Jan. 28, 2019
The Australian Open was memorable to a lot of players and for a lot of reasons. TENNIS.com Podcast co-hosts Nina Pantic and Irina Falconi dissect the fortnight by pointing out the storylines that grabbed their attention. Of course, we must first give accolades to the two champions left standing: Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic (01:13). But some credit should go to the finalists, Petra Kvitova and Rafael Nadal, for not dropping a set before their seventh matches (02:35). Serena Williams made a lot of headlines early, but fell in the quarterfinals after holding four match points against Karolina Pliskova. A foot fault was called in her first match point and it was largely brushed off, but raises the question: Should players be able to challenge a foot fault using Hawk-Eye? (05:25) After all the hoopla over changing the rules, only six matches came down to a deciding set super tiebreaker. (07:35) Pablo Carreno Busta may have made the biggest headlines of his career with a meltdown after losing a fifth-set tiebreaker to Kei Nishikori. But who was in the wrong in that controversial call? (08:33) Though Garbine Muguruza’s win over Johanna Konta didn’t get to a deciding tiebreaker (it was 6-4, 6-7 (3), 7-5), it was arguably the match of the tournament—that finished at 3:15 a.m. Should there be a rule restricting late-night match start times? (12:35) Americans really made their mark in Melbourne this year with University of Virginia grad Danielle Collins reaching the semifinals, Frances Tiafoe making the quarters on his 21st birthday and 17-year-old Amanda Anisimova getting to the fourth round—to name a few. What is it about the Happy Slam that works for players? (15:32) And last but not least, why do a lot of the sponsored players wear the exact same outfit? It’s confusing to new fans that are just trying to learn who is who, but there’s a pretty good reason behind the matching madness. (22:10) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
