As the Australian Open staggers towards the end of an eventful first week through hail, heat and polluted dust bombs, there was relief for Dominic Thiem, encouragement for Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev and confirmation that world No 1 Rafael Nadal is still dangerous away from clay.
Actually, when the dirt fell in an overnight deluge that briefly held Melbourne in an ochre embrace, it very much looked like a clay-court tournament until attendants power-hosed away gobbets and blankets of sticky dust, delaying the start by two hours in many cases.
They call Australia the Lucky Country. As in life, so in tennis – for some but not everyone. As much as the first slam of the season is supposed to be an outdoor tournament – like all the majors – the delineation between the haves and have-nots has been impossible to ignore in a continent famously ‘girt by sea’ where the elements can be cruel under the sun, or hailstones.
After Medvedev sped into the third round past the Spanish qualifier, Pedro Martinez, in a touch over two hours under the roof on Margaret Court Arena, he was asked if he was glad to have avoided the chaos whirring around them.
“I was lucky that it was raining at the beginning, so we had to close the roof,” the Russian said. “At the same time, I like to play outdoors. I like to play indoors. I just like hard courts. As soon as the roof is closed, everything is different. It gets hotter, more humid inside. The ball goes faster. The sound of the ball, even, is different. Today, it was to my advantage. Sometimes it can be not to your disadvantage. Playing on Rod Laver or Court 3, it’s going to be completely different. You just have to adjust.”
When John Millman suggested he wanted to play Federer on a smaller court than Rod Laver – the Swiss’s home away from home for most of his 20 visits here – he was joking … sort of. When the Australian shocked Federer and tennis by beating him in the fourth round of the 2018 US Open, it was on the tournament’s biggest court, Arthur Ashe. So it will be here, in the last match of Friday evening, although Millman knows Federer would be slightly less comfortable in a tighter, unfamiliar space.
Opposite those two in the draw, Thiem needed five sets to get past the Australian wildcard Alex Bolt, Zverev was much improved in beating Egor Gerasimov in three sets, and Nadal comfortably had the measure of Federico Delbonis.
