The primary main of the tennis season has wrapped up Down Underneath.
A brand new champion has emerged from the northern area of Italy as Jannik Sinner broke via for a primary main title, whereas Aryna Sabalenka confirmed her energy and poise to defend her crown in Melbourne.
Listed here are 5 takeaways from the 2024 Australian Open:
Sinner has arrived
He’s the primary Italian man to win a serious in 48 years.
Jannik Sinner accomplished his beautiful rise within the males’s sport in Melbourne, producing an surprising comeback from two units to like right down to beat Daniil Medvedev 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 within the remaining.
It’s his first profession grand slam title and one of many final containers to tick for the younger celebrity.
Sinner was dominant all through the 2 weeks Down Underneath, controlling play along with his devastating baseline energy and utilizing his improved serve to nice impact, solely conceding two breaks via his first 5 matches, all straight-set wins.
The Italian brushed apart robust rivals like Olympic silver medallist Karen Khachanov, world no. 5 Andrey Rublev, upended a listless wanting Novak Djokovic within the semifinals after which proved his mettle beneath stress with an unimaginable rally within the championship, a match that featured excessive calibre play from each gamers:
Canadian tennis followers obtained to witness considered one of Sinner’s breakthrough moments final summer time, as he captured his first Masters 1000 title on the Nationwide Financial institution Open in Toronto. Since then, he’s added titles in China, Vienna, led Crew Italy to its first Davis Cup victory since 1976, and now has his identify engraved on a serious trophy.
The 22-year-old has been prolific the final 5 months, profitable 10 of his final 11 matches in opposition to High 5 competitors. In his post-match press convention, he made it clear his intention for rather more.
“I do know that I’ve to work even more durable,” mentioned the Italian.
“As a result of the opponents, they are going to discover the way in which to beat me and I’ve to be ready. Let’s see what’s coming sooner or later.”
Sabalenka delivers title defence
The facility, presence, camp, and vitality belonged to Aryna Sabalenka this previous fortnight in Melbourne.
The defending champion arrived as a girl on a mission Down Underneath, and easily dismantled the competitors earlier than her. The Belarusian performed nearly flawlessly throughout seven matches, profitable the title with out dropping a set.
After breezing via the primary week unscathed, Sabalenka defeated former grand slam champions in succession, taking out 2021 French Open winner Barbora Krejčiková, and exacting revenge on final 12 months’s U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff with a gritty 7-6, 6-4 victory.
By the point she reached the championship match, a serious title nearly felt like a formality. Sabalenka used her booming serve, disarming baseline sport and huge expertise to overwhelm Zheng Qinwen 6-3, 6-2 at Rod Laver Enviornment, a courtroom she continues to thrive on.
She turns into the fifth lady to win the Australian Open with out dropping a set and is the primary participant to defend her crown in Melbourne since fellow Belarusian Victoria Azarenka received back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013.
Little question, it was a two-week efficiency worthy of a celebratory trophy strut.
Novak isn’t infallible, Alcaraz slips
Sure, even the best athletes are entitled to an off day.
It was in order that jarring to see it although from Novak Djokovic, significantly in Australia, the place he’s been a dominant power for over a decade and a half, amassing 10 main titles. Whereas the 24-time grand slam champion did attain the semifinals in Melbourne, he stumbled badly, dropping to Sinner 6-1, 6-2, 6-7, 6-3.
Regardless of a flash of high quality tennis within the third set, the extent from the Serbian was nowhere close to what tennis followers are accustomed to seeing from the all-time nice.
“I used to be shocked at my stage,” Djokovic shared in defeat.
“This is likely one of the worst grand slam matches I’ve ever performed.”
It was certainly a mistake-riddled efficiency, as Djokovic had 54 errors within the three-hour, 22-minute affair. It was his first defeat on the event since 2018. He does nonetheless maintain the No. 1 rating and is 600 factors away from Carlos Alcaraz.
The Spaniard additionally didn’t dwell as much as his lofty expectations at this occasion, as he was dispatched within the quarterfinals by Germany’s Alexander Zverev 6-1, 6-3, 6-7, 6-4. Whereas Alcaraz had a largely uneventful first week with 4 assured wins in singles, he was fully out of types tactically in opposition to the big-serving German within the quarters.
Carlitos, even when dropping, stays a human spotlight reel, and produced a mesmerizing flurry of pictures to struggle again within the match and rally from the brink to win the third set. Regardless of these spectacular highs, Alcaraz had severe dips in type as effectively, struggling badly with consistency from the again of the courtroom, and too usually taking part in to Zverev’s much more harmful backhand wing and getting rightly punished for doing so.
Since his Wimbledon title final season, Alcaraz is 22-9 with zero titles, a runner-up end in Cincinnati, and a semifinals run at Flushing Meadows. These are terrific numbers for nearly any professional, however don’t meet the standard requirements for the younger phenom.
Alcaraz will hope to regroup and get again on observe rapidly with three majors forward and almost 10 months of tennis left within the calendar 12 months.
Zheng the following Chinese language star
Simply 10 years in the past, Zheng Qinwen — eight years of age — moved from Chengdu, China to Wuhan, away from her dad and mom, to coach competitively as a tennis participant.
Whereas she was taking part in as a junior, former world No. 2 Li Na grew to become the primary Asian singles champion on the Australian Open, profitable the title in 2014. It was Li’s second grand slam singles title, and later that summer time she would proudly retire from the game as probably the most profitable Asian athlete within the sport’s historical past.
For Zheng, Li has been the final word position mannequin — she labored with the athlete’s former coach Carlos Rodriguez as a junior and confirmed promise rapidly as she transitions to the tour. She received the WTA Newcomer of the 12 months in 2022, and final season received her first two titles, superior to the quarterfinals of the US Open, and cracked the highest 15 of the rankings.
In Melbourne, as prime flight stars like Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina stumbled, Zheng capitalized on an open draw, and prevented going through a single seeded participant en path to the championship match, taking part in offensive tennis within the opening week, and a composed and clever match within the semifinals in opposition to proficient qualifier Dayana Yastremska.
Zheng has an all-court sport with a heavy, highly effective forehand wing, prime stage velocity and athleticism, and an correct serve that continues to enhance. It’s now introduced her inside the highest 10 of the rankings for the primary time — at 21-years-old, count on many extra alternatives for deep runs at a serious sooner or later.
Father time… defeated!
There have been a pair of heartwarming tales in doubles this fortnight in Melboune. Doubles specialist Rohan Bopanna, now 43 years of age, was anointed world no. 1 halfway via the event after a number of months of sustained success, together with putting runner-up on the U.S. Open with companion Matthew Ebden, and ending as finalists in Shanghai, Paris, and the ATP Finals.
Already setting a file because the world’s oldest No. 1 in tennis historical past, Bopanna managed one other feat. He and Ebden defeated shock Italian finalists Simon Bolelli and Andea Vavassori 7-6, 7-5 for his first profession grand slam doubles title.
Meantime, on the ladies’s aspect, the enigmatic Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan, grew to become the ladies’s second oldest doubles champion, profitable the ladies’s title alongside Elise Mertens and the combined doubles crown with Jan Zieliński.
Hsieh has one of the distinctive and weird game-styles within the sport, hitting quite a lot of slices, drop pictures, lobs, and redirecting her opponent’s tempo across the courtroom. Whereas her profession in singles formally ended right here in Melbourne in qualifying, she’s now as much as seven profession ladies’s doubles slams, and has her first ever win within the combined class.
Not too dangerous at age 38.
Ottawa’s Gaby Dabrowski and companion Erin Routliffe, who’s a Kiwi however grew up in Canada, had one other stable occasion in doubles, reaching the semifinals of the event, and now sit fifth and sixth respectively within the rankings.
