Starting our usual annual tennis thread.
The Australian Open is on the first round.
Tsitsipas becomes the first seed to fall.
First two rounds of the Australian Open have finished.
Among the women, 9 of the 32 seeds have been eliminated: Qinwen Zheng (5), Jeļena Ostapenko (16), Karolína Muchová (20), Victoria Azarenka (21), Katie Boulter (22), Liudmila Samsonova (25), Ekaterina Alexandrova (26), Linda Nosková (29), Maria Sakkari (31). Some of those are true upsets, while others are former top players who’ve lost their seeding reasserting themselves.
We started with 19 Americans, now down to 5: Coco Gauff (3), Jessica Pegula (7), Emma Navarro (8), Danielle Collins (10), Madison Keys (19). It was a little unfair that four Americans played each other in the first round. And in the third round, we have another American vs American match (Collins vs Keys). I like how Coco is playing, but she will have no easy matches going forward, despite her seed. She’s been able to beat all the top players, but still has some weakness in her gameplay.
Among the men, 15 of the 32 seeds have been eliminated: Daniil Medvedev (5), Casper Ruud (6), Andrey Rublev (9), Grigor Dimitrov (10), Stefanos Tsitsipas (11), Frances Tiafoe (17), Hubert Hurkacz (18), Sebastian Korda (22), Alejandro Tabilo (23), Alexei Popyrin (25), Jordan Thompson (27), Sebastian Baez (28), Felix Auger Aliassime (29), Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard (30), Flavio Cobolli (32). This is an exciting time to watch tennis, with broad parity across the tour.
The tournament started with 14 American men, after two rounds we have 6: Taylor Fritz (4), Tommy Paul (12), Ben Shelton (21), Marcos Giron (unseeded), Alex Michelsen (unseeded), Learner Tien (qualifer). Again, four Americans played each other in the first round. A lot of talent coming up. Fritz should make it to the semifinal, where he’s likely to play the 1-seed Jannik Sinner. I don’t see him getting past that, but not impossible. Tommy Paul should get to the quarterfinal, but after that will be past his ability.
The number of exciting matches in this tournament are ruining my sleep and endangering my career. I’m waking up multiple times a night to check the scores and I can’t get ready for work because there are still matches on at 7am.
On the women’s side Osaka and Raducanu have defeated two quality opponents each. Raducanu’s reward is a meeting with Swiatek in the third round. Osaka gets Bencic whose ranking of 421 does not reflect her quality. Both should be interesting.
I missed the end of the Medvedev match. After his antics in the last match (smashed a net camera and then joked about it in the interview) I was glad to see him taken out by a teenage qualifier.
Djokovic goes out injured. Some parts of the crowd boo him off the court. Total lack of class. I have absolutely no love for Djokovic, but a quitter he is not.
So it’s #1 Sinner vs #2 Zverev in the men’s final.
But on the women’s side Madison Keys is a surprise finalist taking on #1 Sabalenka. You wouldn’t think Keys has much chance but she’s been hitting it beautifully this week.
Agreed! I’ve never seen her play better. Still Aryna needs to have an off day if Madison is going to win. Anything can happen, though, and Madison coming out of nowhere to win the title would be fabulous.
I had high hopes that this might be #25. I’m thinking he isn’t going to get it, but I predict that 24 is more than anyone else is ever going to get. The competition and rigor is too much, and today’s players seemingly get so rich so quick that they can’t maintain 20 years worth of single minded intensity.
It’s happened! She’s won 12 matches in a row in 2025.
I’ve never seen her play this level of tennis before. She beat FOUR top ten players including numbers one and two. That’s huge!
New rankings are out. Madison Keys jumped up seven spots to #7. That’s now four American women in the top ten. And Tommy Paul moved up to #9 to be the second American man in the top ten. I’m looking forward to Indian Wells.
Two thousand ranking points will do that for ya’. LOL
For a long time, it was the Williams sisters and very little else in U.S. women’s tennis. That has certainly changed. Even the men have perked up.
Jannik Sinner gets a pretty conveniently timed 3-month ban for doping. Dude should be right back in action for Wimbledon, US Open, etc.
Kyrgios comes in on a protected ranking and goes out injured after playing a pretty decent first set against lucky loser Botic van de Zandschulp. He would have had Novak in the next round.
And now van de Zandschulp has beaten Djokovic. Lucky loser indeed!
I love that van de Zandschulp keeps winning, just to hear everyone struggling with saying his name. Van de Zandschulp! Van de Zandschulp!
In all fairness Djokovic did not look good at all for 90% of that match.
Six of nine American women crashed out yesterday. Gauff, Navarro and Keys advanced, but the first two did not look at all convincing. I feel like we’ve seen peak Gauff already.
Still 6 Americans in the last 32 on the women’s side. 8 on the men’s side! I don’t think we’ve had that many American men in the round of 32 in many, many years.
Mirra Andreeva wins the second 1000 level event on the trot at age 17. Amazing talent.
People seem to think it’s adorable that she thanks herself at the end of her speeches. I think it’s incredibly arrogant, but she’s 17.
On the men’s side Jack Draper came from nowhere to win. He’s 23, but until now he’s been more famous for injuries than victories.
No matter age, that is a very strange thing to say.
The Miami Open finished this weekend. Womens final was Aryna Sabalenka (1) over Jessica Pegula (4, USA) 7-5, 6-2. Womens tennis is super competitive now.
Mens final was Novak Djokovic (4, Serbia) vs Jakub Menšík (Unseeded, Czech). This would’ve been Djokovic’s 100th professional title, but he lost in straight sets 6-7, 6-7. Yes, he lost two tiebreakers, to an unseeded player in the final. He looked absolutely exhausted and played well below his former peak level. Menšík played well, and his ranking jumped from 50-something to 24.
Djokovic was also dealing with an eye infection.
He won all the previous matches pretty handily and looked in really good nick.
He started the final at -400 at the oddsmakers.
How much longer does Novak have? I wonder.