AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2026, Melbourne, ATP GRAND SLAM

[britbox]

Adelaide champion Tomas Machac keeps going, easily beats Grigor Dimitrov 64 64 63 to make the 2nd round

Disappointing showing from Dimitrov.

 

[El Dude]

Not loving this AO. Lots of disappointments and upsets, with players you'd hope to see make a positive showing not doing well, as well as some noteworthy injuries.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Disappointing showing from Dimitrov.

I kind of expected it after watching Machac performed well at the Adelaide Tournament which he won, he had the runs on the board coming into the AO

 

[britbox]

Not too many mouth watering clashes on the men's side - although I think Opelka might give Davidovich Fokina a run, and Zverev has lost before to Muller.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Fabian Marozsan backs up his defeat of Arthur Rinderknech, defeating Majchrazak in 3 sets 63 64 76(5)

 

[britbox]

As a follow-on from talking of outfits on the WTA thread, Reilly Opelka's garb looks like a military issue.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Carlos "stop with the trick shots' and get back to playing 'percentage tennis"
Carlos is putting too much pressure on himself he just broke back and you would think he won the match, calm down and concentrate
I Love His Day time kit,
78 minutes for the 1st set Carlos wins 76(4) he got himself out of trouble.

 

[Moxie]

Competitive first set, but Carlos wins in the breaker. I don't think the Hanfmann/Hanf-beast (TM @Kieran ) can play much better than this, so let's see if he can keep it up, having come away empty-handed after nearly 80 minutes of play.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Competitive first set, but Carlos wins in the breaker. I don't think the Hanfmann/Hanf-beast (TM @Kieran ) can play much better than this, so let's see if he can keep it up, having come away empty-handed after nearly 80 minutes of play.

Carlos should be winning this much quicker he is making this contest much more physical than it should be for starters, 1 hour and 40 mins and we are only just a few games in the 2nd set.

 

[Moxie]

Carlos should be winning this much quicker he is making this contest much more physical than it should be for starters, 1 hour and 40 mins and we are only just a few games in the 2nd set.

I missed the first 5 games of the match, but I think Hanfmann was playing a really good level of tennis and taking it to Carlos. I'd credit Hanfmann. Now Carlos is starting to run away '.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

I missed the first 5 games of the match, but I think Hanfmann was playing a really good level of tennis and taking it to Carlos. I'd credit Hanfmann. Now Carlos is starting to run away '.

Agree Hanfmann was playing well in the 1st set, Carlos was making some unusual ufe, after Carlos got the break back he upped his game, he has more fire power off the ground for starters, hopefully he can win the 3rd set quicker
BTW I have Ryan Harrison on my feed with Robbie K, I really like Harrison he makes good points and dosent over talk, or talk too much

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Thank you Foki!

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

The American Qualifer M. Zheng retired in his match 0-2 in the 4th set against Moutet (32)
Moutet wins via retirement 36 61 61 0-2

 

[Federberg]

watched highlights of the Alcaraz match. That guy, Hanfman... he's not bad actually. Solid on both sides, perhaps some improvements needed to make the serve more of a threat? It seemed a bit vanilla to me. But if he does that he looks like he could be a problem

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

I watched highlights of Medjedovic v de Minaur
I hope matches like this one let Hamdad Medjedovic become more serious about his career. He was dominating and out hitting Alex in rallies. Those deep returns are insane. Alex really had to pray for errors, unfortunately Medjedovic was likely to collapse and he did, the score did not reflect the match.

 

[El Dude]

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Learner Tien had a better year than Fonseca. Long-term, Fonseca has more upside, but Tien is really turning heads. He did lose a set to the lowly ranked Shevchenko, but the other three were mop-ups: 2, 1, and 0 games won for Shevchenko.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Learner Tien had a better year than Fonseca. Long-term, Fonseca has more upside, but Tien is really turning heads. He did lose a set to the lowly ranked Shevchenko, but the other three were mop-ups: 2, 1, and 0 games won for Shevchenko

The major flaw in Tiens game is his serve, which is often 20 km/h below the tour average, he also frequently produces more DFs than aces, also his technique on his bhand needs to be addressed.He relies more on placement and tactial intelligence than raw speed, which can make it hard for him to 'redline' or win free points against the Top players.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

watched highlights of the Alcaraz match. That guy, Hanfman... he's not bad actually. Solid on both sides, perhaps some improvements needed to make the serve more of a threat? It seemed a bit vanilla to me. But if he does that he looks like he could be a problem

I thought Hanfmann plays like Andy Murray ( relatively speaking) in saying that Alcaraz made the match up far too physical and longer than need be.

 

[El Dude]

The major flaw in Tiens game is his serve, which is often 20 km/h below the tour average, he also frequently produces more DFs than aces, also his technique on his bhand needs to be addressed.He relies more on placement and tactial intelligence than raw speed, which can make it hard for him to 'redline' or win free points against the Top players.

All of which I think his upside is limited. If he doesn't improve that much, he can still be a top 20 guy. If he does improve I see him in as a fixture in the top 10 and, depending upon how much he improves, maybe a an eventual Slam contender. Meaning, he's already a top 20 caliber talent, with a LIKELY ceiling of a top 5-10 guy, and a POSSIBLE ceiling in the top 5.

Of course Lorenzo Musetti is #3 in the live rankings, so top 5 basically means "Sincaraz, plus a few other top 10 guys."

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

All of which I think his upside is limited. If he doesn't improve that much, he can still be a top 20 guy. If he does improve I see him in as a fixture in the top 10 and, depending upon how much he improves, maybe a an eventual Slam contender. Meaning, he's already a top 20 caliber talent, with a LIKELY ceiling of a top 5-10 guy, and a POSSIBLE ceiling in the top 5.

Of course Lorenzo Musetti is #3 in the live rankings, so top 5 basically means "Sincaraz, plus a few other top 10 guys."

Tien does have Michael Chang as one of his coaches, lets see if he can make the necessary improvements that is needed in his game
As far as I am concerned Musetti is really a 'pretender' as No 3 in the live rankings, Lorenzo hasnt won a tournament since 'adam was a boy' yes he did make SFs at GS gaining points, until he actually starts winning a tournament I may take notice,