The Daily Serve: All the key moments and highlights of Day 5 from Melbourne Park
After a bright first round, the Aussie group of men have fallen away quickly at Melbourne Park, and one damning stat sticks out like a sore thumb for some of our brightest stars.
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We’re almost a week into competition at Melbourne Park and the storylines are still rolling in from the first Grand Slam of the year.
We pick out the key moments of the day and some things you may have missed from day 5.
ACES
QUIET PLEASE
Officiating an Australian Open match with Thanasi Kokkinakis might just be one of the toughest tasks in world sport at the moment. So spare a thought for chair umpire Marijana Veljović who did a commendable job trying to control the parochial home fans in Kokkinakis’ five-set thriller against Brit Jack Draper. The Aussie always commands vocal support on a home court and Draper bore the brunt of it, yet somehow still managed to come out on top. Veljović showed why she is one of the most respected officials on tour.
NEXT GEN IS NOW
We had 18-year-old Joao Fonseca knocking off ninth seed Andrey Rublev on Tuesday and then 19-year-old Jakub Mensik sending sixth seed Casper Ruud packing the following day. There is something thrilling about watching the next generation of stars announce themselves to the world – and by virtue of the January timeslot, Melbourne Park is often the early proving ground for these young guns. Federer and Nadal might be gone and Djokovic not far off joining them, but the future is bright for the ATP tour.
FAULTS
ROUND TWO BLUES
Which black cat did Thanasi Kokkinakis and Jordan Thompson kick to have such rotten luck at their home slam? Between them the Aussie stars have reached the second round of the Australian Open 11 times in their careers – and not once has either of them progressed any further. Both men were primed to change that this year entering the summer in cracking form but a longstanding pectoral problem for Kokkinakis and foot injury for Thompson cut them down in the second round.
C’MON CRISTIAN
This column’s favourite Frenchman Gael Monfils’ career renaissance continues into the third round and that is cause for celebration. But the 38-year-old has been handed a horror draw in the form of world No. 4 Taylor Fritz. Making matters worse, while Monfils has had to fight through two gruelling matches so far, Fritz has dropped just eight games en route to the third round. Chilean Cristian Garin managed to win just three games against the American on Thursday, which means Fritz – 11 years Monfils’ junior – has spent less than half the time on court. Tough break, Gael.
BEHIND THE OPERATION TO CARTOON THE AUS OPEN
– Ed Bourke
A targeted campaign to attract younger audiences and gamers is behind the bizarre animated -live streams of big matches during the Australian Open.
Clips of a cartoonish avatar of Daniil Medvedev smashing his racquet into the net went viral this week, drawing attention to an animated live broadcast which has been available on the tournament YouTube channel since last year’s tournament.
Tennis Australia head of innovation Machar Reid said Medvedev losing his cool in his live-streamed match against Thailand’s Kasidit Samrej had given the feature a welcome boost.
“The fact that it was Medvedev and that incident – it made it a little bit more prominent in the eyes of some,” Reid said.
“This is obviously an area in the gaming space – through Fortnite, through our mobile (phone) game – that we’ve been committed to for quite some time.
“We’d been expecting it to grab the attention of the world’s media and certainly the demographic we are trying to target … we anticipate more and more people are going to be looking to consume the sport in personalised ways, and this is one example of that.”
SWIATEK GETS CANDID WITH THE KIDS
– Rebecca Williams
Former world No. 1 Iga Swiatek revealed her most embarrassing moments on court as she was left stumped when asked about her career winning record by some cub reporters.
The No. 2 seed was hit with some curly questions following her second-round win by a pair of Hot Shot kids during her media conference on Thursday.
Swiatek was asked about her most embarrassing moment on court; how many matches she had won in her lifetime, if she had won “any trophies” and if she had any friends on court.
The Polish star was a good sport and happily shared her most embarrassing moments.
“Well, I cried plenty of times. I mean, I wouldn’t say it was – yeah, it was a bit embarrassing. That’s why I cried a bit more and bit more,” Swiatek said.
A young fan asked Iga Swiatek what the most embarrassing thing she did on court was:
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) January 16, 2025
“I went on court once in Indian Wells with toilet paper sticking to my legâ€
Iga’s out here answering the tough questions 😂
pic.twitter.com/678tx1lZvo
“I had a match when I cried, like, for 10 minutes, I think …. I wasn’t able to just play tennis.
“Also, I went out on court once in Indian Wells with toilet paper sticking to my leg, like off my skirt …. that was also embarrassing.”
But the Hot Shot kids had Swiatek grappling with her maths after asking how many games she had won in her “whole entire life”.
“That’s a super tough question,” Swiatek said.
“Well, being on tour as a pro, I think – like, I don’t know, probably like 50, 60 times. No, not 60. 60 is a lot. But last year I think I won 70, and previous year as well? OK. So let’s do – okay. 70, 70, and the years before, let’s do, like, 45.
“Oh, my God, math. You are at school. You should count. I’m done with school, so I’m not going to do that. I’ll just embarrass myself.
“When I was your age, I also played some matches. Let’s make it 200? 300?”
When the figure 346 was suggested to Swiatek, she added:
“Oh, my God. That’s a lot. It’s a lot of days. 346? OK. Plus like 150 when I was a junior or something. Let’s do 500,” she said.
“That was a good question.”
The five-time grand slam champion was also asked if she had won any trophies before.
“Any trophies? Well, I can show you. I won some nice trophies,” she said.
“Not here, but other parts of the world.”
Swiatek was also quizzed on whether she had any friends on the court.
“Well, on the court not really because you want to win against them, you know,” she said.
“But I played with my best friend like a year ago, and it was tough because I needed to kind of forget that she’s my best friend to win against her.”
EYES ON THE GROUND
THE BANTER NEVER STOPS WITH NICK
Nick Kyrgios has again fired back at criticism directed at him, this time involving AFL media identity Kane Cornes.
Cornes called Kyrgios a “child” and the “most disappointing Australian athlete ever” on his Wednesday radio show on SEN.
Never one to back down from a war of words, Kyrgios blasted back on social media platform X on Thursday: “@kanecornes gotta love comments from a athlete who didn’t play a global sport appreciate the kind works brother x.”
Kyrgios’ feud with Cornes comes off the back of his Instagram story yesterday where he hit out at doubles legend Todd Woodbridge for his comments regarding Kyrgios’ mate and doubles partner Thanasi Kokkinakis.
Originally published as The Daily Serve: All the key moments and highlights of Day 5 from Melbourne Park
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