Tennis: Australian Open 2023

[Tuggy]

Official Website of the Australian Open 2023 | AO

Qualifying kicks off tomorrow.

I think 5 Canadians in the Q draw (Galarneau, Diallo, Zhao, Sebov, Bouchard).

6 in the MD (Auger-Aliassime, Shapovalov, Pospisil, Fernandez, Andresscu, Marino).

Click to read more...

 

[Tuggy]

Big controversy last year over Djokovic's Covid status...none of that this year. And he should come in as the heavy favorite.

Nadal is the defending champion, but he hasn't looked great in the warmup event. I would be shocked if he defended here. Honestly, I don't expect a deep run from him.

World #1, Alcaraz, will miss due to injury, so Nadal will be the #1 seed.

On the women's side, last year's champion Ash Barty shocked everyone when she retired on top after winning.

So we'll have a new champion...Swiatek will come in as #1 and large favorite. She dominated 2022 and sits with more than double the points in the rankings than world #2 Jabeur.

A different winner than Swiatek wouldn't shock me. I think there are a handful of ladies (top 10 and beyond) that could win this tournament. I wouldn't put big money down on Swiatek...I think I would take the field.

 

[Tuggy]

Sebov is the last Canadian standing in qualifying. She is one win away from her first GS MD appearance.

 

[Tuggy]

Sebov with a straight sets win to qualify!

She only dropped one set in qualifying.

 

[Tuggy]

Draws are out.

Auger-Aliassime vs Pospisil...ugh of course.
Shapovalov vs Lajovic

Andresscu vs Bouzkova
Marino vs Zhu
Fernandez vs Cornet
Sebov vs Garcia...brutal draw for her.

Nadal gets Draper in R1. That should be interesting.
Swiatek get Niemeier R1

Tough way to open for both #1 seeds.

 

[kihei]

Rafa's draw looks monstrous unless he hits the ground running which hasn't exactly been the case lately. He starts with a potentially devastating one/two punch of Draper followed by Nakashima with possible matches along the way with Nishioka, Khachanov, Tiafoe, Medvedev, Tsitsipas and Nole. Ouch.

 

[Tuggy]

Rafa's draw looks monstrous unless he hits the ground running which hasn't exactly been the case lately. He starts with a potentially devastating one/two punch of Draper followed by Nakashima with possible matches along the way with Nishioka, Khachanov, Tiafoe, Medvedev, Tsitsipas and Nole. Ouch.

Djokovic, on the other hand, has a very nice draw. Assuming he's healthy (there are some questions), he shouldn't have much issue getting to the final.

 

[Hadoop]

Dream draw for Nole IMO. The 4 guys I believe that pose the biggest threat to him (Nadal, Med, FAA and Tsitsipas) are conveniently all on the other half of the bracket. With all due respect to Ruud, Rublev and Fritz, none of those guys are winning the AO this year.

 

[kihei]

Fearless Predictions:

Medvedev over Shapovalov
Tsitsipas over Felix

Djokovic over Rune
Fritz over Berrettini

Tsitsipas over Medvedev
Djokovic over Fritz

Djokovic over Tsitsipas

 

[Hadoop]

Main draw matches start in less than an hour.

My money is on Djokovic (Bodog was nice enough to refund my Alcaraz bet which I immediately put towards a wager on Novak), but would love to see Krygios win the whole thing.

Got Swiatek on the women's side.

 

[Tuggy]

Nice start for Andreescu. Straight sets win.

 

[Novak Djokovic]

Frances with an interesting choice of attire. I thought it was a men's romper for a second...

 

[Novak Djokovic]

Kyrgios is out of the tournament, woah!

 

[kihei]

Felix wobbling badly against Pospisil 1-6, 4-3, having just blown a break lead in the second set.

 

[kihei]

Kyrgios is out of the tournament, woah!

Arthroscopic knee surgery that can no longer be put off. He was in pain the last four days with it, his movement severely hampered. No way he could ignore it this time. What lousy timing.

 

[kihei]

Felix wins the breaker, 7-4. Still tricky, though. Vasek knows every single micro-weakness in FAA's game and has been exploiting them with precision and power.

 

[Elvis P]

'The ball boy took my racket': Rafael Nadal loses favorite racket in strange moment in Australian Open first-round win | CNN

It wasn't all plain sailing for Rafael Nadal in his first-round victory at the Australian Open on Monday.

www.cnn.com

That's a funny story. Can the American men end their 20-year major drought?

 

[Filppula]

Swiatek superbly handles Niemeier who is very, very tricky. It wasn’t smooth sailing by any means, she had to fight really hard, but she stepped up when it mattered most.

 

[Incubajerks]

Kyrgios is out of the tournament, woah!

So there is justice in the world every now and then.

 

[Tuggy]

Shapovalov, Andreescu and Auger-Aliassime winners on Day 1.

Marino and Pospisil lost.

 

[kihei]

'The ball boy took my racket': Rafael Nadal loses favorite racket in strange moment in Australian Open first-round win | CNN

It wasn't all plain sailing for Rafael Nadal in his first-round victory at the Australian Open on Monday.

www.cnn.com

That's a funny story. Can the American men end their 20-year major drought?

If they do, it's going to be Fritz, but I don't think it is going to be Fritz.

 

[MsMeow]

Bianca looked great yesterday, as did Denis. I'm just getting ready to watch Felix. PVR is getting a workout these two weeks!

 

[Tuggy]

Fernandez with a nice start against a could be tricky opponent in Cornet.

Sebov just starting in her first ever GS MD match. Not easy against Garcia

 

[CupofOil]

So you have to have ESPN+ to watch any night matches before the Semis, or find an illegal stream. Incredibly lame.

 

[kihei]

AO has its opening round masterpiece. Murray defeats Berrettini in five grueling sets, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-7, 7-6 and it was just as exciting as that score line suggests. A fading Murray clinched the match on a lucky net cord return of serve.