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We are close to the halfway point of the 2018 Australian Open and there is a lot to get through as we close in on crowning our first Grand Slam champions for the new year.
Melbourne’s unrelenting heat has been a major factor in the upsets of some pre-tournament favourites, including Garbine Muguruza and Johanna Konta, who both had their Open dreams ended on Thursday by lower-ranked opponents in Hsieh Su-wei and Bernarda Pera, respectively.
It also tested the physical and mental strengths of Novak Djokovic and Gael Monfils during their second round match, in which the temperature on court was reported to have nudged 70 degrees.
Monfils, a quarter-finalist in 2016, did well to take the opening set, but Djokovic, the six-time champion, took control from that point to win in four sets and keep intact his undefeated record against the Frenchman dating back to their first professional meeting at the 2005 US Open.
If the Serb’s form in the first week of the Australian Open is anything to go by, then he might give defending champion Roger Federer a run for his money if they meet in the semi-finals.
Last year, the Swiss Maestro won the title as the 17th seed, his low ranking coming about following a six-month layoff due to a knee injury he picked up during the 2016 Australian Open, where he lost to Djokovic in the semi-finals.
That’s the inspiration the Djoker will need if he is to win a record-equalling seventh Australian Open title, which would see him emulate Federer’s run in which he won his first tournament back from a six-month absence.
( The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images )
As was the case for Federer, Djokovic’s previous competitive tournament was Wimbledon last year, where he was forced to retire in his quarter-final match against Tomas Berdych due to an elbow injury.
By missing the US Open, the 30-year-old missed his first Grand Slam tournament since debuting at the 2005 Australian Open, and his absence from the tour saw him drop out of the top ten for the first time since 2007.
And because the Djoker lost in the second round last year, any further rankings points he earns from this point onwards will aid his push back into the world’s top ten, and potentially a Federer-like renaissance in 2018.
But the man to beat would no doubt have to be world number one Rafael Nadal.
The Spaniard romped through his opening three matches without dropping a set, and is again expected to reach the championship match where he would attempt, for the third time, to complete a double Career Grand Slam.
He was due to play Argentine Diego Schwartzman in the fourth round on Sunday afternoon.
As this article was being written, Australian hopes are again on the shoulders of Nick Kyrgios, who was due to play Grigor Dimitrov in a Sunday night blockbuster on Rod Laver Arena.
The Aussie is coming off an impressive four-set win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and is seeking to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open for a second time (after 2015), and at a major for the third time overall (after getting this far at Wimbledon in 2014, notably at the expense of Rafael Nadal).
(AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
On the women’s side, apart from the two upsets mentioned above, grunting reared its ugly head during the first round clash between Ashleigh Barty and Aryna Sabalenka.
In the absence of serial offender and two-time champion Victoria Azarenka, her compatriot, Sabalenka, was the one making all the noise as she showed why she has the potential to one day succeed the 28-year-old in representing Belarus proudly in the sport.
But at one stage in the second set, the umpire warned the crowd not to scream during points, after which they responded by mocking the 19-year-old’s erratic grunting.
This was similar to how Azarenka was mocked during her win over Casey Dellacqua in the second round of the 2012 Australian Open (in which she defeated fellow shrieker Maria Sharapova in a final dubbed the “grunt-off”).
Barty, though, was able to put it aside to defeat her Belarussian opponent before going to on to defeat Italian Camila Giorgi in the second round, also having to come from a set down to do so.
Elsewhere, top seed Simona Halep’s resilience is set to be tested over the second week, having just come off a marathon three-set match against Lauren Davis, which she won 15-13 in the final set after saving three match points at 11-10.
She also endured a major scare in her first round win over Destanee Aiava, in which she suffered an ankle injury and was behind 2-5 in the opening set before taking 11 of the last 13 games of the match.
Pre-tournament favourites Caroline Wozniacki, Karolina Pliskova and Elina Svitolina are still alive in the draw, but it’s 2016 champion Angelique Kerber who is the new bookies’ favourite following her straight-sets demolition of fellow former champion Maria Sharapova on Saturday night.
The German, who turned 30 on the day of her win over Donna Vekic, is determined to put 2017 behind her as she seeks to return to the heights which saw her take out the title here just two years ago.
Her win over Sharapova was her 12th consecutive (eighth officially, though, as her four wins at the Hopman Cup do not count towards official rankings) to start the season, and she will be heavily favoured to make it a lucky 13 when she faces Hsieh Su-wei on Monday afternoon.
Like Halep, second seed Wozniacki had to save three match points in her second round match against Jana Fett, but other than that the Dane couldn’t be playing better than ever before, especially after a horrid 2016 season in which an ankle injury saw her ranking plummet to as low as 74.
Sadly, however, Australian hopes on the women’s side is over for another year, following Barty’s straight-sets loss to Naomi Osaka in the third round.
They had been slated to play the third match on Rod Laver Arena on Saturday afternoon, but their match got switched to Margaret Court Arena after the match between Hyeon Chung and Alexander Zverev went into the third set with the score at one-set apiece.
The move clearly didn’t do Barty any favours as she could not break the Japanese player at any stage during the match.
Earlier, Daria Gavrilova blew eight set points in a straight-sets loss to Elise Mertens in a match that didn’t start until just before midnight, the late start coming about due to the five-set men’s thriller between Grigor Dimitrov and Mackenzie McDonald, won by the Bulgarian 8-6 in the final set.
The Russian-turned-Aussie was clearly upset after being denied the chance to challenge a call that was called out in the second set, the umpire saying that she had looked up to her team before deciding to challenge.
Making matters worse, the replay revealed the ball to be in, and who knows whether it could’ve been the turning point in the match?
All is now set for what should be an interesting and intriguing second week of the 2018 Australian Open. Who will be the ones to lift the men’s and women’s trophies at the end of this week?
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