Running tennis thread for 2023

He’s only 22, but he’s not exactly an unknown. You might remember he gave Djokovic a battle in the U.S. Open a couple years ago.

 

Sometimes my tennis awareness comes and goes. That said, I love the Aussie Open (reasons listed above) and last summer, I went to London and toured the All-England Club, so I'm looking forward to maybe upping that this year, at least for the slams.

 

Holy shit! I just looked at the Australian Open website to check the late results and it says the Murray-Kokkinakis match is still going on. It’s after 3 a.m. there!

Kokkinakis won the first two sets, Murray took three and four and now they’re 2-2 in the fifth.

 

Murray hung on again to win his second straight epic/marathon match. Took the deciding set 7-5 to complete a five-hour, 45-minute victory.

Doing the math, that’s 10:34 of court time in the first two rounds. They might have to carry him to the court for Round 3 (vs. Bautista Agut).

In other news, the No. 2 women’s seed is also out. Ons Jabeur was ousted by Marketa Vondrousova, 6-1, 5-7, 6-1.

 

Iga Swiatek going for the double-bagel tonight.

Spanish lady got one. Boo.

 

Is it me, or does Felix Auger-Alliassime look a lot like Arthur Ashe?

 

For all the hype ESPN has been spouting about how great the Americans are doing at the Australian Open, it's worth noting that four of the top Americans -- including the two highest-seeded U.S. men -- are already out.

No. 8 seed Taylor Fritz and No. 16 Frances Tiafoe were eliminated in the third round. No. 10 Madison Keys and No. 13 Danielle Collins lost last night (U.S. time).

Now, the two best American women -- No. 3 Pegula and No. 7 Gauff -- are into the fourth round, and the men got another good win this morning when No. 29 Sebastian Korda took out Medvedev, but he's the only U.S. male seed left.

 

So the title is Pegula or Gauff's to lose now?

 

Gauff just lost it.

 

Caroline Garcia looms large. And Sabalenka has been playing very well — she won one of the tuneup tournaments.

 

Aussie Open tennis tends to get lost in the shuffle in North American sports coverage, but it definitely sets the tone going into Roland Garros and the Fab Fortnight.

 

That’s cute.