Table of Contents
Welcome to the Australian Open Briefing, where the stories behind the stories of each day of the tournament will be explained.
On day nine, Gael Monfils’ magical run came to an end as notable feats caught up with players across Melbourne Park.
Mirra Andreeva finds relief after her singles exit on the doubles court
After a disheartening loss to world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka on Sunday, Mirra Andreeva found refuge a few hundred meters away.
She jumped into John Cain Arena from Rod Laver Arena to play doubles with fellow Russian and close friend Diana Shnaider. They had a good time, as always, and beat the Italian pair of Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani, avenging their loss in the Olympic gold medal match five months ago.
They were in action again on Monday, beating Australian couple Kimberly Birrell and Olivia Gadecki. Andreeva and Shnaider won the Brisbane event earlier this month. They work very well as a couple, the classic right-handed and left-handed combination, and both have talked about how they try to make each other laugh and keep things light.
For 17-year-old Andreeva and 20-year-old Shnaider, you can’t underestimate what a huge advantage this sort of thing is: a respite from the suffocating pressure of the singles circuit, even for players so young who, by any standard, rational, they should be given time. It doesn’t always work out that way with the rankings of No. 13 (Shnaider) and No. 15 (Andreeva) and given their previous success together, they will be eyeing an opportunity for a deep run.
They will face Kamilla Rakhimova (another Russian) and Sara Sorribes Tormo in the quarterfinals.
Gael Monfils bows out of Australian Open with a different kind of highlights
Here’s the problem with playing. Gael Monfils. Even when you don’t have legs, it’s very difficult.
From midway through the second set against Ben Shelton on Sunday, Monfils, 38, had the legs of a 70-year-old man. He was suffering a storm after becoming the The oldest man to win an ATP Tour title. before entering the second week of the Australian Open and recording his first top five beat Taylor Fritz in a Grand Slam.
But Monfils, tennis acrobat and magician, did the math. He needed to hit a good shot four times in his service games, and then seven in a tiebreak if he could get that far. In Shelton, the 22-year-old American flamethrower played someone who was still learning how to return against a big server and someone who had succumbed to the guile of Adrian Mannarino in last year’s final. Australian Open.
And just like that, a career packed with highlights got another hour and a half of them that won’t be anything like the rest. There were no jumping backhands or division winners or mid-air overhead spins, but what followed throughout the second set and all of the third, except for the final points, should still leave jaws on the floor.
Monfils can win games and points by posing as a board just as much as he can when posing as a magician. He just needs his opponent to cooperate by returning the ball to him and letting Monfils’ rubber arm do its job. He can hold a tennis ball on its strings seemingly forever, allowing him to place the ball in perfect slots or simply put it back until Shelton makes a mistake.
“I was painting lines with the forehand and the backhand. Just breaking the ball,” Shelton said later. “One of those dangerous moments where you see him, where you’re not sure if he’s right, if he’s not right, if he’s trying, but he’s hitting a lot of winners.
Could this really happen? It sure looked like it might be that way, one bomb serve after another, until Shelton finally started hitting lines again and Monfils’ legs just couldn’t work anymore.
“The little kid in me always wants to see Gael win. “I always want to see him do the highlight shot and the trick shot,” Shelton said later.
“Players always get angry when the crowd is against them or not for them, but honestly, all I could do today was be grateful that the fans supported him. It was just a great moment for me to be a part of. “
When it was over, Shelton, who has been watching Monfils highlights on YouTube for most of his life, pointed to one of his idols and clapped his racquet to get the crowd louder. Not for him, but for Monfils.
A day of outstanding racing that ended with its brilliance
It would eventually happen. Risky careers usually fall apart, burning away the brilliance that made them last.
Elena Rybakina put in a great effort with back problems, but fell in three sets to Madison Keys.
Eva Lys, a lucky loser, crashed into Iga Swiatek’s circular saw and finished in 59 minutes.
Alex Michelsen, the 20-year-old American, who eliminated two seeds: Stefanos Tsitsipas and Karen Khachanov in the first week, could not overcome the speed of the feet and the endless recoveries of Alex De Minaur, the local favorite.
And Learner Tien, the 19-year-old Orange County qualifier and Daniil Medvedev killer, was the victim of a familiar Grand Slam enemy: a very long night’s work.
“In the last few days, I had a lot of adrenaline that masked how tired my body was,” Tien said in an interview after losing in four sets to Lorenzo Sonego.
“From the beginning of the match, I felt like I never had that second wind or that kick that got me going like it did in some of my other matches, especially in my third-round match.”
Iga Swiatek continues to resonate
It’s getting a little ridiculous now. after shipment Eva Lys 6-0, 6-1 to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals, Iga Swiatek has lost a total of two games in her last two matches and four in her last three. He has lost 10 in the entire tournament and even for someone who has rattled off sets of muffins and breadsticks (6-1) with such regularity that “Iga’s Bakery” has entered the tennis language, it has been a spectacular first matches for the world. 2.
It was so dominant that Lys, who had the world No. 2 trailing 15-40 in the first game of the match, could only extend it to 59 minutes. The three points Lys won in that first game represented 30 percent of her total in the entire first set, while Swiatek made 43 of the 45 returns she made in the match.
Next, she plays Emma Navarro, who participated in another marathon match to best Daria Kasatkina. Navarro, the eighth seed, has played four three-set matches and has been in serious danger of exiting the tournament in all of them. So far she has used her remarkable persistence and toughness to get through, but Swiatek in this form is a test where getting to the third set is the hardest part.
Photo of the day
That is the goal of the tournament that Jannik Sinner and Holger Rune concluded.
Australian Open Men’s Draw 2025
Australian Open Women’s Draw 2025
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This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Tennis, Women’s tennis
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