As I was saying, the Australian Open didn't need Novak Djokovic, which is what made their decision to try to accommodate his mess made no sense at all.
Just look at how this tournament turned out. The women's side had some great matches in the fourth round on and the reemergence of familiar faces (Amanda Anisimova, Alize Cornet and Simona Halep). Plus Kaia Kanepi. I don't know how she does it. She picks a slam, shows up, and as the kids say, chooses violence on seeded players for a good week. The women's game is full of solid players who can win a point in any variety of ways and we're lucky to witness it. And this is mostly without two of the young stars who have already made their presence felt -- Naomi Osaka (who did come to the Open) and Bianca Andreescu (who didn't). So who knows what will happen when/if they are at the top of their games again. But what we have now is Ash Barty. With the early-morning match times here in the States, I didn't get to see much of her because she was wiping her opponents off the court in straight sets and with little consideration for mercy. Surely, you think, she'll have trouble with Jessica Pegula, who upset Maria Sakkari. Surely. (6-2, 6-0). OK, but Madison Keys, who racked up a warmup tournament title and had been serving well and hitting terrifying groundstrokes all over the place? Surely this matchup would be concerning to Barty. (6-1, 6-3). The last American standing was Danielle Collins, whose cackle went viral during the tournament while her game carried her through a few three-set tussles in the last two weeks. Even that was more of a challenge borne more of Barty's nerves, I think. And I've never seen her more fired up after a win.
And don't get me started on that men's final. Seriously. I had an errand to run and left just before Rafael Nadal was broken for the first time. When I came back, he was in real trouble in the third set and I was glad I'd missed most of it because I didn't want to see him go out like that. And I didn't see him go out in any way. That was an unbelievable final and I hope it shuts down the five-set haters forever. No, not every five-setter is this good, this dramatic, but there's nothing like it in all of sports. I see matches like that, and consider that I'm old enough to remember that tennis commentators predicted that Nadal would not be able to have a lengthy career due to his hard-charging style. Listen, that ass is built to last. But we'll get back to that ass in a second.
First, Daniil Medvedev. Have I mentioned he's like watching Gumby play? The swings, the body contortions. Gumby used to slide around pretty fast, and that tracks too because he can run everything down. He's a tough guy to beat and Nadal had to do take the scenic route to take Medvedev down -- just by wearing him out. Even worn out, I was worried at 5-all in the fifth. So was Nadal.
Second, of course, it was tough to listen to his takeaway after the match. He was really disappointed by the crowd response to him, which is ... confusing? I don't know how familiar Medvedev is with the guy he played against, but he is actually pretty popular and a fan favorite. So getting mad about people supporting Nadal over him is probably understandable in the moment, but not something to take personally. The other piece of this is how much energy Medvedev puts into trolling the crowd. He makes a real effort at it. Does that translate into making yourself a crowd favorite? I'm trying to think of a situation where that happened and am failing. John McEnroe, maybe? But he didn't seem to need the crowd on his side and it was never clear that Medvedev did either. His post-match comments were just a lot.
I didn't even get to Nick Kyrgios winning a major on his home soil and being a bigger audience troll than Medvedev in the process. Congrats to him and Thanasi Kokkinakis for prevailing in the all-Aussie final.
So it was a great tournament, and no one needed you-know-who to make it memorable. I often wonder what I would do if I got a chance to travel to the Australian Open. It's obviously be great to be in a crowd and feel that energy. But sometimes, I dream bigger. What would I do if I were on a post-match stage with a man who just made tennis history and has a world-renowned backside? I'd probably be fine and be able to hold it together. Or I'd have to just take a small
OK, she wins. She wins!
