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      Nick Kyrgios Is Coming for Tennis

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      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

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      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

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      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

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      Sometimes Tennis Is a Waiting Game. And Waiting and Waiting.

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      Games can take a long time, and players waiting to take the court for the next match have to find ways to stay sharp.When Felix Auger-Aliassime won the first two sets of his men’s quarterfinals against Daniil Medvedev at last year’s Australian Open, Gonzalo Escobar started prepping for his mixed doubles semifinals, the next match in Rod Laver Arena. As the third set progressed, Escobar and his partner Lucie Hradecka, along with their opponents Jason Kubler and Jaimee Fourlis, began loosening up.But Medvedev won that set in a tiebreaker, forcing the doubles players to switch gears. They lay down, covering their bodies to stay warm. At first they chatted, then Hradecka listened to music while Escobar talked to his wife before watching the match.With Auger-Aliassime ahead in the fourth set, the doubles players again grew silent and serious, resuming their physical preparations. But again Medvedev prevailed.“It was very tiring,” Escobar said.Again, they lay down. Escobar ate a banana, energy bars and gels to keep his body fueled. The fifth set lasted another hour until Medvedev won. Escobar said that when the doubles players finally entered the court, Medvedev “looked at us and said, ‘Sorry guys.’”In most major sports, the athletes know their start time. Tennis, however, is a guessing game: The previous match may be over in an hour or last for three. And Grand Slams deepen the uncertainty because men play a best-of-five instead of best-of-three format, as they do in other tournaments. Longer matches produce more seesaw battles, forcing waiting players to continually adjust their physical routine and mental preparations.Even a match seemingly near the finish offers no guarantees.“It can be two sets to love with one player up 5-4 and the match could be over in five minutes, or it could last more than two hours,” said Craig Boynton, who coaches Hubert Hurkacz. “You’re estimating and observing, but it’s all guesswork.”Boynton was coaching John Isner in 2010 when Isner beat Nicholas Mahut at Wimbledon in a 70-68 fifth set that stretched across multiple days, eventually forcing officials to shift waiting players to other courts. “I’m happy all the Slams now do fifth-set tiebreakers,” Boynton said, which prevent final sets from going on indefinitely.Alex de Minaur returning a shot against Filip Krajinovic during the first round of men’s singles of the 2022 U.S. Open. That match began after a long period of waiting, during the four-hour five-setter that preceded it.Mike Stobe/Getty ImagesAlex de Minaur, who followed a four-hour five-setter in his first 2022 United States Open match, said afterward that the key was to be “mentally versatile.”“You have to do everything to prepare as if the match before yours will go three sets and then adapt,” he said. “You can’t let it have a negative impact or waste too much energy, although that’s easier said than done.”Many coaches request the first match of the day to avoid this issue, said David Nainkin, who coaches Brandon Holt (the son of Tracy Austin, who won the U.S. Open in 1979 and 1981). “The third match is the toughest slot — you can be on any time from 2 to 6 p.m.”Certain matches offer more predictability, said Peter Polansky, who coaches Denis Shapovalov. If Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal is trailing the 50th-ranked player two sets to one, Polansky would say “let’s wait it out,” but if either superstar is leading by a set it’s more likely time for “high-alert mode” to get ready to play.But repeatedly leaping into high alert can be draining, said Austin, whose 1981 U.S. Open final against Martina Navratilova followed a five-setter between John McEnroe and Vitas Gerulaitis. Austin didn’t want to feel rushed so, anticipating an ending, she taped her feet and got dressed.“I was ready to go and I’d get charged up, but then their match would extend,” she said. When the men finished, Austin felt “a little sapped by the emotional roller coaster” and lost the first set 6-1, but bounced back to win the match.Shifting scenarios give experienced players an edge, Austin said. “It’s a gradual learning process. You develop tools and routines in those situations.” She said one factor was figuring out whether you prefer being around people or in a quiet space alone.Caroline Garcia warming up before a match against Iga Swiatek during the 2022 WTA Finals. Garcia also hit the gym while waiting out a five-setter before one of her matches at the U.S. Open, to “fire myself up a bit.”Tom Pennington/Getty ImagesAfter waiting out a five-setter before her fourth-round match at the U.S. Open, Caroline Garcia noted that she passed part of her limbo reading, before prepping her rackets and then going to the gym to “fire myself up a bit.”Some players meditate or even nap once a match extends, Polansky said, although it’s tricky because a final set can be a quick 6-1 laugher. At the opposite end, many players will gather with their team and play cards or board games.“You don’t want to do anything that will fatigue you mentally,” Polansky said, noting that spending too much time staring at a phone as matches elongate can be detrimental.When a match suddenly goes to a fourth or fifth set, Nainkin said some waiting players change their location, perhaps leaving the locker room for the lounge, “just to reset mentally and get out of ‘ready to go mode’ for 30 minutes.”If the end of the match is exciting, many players watch while getting ready, he said, which also helps them pace their warm-ups. Some players, however, just have their coaches tracking the score. “The coach’s job is to have a read on the match so the player can switch off entirely if the match goes to a fifth set.”Timing your food is also essential, Garcia said. “You don’t want to eat too much, but if it goes to a fifth set you need to have another snack while waiting.”But numerous smaller details must also be factored in. “Some players want their ankles taped right before match time so it’s stiffer, while others want to walk around and break it in,” Boynton said. “Some want to get limber and sweaty and then use the last few minutes to go through the game plan, but others don’t.”In a close fourth set, he added, Hurkacz will get on the treadmill and do sprints then undo his shoelaces and do a few stretches and wait. During a tiebreaker, he’ll lace up again, but if the match goes to a fifth set, the shoes come off and he’ll ask for another round of rice and vegetables.“Everyone has their own process and talking about it sounds crazy, but it’s just normal to us,” Boynton said. “You don’t have to be the best at dealing with it, you just have to be better than your opponent.” More

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      Holger Rune Making a Name for Himself in Tennis

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      As the 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz rose through the ranks in 2022, Rune, also 19, was marching through the top players. He even beat Alcaraz.Holger Rune speaks as he plays tennis — at a crazy fast pace, barely stopping to take a breath. His thoughts are deep and direct, as if he has much to say but not much time to say it.Rune’s footwork is exceptionally speedy, and his ascent up the rankings has kept pace. In just one year, he rose from outside the world’s Top 100 to a Top 10 ranking. He went from playing in lower-level tournaments at the beginning of 2022 to winning ATP events in Munich, Stockholm and Paris. At the Paris Masters, he upset five Top 10 players, including world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz and 21-time Grand Slam singles winner Novak Djokovic, whom he beat in the final. At just 19, Rune was the ATP’s Newcomer of the Year, ending the season at No. 11.But there were problems for the Dane, whose squabbles with umpires, players and even his omnipresent mother, Aneke, garnered him unwanted attention. A verbal rumble after a loss to Casper Ruud in the quarterfinals of the French Open last year had both players accusing each other of insults and untruths.For Rune, who begins contesting his second Australian Open this Monday, it’s all part of the maturation process.The following interview has been edited and condensed.Last year, you lost your first-round match at the Australian Open to Soonwoo Kwon after leading by two sets to one. What do you remember about that match?I was still very inexperienced, and it was physically and mentally hard to play five sets. After the third set I started cramping a little bit. Now I have a good take on playing long matches. It’s about saving some energy, and you can only get that by experience.You were the No. 1 ranked junior in the world in 2019. Some juniors find the transition to the pro tour very difficult, but for you it was seamless. Why?First of all, it wasn’t easy even though it was going quick. For me it felt like it took a lot of time, but on paper it didn’t. I was very eager and took all the steps. I have a big will to go through any challenge I get on my way to getting closer to my dream. That’s my focus every day that I step on the tennis court.In juniors, it looked like you played best on clay courts. Then you won 19 of your last 21 matches last year indoors on hard courts. Is that your new surface?That’s a good question. I don’t know honestly if I’m a clay-courter or a hard-courter. It depends. That’s why when people ask me if hard, clay or grass is my favorite surface, I would say all of them.Last year you added Patrick Mouratoglou to your coaching team, but you’ve been working with Lars Christensen since you were very young. What’s the most important thing Lars has taught you?I would say the discipline. If you look at me now from five years ago, I’m very different. I’m more structured in everything I do, on the court and off. Lars is also very technical. He’s still trying to help me learn stuff, and I’m very eager to improve.You had huge wins over Djokovic, Alcaraz and [Alexander] Zverev in 2022. Which one meant the most?I had one against [Stefanos] Tsitsipas too. But I’ve got to say, all of them in a way. But right now I’d have to say Novak. To play him in a final with all of the emotions and stuff is very big.You set a goal last year to be in the Top 25, and you made it to the Top 10. Did that surprise even you?When you stay in the moment you’re not surprised when everything is going so fast. But when I look back, I feel very proud of what I achieved. Ranking goals are important, but you can’t really control them because it depends on so many things. I’m happy with how things are going, and I’m very motivated to be in the best shape as possible in Australia. More

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      With the Australian Open Set to Begin, All Eyes Are on Rafael Nadal

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      The defending champion, Nadal has lost six of his last seven tour singles matches and is struggling with his timing, confidence and composure. But don’t count him out.MELBOURNE, Australia — The first collective gasp of this year’s Australian Open came Thursday afternoon, four days before the tournament officially begins.The hubbub came at the start of the men’s singles draw when Jack Draper’s name appeared in the second slot in the 128-man field. That meant Draper’s first-round opponent was guaranteed to be Rafael Nadal, the reigning Australian Open champion and the No. 1 seed in the absence of the injured Carlos Alcaraz.The buzz in the room was a sign of the left-handed Draper’s gathering strength — a 21-year-old Briton, he is in form and up to No. 40 in the world — but also a reflection of Nadal’s disarray.One of the greatest champions in any sport, Nadal has lost six of his last seven tour singles matches, struggling with his timing, confidence and even his composure as he has been defeated by, in order, Frances Tiafoe, in the fourth round of the U.S. Open; Tommy Paul, in the first round of the Paris Masters; Taylor Fritz and Felix Auger-Aliassime, in round-robin matches at the ATP Finals; and Cameron Norrie and Alex de Minaur, in the recently completed United Cup team event.None of those six men has reached a Grand Slam singles final and neither has Hubert Hurkacz, who dealt Nadal his latest defeat — even if it was only in a practice match — in Rod Laver Arena on Thursday evening in front of a few thousand spectators (and a chair umpire).Hurkacz, a flashy shotmaker with an unflashy personality, is no pushover. He is seeded No. 10 in Melbourne and will forever be the last man to face — and defeat — Nadal’s friendly rival Roger Federer in singles.Hurkacz defeated Federer in straight sets in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 2021, and he looked considerably looser and more relaxed on Thursday evening than Nadal, who kept casting concerned glances at his main coach, Carlos Moyá, after missing groundstrokes and first serves.“Rafa is certainly vulnerable,” said Todd Woodbridge, the Australian former star who is now an analyst for Australian television. “He had that faraway look on a changeover against Tiafoe at the U.S. Open and it looked like he had it again in the match against de Minaur last week.”But as Woodbridge and everyone else in tennis have learned repeatedly over the past 19 years, you cannot count out a player of Nadal’s talent and inner drive. He has repeatedly risen from the depths, most recently at the 2022 French Open, which he entered injured and slumping but then managed to win his 14th men’s singles title at Roland Garros.Another title run here in Melbourne looks far less likely, however. The opening hurdle is high with the 6-foot-4 Draper, who advanced to a semifinals match on Friday in the lead-in event in Adelaide.The son of Roger Draper, a former chief executive of Britain’s Lawn Tennis Association, Jack Draper was once considered uncertain to break through to the highest level because of his movement. But he has improved his quickness and court coverage significantly in recent seasons.Jack Draper of Britain will face Nadal in his opening match.Mark Brake/Getty Images“It will be amazing to play on a big court against him; he is a great champion,” Draper said in Adelaide about his first chance to play Nadal. “Whatever happens it will be a special occasion for me. I’m still very young in my career, so it’s great to have these sort of experiences and exposure to playing Rafa on a big arena.”Get past Draper, and Nadal could face the rising American Brandon Nakashima in the second round, Tiafoe in the fourth round and the former No. 1 Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals in what would be a rematch of their topsy-turvy, five-set Australian Open final last year.Nadal’s experience, grit and ability to problem solve in best-of-five-set matches should not be dismissed, and he has been focused on shortening points and coming to the net in his pretournament sessions this week. He pushed forward often against Hurkacz on Thursday.“I need to win matches, for sure, but the preparation is going quite well, practicing a lot and I’m in good shape,” Nadal said. “Then you need to demonstrate that in the matches in the official tournaments, but I am confident that if I’m able to have the last week of positive practices, why not?”Draper is not the only British player with a high-profile match in Melbourne. Andy Murray, Nadal’s contemporary and a former No. 1, will face the former Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini in the opening round. Emma Raducanu, the big-surprise U.S. Open women’s champion in 2021, could face seventh-seeded Coco Gauff in the second round if both win their openers (and if Raducanu’s injured ankle continues to improve and allows her to take part in the tournament).Gauff, 18, struggled with her forehand and confidence at the end of the 2022 season, but had a productive off-season and on Sunday won the singles title in Auckland, New Zealand. The event was played indoors and outdoors because of frequent rain and lacked many of the other leading Australian Open contenders.The favorite in the women’s draw remains No. 1 Iga Swiatek despite her lopsided and emotional defeat to Jessica Pegula of the United States in the United Cup. But Swiatek, who faces the German all-court player Jule Niemeier in the opening round, is in a thorny section of the draw. Her eighth includes the Grand Slam singles champions Bianca Andreescu and Elena Rybakina as well as Danielle Collins, who lost in the final last year in Melbourne to Ashleigh Barty, who retired last March.There will be newcomers as well, including the 15-year-old qualifier Brenda Fruhvirtova, the youngest woman in the tournament and part of the Czech Republic’s big wave of young talent that includes her sister Linda Fruhvirtova, 17, who is also making her Australian Open singles debut.Jessica Pegula, at No. 3, is the highest-seeded player from the United States among men and women.Patrick Hamilton/Agence France-Presse via Getty ImagesThursday’s draw delivered another rarity: a first-round match between two former Australian Open singles champions: Victoria Azarenka, the Belarusian veteran who won in 2012 and 2013, and Sofia Kenin, the American who won in 2020 but has since dropped outside the top 100. That matchup was all the more extraordinary considering that Azarenka and Kenin are the only Australian Open women’s singles champions in the draw. The seven-time Australian Open champion Serena Williams is now retired (or at least evolved). The two-time champion Naomi Osaka and the 2016 champion Angelique Kerber are pregnant, and so is Barty, although that happened after her surprise retirement at age 25.Much can change in a hurry in tennis, as Nadal knows well, and this year’s tournament is already a sea change from last year’s because Novak Djokovic is in the draw after being deported by the Australian government on the eve of the 2022 event because he was unvaccinated for the coronavirus.Now, after a change in government policy and after winning the warm-up event in Adelaide, Djokovic, still unvaccinated, can chase his 10th Australian Open singles title. He will face the unseeded Spaniard Roberto Carballés Baena in the opening round on the opposite side of the draw from his longtime rival Nadal.Based on current form, Djokovic winning his 22nd major singles title sounds a lot more plausible than Nadal winning his 23rd. More

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      Naomi Osaka Withdraws From the Australian Open

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      Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion, was once widely considered the world’s top hardcourt player, but she has struggled to regain her form after injuries and time away from tennis.Naomi Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion, has withdrawn from the Australian Open, the latest turn in an increasingly enigmatic career.The Australian Open announced Osaka’s withdrawal on Sunday in Melbourne. Dayana Yastremska will now move into the main draw of the tournament, which starts Jan. 15.Osaka, who won the Australian Open in 2019 and 2021, has not played a tournament since September, when she withdrew from a match in Japan with abdominal pain.Once seemingly destined to compete for the biggest championships in tennis for the next decade, Osaka has struggled to regain her form since she took two lengthy breaks from competition in 2021.The first break came after her withdrawal from that season’s French Open, where she went public with her longtime struggles with depression. She returned for the Olympic Games in midsummer, but after a disappointing early-round loss at the U.S. Open, she announced an indefinite break.Osaka returned to the tour compete in Australia last January, and she seemed to be well down the road back when she reached the final of the Miami Open in April. She said that she wanted to be No. 1 again. But an Achilles’ tendon injury cut short her clay-court season and also prevented her from playing in Wimbledon.Osaka then won just one match during the summer hardcourt swing in North America, a disappointing result because Osaka was once considered the world’s premier hardcourt player. The Australian Open, the year’s first Grand Slam, is played on hardcourts as well.Despite her limited play and a ranking that sunk to 85th in the world last February, Osaka remains one of the highest earning athletes in the world, with endorsement deals that have pushed her annual income to more than $50 million, according to Forbes.And she remains very busy away from the court. Osaka launched a representation agency in May to take further control of her mounting business portfolio. Osaka and her longtime agent, Stuart Duguid, left IMG, the sports and entertainment conglomerate, to begin Evolve. Nick Kyrgios, an Australian tennis star, has since joined the agency as well.At the time, Duguid said that Osaka’s main priority remained winning tennis matches and tournaments but that launching Evolve allowed her to engage her interests in culture and business.“She’s not someone who likes to play video games and binge Netflix all day,” said Duguid, who has worked closely with Osaka since she was a teenager.Duguid predicted that Osaka’s business portfolio could grow to $150 million annually in the coming years through investments and ventures such as Kinlò, a skin care products company focused on people with darker skin tones.In December, Osaka released a children’s book, “The Way Champs Play.” She wrote that she hoped the book “inspires kids to chase their dreams and encourages them to believe they can do anything they put their minds to.” More

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      U.S. Open Winner Carlos Alcaraz to Miss Australian Open With Injury

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      Alcaraz, 19, the world No. 1, said he had injured his right leg during training.The year’s first major tennis tournament suffered a major blow on Friday when Carlos Alcaraz, the precocious men’s world No. 1 from Spain, announced that he was withdrawing from the Australian Open with a right leg injury.Alcaraz, a 19-year-old phenom with an acrobatic and all-court game, won his first Grand Slam singles title in September at the U.S. Open in often-spectacular fashion, prevailing in a series of compelling and frequently lengthy matches.His four-set victory over Casper Ruud of Norway in the final was the capstone to a breakthrough season and propelled him to the top spot in the men’s rankings, but Alcaraz has struggled with his health since then: withdrawing from the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin, Italy, and Davis Cup Finals in Malaga, Spain, with an oblique muscle tear in his left abdominal wall.He has not competed in an official event since retiring from his match against Holger Rune, another gifted 19-year-old, in the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters in early November, though he took part in an exhibition in Abu Dhabi last month. Alcaraz returned to his training base in Villena, Spain, to recharge and rehabilitate for the 2023 season, but he said in a social-media post on Friday that he had injured the semimembranosus muscle in his right leg during a training session.“When I was at my best in preseason, I picked up an injury through a chance, unnatural movement,” he wrote, announcing his withdrawal from an exhibition next week near Melbourne and from the Australian Open, which will begin on Jan. 16.“I’d worked so hard to get to my best level for Australia,” he wrote. “It’s tough, but I have to be optimistic, recover and look forward.”Alcaraz’s withdrawal means that the Australian Open will be without the men’s No. 1 singles player for a second year in a row, albeit under starkly different circumstances.Last year, Novak Djokovic was deported from Australia on the eve of the tournament after arriving in the country without being vaccinated for the coronavirus and losing an extended and high-profile legal battle with the Australian government.But Australian government policy has changed, now allowing unvaccinated foreigners to enter the country, even without an exemption. Djokovic, a nine-time Australian Open singles champion, returned to Australia this year and has received a warm welcome so far on his way to the semifinals of the lead-in tournament in Adelaide this week.Though Alcaraz finished the season at No. 1, becoming the youngest man to do so, Djokovic finished 2022 with the momentum, winning the ATP Finals for the sixth time. It was a triumphant finish to his strangest and most tumultuous season, in which his unvaccinated status kept him from competing in two majors (the Australian Open and U.S. Open) and four Masters 1000 events in North America. He also received no ranking points for winning Wimbledon because of the tours’ decision to strip tournament of ranking points in light of its ban of Russian and Belarusian players.Despite that major mathematical handicap, Djokovic is still ranked No. 5 and was the heavy favorite to win the Australian Open even before Alcaraz’s withdrawal. But the Spaniard’s absence eliminates the enticing prospect of an intergenerational duel down under between the reigning No. 1 and the longest-reigning No. 1.Djokovic, the elastic 35-year-old Serbian, has held the top spot for a men’s record of 373 weeks and has a chance to reclaim that spot by winning a 10th Australian Open title.Alcaraz, who reached the third round in Melbourne last year, will have to watch from afar this time and steel himself for the long haul in a grinding, global, increasingly physical sport made all the tougher by a short off-season.He had a 2022 to savor, winning five singles titles and providing a surplus of social-media clip material with his airborne, all-action style and taste for the abrupt and spectacular change of pace: often a thunderous forehand followed by a deft drop shot. He was also sportsmanlike, giving opponents’ points and the benefit of the doubt on multiple occasions.But his torrid run clearly took a mental and physical toll. After winning the U.S. Open, he won just six of his next 10 singles matches, failing to reach another final. He also lost both matches in the Abu Dhabi exhibition in straight sets, to Andrey Rublev and Ruud.His staying power, unlike his luminous talent, is, for now, a question mark. More