Goodbye from Melbourne, Australia

Novak Djokovic won the 2023 Australian Open.

The year-long tennis season begins in Australia. The tournaments leading to the Australian Open took a toll on some players. Two of the events are not in the ATP Tour calendar or the Women’s Tennis Association. There was the World Team Tennis League in Dubai, featuring men and women and also the maiden edition of the United Cup, with 18 national mixed teams competing simultaneously in Brisbane, Perth and Sydney.

In the scheduled Adelaide International, Djokovic had a tough draw as he defeated, successively, Shapovalov, Medvedev and sustained a hamstring injury during a hard 6/7(8); 76(3); 6/4 title victory over America’s Sebastian Korda.

The top seeded Nadal skipped the warm-up events but in Melbourne, he played a four-set first round match against Jack Draper of the United Kingdom. He had a day’s rest before facing unseeded American, Mackenzie McDonald, who took Nadal’s serve five times for a straight sets upset.

Other seeded players fell in a legion of upsets. The third seeded Tsitsipas and the fourth seeded Djokovic were the only players among the top 10 seeds that remained after the second Monday. They both played their ways to the epic final.

Djokovic again denied the Greek star a maiden Grand Slam title, having defeated him in 2021 Roland Garros final.

The women’s draw also had its legion of upsets. The top seeded Swiatek and the second seeded Ons Jabeur were defeated in the first week. During the fortnight, Aryna Sabalenka displayed a more mature game with a repertoire of shots.

Also, Coco Gauff also came to Australia having developed topspin ground strokes allowing greater clearance over the net and a deep landing close to the opponent’s baseline. The tennis ball travels