Australian Open recap: Daniil Medvedev escapes upset, American tennis players take over Melbourne

Posted by Admin January 14, 2025 Tennis

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Welcome to the Australian Open briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament.

On day three in Melbourne, two Americans turned Rod Laver Arena into a nervous wreck, a 17- and 38-year-old stole the show, and Daniil Medvedev escaped a historic upset.

What caused an American cauldron of nerves on Rod Laver?

When a match lasts three hours and 20 minutes with a 6-7, 7-5, 7-5 scoreline, there’s one player who might be headed for a sleepless night.

Tuesday’s match between former NCAA champions Emma Navarro and Peyton Stearns might cause both players to lose a bit of sleep. Stearns double-faulted to lose a second-set tiebreak and served for the match in the third set.

Navarro looked thoroughly done when she dumped an overhead into the bottom of the net from just a couple of feet away. Somehow, she got enough control to grind through the final four games and prevail in a match in which the two players combined for 35 winners and 61 unforced errors. There were 15 breaks of serve in 36 games.

And then there was that overhead that Navarro somehow found a way to move on from.

“There’s just, like, no choice,” she said.

“That was not my best moment. Got to move on. I knew obviously I wanted to win the match, and I knew lingering on that wasn’t going to serve me any good.”

Emma Navarro (right) and Peyton Stearns embrace after their match. (Darrian Traynor / Getty Images)

Matt Futterman

12 months of hurt for one of the great entertainers?

A year on from his thrilling run to the Australian Open fourth round, Adrian Mannarino was one of the big losers on day three of this year’s event.

Mannarino didn’t just exit in the first round, losing in straight sets to the No. 19 seed Karen Khachanov. He also lost his ranking point from last year’s exploits, which will see him drop out of the world’s top 100 when the ATP rankings update at the end of the tournament.

It’s the first time in 12 years that Mannarino has gone below the line that grants automatic entry for the Grand Slams. It represents a steep decline from this time a year ago, when the 36-year-old Frenchman was one of the stories of the Australian Open. He pulled off three straight five-set wins to knock out Stan Wawrinka, Jaume Munar and then Ben Shelton, with the latter including one of the most joyful shots of the entire year.

After the last of those wins, Mannarino joked that the secret of his success was drinking tequila. He would be forgiven for pouring himself a stiff whisky tonight.

At 36, Mannarino may be nearing the end of a richly entertaining career, in which his extravagant shotmaking and ability to implode have always made him eminently watchable.

“When it’s time to stop you feel it,” he told The Athletic in an interview last May. “I don’t have this sensation yet. I keep going.”

Hopefully, that will be for a little while yet.

Charlie Eccleshare

Two players, alike in break-point dignity?

It was a day for the young. It was a day for the old.

Ridiculous break-point statistics united Iva Jovic, 17, and Gael Monfils, 38, as they made unlikely progressions of different kinds.

Jovic beat Nuria Parrizas Diaz of Spain 6-2, 6-1. Parrizas Diaz is nearly double Jovic’s age, but Jovic played like the wizened veteran. She won all five break points she earned. She saved six of the seven she allowed. That’s solid tennis, taking advantage of the opportunities you create and snuffing out the ones you allow.

Iva Jovic followed up her impressive U.S. Open performance in Melbourne. (Quinn Rooney / Getty Images)

Monfils had a different task against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, the giant server and fellow Frenchman. Monflils nearly matched Mpetshi Perricard’s ace total in their five-set duel, serving up 18 to his opponent’s 19. He also earned 12 break points against the man with the reputation as the world’s greatest server. He allowed zero in 28 service games.

That may not sound like the sexiest statistic for one of the game’s great showmen and acrobats, but Monfils said focusing on your own serve is the key against a big server.

“Don’t face break point,” he said.

“That’s the main focus, because you are under pressure at that moment.

“Today I was able to do it with some very good service game, some fortunate points that help. But the focus was there, and then I was happy with that.”

Matt Futterman

What now for Daniil Medvedev after another Melbourne five-setter?

Daniil Medvedev avoided a disastrous early exit Tuesday, but he’ll be lucky to avoid a fine after smashing his racket on the net cam on Rod Laver Arena five times.

The outburst came towards the third set of a first-round match that Medvedev, the No. 5 seed and last year’s beaten finalist, came perilously close to losing against world No. 418 Kasidit Samrej. Samrej was playing at the event after navigating four rounds of a wildcard playoff for the Asia-Pacific region in November, and his encounter with Medvedev was his first professional match longer than three sets.

Medvedev was given a code violation warning for the net-cam destruction, but rebounded to rattle off the fourth and fifth sets, progressing 6-2, 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 and avoiding what would have been a historic upset.

“The camera was very, very strong,” he said in his news conference.

Daniil Medvedev lost his cool midway through his first-round match. (Daniel Pockett / Getty Images)

Medvedev was generally in good spirits afterwards, joking in his on-court interview that he extended the match unnecessarily because he just loves playing tennis. But this was another scratchy, irritable performance from Medvedev, who looks a long way off the level he produced in reaching the final here 12 months ago.

Dicey wins like this can prove to be a launchpad for a deep run at a slam. They can also foreshadow an early exit. It’s looking more like the latter at the moment with Medvedev — who was on a five-match losing streak before Tuesday — but he’s always had the capacity to spring a surprise.