edition has been off the rails, making it even more worth it for those of us who are prepared to throw ourselves off our axis for a couple weeks.
The tournament has already seen a record number of total match-deciding tiebreakers between the women and men. Could be random, could be the greater parity on both tours. Even Novak Djokovic was dragged into a four-hour match in his first round, and then in the second round was challenging a fan to fight him on court. Definitely through the looking glass.
But the tournament really took off on Wednesday here/Thursday there. It started with world No. 1 Iga Swiatek overcoming two breaks in the third set to send American Danielle Collins into such a state of existential ennui she announced her retirement after the match (OK, not really, but it’s fun to say). Both Casper Ruud and Alexander Zverev (before once again getting grilled in the press conference after the match about his future domestic abuse trial) had to survive five-set matches. No. 19 Cam Norrie came back from two sets down as well.
The night session is where things really entered bat country. Elena Rybakina, last year’s runner-up, and Anna Blinkova played the longest match-tiebreak in history, clocking in at 42 points and containing utter madness like this:
Blinkova covered about 2.7 miles on that point, and eventually survived by the tune of a 22-20 score in the tiebreak to send the No. 3 seed home. The match that followed, after waiting nearly three hours to start, saw Danil Medvedev drop the first two sets before roaring back and winning his match at around 3:45 AM local time. The wonderful thing about the Aussie Open is that when it truly gets bonkers, a fan back here in the States waves the white flag and goes to bed only to wake up to find it’s still going. It was nearly lunchtime on the East Coast when Medvedev claimed match point.
The fun only kept going last night as Mirra Andreeva, who seems destined to be the next big thing on the tour very soon, swallowed up a 1-5 deficit in the third set to win in yet another match-tiebreak over Diane Perry. Andreeva is only 16, and while she’ll need to add some power to her game eventually, her brain and feel are already at veteran-level, finding touch and angles that is rarely seen at such an age on the women’s tour. Madness like this:
Andreeva had utterly destroyed Ons Jabeur in the previous round, handing her the worst loss of her career of 6-0 6-2. She wasn’t playing nearly as well against Perry, but even at 16 she was able to adjust her approach and started spinning the ball to get it up more on Perry’s backhand and open a lane for herself. Big things coming for her.
Certainly worth trading in some sleep for.
How’s 96 degrees in the shade sound to you?
Do you like Dallas in July? Well, a lot of tourists are going to have to figure out how, as the World Cup Final in two years looks like it’s headed for Jerry World.
If a Final is supposed to take place in the stadium that best represents the host nation, than AT&T Stadium is probably it, given that it’s grossly oversized, bombastic, boorish and in a place getting nearly inhospitable due to climate change. Thankfully, it’s indoors, though how they’ll keep a natural grass surface up to standard for a month will be a fun watch. And then move it out when the NFL players remark how nice it would be to keep it around.
The problem is that Jerry World has no public transportation to it, which will come as a huge shock to whatever fans of the two nations that compete in said Final. And they’ll be traveling there on short notice, and there won’t be enough cars for them to rent. That’s perhaps the biggest problem, and one Dallas might need to solve with a lot of shuttle buses from various points around the Metroplex. Then again, that’s a problem for almost every World Cup site, and most likely those cities just don’t care.
This will only hurt for a second
Let’s cap it off with Owen Tippett capping off an utter ass-waxing of the Stars by the Flyers last night:
Nice work, Joel Hanley. Try maybe getting his stick next time.
Follow Sam on Twitter @Felsgate and on Bluesky @felsgate.bsky.social
