February 15, 2023 • 30 mins
Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley reflects on "the biggest Grand Slam in the history of Grand Slams" and reveals what went on behind the scenes, we get to know Czech teen sensation Linda Fruhvirtova and her younger sister Brenda who are taking the tennis world by storm, and AusOpen.com's Matt Trollope joins The AO Show for an update on the kings and queens of Rod Laver Arena following Novak Djokovic's historic championship and reveals whose record the 10-time winner has in his sights for AO24.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The time for talking is over.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
The match clock showing four hours and twelve minutes.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Leave it all LOTSI josel a short four Indian inside Emrick.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
They're ronnic it.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
What's the smash like? It's good? Hes God good, It's about.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Love, says La La ten as Lou Prestka bitch.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hello everyone, and welcome to the AO Show for another
week of tennis news, news and interviews. I'm John hohoven
Us and here's what's coming up on the show. Craig
Tiley reflects on a record breaking Australian Open.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
The biggest Grand Slam ever in the history of.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Grand Slams, Sister Act, the rise of Linda and Brenda Froverteva.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
We don't really want people to compare us with Serena Arenas,
you know, because we just want to do.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Us and record hunter. Who does know that Djokovic have
next in his sights for AO twenty four.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
She wants to thirty three matches in a row, so
I know that could surpass that with a deep run.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
That's all ahead on the aoshow. Watching the tennis in
a country that I'm visiting for holidays.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
The atmosphere just people all enjoying themselves and coming together
and Melbourne looking at it's best good atmosphere like many activities,
and it looks amazing.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
I just love the people for the atmosphere.
Speaker 5 (01:27):
Well, we're from America and I've seen the US Open
fleshy meadow of this facility and this socility is phenomenal.
I mean what they've done here, Craig Daily's done here
is pretty special.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Pretty special. Indeed was Australian Open twenty twenty three. More
than eight hundred and thirty nine thousand fans through the
gates of Melbourne Park across the main draw, eclipsing the
previous attendance record by more than twenty five thousand, which
must be music to the years of the tournament director
Craig Tiley, welcome back to the aoshow.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Don't if it feels like a day, a week, a month,
a year, but it's great to be back and it's
screate to be back. Now off, we've completed a monumental
summer of tennis and we're very proud of what was achieved.
If you bring in the qualifying, which is the first
year we ticketed the qualifying this year, it was great
to welcome that many fans only actually have a nine
(02:17):
hundred thousand fans with qualifying over three weeks in January, it.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Just occurred to me that as we are recording this
ten thirty on the sixteenth was exactly a month after
the opening of the gates for Day one.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yeah, the month goes by quickly. When you start the event,
you think, oh, we've got a big mountain to climb,
and then before you know it, it's finished. And it's
always a time that I actually I love the finals,
but I don't enjoy the fact that it's over because
there's such a buzz and the amount of adrenaline that
runs through everyone during that period of time, I think
is pretty high and it's magnificent feeling to be able
(02:53):
to entertain fans from around the world and particularly people
from Australia and Victoria and to do what we did.
So I'm very proud of what was achieved. The biggest
Grand Slam ever in the history of Grand Slams.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, that is some title, and I want to take
your mind back to some of the great action we
saw on court throughout the tournament. A new champion in
the women's side, and who would have thought that the
best women's match would be reserved for Day thirteen.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
It was an unbelievable final, the best I've seen, and
both deserve a lot of credit because they are great
tennis players and it's fantastic to see on the women's
side of the game. I've always said it, and I
don't want to get too far down the track on
the discussion around equality. We made a decision over thirty
five years ago to offer equal prize manage to men
(03:39):
and woman women. It wasn't popular, and kodos to the
people that made that call because it would have been
one that came with a lot of criticism. But we've
perpetuated and kept that going, and the investment in women's
and men's tennis has been the same, has been equal
all along the journey.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
It's a business.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Decision, and there was a great example primetime Saturday night
around the world in Australia. You see some of the
best tennis played by two remarkable female athletes. And so
it's great to be sitting courtside and watching that because
it was magnificent tennis, you know, and here you got
someone like Sabalanka who's always been on the verge of
(04:15):
making that breakthrough when he a slam here and doing
so well, being really excited about it, and I know
the next morning, on top of been really tired, she
really enjoyed the accoletes who received and be able to
get dressed up and enjoy the trophy walk.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
So much had been written about the turmoil she went
through over the past twelve months with her servant. You
would have seen some of that emotion last year. I
think she had ninety nine double faults in January of
twenty twenty two. To see a player overcome those sorts
of mental demons and then come out the other side
as the best in the world effectively, well.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
As a former coach, I look with more of a
critical eye at all these things, and for an athlete
to turn around their experience like that, serving nearly one
hundred double faults, which is remarkable. It's giving away one
hundred points ninety nine points actually handing them to your opponent,
and at this level you don't win when you do that,
(05:11):
you have no chance. But to go from that to
where she was and how she played the summer is
really a remarkable achievement. So credit to her coaches, to herself,
because ultimately is on her she's one has got to
do it, and her approach to pressure. She was playing
a Grand Slam final and there was talk about that's
going to break down because it's a Grand Slam fire
and the pressure is high, but she stepped up and
(05:34):
it just shows not any resilience but the remarkable athlete
that she actually is. And I think we're going to
see a lot more of her play at that level
and she's realized now how good she is and the
world of seeing how good she is and behind the scenes,
really easy to deal with, always got a smile, very
friendly to everyone, and you know, she's a high performing athlete,
(05:55):
so they were going to always be on edge, but
she has a nice, nice way about it for sure.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Sixteen Australian opens as tournament director. Ten of those have
been won by one man, Novak Djokovic. It's almost incomprehensible
how successful he's been here.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
It's kind of like rough at winning fourteen it Roll
and Garris on the clay, but this is remarkable. Is
the hard courts the beginning of the year. There's a
lot of variables that can make that change, and he's remarkable.
I haven't in you know, I haven't been around an
athlete so maniahally focused on performance every single day, every
(06:35):
single minute of every single day, as he is, and
the results speak for themselves. This was a particularly emotional
year for Novak. Novak came in. I could see the
tension on his face when I saw him the first time,
and we'd met a few times last year, and I
know that you knew that he was feeling nervous about
coming back to Australia. He was very nervous when he
(06:57):
first arrived and flew directly into Adelaide, and and there
was a lot of press and talk around him coming
in and him being booed, and I kept on saying
that you need to give much bigger credit to the
Australian sporting public that enjoy the sport, come watched it.
We are the fairest in the world and when we
when we're observing greatness, we respect it and we'll chair accordingly.
(07:20):
And that's exactly what happened. And he was really welcome
back and went through a tough time last year for
a number of different reasons and and you know, primarily
driven by his own choice, but but I saw the
negativity that swirled around everything that happened and experienced it.
But he came in and once he got settled, I
(07:41):
think in Adelaide, Adelaide did a magnificent job. South Australia
did really well with their sport, did a magnificent job
welcoming him. And once he got settled, and then he
started to play. And then I watched him play that
final at the Adelaide International and and get just get
over the top when he probably should have lost that quarter. Yeah,
we'll get play again, said Quarters, who's a great play
(08:01):
with great player.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
For the future too.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
And then a new coming in here.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
It's going to be tough to be That's a real
show of faith by you in the Australian sporting public
because this can be a hostile environment, I guess politically
at times away from the sporting field. But for you
to have the faith in our fans to say to Novak,
you know, they're fair, they appreciate greatness, they will respect
what you do.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
It's it's so true. You know, while we talked earlier
about the players make the I mean the players make
the event, the staff put on make the event, but
the fans are the biggest part of the event. And
I did I sold Novak the whole time, and everyone said, oh,
you're just saying that, you know, You're just you're just
saying that that's how it's going to be. And I said, no,
I honestly believe I could be wrong, but I honestly
(08:45):
believe that's what's going to happen. You get, you get
the one or two individuals, but they're going to be
drowned out by those that are really enjoying it. And
it is what happened, and it is it will happen again.
And and I've I've said this from day one, even
before I moved to Australia, I thought this Astralian sporting
fan were the best because they really they have a
great passion for it. They understand it, and everyone comes
(09:06):
to it and we respect it. And so I think
that's that's why it's a privilege for the players to
play in front of the fans they.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Do, and a real privilege to come together on the
Wednesday night before the tournament for tennis plays for Peace
in support of victims of the war in Ukraine and
tell us about the success of that event.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
It seems every year there's an issue globally that we support,
and this was a special one because there is a
large part of our tennis playing community that adversely affected
by this, and they really are good people. I had
a long conversation with one of the Ukrainian coaches and
it was a very emotional conversation because you know, he
basically told me that him, the team and his athletes
(09:49):
they can't go home, and so then they get on
a plane. Everyone else can go home if they want
to take a break. Next week they can go home.
But he said next week, we don't know there were going.
We don't know whether if it's the next tournament, that
hotel will be our home. We did our part to
support as best as we can the Ukrainian athletes and
(10:09):
it was great to be able to raise money and
donated to you to play for peace, and Ukrainian players participated. Alexi,
who's the young Ukrainian male player, was the first time
he ever qualified for ALAM and he was still playing
qualifying then and I said to him, we're going to
(10:30):
have you come and play with these greats of the game.
He had never met Rougha, he had never met these
players before.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
That scary stuff.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Actually, it was very and I could see and he
could see his hands were sweating, and this is a
professional player and he was still in the qualifying and
I said, the first thing we're going to do is
we're going to interview you in front of these fifteen
thousand people and millions watching around the world. And his
mouth went completely dry. And Todd interviewed him at the
beginning of that and he did a great job, and
then he went and played some at the end and
(10:56):
he told me afterwards, he said that was his best
tennis experience he ever had in his life.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
And then he went on and qualified.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
He played unbelievable tennis and he got into the main
draw and it was great that he left the country
making about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Fantastic. And it doesn't stop there because since the Australian
Open has concluded, the horrific scenes coming out of Turkia
and Syria from the earthquakes and the tragedy in terms
of loss of life and destruction there. But once again
the tennis world comes together.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yep, and it's just again another opportunity for us to
use our platform to do good and we ultimately have
that responsibility, we believe it. And the tennis community are
filled with really good people that are compassionate, that have
a lot of humility, and I don't want to help others.
And we're a global sport like soccer is. I played
in every federation, every country around the world, every region
(11:46):
around the world, and I think we have an obligation
and I've always felt that we as an organization have
an obligation particularly to support those in Australia, but then
globally because with the global nature that we are to
do what we can. So we've made a contribution, financial
contribution and will continue to do activities as best as
we can to support because we also have tennis players
(12:06):
from Turkey and tennis players from Syria that have been
them and their family has been impacted by this tragedy.
So and there'll be more, unfortunately in the world that
will continue to do it, and we'll continue to use
the platform and the seven governing bodies in tennis. Tennis's
probably has this advantage because it's so many governing bodies,
is more there's resources to do it. But there's the
(12:26):
four Grand Slams, the International Tennis Federation and the Men's Tour,
the a Top and the women's to the WTA, all
independent governing bodies, but when it comes to as we
come together very quickly and very easily.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Tennis Plays for Love is the name of this particular
fundraising campaign, another testament to the power of sport and
community to rally around social causes. Craig, you'll be delighted
to hear that the AO show is now has now
moved to a weekly format, so we'll be hearing hopefully
catching up with you a lot more frequently. Be busy,
but it's also an opportunity for you to speak to
(12:58):
the global audience about the Sustralian Open and what plans
you have in store for AO twenty four. So get
your thinking cap on.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
I will.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
We'll say that for the next chat because we're working
through those plans. But really exciting stuff you'll see. There's
gonna be the return of some things we missed over
the last three years for twenty twenty four. I don't
want to give it away too much, but there's going
to be some there'd be different things on site people
are going to see, and the expanded side again people
are going to see. And you know, I think that
we did come to learn I was really nervous about
(13:28):
having on one day we had ninety five thousand people
on side, and I was really nervous that the experience
was not going to be good. But the way we
spread out the side of the activities and twenty four
will be even more, you know than those people. That
amount of people that came could kind of have a
good time. But you know, as long as we're reducing
queues and it's easy to get into the into the
venue and it's easy to get something to eat and drink,
and that's objective to make it as easy as possible
(13:49):
each year as well. So excited to talk about what's
coming up.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Build it and they will come. Craig, thank you very
much for joining us on the AO show off to
the United States soon.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
For coming up in a couple of weeks. Obviously back
on the road again and looking forward against seeing not
any of the players, but you know our own team,
Australian team and Australian team of players. And obviously that's
a great thing about Australia. It's far away and it's
not great thing when you want to fly.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
That's true when the shoes on the others, but it's
not great, all right, thanks, Greg, We'll catch up soon.
The team dream continues that it's into the round of sixteen.
Let Clemson listen to this crowd. She may be the
(14:34):
youngest player inside the WTA Top one hundred, but Linda
Fraverteva's stunning run to the fourth round of the Australian
Open was something to behold. In just her second Grand
Slam main draw campaign, the seventeen year old took down
Australians Jamie Foolis and Kim Birell before dispatching fellow check
marquete Vandrussova in the third round.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
It feels pretty surreal. It's an incredible feeling, and she's
so happy and excited to be able to say hi
second week. You know.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Travertova's arrival on the big stage has seemingly come from nowhere,
but for those who followed her twenty twenty two season,
it's no surprise. At the Miami Open, the then sixteen
year old saw off Dunkan kovnich Elisa Mertens and Victoria
as a Rinker to reach the round of sixteen. She
qualified for the US Open, where she won her first
(15:26):
major main draw match against one she knew, and then
the highlight of her year winning her maiden WTA singles
title in Schennai by toppling Australian Open semi finalist Magdalinette.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
I knew I had the level to compete against these
kind of players on this high level, but you know,
it's always harder to show it than in the matches,
you know, and to win these kind of matches because
the women's level, you know, I think top one hundred.
You know, anybody can beat anybody. So when you have
the opportunity, you just got to take it or loose.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Linda's ability isn't the full extent of the tennis talent
In the fravert of a family, younger sister Brenda, is
also turning heads after an incredible twenty twenty two season
in which he won eight IF titles and recorded a
twenty seven match winning streak. The sister's rapid development certainly
helped by their time at the Marotoglu Academy in France
(16:21):
under the direction of Patrick Morotogler.
Speaker 6 (16:23):
I think those two girls are really really special. I
think they have a huge potential. They're incredible fighters. Bost
of them. They have this competitiveness on the court that
is difficult to teach because some people are able to
play the best when it's important on the big matches.
They find a way to win matches that you don't
expect them to win because on the paper the other
(16:44):
one's better, and they're able during the matches to feel
the moments when they have to press on the accelerator,
slow down, play slowly, fast because they feel the game
so much because they have learned to win.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
It's high from the man who coached Serena Williams for
the last decade of her career, but the sisters are
happy carving their own path in tennis.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
I don't think it's respectful for Serena and Wenas, you know,
to talk to such a private things. You know. It's
like go and we don't really want people to compare
us with Serena and Weenas, you know, because they're legends
so far sport, and we don't want to like copy anybody,
you know. We just we just want to do us.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Linda's success in Melbourne this year has seen her climb
another twenty seven spots to world number fifty two, firmly
entrenching her on the Grand Slam stage, and the teen
has no fear pushing the boundaries even further.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
I think I'm just staying positive and enjoying my time
on the cord, serving pretty well, and you know, just
sticking to my game and going for it.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
You can read more about Linda Fraverteva and plenty of
other great stories in the Australian Tennis Magazine, available via
Tennis dot mag dot com dot au. Earlier this season,
we brought you a conversation with oz open dot COM's Matrolopen.
It was about his feature on ozopen dot com called
The Kings and Queens of rod Laver Arena. Welcome back
(18:16):
to the aoshow, Matt.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Thanks for having you back. That feels like about two
years ago now it doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yeah, let's say a lot of water and the tennis
world has gone under the bridge. And part of the
reason why we've got you back on the show is
to bring us up to date with some of the
changes that we've seen to some of your top ten
tables that we discussed during that episode.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah, and thanks to Novak's incredible performance at AO twenty
twenty three, there was some movement in those tables and
coming into this tournament that was definitely a narrative or
a plotline that I had my eye on, knowing that
had he or should he play and win all of
his matches on Rod Laver Arena, there was every chance
that he was going to go on and create some
(18:56):
history at Melbourne Park, which is what happened. So yeah,
I guess we can we can dig into that.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Yeah, we speculated a little bit about it at the time,
just you know, crystal balling what might have played out.
But at the most basic level, he was sitting fourth
on most match wins before the tournament started with sixty eight.
So what's happened now in the rankings order?
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Well, so he's gone by having played in one all
seven of his matches at Rod Laver Arena this year.
He now has seventy five wins, which puts him he
leaped frog Nadal into third most wins on the historic
table and now he's only two behind Serena Williams, who's
second on the list. So I mean, yeah, that's another
you know, someone else he's kind of clawed back. If
he doesn't own the record himself already, he's got he
(19:40):
probably need to win. What would it be if he's
at seventy five he'd need to win three more Australian
opens to overtake Roger Federer, who leads the way with
ninety three wins at Rod laverna or two and a half.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Yeah, Australia maybe quarter final, Yeah he.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Needs which is you know, that would put Novak at
what almost thirty eight years of age, So I'm not
sure if that would happen. But the he looks, he
looks indestructible.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
So that's at the most basic level, simple match wins.
But then we get a little bit more complex. Let's
talk about winning rate.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Yeah, Novak has now played eighty two matches at Rod
Laver Arena in his career and he's won seventy five
of them, so seventy five and seventy five wins and
seven losses, And that puts him in a winning rate
of ninety one point four to six percent, And that
is creeping up to within what half a percentage point
(20:28):
of Monica Sellers, who has the all time all time
record of ninety one point eight nine percent. And this
is for okay, so there are a handful of players
who have an undefeated one hundred percent match winning rate
at Rod Laver, but they've only played one match.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Right, so where do you what's the cutoff for eligibility
to reach you know, to be in the capital.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Well, to be honest, it would be two. It'd be
two matches because there's no player that's two to no
at rodelaver Arena. There's only league. Yeah, it is interesting.
There's a handful of players with that made one appearance
on the court, won their match, and never returned. We
can we can dig too that in another story or
series that I appreciate those people are.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
It's going to be a lower ranked player who's produced
an upset against a big name.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Correct, And there are some names on there that like
even a real tennis buff may not be very aware of.
So yes, that is a piece in itself. But what
was it? The criteria I set for this was a
minimum of ten matches labor. But yeah, apart from yeah,
the one hundred percent is one and oh's yeah, anyone
else is kind of in the running in this stat
(21:27):
So yeah, Monica Sella's with thirty four wins and three losses,
has the best winning rate or winning percentage.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
And to give people an indication of just how hard
it is to improve winning rate, he started the Australian
Open at ninety point six seven. Yes, and he's climbed
only to.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Not even a full percentage point. So yeah, so you
could see when I was updating the tables every day
after the five matches at Rod Laver Arena each day,
which got less and less as the tournament went on. Yeah,
he was the incremental rises and I think worked out
before the beginning of the tournament he wouldn't catch Sellers
even if he won all seven of his matches. But yeah,
(22:06):
he's certainly getting close. So maybe that's something that we
could look at for in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Should we do it now?
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah, let's rush it live.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
I like, bring out the calculators. So at the moment,
he is seventy five out of eighty two. Yes, So
let's just say he reaches the final again. So let's
say wins six, all right? Would that be enough?
Speaker 1 (22:27):
So it would be eighty one out of eighty.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Eight eighty eight, yes, is ninety two percent.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
So he would have to reach the final next year
to overtake Sellers probably or maybe semi final.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Let's take it back one, okay, So let's do five
wins all.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Right, So eighty of eighty seven. Is that what we're
looking at?
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Ninety one point nine, So that's it.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Ah, that's it. So he'd have to win his way
through to the semi no, sorry, to the semifinal, right,
So that's something to look at for next year. But yes,
it does take a lot of time. As you said, the.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
More match as you spend on there, the harder it get.
Also the more chances you have to increase it. So
luck of the draw in that one. And finally, best
winning streak, which I think is the most interesting one, thought, yeah,
I love this one. So beforehand he appeared on their
three times I.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Think potentially three times in the top ten, definitely two
of the top five.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
He had a fourteen that started in twenty.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Okay, I didn't even remember that one, okay, Yes, and
then he had.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
A twenty two that started in twenty eleven but finished
in the quarter final of twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Yes, so there was. His all time best winning streak
was twenty two matches, set from twenty eleven to twenty fourteen,
and he entered this tournament on a current twenty one
match winning streak, and that began at the twenty nineteen
Australian Open, so that was the winning streak that he
built on this time. So with seven more wins, it
took him to twenty eight consecutive wins, and that was
(23:49):
another one that he was kind of chasing Monica Seller's
on well were there were a couple of players ahead
of him on that list, so he had to equal
his own historic best winning streak of twenty two, and
then he had On Agacy, Martina Hingis both on twenty five,
a twenty five match winning streak at Rodelover Arena, and
then the best performed was Monic Casellis, who had a
twenty six unbeaten run on that court. So yeah, by
(24:11):
winning seven, Yeah, that was something that I really enjoyed
watching him kind of tick over and click over and
catch these people.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Yea, And there was a lot written about that, I think,
especially when he surpassed Andre Agassi because like for like
on the men's tour, that was significant achievement. What about
night matches though for Novak Djokovic.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Well that was something I know dug into a little
bit more as the tournament got underweight. So he's only
lost twice at night in the past decade. It's very rare.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
I do remember a day match when he lost to
Dennis Isteman, correct, that was, yes, twenty seventventeen, yes, but yes,
so that was daytime to Istaman.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Then the last loss before that was twenty ten that
was at night to Songer, but other losses came in
the day before that, so yeah, it's very rare. In fact,
his first ever match at Rod laver Arene it was
in two thousand and five against Marrett Saffin, so he
was the underdoor at night and he lost that and
Saffon went on to win the tournament. So Rod, his
first ever appearance on the court was at night. It
(25:10):
wasn't a very successful time for him then champion, but
it was the eventual champion and he was very young.
But he's gone on to build an incredible record at night.
So his record, he's winning streak under lights at Rodeloverreina
currently now stands at twenty three wins. And by the
time in the men's tournament, if you get deep in
the tournament, the semifinals and well up until last year,
(25:32):
both semi finals plus the final are always at night,
so yeah, he's had plenty of them because he always
wins here. He's so good at Melbourne Park. He has
plenty of opportunities to play at night by virtue of
when those matches are scheduled. Yeah, it's one of the
toughest tasks in tennants. They say, Rod, what is it?
Rafae and the Dale at Roland Garros Corfilli Charcio is
the toughest test in tennis. So this has to be
a close second.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Yep, which is remarkable given the success we've seen from
other players previously, that he has become the unders disputed
king of Melbourne Park. You and I were just discussing
off earlier today that in the sixteen Australian Opens that
we've each covered, I think I'm right in saying that
Novak has won ten of them. He wasn't even here
(26:14):
for one of those, and the other six are shared
between three players, Federer with three and Nadar with two,
Vavrinka with one.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
That's pretty much all we know our entire history working
and covering this event, Novak pretty much always lifted the trophy.
My first Australian Open working here at the tournament was
two thousand and eight, and I remember that very distinctly
because that was the year the courts first became blue
So it's kind of this cool inflection point. And Novak
won that year, that was his first Grand Slam title.
(26:41):
It's just been the happiest of hunting grounds for him.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
There's a stat he's probably the winningest blue court player
in Grand Sea and Grand Slam history.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
It's not only the dominance of like he's so unbeatable
on the court, it's the length of time with which
this has happened. So he's got now this amazing stat
where his first his first victory was in two thousand
and eight, and fifteen years later he's still winning. That's
getting up with one of the longest ever. I think
it's the second longest span between first and most recent
(27:13):
victory at the same major tournament. Nadala No Nadal went
seventeen years between first and most recent rollin Garraysk and
so Djokovic has gone fifteen years between first and most
recent Australian So the longevity records that are now starting
to come out of what Jokovic does, it's an underreported
part of his story. I think he's thirty. He's turning
thirty six in a couple of months. We never talk
(27:35):
about his age like we do with other players. His
longevity is starting to become one of the defining features of.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
His career, which is interesting because he hasn't been unincumbered
by injury. There was that period with his elbow five
years ago where it was not that it was career
threatening by any stretch, but well it could have been.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
At the time, we weren't kind of sure what happened,
but it turned out, yes, but it turned out it
wasn't career threatening because of what he since bounced back
to do.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
It is interesting and in the words of Goroin Evanizovitch,
he's from out of space. Djokovic is now third on
most number of wins on Rod Laver Arena. His second
was improved his position in second in terms of winning
rate to Monica sell Us in first, and he has
built upon that longest winning streak to now sit top
of the table over Rod Laver Arena's thirty five thirty
(28:22):
six year history. If you include this edition with twenty
eight match wins in a row for his four championships
in a row.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
And I think so now it becomes about like what's
left to achieve and I think a couple of things
that we could look forward to next year, if Djokovic
comes back healthy and keeps winning at Melbourne Park, and
this is a statistic that doesn't actually just relate to
rod Laver Arena, this is tournament wide, would be the
longest winning streak at the tournament in its history. So
(28:51):
Monica Seller's again, I can't remember if this is Open
era or if this is just Melbourne Park specific, but
she won thirty three matches in a row. Ovac currently
on twenty eight could surpass that with a deep run next.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Year with again a quarter final.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Quarterfinal victory would see him equal that, And you go
back even further back to the coup young days. Margaret
Court has a winning streak of I think it was
we counted it up today. I can't remember thirty seven
matches from nineteen sixty to nineteen sixty seven Australian Open.
So I mean these are things that Djokovic still well.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
I mean beyond sixty seven. Was it sixty eight where she.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yes, she missed the sixty seven tournament, continued her streak
in sixty eight and lost in that final, So I mean,
you know that's pre Open era, and that's pre Melbourne
Park and very different draw sizes and stuff. But that
that is I think the as far as I'm aware,
that's the probably the record, so that would be two
Australian opens. A way, there's things for him still to do,
and I know he's very, very motivated by records and
(29:49):
history and greatness. If I'm not even sure if he's
aware of these statistics, but if he was, that would
give him another thing to shoot for.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Let's make him aware via the AO Show And I
was opened do Mattrolope, thanks for joining us once again,
a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Thanks John.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
That's all for this week's episode. Join me again next
week for the latest tennis news, views and interviews. And
before we go, Happy birthday to John McEnroe, Alex Stemenor,
who celebrated with a win over andre A rublev Opennight
and Madison Keys, all celebrating birthdays this week. If it's
your birthday coming up, let us know via ozopen dot com,
slash listen, or email The Aoshow at Tennis dot com
(30:26):
dot au. Don't forget to subscribe, and if you like
what you here, please rate and review so more fans
can discover The AO Show.
The time for talking is over.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
The match clock showing four hours and twelve minutes.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Leave it all LOTSI josel a short four Indian inside Emrick.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
They're ronnic it.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
What's the smash like? It's good? Hes God good, It's about.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Love, says La La ten as Lou Prestka bitch.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hello everyone, and welcome to the AO Show for another
week of tennis news, news and interviews. I'm John hohoven
Us and here's what's coming up on the show. Craig
Tiley reflects on a record breaking Australian Open.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
The biggest Grand Slam ever in the history of.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Grand Slams, Sister Act, the rise of Linda and Brenda Froverteva.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
We don't really want people to compare us with Serena Arenas,
you know, because we just want to do.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Us and record hunter. Who does know that Djokovic have
next in his sights for AO twenty four.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
She wants to thirty three matches in a row, so
I know that could surpass that with a deep run.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
That's all ahead on the aoshow. Watching the tennis in
a country that I'm visiting for holidays.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
The atmosphere just people all enjoying themselves and coming together
and Melbourne looking at it's best good atmosphere like many activities,
and it looks amazing.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
I just love the people for the atmosphere.
Speaker 5 (01:27):
Well, we're from America and I've seen the US Open
fleshy meadow of this facility and this socility is phenomenal.
I mean what they've done here, Craig Daily's done here
is pretty special.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Pretty special. Indeed was Australian Open twenty twenty three. More
than eight hundred and thirty nine thousand fans through the
gates of Melbourne Park across the main draw, eclipsing the
previous attendance record by more than twenty five thousand, which
must be music to the years of the tournament director
Craig Tiley, welcome back to the aoshow.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Don't if it feels like a day, a week, a month,
a year, but it's great to be back and it's
screate to be back. Now off, we've completed a monumental
summer of tennis and we're very proud of what was achieved.
If you bring in the qualifying, which is the first
year we ticketed the qualifying this year, it was great
to welcome that many fans only actually have a nine
(02:17):
hundred thousand fans with qualifying over three weeks in January, it.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Just occurred to me that as we are recording this
ten thirty on the sixteenth was exactly a month after
the opening of the gates for Day one.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yeah, the month goes by quickly. When you start the event,
you think, oh, we've got a big mountain to climb,
and then before you know it, it's finished. And it's
always a time that I actually I love the finals,
but I don't enjoy the fact that it's over because
there's such a buzz and the amount of adrenaline that
runs through everyone during that period of time, I think
is pretty high and it's magnificent feeling to be able
(02:53):
to entertain fans from around the world and particularly people
from Australia and Victoria and to do what we did.
So I'm very proud of what was achieved. The biggest
Grand Slam ever in the history of Grand Slams.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, that is some title, and I want to take
your mind back to some of the great action we
saw on court throughout the tournament. A new champion in
the women's side, and who would have thought that the
best women's match would be reserved for Day thirteen.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
It was an unbelievable final, the best I've seen, and
both deserve a lot of credit because they are great
tennis players and it's fantastic to see on the women's
side of the game. I've always said it, and I
don't want to get too far down the track on
the discussion around equality. We made a decision over thirty
five years ago to offer equal prize manage to men
(03:39):
and woman women. It wasn't popular, and kodos to the
people that made that call because it would have been
one that came with a lot of criticism. But we've
perpetuated and kept that going, and the investment in women's
and men's tennis has been the same, has been equal
all along the journey.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
It's a business.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Decision, and there was a great example primetime Saturday night
around the world in Australia. You see some of the
best tennis played by two remarkable female athletes. And so
it's great to be sitting courtside and watching that because
it was magnificent tennis, you know, and here you got
someone like Sabalanka who's always been on the verge of
(04:15):
making that breakthrough when he a slam here and doing
so well, being really excited about it, and I know
the next morning, on top of been really tired, she
really enjoyed the accoletes who received and be able to
get dressed up and enjoy the trophy walk.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
So much had been written about the turmoil she went
through over the past twelve months with her servant. You
would have seen some of that emotion last year. I
think she had ninety nine double faults in January of
twenty twenty two. To see a player overcome those sorts
of mental demons and then come out the other side
as the best in the world effectively, well.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
As a former coach, I look with more of a
critical eye at all these things, and for an athlete
to turn around their experience like that, serving nearly one
hundred double faults, which is remarkable. It's giving away one
hundred points ninety nine points actually handing them to your opponent,
and at this level you don't win when you do that,
(05:11):
you have no chance. But to go from that to
where she was and how she played the summer is
really a remarkable achievement. So credit to her coaches, to herself,
because ultimately is on her she's one has got to
do it, and her approach to pressure. She was playing
a Grand Slam final and there was talk about that's
going to break down because it's a Grand Slam fire
and the pressure is high, but she stepped up and
(05:34):
it just shows not any resilience but the remarkable athlete
that she actually is. And I think we're going to
see a lot more of her play at that level
and she's realized now how good she is and the
world of seeing how good she is and behind the scenes,
really easy to deal with, always got a smile, very
friendly to everyone, and you know, she's a high performing athlete,
(05:55):
so they were going to always be on edge, but
she has a nice, nice way about it for sure.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Sixteen Australian opens as tournament director. Ten of those have
been won by one man, Novak Djokovic. It's almost incomprehensible
how successful he's been here.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
It's kind of like rough at winning fourteen it Roll
and Garris on the clay, but this is remarkable. Is
the hard courts the beginning of the year. There's a
lot of variables that can make that change, and he's remarkable.
I haven't in you know, I haven't been around an
athlete so maniahally focused on performance every single day, every
(06:35):
single minute of every single day, as he is, and
the results speak for themselves. This was a particularly emotional
year for Novak. Novak came in. I could see the
tension on his face when I saw him the first time,
and we'd met a few times last year, and I
know that you knew that he was feeling nervous about
coming back to Australia. He was very nervous when he
(06:57):
first arrived and flew directly into Adelaide, and and there
was a lot of press and talk around him coming
in and him being booed, and I kept on saying
that you need to give much bigger credit to the
Australian sporting public that enjoy the sport, come watched it.
We are the fairest in the world and when we
when we're observing greatness, we respect it and we'll chair accordingly.
(07:20):
And that's exactly what happened. And he was really welcome
back and went through a tough time last year for
a number of different reasons and and you know, primarily
driven by his own choice, but but I saw the
negativity that swirled around everything that happened and experienced it.
But he came in and once he got settled, I
(07:41):
think in Adelaide, Adelaide did a magnificent job. South Australia
did really well with their sport, did a magnificent job
welcoming him. And once he got settled, and then he
started to play. And then I watched him play that
final at the Adelaide International and and get just get
over the top when he probably should have lost that quarter. Yeah,
we'll get play again, said Quarters, who's a great play
(08:01):
with great player.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
For the future too.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
And then a new coming in here.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
It's going to be tough to be That's a real
show of faith by you in the Australian sporting public
because this can be a hostile environment, I guess politically
at times away from the sporting field. But for you
to have the faith in our fans to say to Novak,
you know, they're fair, they appreciate greatness, they will respect
what you do.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
It's it's so true. You know, while we talked earlier
about the players make the I mean the players make
the event, the staff put on make the event, but
the fans are the biggest part of the event. And
I did I sold Novak the whole time, and everyone said, oh,
you're just saying that, you know, You're just you're just
saying that that's how it's going to be. And I said, no,
I honestly believe I could be wrong, but I honestly
(08:45):
believe that's what's going to happen. You get, you get
the one or two individuals, but they're going to be
drowned out by those that are really enjoying it. And
it is what happened, and it is it will happen again.
And and I've I've said this from day one, even
before I moved to Australia, I thought this Astralian sporting
fan were the best because they really they have a
great passion for it. They understand it, and everyone comes
(09:06):
to it and we respect it. And so I think
that's that's why it's a privilege for the players to
play in front of the fans they.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Do, and a real privilege to come together on the
Wednesday night before the tournament for tennis plays for Peace
in support of victims of the war in Ukraine and
tell us about the success of that event.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
It seems every year there's an issue globally that we support,
and this was a special one because there is a
large part of our tennis playing community that adversely affected
by this, and they really are good people. I had
a long conversation with one of the Ukrainian coaches and
it was a very emotional conversation because you know, he
basically told me that him, the team and his athletes
(09:49):
they can't go home, and so then they get on
a plane. Everyone else can go home if they want
to take a break. Next week they can go home.
But he said next week, we don't know there were going.
We don't know whether if it's the next tournament, that
hotel will be our home. We did our part to
support as best as we can the Ukrainian athletes and
(10:09):
it was great to be able to raise money and
donated to you to play for peace, and Ukrainian players participated. Alexi,
who's the young Ukrainian male player, was the first time
he ever qualified for ALAM and he was still playing
qualifying then and I said to him, we're going to
(10:30):
have you come and play with these greats of the game.
He had never met Rougha, he had never met these
players before.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
That scary stuff.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Actually, it was very and I could see and he
could see his hands were sweating, and this is a
professional player and he was still in the qualifying and
I said, the first thing we're going to do is
we're going to interview you in front of these fifteen
thousand people and millions watching around the world. And his
mouth went completely dry. And Todd interviewed him at the
beginning of that and he did a great job, and
then he went and played some at the end and
(10:56):
he told me afterwards, he said that was his best
tennis experience he ever had in his life.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
And then he went on and qualified.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
He played unbelievable tennis and he got into the main
draw and it was great that he left the country
making about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Fantastic. And it doesn't stop there because since the Australian
Open has concluded, the horrific scenes coming out of Turkia
and Syria from the earthquakes and the tragedy in terms
of loss of life and destruction there. But once again
the tennis world comes together.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yep, and it's just again another opportunity for us to
use our platform to do good and we ultimately have
that responsibility, we believe it. And the tennis community are
filled with really good people that are compassionate, that have
a lot of humility, and I don't want to help others.
And we're a global sport like soccer is. I played
in every federation, every country around the world, every region
(11:46):
around the world, and I think we have an obligation
and I've always felt that we as an organization have
an obligation particularly to support those in Australia, but then
globally because with the global nature that we are to
do what we can. So we've made a contribution, financial
contribution and will continue to do activities as best as
we can to support because we also have tennis players
(12:06):
from Turkey and tennis players from Syria that have been
them and their family has been impacted by this tragedy.
So and there'll be more, unfortunately in the world that
will continue to do it, and we'll continue to use
the platform and the seven governing bodies in tennis. Tennis's
probably has this advantage because it's so many governing bodies,
is more there's resources to do it. But there's the
(12:26):
four Grand Slams, the International Tennis Federation and the Men's Tour,
the a Top and the women's to the WTA, all
independent governing bodies, but when it comes to as we
come together very quickly and very easily.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Tennis Plays for Love is the name of this particular
fundraising campaign, another testament to the power of sport and
community to rally around social causes. Craig, you'll be delighted
to hear that the AO show is now has now
moved to a weekly format, so we'll be hearing hopefully
catching up with you a lot more frequently. Be busy,
but it's also an opportunity for you to speak to
(12:58):
the global audience about the Sustralian Open and what plans
you have in store for AO twenty four. So get
your thinking cap on.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
I will.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
We'll say that for the next chat because we're working
through those plans. But really exciting stuff you'll see. There's
gonna be the return of some things we missed over
the last three years for twenty twenty four. I don't
want to give it away too much, but there's going
to be some there'd be different things on site people
are going to see, and the expanded side again people
are going to see. And you know, I think that
we did come to learn I was really nervous about
(13:28):
having on one day we had ninety five thousand people
on side, and I was really nervous that the experience
was not going to be good. But the way we
spread out the side of the activities and twenty four
will be even more, you know than those people. That
amount of people that came could kind of have a
good time. But you know, as long as we're reducing
queues and it's easy to get into the into the
venue and it's easy to get something to eat and drink,
and that's objective to make it as easy as possible
(13:49):
each year as well. So excited to talk about what's
coming up.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Build it and they will come. Craig, thank you very
much for joining us on the AO show off to
the United States soon.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
For coming up in a couple of weeks. Obviously back
on the road again and looking forward against seeing not
any of the players, but you know our own team,
Australian team and Australian team of players. And obviously that's
a great thing about Australia. It's far away and it's
not great thing when you want to fly.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
That's true when the shoes on the others, but it's
not great, all right, thanks, Greg, We'll catch up soon.
The team dream continues that it's into the round of sixteen.
Let Clemson listen to this crowd. She may be the
(14:34):
youngest player inside the WTA Top one hundred, but Linda
Fraverteva's stunning run to the fourth round of the Australian
Open was something to behold. In just her second Grand
Slam main draw campaign, the seventeen year old took down
Australians Jamie Foolis and Kim Birell before dispatching fellow check
marquete Vandrussova in the third round.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
It feels pretty surreal. It's an incredible feeling, and she's
so happy and excited to be able to say hi
second week. You know.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Travertova's arrival on the big stage has seemingly come from nowhere,
but for those who followed her twenty twenty two season,
it's no surprise. At the Miami Open, the then sixteen
year old saw off Dunkan kovnich Elisa Mertens and Victoria
as a Rinker to reach the round of sixteen. She
qualified for the US Open, where she won her first
(15:26):
major main draw match against one she knew, and then
the highlight of her year winning her maiden WTA singles
title in Schennai by toppling Australian Open semi finalist Magdalinette.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
I knew I had the level to compete against these
kind of players on this high level, but you know,
it's always harder to show it than in the matches,
you know, and to win these kind of matches because
the women's level, you know, I think top one hundred.
You know, anybody can beat anybody. So when you have
the opportunity, you just got to take it or loose.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Linda's ability isn't the full extent of the tennis talent
In the fravert of a family, younger sister Brenda, is
also turning heads after an incredible twenty twenty two season
in which he won eight IF titles and recorded a
twenty seven match winning streak. The sister's rapid development certainly
helped by their time at the Marotoglu Academy in France
(16:21):
under the direction of Patrick Morotogler.
Speaker 6 (16:23):
I think those two girls are really really special. I
think they have a huge potential. They're incredible fighters. Bost
of them. They have this competitiveness on the court that
is difficult to teach because some people are able to
play the best when it's important on the big matches.
They find a way to win matches that you don't
expect them to win because on the paper the other
(16:44):
one's better, and they're able during the matches to feel
the moments when they have to press on the accelerator,
slow down, play slowly, fast because they feel the game
so much because they have learned to win.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
It's high from the man who coached Serena Williams for
the last decade of her career, but the sisters are
happy carving their own path in tennis.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
I don't think it's respectful for Serena and Wenas, you know,
to talk to such a private things. You know. It's
like go and we don't really want people to compare
us with Serena and Weenas, you know, because they're legends
so far sport, and we don't want to like copy anybody,
you know. We just we just want to do us.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Linda's success in Melbourne this year has seen her climb
another twenty seven spots to world number fifty two, firmly
entrenching her on the Grand Slam stage, and the teen
has no fear pushing the boundaries even further.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
I think I'm just staying positive and enjoying my time
on the cord, serving pretty well, and you know, just
sticking to my game and going for it.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
You can read more about Linda Fraverteva and plenty of
other great stories in the Australian Tennis Magazine, available via
Tennis dot mag dot com dot au. Earlier this season,
we brought you a conversation with oz open dot COM's Matrolopen.
It was about his feature on ozopen dot com called
The Kings and Queens of rod Laver Arena. Welcome back
(18:16):
to the aoshow, Matt.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Thanks for having you back. That feels like about two
years ago now it doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yeah, let's say a lot of water and the tennis
world has gone under the bridge. And part of the
reason why we've got you back on the show is
to bring us up to date with some of the
changes that we've seen to some of your top ten
tables that we discussed during that episode.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah, and thanks to Novak's incredible performance at AO twenty
twenty three, there was some movement in those tables and
coming into this tournament that was definitely a narrative or
a plotline that I had my eye on, knowing that
had he or should he play and win all of
his matches on Rod Laver Arena, there was every chance
that he was going to go on and create some
(18:56):
history at Melbourne Park, which is what happened. So yeah,
I guess we can we can dig into that.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Yeah, we speculated a little bit about it at the time,
just you know, crystal balling what might have played out.
But at the most basic level, he was sitting fourth
on most match wins before the tournament started with sixty eight.
So what's happened now in the rankings order?
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Well, so he's gone by having played in one all
seven of his matches at Rod Laver Arena this year.
He now has seventy five wins, which puts him he
leaped frog Nadal into third most wins on the historic
table and now he's only two behind Serena Williams, who's
second on the list. So I mean, yeah, that's another
you know, someone else he's kind of clawed back. If
he doesn't own the record himself already, he's got he
(19:40):
probably need to win. What would it be if he's
at seventy five he'd need to win three more Australian
opens to overtake Roger Federer, who leads the way with
ninety three wins at Rod laverna or two and a half.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Yeah, Australia maybe quarter final, Yeah he.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Needs which is you know, that would put Novak at
what almost thirty eight years of age, So I'm not
sure if that would happen. But the he looks, he
looks indestructible.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
So that's at the most basic level, simple match wins.
But then we get a little bit more complex. Let's
talk about winning rate.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Yeah, Novak has now played eighty two matches at Rod
Laver Arena in his career and he's won seventy five
of them, so seventy five and seventy five wins and
seven losses, And that puts him in a winning rate
of ninety one point four to six percent, And that
is creeping up to within what half a percentage point
(20:28):
of Monica Sellers, who has the all time all time
record of ninety one point eight nine percent. And this
is for okay, so there are a handful of players
who have an undefeated one hundred percent match winning rate
at Rod Laver, but they've only played one match.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Right, so where do you what's the cutoff for eligibility
to reach you know, to be in the capital.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Well, to be honest, it would be two. It'd be
two matches because there's no player that's two to no
at rodelaver Arena. There's only league. Yeah, it is interesting.
There's a handful of players with that made one appearance
on the court, won their match, and never returned. We
can we can dig too that in another story or
series that I appreciate those people are.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
It's going to be a lower ranked player who's produced
an upset against a big name.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Correct, And there are some names on there that like
even a real tennis buff may not be very aware of.
So yes, that is a piece in itself. But what
was it? The criteria I set for this was a
minimum of ten matches labor. But yeah, apart from yeah,
the one hundred percent is one and oh's yeah, anyone
else is kind of in the running in this stat
(21:27):
So yeah, Monica Sella's with thirty four wins and three losses,
has the best winning rate or winning percentage.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
And to give people an indication of just how hard
it is to improve winning rate, he started the Australian
Open at ninety point six seven. Yes, and he's climbed
only to.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Not even a full percentage point. So yeah, so you
could see when I was updating the tables every day
after the five matches at Rod Laver Arena each day,
which got less and less as the tournament went on. Yeah,
he was the incremental rises and I think worked out
before the beginning of the tournament he wouldn't catch Sellers
even if he won all seven of his matches. But yeah,
(22:06):
he's certainly getting close. So maybe that's something that we
could look at for in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Should we do it now?
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah, let's rush it live.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
I like, bring out the calculators. So at the moment,
he is seventy five out of eighty two. Yes, So
let's just say he reaches the final again. So let's
say wins six, all right? Would that be enough?
Speaker 1 (22:27):
So it would be eighty one out of eighty.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Eight eighty eight, yes, is ninety two percent.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
So he would have to reach the final next year
to overtake Sellers probably or maybe semi final.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Let's take it back one, okay, So let's do five
wins all.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Right, So eighty of eighty seven. Is that what we're
looking at?
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Ninety one point nine, So that's it.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Ah, that's it. So he'd have to win his way
through to the semi no, sorry, to the semifinal, right,
So that's something to look at for next year. But yes,
it does take a lot of time. As you said, the.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
More match as you spend on there, the harder it get.
Also the more chances you have to increase it. So
luck of the draw in that one. And finally, best
winning streak, which I think is the most interesting one, thought, yeah,
I love this one. So beforehand he appeared on their
three times I.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Think potentially three times in the top ten, definitely two
of the top five.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
He had a fourteen that started in twenty.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Okay, I didn't even remember that one, okay, Yes, and
then he had.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
A twenty two that started in twenty eleven but finished
in the quarter final of twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Yes, so there was. His all time best winning streak
was twenty two matches, set from twenty eleven to twenty fourteen,
and he entered this tournament on a current twenty one
match winning streak, and that began at the twenty nineteen
Australian Open, so that was the winning streak that he
built on this time. So with seven more wins, it
took him to twenty eight consecutive wins, and that was
(23:49):
another one that he was kind of chasing Monica Seller's
on well were there were a couple of players ahead
of him on that list, so he had to equal
his own historic best winning streak of twenty two, and
then he had On Agacy, Martina Hingis both on twenty five,
a twenty five match winning streak at Rodelover Arena, and
then the best performed was Monic Casellis, who had a
twenty six unbeaten run on that court. So yeah, by
(24:11):
winning seven, Yeah, that was something that I really enjoyed
watching him kind of tick over and click over and
catch these people.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Yea, And there was a lot written about that, I think,
especially when he surpassed Andre Agassi because like for like
on the men's tour, that was significant achievement. What about
night matches though for Novak Djokovic.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Well that was something I know dug into a little
bit more as the tournament got underweight. So he's only
lost twice at night in the past decade. It's very rare.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
I do remember a day match when he lost to
Dennis Isteman, correct, that was, yes, twenty seventventeen, yes, but yes,
so that was daytime to Istaman.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Then the last loss before that was twenty ten that
was at night to Songer, but other losses came in
the day before that, so yeah, it's very rare. In fact,
his first ever match at Rod laver Arene it was
in two thousand and five against Marrett Saffin, so he
was the underdoor at night and he lost that and
Saffon went on to win the tournament. So Rod, his
first ever appearance on the court was at night. It
(25:10):
wasn't a very successful time for him then champion, but
it was the eventual champion and he was very young.
But he's gone on to build an incredible record at night.
So his record, he's winning streak under lights at Rodeloverreina
currently now stands at twenty three wins. And by the
time in the men's tournament, if you get deep in
the tournament, the semifinals and well up until last year,
(25:32):
both semi finals plus the final are always at night,
so yeah, he's had plenty of them because he always
wins here. He's so good at Melbourne Park. He has
plenty of opportunities to play at night by virtue of
when those matches are scheduled. Yeah, it's one of the
toughest tasks in tennants. They say, Rod, what is it?
Rafae and the Dale at Roland Garros Corfilli Charcio is
the toughest test in tennis. So this has to be
a close second.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Yep, which is remarkable given the success we've seen from
other players previously, that he has become the unders disputed
king of Melbourne Park. You and I were just discussing
off earlier today that in the sixteen Australian Opens that
we've each covered, I think I'm right in saying that
Novak has won ten of them. He wasn't even here
(26:14):
for one of those, and the other six are shared
between three players, Federer with three and Nadar with two,
Vavrinka with one.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
That's pretty much all we know our entire history working
and covering this event, Novak pretty much always lifted the trophy.
My first Australian Open working here at the tournament was
two thousand and eight, and I remember that very distinctly
because that was the year the courts first became blue
So it's kind of this cool inflection point. And Novak
won that year, that was his first Grand Slam title.
(26:41):
It's just been the happiest of hunting grounds for him.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
There's a stat he's probably the winningest blue court player
in Grand Sea and Grand Slam history.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
It's not only the dominance of like he's so unbeatable
on the court, it's the length of time with which
this has happened. So he's got now this amazing stat
where his first his first victory was in two thousand
and eight, and fifteen years later he's still winning. That's
getting up with one of the longest ever. I think
it's the second longest span between first and most recent
(27:13):
victory at the same major tournament. Nadala No Nadal went
seventeen years between first and most recent rollin Garraysk and
so Djokovic has gone fifteen years between first and most
recent Australian So the longevity records that are now starting
to come out of what Jokovic does, it's an underreported
part of his story. I think he's thirty. He's turning
thirty six in a couple of months. We never talk
(27:35):
about his age like we do with other players. His
longevity is starting to become one of the defining features of.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
His career, which is interesting because he hasn't been unincumbered
by injury. There was that period with his elbow five
years ago where it was not that it was career
threatening by any stretch, but well it could have been.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
At the time, we weren't kind of sure what happened,
but it turned out, yes, but it turned out it
wasn't career threatening because of what he since bounced back
to do.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
It is interesting and in the words of Goroin Evanizovitch,
he's from out of space. Djokovic is now third on
most number of wins on Rod Laver Arena. His second
was improved his position in second in terms of winning
rate to Monica sell Us in first, and he has
built upon that longest winning streak to now sit top
of the table over Rod Laver Arena's thirty five thirty
(28:22):
six year history. If you include this edition with twenty
eight match wins in a row for his four championships
in a row.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
And I think so now it becomes about like what's
left to achieve and I think a couple of things
that we could look forward to next year, if Djokovic
comes back healthy and keeps winning at Melbourne Park, and
this is a statistic that doesn't actually just relate to
rod Laver Arena, this is tournament wide, would be the
longest winning streak at the tournament in its history. So
(28:51):
Monica Seller's again, I can't remember if this is Open
era or if this is just Melbourne Park specific, but
she won thirty three matches in a row. Ovac currently
on twenty eight could surpass that with a deep run next.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Year with again a quarter final.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Quarterfinal victory would see him equal that, And you go
back even further back to the coup young days. Margaret
Court has a winning streak of I think it was
we counted it up today. I can't remember thirty seven
matches from nineteen sixty to nineteen sixty seven Australian Open.
So I mean these are things that Djokovic still well.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
I mean beyond sixty seven. Was it sixty eight where she.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yes, she missed the sixty seven tournament, continued her streak
in sixty eight and lost in that final, So I mean,
you know that's pre Open era, and that's pre Melbourne
Park and very different draw sizes and stuff. But that
that is I think the as far as I'm aware,
that's the probably the record, so that would be two
Australian opens. A way, there's things for him still to do,
and I know he's very, very motivated by records and
(29:49):
history and greatness. If I'm not even sure if he's
aware of these statistics, but if he was, that would
give him another thing to shoot for.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Let's make him aware via the AO Show And I
was opened do Mattrolope, thanks for joining us once again,
a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Thanks John.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
That's all for this week's episode. Join me again next
week for the latest tennis news, views and interviews. And
before we go, Happy birthday to John McEnroe, Alex Stemenor,
who celebrated with a win over andre A rublev Opennight
and Madison Keys, all celebrating birthdays this week. If it's
your birthday coming up, let us know via ozopen dot com,
slash listen, or email The Aoshow at Tennis dot com
(30:26):
dot au. Don't forget to subscribe, and if you like
what you here, please rate and review so more fans
can discover The AO Show.
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