Smith said he thought organizers were using the rain as a cop-out.
It’s been a rough week at the ISPS HANDA Australian Open for LIV Golf star Cameron Smith, who made his displeasure known about course conditions, hoping to build off a second-place finish at the recent Australian PGA Championship.
The Aussie Open, which is being held at Kingston Heath and Victoria Golf Club, has presented some slower conditions after wet weather swept through the region, but Smith said he thought organizers were using the rain as a cop-out.
“The weather down here the last couple of weeks has been pretty good, I know they got some rain over the weekend and again this morning. But I’ve played down here in rain before and it’s still been like that the next day,” Smith said before the event started. “So, I think that’s a bull—- excuse, to be honest. think it’s been prepared like this for a reason and it’s now how these golf courses are meant to be played.”
Cam Smith speaks to the media prior to the ISPS Handa Australian Open 2024 at Kingston Heath Golf Club on November 27, 2024, in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
After an opening round 65 that had him near the top of the leaderboard, Smith fell apart on the back nine while playing Kingston Heath. His group was warned about slow play and Smith shot a 41 on the back in falling to an even-par 72.
“It didn’t seem like we were playing that slow, and it felt like we were just rushing,” Smith said after the second round. “I made some really poor choices mentally, I think, that led to a few bogeys. You kind of get on that train in that wind and it’s not a good spot to be in.”
In the third round, things got even worse. Thanks to three bogeys, the 2022 Aussie Open winner made the turn at 38 and he didn’t fare any better on the back, finishing with a 76 that has him down to a tie for 49th place.
Lucas Herbert struggled in the third round with an even 72, but still holds a piece of the 54-hole lead in the event with American Ryggs Johnston. Both are 14 under. By virtue of a 64 in the third round, Joaquin Niemann is in a five-way tie for third at 12 under.
Cameras caught him saying something to the crowd after beating Alexander Zverev, and lip-readers think it was “KARMA!” Why is that significant? Because Zverev apparently said on Netflix’s Break Point that Medvedev had lost at the French Open because “I do believe in karma. I do believe that if you wish bad upon someone, then the bad is going to come back to you.”
It’s hard when you’re in the moment to realize just how far you’ve come. A little grace goes a long way.
Coco Gauff is a generational talent, but even she has to remember to give herself grace.
After a gritty win against Aryna Sabalenka in the 2023 U.S. Open final that ended with Sabalenka beating her tennis racket into the floor, Coco Gauff has been on a meteoric rise. Her talents landed her at the Australian Open, where she played in the semifinals against Sabalenka again.
This time, however, she didn’t have enough to overcome her familiar opponent. Gauff seemingly ran out of gas after a valiant but stressful win over Marta Kostyuk just days ago. When she took time to reflect upon her loss, she was particularly hard on herself.
Yet, her career, which includes a Grand Slam, seven singles titles and eight doubles titles — all before reaching her 20s — shows she has to be gentle with herself. Coco is more than just a moment. She’s given tennis fans and herself quite the journey, and there is more still to come.
Coco Gauff reflects on playing her last Grand Slam as a teenager & says she’s proud of herself:
“I tend to be hard on myself, so I feel like today I was, like, dang, but I think looking back of, like, overall this stage of my life, like, it was obviously a successful time. I saw… pic.twitter.com/3SlXsHZtmF
In tennis, tiebreakers in sets are usually known as 12-point tiebreaks, as it’s a best of 12 scenario with the first player to seven points winning.
But on Wednesday, at the 2024 Australian Open, we got … a 42-point tiebreaker, in the third set, with Anna Blinkova taking down Elena Rybakina 7-6 in the third with the 22-20 tiebreaker win.
Yes, that’s a Grand Slam record for the women’s side. And yes, it took a while (imagine 30 minutes of back-and-forth, must-win-by-two drama). We’re still getting video highlights of it, but just take a second to marvel at this moment as the two played their hearts out:
Anna Blinkova after beating Elena Rybakina in a 42 point tiebreak at Australian Open:
“This day I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Especially on this court with this crowd. I’ll never forget it. It’s the best day of my life so far.” 🥹
It’s obviously a monumental moment any time a tennis player wins their first major tournament. But for Sabalenka — the 24-year-old Belarusian player who’s currently ranked No. 5 in the world — this Aussie Open run was a comeback from basically the opposite of her performance this time last year. In the 2022 tournament, she surprisingly lost in the fourth round but stormed back with a title a year later, relying on her serve to take down Rybakina on Saturday.
Here’s a look at Sabalenka’s Australian Open victory celebration with 10 stunning photos:
Looking at the lines ahead of the women’s singles final at the Australian Open.
The women’s singles final for the 2023 Australian Open is set!
No. 5 seed Aryna Sabalenka will battle it out with No. 22 Elena Rybakina to decide which woman will earn her first-ever Australian Open title.
Rybakina’s run to the championship match was an impressive one that called for multiple upsets over higher-seeded players, including the tournament’s favorite, Iga Swiatek. Meanwhile, as the higher-seeded player in each of her six lead-up matches, Sabalenka cruised past all of her opponents without dropping a set.
So when the two meet Saturday in Melbourne, something’s got to give. Either Sabalenka will outclass and down another lower-seeded challenger en route to the tournament’s title, or Rybakina will continue her streak of upsets on the way to capturing her first Australian Open title.
At BetMGM, Sabalenka enters the match as the favorite, with -135 odds.
Nelly Korda, ranked second in the world, is one of the stars of the LPGA along with her older sister, Jessica, who’s 18th in the Rolex Rankings. Their parents, Petr Korda and Regina Rajchrtova, are each tennis stars of their own.
Petr once won the Australian Open, that victory coming two years before the 22-year-old Sebastian, the youngest sibling was born. Jessica’s first professional victory came at Royal Melbourne in 2012 at the Women’s Australian Open, and Nelly followed that up with a victory at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open in 2019 at Grange Golf Club.
On Friday, Sebastian, a blossoming tennis star, picked up a big victory in the 2023 Australian Open, topping seventh-seeded Daniil Medvedev in straight sets. Sebastian is ranked 31st in the world for singles, knocking off No. 8 Medvedev.
A question about his family came up in his post-match interview. He gave shoutouts to his sisters and their success Down Under in a heartfelt speech that excited the Aussie crowd.
“I’m definitely the worst athlete in the family so far,” he concluded with.
"I'm definitely the worst athlete in the family so far." 😂
Williams was on the bag for Scott from 2011 to 2017 and helped the Aussie win his first major at the 2013 Masters.
Adam Scott and Steve Williams are getting the band back together.
According to Golf Digest, Williams is coming out of retirement to pick up the bag once again for Scott, beginning with this week’s Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland in Brisbane as well as next week’s Australian Open at Kingston Heath and Victoria Golf Club in Melbourne. Scott will have Williams and regular caddie Greg Hearmon share the role for 2023.
“For me it’s exciting to work again with Steve and see if we can rediscover the magic,” Scott said to Golf Digest. “As a player, you experience different points in your career. Right now on the PGA Tour is a time of change, and I’m adjusting to it. Having Steve and Greg doing a job share is going to help me get everything I need and that’s to be fresh at the biggest events.”
The pair began working together in 2011 after Williams was fired by Tiger Woods following a 12-year partnership that produced 13 major championships. Williams was on the bag for Scott from 2011 to 2017 and helped the Aussie win his first major at the 2013 Masters as well as claim the title of World No. 1 in 2014.
“My goal is to win majors; I had a good run with Steve in the majors and we did win the Masters, but it’s about getting an overall balance for what I need to perform in the biggest events,” Scott said. “Steve is at a point in his life where he’d like to have a dabble again, so to speak. It’s a good balance for him because it won’t be a full year’s grind.”
Scott has earned 10 top-10 finishes in majors since his 2013 victory at Augusta National, the last coming in 2019 at the PGA Championship (T-8) and U.S. Open (T-7).
With Williams as his caddie, Scott finished T-5 at both the 2013 PGA Championship at Oak Hill in Pittsford, New York, and the 2014 British Open at Royal Liverpool in England. The PGA Championship returns to Oak Hill in 2023 (May 18-21), same with the Open to Royal Liverpool (July 20-23). Woods also won the Open at Royal Liverpool in 2006 with Williams as his caddie.
“The time I spent caddieing for Adam was very memorable; helping him becoming the first Australian to win at Augusta,” Williams said. “I feel Adam is in a good shape with his game, and I’m fresh having not caddied for a few years, so I’ll bring a lot of enthusiasm.
“I’ve always said to Adam and to others, to be remembered as one of the great players, you have to win multiple majors. The opportunity to try and get Adam major No. 2 and elevate himself to a special group of players in history, would be a privilege.”
Forget Tom Brady. Forget LeBron James. Forget Tiger Woods, if you hadn’t already. With a thrilling five-set win over Marin Cilic in the Australian Open final, Roger Federer, in the midst of the greatest late-career comeback sport has ever seen, won his 20th major and undoubtedly clinched his spot as the greatest athlete of his generation.
Federer, 36, had now won three of the last six Grand Slams. He’s the best tennis player in the world, again, at an age when Pete Sampras had already been retired for a half-decade. His longevity is stunning: When he returned to the winner’s circle at last year’s Australian Open, it was supposed to be an epilogue to a tremendous career. Turns out it merely started another chapter.
How rare is Federer’s mid-30s dominance? In the past 45 years, only five men have ever won a Slam while older than 30 years, 10 months. None won multiple titles past that age and the oldest among them was aged 32. Federer, on the other hand, has four titles since hitting that age – almost as much as everybody else who’s ever picked up a racquet since 1973, combined. He has three Slams since turning 35 when no one of this, of the previous era, had one older than 32. It’s another assortment of firsts for a player who’s been setting them since 2003.
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With all the recent success, it’s hard to remember just how impossible this all seemed as recently as 13 months ago. Yet the doubting of Roger Federer started long before that.
At the start of this decade, Federer was already widely considered the greatest tennis player in history. With his sublime footwork, picturesque backhand and an unparalleled on-court genius, Federer won 11 of 17 of Grand Slams from 2003-07 and then five of the next 10 after that. Overall, from the 2003 Wimbledon through the 2010 Australian Open, Federer won 16 of 27 majors and played in the finals of six more. Amazingly, for a seven-year stretch, there were only five majors that didn’t feature Roger Federer on the final Sunday.
And then Federer turned 30, an age at which some athletes (quarterbacks, basketball players, soccer stars) are hitting their prime while others (running backs, Olympic athletes and tennis players) are on their way over the hill. Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic were five years younger than Federer and hitting their strides just as Federer was fading. The new guard was in and Fed, like so many before him, would likely fade into the tennis ether. Players simply didn’t last this long. Federer knew this as well as anyone: At one point in 2009, he announced that making it to the the 2012 London Olympics was a goal of his.
He was to be an ancient 30 years old at those Games.
After he won the 2010 Australian Open, Federer went nine majors without a win (and eight without playing in the final), prompting endless questions about whether he’d ever get another major to his name. When he ended that noise by winning seventh Wimbledon in 2012, tying his idol Pete Sampras for most all time, it merely started the cycle anew. “Could Federer ever win again (again)?”
The general consensus was that he couldn’t. Federer would keep playing his graceful brand of tennis to some success – win some tournaments, make another deep run or two in a major, but that was it. Thirty-year-olds simply didn’t hang around that long. Federer might be able to stick with Nadal, Djokovic and Andy Murray for a little longer, but even the extraordinary Swiss master couldn’t keep Father Time on the run forever.
That was six years ago. And in in the interim it got way worse before it got better.
In 2013, Federer fell to No. 7 in the rankings – his first time out of the top three in a decade. He lost a shock match in the second round of Wimbledon, snapping his record streak of 36-straight Grand Slam quarterfinals. In three of the next four majors, he’d fail to reach the quarters and his ranking would fall to No. 8 – a place it hadn’t been in 12 years.
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But Federer modernized his game – changing to a 97-inch racquet head that would purportedly give him more power, if less control. After a grace period, Federer was able to get both power and control and soon he was whipping his classic one-handed backhand like it was his heyday. Along with a Steph Curry jump shot, the Federer backhand is the most beautiful sight in sports. Firm, but smooth. Powerful, but controlled. He manipulates the ball as if the racquet was an extension of his hand. (When Federer said in a press conference that he wouldn’t teach his kid the one-hander, it prompted Chris Clarey of The New York Times to liken it to Da Vinci telling his kids not to draw.)
Federer was competitive in a few Grand Slam finals during that time – all losses to Djokovic, who was now the immovable force Federer used to be – but he was playing well enough where it was realistic to think that if he got a favorable Grand Slam draw and saw some of his rivals drop out early in the tournament, he could get one more title before hanging up his racquets.
Then the injuries started. Federer, who had played in a record 65-straight majors, slipped while giving his daughters a bath at the 2016 Australian Open and had to miss that year’s French Open. A comeback at Wimbledon almost got him to the final, but the back trouble from that accident in Melbourne proved to be too much to overcome and Federer made the unprecedented move of sitting out the rest of the season off to recuperate. He’d endured the rigors of 15 endless tennis seasons. Perhaps the break would reinvigorate his game. Or perhaps his career would be felled by the same back issues that had ended so many before him.
It was the former. By a lot.
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Federer made his Grand Slam return at the 2017 Australian Open and, ranked No. 17, looked fresher than he had in a decade. He won the major, his first in nearly five years. The predicted recipe for a title (hope some rivals lose, play short matches and ride an easy draw to a title) was thrown out in Melbourne as Federer played three of the world’s best in the final three rounds and went to five sets in each. In the final, he met his arch-rival Rafael Nadal in a match that may have had more riding on it than any other in history. With a win, Federer would win Slam No. 18, extending his record and finally snapping his drought. If Nadal won, he’d get his 15th, just two behind Federer. With his requisite win on the red clay of Roland Garros, Nadal could have been on Federer’s heels, just one Slam behind, and suddenly the G.O.A.T. debate would have been up for grabs once more. (The Spaniard also extend his career dominance over Federer – which has been in a sticking point with the anti-Fed faction who ask how Federer can be the best if he can’t beat Nadal?)
Down a break in the final set, Federer stormed back to beat Nadal, got on the winning side of that two-Slam swing and set off one of the most stunning seasons in tennis history. Federer won both springtime American hard court tournaments (beating Nadal both times and changing the entire tenor of that rivalry), had his best start to a season in 11 years, then unorthodoxly skipped the entire clay-court season, dominated the field at Wimbledon without dropping a set and then played strong to close the season. He finished 52-5 with two Slams, three Masters 1000 titles and his best winning percentage in 11 years (and his fourth-best ever).
He entered this year’s tournament in Melbourne as the favorite and the only healthy member of the Big Five. (Andy Murray was out while Djokovic, Nadal and Stan Wawrinka were compromised.) At 36, he was the freshest of all. Federer survived the carnage that saw other top seeds fall in every round and made the final against Cilic, the tall, powerful Croatian who beat Federer in the 2014 U.S. Open semifinal (when the draw had opened up and Federer looked like he’d finally get that elusive major) but was bested by The Fed in last year’s Wimbledon final.
Federer took the first set with ease, lost a tiebreak in an even second set, cruised in the third and then went up a break in the fourth. He was three games from another major. And then it all fell apart. Suddenly, Cilic looked like he did during his U.S. Open title run and Federer had the uncertainty and doubt that had plagued him during his down years. When the Swiss was experiencing his semifinal and finals losses at majors back in 2013-16, it wasn’t because he was getting run off the court, it was because he couldn’t get the big point at the big moment. He was almost allergic to break points then. When his serve abandoned him in the fourth set, the crowd at Rod Laver Arena – rabidly pro-Federer, as crowds always are – went quiet. It was happening again. Federer couldn’t locate a first serve, Cilic had him moving and a fifth set would be a dogfight in which Cilic seemed to have the upper-hand.
But after saving two break points in his opening service game and breaking Cilic the next game, Federer cruised to a 6-1 final-set win, his victory only delayed by a last-shot challenge (just like it’d been in 2017 against Nadal). Was it more remarkable that Federer is the second-oldest Grand Slam champion ever (and the oldest in 45 years) or that it would have been a major surprise if he wasn’t?
This Australian Open was the 200th Grand Slam played in the Open era (which began in 1968). Federer has won 20 of those, or one out of every 10. He’s won three of the last six. Since he was supposed to be washed up at age 30, Federer has won four majors. Meanwhile, no player born in 1989 or later has ever been the victor at a Grand Slam. Those players could be as old as 29 now, the same age Federer was when the whispers first started as his tennis mortality.
No career in any sport can compare. The dominance of the early years coupled with the unexpected resurgence in the twilight. It’d be like if Jack Nicklaus had won the ’86 Masters and then followed it up with the ’86 U.S. Open, ’87 U.S. Open and a few player of the year awards.
There are other once-in-a-generation athletes currently playing other sports. One will be on center stage next Sunday, as 40-year-old Tom Brady goes for his sixth Super Bowl title. LeBron James may not be Michael Jordan, but that’s always been far too casually thrown around as an insult instead of a celebration that LeBron is even in the same conversation. Tiger had the greatest run that this sporting generation has ever seen, but it was eight years of magic followed by eight years of pain.
Each of those other greats has a “yeah, but” attached to their case. Brady’s success is tied to Bill Belichick’s, which isn’t a knock, it just makes them more of a G.O.A.T. team than G.O.A.T. individuals. (Imagine Brady without Belichick and vice-versa. One is Aaron Rodgers the other is Bill Parcells. Hall of Fame worthy, but not historic.) Then there’s LeBron, who hasn’t been his best on the big stage and has suffered from his indecisiveness. Tiger – well, you know what happened with Tiger.
Yet Roger Federer persists. He looks as fresh at 36 as he did at 26 and plays with an intensity and appreciation that can only come with perspective gained by a player who almost saw it all disappear. Federer knows he’s one stumble away from a back injury that’ll ruin his career and plays like it. But it’s not a tentative game; Federer is playing like it’s okay that each point might be his last. He’s content with it.
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The win in Melbourne allowed Federer to successfully defend a Grand Slam title for the first time in a decade. At the end, he wept, an emotional release for all the self-doubt that followed the greatness, all the greatness that followed the self-doubt and the appreciation that maybe he won’t ever again be standing at center court holding a trophy aloft.
But the last time Federer wept on the court after an Australian Open final, he’d just lost to Rafael Nadal, capping a six-month period in which Nadal had defeated him in the greatest tennis match ever played (which snapped Federer’s record Wimbledon winning streak at five tournaments and 41 matches) and then another Slam final in Melbourne. At the time, the speculation was that Federer could see the end was coming. Nadal was younger, faster and fitter. Federer was on his way to 30. The end was in sight.
