ATP
Australia Calling
WE have yet to hit 2024, but the world’s best players are already Down Under preparing for the first Grand Slam of the new year.
ATP World No. 9 Hubert Hurkacz and WTA No. 1 Iga Swiatek will spearhead Poland’s charge for the second straight year at United Cup and have already sampled Perth’s glorious beach lifestyle, surfing at Scarborough on Thursday.
Swiatek isn’t the only World No. 1 competing as Novak Djokovic is also in Perth representing Serbia.
The 36-year-old will kick off his 2024 season today against China’s Zhang Zhizhen.
In Brisbane Rafa Nadal has been wowing the crowds, appearing in the CBD ahead of the Brisbane International, where Andy Murray, Holger Rune, Ben Shelton and Grigor Dimitrov also appear.
“(I’m) happy to be back on the tour and happy to be here in Brisbane after a few years,” Nadal told event organisers.
Australia meanwhile, will be aiming to win the United Cup in the next fortnight and will be spearheaded by Alex de Minaur and Ajla Tomljanovic on home soil.
But before the action, the team visited the iconic Rottnest Island during the week, taking a short helicopter ride from the mainland for photos with Quokkas, small wallabies who populate the island.
Hong Kong hosts ATP Tour action for the first time since 2002 as Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov lead the field at the Bank of China Hong Kong Tennis Open.
NADAL touched down in Australia during the week, being greeted by fans at Brisbane Airport before heading off to catch up on sleep.
The Brisbane International starts today and runs to January 7.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion looked happy as as he walked out of the airport, sporting his trademark Nike ensemble adorned with his ‘Raging Bull’ logo.
“It’s been a long year in which I’ve gone through many phases, from trying to get back to compete at the clay season week after week,” he said.
Here’s the video of his arrival in Brisbane:
THE 2024 Australian Open will be the longest tournament in its 118-year history after organisers changed it to a 15-day event in an effort to minimise the late night finishes.
Ridiculous late night sessions have become infamous in Melbourne. But no more, organisers hope.
The record for the latest finishing Grand Slam match there was set in 2008 when Lleyton Hewitt beat Marcos Baghdatis at 4:33am.
And last year Andy Murray beat Thanasi Kokkinakis at 4:05 am after an almost six-hour-long second-round match.
ONE player who may not be arriving in Australia any time soon is Matteo Berrettini.
The Italian, who had a tortuous 2023 with injuries, has pulled out of the Brisbane International.
The 27-year-old played just 26 matches in 2023 and was last in action at the US Open at the end of August.
Karolina Muchova is another to miss out, the world, No.8 pulling out with a wrist injury.
NOVAK Djokovic has been named European Sportsperson of the Year for a fifth time, equalling the record of rival Roger Federer.
Djokovic won the Australian Open, Roland Garros and the US Open, as well as two Masters 1000 titles and the year-end ATP Finals in 2023.
The European Sportsperson of the Year Award was voted for by 27 different international news agencies, with Djokovic beating Max Verstappen (Formula One) and Armand Duplantis (Athletics) to the top award.
AUSTRALIAN Open prize money has been increased by 13 per cent to A$86.5m ($59.04m, £46.3m) for the 2024 edition.
“We’ve upped prize money for every round at the Australian Open with the major increases in qualifying and the early rounds of singles and doubles,” tournament director Craig Tiley said.
With a more evenly distributed system, the two singles champions will each get A$3.15m, which is more than a million dollars less than Novak Djokovic and Sofia Kenin received for winning the titles at the last pre-Covid tournament in 2020.
First-round losers will earn A$120,000, A$30,000 more than they would have received in 2020.
The US Open was the richest of the Grand Slams in 2023 with a prize fund of $65m, while Wimbledon offered a total of £44.7 ($56.92m) and the French Open €49.6m ($54.89m).
FORGET Snakes on a plan, how about snakes on the court!
Dominic Thiem had to bring his comeback to a temporary halt on Saturday as a deadly eastern brown snake made an unscheduled entry during his match against James McCabe in Brisbane.
The snake, the second most venomous in the world, was safely removed by a professional snake catcher.
For the record Thiem, who was a set down at the time, came back to win the match, adding the indecent was something he would “definitely never forget.”
AND finally… Forget the Christmas jumpers and the festive cheer, it was a battle in Perth on Friday as Alex DeMinaur’s Australia went up against girlfriend Katie Boulter’s Great Britain.
The tennis power couple did not cross paths as the pair only played singles.
But Boulter helped GB to a 2-0 lead, beating Aussie Ajla Tomljanovic in straight sets.
Earlier in the week, Boulter posted a series of loved-up photos on Instagram, including these Grinch jumpers!
Two-time champion Casper Ruud had to work for more than two and a half hours to overcome Jaime Faria, the Portuguese who put out Stan Wawrinka in the first round at the Gstaad Swiss Open on Thursday.
Faria was riding the momentum from Tuesday’s defeat of three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka, set to retire this season and beaten in an opening match at his home venue.
Faria had his eye on a second upset as he faced Ruud, who lifted the trophy at this elite alpine village in 2021 and 2022.
Ruud ahd to dodge a bullet and mount a comeback to get through the second-round test against the Portuguese.
After dropping the opening set in a tiebreaker, Ruud played patiently as Faria saved five break points in the sixth game of the second set before failing on the sixth.
Ruud then pulled away for a 6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-2 victory, his first since Roland Garros.
“Sometimes it is hard to say when you get a good feeling and you start to win some games in a row,” the winner said.
“You try from the first game to the last, but suddenly something clicked in the middle of the second for me, luckily.”
He added: “I had to really fight hard and if I played one bad game in the second and he serves well, it could be over and it would be time to go home. But luckily I can extend the stay.”
The Scandinavian could join Spaniards Sergi Bruguera and Alex Corretja as three-time winners in the Alps, with Ruud now standing 10-1 here over his career.
Stefanost Tsitsipas said he slept soundly prior to finishing off a darkness-interrupted match on Thursday as he eliminated local Jerome Kym at the Gstaad Swiss Open.
The Greek who once cracked third in the world and the 186th-ranked Swiss returned to the clay after darkness on Wednesday night left them hanging at 5-all in the third set.
Tsitsipas revved up his game from the resumption to emerge into the quarter-finals 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5).
The second seed now standing 85th in the world after several poor seasons and a split with his father as his coach, said getting his rest was not a problem after the interruption.
“It was strange going to bed and not being finished. I visualised what I wanted to do, my shot patterns.
“It worked out pretty well.
“I had a good night’s sleep, I was not too stressed and I recovered to get ready for the continuation.”
After saving break points in the first game on Thursday, Tsitsipas triumphed in the final-set tiebreaker
“I’m relieved I was able to save a couple of break points.. I put my game together and made it )victory) happen again.”
The Greek now faces off against Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech for a semi-final spot.
“I’m expecting a lot of big serves, the altitude (1050m) helps. I’ll try to build consistency around my own serve.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas was handed a reprieve due to fading light with his second round match at the Swiss Open Gstaad stopped with the Greek deadlocked with local Jerome Kym 6-4, 6-7 (2), 5-5.
The math had to be halted as night fell and electronic linecalling computers could not read the path of the ball on the clay in contrast to humans who could have carried on for a few additional minutes..
The 27-year-old Tsitsipas was taking the worst of it in the concluding stage after a promising start.against a journeyman opponent ranked 186.
Tsitsipas, his ranking down to 85th after once standing third in the world, lashed out verbally in the last few games, apparently frustrated with his racquet reactions.
The Greek was quick to make his point of an overnight stoppage to the chair umpire while Kym – who reached 5-all with a love service hold – left the court with a defiant fist pump for his public in this alpine resort village.
The cutoff came after just over two hours of play, with the contest to be concluded on Thursday. The winner reaches the Friday quarter-finals.
Tsitsipas produced his last notable result in April with a fourth-round showing at the Madrid Masters,
He is aiming for his second quarter-final of the season after Doha in February and his 2025 Barcelona 15 months ago.
Tsitsipas stands 10-1 vs. players ranked outside the top 100 this season with a sole loss to No. 104 Italian Matteo Arnaldi at the Roland Garros second round.
History repeats for Argentine spoiler in Gstaad
Ruud survives a scare to secure Gstaad quarters
Tsitsipas finishes off Kym after overnight pause
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