2021 Australian Open

Ladies

(3) Osaka 6/6 - 4/3 (22) Brady

I didn't see any of the ladies' final but I did see a little of each of these players earlier in the tournament. I thought (14) Muguruza had Osaka beat in the 4th round: she was up a break in the 3rd, felt like she was cruising, but I kept thinking this Osaka girl gets to every ball--she returns everything! Sure enough, Osaka pulled some Jedi mind shit, got her break back and swept the last three games when Muguruza was serving for the match.  Nice. Osaka is the shit, I was not surprised she housed Serena, nor was I shocked by the final over Brady. 

I watched Brady over Pegula in the Quarters, but honestly I thought Pegula was the better player. Brady made timely plays but I felt like Pegula faltered more than Brady bested her. I will say Brady looked pretty good in the highlights I saw of the Final, she looked intense and engaged and made some plays. But Osaka is the shit right now, no shame in going down to her. 

I was surprised Serena dispatched Halep so easily in the quarters and that Barty fell to Muchova. I watched Muchova beat Pliskova and I was impressed because I was expecting Pliskova (back to back Aussie semifinals) to make a run, but Muchova controlled the match, probably should've made the Final. Barty strikes me as quite capable of winning big matches, she's got a no-nonsense quality and competitive spirit that seems well built for deep runs, but she is allergic to the Aussie, I don't get it. 

Dudes

(1) Djokovic 7/6/6 - 5/2/2 (4) Medvedev

The first set was fun, Djokovic went up a break early, Medvedev got it back, but then faltered late and Djoker stole it from him. Felt like it was gonna be a match, though, especially when Medvedev took a quick break in the second; then Djokovic turned it on, got his break back, then another, and it was pretty much over right there. Medvedev started looking to his wife and muttering out loud from that point on and he was out of it. (Can I say something racist? Russians, man, big talent but they go out like Richie Tanenbaum every time) Medvedev is a helluva player but Djokovic is strengthening his grip on GOAT status (yeah, I think I'm there, he's better then Federer, Nadal, Sampras, Borg, Connors, McEnroe, Edberg, Becker--best I ever saw), and Medvedev's unraveling made this a relatively easy tourney for Djokovic. 

I also watched Djokovic in the semis against Karatsev, fun player (qualifier got all the way to the semis), but you could see right away that he just wasn't gonna beat Djokovic. Karatsev was a qualifier that smoked his way through (8) Schwartzman, (18) Dmitrov and (20) Auger-Alisiama but you could tell right away that Djokovic was gonna stomp this guy. Going through (6) Zverev and (14) Raonic was enough to get Djoker up to speed, but avoiding (3) Thiem, (7) Rublev and (2) Nadal pretty much handed him the trophy. 

I watched Medvedev over (5) Tsitsipas in the semis and I gotta say: Tsitsipas had the win of the tourney coming back from two sets to beat Nadal, but I wasn't impressed with him at all in the semis. Felt like Medvedev was in control throughout the match. I also watched Medvedev over (7) Rublev in the quarters and, uh, yeah, Rublev was even more Baumer than Medvedev was in that one. 

Nice to have tennis back, I was skeptical and this tourney got off to a shaky start, but once they got going this was good fun.