The Australian Open used to be a simple affair: 128 players chased a fuzzy yellow ball and, after a couple of weeks, Novak Djokovic would win. But the old certainties are not what they were. With the absent Djokovic nursing a misguided sense of injustice and the absent Roger Federer nursing his injured knee, Rafael Nadal stands alone as the only former champion left in the draw.
It has been 13 years since Nadal won his lone title at Melbourne Park and, while he may yet go on to claim a record 21st major at a venue where he has traditionally enjoyed little luck, there is a palpable sense that, for the first time in years, the opening slam of the season is up for grabs.
We have been here before, of course. In 2020, when Djokovic was disqualified from the US Open for accidentally hitting a line judge with a ball, the rest of the field were presented with a huge opportunity. Nadal had chosen not to defend the title while, among other former winners, Federer and Stan Wawrinka were both injured, and Andy Murray and Marin Cilic had gone out early. For the first time in six years, a new grand slam champion would be crowned.
What followed was a festival of nerves and wasted opportunities. Borna Coric, who had saved six match points against Stefanos Tsitsipas in the previous round, fell to Alexander Zverev in the quarter-finals after leading by a set and a break. Pablo Carreño Busta, the beneficiary of Djokovic’s unintended largesse, went one better, blowing a two-set lead against Zverev. Daniil Medvedev, a finalist the previous year, failed to convert set points in both the second and third sets of his semi-final against Dominic Thiem, losing in straight sets. And to top it all, Zverev squandered a two-set advantage in the final against Thiem, then served for the match at 5-3 in the decider, before he was eventually undone by a pair of double faults in the climactic tiebreak. If this was the future of the men’s game, reports of the old guard’s demise had been greatly exaggerated.
Sixteen months on and fortified by greater experience, Medvedev and Tsitsipas, the top two seeds in the lower half of the draw, look well placed to ensure that history does not repeat itself. Faced with tough but contrasting tests in Monday’s fourth round, both passed with flying colours to remain on track for a projected semi-final meeting.
The tougher assignment fell to Tsitsipas. The Greek, who reached his first grand slam final in Paris last year and has twice been a semi-finalist in Melbourne, needed all his experience and fighting spirit to get past Taylor Fritz, a big-serving Californian whose crunching forehand is the jewel in the crown of a powerful baseline game.
Fritz, 24, captured the prevailing mood of possibility by defeating 15th seed Roberto Bautista Agut in the previous round, booking his place in the fourth round of a major for the first time. The 20th-seeded American took to his new stage as if to the manner born, limiting his opponent to just a single break point across the first three sets while exerting constant pressure in his return games. Holding a high position on the baseline, Fritz controlled the tempo and tenor of the contest, his poise and self-assurance a more than adequate match for the vocal Greek contingent in the crowd as he dominated from the backcourt, exploring the technical and tactical boundaries of the world No 4’s game.
The task facing Tsitsipas, who is more accustomed to dictating than defending – and was playing only his sixth competitive singles match since undergoing surgery on his elbow last November – was made none the easier by a time violation in the first set and a warning for coaching in the fourth. Yet, through it all, he remained relentlessly focused – so much so that he did not even realise he had won the second set – and never stopped searching for the tactical formula that would unlock victory.
“It was a match with a lot of emotions, and I had to keep constantly reminding myself to stay in it and try and find solutions to all these problems,” said Tsitsipas, who will play 11th seed Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals after the Italian saw off Alex de Minaur 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 6-4. “There was heavy hitting, there were lots of rallies, big serves from both sides – there was a lot going on.”
Ultimately, Tsitsipas won because he delivered when it most mattered. Over the course of the match he created five break points to Fritz’s 13, yet he capitalised on three of those chances while his opponent could convert only two. Crucially, he was also the more solid of the two down the home stretch, making just four unforced errors in the fifth set, where he was ready and waiting when Fritz faltered at 4-4.
“I felt like there were certain moments where I got defensive and wasn’t going for my shots too much, and I kept talking to myself and kept saying, ‘Hit the ball, go for it,’” Tsitsipas added following his 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win. “That eventually was kind of engraved in my mind, that voice kind of became a reality in the fifth set.”
Medvedev, up against the American serve-volleyer Maxime Cressy, likewise found his voice, although the Russian’s musings were articulated aloud and, as he admitted afterwards, owed more to gamesmanship than self-exhortation. “This is so boring!” the Russian second seed cried during the fourth set of his 6-2, 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (4-7), 7-5 win over the world No 70.
Medvedev’s frustration was prompted principally by his opponent’s aggressive style of play and knack of finding the lines at key moments, but also by the fact that he was scheduled on Margaret Court Arena for the second time in a row. His mood was not improved by the refusal of officials to adopt a more lenient approach to the new toilet break rules on what was a searingly hot day.
There was a time when such a litany of complaints might have pushed Medvedev over the edge. Yet he is a different player these days, an elder statesman of the game following his US Open win last year. He can still be irascible at times, but there was never any serious likelihood he would be derailed by peripheral distractions. Having admitted in an interview with Eurosport that he “tried to get into [Cressy’s] mind a little bit” with his outburst, he was contrite in press later.
“I’m really sorry to Maxime about it,” said Medvedev, who will face Felix Auger Aliassime in the quarter-finals following the Canadian’s 2-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) victory over Marin Cilc. “I don’t like trash talking. I sometimes can unfortunately roll into this, but I don’t like it. I think I try almost never to do it, especially against other players, and today was borderline. I don’t think I actually said anything bad about Maxime, but, yeah, borderline, where I’m not really happy about it.”
Medvedev was even less happy about the scheduling.
“What should I do to play on centre courts in grand slams?” he mused. “I won the last grand slam, I’m the highest seed here, and to play against Maxime would be easier on Rod Laver [Arena], more space. When you play on a smaller court, it’s tougher to play somebody who does serve and volley than on a bigger court.”
For all his complaints, however, Medvedev remains on track in his bid to become the first player to follow their maiden slam with a second title at the next major. It is a chance to claim a little piece of tennis history – and as the Russian knows, such opportunities can be all too fleeting.