2025 Australian Open: Busted Draws, Drama-Queen Djokovic and the Svitolinas Make Money Moves

I'm writing this as Elina Svitolina just came back from 4-1 down in the first set against Veronika Kudermetova. It's the day after (here in the States) that Gael Monfils beat TayLOR FRITZ to advance to tHE FOURTH ROUND of the Australian Open?!?? I'd said for years that Monfils has the game to win a major. Full disclosure: The last year I said that was probably, like, 2018. 

But I keep forgetting that this is the first Slam of the year, and I had told myself I was going to stop doing draws for this one, because it is always quite a surprise how it actually plays out. At least it's a surprise to me. Behold, these busted draws:

That red is bad. (Like it is on an election map in the U.S. I'm sorry. I couldn't resist.)

Also, you can see it's rare that I'm right and I hated to be right about Ons Jabeur losing to Emma Navarro. But a Navarro/Daria Kasatkina fourth round feels like a great time to multi-task. I'm sure I can finish doing all the laundry in my house. Also, painting my garage. Might even be able to throw in a bathroom redesign. Both of them.

Last thing, I swear: Why is Novak Djokovic such a drama queen. (That punctuation is correct. I do not expect an answer.) I just read this story about Djokovic basically hissy-fitting his way to an apology from an Australian tennis commentator who either made a bad joke or voiced a bad take. But because he called Djokovic overrated, my guy boycotted the network's post-match interview after his fourth-round win. Left poor Jim Courier hanging. Because a rando tennis commentator said a thing that wasn't terribly funny or made much sense. I assume the man was joking because no one would call Djokovic overrated. He is the major Slams record holder. He is the last of the Big Three standing, and currently being coached by the Fourth. He is not going to lose to Reilly Opelka in this tournament. And he needs the affirmations of this rando guy? Whatever happened to the days when commentators' ridiculous takes were met with a healthy public scoffing and ... that was it? 

(Even if this guy was serious, I've heard John McEnroe say far dumber things and people love him!) (But hey, when you think about who's about to be the president of the United States, that dynamic makes sense!)

I have said this before and I'ma have to say it again, I guess. Djokovic cares waaaaayyyyy too much about what people think about him. I don't know if he feels like the little sister when it comes to Roger and Rafa, but speaking of, those guys didn't seem to hunt down bad press about themselves and get butthurt over silly comments. I think it's because they let their games and their reputations speak for themselves. I don't want to say that he should do the same thing because he's gonna have his hands full in this draw from here on. 

Wimbledon '21: The Quarters

I just heard the term "Manic Monday" as applied to Wimbledon's second Monday of the tournament for the first time. I'm sure it's been used before but man was it true yesterday. There were so many questions.

How did Paula Badosa manage to lose that match, especially that first set? 

How are you Karen Khachanov on grass and having trouble holding serve?

Is Aryna Sabalenka intentionally injecting drama into her matches just to see if she can come out of it?

Who is more adept at opening his mouth and removing all doubt: John McEnroe or Piers Morgan? 

And finally, do you like roller coasters? Then you loved Andrey Rublev and Marton's Fucsovic's match, right? My favorite thing from the Internet yesterday was that "Call the ambulance" meme featuring these two. I cried. But I didn't like it, so it's now swept away in the flood that is the Twitter feed. Anyway, it was funny.

So, the quarters are underway and so far, Karolina Pliskova is locking down her spot in the semis and Daniil Medvedev is having a slow start to the continuation of his Round of 16 match. Pretty slow -- down 2-4 in the fifth, so. 

Of the matches coming up, I'm excited for Ons Jabeur v. Sabalenka, about to commence shortly. Jabeur earned the OG tag when she puked on court before upsetting Garbine Muguruza. Sabalenka can basically run the table in any match because of her power, but she's not yet put it all together at a major. This one could be dicey. This has to go three sets, right?

I think Ash Barty is a lock for her quarterfinal. Aja Tomljanovic looked good most of the tournament and against Emma Raducanu in her previous match. (Sidebar: OK, am I the only one who would also be trying to catch my breath after long, tortured rallies against a veteran player? What is this drama?!) But Aja has struggled in just about every other match. Barty in straights.

I would love to say Angelique Kerber is an easy lock for the semis, but I am literally still wondering how Karolina Muchova even won her Round of 16 match. So who knows.

Whoa snap, Medvedev is already out! Well then. 

Here We Don't Go Again

I've been ranting about a lot of stuff that I can't change, so why not go back to one of my favorite ranting topics of all time?
I am watching Daria Kasatkina's match versus Ons Jabeur. I had seen Kasatkina's coach's inspirational mid-match pep talk, and it was very good. Where was Jabeur's coach, though, to tell her to stop challenging? Just stop, sis.
Anyway, if you're a regular reader of this blog, then you know what's coming. Kind of.
You know, I feel like I've been on this anti-on-court-coaching train all by myself, and I was sure that the controversial U.S. Open women's final would have continued on to this issue, and I would finally have some company. And I was here for it. Waiting to get past this Serena/sexism stuff which has been annoying on about 40 levels, and then we ... got to on-court coaching! Yay! We got to the part where Serena Williams' coach Patrick Mouratoglou said there should be on-court coaching at majors. (Whoops. We got a mid-rant rant coming: Serena Williams has never used on-court coaching and maintained she didn't receive it during the U.S. Open final. She has never, to date, seen the need for this and has done just OK so far. So it would appear that his own student does not agree with him on a fairly major point that helped launch an insane debacle at one of my favorite tournaments, but OK THEN. My personal favorite part of Mouratoglou's manifesto (say that three times fast) is when he says that on-court coaching is good for social media. I saw Kasatkina's coach's pep talk on social media, but when Coach MacGyver over there can turn social media traffic into tennis fans for life, I will be there watching. Do you think all the authors of those hot-take think pieces after the U.S. Open are still watching tennis?

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And I got really excited because I thought, "Here we go! We are now going to get into how this has only been advanced for women's tennis and not for men. Now people will start asking why that is. They'll call it for what it is -- a sexist policy because it implies that only women need help pulling themselves together during matches, which is, uh, NOT TRUE. Here comes the sexism debate in tennis we've (I've) been waiting for."
Naturally, though, Mouratoglou managed to sidestep this truth in his little statement. Of course, because he is not interested in equality or anything that is "big picture." Unless that big picture is of him.
I think on-court coaching is stupid. But I would almost like to see it instituted for both men and women because there's something I'd like to check out. I would like to know if when Roger Federer comes from behind to win a match after on-court coaching if Ivan Ljubicic will get the credit. Because Kasatkina's coach sure is right now. (Sidebar: She didn't really observe his technical advice and she won anyway. Weird.) Mouratoglou says in his essay that coaching is front-and-center in every sport, and he might be right. I guess he thinks that people don't realize that tennis players are coached when they are not playing matches. But we all know who Bill Belichick is, so yeah. There is that. But does Belichick get the credit for Tom Brady's many come-from-behind wins? Yeah, no. Kasatkina, though? Thank goodness for her coach, who pulled her from the brink of defeat.

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