By Alix Ramsay
We are three weeks into a new year and five days into the first Grand Slam of the season. There is so much to look forward to, so many storylines that could possibly unfold. Or maybe not.
So far, absolutely nothing has changed from last year. Jannik Sinner is still, seemingly, unstoppable in the Rold Laver Arena; Naomi Osaka is still quietly bonkers but finding a way to win, Stan Wawrinka is still going and Novak Djokovic is still doing whatever he can to stop the sands of time slipping through his racket strings.
Oh, and the Melbourne weather is still up and down like a yoyo: raining on Wednesday, cold on Thursday and predicted to be well over 100 degrees in a few days.
Let us begin with the mighty Stan. He will turn 41 in a couple of months and after a distinctly ordinary 2025, he decided to make this his last year on tour. Now, to his delight and everyone’s amazement, he is into the third round in Melbourne – he has not done this well at a slam in three years – and is the first man in his 40s to achieve such a feat in Australia since Ken Rosewall in 1978.
It damned near killed him, mind you: he needed just over four and a half hours to beat Arthur Gea, the 21-year-old qualifier from France, 10-3 in the match tiebreak at the end of the fifth set. Stan was still standing; the man almost half his age was the one stricken with cramp.
Asked how he felt after such a magnificent win, our Stan merely laughed and said: “Exhausted!”. Not quite the emotional outpouring the interviewer had hoped for but hey ho.
“It’s my last Australian Open so I’m trying to last as long as possible,” he went on. “I’m not young any more so I need [the crowd’s] energy. I’m always going to fight; I’m always going to push myself. It was a long match, I don’t know how I’m going to recover but I’m super happy.”
This was more like it. The man with the microphone thought he might be on to something here. So, really, how was Stan going to recover? Stan surveyed the crowd supping their beers in the Kia Arena. “I have no idea,” he said. “Maybe I’m going to pick up a beer. I think I deserve one.”
That he did and, beer or no beer, he now has Taylor Fritz to prepare for on Saturday. The American took two minutes shy of two hours to brush aside Vit Kopriva 6-1, 6-4, 7-6.
Djokovic, too, was in no mood to hang around as he sped past Francisco Maestrelli, a qualifier from Italy, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2. Then again, this bit a grand slam is not the problem for the 10-time Australian Open champion; it is this time next week when he has been through five rounds and, at the bare minimum, 15 sets that the trouble starts. That is when his 38-year-old body starts to complain and he still has Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz ahead of him.
Still, for the moment, all is well as he prepares for a meeting with Botic van de Zandschulp, the man who beat him in the second round of Indian Wells last March.
While Stan was sweating and grafting and getting his win, over on the RLA, Sinner was sprinting away from James Duckworth 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 in one hour and 48 minutes. He barely broke a bead of sweat in the chilly, evening air while poor Duckworth was dripping wet as he tried to chase down any ball that came within reasonable reach. Sadly for him, few of them did. Or, at least, not the ones that mattered.
It left the crowd underwhelmed. Yes, they admired Sinner’s skill but once their Aussie hope was proving himself to be no match for the defending champion, their attention wandered. Why was Jannik wearing that weird kit? Could anyone look good in khaki and mustard-coloured shoes? Especially a pale, redhead like the defending champ.
To be fair, it was marginally better than the outfit he wore on Tuesday (khaki shorts with a mustard-coloured stripe down one leg, mustard shoes and a mustard top) but not much. And referring to the predominant color as khaki was being polite; it is more baby-diaper-brown. It really is not a good look. But Jannik and his awful kit will be back to face Eliot Spizzirri, the man from Connecticut, in a couple of days.
Which brings us neatly to Osaka. Her outfit made more news than her tennis when she opened her account in Melbourne. Arriving on court in flowing robes, a hat with a veil and long train and an umbrella with a big butterfly perched on top of it, she looked like a beekeeping bride going to her wedding. Underneath that was a turquoise number embellished with yellow, frilly bits (apparently, it was inspired by the picture of a jellyfish in her daughter’s coloring book).
But when she faced Sorana Cirstea, the hat, veil and umbrella were gone. She had a furious former world No.21 to deal with and there was no time for fashion statements.
Now aged 35, this is Cirstea’s last Australian Open and as she pushed Osaka to three, fraught sets, she became increasingly annoyed at her opponent yelling “c’mon!” in between Cirstea’s first and second serves. Osaka won – just – 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 and then looked perplexed at the ice-cold handshake at the net. When Osaka asked what that was for, Cirstea told her in no uncertain terms.
Pouring fuel on the fire, Osaka made her point in the on-court interview. Asked what had it taken to win that tight match, she shrugged and said: “Apparently a lot of c’mons that she was angry about. Whatever. This was her last Australian Open so I’m sorry she was mad about it.”
The crowd booed for that and, later, Osaka apologised for making “disrespectful” remarks.
When she comes back to play Maddison Inglis, an Aussie qualifier, she might want to revert to the veil and the large hat. After Thursday’s fit of pique, it would be best to go incognito against an Aussie playing in front an Aussie crowd.