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    Extreme Heat, Torrential Rain Plagues Australian Open

    At the first Grand Slam tournament of the tennis season, the heat got so intense that play was halted for most of the afternoon. In the evening, a torrential rain fell, halting play once more.MELBOURNE, Australia — This country has a well-earned reputation as a land of extremes: fatally poisonous snakes, deadly insects, killer crocodiles, drenching rains and brutal heat.The Australian Open got a fair dose of that Tuesday — well, not so much the killer bugs or crocs or snakes, though the park next to the tennis center does have signs warning visitors to beware of snakes. The heat got so intense that play was halted for most of the afternoon. In the evening, a torrential rain fell, halting play once more.Keeping with the theme of extreme, somewhere in the midst of all this weather, Andy Murray, the 35-year-old three-time Grand Slam winner and former world No. 1, somehow managed to turn back the clock and beat Matteo Berrettini of Italy in five sets, including a deciding super-tiebreaker at the end of the fifth set. The final score line looked like this: 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (10-6). The match lasted 4 hours 49 minutes. Murray, who is in the middle of a yearslong comeback from major hip surgery, saved a match point and played the final set with blood coming out of his knee after skinning it on the ground trying to win it in four.“I feel tired,” Murray said in his news conference a little more than two hours after he finished.“Impressive what he could do after so many surgeries, after all the kilometers that he ran in his career,” Berrettini said of Murray. “It just shows how much he loves the game, how much he loves these kind of matches.”Murray and Berrettini were lucky. They played in Rod Laver, one of three courts here with roofs, which were closed when organizers announced that while temperatures had not hit triple digits, the four climate factors they consider when deciding whether to halt play — air temperature, radiant heat, humidity and wind speed — had all tipped the scale.The 2023 Australian OpenThe year’s first Grand Slam tennis tournament runs from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 in Melbourne.Missing Stars: Carlos Alcaraz, Naomi Osaka and Nick Kyrgios have all pulled out of the tournament. Alcaraz’s withdrawal means that the Australian Open will be without the men’s No. 1 singles player.Holger Rune’s Rise: Last year, the 19-year-old broke into the top 10, but not without some unwanted attention. We spoke to the young Dane ahead of his second Australian Open.Ben Shelton Goes Global: The 20-year-old American is ranked in the top 100 after a late-season surge last year. Now, he is embarking on his first full season on tour.A Waiting Game: Tennis matches can last a long time. Here’s how players waiting to take the court for the next match stay sharp.Taylor Fritz of the United States, who beat Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia in four sets, said he had felt far more discomfort in Washington, D.C., last summer or at the U.S. Open some years.“It’s dry heat,” said Fritz, who has spent plenty of afternoons in smothering humidity in Florida. “I don’t think it’s as bad.”The weather played havoc with the schedule, forcing many matches to postpone until Wednesday.Quinn Rooney/Getty ImagesThe weather played havoc with the schedule, and with rain forecast on and off through the evening it appeared that plenty of matches might not finish until Wednesday.If you like upsets, Tuesday was not your day. Murray’s was the big one. Berrettini, a finalist at Wimbledon in 2021, was the 13th seed, and with his big serve and forehand he can be as dangerous as anyone other than the nine-time champion Novak Djokovic, who beat Roberto Carballés Baena of Sapin in straight sets in the late match on Rod Laver, a court and time slot that Djokovic loves.Murray credited a three-week journey to Florida last year to train with Ivan Lendl, the coach who has been with him for many of his biggest wins. The past success creates trust, Murray said, and the confidence he needs to compete with players a decade or more his junior. He will face the winner of the match between Thanasi Kokkinakis, a hometown favorite, and Fabio Fognini of Italy on Thursday, when the high temperature is expected to be just 64 degrees Fahrenheit.It’s worth noting in the wake of Berrettini’s loss that there is some chatter going around Melbourne Park and social media about a Netflix curse. The thinking is that if you were featured in the Netflix series “Break Point,” the tennis gods are coming for you.Nick Kyrgios, Paula Badosa, and Ajla Tomljanovic all featured heavily in “Break Point” and had to pull out with injuries. Now Berrettini is out. Then again, Fritz and Felix Auger-Aliassime have survived. Eventually, the tennis gods come for everyone except one woman and one man.As for Wednesday, Rafael Nadal is scheduled to be back in action against Mackenzie McDonald of the United States in the afternoon, but the real star power is on the night schedule.Coco Gauff, the American star who is only 18, takes on Emma Raducanu, who won the U.S. Open in 2021 as a qualifier and has graced magazine covers ever since. If ever there was an early-round match worth setting an alarm for 3 a.m., this one might be it. More

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    Nick Kyrgios Withdraws From Australian Open With Knee Injury

    Kyrgios, the temperamental star who was a finalist at Wimbledon last year, had battled soreness in his left knee but was hoping to play.MELBOURNE, Australia — After spending the past week receiving all the laurels of a hometown favorite, Nick Kyrgios withdrew from the Australian Open on Monday with a knee injury, a little more than 24 hours ahead of his scheduled first-round match.In an interview Friday, Kyrgios, the temperamental Australian star who was a finalist at Wimbledon last year, said he had been battling soreness in his left knee during the off-season, but he expected to be able to play in the year’s first Grand Slam.Those hopes took a turn for the worse Friday after a charity match with Novak Djokovic.“Extremely disappointed,” Kyrgios said during a news conference Monday afternoon at Melbourne Park. “Pretty brutal. One of the most important tournaments of my career.”After climbing from outside the top 100 in 2021 to play deep into two Grand Slam tournaments last year, Kyrgios was among the favorites heading into the Australian Open, where he won the men’s doubles title last year with his fellow Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis.The first sign that things were not going as planned emerged in late December, when Kyrgios pulled out of the United Cup, a team competition, just before the start of the event. He then withdrew from an Australian Open tuneup tournament in Adelaide, hoping he would be healthy enough by the start of the Australian Open this week.The 2023 Australian OpenThe year’s first Grand Slam tennis tournament runs from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 in Melbourne.Missing Stars: Carlos Alcaraz, Naomi Osaka and Nick Kyrgios have all pulled out of the tournament. Alcaraz’s withdrawal means that the Australian Open will be without the men’s No. 1 singles player.Holger Rune’s Rise: Last year, the 19-year-old broke into the top 10, but not without some unwanted attention. We spoke to the young Dane ahead of his second Australian Open.Ben Shelton Goes Global: The 20-year-old American is ranked in the top 100 after a late-season surge last year. Now, he is embarking on his first full season on tour.A Waiting Game: Tennis matches can last a long time. Here’s how players waiting to take the court for the next match stay sharp.Will Maher, Kyrgios’s longtime physiotherapist, said during the Monday news conference that Kyrgios underwent a magnetic resonance imaging test last week that revealed both a cyst and a slight tear in his meniscus. Maher said Kyrgios would go home to Canberra for a procedure later this week. He will spend February rehabilitating the knee and is hoping to be healthy enough to play in March in the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif.“There’s a parameniscal cyst growing in his left meniscus, which is the result of a small tear in his lateral meniscus,” Maher said. “It’s not a significant injury in the sense that it’s going to be career-threatening, or anything like that.”Maher said Kyrgios had done everything he could to be able to compete. Last week, he underwent a procedure to drain the cyst. He also received injections to relieve the pressure, and while there was temporary relief, the soreness increased in recent days. Maher said playing could risk creating a more significant injury, such as a tear in his anterior cruciate ligament, or A.C.L.Kyrgios said that as soon as he lost in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open in September, his mind shifted to the Australian Open, where he liked his chances on hardcourts in front of raucous home crowds.“I always wanted to just do everything right and train right and tick every box, and just be ready,” Kyrgios said. He added: “Obviously, this coming around is just bad timing. But that’s life. Injury is a part of the sport.”He said he was confident that he would be able to regain the form that made him one of the world’s most feared players, but surgery is the only way to get there.“Every time I land on serve or push off my serve, you can see on the side of my knee there’s like a little lump,” he said. “That lump will eventually just get bigger and bigger. There’s pressure on my knee, obviously hinders my movement. The only real way to get rid of it is to open up and then just get rid of it.”Kyrgios has another serious issue to deal with in Canberra in the coming weeks.In early February, he is due in court to face a charge of common assault stemming from an altercation with an ex-girlfriend, Chiara Passari, in December 2021. Kyrgios has declined to discuss the matter since it became public during his run to the Wimbledon final in July.Common assault is the least serious assault charge in Australia, but it implies that the victim experienced immediate, unlawful violence, or the threat of it, though not bodily injury. Kyrgios’s lawyers have said they will mount a defense focused on mental illness, citing his history of depression and substance abuse, struggles Kyrgios has said will always be with him but that he now has under control. If the court accepts this defense and dismisses the case, it could then decide to impose a treatment plan. The maximum penalty for common assault is two years’ imprisonment. More

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    At the Australian Open, Shang Juncheng Leads Wave of Talent From China

    Shang, once the world’s top-ranked junior, Wu Yibing and Zhang Zhizhen played men’s singles in Melbourne, the first time three men from China are competing at a Grand Slam in the Open era.MELBOURNE, Australia — Shang Juncheng could have chosen his father’s sport of soccer or his mother’s sport of table tennis. His father, Shang Yi, was a leading Chinese midfielder, good enough to play for the national team. His mother, Wu Na, was a world champion in doubles.Instead, their son became a tennis player, leaving home in Beijing at age 11 to train at an academy in Florida.On Monday in Melbourne, it looked as if he had made a wise choice. Shang, a 17-year-old qualifier and the youngest player in the men’s draw, showed rare skill and maturity as he made his Grand Slam tournament debut and became the first Chinese man to win an Australian Open singles match in the Open era.He did it with a gritty, often pretty victory, 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-5, on opening day over Oscar Otte, an unseeded 29-year-old German with a booming serve and a full beard. Shang, who will face the American Frances Tiafoe in the second round, did it on Court 13 with hundreds of fans packed into the grandstand and shouting encouragement in Mandarin and English.“I felt like I was playing at home,” he said.Shang, nicknamed Jerry, speaks both languages fluently after spending so much of his youth in the United States. Though he was interested in soccer in his early years, he said his mother suggested tennis because she believed there were fewer injuries. Shang first played on an indoor hardcourt in Beijing and said he liked it from the start.“For me, the main goal was to become a professional tennis player, even when I was 6 or 7 years old,” he said in an interview. “We started practicing in China in Beijing. That’s where I started on an indoor hardcourt, and my dad used to play soccer in Spain, so he really liked the system and the way the Spanish athletes work.”But instead of basing themselves in Spain, the family chose for Shang to train at the Emilio Sanchez Academy operated by the former Spanish ATP player Emilio Sanchez in Naples, Fla.The 2023 Australian OpenThe year’s first Grand Slam tennis tournament runs from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 in Melbourne.Missing Stars: Carlos Alcaraz, Naomi Osaka and Nick Kyrgios have all pulled out of the tournament. Alcaraz’s withdrawal means that the Australian Open will be without the men’s No. 1 singles player.Holger Rune’s Rise: Last year, the 19-year-old broke into the top 10, but not without some unwanted attention. We spoke to the young Dane ahead of his second Australian Open.Ben Shelton Goes Global: The 20-year-old American is ranked in the top 100 after a late-season surge last year. Now, he is embarking on his first full season on tour.A Waiting Game: Tennis matches can last a long time. Here’s how players waiting to take the court for the next match stay sharp.Shang later moved to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., a longtime hub of the game, and he is managed by IMG, the agency that represents several other Chinese players, including Li Na, who is retired.Li became the first Chinese Grand Slam singles champion, winning the 2011 French Open and then the 2014 Australian Open. The Chinese men have long lagged behind, and progress has been slow. In 2013 at the Australian Open, Wu Di became the first Chinese man to play in a major tournament in the Open era. It took nearly a decade for a Chinese man to win a singles match in a major.Zhang Zhizhen of China was set to face Ben Shelton of the United States on Monday at the Australian Open.William West/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBut Shang, once the world’s top-ranked junior, is the youngest member of a promising new wave that includes Wu Yibing, 23, and Zhang Zhizhen, 26.All three were in the main draw this year in Melbourne. It is the first time three Chinese men have played singles in the same major in the Open era, which began in 1968.On Monday, while Shang was breaking through on Court 13, Wu was on adjacent Court 14, playing grinding rallies with Corentin Moutet of France before losing in five sets.Wu, who also trains at IMG Academy, reached the third round of last year’s U.S. Open, where Zhang lost in the first round. Now Shang, a dynamic left-hander who looks like the most promising talent of the group, has joined them at this level.“Now we have three players in the top 200, and I’m happy that I’m one of them,” Shang said. “The other two are like older brothers to me and have been on the tour a lot longer than me. We do practice a lot, and we do speak about how the game is right now and how we can push forward to a higher ranking. For me, each step is a learning step right now. I’m in a young stage of my career, only my second year playing professional tennis. So, for me, it’s just watching how they do things, like we’ve also watched Li Na and how she did things.”Shang wears an earring in his left ear.“That’s something my dad had for a long time,” he said. “When I was around 10 years old, I was like, ‘I want to be like dad,’ and so we went to get it together. I’ve had it for a long time.”Shang said his parents nicknamed him Jerry when he was very young after the mouse in the Tom and Jerry cartoons.“Tom was the one always getting in trouble and Jerry was the smart one, so they thought it was better to choose Jerry,” Shang said.He plays tennis cleverly, changing gears and speeds often to avoid giving opponents a consistent rhythm. But his top gear is impressive, particularly when he is dictating terms with his quick-strike forehand. Against Otte, he showed some deft volleying touch, as well as plenty of composure: avoiding the temptation to rush between points and gathering himself. He finished off the victory with a bold, leaping backhand winner.Shang won his first-round match with a performance that was both gritty and pretty.Fazry Ismail/EPA, via Shutterstock“He’s a complete player,” said his new coach, Dante Bottini. “He can read the court and the game very well, so that’s what surprised me the most when I started working with him. He knows a lot about the game for someone at his age.”Bottini coached the Japanese star Kei Nishikori and worked more recently with the Chilean Nicolás Jarry and the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, both of whom sometimes practiced with Shang at IMG Academy.Bottini began coaching Shang in the preseason after being recruited by Li Xi, Shang’s primary agent, a former Chinese player who was on the women’s team at the University of Virginia and was sitting courtside on Monday in a bucket hat next to Shang’s father, Yi.Shang has had no shortage of coaches in his short career, including Marcelo Ríos, the former No. 1 from Chile who worked with Shang for a brief period last year. Though Shang won his first Challenger title in Lexington, Ky., during their collaboration, they soon split.“It was sad it didn’t work out in the end, but he did bring things to my game,” Shang said.Once ranked No. 1 on the ATP Tour, Ríos, like Shang, is a left-hander, but Shang said his biggest source of inspiration has been another left-handed No. 1: Rafael Nadal.Shang first saw him play in person at the men’s ATP event in Beijing, and though Shang said he had not returned to China since he was 14 because of the coronavirus pandemic, he is eager to play there again once the country, which is reopening, allows international tournaments like the Beijing event or the Masters 1000 in Shanghai to resume.“It would be great to play at home in China,” he said.For now, considering the supportive atmosphere on Monday, he will have to settle for playing at home in Australia, but he should face a bigger challenge on Wednesday in Tiafoe, a U.S. Open semifinalist last year who is seeded No. 16 in Melbourne. “Jerry’s obviously having a great tournament, but we need to keep his feet on the ground,” Bottini said. “He has a lot of potential, as we can all see, but we need to go little by little. I think he has a big career ahead of him.” More

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    Novak Djokovic Returns to the Australian Open, No Longer a Villain

    Djokovic’s deportation was major news in January 2022, but a year later, the Grand Slam tournament, country and sport seem eager to move on.MELBOURNE, Australia — It was the day before the Australian Open, and the Park Hotel in Melbourne’s Carlton neighborhood was closed with only the occasional pedestrian passing in front of the dusty, deserted entrance on a sedate Sunday.Quite a different scene than last year, when Novak Djokovic, the world’s No. 1 tennis player, was in detention in Carlton ahead of the Open. He was about to be deported by the Australian government and miss the tournament after arriving in the country unvaccinated for the coronavirus and losing his final legal appeal.“I just think the whole thing was totally embarrassing and it could have been avoided,” said Ailsa McDermid, a Melburnian who shuffled by on Sunday with a shopping bag in each hand and looked up at the now-vacant hotel.Its large sign was covered by a dark tarpaulin, which seemed an appropriate metaphor: L’Affaire Djokovic was major news worldwide in January 2022, dominating conversation in the run-up to the year’s first Grand Slam event, which Djokovic has won nine times, a men’s tournament record.But a year later, the city, country and sport seem eager to move on while getting back to tennis as usual.The Australian Open “will mark a welcome return to normalcy after three years of bushfires, pandemic and the furor last year about Novak Djokovic’s vaccination status,” The Age, one of Melbourne’s leading newspapers, wrote in an editorial that was posted online Sunday with the headline “Let’s Enjoy Great Tennis, Pure and Simple.”Djokovic, 35, remains one of the few leading professional tennis players to remain unvaccinated for the coronavirus, but Australia, which had some of the most stringent restrictions in the world during the pandemic, no longer requires proof of vaccination or a negative test for entry into the country except for travelers arriving from China.The 2023 Australian OpenThe year’s first Grand Slam tennis tournament runs from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 in Melbourne.Taylor Townsend: A decade ago, she had to contend with the body-shaming of tennis leaders in the United States. Now, she’s determined to play the best tennis of her career.Caroline Garcia: The top player has spoken openly about her struggles with an eating disorder. At the Australian Open she is chasing her first Grand Slam singles title.Talent From China: Shang Juncheng, once the world’s top-ranked junior, is the youngest member of a promising new wave of players that also includes Wu Yibing and Zhang Zhizhen.Ben Shelton Goes Global: The 20-year-old American is ranked in the top 100 after a late-season surge last year. Now, he is embarking on his first full season on tour.Though Djokovic was automatically barred from Australia for three years after his deportation, the new Australian government chose to overturn that ban in November, and the Serb has returned to a welcome every bit as warm as Saturday’s sultry summer weather in Melbourne.He was cheered in Adelaide as he won a lead-in tournament against a strong field, and he received more strong and vocal support Friday night as he played an intermittently intense and lighthearted practice match in Rod Laver Arena with the Australian Nick Kyrgios in front of a capacity crowd of 15,000 that had snapped up the available tickets in under an hour.“I was very emotional, honestly, coming into the court with the reception that I received,” Djokovic said Saturday. “I didn’t know how that’s going to go after the events of last year. I’m very grateful for the kind of energy and reception, love and support I got.”There is still ample resistance to Djokovic’s presence in Australia. In December, The Sydney Morning Herald commissioned a national poll in which 41 percent of the respondents said he should not be allowed to stay in the country and play in the Australian Open. Only 30 percent clearly supported his participation, and another 29 percent said they did not have a strong opinion on the matter.But those mixed feelings have not been noticeable (or audible) during his matches so far, and he was relaxed enough Friday night to dance on changeovers and wiggle as he waited to return Kyrgios’s serve.Djokovic has been hearing cheers at this year’s Australian Open from a wide fan base.Loren Elliott/Reuters“If I do hold the grudge, probably if I’m not able to move on, I wouldn’t be here,” he said. “Also, I have to say that the amount of positive experiences I had in Australia overwhelm the negative experience maybe of last year. My impression of Australia, my vision of Australia, has always been very positive, and that has reflected on my performance.”Djokovic won the first of his 21 Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open in 2008 — beating then-No. 1 Roger Federer in straight sets along the way — and has reserved some of his finest tennis for the hardcourts of Melbourne Park. He has a bright and shiny 82-8 singles record at the tournament and has never lost in the final. From the early years of his career, he has received particularly vocal support from Australia’s sizable Serbian population, and there were Serbian flags in abundance Friday night, just as there were last year in front of the Park Hotel as supporters protested his detention.But the cheers this year have come from a much wider fan base.“Australians have a bit of a tall poppy syndrome, so they like cutting people down when they get too big,” said Michaela Kennedy, 26, a Melbourne lawyer who attended Friday’s practice match. “But they also love a comeback story, and now Novak is a comeback story. So that’s how it works.”The context has certainly changed in Melbourne. When Djokovic arrived in January 2022, the population was still reeling from the series of strict lockdowns and travel restrictions that had kept some family members separated. In an interview last week with Australia’s Channel Nine network, Djokovic said he understood the anger of Australians after he was initially cleared to enter the country.“I understand that it was a frustrating period for a lot of people around the world, particularly here in Australia for two years,” he said. “So I understand that when media writes in a certain way about a guy who tried to go in without a vaccine that people would say: ‘Wait, wait a second. Why is he allowed to come in when many people aren’t able or allowed to come from wherever they are around the world to their own country? So I understand why they were frustrated, but again I have to say that the media presented in a completely wrong way.”In Djokovic’s view, he was “just following the rules” and was in possession of the “valid papers,” including the exemption that had been validated by an independent body. (He did neglect to note upon arrival that he had traveled to Spain shortly before coming to Australia.)There clearly was miscommunication, or perhaps rivalry, between the regional government of Victoria, which initially supported the visa, and the federal government, which canceled it. Djokovic surely would not have boarded the plane to Melbourne if he had not believed he had what he needed to enter. Ultimately, he was deported by Alex Hawke, then the immigration minister, not because of a visa irregularity but because it was deemed in the public interest to keep him from becoming a rallying point for the anti-vaccination movement in Australia.Djokovic has his sights set on winning his 10th Australian Open.Graham Denholm/Getty ImagesDespite the debacle, there has been minimal fallout in Australian tennis. Craig Tiley, the Australian Open tournament director and chief executive of Tennis Australia, has remained in his post along with his core support team. He did not respond to requests for an interview and has not explained in detail how the mixed signals involving Djokovic came about, but he told The Australian newspaper last week that “he knew the truth” and took strength from it.“Would I prefer it didn’t happen? Absolutely,” Tiley said. “Personally, it was a very difficult period, but I was more concerned about our team and staff who were impacted indirectly and in some cases directly impacted by some of the extreme negativity and blame game that went on. But at the end of the day we were just doing our best.”What has changed is the Park Hotel, long used as a detention facility for asylum seekers, some of whom had been confined there for nine years in often spartan conditions, sparking protests from human rights groups in Australia. But Djokovic’s arrival intensified the spotlight, and in April, the facility’s last detainees were released on short-term visas.“In that respect, Novak did refugees a favor,” Ian Rintoul, a Refugee Action Coalition spokesman, said in an interview with Code Sports.Djokovic has expressed his delight for the refugees who have been released. “I stayed there for a week, and I can’t imagine how they felt for nine years,” he said in May.The Park Hotel’s future remains unclear, but Djokovic has no doubt upgraded his accommodations in 2023, and though he has been playing with a nagging hamstring injury, he has been moving well enough to be rightfully considered a strong favorite to win again in Melbourne.Doing so would allow him to tie Rafael Nadal, who won the title here last year, for the men’s record of 22 Grand Slam singles titles.I asked Djokovic on Saturday if that was motivation.“Of course it is,” he answered. “I like my chances. I always like my chances. I train as hard as really anybody out there. There’s a lot of youngsters now that are very hungry, that want to win.”Djokovic added, “The experience of being in these kind of particular circumstances helps I think to have the right approach and do things in a proper way, because I know when I’m healthy and playing my best on this court I have chances really against anybody.” More

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    How to Make Fast Friends While Traveling? Try Playing Pickleball.

    One of the newest sports crazes is not only portable, but an opportunity to meet fellow travelers who can’t get enough of this addictive game.In 2022, Tess Jacoby, 36, took 47 flights. She packed her pickleball paddle on each one.“I joke that I’m an addict,” said Ms. Jacoby, who works in commercial real estate in Chicago. “I will bring my paddle anywhere it’s warm.”Pickleball websites, apps, Instagram and LinkedIn help her find competition — and new friends — away from home, opening doors in distant places. In January, she plans to honeymoon in Cape Town where she hopes to find a pickleball group.“I won’t Google where to eat,” she said. “If I find a game down there, that’s where I would ask.”For travelers who love it, pickleball — a racket sport played with a hollow plastic ball on a court about a fourth of the size of a standard tennis court pad — is not only portable, but an easy entree to new destinations through fast friends made on the courts.“The beauty of pickleball is you can find drop-in times, show up and you don’t have to know anybody,” said Karen Hawkes, 58, a postsecondary education counselor and consultant, who serves as a co-ambassador at the public pickleball courts in Aspen, Colo., which organizes drop-in sessions. “We embrace people who drop in here. It’s inclusive and we try to promote that.”A devoted tennis player, I started playing pickleball about a year before the pandemic and discovered how travel-friendly it is. On a trip to Scottsdale, Ariz., last year, I played at public courts packed with locals who directed me to their favorite breakfast spot (Farm & Craft) and where to catch the sunset (Pinnacle Peak Park). The game, I discovered, was the social equivalent of walking a dog in the park, a conversation starter that paid off in local insights.To test my theory, I talked to dozens of adult pickleball players across a 60-year age spectrum to glean their insights into pickleball as a travel portal, and looked into hotels, resorts and cruise ships where travelers can find a game. Here’s what I found.‘It’s something everybody can do’In case you haven’t heard, pickleball has exploded in the last decade, becoming the fastest growing sport in 2021 and 2022, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. The global trade association counts roughly 4.8 million participants, up 39.3 percent over the past two years.For many newcomers, pickleball was a pandemic lifeline.“It’s something everybody can do,” said Matt Manasse, 34, an instructor based in Los Angeles, who Vanity Fair called the “pickleball coach to the stars” for instructing celebrity clients like Matthew Perry and Larry David. “During the pandemic, it got people out and they could be socially distanced and competitive.”Along the way, its reputation as a geriatric pastime began to fade as younger players discovered the thrill of fast volleys, the strategic art of drop-shotting (known as “dinking”) and the inclusive culture where seniors can play with grandkids.“One of the reasons I love pickleball is the community is so nice,” said Martin Michelsen, 21, a senior at the University of Florida in Gainesville who plays on the college squad (pickleball is a club sport at many colleges and universities).In high school, he learned pickleball at a park near his home in Westin, Fla., where local players lent him a paddle. Last spring his doubles team won an eight-school tournament held at North Carolina State University.“Everyone starts somewhere,” he said of playing with less skilled enthusiasts while on a recent family vacation in the Dominican Republic. “I would love to be a part of someone’s pickleball journey.”Portable and affordableAccording to USA Pickleball, the national governing body of the sport, there are nearly 10,000 pickleball locations nationwide. Its website, Places2Play, offers a searchable database.Travelers say they just need a paddle, as locals always have balls.“For ease of portability, it’s a no-brainer,” Ms. Jacoby, of Chicago, said, referring to the solid yet lightweight paddle. “It’s flat and fits in a carry-on, tote or backpack.”“You do need court shoes,” cautioned Sue Baker, 75, a retired teacher and travel agent who travels seasonally from her home in Lewes, Del., to destinations such as Florida and Arizona where she brings her gear. “I did fall once and broke my wrist.”Most public courts and drop-in sessions are free or inexpensive.“It’s more accessible than other sports,” said Laura Gainor, 40, a marketing consultant in Ponte Vedra, Fla., who discovered the sport three years ago and founded Pickleball in the Sun, a travel and leisure brand that profiles pickleball resorts and sells apparel. “You’re not paying to practice like golf.”Tournament entry frees, she added, can range from $25 for a local contest to a little more than $100 to participate in a professional event.Apps including Pickleball+, Places2Play and PicklePlay help traveling players find courts and other players. For some, a game can break out anywhere.Katy Luxem of Sandy, Utah, 37, who owns the pickleball gear company Big Dill Pickleball Co., took her paddles on a family trip to Paris and volleyed in front of the Eiffel Tower.The paddles are her go-to for alleviating travel boredom. On a trip back from Disneyland with her three children, she said, “Our flight was delayed, so we hit around the airport with the kids.”The JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Phoenix has opened multiple lighted courts, including a stadium court with seating for 400.Marriott International‘The latest must-have amenity’The travel industry has enthusiastically piled on the pickleball bandwagon, installing new courts or programs at hotels and resorts and on cruise ships and tours. As one hotel publicist put it, “Pickleball is the latest must-have amenity.”Instead of rooftop bars, look for rooftop pickleball courts at the Amway Grand Plaza, Curio Collection by Hilton in Grand Rapids, Mich. The Plaza Hotel & Casino in downtown Las Vegas maintains more than a dozen courts on its roof.Pickleball has yet to proliferate globally — though Kauri Cliffs Lodge & Golf Course in New Zealand has two new courts — but in North America, travelers can play in the Caribbean (including at Rosewood Little Dix Bay in the British Virgin Islands), seasonally in Maine (Samoset Resort in Rockport), at tennis resorts (including Topnotch Resort in Stowe, Vt.) and, in early 2023, in the heart of Manhattan at a street-level, glass-walled court coming to the Margaritaville Resort Times Square.Novelty — including glow-in-the-dark pickleball at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. — abounds. For a wedding party at High Hampton resort in Cashiers, N.C., the staff organized a pickleball tournament with 16 teams on its four courts.Often, as at Hawks Cay Resort in the Florida Keys, home to eight pickleball courts, play is complimentary for guests, with extra fees for clinics ($25) and round-robin play ($15).Another set of resorts has gone all-in on pickleball with expansive facilities and lavish tournaments, including the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Phoenix which opened 16 lighted courts (two hours free for guests), in addition to a stadium court with seating for 400, in 2021.Early pickleball adopters, cruise ships have added pickleball lines to their multisport courts that usually include basketball. Princess Cruises first added the game more than five years ago and now offers pickleball on all of its 15 ships.Carnival Cruise Line just installed a permanent pickleball court aboard the Carnival Conquest, and held a pickleball tournament for about 60 passengers when it launched the new Carnival Celebration in November. Recently named the official cruise line of the Professional Pickleball Association, Holland America Line plans to add complimentary beginner lessons on all of its 11 ships by April.On a recent Royal Caribbean cruise in the Bahamas, Ms. Gainor, of Pickleball in the Sun, took a shore excursion to visit a resort, gaining access to its beach and pickleball courts for $130.Tour companies like Pickleball Trips will show you the world and its pickleball ways. Nine-day trips to Japan start at $3,450.Life coaches and pickleball players Yvette and Dave Ulloa of Vero Beach, Fla., recently began adding the activity to their retreats in relationship-building.“We started incorporating pickleball because there are so many parallels,” said Ms. Ulloa, who identifies strong partners on and off the court as being able to communicate and refrain from criticism. “Those who bicker or blame the other person on court, that translates into the real world.”Road-tripping for dinksFor all the opportunities to travel to plush resorts and faraway places to play, pickleball remains accessible on free public courts across the country, which are destinations for many paddle-porting road-trippers.“The ability to connect with others in pickleball is phenomenal,” said Clinton Young, 46, an inspirational speaker and pickleball coach based in San Diego, who, with his wife, spends most of his time on the road, working from their 36-foot Holiday Rambler Vacationer R.V. “As we drive around, we’re going to as many places that have pickleball as possible, and we meet amazing people,” he added, recounting a stop in Oklahoma City where a pair of opponents drove the couple to a local grocery store after the game, waited for them to shop and then dropped them at their R.V.“A big motivator is the social aspect of the game,” said Austin York, the general manager of Sun Outdoors Sarasota, an R.V. resort in Sarasota, Fla., with 16 outdoor pickleball courts. “We don’t have to schedule events for players because pickleball is so social.”When they can’t find courts, many devotees create their own lines with chalk or tape on pavement and set up a portable net.“You can be all in for $250, including a net, paddle and balls,” Mr. Young said.Randy Coleman, 58, left what he described as a “cake job” managing the security at a private estate in Houston in 2018 to go on the road and play pickleball professionally. Living out of his pickup truck, he has played in nearly 40 states, mainly staying with other pickleballers he met along the way.“For three years, I never had to buy a hotel room,” he laughed.Now a senior pro with various promotional deals, he travels the pickleball circuit as a commentator for a livestream service when he’s not leading trips to Japan, Belize and Thailand for Pickleball Trips.“That’s what pickleball does, it builds relationships,” Mr. Coleman said, “and does it organically.”Elaine Glusac writes the Frugal Traveler column. Follow her on Instagram @eglusac.Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2023. More

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    Nick Kyrgios Is Coming for Tennis

    Update: On Monday, a little more than 24 hours ahead of his scheduled first-round match, Nick Kyrgios withdrew from the Australian Open with a knee injury.MELBOURNE, Australia — Nick Kyrgios is finally home.He is in Australia, with his people and in the place he longs for during all those homesick months living out of a suitcase on the professional tennis road.For months, he soaked up the sun and trained in Sydney. But he also squeezed in a bit of time, though never enough for his liking, on the black couch in his childhood home in Canberra, Australia’s quiet, rural capital, telling his mother how safe he feels while she drinks tea a few feet away in the kitchen. He could sleep in his old room, where his cherished collection of colorful basketball shoes lines the shelves. That is next to the room with hundreds of his trophies and plaques and dozens of his smashed rackets. His pet macaw is in an aviary out back. Mornings bring brisk, 12-kilometer walks with his father, his golden retriever King and his miniature Dachshund Quincy, up nearby Mount Majura.He hit balls, and lifted weights, goofed around with and gave endless swag to the children at the tennis center in Lyneham where he got his start. Like many in Australia — and lots of other places these days — they worship their local folk hero, no matter how boorish and aggressive he can be in the heat of competition, or when a live microphone appears at his chin. Or maybe that’s why they do.Now though, everything is suddenly different.Last year, Kyrgios evolved from a temperamental talent with so much unrealized potential into the kind of transcendent showman that this supposedly genteel sport offers up every so often — the gifted bad boy who drives the tennis establishment mad but enthralls crowds in the late stages of the most important championships.At the U.S. Open, Kyrgios beat the top seed and defending champion, Daniil Medvedev.Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesFans cheered for Kyrgios at last year’s Australian Open.Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesWhether the tennis establishment likes it or not, no one in the sport fills a stadium like Kyrgios these days. Even his doubles matches have become raucous, packed affairs. And as the Australian Open gets underway, Kyrgios is among the favorites to challenge the nine-time champion Novak Djokovic for his home slam, which may be the ultimate double-edged sword. That level of pressure and expectation has been kryptonite for Kyrgios before, his self-destructive psyche exploding at a crucial moment, producing his unique brand of irresistible tennis theater.“It’s going to be a hard couple weeks, regardless of whether I win or lose, emotionally, mentally,” Kyrgios said in a pre-Christmas interview from his parents’ home. “I’m one of the players that has a scope lens on him all the time. Big target on my back.” With all his recent success and notoriety, so much suddenly appears to be riding on Kyrgios. The game’s leaders see him as the rare player who can reach a new and younger audience. Fans raise their beers and bump chests as Kyrgios wins points with his signature trick shots through the legs and behind the back. They wear basketball jerseys when they watch him and when they play, just as he does, and they turn his matches, even the doubles contests, into something like a rowdy night at a U.F.C. bout.“He brings something different,” said Andrea Gaudenzi, a former pro who is now the chairman of the A.T.P. Tour, which is the men’s professional circuit.Ken Solomon, chairman and chief executive of the Tennis Channel, the sport’s leading media partner, called Kyrgios “ground zero” in efforts to attract fans who have never touched a racket and perhaps never will. On Friday, Netflix released “Break Point,” its documentary series on pro tennis that the sport hopes will do for it what “Drive to Survive” did for Formula 1. The premiere episode focused almost exclusively on Kyrgios, who took a signature victory lap on Twitter.Tennis Australia announced last week that Kyrgios would play Djokovic in a charity exhibition Friday evening. Tickets sold out in 58 minutes.Before his exhibition match with Djokovic, Kyrgios hobnobbed with clients of a luxury hotel chain during a promotional table tennis game.Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesThree hours before the match, he hobnobbed with the top clients of a luxury hotel chain during a promotional table tennis game. Before the event started, he sat alone in a quiet hallway, feeling the pressure of what lay ahead. Moments later, holding a racket in a packed rooftop bar, the bright eyes and big smile of the star entertainer emerged.Leaning on Kyrgios as a pitchman for the game also carries plenty of risk. What makes him so irresistible, that at any time he might produce another can’t-miss moment on the court, has at times made him a walking grenade. And he’s the one with a finger on the pin.There is also the allegation of domestic violence.In early February, Kyrgios is due in court in Canberra to face a charge of common assault stemming from an altercation with an ex-girlfriend, Chiara Passari, in December 2021. Kyrgios has declined to discuss the matter since it became public during his run to the Wimbledon final in July.Common assault is the least serious assault charge in Australia, but it implies that the victim experienced immediate, unlawful violence, or the threat of it, though not bodily injury. Kyrgios’s lawyers have said they will mount a defense focused on mental illness, citing his history of depression and substance abuse, struggles Kyrgios has said will always be with him but that he now has under control. If the court accepts this defense and dismisses the case, it could then decide to impose a treatment plan. The maximum penalty for common assault is two years’ imprisonment.The incident occurred during the first weeks of Kyrgios’s relationship with his now constant companion, Costeen Hatzi, whom he met online. He had also just recommitted himself fully to tennis after years of ambivalence and mental turmoil. The sport had brought riches and fame but also loneliness, with its endless travel and solitary battles on the court, which tortured his psyche.Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesThe withering criticism and racist attacks he endured when he lost matches he was expected to win, or broke rackets and berated tennis officials, triggered memories of those years before a growth spurt at 17 turned him into a strapping, 6-foot-4 elite athlete. As an overweight boy with dark skin and modest means in an overwhelmingly white country where everyone seemed to have more, he was mocked and bullied, despite his talent for tennis, or maybe because of it.Goran Ivanisevic, the Wimbledon champion who coaches Djokovic, has called Kyrgios a “tennis genius.” Kyrgios’s father, Giorgos, first noticed that skill when Kyrgios was a toddler hitting a ball hanging on a string from a metal pole. He never missed. Soon Kyrgios was learning the sport on dilapidated courts near his parents’ home in Canberra. His father, a house painter from Greece, would hit a bucket of balls with him after work.“Still wears the same overalls he walked off the boat in,” Kyrgios said of his father, who still paints houses. “He must have been exhausted.”His mother, Norlaila, who is from Malaysia and worked as a software engineer for health care organizations, would drive for hours to get him and his brother to tournaments. They stayed at backpacker hostels and tried to stretch $20 to cover dinner for him and his siblings at cheap Indian restaurants in the countryside.His parents knew next to nothing about tennis. Tennis Australia and the tennis authority for his provincial region worked to fill in the gaps, and Kyrgios notched his breakthrough win at 19, when he upset Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in 2014.Kyrgios’s breakthrough came at 19, when he beat Rafael Nadal in the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2014.via Getty ImagesIt nearly ruined him. After that win and all the expectations it produced, Kyrgios thought he had to solve every problem on his own. When he couldn’t, he lashed out, at tennis officials, the media and the people around him.Then, last fall, after a year in which he flirted with quitting but also showed flickers of his magical game, Kyrgios began to realize he didn’t have to do it all alone. He could talk about his fears and insecurities and the fragility of his mind to the people closest to him, and they could help.“Knowing that I am not alone anymore and I can kind of open up and talk to people, now that’s a big one for me,” he said. “It’s OK to, you know, feel like having to cry some days.”He also decided he was tired of letting himself and others down. Before last year’s Australian Open, he embarked on the kind of solid six-week training block he had not done in years. He played with top opponents for 90 minutes each day and hit the weight room. He spent two hours several times a week playing full-court basketball, his true love, with top Australian players to hone his conditioning.Asked for a scouting report on his hoops game, he put it like this:“Loves shooting mid-rangers.” “Can shoot a three-ball pretty good.” “Play like a wing.” “In the corner.” “Come off picks.” “Pretty versatile.” “Can guard a big.” “Pretty physical.” “Like Tobias Harris in his prime.”He also ate better, and he focused on getting more rest instead of more drinks.By the end of January, with Thanasi Kokkinakis, his countryman and childhood friend, he had won the doubles title for his first Grand Slam championship. Then he mostly stuck to the healthier living through Wimbledon, where he once had to be dragged from a pub at 4 a.m. on the morning of a match. Not this time, though his sublime tennis did come with multiple confrontations with chair umpires and a tense verbal-sparring match with Stefanos Tsitsipas, during which Tsitsipas tried to hit Kyrgios with a ball.Kyrgios won the Australian Open men’s doubles title last year with his friend Thanasi Kokkinakis.Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesKyrgios had a few confrontations with chair umpires at Wimbledon this year but reached his first Grand Slam singles final there.Hannah Mckay/ReutersHe fell to Djokovic in the final in four sets, but he remained disciplined through the U.S. Open. There, he obliterated the top seed and defending champion, Daniil Medvedev, in the fourth round before suffering an upset loss to Karen Khachanov of Russia in the quarterfinals. Exhausted from the season and from playing mostly at night so broadcasters could maximize the television audience, he caught the first flight home and played just one more singles tournament.Kyrgios will play Roman Safiullin, an unheralded Russian, in the first round Tuesday.What happens now?Tennis, like few other sports, is an M.R.I. of the soul. Kyrgios knows he will never pursue the game with the clinical efficiency and emotional discipline that Nadal and Djokovic have showcased for so long. He is going to throw and break rackets. It’s a manifestation of how much he cares, he said, and for him to thrive, tennis has to be about who he is, someone who plays with emotion, instinct and improvisation, like a jazz solo rather than a symphony.If he can do that, maybe he can find peace on the court, even when the pressure brings the stress of a near-explosion that keeps his mother, too worried about what will happen, from being able to watch.“Not many people can say that they have become a Slam threat, they are going to have the support of the nation, well, the support of some of the nation behind him,” he said. “Just got to try to enjoy it.”For Kyrgios, that has always been the toughest task of all. More

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    At the Australian Open, Ben Shelton Is Ready to Go Global

    Shelton, 20, is ranked in the top 100 after a late-season surge last year. Now, he is embarking on his first full season on tour and his first trip outside the United States.MELBOURNE, Australia — Pro tennis is one of the most international sports, but the American Ben Shelton has only just become global.This Australian Open, which starts on Monday, is part of his first trip outside the United States. His passport is in mint condition; his eyes are almost as big as his lefty serve.“A whole lot of blue; it almost doesn’t look real,” Shelton said as he walked the grounds at Melbourne Park, with its azure signage and courts, for the first time this week. “It’s like an alternate world.”Shelton, a strapping and mop-topped 20-year-old from Gainesville, Fla., who is embarking on his first full season on tour, earned his spot in Melbourne in a hurry, making the biggest leap into the year-end top 100 of any men’s singles player in 2022.He did it by winning in the big leagues: He upset Casper Ruud, a French Open and U.S. Open finalist in 2022, in the second round of the Masters 1000 event in Mason, Ohio, in August.But Shelton did it, above all, by winning in the minor leagues, taking three consecutive titles indoors on the Challenger circuit in November to secure direct entry into the Australian Open based on his ranking. He had already guaranteed himself a wild-card slot — part of a reciprocal agreement for Grand Slam entries between the United States Tennis Association and Tennis Australia — by compiling the best results among eligible Americans in the late season. But that was not the path down under that he preferred.“Ben was like, ‘I don’t want to see that W.C. next to my name,’ and so he dug down in the final of that last Challenger,” said Dean Goldfine, one of his coaches. “I think a lot of guys would have been satisfied, and he was exhausted from playing three weeks in a row. But he powered through, and that put him in the top 100.”The 2023 Australian OpenThe year’s first Grand Slam tennis tournament runs from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 in Melbourne.Missing Stars: Carlos Alcaraz, Naomi Osaka and Nick Kyrgios have all pulled out of the tournament. Alcaraz’s withdrawal means that the Australian Open will be without the men’s No. 1 singles player.Talent From China: Shang Juncheng, once the world’s top-ranked junior, is the youngest member of a promising new wave of players that also includes Wu Yibing and Zhang Zhizhen.Holger Rune’s Rise: Last year, the 19-year-old broke into the top 10, but not without some unwanted attention. We spoke to the young Dane ahead of his second Australian Open.Ben Shelton Goes Global: The 20-year-old American is ranked in the top 100 after a late-season surge last year. Now, he is embarking on his first full season on tour.In early June, shortly after winning the N.C.A.A. singles title as a sophomore at the University of Florida, Shelton was ranked No. 547. This week, he is up to No. 92 and practicing in Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne with the likes of Rafael Nadal, the Spanish megastar and reigning Australian Open champion. Nadal was in need of a powerful left-handed sparring partner to prepare for his tricky opening-round match Monday against the rising British 21-year-old Jack Draper.Shelton, a Nadal admirer, was delighted to get the call and will face the unseeded Zhang Zhizhen of China on Tuesday in his Australian Open debut.Nadal, above, was in need of a powerful left-handed sparring partner to prepare for his tricky opening-round match. Shelton, below, was delighted to get the call.Cameron Spencer/Getty Images“I’m really excited to play main draw of my very first Slam out of the country,” Shelton said. “Maybe eight months ago I wouldn’t think I’d be in this position, but I’m lucky I have a good team around me helping me.”Shelton’s girlfriend is Anna Hall, a heptathlete who won a bronze medal at the world track and field championships in Eugene, Ore., in July. Shelton, who was competing in a Challenger event in Indianapolis that week, watched her events on his phone between matches. Both Hall and Shelton turned professional last summer and, though he has trounced her in pickleball, he likes to point out that he is not the best athlete of the two.“She’s outshining me,” he said.“It’s great, actually,” Goldfine said. “Because they challenge each other, and she totally understands what it takes to be at an elite level.”Shelton, at 6-foot-4 and 195 pounds, has a percussive, all-court game, based around a big-bang forehand and serve and an attacking mentality that often carries him to the net. He is “still raw” and still figuring out the best patterns of play, according to Goldfine, who has coached the former top players Todd Martin and Andy Roddick and most recently helped coach the 22-year-old American Sebastian Korda.But, to Goldfine, Shelton’s upside is clear.“I think with the natural gifts he has — his athleticism, his love for competing and for taking challenges head-on and his mental toughness — I think Ben has the possibility to be a great player who can someday challenge for Grand Slam titles,” he said. “He has all the variables you see in the top players, and being a lefty helps, definitely.”Shelton certainly has fine tennis genes. His father, Bryan, the men’s tennis coach at the University of Florida, was ranked as high as No. 55 during his pro career and reached the fourth round of Wimbledon as a qualifier in 1994. Ben’s mother, Lisa, played junior tennis and is the sister of Todd Witsken, a three-time all-American at the University of Southern California who peaked at No. 43 in singles on the ATP Tour before tragically dying of brain cancer at age 34.Ben’s older sister Emma is a senior on the University of Florida women’s team and was the only Shelton sibling serious about tennis until Ben quit playing football when he was 11.“It was just for a year, but it turned out to be forever,” Bryan Shelton said. “Even though he wasn’t the happiest in the world to go out there on court and drill with me, as soon as he got to compete, man, I mean the lights came on, and he was so excited about it. So that part I thought was pretty special. Some people shy away from competition, and he never did.“I always say he’s like a Labrador retriever: You throw the ball, he’s going to run and go get it. And if you throw it again, he’s going to run and go get it again and again and again. So, you know, he has a passion for it,” he said.Ben’s trip to Melbourne is a full-circle moment for the Shelton family: Bryan and Lisa met in Melbourne during the 1993 Australian Open.“How cool is that?” Ben said.Lisa, who was helping her brother in 1993, has not returned to Australia. Bryan has not been back since 1997, and despite being his son’s primary coach, he won’t be returning this year either because of his college coaching commitments. But he is in daily contact with Ben and his traveling coach, Goldfine, who works for the U.S.T.A.’s player-development program.“We’ve already started watching some of the video on Zhang,” Goldfine said of himself and Bryan Shelton. “We are always bouncing ideas off each other.”Goldfine, 57, and Ben exchange plenty as well, teasing each other, in particular, about the generational gap.“Dean couldn’t believe I didn’t know ‘Hotel California,’” Ben said, briefly halting practice on Thursday to share the story. “And I was like, ‘Dean, look at my phone and you won’t know any of the songs on my playlist.’”Ben is the first reigning N.C.A.A. men’s singles champion to break into the top 100 since Tim Mayotte in 1981. He is also the youngest of the 14 American men in the Australian Open, and his breakthrough to this level gives the United States an even deeper roster of promising men’s talent. There are nine Americans in the top 50, led by Taylor Fritz, and eight of them are 25 years old or younger.Ben has met most of them. As a young boy, he remembers watching Frances Tiafoe and Reilly Opelka play a junior tournament in Kalamazoo, Mich., where Bryan Shelton was scouting potential recruits.At that stage, there was no way to know that Ben would be the future No. 1 at Florida, of course. Though the team plays on without him, he is pursuing a business degree online and following the Gators’ scores and live streams from afar.“I’m definitely going to miss being around a bunch of my best friends and being able to go out there on the court playing for something much bigger than myself,” Ben said. “But I’m excited to see what they do and be able to be in the stands cheering them on whenever I’m home during the spring.” More

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    Australian Open Organizers Hope the Drama Stays on the Court

    Covid-19, wildfires and extreme heat have all disrupted the tournament in the past.Craig Tiley doesn’t sleep much. It’s a habit he picked up during three years of army training in his native South Africa.But as chief executive of Tennis Australia and tournament director for the Australian Open, which begins Sunday at Melbourne Park, since 2006, Tiley finds that slumber is overrated and inconvenient.“Maybe I get that sense of fear of missing out,” said Tiley, who was the tennis coach for the University of Illinois team that went 32-0 in 2003. “I always want to be up and around, especially when you’re under pressure.”There has been no shortage of difficult situations for Tiley and the Australian Open over the last several years. Often lauded as the happy slam by players and spectators, the open, which has had memorable tennis over the years, as when Serena Williams won a three-set battle with her sister Venus in 2003, has taken hits that have threatened the relaxed atmosphere and the tournament itself.“Unfortunately, the tournament’s been plagued by some very bad luck the last few years, said Rennae Stubbs, a Sydney native and former world No. 1 doubles player who is now a television commentator. “It’s been a bit of a disaster, and all of it completely out of the tournament’s control.”The fires that plagued Australia in 2020 enveloped Melbourne in a smoky haze.Getty ImagesThree years ago, wildfires filled the skies over Melbourne with smoke so thick that play was hindered and the tournament almost postponed. A year later, Covid-19 restrictions were so stringent that players were forced to quarantine in hotels, many unable to practice until days before the start of play. And last year an unvaccinated Novak Djokovic was deported before he ever got to hit a ball.The extreme heat of the Australian summer is nothing new and has disrupted play in the past, as in the 110-degree temperatures that had players wilting in 2014. That year, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Caroline Wozniacki complained that their sneakers and water bottles were melting into the hard court. One player, Peng Shuai, vomited on court and another, Frank Dancevic, fainted.In 2018, Simona Halep spent four hours receiving intravenous fluids at a Melbourne hospital after she lost an almost three-hour, three-set final to Wozniacki in the sweltering heat.Djokovic accused the sport of not caring enough about the health of players. The tournament then updated its excessive heat policy that takes into consideration on-court temperatures, the strength of the sun, air temperature in the shade, relative humidity and wind speed. If certain thresholds are met, matches can be suspended and the roofs closed on the main show courts.The intense heat helped spawn the 2020 fires. Some were so close to Melbourne that tournament officials considered postponing play because of the thick smoke and poor air quality.Also that year, there were protests at the tournament, including by the tennis greats Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe over Margaret Court, the former Australian player, after she accepted an invitation to return to Melbourne Park to celebrate the 50th anniversary of her winning all four majors, called the Grand Slam, in 1970. The park’s secondary stadium was named after her in 2003.Court, who holds the record for winning the most major singles titles with 24, is now a Pentecostal pastor in Perth and created a divide in her homeland because of her opposition to gay marriage. The tournament went ahead with its celebration of Court, but did not give her a microphone to speak to the crowd.“When you get a stadium named after you, you have to understand that people who are walking through those doors may be gay, and insulting those people is totally unacceptable,” Stubbs said. “You are essentially an ambassador for our sport and for our country. You can think what you like but just don’t say it.”Tennis players were quarantined for 14 days upon arrival in Melbourne for the 2021 tournament as the Covid-19 pandemic continued to rage. Asanka Ratnayake/Getty ImagesThe open signals the official start of a new season, which is one of the reasons players love it. Players are eager to show off new strokes, new coaches, altered bodies from hours spent in the gym during the tours’ brief off-season and new sponsored tennis clothing.“Everyone’s coming from cold climates to the sun of the Southern Hemisphere,” said Mark Woodforde, who captured 12 doubles major titles, 11 of them with fellow Australian Todd Woodbridge. “They’ve had their holidays, are well rested physically and mentally, and they’re eager and excited to be back.”That changed in 2021 because of the pandemic. Determined to hold the tournament in spite of heavy governmental restrictions, Tiley pushed back the start date to allow time to put players on chartered planes and have them quarantine for two weeks in hotels before they were allowed to compete.Despite his efforts at creating a bubble to keep everyone safe, several people tested positive, prompting lockdowns with no time off to practice for many players. Some players even improvised their exercise routines by hitting tennis balls against shuttered windows and turning beds on their sides to serve as backboards.Then last year, Djokovic created an international incident when he arrived in Melbourne unvaccinated — a breach of Australian protocols — and was deported before he was ever allowed to step foot on the court. The tournament was saved by some extraordinary on-court action, including championships by Rafael Nadal and the hometown hero Ashleigh Barty.Djokovic, then the reigning champion, refused to be vaccinated against the coronavirus and was deported from Australia ahead of the 2022 Open.Darko Bandic/Associated Press“It’s a real testament to Craig and his staff that, despite all the obstacles with Covid, they were able to put on the event the last two years while still playing by the rules,” said Rajeev Ram, who won the 2020 Australian Open doubles tournament with his partner, Joe Salisbury, and played for Tiley at Illinois. “It would have been easy to just say, ‘No tournament,’ but they got creative, and the players really benefited from that.”Another reason the players refer to the open as the happy slam is because of the way they are treated.“We design this event around having fun,” Tiley said. “Our whole mission and position is ‘playful premium.’”For fans, there is an on-site beach, dozens of restaurants and bars, a field full of family activities and a water park.Players are lured by grants to pay for their travel, even for junior competitors for the first time this year. They are also treated to a variety of medical services, including a new foot treatment area; new performance spaces, including three gyms, a preparation/recovery center and ice baths; and an area that offers a nutrition bar and mindfulness activities. There is also a beauty salon and on-site tax advisers.Despite its rocky recent history, the Australian Open is often known as the happy slam because of its spirit and the way visitors are treated. Alana Holmberg for The New York Times“The environment they create is akin to the way Aussies treat people,” Woodforde said. “The tournament doesn’t ever say no to a request. They work hard to create a stress-free environment for everyone. They want people to say, ‘Do we have to go home?’”Tiley said that Australians love their sport and entertainment.“They would choose to invest in that before anything else,” he said. “That’s a great attribute to have from your fans when you’re in this business.”After all the tumult of the last few years, Tiley is optimistic about a turnaround. By mid-December, he said, ticket sales for ground passes were up by more than 30 percent compared with last year. “We’re seeing this absolute pent-up demand for everything.”“Our ultimate responsibility is to deliver a global tennis championship,” Tiley added. “These tournaments in London, Paris, New York and, of course, Melbourne, are massive entertainment events with multimillions in global audiences. At the end of the day, my job is to run the best event possible under the circumstances.” More