Australian Open: The coronavirus tenses the Australian Open to the maximum: abdominal pain, anger and silence

Despite the fact that Rafa Nadal constantly insists that professional tennis players are privileged and criticize the complaints of some fellow circuits, the strict quarantine that surrounds the Australian Open is leaving a palpable mark on the players who have survived the first week tournament: in fact, the most frequent headlines these days have referred to the back of Rafa Nadal and the abs of numerous players, including Novak Djokovic, who threatened to leave the tournament on Friday because of his annoyances and later liquidate the powerful Milos Raonic this Sunday in four sets and awaken the irony of his great rival: “I can’t comment, because I don’t know what he was feeling, because for two sets it looked like he was going to retire and then in the fifth I think he played a lot of points quite normally to finish. I do not know. It was a strange feeling for me as a spectator, “Nadal said after ‘Nole’ qualified for the quarterfinals.

The two weeks of isolation prior to the start of the championship in Melbourne have altered the physical (and mental) preparation of the first ‘big’ of the year, leading to a strange tournament, with numerous players suffering from similar pain. In addition to Djokovic (who instead of training this Saturday went to a hospital, as he had done Nadal Thursday), Matteo Berrettini, Daniil Medvedev and Fabio Fognini (Nadal’s rival this Monday in the round of 16) have suffered pain in the abdominal region. Pablo Carreño withdrew due to the same inconveniences, identical to those that Pablo was subjected to. Martínez in his loss to Lajovic.

In the women’s team, the situation is not much better: many tennis players endure discomfort from the first round (world number 1 local Ashleigh Barty wears a thigh bandage), produced according to the players by a distorting preparation and the stress of isolation.

Tension in Melbourne has risen since an infectious outbreak was detected in one of the tournament hotels last week and the Victorian Government imposed a new confinement until, at least, this next Thursday. The image of the chair umpire John Blom evicting the public from their seats during the match between Djokovic and Fritz due to the curfew characterizes a tournament in which everything is different (even the speed of the slopes, higher this year: good news for the best servers on the circuit, not so much for Nadal). The Mallorcan already referred to the absolute silence in the stands the day after: “You have to understand the measures that the Australian Government is taking, but the feeling has nothing to do”.

Tension

The psychological toll of the eleven-month pandemic does not affect just ordinary people. The last demonstration has been the row what did he throw out Daniil Medvedev (world number 4) to his coach, the prestigious French coach Gilles Cervara, during the match against Filip Krajinovic. Cervera left the track shortly after, at the end of the fourth ‘set’, to the amazement of the track staff. His ward won the fifth 6-0. “He left to leave me alone when it came to winning,” said the Russian player after the game.

Even the spotless Nadal got angry with his rival (Cameron Norrie) during the third round match; The Spaniard did not like the speed with which the Briton served in one of the important points of the eighth game of the match (he was not prepared to subtract and conceded an ‘ace’). “I was not ready!”she told Norrie loud enough to be heard. Novak Djokovic’s screams of rage, more powerful and frequent, filled the track Rod Laver when he beat the American Fritz that day in the fifth ‘set’ of a match that was interrupted several times by his pain: from the stands, until they were emptied in the middle of the match, numerous boos towards the champion.

“It was a game that I will remember for the rest of my life. One of the most difficult”, said that day the Serbian, number one in the world, who did not guarantee his continuity in the tournament. Goran Ivanisevic, his coach, also slipped hours later that ‘Nole’ could retire on Saturday after a visit to the doctor. The game was not finally suspended, although Djokovic showed up to the game (this Sunday) with a bandage on the right side, somewhat limited in some turns and lateral movements.

It didn’t matter: he got rid of ‘gunboat’ Raonic (another alleged benefit from the extreme speed of the track) in four ‘sets’: 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-1 and 6-4. The Canadian was not saved by his tremendous serve (with maximum speeds of 223 kilometers per hour). It was another weird match: Djokovic complained a lot about the side when hitting him with the right, but when at one point in the game he entered the physiotherapist on the track, it was not to treat the winner of the last two editions of the tournament. It was to tend to Raonic’s foot. It was, fortunately, a false alarm, and the duel of survivors was won by the best tennis player on the planet.

A very demanding challenge now awaits Djokovic (Alexander Zverev) in the quarterfinals, where the great beneficiary of this pandemic tournament shines with its own light: the 27-year-old Russian Aslan Karatsev. Karatsev made his debut in the final draw of a Grand Slam and made history this Sunday (after leaving ‘Little’ Schwartzman on the road on Friday) after defeating fellow seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in five sets (3-6 , 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4) and become the first ‘rookie’ reaching the quarterfinals of a ‘great’ from Romanian Alex Radulescu at Wimbledon 1996.

Muguruza’s bitter defeat

The tremendous match between Naomi Osaka and Garbiñe Muguruza marked the women’s team this Sunday: the Spanish had two match balls with 5-3 in favor and conceded (after wasting them) four games in a row to lose the third ‘set’ 7-5 against the Japanese star and say goodbye with bitterness of a tournament that had started in a fabulous. Serena Williams defeated Sabalenka in a duel of powerful punchers (6-4, 2-6, 6-4) and is preparing for an exciting quarter-final against the Romanian Simona Halep, number two in the world.

Defeated Muguruza, the Spanish hope of victory is once again placed exclusively on Rafa Nadal, who seems relieved of his back pain after the infiltrations on Friday and maintains his chances of winning the antipodes tournament for the second time (which would allow him to exceed Roger Federer’s ‘big 20’ and top the world historical ranking). The rival of this Monday in the second round, the Italian Fabio Fognini, is the only player to have come back two sets in a Grand Slam tournament and has a worthy record of four wins and twelve losses in his 16 previous meetings with the Spanish.

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