Week 1 is a wrap at Australian Open 2024, leaving a combined 32 players in both singles draws vying for the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup and Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup.
MORE: All the results from Australian Open 2024
Numbers always figure prominently at Grand Slams, so let’s take a look at a few of them at the halfway mark at Melbourne Park.
235
Li Na is back at the Australian Open to play in the Legends competition 10 years after beating Dominika Cibulkova in the final.
A second Chinese winner remains possible, since Zheng Qinwen – the women’s ace leader in week 1 – features in the fourth round.
Zhang Zhizhen heads a men’s trio inside the top 150 in the rankings and clocked the fastest serve, 235 kmh, in a second-round reverse to Ugo Humbert.
He might have put extra oomph into that one serve, since Zhang’s second fastest serve wasn’t inside the top 12.
Shelton hit three serves inside the top 12, with Hubert Hurkacz and French wildcard Arthur Cazaux featuring twice.
199
Coco Gauff sits atop the list in the women’s draw.
The US Open champion soared to 199 kmh in the third round against Alycia Parks. A “big serving contest” might have described the all-American clash, since the duo combined to hit the fastest six serves in the first week.
MORE: Is Gauff the hottest player in the game right now?
Gauff, though, plans on continuing to vary her serve and not just rip every time.
“…I don’t want to go Mach 20 every serve,” the 19-year-old said after the win over Parks. “Yes, it can be great but girls are going to get a rhythm. It’s all about mixing up the paces.”
178
Ben Shelton couldn’t repeat his heroics of 12 months ago, when he made the quarterfinals during a first trip outside his native USA. The 21-year-old fell in the third round this time.
But Shelton tallied the most winners in the men’s draw with 178, 20 more than Andrey Rublev. Shelton committed 159 unforced errors for a margin of plus 19, while Rublev sat at plus 79.
“I think my level in this tournament, these three rounds, especially this last round, stacks up against any match that I've played at any Grand Slam ever,” Shelton, a semifinalist at last year’s US Open, said.
“Obviously I didn't have the huge, deep run or result that I had at the other tournaments, but a lot of positives to take away.”
128
All-rounder Marta Kostyuk, also 21, led the women’s draw with 128 winners, one more than her unforced error count. The latter rose in one match in particular, against Elina Avanesyan.
BONUS: Download your copy of the Australian Open 2024 Official Program
Anna Kalinskaya finished second with 115, signifying a potential shift in how the 25-year-old plays after counterpunching and movement have long been considered strengths.
Kalinskaya totalled 46 winners and only 15 unforced errors in defeating 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens in the third round.
68
Gauff topped another category, break points converted (with at least two matches played). Going 16-for-21 means a lofty conversion rate of 76%.
As a means of comparison, last year’s leader on the WTA Tour – with at least 30 matches played at tour level – registered 55.6% (Iga Swiatek).
11
A phenomenal streak put together by Adrian Mannarino.
When he edged fellow lefty Shelton in the third round, it marked the 11th straight fifth-setter the 35-year-old has won — not including a retirement at Wimbledon against Roger Federer one point into the fifth after he slipped on the grass.
Mannarino has triumphed in fifth setters at all four majors during the streak, which began at Wimbledon in 2017.
Instead of a Shelton-Novak Djokovic rematch, Mannarino will meet the 24-time Grand Slam winner in the fourth round.
2
Djokovic’s compatriot, Miomir Kecmanovic, saved match points in consecutive encounters to help the 24-year-old reach a second career Grand Slam fourth round – both coming at Melbourne Park.
He fended off two against Tommy Paul in a fourth-set tiebreak on Saturday and thwarted another two against Jan-Lennard Struff in a fifth-set tiebreak in the third round.
Kecmanovic, who entered AO 2024 having lost five straight Grand Slam matches, next battles Carlos Alcaraz.
1
Beating Djokovic at the Australian Open has proved to be a monumental task.
The last player to do it? Hyeon Chung in 2018.
AO 2024 signified the first time, though, that Djokovic dropped sets in each of his first two rounds at Melbourne Park. Dino Prizmic stretched the Serb to four sets before Sydney’s Alexei Popyrin did the same.
Popyrin might still be pondering the four set points that came his way in the third set after the pair split the opening two sets.