I’m a bit late posting this, but what a glorious finish to an insane Australian Open. By insane I don’t mean the tournament itself, I mean of course the djoke that is Novax Djocovid. Some of the memes are hilarious. I mean, Rappler is even using him to mock other countries. Glorious.
Anyway, this is the one major whose time zone is convenient for me, so I got to see a good bit of the night sessions while popping in and out of the day sessions, and there was some good tennis to be watched. Before I focus on the two singles finals, let me say how stunned I am that Nick Kyrgios, despite his best self-sabotaging efforts, is somehow the owner of a major title (doubles with Thanasi Kokkinakis). Look out for the upcoming Netflix documentary that followed the players behind the scenes of the tournament. Kyrgios was apparently snarking that the camera crew wasn’t following him initially, but I think they came around in the end.
So, the women’s singles final. Really, it was ever only going one way. I know Sam Stosur (who played her last singles tournament at this AO) has always struggled with the pressure of playing at her home tournament, but Ash Barty gave no sign of it. Hers is a story that cannot be told without recalling how she took time off for her mental health and came back to become literally the best woman in the world at her job. Barty is now three for three in major finals, and can complete a career slam with a title at the US Open.
She made winning a title look easy, romping through seven matches in straight sets, breaking a 44 year drought for a local champion in singles. The last women’s singles champion was Christine O’Neil in 1978 and the last men’s singles champion was Mark Edmonson in 1976. When Andy Murray won Wimbledon in 2013, he broke a 77 year British men’s drought and a 36 year British drought for a champion of either gender.
(I’m sorry doubles usually gets left out of the equation since there has been much more recent success for local doubles players at both the AO and Wimbledon.)
That’s not to sniff at her opponent, Danielle Collins, who has also come through her own health battles, having been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and endometriosis. I’m not a fan of Collins’ penchant for pumping herself up aggressively, even though she’s a good sport about it. But like I said, there was little doubt in my mind who was going to win. Even when Collins was leading 5-1 in the second set, I was just thinking, well, Ash will win the third. Little did I know Barty wouldn’t even let it get to a third set, recovering both breaks and winning the tiebreak. With less drama, the women’s final didn’t get as much attention as the men’s did, but it was no less an accomplishment for Ash Barty.
Where do I begin with the men’s singles final? I’m always going to root for Rafa Nadal in support of his never-say-die attitude, work ethic, and humility, but his chances were really low coming into this tournament. Last year he was considering retirement, and missed half the year due to a chronic foot injury (Roger Federer said they were joking about both being on crutches, which…aww). Coming into Australia he was just recovering from Covid-19 and hard courts are not his best surface anyway. But he was the only one of the Big Three in the tournament, and thus was the sentimental crowd favourite. He came out swinging in the earlier rounds, and I think he surprised everyone, including himself, by making the final.
Daniil Medvedev, on the other hand, is an absolute troll. He will absolutely rile up the crowd, and seems to enjoy it when they hate him. He gives the bird on a regular basis (I think he’s been fined for a “visible obscenity” at at least three different tournaments, but I can’t be bothered to look these up) and eggs the crowd on. At this AO, he said the crowd had “low IQ“, called them “idiots“, and got fined for yelling at an umpire, which resulted in a remarkable sting operation featuring one of my favourite umpires Eva Asderaki-Moore. Yes, I have favourite umpires; what of it?
So when Medvedev took a two sets to love lead over Nadal in the final, despite Nadal throwing a variety of shots and tactics at him, I thought it was over. After being broken twice in the first set, Nadal had set point for the second set before dropping the tiebreak, and a normal person might have gone, look, I’ve already exceeded expectations by making it to the final and playing competitively, let’s just have a good time.
But Nadal is not normal.
Somehow, he dug in and kept pressing, and Medvedev’s level dropped a little. Then a little more. Enough that the match became a one-set shootout, and Nadal was serving for the title at 5-4 30-0 when Medvedev broke serve. In a post-match interview, Nadal shared his feelings about this. Fortunately, he was able to reset, break again, and hold serve to become the first man to 21. (Three women have already passed this number – Stefanie Graf has 22, Serena Williams has 23, and Margaret Court has 24.)
An absolutely incredible finish to the first major tennis tournament of the year! If Djokovic wants to get back into the race, and realistically he has a good shot at finishing his career on top of the pile, he’d better get himself vaccinated (assuming France doesn’t reverse its vaccine pass law).