Elena Rybakina says she still keeps in touch with a family she stayed with when she played junior Australian Open: “When I came here for the first time I was actually alone. I played here junior Australian Open. I remember I lost. Through my aunt, I met this family. I stayed in their house for almost a week after. They showed me Melbourne. They showed me a lot of nice places. It stays as a great memory. Because now when I come to Melbourne I don’t really have time to visit any places. We’re keeping in touch, the kids are growing. It’s also funny to see how time flies and how they changed. It’s a great memory and a great relationship we have.”
Iga Swiatek on facing Elena Rybakina at the Australian Open: “I wouldn’t say head to head matters because even when one of us was winning it was always a tight match, or she beat me easy. So it doesn’t make sense to over analyze who won the last ones or how it’s been looking. Every match is a different story. On every match she’s been a tough opponent. Her tennis for sure is great. I need to be 100% ready and go for it and use my experience and also the knowledge from previous matches and that’s it.”
Iga leads the head to head 6-5. She’s also won four of their last five duels. Elena won their most recent meeting at the WTA Finals in Riyadh last year.
Patrick McEnroe: ” I absolutely love watching Learner Tien play tennis.”
There is another outstanding Brazilian teen junior rising fast, his name is Guto Miguel and he trained yesterday with Novak Djokovic. Very impressive.
Rick Macci: “Rybakina has the best biomechanically efficient serve I have EVER seen on the WTA TOUR. The leg drive initiates the racquet entry at the exact correct millisecond as it is counter intuitive and the racquet stays on the hitting side by the right scapula her angle of decent of the ball finds angles we just have not seen and her opponents do not see also. BANG.”
Bublik says the toughest crowd to deal with was when he played a Frenchman in Bercy, ‘You cannot be hated more than when you play French in Bercy’ “How would you describe the Aussie crowd? How tough is it really to be out there when people aren’t cheering you on?” Bublik: “No, you guys are easy. Like, you should play French in Bercy. I don’t think there’s something besides that. There is nothing above that level. You cannot be hated more than when you play French in Bercy. Not at Roland Garros… in Bercy.”
Top 10 wins at Grand Slams: Active players: (of the players who haven’t won a slam)… Nishikori: 9 Monfils: 8 Dimitrov: 6 Rublev: 6 Zverev: 5 Tsitsipas: 5 Tiafoe: 5 Fritz: 4 Goffin: 4 Pablo Carreno Busta: 3 FAA: 3 Shapovalov: 3 De Minaur: 2 Draper: 2 Hurkacz: 2 Musetti: 1 Rune: 1 Shelton: 1 Ruud: 1.
Learner Tien vs Alexander Zverev QF is a rematch of Feb 2025 Acapulco where Tien beat the German. Tien has a very good shot at making AO SF.
Tennis fan on slowing down tennis: “Anyone else watch the Musetti and Fritz match and feel how slow it was? It sounded and looked like they were hitting balls as heavy as bricks… why do they continue to make the game slower? No player likes it, a lot of players have said it’s too physical. I can’t stand it!”
AO · Elena Rybakina · Guto Miguel · Learner Tien · Novak Djokovic · Patrick McEnroe
