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MELBOURNE, Australia – It’s been a grueling fortnight, as if a Grand Slam tennis tournament has already been contested – even though they’re on the courts instead and all the focus is on the two missed shots.
Novak Djokovic’s battle with the Australian government ended on Sunday when a court in Melbourne rejected the unvaccinated tennis star’s request to overturn the government’s decision to revoke the visa. After that dominate the news cycle and even delaying the broadcast of the match schedule, Djokovic left the countryHe will not be able to compete at the Australian Open, which starts on Monday.
“The Australian Open is much more important than any player,” Rafael Nadal said at the pre-tournament press conference. “If he’s finally playing, fine. If he’s not playing, the Australian Open will be a great Australian Open with or without him.”
Contemporaries and competitors?
The champions community, including Djokovic’s Nadal himself, can make a sound at this event. Nadal, who also broke the 21st Grand Slam record for breaking a triple tie with Djokovic and Roger Federer, won a small tournament in Melbourne in the first week of the season and was able to practice less with full strength. one month after contracting the coronavirus. Sixth-placed Nadal starts Monday against USA’s Marcos Giron.
Andy Murray, the only player to consistently snag in their debut with the Big Three, is confidently entering the Open after reaching the finals of the ATP tournament in Sydney last week.
Mid-tournament showdown approaching
Ashleigh Barty and Naomi Osaka They finished off their season after losing at the US Open last year, and they both looked rested and ready in the first week of this season. Barty, who had to complete a lengthy quarantine after returning home, said on Saturday that he made the decision to stop for “the right reasons” when he did it last year.
“All in all, I felt like I had a great year,” Barty said. “I was tired. I knew that giving myself the best chance to get off to a good start here in Australia was to go home and rest. I have absolutely no regrets.”
The top-ranked player in women’s tennis, Barty won the singles and doubles titles in Adelaide in the first week of the season and has positioned herself as the favorite to win her first Australian Open title. Barty embraced the pressure of trying to be the house favourite, and the first Australian man or woman to win a singles title there. since 1978, the longest home championship drought of any Grand Slam event.
“I just have to hope everyone understands that I’m doing my best,” he said. “It doesn’t always turn out exactly the way you want it to. But you’re going the right way, doing the right things, and trying to give yourself the best chance – that’s all you can do. That goes for all other Australians as well.”
When the tie broke out, the match, which was quickly circled as Barty’s toughest test on his way to the title, was a potential fourth-round match against 13th-placed reigning champion Osaka. after you said you got it indefinite break from tennis After its third round defeat at the US Open, Osaka played well in its first tournament this month, reaching the semi-finals of a minor event in Melbourne before pulling out with a minor abdominal injury.
Raducanu ready for return
Emma RaducanuThe shock 2021 US Open champion, who walked through qualifying and the main draw without dropping the set, started this season with less auspiciousness. After contracting the coronavirus last month, he said his training was limited to “maybe six, seven” hours on the field before playing his first game in Sydney last week.
It showed. Raducanu was attacked by Elena Rybakina 6-0, 6-1.
Raducanu is going through a tough test where he faces 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens in the opening game. Stephens, who married her longtime boyfriend, football player Jozy Altidore, on New Year’s Eve, also arrives at the tournament without much preparation for competition.
“Obviously you can’t win a Grand Slam without being very talented,” Raducanu said Saturday, referring to Stephens. “I definitely think it’s going to be a tough game. I’m going to go there and enjoy the game because I just had to work hard to be here when I was playing at this Grand Slam.”
Another particularly interesting first-round game features two Americans who rebounded: 11th seeded Sofia Kenin. 2020 Australian Open title Opened against the Madison Keys, he helped win the WTA Player of the Year award that season.
Struggling with injuries and family problems last season, Kenin showed promise as he made his way to the quarterfinals in Adelaide this month in his first tournament since Wimbledon. Keys dropped to 87th in the rankings and won a tournament in Adelaide the following week, moving up to 51st place.
bursting bubbles
Although Djokovic news suggests otherwise, there are far fewer restrictions on vaccinated players at the tournament this year. strict hotel quarantines This past year has jeopardized preparations for many athletes.
But as the reins of players loosened, the landscape of the coronavirus pandemic has changed drastically around them. Once upon a time, there were only a few cases per day in the country; rolling average now more than 100,000. Australia is heavily vaccinated, which has greatly reduced deaths and serious illness, but the tournament has “paused” ticket sales by 50 percent for sessions that have not yet exceeded that amount in sales. All tickets purchased will be honored.
When good morning means goodbye
Two Australian fan favorites call it a career at this year’s tournament. Samantha Stosur, 2011 US Open champion, said that this will be his last singles tournament. Stosur, 37, said he could continue playing doubles with Zhang Shuai; the two won last year’s US Open.
Dylan Alcott, who Won “Golden Slam” He will also retire last year in four wheelchair singles, winning all four majors, and a Paralympic gold medalist the same year. Alcott’s face is one of the most prominent on promotional posters for the tournament in the city, and the tournament plans to hold the final of its event at the Rod Laver Arena.
Alcott’s prospects for a happy ending look good: He’s won 15 of the 19 Grand Slam singles events he’s competed in in his career.
Game, set, match; lights camera engine
Long jealous of the popularity of Formula 1 races as a result of the Netflix series “Drive to Survive”, tennis players expressed their excitement about the start of production of their own documentary series.
Filming continues at Melbourne Park, with a collaboration between the four Grand Slams providing access to the tours and the camera crews around the tour. The exact cast of the main characters of the male and female tours is not yet known, but it is known that Stefanos Tsitsipas and the best American Taylor Fritz participated.
How to watch the Australian Open
With a time difference of 16 hours between Melbourne and the Eastern time zone, watching the first Grand Slam tournament of the year can make its own sporting battle with sleep as a wild competitor, depending on where in the world you watch it.
For the most part, the daytime sessions of the tournament start at 7:00 PM Eastern time, while the night sessions in Melbourne start at 3:30 PM (Match times are subject to change).
In the United States, matches will be broadcast on ESPN and the Tennis Channel, and in Canada on TSN.
The full match schedule can be found at: AusOpen.com.
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