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      Naomi Osaka and Jennifer Brady Head to Australian Open Final

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Australian OpenOsaka Ousts WilliamsNadal Is UpsetMedvedev-Tsitsipas PreviewWilliams’s CatsuitAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyOsaka and Brady, With Powerful Strokes and Zero Pretense, in Australian Open FinalThese are not athletic stars who pretend to be impervious to the pressures of their sport.Naomi Osaka said she was now “expressing the nerves that I feel instead of bottling it all up and trying to deal with it by myself.”Credit…David Gray/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFeb. 18, 2021Updated 4:58 p.m. ETMELBOURNE, Australia — One Australian Open finalist spoke about how intimidating it was to serve against Serena Williams and also volunteered that she was guilty of mindless eating during her mandatory 14-day quarantine. That would be Naomi Osaka, who is 3 for 3 in Grand Slam finals.The other acknowledged envisioning her post-match celebration before her semifinal was won, causing her to lose focus, and also offered that she didn’t binge-watch any shows on her 14-day lockdown, because she knew that would lead to lazing around in bed all day.That would be Jennifer Brady, a former U.C.L.A. standout who became the first woman to come through the college ranks to advance to a Grand Slam final since Kathy Jordan at this tournament in 1983.The women’s singles final at the Australian Open will feature the most relatable high-octane servers with hammering groundstrokes that you would ever want to meet (just not on the court).Osaka, 23, and Brady, 25, have displayed ruthless power in their matches and disarming vulnerability in their news conferences. Their egos don’t appear to be Faberge eggs in need of careful handling, constant caressing and everyone’s adoring gaze.They don’t pretend that they’re impervious to pressure or act like they are all-knowing. They don’t seem to act at all.Osaka has admitted to nerves on the court.Credit…Rob Prezioso/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesOsaka staved off two match points in a fourth-round three-setter against Garbiñe Muguruza and didn’t panic when she faced a break point while trailing Williams by 0-2 in the first set of their semifinal. She has improved her mental toughness, she said, by talking to her coach, Wim Fissette, and “expressing the nerves that I feel instead of bottling it all up and trying to deal with it by myself.”Brady squandered four match points on Thursday before dispatching Karolina Muchova in three sets. “I was just so nervous,” she said. “I couldn’t feel my legs. My arms were shaking. I was just hoping she would miss, and she didn’t.”Brady also owned up to the cardinal sin of getting ahead of herself. “I was just thinking about the occasion and the end result,” said Brady, who served out the match in an 18-point game that included three break points and five match points.She appeared to have won on her second match point when she hit a backhand that Muchova dumped into the net. Brady dropped to her knees in relief and disbelief only to discover that the electronic technology system showed her shot had landed a thumbnail outside the line.If the live electronic line calling system, delivered through remote tracking cameras positioned around the Melbourne Park courts and introduced at this tournament, had been instituted at last year’s United States Open, one of the best matches of the season, involving Brady and Osaka, might have unfolded differently.Jennifer Brady enjoyed her Grand Slam semifinal win, but said she had been guilty of thinking ahead. Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesIt was Brady’s Grand Slam semifinal debut, and she and Osaka wielded their rackets like torches, sending fireballs back and forth from the baseline. Osaka won the first set in a tiebreaker, and Brady evened the match in the second.Osaka didn’t break Brady’s serve until the third set when, leading by 2-1, she jumped out to a 15-40 lead, then secured the break when Brady hit a shot that was called out. Brady didn’t challenge the call. It turned out the ball was in. Brady went on to lose, 6-3, and Osaka went on to defeat Victoria Azarenka for the championship.“My coach was trying to tell me, ‘Challenge the ball!’ and I was like, ‘I’m not going to challenge the ball,’” Brady said with a shrug. “You never know. It could have been a turning point or maybe I still would have lost the match.”Osaka described the match as “super high quality throughout” and said, “It’s easily one of my most memorable matches.”Brady agreed and said: “During the match I felt like, wow, this is a great match. It got to the point where I was feeling like I didn’t want it to end. I was just having so much fun.”Saturday’s final will be only their second professional meeting, but they have known each other since they were youngsters competing in USTA-sanctioned tournaments in Florida, where they both grew up.“I remember playing her, and I was like, wow, she hits the ball huge,” Brady said. “She’s going to be good.”Brady said she once played tennis “because I had to, because I had nothing else to do.”Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesBrady didn’t like tennis much in those days.“I was just doing it because I had to, because I had nothing else to do, because I didn’t know what else to do except for going and practicing five hours a day and just waking up and doing it all over again,” Brady said.She wasn’t winning many matches, she said, which didn’t help.“I thought, OK, maybe I’m not meant for this sport, maybe I’m not good enough,” Brady said. “I’ll go to college for four years and then I’ll find a real job.”Brady spent two years at U.C.L.A., where she helped the tennis team to a national title as a freshman in 2014 and matured on and off the court. After bumping around on tennis’s minor-league circuit, Brady won her first WTA event last August in Lexington, Ky.She celebrated by spending the end of 2020 in Germany, the homeland of her coach, Michael Geserer, training like she never has before.“Once you become too comfortable, I think that’s when you’re in trouble,” said Brady, who got homesick but stuck it out, telling herself, “I have to do what I have to do to become the best tennis player right now and then afterward I can live my life.”In their only previous professional meeting, in last year’s U.S. Open semifinals, Naomi Osaka beat Jennifer Brady in three sets.Credit…Robert Deutsch/USA Today Sports, via ReutersOsaka said her motivation to become the best tennis player she can be came from the people with whom she has surrounded herself.“I just want to do really well as a vessel for everyone’s hard work,” she said, adding, “I used to weigh my entire existence on if I won or lost a tennis match. That’s just not how I feel anymore.”Osaka gave voice to not being a nerveless machine and embarked on a winning streak that has reached 20 matches. Brady embraced the discomfort of being stuck in a hotel room for 24 hours a day for 14 days after people on her flight to Australia tested positive for the coronavirus and has never looked more comfortable on the court.By managing the best they can under stressful circumstances, they have managed to be the last two women standing. Who these days can’t relate to that?AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Serena vs. Naomi Osaka: Time, Channel, Streaming and More

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Australian OpenWhat to Watch TonightWilliams-Osaka ShowdownThe Fast CourtsFans in Virus LockdownAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story2021 Australian Open: What to Watch For in Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka’s SemifinalWilliams and Osaka will play for the second time at a Grand Slam. Plus, Novak Djokovic faces an unlikely semifinal opponent: a 27-year-old in his first Grand Slam main draw.Serena Williams last faced Naomi Osaka in 2019 at a tournament in Toronto. Their lone Grand Slam meeting was the 2018 United States Open final.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesFeb. 17, 2021, 1:34 a.m. ETThe Australian Open semifinals begin on Wednesday night, headlined by the match between the 10th-seeded Serena Williams of the United States and the third-seeded Naomi Osaka of Japan. It will be their first Grand Slam meeting since the 2018 United States Open final, an Osaka victory in which Williams received three penalties from the chair umpire.The victor will face the winner of the other semifinal match: between No. 25 Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic and No. 22 Jennifer Brady of the United States.Here’s what to look for in the match, which will start around 10 p.m. Eastern in Rod Laver Arena.Can Williams close?Williams, 39, started her career as one of the greatest closers at the end of Grand Slam events. In her first 28 trips to a Grand Slam semifinal, she won the title 21 times. But dating to her shocking loss to Roberta Vinci in the 2015 U.S. Open semifinals, Williams has struggled to wrap up Slam victories, winning the title only twice in 11 trips to a semifinal.Since her victory in the 2017 Australian Open, Williams has remained stuck at 23 Grand Slam titles, one of the loftiest plateaus in sports history. Though she already holds the career record for Grand Slam titles in the Open era, which began in 1968, Williams has long had her eye on Margaret Court’s record of 24 major titles.Can Osaka lose?Naomi Osaka is on a career-long winning streak.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesOsaka, 23, who grew up idolizing Williams, has been flawless at closing out Grand Slam victories early in her career. Osaka has made three previous Grand Slam quarterfinal runs; each time, she won the tournament. By reaching the semifinals this week, Osaka improved her record in the past three rounds of Grand Slam events to 10-0.Osaka enters the semifinal against Williams, whom she has beaten in two of three meetings, having won 19 consecutive matches, the longest streak of her career. Her last loss came more than a year ago, in a Fed Cup match last February.Williams gets defensive.All three previous Osaka matches against Williams came after Williams’s return from maternity leave in 2018. Osaka will have never seen Williams moving as well as she has this week.Williams joked after her quarterfinal win over the second-seeded Simona Halep that she was motivated to get in shape by the form-fitting catsuit that she knew she would have to wear on the court in Melbourne. Her improved conditioning has been reflected in her foot speed, allowing her to play breathtaking defense and extend rallies in ways she could not attempt in recent years.Osaka, who can match Williams for power, won’t be able to rely on an advantage in foot speed as she had in their previous meetings.Osaka and Williams have moved past the 2018 U.S. Open final.The 2018 U.S. Open final descended into chaos as Williams incurred escalating penalties from the chair umpire Carlos Ramos for repeated code violations, whipping the crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium into anger. Osaka was in tears after the match, and some criticized Williams for ruining her moment.But despite opportunities to do so if she had wished, Osaka has never publicly blamed Williams for any aspect of that day’s mayhem. Williams and young up-and-comers have not always had warm relationships (see: Sloane Stephens), but she has always shown appreciation for Osaka.The two have remained on good terms since the 2018 U.S. Open, and played an exhibition match in Adelaide last month.“I think she’s a great competitor and she’s a cool cat,” Williams said of Osaka on Tuesday.All coverage will air from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. on ESPN2 in the United States; streaming is available on the ESPN+ and ESPN3 apps. Here are the other semifinal matchups.Novak Djokovic vs. Aslan KaratsevAslan Karatsev, 27, is in his first Grand Slam main draw. He has never played Novak Djokovic.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesThe top-seeded Novak Djokovic had a health scare in his third-round win over the 27th-seeded Taylor Fritz, injuring his abdomen as he slipped on the court midway through the third set. Visibly struggling, Djokovic needed five sets to prevail over Fritz.Despite lingering concerns, and Djokovic saying that the injury would have forced him to pull out from the tournament were it not an all-important Grand Slam event, Djokovic has played well in his subsequent two matches, beating No. 14 Milos Raonic and No. 6 Alexander Zverev both in four sets.His next opponent is a considerably less familiar one: Aslan Karatsev, a Russian who is playing in his first Grand Slam main draw at age 27, and has turned into the Cinderella story of the event.Karatsev, who qualified for the Australian Open by winning three matches at a qualifying event in Qatar last month, has used clean, powerful groundstrokes off both wings to dismantle other players, including No. 8 Diego Schwartzman and No. 20 Felix Auger-Aliassime. Karatsev advanced to the semifinals after his quarterfinal opponent, No. 18 Grigor Dimitrov, was limited by back spasms.Djokovic should be expected to advance comfortably if he’s healthy, but if he’s not, no player has proved quite as opportunistic as Karatsev.Karolina Muchova vs. Jennifer BradyThough decidedly an undercard to the preceding Osaka-Williams clash, the semifinal between Karolina Muchova and Jennifer Brady could also prove compelling.Muchova, an all-court player, has been able to outlast many opponents playing near their top form, including the top-seeded Ashleigh Barty in the quarterfinals. After struggling with the heat and taking a medical timeout midway through the match, Muchova dominated the later stages, staying steady and purposeful on her powerful forehand as Barty’s game went wayward.For Brady, whose game is more built around power from the baseline, the run in Australia is a consolidation of her strong effort last summer, when she won a WTA tournament in Lexington, Ky., and reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open, where she lost to Osaka. Brady spent 14 days in hard quarantine before the tournament began, and she was the only player in those circumstances to reach the fourth round of the women’s singles draw.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Serena Williams Wins and Will Face Naomi Osaka in Australian Open Semifinals

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Australian OpenWhat to Watch TodayHow to WatchThe Players to KnowFans in Virus LockdownAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySerena Williams Wins, Setting Up Showdown With Naomi OsakaWilliams dispatched Simona Halep to avenge an embarrassing defeat in their previous meeting. Next up? Osaka in a star-studded semifinal.Serena Williams is now two wins from her 24th Grand Slam singles title.Credit…David Gray/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFeb. 16, 2021, 8:45 a.m. ETMELBOURNE, Australia — Serena Williams was not about to let Simona Halep derail her run to a 24th Grand Slam singles championship. Not again.The summer of 2019 may seem like a lifetime ago in a world reeling from a pandemic that is taking a second lap of the calendar. But for Williams, the scab from her humbling loss to Halep in the Wimbledon final that July remains as fresh as the day Halep held her to four games on the All-England Club’s hallowed grass.Williams’s 6-3, 6-3 victory against Halep on Tuesday in the Australian Open quarterfinals was not as surgical as the dismemberment that Halep administered in their previous meeting, a performance that Billie Jean King described as “one of the most perfectly executed matches I’ve ever seen.”On Tuesday night, Williams put only 55 percent of her first serves in play, a much lower rate than she expects of herself. She finished with more unforced errors (33) than winners (24). But on the key points, Williams’s moxie and her motor won the day.Williams finished with more unforced errors (33) than winners (24) against Halep.Credit…Paul Crock/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWith Halep serving at 3-3 in the second set, Williams won a 20-stroke rally to earn a break point, then secured the break on a 12-stroke point. Two days after she was extended to three intense sets and more than two hours by Aryna Sabalenka, Williams, 39, was spry enough to outrun and outlast the second-ranked Halep, who is 10 years younger.“I feel pretty good with that performance,” Williams said. “I feel like I needed to have a good performance obviously today, especially after my last match against her.”The 2019 Wimbledon final was the third of four that Williams has played since she won the 2017 Australian Open to pull within one Grand Slam title of equaling the career record held by Margaret Court. She is one victory from earning another shot at it, but to get there she will have to defeat another player who derailed an earlier run.That would be the third-ranked Naomi Osaka, who handed Williams a 6-2, 6-4 defeat in the 2018 United States Open final — the first of Osaka’s three Grand Slam titles. Osaka, 23, who won the U.S. Open again last year, extended her winning streak to 19 matches earlier Tuesday with a straight-set victory against Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei.Williams was brimming with confidence after returning to the semifinals. She will face Naomi Osaka next.Credit…Loren Elliott/ReutersAfter her victory, Osaka said she planned to stay up to watch the battle between Halep and Williams, though not necessarily to find out who she would face next.“I always watch Serena play,” Osaka said.She was not alone. No fans were allowed inside Rod Laver Arena because of a five-day lockdown imposed after the Australian authorities detected a cluster of coronavirus infections in the area. But Williams and Halep had a crowd of roughly five dozen spectators anyway, as people associated with the tournament slipped into seats to watch.“I feel like everyone in the tournament watches her,” Osaka said, referring to Williams. “Like, whenever I go to the locker room or whatever, there’s always just people lounging around and stuff, watching her match.”Since Williams last won a Grand Slam title, a lot of the attention in women’s tennis has shifted to Osaka. In 2020, she supplanted Williams as the highest-earning woman in sports on the strength of more than $30 million in off-court endorsements. Her rise led a reporter on the eve of this tournament to ask how she was dealing with being seen as the face of women’s tennis.“As long as Serena’s here,” Osaka replied, “I think she’s the face of women’s tennis.”Naomi Osaka stormed into the semifinals with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Hsieh Su-wei.Credit…David Gray/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWho is Williams to argue? She has worn a diamond-encrusted “QUEEN” necklace during all her matches.Thursday’s meeting with Osaka will be Williams’s 40th Grand Slam semifinal. It will also be her first time squaring off against Osaka in a Grand Slam since their 2018 final in New York, a match that turned turbulent when Williams argued with the chair umpire, who called three code-of-conduct violations against her. The incident turned the crowd against him, and indirectly, Osaka, souring her moment of victory.In the afterglow of her quarterfinal victory, Williams’s smile didn’t waver when she was asked about her relationship with Osaka.“I think we both have had closure,” Williams said of the 2018 final. She added, “I think she’s a great competitor and a cool cat.”Williams and Osaka might have squared off in another U.S. Open final last year if not for the heel injury that hampered Williams in her semifinal loss to Victoria Azarenka. Unlike Osaka, who skipped last fall’s rescheduled French Open because of a strained hamstring, Williams played at Roland Garros less than three weeks after the Open. She won her first match before pulling out of the tournament, a decision that proved providential.When the start of the Australian Open was pushed back three weeks because of the pandemic, Williams was gifted with three open months on her calendar, a welcome block of time that she used to heal her injury and improve her conditioning.According to Patrick Mouratoglou, who has been Williams’s coach since 2012, she rededicated herself to the unglamorous work of improving her fitness, with an emphasis on footwork and speed.“It’s a lot of little details that make a big difference,” he said.“I feel like I needed to have a good performance obviously today,” Williams said of facing Halep, “especially after my last match against her.”Credit…Brandon Malone/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe daily conditioning grind she endured through November and December has allowed Williams to run down balls and extend rallies in February. Known for her attacking style, Williams’s best offense in her past two matches has been her defense.“She’s moving better,” conceded Halep, adding: “It’s much easier for her to hit the balls. It’s tougher for the opponents to finish the point.”Williams “has a really good game,” Halep said. Then she caught herself. Laughing, she said, “She always did.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      2021 Australian Open: What to Watch on Saturday Night

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Australian OpenWhat to Watch TodayHow to WatchThe Players to KnowFans in Virus LockdownAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story2021 Australian Open: What to Watch on Saturday NightIga Swiatek, Dominic Thiem, Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic are in the Australian Open’s round of 16.Iga Swiatek in her third-round win.Credit…David Gray/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFeb. 13, 2021, 7:30 a.m. ETHow to watch: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern on the Tennis Channel and 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. on ESPN2 in the United States; streaming on the ESPN+ and ESPN3 apps.When four reigning Grand Slam champions appear in an order of play, you expect at least one of them to be a clear favorite to advance. In the Australian Open’s round of 16 on Saturday, that is not the case. Naomi Osaka, Dominic Thiem, Iga Swiatek and especially Novak Djokovic all face significant challenges.Djokovic struggled with an injured side muscle during his third-round victory over Taylor Fritz and will need to recover quickly if he is to challenge the in-form Milos Raonic. But for the others, the threat of elimination is less about their own issues and more about their opponents’ potential to play at a high level.Here are some matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, the times for individual matchups are at best estimates and are certain to fluctuate based on when earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern.Rod Laver Arena | 7 p.m. SaturdayNaomi Osaka vs. Garbiñe MuguruzaOsaka’s control of her third-round match against the creative and entertaining Ons Jabeur was exemplary. Although Osaka struggled to win points on her second serve, her first serve was enough to earn eight aces during a two-set win.Naomi Osaka attracted a new fan in her third-round win.Credit…Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesGarbiñe Muguruza, a finalist at last year’s Australian Open, has dropped only 10 games on her path to the round of 16. Muguruza grabbed the initiative early in each match, using her powerful groundstrokes to dictate points and set up relatively easy winners.This matchup between two hardcourt specialists could have easily been a Grand Slam final, and speaks to the quality of tennis being played on the WTA tour. Tonight’s match should be an excellent wrap up to the first week of action.Margaret Court Arena | 9 p.m. FridayFelix Auger-Aliassime vs. Aslan KaratsevAslan Karatsev, a qualifier, is playing in the main draw at a major for the first time and has not lost a set, even as he upset the eighth seed, Diego Schwartzman. Karatsev’s powerful, well-placed serves have been a distinct advantage, forcing his opponents onto the back foot on the fast courts at Melbourne Park.Karatsev was a promising young player in 2017, before a knee injury sidelined him. He did not play an ATP-level event for three years. After his performance in Australia, Karatsev is guaranteed to be ranked in the top 100, and we will get to see more of the Russian without his needing to struggle through qualifying rounds.In the third round, Felix Auger-Aliassime, the 20th seed, was finally able to defeat his fellow Canadian Denis Shapovalov. Auger-Aliassime reached the round of 16 in the U.S. Open before losing to Thiem and is now aiming to advance to his first Grand Slam quarterfinal.Rod laver Arena | 11 p.m. SaturdayDominic Thiem vs. Grigor DimitrovThiem, the third seed, came from two sets down against Nick Kyrgios in the third round on Friday night. Thiem won the United States Open in September and reached the final of the ATP Finals, capping his best season on tour.Dominic Thiem in his win over Nick Kyrgios.Credit…Hamish Blair/Associated PressGrigor Dimitrov, the 18th seed and the 2017 ATP Finals winner, has never reached the final of a Grand Slam tournament. He has had a relatively easy run to the round of 16, beating the 2014 U.S. Open champion, Marin Cilic, in three sets and playing only seven games in the third round before his opponent, Pablo Carreño Busta, retired with an illness.Dimitrov has won the majority of his matches against Thiem, but the two last faced each other at the 2019 Paris Masters. Though Thiem is in better form now, Dimitrov is well rested and could wear Thiem down with aggressive baseline play.Rod Laver Arena | 3 a.m. SundayIga Swiatek vs. Simona HalepSwiatek, the 15th seed, won her first Grand Slam title at the French Open in October. The 19-year-old will again meet Simona Halep, the second seed, in the round of 16. In Paris, Swiatek dismantled Halep, losing only three games as she used a variety of powerful rally balls and cleverly disguised drop shots to unsettle her opponent. It was a reversal of their meeting at the French Open in 2019, when Swiatek won just one game.Simona Halep in a socially distanced postmatch meeting at the net with Veronika Kudermetova.Credit…William West/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesHalep, a two-time major champion, was a semifinalist at last year’s Australian Open. Her aggressive baseline play is favored on hardcourts, but not by much. Swiatek’s mental toughness and consistency can allow her to stay in points much longer, even when on the back foot. Here are a few more matches to keep an eye on.Hsieh Su-wei vs. Marketa Vondrousova — 7 p.m.Aryna Sabalenka vs. Serena Williams — 9 p.m.Alexander Zverev vs. Dusan Lajovic — 2:30 a.m.Novak Djokovic vs. Milos Raonic — 5 a.m.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      2021 Australian Open: What to Watch on Thursday Night

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story2021 Australian Open: What to Watch on Thursday NightThe third round of the Australian Open gets underway, featuring Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams, Dominic Thiem and Novak Djokovic.Naomi Osaka has lost a total of just eight games through her first two matches at the Australian Open.Credit…Paul Crock/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFeb. 11, 2021, 7:07 a.m. ETHow to watch: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern on the Tennis Channel and 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. on ESPN2 in the United States; streaming on the ESPN+ and ESPN3 apps.As each singles draw dwindled to 32 players, some former major champions lost their hopes of snagging one more Grand Slam title. The 17th-seeded Stan Wawrinka lost his second-round match to Marton Fucsovics, and the eighth-seeded Bianca Andreescu fell to Hsieh Su-Wei.Although the field has shrunk, plenty of promising youngsters and past major champions remain.Here are some matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, the times for individual matchups are best estimates and certain to fluctuate based on when earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern.Rod Laver Arena | 7 p.m. ThursdayAryna Sabalenka vs. Ann LiAryna Sabalenka, the seventh seed, has equaled her best result at the Australian Open by reaching the third round. She has yet to make it to a Grand Slam quarterfinal, despite how consistently well she plays on tour. Sabalenka won three hardcourt singles titles in 2020, and started 2021 by winning the Abu Dhabi Open. Her aggressive style can help her on faster-paced courts, although on her poorer days it can create plenty of unforced errors.Aryna Sabalenka is the seventh seed.Credit…Cameron Spencer/Getty ImagesAnn Li, the world No. 69, has had a fantastic run of results in the past few weeks. Last week, she won the Grampians Trophy in Melbourne with a walkover in the final. Then, in the first round of the Australian Open, she upset the 31st seed, Zhang Shuai, while dropping only two games. Although her second-round match against Alizé Cornet required a bit more from her, Li played well, pushing through a tough second set tiebreaker in which she faced two set points. One more upset would put her in her first round of 16 at a Grand Slam event.John Cain Arena | 10 p.m. ThursdayNaomi Osaka vs. Ons JabeurNaomi Osaka, the third seed, has won a Grand Slam event in each of the past three years, all on hardcourts. The fast pace of play suits her, as she pins opponents into the back corners of the court with her flat shots. Osaka did not play in the French Open in October, citing concerns related to the pandemic. She is back into a groove at the Australian Open, dropping just eight games across her first two matches.Ons Jabeur, the 27th seed, became the first Arab woman to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal at last year’s Australian Open, losing to the eventual champion, Sofia Kenin. Jabeur’s adaptability can be very difficult for opponents to handle; she can unravel an array of opponents’ weaknesses. To beat Osaka, Jabeur will need to have a strong start and not allow her opponent to get into a rhythm.John Cain Arena | 3 a.m. FridayDominic Thiem vs. Nick KyrgiosDominic Thiem, the third seed, won the United States Open in September, supplanting Marin Cilic (2014) as the most recent first-time male Grand Slam champion.A four-time Grand Slam finalist, Thiem has slowly been chipping away at the hegemony of the so-called Big Three of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Though Thiem’s U.S. Open victory came on a hard court, that is not considered his best surface. And with the unusually quick conditions in Australia, he may struggle to return to the final, where he lost to Djokovic last year.Dominic Thiem is the third seed in men’s singles.Credit…Brandon Malone/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesNick Kyrgios, an Australian ranked 47th in the world, was often stereotyped as an uncouth punk for his perceived lack of interest in the sport of tennis. As the coronavirus pandemic shut down the ATP Tour, Kyrgios became a loud advocate for health and safety precautions, openly criticizing both his peers and legends like Boris Becker for choosing to socialize or complaining about safety measures. Now Kyrgios is playing in front of home crowds, and the fast-paced courts in Melbourne will aid his aggressive baseline style. However, after barely squeezing past the 29th seed, Ugo Humbert, in five sets, Kyrgios will be challenged to break down Thiem’s exceptional defensive play.Margaret Court Arena | 3 a.m. FridayDenis Shapovalov vs. Felix Auger-AliassimeDenis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime, the two youngest members of the Canadian delegation at the Australian Open, are both aggressive, full-court players who rely on their athleticism to get through tough matches.Shapovalov, the 11th seed, reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the U.S. Open before losing in five sets to Pablo Carreño Busta. Although Shapovalov, 21, lost both of his ATP Cup matches — a singles match against the seventh-ranked Alexander Zverev and a doubles match — they were tightly contested. After an impressive five-set win over the fellow up-and-comer Jannik Sinner, Shapovalov looks prepared to reach the second week of play.Felix Auger-Aliassime is the 20th seed.Credit…Quinn Rooney/Getty ImagesAuger-Aliassime, 20, has skated through his first two rounds, convincingly dismantling his opponents without dropping a set. The last time he faced Shapovalov on tour, he lost in straight sets in the first round of the 2019 U.S. Open. A year and a half later, this match will be a good test of whether he can usurp his close friend as the top Canadian men’s player.Here are a few more matches to keep an eye on:Serena Williams vs. Anastasia Potapova — 9 p.m.Milos Raonic vs. Marton Fucsovics — 1 a.m.Simona Halep vs. Veronika Kudermetova — 3 a.m.Novak Djokovic vs. Taylor Fritz — 5 a.m.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      At the Australian Open, Sports Flirts With Normalcy

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesSee Your Local RiskVaccine InformationCalifornia Anti-Vaccine ProtestsFans celebrate a point during Nick Kyrgios’s first round win at the Australian Open 2021.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesAt the Australian Open, Sports Flirts With NormalcyFans, noise, lines for food and booze. In a country that has the coronavirus under control, a tennis championship delivers a glimpse of what sports can one day be again.Fans celebrate a point during Nick Kyrgios’s first round win at the Australian Open 2021.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesSupported byContinue reading the main storyFeb. 8, 2021Updated 5:10 p.m. ETMELBOURNE, Australia — “It’s so good to see people.”This was Naomi Osaka, the three-time Grand Slam champion, moments after her first-round win Monday afternoon at the Australian Open. She stood at a microphone on the court at Rod Laver Arena and peered up at a crowd that seemed, if not normal, then something like it.That was how it was all across the grounds of Melbourne Park on Monday, where international sports returned, however temporarily, to something like it was before most people knew the difference between a coronavirus and the seasonal flu or used the phrase “social distancing” every third sentence.Spectators lined up for tickets. They waited in security lines and figured out if they wanted to eat burgers or stuffed pitas or fish and chips, and decided how many $13 beers they could stomach. Despite a light gray sky, a stiff breeze and temperatures in the low 60s, some lounged on the grass or on couches. The fancier people hung out in the restaurant with a champagne sponsor.Spectators, some wearing masks and some not, watched Nick Kyrgios practice ahead of his match.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesIt could only safely occur now because the Grand Slam tennis season happens to start in a country that has arguably controlled Covid-19 better than anywhere else, thanks to months of enforced lockdowns, closed borders, thorough testing and contact tracing. Just 909 people in Australia, which has a population of more than 25 million, have died of Covid-19. The country has averaged a half-dozen cases a day during the past two weeks, nearly all of them international arrivals.Photographers lined the show courts that featured the stars, producing a clatter of clicks at choice moments. A video camera operator wandered the stands, capturing fans that wanted to dance and wave on the stadium screens. Music blasted anda stadium M.C. encouraged them to act goofy during breaks in the action.And then there were the roars, missing since games sputtered back to life inside largely empty stadiums, especially when a winner or perfectly played volley came off the racket of an Australian player or one of the stars. There were plenty of both on the courts on Monday — both Williams sisters, Osaka, Novak Djokovic and the local favorite Nick Kyrgios.The smaller the venue, the grander the roar, like on Court 3, a cozy jewel box court where John Millman of Australia played in front of a half-sized crowd of roughly 1,500 fans.“That’s one of the biggest motivations that we have, the source where we draw our energy and strength and motivation,” Djokovic, the world No. 1, said in anticipation of the noisy welcome he received at Rod Laver, on the court where he has won this championship eight times. “Especially at my age and stage of my career, I’m looking to feed off that energy from the crowd.”Dorn Cooper, 73, and Bev Brown, 71, have been friends for 50 years and have come to the tennis for 45. They say they have enjoyed the quiet of this year’s event with smaller crowds.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesTwo Australian tennis fans, Karen Outram, 62, and Glenys Bryce, 63, proudly displaying their country’s colors.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesThe players had to endure varying degrees of quarantines for two weeks after they arrived, and 72 of them were forced to remain inside their hotel rooms for 14 days after 10 people on three chartered flights tested positive upon arrival. Then they were set free, and after a week of preparation, Monday delivered its payoff.“Definitely nice to have some people, a lot of people out there,” said Serena Williams, the 23-time Grand Slam champion, after she tore through Laura Siegemund of Germany, 6-1, 6-1.With spectators capped at 30,000 per day, about half that would show up in normal times, Day 1 at Melbourne Park was a far cry from the summer festival that this tournament is supposed to be. Just 17,922 fans showed up, with plenty of tickets going unsold for any number of reasons — weather, a rejiggered schedule that pushed the tournament back three weeks, Aussie kids no longer on summer break, anger that tennis players, tournament officials and international media members got special exemptions to enter the country and brought in new cases of Covid-19.The roar of the crowd has returned with fans celebrating a point during Nick Kyrgios’s match.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesThe fans who attend will find differences from previous tournaments.There were Q.R. codes at each gate with spectators expected to register their seats to allow for contact tracing if someone in their section tests positive.The Coronavirus Outbreak More

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      Australian Open Preview: Battle of the Women’s Champions

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyAustralian Open Preview: Battle of the Women’s ChampionsSerena Williams will once again go for her 24th Grand Slam title. Among her competition: three women who won titles in their most recent Grand Slam appearances.Serena Williams is still on the hunt for her 24th Grand Slam singles title. She won her 23rd at the Australian Open in 2017.Credit…Loren Elliott/ReutersFeb. 7, 2021, 3:00 a.m. ETTennis has returned to Melbourne, the site of the last Grand Slam event before the coronavirus pandemic, finding itself both profoundly changed since the last Australian Open and yet eminently recognizable. The top men are still dominating, Serena Williams is still seeking a 24th Grand Slam title, and a growing cast of talented young champions is vying for a sturdy foothold atop the ever-undulating women’s tennis ladder.Here are the biggest stories of the Australian Open, which begins Monday.Serena Williams Is Still in the ChaseAfter winning her Open era-record 23rd Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open four years ago, Williams has returned to Melbourne for an 11th attempt at adding one more to her lofty haul.Since returning from maternity leave in 2018, Williams has repeatedly put herself in position to contend for an elusive 24th singles title, having reached four Grand Slam finals and a semifinal but come up just short each time. Williams looked sharp in her three matches at a warm-up event in Melbourne last week, reaching the semifinals on the strength of strong all-court play with particular acuity in her serve, which was reaching speeds upward of 120 miles per hour. That semifinal would have been a blockbuster against top-ranked Ashleigh Barty, but Williams withdrew well before it would have begun, citing a shoulder problem (and most likely not relishing such a high-caliber throwdown just two days before a Grand Slam).A video from Architectural Digest of Williams nonchalantly giving a tour of her trophy room went viral last week but did not do justice to the hunger Williams has maintained, in a career that has already had so much, to keep working for more. Courtney Nguyen, a senior writer for WTA Insider, drew laughter when she told Williams that “the way we look for a fork in a drawer is the way you look at your trophies.”Margaret Court, whose overall record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles includes many won during the amateur era, is again proving polarizing in Australia after an honor from the government once again shined a spotlight on her history of bigoted remarks. As Williams reaches as close to underdog status as she might ever allow herself to get, public sentiment toward Williams in her quest to equal and surpass Court’s record might never be higher.Young Champions Lead the Women’s SideIn a testament to the depth of women’s tennis — and the lack of any player who has emerged as a consistently dominant presence — there are four women in the Australian Open draw who won their most recent matches at Grand Slams. One is Williams, who withdrew from the French Open in September after winning her first-round match. The other three women all won titles in their most recent Grand Slam appearances, solidifying themselves as emerging stars: Iga Swiatek, 19, last year’s French Open champion; Naomi Osaka, 23, last year’s United States Open champion; and the 2019 U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu, 20.Add to that mix the top-ranked Barty, 24, and the defending Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, 22, and it becomes clearer still that women’s tennis is spoiled for possibilities for a potential standard-bearer for women’s tennis at Grand Slams.Andreescu, who has not played since the fall of 2019 after a knee injury, is the most enigmatic of the bunch. She overwhelmed all comers while healthy that season, winning the U.S. Open, Indian Wells and the Rogers Cup in Toronto, but she was not healthy enough to vie for almost any other title. Her return to the tour has been full of stops and starts, but she has said she feels “ready to go” in the Australian Open.Andreescu said that watching her matches from 2019 had helped her get “into the mood, into the mind-set.”“I felt the same things like I did in 2019, which I think really helps me just get in character,” Andreescu said on Friday. “It really inspired me, too, just watching myself play again. I don’t normally like to do that, but I think it was good for me since I haven’t played for so long. Hopefully that can help me bounce back on the court quicker.”The Men Can Run Up the ScoreRafael Nadal has a chance to beat Roger Federer’s record of 20 Grand Slam singles titles — without having to beat Federer, who is not competing at the Australian Open.Credit…Loren Elliott/ReutersWhile the women have vanloads of trophy-bearing contenders in Melbourne, just who will leave with the men’s title in two weeks doesn’t seem as open a question.Top-ranked Novak Djokovic, who has won the tournament a men’s record eight times, is consistently at his best in Melbourne. Second-ranked Rafael Nadal, who thrashed Djokovic in October’s French Open final, equaling Roger Federer’s total of 20 Grand Slam titles, has consistently been one of the most opportunistic competitors in the sport. He might pounce on his long-awaited first chance to surpass Federer’s mark. (Federer, who has not competed since an injury at last year’s Australian Open, is entered in a March ATP event in Doha, Qatar.)The sole interruption to the Big 3’s hegemony in the last four seasons came last year when Djokovic, the lone member of the trio to compete at the U.S. Open, got himself defaulted from his fourth-round match by unintentionally hitting a ball into a lineswoman’s throat. His absence cleared a path for Dominic Thiem to win his first Grand Slam final on his fourth attempt. The third-ranked Thiem, and fourth-ranked Daniil Medvedev, are finding success at smaller events, but they haven’t yet shown an ability to beat Nadal or Djokovic — or, more likely, both — to steal a Grand Slam title.Pandemic Uncertainty LingersLast year’s Australian Open was largely overshadowed by the wildfires burning across the country, occasionally in a literal sense as smoke hung in the air over Melbourne.This time, the haze over the tournament and the sport is far more existential. Australia has been among the most successful countries in combating the coronavirus pandemic, with fewer than 1,000 people having died of the illness in a population of over 25 million, because of strict lockdowns and collaborative measures.The decision to stage an international tennis event — and to afford arriving players some exemptions from the strict 14-day hotel quarantine that others international travelers entering the country have endured — has proved divisive. Despite affordable tickets, attendance at the warm-up events at Melbourne Park last week was meager, and a positive test from a worker in the hotel quarantine program announced midweek did little to draw locals. And with the difficulties around both domestic and international travel, the crowds are going to be almost entirely local this year.Even if the Australian Open goes smoothly and is completed without any further coronavirus scares, the sport will leave Melbourne with an unclear outlook. Indian Wells, the major tournament in the California desert each March, has already postponed this year’s edition.To get back to anything resembling normal, the professional tennis tours will require both reliably easy international travel and crowds who are able and eager to attend large public events. As long as the trip to Australia has always been, those destinations feel even farther away right now.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Ashleigh Barty Seeded First in Australian Open Draw

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyAshleigh Barty, Back on the Court, Is Top Seeded at HomeBut Naomi Osaka could face a tough path in the women’s draw at the Australian Open.Ashleigh Barty in a doubles match at the Yarra Valley Classic on Friday.Credit…Jonathan Dimaggio/Getty ImagesFeb. 5, 2021Updated 1:02 p.m. ETTop-ranked Ashleigh Barty once more sits atop the Australian Open women’s singles draw that was made Friday afternoon in Melbourne, and gives her country its best chance to win its home Grand Slam.Barty has held the No. 1 ranking without interruption since September 2019. But that streak, made possible by the WTA Tour keeping 2019 ranking points intact during a season of upheaval, does not quite reveal the reality of her last 12 months.Before this week, Barty had not played a tour match in nearly a year. At last year’s Australian Open, she was seeded No. 1 and lost in a semifinal to the eventual champion, Sofia Kenin. Then, when the coronavirus pandemic disrupted sports, she stayed home in Queensland and remained there even as some tournaments were held in other parts of the world.Barty has looked strong in a warm-up tournament this week at Melbourne Park, reaching the final of the Yarra Valley Classic after a withdrawal from Serena Williams. Still, it is yet to be seen how she will perform during the Grand Slam tournament, which is scheduled to begin Monday, given her limited match preparation.Barty’s path in the women’s singles draw is largely favorable. She opens against 77th-ranked Danka Kovinic. Should Barty reach the semifinals, she could get a rematch against Kenin, who is seeded fourth this year. Kenin, who also reached the finals of the French Open in October, has said she is uneasy about defending a Grand Slam title for the first time.“Obviously very nervous, but I’m going to do my best and we’re going to see how it goes,” Kenin said this week.Kenin received a seemingly comfortable opening match against the 130th-ranked wild-card Maddison Inglis, but could face trouble in the second round, where she would have to face frequent giant-killer Kaia Kanepi or the 2018 U.S. Open semifinalist Anastasija Sevastova.The 2019 Australian Open champion, Naomi Osaka, sits in the bottom half of the draw seeded third, where she landed one of the most brutal opening challenges: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, a talented Russian veteran who has reached the quarterfinals each of the last two years in Melbourne.Osaka, who ended last season on an 11-match winning streak after winning the U.S. Open, faces a potentially loaded path to the semifinals after Pavlyuchenkova, including 27th-seeded Ons Jabeur; last year’s runner-up, Garbiñe Muguruza; 2016 champion Angelique Kerber; the 2019 runner-up, Petra Kvitova; the seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams, and eighth-seeded Bianca Andreescu, who is playing in her first Grand Slam event since winning the 2019 U.S. Open.Tenth-seeded Serena Williams, who is seeking her 24th Grand Slam title, could await whoever advances from Osaka’s quarter of the draw. Williams opens against the combative Laura Siegemund, but her toughest test might come from the enigmatic player who looms in the fourth round: seventh-seeded Aryna Sabalenka. Despite the pandemic-decimated schedule, Sabalenka has won four WTA titles in the last 12 months, including the final two tournaments of last season and the first of this year. But Sabalenka has not played well at Grand Slam events, only once advancing to even the fourth round in 12 main draw appearances.Whoever advances from Williams’s and Sabalenka’s section very likely has a tough battle on her hands in the quarterfinals as well, with both second-seeded Simona Halep and 15th-seeded Iga Swiatek looming. Swiatek won the French Open in October.On the men’s side of the tournament, the already dim hopes among American players got even dimmer after the draw.With the highest-ranked American man, John Isner, choosing to stay home, 27th-seeded Taylor Fritz is the lone seed from the United States in men’s singles. He could face the next-highest ranked American man, his friend Reilly Opelka, in the second round. But whoever comes out of that part of the draw would most likely run into the buzz saw of Novak Djokovic in the third round.The top-seeded Djokovic, who has won eight Australian Open titles including the last two, opens his tournament against the Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, and could face another young American, 2019 quarterfinalist Frances Tiafoe, in the second round.One of Djokovic’s toughest potential tests looms in the fourth round, where he could face the 17th-seeded Stan Wawrinka. Wawrinka is one of only three players to have beaten Djokovic in Melbourne in the last 10 years. He did so in the 2014 quarterfinals en route to winning his first Grand Slam title.Djokovic could face third-seeded Dominic Thiem in the semifinals in what would be a rematch of last year’s final. Second-seeded Rafael Nadal, in his first try at breaking the Grand Slam men’s singles titles record after tying the absent Roger Federer at last year’s French Open, opens his tournament against the 56th-ranked Serbian player, Laslo Djere.Two of Nadal’s most intriguing possible early opponents play each other in the first round: 21st-seeded Alex de Minaur, who is the highest-ranked Australian man, and Tennys Sandgren, the Tennessean who had seven match points against Federer in last year’s quarterfinals but could not convert any of them.Nadal could face the fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev, who is on a 12-match win streak after winning the ATP Finals and Paris Indoors Masters last fall, in the semifinals.The draws on Friday were delayed one day because of problems with the coronavirus. A quarantine worker at one of the hotels where players were staying tested positive, prompting tournament officials to halt activities on Thursday. Instead of a splashy, prime-time ceremony to reveal the first-round pairings, the draws were done in a back room and streamed online.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More