2024 Australian Open. Kyrgios is a Commentator on ESPN!

The Australian Open is starting a day earlier, this year.

ESPN finally have their full crew back live at the event.

Men's Draw:

Djokovic's Quarter:

Djokovic to the QF.

I could see Wawrinka getting to the 3rd round, but not beating Ben Shelton.

Berrettini vs. Tsitsipas: Tsitsipas in 4.

If Tsitsipas faces Djokovic in the QF, I don't see this being competitive anymore. Hope I'm wrong.

Sinner's Quarter:

Sinner vs. Tiafoe 4th round: Tiafoe in 3.

Tiafoe to the QF.

Medvedev's Quarter:

Thiem vs. Auger-Aliassime 1st round: I would hope this is a good match. But Thiem has shown poor results for 3 years. So Auger-Aliassime in 3.

Medvedev vs. Auger-Aliassime 3rd round: Medvedev in 3.

Alcaraz's Quarter:

Alcaraz to the QF.

Djokovic vs. Tiafoe SF: Djokovic in 2.

Medvedev vs. Alcaraz SF: Medvedev in 3.

Djokovic vs. Medvedev Finals:

Djokovic in 3, but it would not surprise me to see Medvedev win in 3. He's been to several major Finals now, and he's younger, so he could win another against Djokovic.

Women's Draw:

Swiatek's Quarter:

Swiatek vs. Kenin 1st round: Kenin hasn't done much in years. Swiatek in 2.

Swiatek to the QF.

Rybakina's Quarter:

Rybakina vs. Pliskova 1st round: Pliskova in 2.

Pliskova to the QF.

Gauff's Quarter:

Wozniacki vs. Linette 1st round: Wozniacki in 2.

Gauff vs. Osaka 4th round: Gauff in 2.

Gauff to the QF.

Sabalaneka's Quarter:

Sabalenka vs. Jabeur QF: Sabalenka in 2.

Swiatek vs. Pliskova SF: In a surprise, Pliskova in 2.

Gauff vs. Sabalenka SF: Sabalenka in 2.

Pliskova vs. Sabalenka Finals: I'm probably wrong, but Pliskova in 2.

I think I pick her a lot, haha.

That's interesting that Kyrios is commenting- pretty sure it'd be pretty colorful lol. Rough day for Murray as well as Etcheverry defeated him without much difficulty. Murray says this could well have been his last Aussie Open.

Osaka had a tough first round draw in Garcia- just wasn't consistent enough. Djokovic was tested hard for his first rounder- took over 4 hours vs the up-and-coming Prizmic.

I could be wrong, but I don't think I get email notifications of replies on this board.

So I just saw your reply now.

It was even funnier in a later round. Krygios interviewed Djokovic after Djokovic's win. He started off by saying "I never thought I'd be doing this. . .".

Great win by Sabalenka for the title.

Looking forwards to the Mens Sinner vs. Medvedev Finals.

Gauff played well. She's improved a lot over the past year. Even though she lost, she did not look overmatched.

Zheng also looks like she's been improving.

Hmmm not sure what happened with the email notifications- I'll have to look into that.

Kyrios is certainly an entertaining commentator. I just saw this interview where he asked Sinner to be his coach to teach him how to win a grand slam lol.

Speaking of Sinner- what an amazing turnaround. Seemed like he changed up the backhand to backhand rallies by not participating in that, and instead hit more backhands down the line to Medvedev's forehand. And of course Medvedev is the less fresh of the two, so once Sinner got that third set... Great to see him get his first grand slam- it just seemed inevitable the way he has been playing the last year or two.

Coco did really well in the tournament- she has a really good all around game. Sabalenka was just overpowering and has been more consistent. Zheng was impressive in the tournament- The Ukrainian qualifier Yastremeska was a big surprise, played so well in the earlier rounds, but Zheng was able to beat her. But Zheng was overwhelmed by Sabalenka's pace.

Hsieh is a pretty amazing doubles player winning both the mixed and doubles title.

I missed that Kyrgios interview with Sinner.

I got the email today.

I feel bad for Medvedev. He tried hard to win this title. He's mentally stronger than before.

Between Andy Murray being a 5 time runner up, Nadal's 4 runner ups, and now Medvedev's 3 runner ups, seems like there are a lot of repeat runner ups.

Yes I know Nadal has two titles, but that's also a lot of runner ups.

Didn't they still do backhand to backhands in the 5th?

On another note, I had some posts on the Clippers board, in the "Everything else" section, during the MLB playoffs.

Not sure if you saw those, or had followed the playoffs closely last season.

Or, if you thought about creating a baseball sub-domain, just like you did for this tennis one. To make MLB discussions more visible.

Yup with Djokovic being the main reason of those runner-ups, so it's refreshing and great to see Sinner win. I just watched the highlights, so I'm sure they still did some backhand to backhand rallies, though it seemed Sinner avoided it more. Medvedev is a great tactician, and it was impressive how well he did the first 2 sets.

Yeah sorry missed those posts! But that's a good idea about using a baseball subdomain. I do have dodgers.newssurge.com (I'm dd88). I'll have it like here where if you or anyone post there I'll get an email notification so can respond in a timely fashion. I'll have to get the Dodgers tweets working again there was well. Same here actually as this site had working tweets displaying but no longer.

Yup with Djokovic being the main reason of those runner-ups, so it's refreshing and great to see Sinner win. I just watched the highlights, so I'm sure they still did some backhand to backhand rallies, though it seemed Sinner avoided it more. Medvedev is a great tactician, and it was impressive how well he did the first 2 sets.

Did you watch or see highlights of both SFs? Both matches were great.

Medvedev is a better thinker now, than he was a few years ago.

On another note, 11 or 12 years ago, didn't Djokovic used to do a lot more drop shots?

Seems like that's gone, and has been gone for a while.

I kind of like watching points with drop shots, because then it turns into a scramble.

Only saw the highlights. Zverev has been playing really well, so that was impressive that Medvedev knocked him off.

And yes it seems that Djokovic has gone away from the drop shot, leaving only Alcaraz as the only top player who still consistently use it. Not sure why especially with guys like Medvedev so far behind the baseline. Federer would often use short backhand slices to draw you in and pass you. Wonder how prime Roger would do vs Medvedev.

Looks like they met 3 times, all on hard courts, between 2018 - 2019.

Federer won all 3, with the first time being the closest.

The other two times did not look as close.

https://www.tennisexplorer.com/mutual/federer/medvedev-e0d2d/

That's a cool site being able to dig up tennis history like! Yeah kind of figured that Federer's game can be kryptonite for players who stay so far behind the baseline like Medvedev.