Friday started serenely, with the top 10 women’s seeds intact in the third round of a major for the first time since Wimbledon 2009. At day’s end, three former champions were felled, including titleholder Naomi Osaka, while Roger Federer pulled out a Houdini escape.
1. Ash Barty has a rematch with her Wimbledon conqueror
On a day of high drama, the top seed averted a danger match with fast-rising No.29 seed Elena Rybakina 6-3 6-2 at Rod Laver Arena.
Barty was at her sharpest this summer and will need to maintain that form for Alison Riske. The American No.18 seed prevented a fourth-round meeting between Barty and her doubles partner, taking out Julia Goerges in a typically hard-nosed 1-6 7-6(4) 6-2 comeback that recalled her win at Wimbledon over the Aussie from a set down.
“Probably a match that I didn’t want to think about,” Barty admitted of her upset as the newly-installed No.1, heading a Grand Slam draw for the first time.
The 23-year-old can expect plenty more crowd support at her home Slam.
2. Ms Wozniacki has no challenges remaining
It’s the end of the road for Caro. Two years since her treasured Grand Slam title win here, the metronomic Dane bowed out of the game with a 7-5 3-6 7-5 loss to Tunisian trailblazer Ons Jabeur in Melbourne Arena.
A final, fatal challenge hastened the end. Wozniacki stopped play at 15-30 to query a Jabeur backhand that had clipped the sideline and so brought up match points against herself.
“Ms Wozniacki has no challenges remaining,” intoned the umpire – a call of far wider significance on this day. A forehand error later, and Wozniacki’s playing career was history after 51 majors and 30 singles titles. No more on-court challenges.
Jabeur has it all ahead of her. Winless at Melbourne Park before this week, the smooth-hitting world No.78 now wins over three former top 10 players: Wozniacki, Caroline Garcia and Johanna Konta.
3. It’s a brand new tennis decade
2019? So ancient history. A feature of the stunning upsets of reigning champion Naomi Osaka and six-time champion Serena Williams – and Wozniacki to a lesser extent – was how little respect the usurpers had for recent history. These were whiplash turnarounds.
Williams trounced Wang Qiang for the loss of one game at the US Open, yet on Friday the Chinese No.1 handed the 23-time major winner her earliest Melbourne exit since 2006.
“I honestly didn’t think I was going to lose that match,” said a visibly annoyed Williams after her 6-4 6-7(2) 7-5 defeat.
Wang, who has a Melbourne connection in her late coach Peter McNamara, drew laughs post match when asked if she could believe her winning performance after that dire Flushing Meadows result. “Yes,” said the 28-year-old, pokerfaced. “I think my team always believe I can do it.”
Osaka allowed Coco Gauff three games at the US Open, yet was bundled out 6-3 6-4 by the 15-year-old in the sensation of the tournament so far. The defending champion tried to blast intimidating winners at the youngster, but sprayed 17 errors in the first 10 games and never recovered.
“Her serve is way better than [when] I played her last year,” noted Osaka, admitting that she was taken by surprise. “It’s hard, because you learn more when you lose,” said the 22-year-old who ascended to No.1 with the title here a year ago. “The winner doesn’t really learn that much. I feel like I wasn’t really swinging freely and she was.”
As well as the strain of “the defending thing”, Osaka felt the pressure of taking on a younger, improving rival with nothing to lose. “Because I have played her before. There’s always, like, such a huge hype leading into the match. And of course it’s well-deserved. It’s just tough. You don’t want to lose to a 15-year-old.”
4. Naomi Osaka can be really hard on herself
After her shock third-round defeat, Osaka gave a poignant post-match debrief.
“I feel like I get tested a lot,” she began, having lost both her major titles at the US Open and Melbourne Park. “Like, life is just full of tests and unfortunately, for me, my tests are tennis matches and you guys see them.
“I mean, this one hurts a little bit more. I love [Gauff], but I don’t like this feeling of losing to her.
“I feel bad for [coach] Wim [Fissette], for my entire team. We came here to win the tournament and I’m sort of like the vessel that everyone’s hard work is put into. And I wasn’t able to do what I was supposed to do.
“And also my dad and mom were here, so that kind of hurts more.”
To Japanese questions, Osaka said losing to a younger player is what unsettles her most. “I think just losing to her [Gauff] – that hurts more than the defending champion thing. I don’t like losing to people younger than me. Yeah, I took this very personally.”
5. The super tiebreak gave Roger Federer an escape hatch
“Oh God it was tough,” the Swiss great said, shaking and struggling to gather his thoughts after a rugged 4-6 7-6(2) 6-4 4-6 7-6[10-8] escape against John Millman.
“Thank God it was a super tiebreak or I would’ve been out of here.”
Has Mirka Federer ever looked more tortured? Outplayed for much of the match by the hard-swinging, relentless Aussie, who was looking to repeat his 2018 US Open defeat of the 20-time major winner, Federer looked all-but beaten at 8-4 down in the match tiebreak. Two errors from Millman opened a crack of daylight, and Federer effected his escape, gathering six straight points to take the breaker 10-8.
“I was getting ready to explain myself [as the loser] in the press conference,” Federer admitted. “The demons are always there.”
At Wimbledon, Federer lost an epic final to Novak Djokovic in the first match tiebreak in the tournament's history (he lost all three tiebreaks despite winning more points than Djokovic).
Here, Federer came through in the first match tiebreak played at Rod Laver Arena. The five-set thriller was the Swiss maestro’s 100th match win at Melbourne Park. At age 38. And one of his best.