Surely he's not going to be able to recover well enough to be competitive in the next round? Then again, I thought the same after the first round and he's managed to pull that out of the bag so who knows? Will be good for his ranking to get a few rounds into a Slam for the first time in a while. Getting into the second week for the first time since his injury would be a huge milestone but it's surely got to be a tough ask after two long 5 setters.
You’d think not but RBA isn’t much younger and had a 5 setter himself although not as dramatic or late of course !
AO have got to do something about this scheduling. It is bloody ridiculous. How on earth is he supposed to recover in time to play again on Saturday? Not just him either, happened to other players this week where they finished at daft o’clock
I know the late night programme is a big part of the atmosphere of the Australian Open and is part of the character of the tournament. But they do need to have a bit more common sense and schedule it so that even a day of epic 5 setters can't go much past 1am.
Medvedev is out. If Djokovic and Murray go out, there's going to be another 1st Time Grand Slam winner...... wait, Thiem isn't in this is he? Bet Alcaraz is gutted he's injured.
I am not sure who the first time winner/finalist would be ? Seems very open on one side of the draw now with Ruud and Medvedev both out .
Is the bigger issue the time of the year when the tournament is played, especially considering several hours of playing time were lost earlier in the week because of extreme heat?
Yeah I think that's definitely played it's part. It's a hot country at a hot time of year and unlike Wimbledon you can't just build a roof over it to solve the problem. They must be able to build some kind of contingency into the planning though? Or just play it as an evening tournament with late night finishes every night and then at least the players can adjust their sleep pattern like a night shift worker does and plan it into their tournament build up knowing that they have a fortnight of late evening and potentially late night finishes coming up?
Thiem is out - 1st round I think. Djokovic isn’t getting knocked out of this - he is going to win this comfortably. Only thing that might change that is this hamstring problem. Due to his past though I am not sure I am buying it is as bad as he is making out. I just don’t see how you can run, sprint and slide around on a tennis court if your hammy is dodgy. Pulled and torn my own enough in the past to know this!!! His game today will be a good indicator as to how bad it is as Dimitrov should be a bit of a test anyway but I would expect Novak to come through. I really hope it isn’t an issue as I hate to see any player going out to an injury
Looks to be struggling a lot physically, but there's no quit in the man. I'm aching just watching him. Legend in my book.
No idea how Murray is staying in this. He looks so stiff and tired after each point whereas agut looks so light on his feet. Or is it all mind games
Djokovic making it look very easy considering he is meant to be injured ! Murray will try to hang in there but suspect RBA will be too strong . BTW where have all the Americans come from ?
