Players divided on Australian Open's courtside bar atmosphere - ESPN

MELBOURNE, Australia — A 37-year-old veteran didn't mind the music, and a 16-year-old qualifier debuting in the Australian Open main draw picked up on the vibe from the two-story courtside bar and thought it was energizing.

Petros Tsitsipas didn't like it one bit as he and his brother, 2023 Australian Open runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas, lost their first-round doubles match: «It's a very weird concept, in my opinion.»

There's a certainly a buzz around the bar that overlooks Court 6 and gives Australian Open fans a shady place to have a cool drink on a hot day, which is something of a national tradition.

It's popular with fans, but the music and constant movement adjacent to a Grand Slam tennis court is dividing opinion among players.

Stefanos Tsitsipas, who has a strong following among Melbourne's big Greek population, wasn't impressed after losing in doubles Tuesday to Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela and Daniel Altmaier.

«The DJ and stuff, I just kind of remembered, it was somewhere in my subconscious where I could feel the movement and all that kind of action going on in the background,» he said. «I'm not a huge fan of it.»

He plays his main draw singles matches on the show courts, where there are fewer distractions — although spectators are allowed to enter the arenas after each game now in Australia instead of during every change of ends.

Petros Tsitsipas is more familiar with the outside courts around Grand Slam venues in Melbourne and New York, where crowds can get rowdy and sometimes old-school tennis conventions don't apply. But the new bar so close to the court was too much for him.

«It's way too accessible, in a way, for the public,» he said. «It was a bit noisy, so it's not so easy to concentrate.»

Despite his