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    Why Coaching From the Stands in Tennis Can Feel Like ‘Cheating’

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    In-match coaching has always happened on the sly, but this year is the first time the Australian Open has allowed players to be coached from the stands.MELBOURNE, Australia — It has been an Australian Open full of progress and positive energy for Dean Goldfine, the traveling coach of the fast-rising American Ben Shelton, a surprise quarterfinalist in his first trip abroad.But Goldfine has also felt pangs of guilt. This is the first Australian Open, and only the second Grand Slam tournament, in which coaches have been allowed to communicate with players during matches from the stands, and that has made him uncomfortable.“Sometimes when I’m out there, when it’s happening, when I’m saying stuff, it’s like I want to look around and over my shoulder, because I feel like I’m cheating,” he said last week.Goldfine, 57, has been coaching on tour for more than 30 years. But in-match coaching had until recently been banned at all men’s tournaments, and at all four major tournaments for both women and men.The game is now in the midst of a quiet revolution. The women’s tour, outside of the Grand Slams, has allowed various forms of in-match coaching since 2008, and the men’s tour began allowing it last July from the stands for a trial period that included the 2022 U.S. Open, which was the first Grand Slam tournament to permit the practice.The Australian Open has followed that lead, and the other two major tournaments — the French Open and Wimbledon — are set to take part in the trial this year.Wimbledon’s leadership has long been the most vehement opponent of in-match coaching. Richard Lewis, the former chief executive of the All England Club, which runs the event, argued for the virtues of a “gladiatorial” contest in which players were required to problem-solve under pressure on their own.That remains an appealing concept to many players, spectators and even some coaches.“I’m against the coaching,” Goldfine said. “Just because for me that’s one of the unique things about our sport. It just takes away a big part of our game, which is the player out there, dealing with what’s going on and understanding it and being able to make adjustments and being able to deal with their emotions also.”Goldfine brought up Goran Ivanisevic, the mercurial Croatian star with the huge serve who did finally win Wimbledon in 2001 but had long struggled to bear down, block out distractions and play his best in big moments.“Imagine if Goran would have had someone that really could get him to calm down during matches,” Goldfine said.The 2023 Australian OpenThe year’s first Grand Slam event runs from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 in Melbourne.Rod Laver Likes What He Sees: At 84 years old, the man with his name on the stadium sits courtside at the Australian Open.India’s Superstar: Sania Mirza, who leaves tennis as a sleeping giant, has been a trailblazer nonetheless. “I would like to have a quieter life,” she said after the mixed doubles final.Behind the Scenes: A coterie of billionaires, deep-pocketed companies and star players has engaged for months in a high-stakes battle to lead what they view as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to disrupt the sport.Endless Games: As matches stretch into the early-morning hours, players have grown concerned for their health and performance.The rule has been a point of difference for tennis, which has been the rare major sport to forbid coaching during play (consider all those soccer and basketball coaches hollering instructions and all those caddies chattering in golfers’ ears).But the tide appears to have turned in earnest. Roger Federer, the Swiss superstar long opposed to the concept, has retired. Wimbledon has new leadership and has joined the experiment, which is feeling less and less like a trial and more and more like policy.Stefano Vukov, Elena Rybakina’s coach, shouted from the player’s box during her women’s singles semifinal match against Victoria Azarenka.Martin Keep/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe main arguments in favor are that the interaction between coaches and players provides entertainment value, improves the quality of play and reflects the pro game’s shift to more of a team concept. Singles stars are relying on larger staffs, including physiotherapists, trainers, performance psychologists and, in the case of Rafael Nadal, sometimes as many as three coaches.Perhaps the most crucial argument is that allowing in-match coaching eliminates hypocrisy, because many coaches were already breaking the no-coaching rule on the sly.“I was at different times doing it, and I’m sure everyone’s done it at some stage,” said Nicole Pratt, a retired Australian player who is now a leading coach. “I guess probably being English-speaking and because most of the umpires understood English, I felt like that was somewhat a disadvantage sometimes. So now it’s an even, level playing field, and to be honest, I love it. Because I do think it can be influential on a match, the information a player is given, although not always.”In the past, in-match coaching has often been delivered illegally through code words or hand signals, like the one used by Serena Williams’s coach Patrick Mouratoglou during the uproarious 2018 U.S. Open final against Naomi Osaka that led to Williams being penalized by the chair umpire. Williams argued that she was not being coached during play and did not “cheat to win.”The language barrier has not always been protective. Stefanos Tsitsipas, the Greek star who will face Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final on Sunday, has long supported in-match coaching and has received numerous code violations for being coached by his father, Apostolos. Tournament officials have sometimes deployed Greek-speaking personnel to sit close to his father in the player’s box.Tsitsipas is delighted to see an end to the fines, at least for now. But above all, he is content to see the player-coach dialogue officially integrated into matches.“In my case, it has always been part of how I do things when I’m on the court,” Tsitsipas said on Friday. “I’m glad it’s not penalized now. That’s how it should be. I see no reason to have a coach with you if they can’t share some of their view and knowledge with you when you’re competing. I feel like it’s something very natural in our sport.”But in-match coaching is not necessarily a leveler. Top players can, in general, afford top coaches. Those lower down in the food chain usually cannot.“I worry about richer players getting richer,” said Jim Courier, the former No. 1 player who won the Australian Open twice. “I think about players who come down and play qualifying and cannot even travel with a coach and get in and go up against someone with four coaches.”Perhaps a data analyst would be a good hire at this stage. Many players now make use of analytics for scouting, paying for private services or using those provided by a national federation, like the United States Tennis Association. But for the coaching trial, the Australian Open is providing access to detailed in-match data, which is available on tablets in the player’s boxes at Rod Laver Arena and elsewhere on coaches’ smartphones or other devices.The data is compiled from information provided by Hawk-Eye Live, the electronic line-calling system, and tracks seemingly everything: players’ serve locations on routine points and pressure points; their ball-contact locations on the stroke following the serve; the percentage of balls they are hitting on the rise.“We knew we were going to have in-match coaching, which is great, but the question was how can we provide some support in an intuitive way,” said Machar Reid, the head of innovation at Tennis Australia.Stefanos Tsitsipas’s coaches — Mark Philippoussis, center, and his father, Apostolos Tsitsipas, right — watching his second-round match.Hannah Mckay/ReutersIt is quite a package and, for now, provides data only from matches in progress, not from an opponent’s prior matches. “This is all about in-match, and not so it can be used from a scouting point of view,” Reid said.Goldfine said the Tennis Australia package was “a lot to process” in real time, but he did pick out some data points to share with Shelton, a left-hander, during his quarterfinal defeat to Tommy Paul, a fellow American.“I did watch some of Tommy’s matches on Tennis TV, and in a couple of the lefty matches I watched, he served a fair amount of second serves to the forehand,” Goldfine said. “But against Ben, I noticed it was pretty much all backhand on the second serve. So that was one thing I did look at on the screen was serve locations, because for me, that’s big. So, I told Ben about halfway through the second set to sit on the backhand.”Goldfine offered much more advice to Shelton based on his own observations and instincts. The rules for the coaching trial allow for “a few words and/or short phrases,” but “no conversations are permitted.”How exactly do you define a conversation?“It’s a little ridiculous, just from that standpoint,” Goldfine said. “Just a big gray area.”What was clear to Goldfine and Shelton was that the coaching helped, perhaps all the more because Shelton, 20, is an inexperienced professional fresh out of college tennis, where in-match coaching is always permitted.“It’s been huge for Ben,” Goldfine said.It also provided entertainment when Paul, befuddled by Shelton’s big serve, turned to his coach, Brad Stine, to ask him which way Shelton might serve on the next point. Stine made a T with his fingers to indicate down the middle. Shelton, who had noticed their interaction, served wide instead, and everyone ended up grinning.The surprise is that the coaching trial has not changed the flow of the game much for spectators. It has provided some unsettling viewing — such as Elena Rybakina’s emotive coach Stefano Vukov admonishing her during matches — but it has generally gone unnoticed.The question remains whether in-match coaching provides enough payoff to justify changing a fundamental aspect of an individual sport. For now, tennis is leaning heavily toward the affirmative.“What I’m afraid of is that these young players will become dependent on their coaches,” Goldfine said. “And coaching for me is teaching, but having Ben experience it so he learns for himself, so he’s able to do these things on his own and figure things out. The last thing I want is my player to be dependent on me.” More

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      Djokovic Is Back in the Australian Open Final

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      Djokovic will play for his 22nd Grand Slam title on Sunday against Stefanos Tsitsipas. Will his father, Srdjan, be in his usual seat in the stands to cheer him on?MELBOURNE, Australia — For Novak Djokovic, everything was going according to plan. Even better than that, by many measures.He had charmed a country that had kicked him out a year ago over his refusal to be vaccinated. The soreness in his hamstring at the beginning of the tournament had all but disappeared, allowing him to look nearly invincible in the crucial second week of the tournament. He appeared on a glide pattern to yet another Australian Open men’s singles title and the 22nd Grand Slam title of his career.And then his father, Srdjan Djokovic troubled the waters.Djokovic, Serbia’s favorite son and most famous citizen, will play for his 10th Australian Open championship on Sunday against Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, but the glide pattern is officially over. He defeated Tommy Paul in straight sets Friday, 7-5, 6-1, 6-2, in front of a hostile crowd that notably did not include his father, who has been at all his other matches during this tournament.Srdjan Djokovic on Thursday appeared in a video with fans outside Rod Laver Arena, some of whom were holding Russian flags, and next to a man wearing a shirt with the “Z” symbol that is viewed as support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite the tournament’s ban on Russian and Belarusian flags.Serbia has close political and cultural ties to Russia, and support for the Russian invasion is significant there, unlike in most of the rest of Europe. The incident made headlines worldwide, sparking the ire of Ukraine’s government and sending both the tournament and Djokovic’s team scrambling to control the damage.Early Friday, Srdjan Djokovic released a statement saying he had been celebrating with his son’s fans on Wednesday night and did not mean to cause an international incident. “My family has lived through the horror of war, and we wish only for peace,” the statement said. “So there is no disruption to tonight’s semifinal for my son or for the other player, I have chosen to watch from home.”The 2023 Australian OpenThe year’s first Grand Slam event runs from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 in Melbourne.Coaching That Feels Like ‘Cheating’: In-match coaching has always happened on the sly, but this year is the first time the Australian Open has allowed players to be coached from the stands.Rod Laver Likes What He Sees: At 84 years old, the man with his name on the stadium sits courtside at the Australian Open.India’s Superstar: Sania Mirza, who leaves tennis as a sleeping giant, has been a trailblazer nonetheless. “I would like to have a quieter life,” she said.Behind the Scenes: A coterie of billionaires, deep-pocketed companies and star players has engaged for months in a high-stakes battle to lead what they view as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to disrupt the sport.Hours later, Tennis Australia, which had been criticized for not acting more swiftly to snuff out demonstrations that might incite violence, released its own statement, saying that it had worked with police to remove the demonstrators and spoken with players and their teams about the importance of not engaging in any activity that causes distress or disruption. The organization noted Srdjan Djokovic’s decision not to attend the match.“Tennis Australia stands with the call for peace and an end to war and violent conflict in Ukraine,” the statement said.After the match, Djokovic said his father’s actions had been misinterpreted, that he had no intention of offering support to Russia and the war.“We are against the war, we never will support any violence or any war,” he said. “We know how devastating that is for the family, for people in any country that is going through the war.”He said he and his father decided together that it would be best for him not to attend the semifinal but he hoped he would be there watching him in the final on Sunday.“It wasn’t pleasant not to have him in the box,” he said.Only Djokovic knows how the incident affected his play, but he was erratic early against Paul, the first-time Grand Slam semifinalist from the United States. Djokovic jumped out to an early 5-1 lead, but after he complained to the chair umpire about a fan who was harassing him he fell into a temporary funk. He dropped the next four games as the crowd rallied behind the American underdog and taunted the defending champion. Boos echoed through the stadium after Djokovic steadied himself to win the first set, 7-5.Djokovic responded by putting his hand to his ear and waving his hands as if to say, “bring it on,” which spurred the clumps of Serbian fans who attend Djokovic’s matches no matter where in the world he is playing to drown out the howls.Tsitsipas lost to Djokovic in the 2021 French Open finals after surrendering a two-set lead.Fazry Ismail/EPA, via ShutterstockThe atmosphere is likely to be even more spirited on Sunday against Tsitsipas, who is a local favorite because of Australia’s significant Greek population, among the largest in the world outside of Greece and the United States. It will be a rematch of the French Open final in 2021. There, Djokovic came back from two sets down to win his second French Open singles title.Tsitsipas has struggled to recover from that loss but has been playing arguably his best tennis since then at this tournament. Whoever wins will be the world’s top-ranked player.On Friday, he beat Karen Khachanov of Russia in four sets, 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3. At 4-4 in the second set, Tsitsipas turned a tight match, scrambling for a series of overheads and winning the 22-shot rally with a rolling forehand winner to break Khachanov’s serve, then clinched the set in the next game. Despite wobbling in the third set with the finish line in sight, Tsitsipas came out strong in the fourth set and cruised into his second Grand Slam final, a test he said he has never been more ready for, especially with the Greek-Australian Mark Philippoussis helping his father coach.“I just see no downside or negativity in what I’m trying to do out there,” he said after beating Khachanov. “Even if it doesn’t work, I’m very optimistic and positive about any outcome, any opponent that I have to face. This is something that has been sort of lacking in my game.”Djokovic has not struggled with internal negativity in years, with good reason. He has won four of the last six Grand Slams he has played and is often most dangerous when facing adversity. The negativity he has had to deal with is external, whether it’s criticism for his refusal to be vaccinated against Covid-19, or his requests that fans who try to disrupt him be removed from his matches, which has happened several times during this tournament.“It’s not pleasant for me to go through this with all the things that I had to deal with last year and this year in Australia,” he said. “It’s not something that I want or need.”There may be plenty of criticism at Sunday’s final. Chances are, Djokovic will be ready for it. More

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      An Australian Open Final With Tennis and Debate on the Ukraine War

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      Nearly a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, a Russian-turned-Kazakh will play a Belarusian in the finals, which is sure to stir the debate over whether athletes from those countries should participate in international sports.MELBOURNE, Australia — In the two women’s semifinal matches at the Australian Open on Thursday night, geopolitics won in straight sets.For nearly a year, professional tennis — the most international of sports with its globe-trotting schedule and players from all over the world — has tried to balance its stated opposition to the Russian president Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine with its hopes that its competitions rise above the quagmire of international politics.It is not going well. Geopolitics has been everywhere at the Australian Open and will be on center stage in the women’s final.It has been 11 months since the sport banned Russia and Belarus from participating in team events at tournaments, as well as any symbol that identified those countries. It’s been nine months since Wimbledon prohibited players representing Russia and Belarus from competing, and it’s unclear whether they will be able to play this year. Players from Ukraine have lobbied to have them barred from all events instead of simply not being allowed to play under their flags or for their countries.That has not happened, and on Saturday Elena Rybakina, a native Russian who became a citizen of Kazakhstan five years ago in exchange for financial support, and Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus will meet for the women’s singles title.Both Rybakina and Sabalenka, who blast serves and pummel opponents into submission, played tight first sets, then ran away with their matches.Rybakina beat Victoria Azarenka, another Belarusian, 7-6 (4), 6-3, while Sabalenka topped Magda Linette of Poland, 7-6 (1), 6-2. Conditions at this tournament — warm weather, balls the players say are tough to spin — have favored the big flat hitters since the first round, making the final showdown between Rybakina and Sabalenka almost inevitable.The 2023 Australian OpenThe year’s first Grand Slam event runs from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 in Melbourne.No Spotlight, No Problem: In tennis, there is a long history of success and exposure crushing champions or sucking the joy out of them. In this Australian Open, players under the radar have gone far.Victoria Azarenka’s ‘Little Steps’: The Belarusian player took a more process-oriented approach than in the past. The outcomes were strong.Behind the Scenes: A coterie of billionaires, deep-pocketed companies and star players has engaged for months in a high-stakes battle to lead what they view as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to disrupt the sport.Endless Games: As matches stretch into the early-morning hours, players have grown concerned for their health and performance.The matchup is sure to rekindle the debate over Russian and Belarusian participation in sports, a discussion that has become increasingly heated in recent days, both at this tournament and throughout the world. Rybakina’s and Sabalenka’s victories occurred hours after videos surfaced of Novak Djokovic’s father, Srdjan, posing with fans who waved a Russian flag and wore the pro-war “Z” logo and voicing his support of Russia, against tournament rules. Serbia and Russia have close historical and cultural ties.Another video raised the ire of Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia and New Zealand, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, who wrote on Twitter, “It’s a full package. Among the Serbian flags, there is: a Russian flag, Putin, Z-symbol, so-called Donetsk People’s Republic flag.”Last week, Tennis Australia, organizers of the Australian Open, prohibited fans from exhibiting any form of the Russian or Belarusian flags or other symbols that supported Russia’s war in Ukraine.On Thursday, Tennis Australia said four people waving the banned flags had been detained and questioned by the police for both revealing the “inappropriate flags” and threatening security guards.Djokovic, the nine-time Australian Open champion, plays in the semifinals Friday against Tommy Paul of the United States.On Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee made clear that it was intent on having athletes from Russia and Belarus at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. The move went against the stated wishes of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who lobbied President Emmanuel Macron of France on the issue earlier this week.The I.O.C. last year recommended that sports federations not allow athletes from those countries to compete, a move it said protected Olympic sports from having the national governments in countries hosting competitions from inserting their politics into sports. Most international sports federations have followed that recommendation, but a few have recently relaxed their stances.In a statement Wednesday, the organization said, “No athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport.” The I.O.C. said it planned to pursue “a pathway for athletes’ participation in competition under strict conditions.” If it follows recent precedent, that will most likely involve requiring Russians and Belarusians to compete either under a neutral flag or no flag at all and in uniforms without their national colors.Russian and Belarusian athletes could also compete in the Asian Games later this year, which will serve as an Olympic qualifier.The geopolitical strife at the Australian Open hasn’t even been limited to the war in Ukraine. Karen Khachanov of Russia, who faces Stefanos Tsitsipas in a semifinal Friday, has been writing messages of support to the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. The area is a long-disputed enclave that is home to tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians within Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized borders, where a full-scale war was fought in 2020. Since December, Azerbaijani activists have blocked a main supply route for Nagorno-Karabakh, causing a growing humanitarian crisis.Karen Khachanov of Russia, who faces Stefanos Tsitsipas in a semifinal Friday, has been writing messages of support to the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.Ng Han Guan/Associated PressKhachanov, who is of Armenian descent and has spent extensive time in the country, said Wednesday he “just wanted to show strength and support to my people.”Khachanov’s messages prompted officials in Azerbaijan to write to the International Tennis Federation demanding it punish Khachanov. His messages do not violate any tournament or federation rules. He said Wednesday no one had told him to stop writing them.All this has put tennis back where it was last summer at Wimbledon. The tournament, along with the Lawn Tennis Association, prohibited players from participating in the sport’s most prestigious event and the lead-up tournaments in Britain.The men’s and women’s tours responded by refusing to award rankings points, an attempt to essentially turn Wimbledon into an exhibition. All the Grand Slams are supposed to abide by the sport’s rules prohibiting discrimination, but not awarding points for wins at Wimbledon also turned the tour’s rankings into something of a farce.Rybakina, a Russian through her childhood who became a citizen of Kazakhstan at 18 when the country promised to pay for her tennis training, spent the better part of two weeks talking about whether she was actually Kazakh or Russian and being asked to answer for her native country’s invasion as she stampeded to the title. Her family still lives in Russia.She has mostly not had to answer any political questions here. The actual Russians and Belarusians received those, allowing Rybakina to focus on tennis.“I think at Wimbledon I answered all the questions,” she said. “There is nothing to say anymore.”Sabalenka and the other players from Belarus and Russia have not had that luxury. They know how the world and many of their competitors have viewed them and their countries.“I just understand that it’s not my fault,” she said. “I have zero control. If I could do something, of course I would do it, but I cannot do anything.”The political currents show no sign of letting up. Wimbledon and the Lawn Tennis Association are discussing whether to let the players from Belarus and Russia participate this year. A decision is expected in the coming weeks. Wimbledon was the only Grand Slam to prohibit them from participating.Djokovic, the defending Wimbledon champion and seven-time winner of the championship, has been strategizing with his fledgling players’ organization, the Professional Tennis Players Association, to get the ban lifted.Russian players are desperate to get back to the All England Club.“The last information that I heard was, like, maybe one week ago that the announcement will be in couple of weeks,” Andrey Rublev said after Djokovic beat him in their quarterfinal Wednesday. “We’re all waiting. Hopefully we’ll be able to play. I would love to play. Wimbledon is one of the best tournaments in our sport.” More

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

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

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      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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      Audio Technology Helps Blind People Follow Australian Open Tennis

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      At the Australian Open tennis tournament, new technology is translating the movement of the ball into sounds to help blind and low-vision fans follow the action.Listen to This ArticleThere’s a new way for sports fans to follow tennis. Hear it here.To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.Rapid, echoing pops go off in Michael Marshall’s ears when he listens to an Australian Open tennis match, followed closely by high- and low-pitched clinks. Three pops on the left signal that the ball landed close to the line; a low-pitched clink means that the player returned it with a backhand stroke.Without context, these noises might sound like arcade sound effects or some new version of Morse code — but each one is a message meant to help people who are blind or have limited vision follow the game. A new technology, called Action Audio, is being tested on a large scale for the first time at this year’s Australian Open, where every match in the Rod Laver Arena is available on a livestream with this accessibility feature.Marshall, 35, of Melbourne, is an avid tennis fan who listens to the tournament on the radio every year. He said Action Audio had added a layer to his experience, allowing him to more clearly track the ball during a point.“Everything is like, oh, yes, this is the final piece that I’m missing,” Marshall said. He later added, “It gives you those cues that you never really had before.”He and other blind sports fans often listen to radio descriptions of games instead of watching them on TV. But with serves flying at over 100 miles an hour and groundstrokes routinely exceeding 80, even the most descriptive radio announcer can’t talk fast enough to capture every nuance of the action on a tennis court. Details like how close the ball landed to a line, how fast it traveled and what direction it moved are not always described, according to Machar Reid, head of innovation at Tennis Australia.“They might do it on one shot, but it’s hard to do on every single shot on the rally,” he said of radio announcers.Tennis Australia partnered with Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and the digital design and communications agency AKQA to develop Action Audio in 2019. Reid said that tennis was the ideal sport to begin with because of its existing ball-tracking technology. In general, a fully equipped tennis court has 10 or 12 cameras collecting data around 50 times a second. That data is typically used to make quick calls about whether a shot landed in or out of play.Action Audio’s technology converts the data into 3-D sound — a process that takes less than a second — allowing it to be broadcast alongside live radio commentary.Chatai Goncu, a data scientist, operated a MIDI controller pad to make audio adjustments for Action Audio.Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesThe sounds include one, two or three blips to indicate how close the ball is to the sideline or baseline. If the ball is close to the line, three blips will go off. If the ball lands farther inside the line, two blips sound. One blip means the ball was hit toward the middle of the court.The sounds come through the left speaker if the ball was played to that side of the court, and through the right speaker if it landed on the right.As the ball moves around, it jingles and rattles. The sound is loudest when the player strikes the ball, and it fades away gradually as the ball travels. High-pitched clinks indicate a forehand, while low-pitched clinks indicate a backhand.In the future, Reid would love to integrate Action Audio into TV broadcasts and develop it for other sports that use optical tracking systems, such as baseball, he said.One challenge in developing sport soundscapes is determining how many actions can be captured and translated to sound before the audio becomes overwhelming or distracting, according to Tim Devine, the executive innovation director at AKQA.“Do you want to know where the ball is, or do you want to follow a player?” he asked.To figure it out, AKQA and Tennis Australia reached out to fans to ask what they found most interesting about tennis and then surveyed blind people to see which sounds worked best. Developers tried to use sounds that were already familiar to users, such as the jingling rattle of the bell ball used in blind tennis, Reid said.The developers are also collecting feedback from people who tune into this year’s Action Audio livestream, which has drawn listeners from about 70 countries.Umpires observed a match at the Australian Open. Data from cameras around the court is translated into the sound that Action Audio broadcasts.Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesKarl Belanger, an accessibility analyst for the National Federation of the Blind in the United States, is among those listeners. He was listening to the audio stream provided by Tennis Australia last week when he heard an advertisement for Action Audio. He was excited to tune in but became frustrated because the design of the site was not fully compatible with the screen-reader technology that blind people use to decipher web pages.“That one layer of it just kind of mars the whole experience when you have to fight with the player to even experience it,” Belanger said.Developers acknowledged Action Audio was a work in progress and said that AKQA and Tennis Australia would work to make the player more accessible.To get the full benefit of Action Audio, listeners need headphones or speakers that can separate sounds for the left and right ears. Without this, Belanger said, the audio is not as helpful.Belanger suggested other improvements — such as a sound for when the ball hits the net — but overall, he said, the audio soundscape was well designed. As a sports fan, he now wants the same concept used for every sport.For some blind and low-vision fans, Action Audio makes it easier to enjoy the game alongside friends and family. Kala Petronijevic, 11, who is from Melbourne, is blind in her right eye and has limited vision in her left eye.Kala has been playing blind tennis since she was 5. She is a big fan of the sport, but she didn’t always enjoy watching games. She used to have to constantly ask her father who had hit the ball and what was going on.“It was hard following the game,” Kala said. “I wouldn’t really be interested because I wouldn’t know what was going on. But with Action Audio, I can follow the game promptly.”Audio produced by More

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      Where Is Peng Shuai? Tennis Players and Fans Still Want to Know

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      A central question, “Where is Peng Shuai?”, has represented concern for the star but also points to related questions about the future of tennis in China.MELBOURNE, Australia — Xiao, a Chinese-born and Melbourne-based artist, was disturbed that the plight of the Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai had slipped off the radar ahead of the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. So she designed a T-shirt, and much to the dismay of Australian Open organizers, wore it to Melbourne Park.Xiao was concerned that the unvaccinated tennis star Novak Djokovic’s fight with the Australian government had overshadowed the plight of Peng, one of China’s most popular tennis stars, who has mostly disappeared from public view since she accused a former top Chinese leader of sexual assault. Xiao’s shirt had on the front a picture of Peng’s face and on the back the slogan “Where is Peng Shuai?”, a message that has been used heavily online as a call to confront the Chinese Communist Party about the #MeToo accusation that prompted the women’s tennis tour to suspend its tournaments in China.Security guards later told Xiao, who also brought a sign with the slogan, that the items were not permitted, citing a tournament policy banning fans from making political statements.“It’s a reminder for people to not forget about Peng Shuai, especially since we had a huge Djokovic drama recently,” said Xiao, 26, who spoke on the condition that her full name not be used because of concerns for her safety after calling out the Chinese government.On Tuesday, after criticism from the 18-time major singles champion Martina Navratilova and others, the Australian Open softened its policy and is now allowing T-shirts and other personal messages supporting Peng, who has remained top of mind for many people involved in women’s tennis since her accusation first surfaced in November.Xiao’s shirt in support of Peng Shuai, which was banned by security guards at the tournament, though the ban was later reversed.Ben RothenbergPeng, a U.S. Open singles semifinalist and former world No. 1 in doubles, said then — in a post on her verified account on the social media site Weibo — that she had been sexually assaulted by Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier of China. In the post, Peng wrote that they had once been involved in a consensual relationship.The post was taken down minutes later. Online discussion of the allegation was censored within China, and Peng disappeared from public view for weeks while tennis officials and fellow players tried unsuccessfully to reach her. Peng, a three-time Olympian, later had conversations via video with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and other Olympic officials.In a statement after the first of those meetings in November, the I.O.C. announced that Peng had said she was “safe and well,” and she has since been seen publicly in China in several social media posts. On Dec. 1, Steve Simon, chief executive of the Women’s Tennis Association, suspended tournaments in the country and renewed his call for a “full and transparent” investigation from the Chinese authorities.Peng later told a reporter for a Singaporean newspaper in Beijing that her initial post had been misunderstood and that she had “never said or written that anyone has sexually assaulted me.”What to Know About Peng ShuaiThe Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai disappeared from public view for weeks after she accused a top Chinese leader of sexual assault.What Happened: The athlete’s vanishing and subsequent reappearance in several videos prompted global concern over her well-being.A Silencing Operation: China turned to a tested playbook to stamp out discussion and shift the narrative. The effort didn’t always succeed.Eluding the Censors: Supporters of the tennis star found creative ways to voice their frustration online.A Sudden Reversal: Ms. Peng retracted her accusation in an interview in December. But her words seemed unlikely to quell fears for her safety.But the WTA, whose leaders still have been unable to make direct contact with Peng, has not softened its stance or its demands, fearing that she has been coerced into the retraction.“We appreciate seeing the support continue for Peng Shuai,” Simon said Wednesday in an email. “The WTA is proud of Peng Shuai in speaking out for what is right, and we continue with our unwavering call for confirmation of Peng’s safety along with a full, fair and transparent investigation, without censorship, into her allegation of sexual assault. This is an issue that can never fade away.”Magda Linette, a leading Polish player and member of the WTA player council, said she hoped Peng could speak with players directly or with Simon. “If we could see her in an environment where we know she is not being really controlled and we can have at least a conversation, because she has been refusing that, I think that would be a really good step to trying to rebuild the trust, trying to rebuild the relationship again to see how things are going and how she is actually,” Linette said.In a photo made available by the International Olympic Committee, I.O.C. President Thomas Bach speaking with Peng Shuai during a videoconference.Greg Martin/OIS/IOC/EPA-EFE, via ShutterstockAlizé Cornet of France, a quarterfinalist at the Australian Open and one of the players to raise concerns about Peng’s safety in November, said some of her fears had been allayed.“It’s not the huge concern I had in November where I imagined she might have been buried in a ditch,” Cornet said last week.Cornet added that she believed that Peng was not in physical danger, but that “I’m concerned to know how things will go for her and what will become of her.”The renewed attention on Peng comes at a politically sensitive time with the Winter Olympics scheduled to begin in Beijing on Feb. 4. “It is kind of sad to see her story, especially when we are technically in an Asia-Pacific Slam, kind of not be a topic anymore,” said Jessica Pegula, an American player who reached the quarterfinals in Melbourne. “It’s disappointing, but it is kind of how the media is. Stuff blows up. Then it goes away, and it blows up again, and something else comes.”Pegula, who said she was not reassured by Peng’s recent video appearances, added: “Maybe it will catch up more when the Olympics come around.”The Australian Open, one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, has long positioned itself as the “Grand Slam of Asia-Pacific” in part because of concerns that China or another nation in the region might attempt to usurp its status. A state-owned Chinese liquor company, Luzhou Laojiao, has been a major tournament sponsor since 2019 and holds the naming rights for one of the principal show courts. Tennis Australia, which runs the event, has an office and presence in China and has backed tournaments in China that awarded wild-card entries into the Australian Open.Branding for Luzhou Laojiao’s Guojiao 1573 beverage is displayed prominently at the Australian Open.Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesThe Australian Open also has an agreement with CCTV, the national Chinese broadcaster, which has been broadcasting men’s and women’s matches from this Australian Open.But Chinese television did not broadcast the women’s tournaments in 2022 that were played ahead of the Open despite owning the rights. It is unclear whether this constitutes a boycott. In 2019, CCTV stopped airing N.B.A. games after Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets at the time, expressed support for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.No events for the WTA or ATP, the professional men’s tennis tour, have been held in China since early 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, which had shut down international sports events in the country before the upcoming Olympics. The WTA had made China one of the pillars of its tour and agreed to a lucrative 10-year deal to stage its year-end championships, the WTA Finals, in Shenzhen. But the event, first held there in 2019, was moved to Guadalajara, Mexico, last year because of the pandemic with just eight weeks to prepare.The WTA would need to lift the suspension on Chinese tournaments if they were to take place this year. The China swing is scheduled for September, October and November. The WTA has not given a deadline but wants to finalize its fall schedule much earlier than it did in 2021. With China unlikely to launch a formal investigation into Peng’s allegations of sexual assault, cancellation of this year’s China swing appears likely, although Simon has said that this would not necessarily end the tour’s commitment to Chinese tournaments in 2023 and beyond.The ATP has made statements of support for Peng but has not suspended any events as a result of her situation. Pegula said she was disappointed the ATP had not done more. “I just think it was the right thing to do,” she said. “I wish they would have, and I guess they still could. We’ll see.”Reilly Opelka, one of the leading American male players, called the ATP’s hands-off approach “lame” and “weak.”“We rely so much less on China than the WTA does and look at that statement,” he said. “And that digs into a deeper problem: Why didn’t enough ATP players speak out? Is it conflicts of interest? It’s hard to say.”Interest in tennis in China boomed after Li Na became the country’s first Grand Slam singles champion, winning the 2011 French Open and 2014 Australian Open. Though no Chinese player has matched those results, promising talents are on the rise, including Wang Xinyu, a tall and powerful 20-year-old who pushed the No. 2-seeded Aryna Sabalenka to three sets in the second round of the Australian Open last week.Chinese players in Melbourne have refused one-on-one interviews with The New York Times, but Xu Yifan, a women’s doubles specialist, said during a news conference that it was important for tennis’ future in China to have tour events in the country. “Especially for Chinese players, we all enjoy,” said Xu, who declined to comment on Peng Shuai’s situation.“We didn’t really focus on it,” she said. “We just tried to focus on our tennis most of the time.”The WTA may be able to cover much of its lost Chinese revenue by adding events elsewhere. But there is still concern about the future.“We had a bunch of amazing tournaments in China, and I think in response, they’ve had so many players coming up and really have now so many juniors that are really good and tennis has been the strongest ever really in China,” Linette said. “So, I think for both of us, for the sake of the WTA and for China if it wants that their players keep developing and still have a chance to go out and do something more in tennis, it’s better for both that this situation be resolved in a peaceful manner.”For now, it remains a delicate dance. The artist Xiao said she hesitated before bringing her message of support for Peng to the Australian Open. “But I just feel like I had to do what I had to do,” she said.Spectators showed their support for Peng Shuai as Nick Kyrgios played doubles with Thanasi Kokkinakis.Dave Hunt/EPA, via ShutterstockXiao described the atmosphere on her first day at the tournament, Wednesday, as “quite chill.” “Two guards came and they just asked me, ‘Oh, what is Peng Shuai?’” Xiao recalled. “We explained to them the situation and they just said, ‘Oh, that’s an unfortunate story,’ and they just left. They were really nice about it, actually.”After posting pictures of her protest at the tournament on social media, Xiao was contacted by local activists who wanted to join her. On Friday, they went to a third-round women’s singles match featuring the Chinese player Wang Qiang, hoping they would be seen on broadcasts of the match back in China.While the group was moving between Wang’s match and a Naomi Osaka practice session, the situation turned more confrontational, leaving Xiao “on the verge of a panic attack” as an encounter between the activists and security guards was filmed for use on the activists’ social media accounts.Xiao said she was offered a chance to stay at the tournament if she stashed the offending items in a booth outside the entrance but chose to leave Melbourne Park instead. Hours later, on Friday evening, Xiao returned and wrote “Where is Peng Shuai?” in chalk on an exterior wall of the tournament grounds.Xiao said she “knew the rules from the beginning” against political banners at the tournament and was not surprised that Tennis Australia initially enforced them.“I kind of expect it,” Xiao said, “because they have Chinese sponsors, right?”Xiao’s graffiti on the exterior wall of the tournament grounds.Ben RothenbergCraig Tiley, chief executive of Tennis Australia, said in an interview on Monday that the tournament’s view was not influenced by its Chinese commercial interests. He said Tennis Australia backed the WTA’s stance on Peng Shuai and had attempted to use its connections in China to establish contact with her.“It doesn’t have to just be on a political or commercial issue,” Tiley said. “If we make the assessment that they come in to disrupt the comfort and safety of our fans, it’s not going to be welcome. But if they want to come in with a T-shirt and it says, ‘Where is Peng Shuai?’ they can do that. We don’t have a problem with that.”The shift by tournament officials does not change the question posed by Xiao and others. The activists who joined the artist have raised money to pay for a thousand more T-shirts that they plan to hand out to spectators before the women’s singles final. More

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      With Djokovic’s Status in Limbo, So Is the Australian Open

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      Thursday brought no resolution in the star’s duel with the government, even as the tournament’s draw placed him (for now) at the top of the bracket.MELBOURNE, Australia — On the outside courts, spectators were seeking refuge and cool drinks on Thursday as temperatures spiked to over 90 degrees. Players exchanged shots and grunts in qualifying matches, hustling to make the most of their long journeys.But however familiar the sun-drenched scene, this already has been an Australian Open like no other, even though the main event does not begin until Monday.All story lines, all prologue, have been thoroughly overshadowed by Novak Djokovic’s duel with the Australian government over whether he will be allowed to remain in the country and chase a 10th Australian Open singles title.Thursday brought no resolution: only more speculation and the administration of the Australian Open draw, which despite a delay of more than an hour was ultimately conducted smoothly, with Djokovic placed in his now-familiar spot at the top of the bracket.Although Alex Hawke, the Australian immigration minister, has the authority to revoke Djokovic’s visa and order his deportation, Hawke has yet to say whether he will make that bold move. For now, Djokovic is scheduled to face Miomir Kecmanovic, a much younger Serbian compatriot, in the first round and could face Tommy Paul, a rising if unseeded American, in the second round.“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Brad Stine, Paul’s coach. “It’s obviously not good in so many different ways for the Australian Open or for our sport.”The Australian Open referee Wayne McKewen, center, and the tournament’s director, Craig Tiley, left, at the men’s draw on Thursday.Pool photo by Mark BakerIt was also avoidable. Djokovic is one of only a few top 100 players who have chosen not to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, and his decision to stick to that path, while so many of his peers have made a different choice, helped lay the groundwork for the standoff in Melbourne.Unless there is some significant medical risk that he has yet to make public, Djokovic’s anti-vaccination stance seems a triumph of self-interest over the greater good and has put him and his sport in a tight corner. Unvaccinated, he required a medical exemption to play in the Australian Open, and the state government of Victoria and Tennis Australia, which runs the Australian Open, provided that exemption on the basis of a recent case of Covid-19.The Australian federal government, which controls the nation’s borders, found that insufficient. It canceled Djokovic’s visa upon arrival last week and placed him in detention, only to see that decision overturned by a federal court on procedural grounds on Monday.Liberated, Djokovic has been training at Melbourne Park, where he practiced again on Thursday in the heat. But he has weakened his own case considerably this week, confirming that after testing positive for the coronavirus on Dec. 16, instead of self-isolating, he met with the French journalist Franck Ramella on Dec. 18 in Serbia. Djokovic explained that he did not want to disappoint Ramella, but Ramella wrote in his newspaper, L’Equipe, that Djokovic made no mention of his positive test during their meeting in Belgrade.Djokovic also claimed that his agent incorrectly filled out his Australian arrival documents, inadvertently checking a box that indicated Djokovic had not traveled internationally in the 14 days before his arrival in Australia when he had, it appears, been in Spain and Serbia.Those missteps could be grounds for Hawke to cancel Djokovic’s visa anew, and the Spanish foreign ministry denied published reports that it was investigating whether Djokovic illegally entered Spain despite being unvaccinated.Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia, right, had little to say about Djokovic’s case at a news conference on Thursday.Lukas Coch/EPA, via ShutterstockBut for now, Djokovic is in the Australian Open draw, and the men’s tournament is in limbo.“Limbo is the worst scenario for the tournament,” said Paul McNamee, a former Australian Open tournament director.If Djokovic were to be kicked out at this stage, the draw would have to be reconfigured. According to Grand Slam rules, the No. 5 seed, Andrey Rublev, would move into Djokovic’s vacant slot in the draw. But if Djokovic’s withdrawal were to come after the order of play for opening day has been released, he would be replaced by a so-called lucky loser: a player who had lost in the qualifying tournament and then been drawn by lot to receive a newly open spot.In McNamee’s view, “if Novak was going to be kicked out, the time to do it was before the draw.”Grand Slam draws certainly have been revised before. Andy Murray, initially seeded second at the 2017 U.S. Open, withdrew with a hip injury after the draw had been completed.The Novak Djokovic Standoff With AustraliaCard 1 of 4A vaccine exemption question. More

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      Australia Court Hears Novak Djokovic's Appeal

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      His lawyer argued that the tennis star had met all government requirements before flying to the country to compete in the Australian Open.SYDNEY, Australia — A lawyer for Novak Djokovic, the Serbian tennis star, argued in an Australian court on Monday that the government had erred in canceling a visa for Djokovic because he had complied with all the government’s requirements even though he has not been vaccinated for Covid-19.The hearing came five days after Djokovic was detained at an airport after arriving on a flight from Dubai to compete at the Australian Open.Djokovic landed late Wednesday with a visa and a vaccination exemption to play in the tournament, which begins Jan. 17, but border officials canceled the visa with the support of Prime Minister Scott Morrison. The authorities said that Djokovic did not qualify for an exemption from the requirement that everyone entering the country be fully vaccinated.The drawn-out conflict over the world’s top men’s tennis player, who is seeking to win a record-breaking 21st Grand Slam title, landed at the start of an election year in Australia and kicked off another round of international debate over vaccine politics.With the Omicron variant pushing Covid case numbers to new heights both in Australia and the rest of the world, Djokovic’s detention pits those who argue that vaccination is more important than ever for preventing serious illness against those who insist that no one should be forced into inoculation.On multiple occasions, Djokovic has stated his opposition to vaccine mandates, saying that vaccination is a private and personal decision. He had not, however, revealed until last week whether he had been vaccinated.In a court filing on Saturday, Djokovic’s lawyers said that the tennis star tested positive for the coronavirus in mid-December, and that the Australian government had erred in canceling his visa over the vaccine requirement.The Novak Djokovic Standoff with AustraliaWhat Happened: The No. 1-ranked men’s tennis player was refused entry to Australia over questions about a Covid vaccine exemption.Understand the Standoff: Mr. Djokovic, a vaccine skeptic, was granted an exemption that would allow him to defend his Australian Open title. Then the federal government stepped in.A Difficult Moment in Australia: Barring the tennis star offers a chance to change the subject as an election looms and cases are at record highs.Exemption Skepticism: Here’s how the tennis world initially reacted to the news that Djokovic was granted an exemption.On Monday, Anthony Kelly, the federal court judge overseeing Djokovic’s appeal, noted during the hearing that his visa application had included a medical exemption from a physician, supported by an independent panel convened by the Victoria state government.“The point I’m somewhat agitated about is, what more could this man have done?” Judge Kelly said.But the federal government’s lawyers, in their filing, said that past Covid-19 infections were not a valid reason to defer immunization against the virus.Under vaccine guidelines issued in December by the country’s chief medical body, people are expected to be vaccinated against Covid-19 after recovering from “acute major medical illness,” and, the government argued, “the evidence is that the applicant has recovered.”It is not clear if or when Djokovic was ill. On Dec. 16, the day he said he tested positive, he appeared at a live-streamed public event. The following day, he appeared at an awards ceremony for junior players, where photographs showed that he was not wearing a mask.What is clear, even to many Australians who say that the rules should be applied to everyone, including sports superstars, is that they are embarrassed by the whole affair. Australia’s entry process for the tournament, and international travel generally during the pandemic, has been marred by confusion, dysfunction and political point-scoring that all add up to an image of incompetence.Djokovic inadvertently joined the fray on Tuesday, when he announced on Twitter that he had received a medical exemption from the requirement that all people entering Australia be vaccinated or quarantine for 14 days upon arrival.In a statement later that day, Craig Tiley, the chief executive of Tennis Australia, explained that players seeking an exemption had to pass muster with two panels of medical experts. The process included the redaction of personal information to ensure privacy.Communications between national health officials and Tennis Australia, and between Tennis Australia and players, have revealed contradictory messages about whether unvaccinated people infected with the coronavirus during the past six months would receive an automatic medical exemption.Federal officials wrote to Tiley in November to indicate that testing positive for the virus during the past six months would not be sufficient to gain automatic entry into the country without vaccination. But letters leaked to Australian news outlets showed that an adviser to Australia’s federal chief health officer had also told Tennis Australia that the state of Victoria, where the tournament is being held, was responsible for assessing exemptions.On Dec. 2, Brett Sutton, the chief health officer in Victoria, wrote to Tennis Australia: “Anyone with a history of recent Covid-19 infection (defined as within 6 months) and who can provide appropriate evidence of this medical history, is exempt from quarantine obligations upon arrival in Victoria from overseas.”Five days later, Tennis Australia passed on the message to players.Djokovic landed at Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne around 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday. After a nearly 10-hour standoff at the airport, border officials said he would have to leave the country. He was held in a room overnight over the validity of his visa and questions about the evidence supporting his medical exemption.His team filed a legal challenge to the ruling on Thursday. A judge said Djokovic would be allowed to remain in Australia at a hotel that houses refugees at least until Monday as his lawyers awaited a hearing.By that point, the decision had already become political. Australian leaders have a long history of winning elections with tough talk on border enforcement, despite the country’s harsh treatment of asylum seekers in offshore detention centers, and Mr. Morrison has followed a predictable script.Facing a tough re-election campaign as the economy starts to seize up from a surge of absences caused by an Omicron outbreak and a shortage of testing capacity, he pounced on the decision to cancel Djokovic’s visa, trying to frame it as a clear-cut case of law and order.“Rules are rules,” he said, adding, “Our government has strong form when it comes to securing our borders, and I don’t think anybody doubts that.”Critics of Australia’s immigration policies said they were dismayed, but not surprised. The hotel where Djokovic is staying holds dozens of refugees, including some who have been detained for nearly a decade.“As a country, we have been shown over time to be very aggressive in enforcing immigration policy,” said Steven Hamilton, a former Australian Treasury official who teaches economics at George Washington University. “People overseas should view this through that prism rather than as a health measure. It has nothing to do with health.”On Friday, border officials told the Czech doubles player Renata Voracova that she, too, would have to leave the country, even though she had played matches in tuneup tournaments last week.Voracova, who was given a medical exemption because she has had Covid-19 during the past six months, was moved to the same hotel as Djokovic, but opted to leave the country voluntarily rather than fight the deportation ruling. More