‘Jinxed’: Legendary actor inflicts ‘kiss of death’ on Aus Open finals
Tennis fans are convinced a legendary actor had a role to play in the results of three Australian Open finals over the weekend.
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There’s nothing quite like a sporting curse, and this time it seems a legendary actor might have wreaked havoc at the Australian Open.
The Australian Open finals were run and won over the weekend, with Madison Keys defeating Aryna Sabalenka in a whirlwind three-set contest before Jannik Sinner beat Alexander Zverev in straight sets on Sunday night to defend his title.
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Jackie Chan was in the crowd for both the men’s and women’s singles finals, soaking in the action in the front row of Rod Laver Arena on Saturday and sitting in the VIP courtside seats on Sunday.
Earlier in the weekend, the 70-year-old did the rounds at Melbourne Park and met some of the players competing in the finals.
He shook hands with Sabalenka during one of her practice sessions and also met Zverev as he prepared for the final.
Eagle-eyed fan Kevin Yam wrote on X: “Congratulations to Madison Keys for winning #AO2025 women’s singles title. She doesn’t know it yet, but she has Jackie Chan to thank for shaking Sabalenka’s hand.
“In Asia, Chan has a reputation for being a kiss of death when it comes to who/what he supports or endorses.”
After Sinner defeated Zverev, Yam posted: “And Jackie Chan has made it 2 out of 2 in #AO2025 singles championships, with Zverev also being jinxed out. Sinner should thank Chan for his back to back titles!”
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The jinx didn’t end there. Chan was walking through the players’ warm-up area past some exercise bikes when 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko bounded over and asked for a photo with him.
Ostapenko is a cult hero in tennis circles and Chan appeared to recognise the popular Latvian player.
The Karate Kid and Rush Hour star duly obliged and posed for a photo, but tennis fans were convinced it was a bad move for Ostapenko, who played the women’s doubles final on Sunday.
Ostapenko taking a photo with Jackie Chan 😂 pic.twitter.com/EeQM1SC3fX
— LorenaPopa 🕵ï¸â€â™€ï¸ðŸŽ¾ (@popalorena) January 25, 2025
Top seeds Taylor Townsend and Katerina Siniakova defeated Ostakpenko and Hsieh Su-Wei 6-2 6-7 6-3 in the final.
A post on Reddit joked: “The Jackie Chan Effect: He completes the trifecta where all finalists who met him lost their finals.”
One person commented: “He looked excited to see Ostapenko in the clip. Celebrities love her.”
A second described the actor and mixed martial arts legend as a “silent assassin”.
Another explained Chan “has been known for cursing products he endorses”.
Two years ago, the tennis world became fascinated by the ‘Netflix curse’ at the Australian Open.
Players featured in the first season of the tennis documentary series Break Point, were eliminated en masse in the early rounds.
Taylor Fritz, Matteo Berrettini, Ajla Tomjlanovic, Nick Kyrgios, Paula Badosa, Casper Ruud and Maria Sakkari all either pulled out with injury or were knocked out early.
In this year’s final, Sinner was simply too good for Zverev as the Italian superstar cemented his status as World No. 1 and as virtually unbeatable at the moment. He is on a 21-match win streak at the hardcourt grand slams.
Zverev is now 0-3 in grand slam finals, having previously lost the US Open decider in 2020 and the French Open final in 2024.
Sinner, 23, now has three grand slam titles to his name and is poised to dominate tennis along with Carlos Alcaraz for the next decade.
As he prepared to give his runner-up speech, Zverev was heckled by a spectator in the crowd protesting about his allegations of domestic abuse.
The German has denied the allegations, with a case involving Zverev and Brenda Patea, the mother of his child, settled out of court in June last year with no admission of guilt.
The crowd overwhelming booed the protester, but there were some cheers. Zverev stood in silence and made no mention of the interruption when he took the microphone.
Instead he channelled Aryna Sabalenka from Saturday night’s women’s defeat when he lamented standing so close to the winner’s trophy without being able to lift it.
“First of all, it sucks standing next to this thing and not being able to touch it. I’ll be honest,” he said.
“Congratulations to Jannik, you more than deserve it, you’re the best player in the world by far.”
He had a straightforward response to the protester in his post-match press conference.
Sinner was a class act, embracing an emotional Zverev during the post-match presentation.
“He said that I will definitely lift one of those trophies in my career. I’m too good not to. That’s his words,” Zverev recalled of their conversation in a post-match press conference.
Originally published as ‘Jinxed’: Legendary actor inflicts ‘kiss of death’ on Aus Open finals
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