Aussie Bites: Monkey. Never. Cramp.

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Nuts and Bolts

Results | Updated Draws

• The Upshot: The searing heat descended on Melbourne Park and all hell broke loose. Jannik Sinner looked like he was ready to tap out due to cramping, but was saved by the heat rule. Naomi Osaka withdrew due to a left abdominal injury that sprung up in her last match against Sorana Cirstea. And Stan Wawarinka went down swinging against Taylor Fritz. Oh, and Novak Djokovic casually made some history. Big day!
• Bracket buster: So...who had No. 168 Maddison Inglis in the Round of 16?

Day 8 Order of Play

• The first three rounds are in the books and now it's time for business. The Round of 16 kicks off with the top half.
  • Men's Matches: In three of the four matches, the lower-ranked player owns a winning record against the higher-ranked player. INTRIGUING.
    • [1] Carlos Alcaraz vs. [19] Tommy Paul (5-2)
    • [10] Alexander Bublik vs. [6] Alex De Minaur (2-3)
    • [3] Alexander Zverev vs. [18] Francisco Cerundolo (2-3)
    • [11] Daniil Medvedev vs. [25] Learner Tien (1-2)
  • Women's Matches: How crazy would be – for a variety of reasons – if the top-half quarterfinal slate was comprised of 19yo Mboko, 18yo Jovic, 21yo Gauff, and 18yo Andreeva?
    • [1] Aryna Sabalenka vs. [17] Victoria Mboko (first meeting)
    • Yulia Putintseva vs. [29] Iva Jovic (first meeting)
    • [3] Coco Gauff vs. [19] Karolina Muchova (4-0)
    • [12] Elina Svitolina vs. [8] Mirra Andreeva (0-1)

Day 7 Highlights

• The story of the day was the Australian Open's ever-evolving and always dramatic Heat Rule. Now, the AO's Heat Rule and I go way back. Some might say we were the Learner Tien and Daniil Medvedev of our time, but with less mutual respect. Now we are reunited and, I gotta say...we're cool now!
• At least, we're cooler than either Jannik Sinner or Eliot Spizzirri were feeling when they took the court this afternoon on Rod Laver Arena, where the aforementioned Heat Rule very likely saved Jannik's tournament. Here's how The Athletic summed it up:

The two-time defending champion was severely cramping midway through his third-round match against Eliot Spizzirri, the American world No. 85. With temperatures approaching 100 degrees (38 Celsius) and trailing 2-1 in the third set after splitting the first two, Sinner could barely serve and was struggling to move. Spizzirri broke serve to go up 3-1 after a Sinner serve clocked at 69 mph, well below even a slow second serve.

But during the game, the Australian Open’s Heat Stress Scale (HSS), which takes into account air temperature, radiant heat (or the strength of the sun), humidity and wind speed, ticked up to 5.0. Tournament rules mandate that once it does, play stops at an even number of games, and with four played in the third set, it was time to close the roof on Rod Laver Arena and for the players to exit the court.

• That perfectly timed break, which again, was automatically triggered when the HSS – which I understand to be an automated reading – hits 5.0, gave Sinner time to cool down and regroup. He won in four sets and admitted afterwards that he "got lucky". (The Guardian)

• So no, there was no tomfoolery here. Craig Tiley did not just order a heatbreak when he saw a Sincaraz final begin to fade like the photo in Back to the Future. The rule is important – I'm very happy the ATP finally adopted it – and it's not just about player health and safety. In case people forget, the players aren't the only ones in the building. Fans pay good money for tickets, why not let them watch in comfort? Seeing people pass out left and right like we saw at Wimbledon last year, is not fun! And if it's reasonably avoidable, why wouldn't we avoid it? Is it fun for everyone to see ballkids running around a court that's so hot they can't even put their hands down on the surface to balance themselves during points? And no, no one is arguing that they should slap the roof as much as possible – though climate change is certainly propelling it towards that eventuality – but when the weather is so hot that the Melbourne trams have to slow down because the metal tracks are expanding...come on. This is not a complex riddle. Tennis is not an XGame.
• But it was certainly a lucky break for the two-time defending champion. That's not his fault.

• Speaking of luck, Novak Djokovic smacked a ball that narrowly missed hitting a ballkid. Thank goodness it didn't. He went on to beat Botic van de Zandschulp in three sets to become the first player in the Open Era with 400 Grand Slam wins. He gets Jakub Mensik next. (The Athletic)
• The match-up that DID get wiped away was the potential Round of 16 between Iga Swiatek and Naomi Osaka. As Swiatek was losing the second set to Anna Kalinskaya in the evening session, Osaka announced her withdrawal from the tournament, citing an abdominal injury she appeared to sustain against Sorana Cirstea. Osaka took an off-court medical timeout in that match.

• Swiatek went on to beat Kalinskaya 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 to move into the Round of 16, where she will face Australian qualifier Maddison Inglis, who got the walkover to make her first Grand Slam Round of 16.

• Taylor Fritz took advantage of the indoor conditions to end Stan Wawrinka's Australian Open career, winning 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. Stan's final winner at Melbourne Park was a doozy, an absolutely ripped cross-court backhand that served as a fitting curtain call for the 2014 champion.

• Here's his full on-court retirement ceremony, which ended with Stan cracking a beer:

• Ben Shelton was all business in his straight-set win over Valentin Vacherot, putting four Americans into the Round of 16 – he joins Fritz, Tommy Paul, and Learner Tien. He'll play Casper Ruud. Vacherot threw everything at Big Ben, including this remarkable tribute to MARTY SUPREME:

• Madison Keys' title defense will have to go through her podcast partner Jessica Pegula. That's right, we have our first Players Box Derby. Keys and Pegula blitzed through their third-round matches.

• Wang Xinyu scored the upset of the day after toppling 13th seed Linda Noskova 7-5, 6-4. Her reward? An Amanda Anisimova who is absolutely firing on all cylinders. She has not lost more than five games in a match so far.

• F them kids: Elena Rybakina and Elise Mertens will face in the fourth round after beating the Czech teens Tereza Valentova and Nikola Bartunkova.

Daily Reads

• If Jess wins, she wants Madi to try her beloved apple pie and cheese combo. Madi's a no on that. (BBC)

Whatever the outcome of their last-16 meeting, Keys does not believe it will have a negative effect on their friendship.

"We could literally be friends and laughing until the moment we walk on the court, and then in that moment, we both want to win and we both are competitors. We're going to do whatever we can to get the 'W'.

"The moment it's over, you're back to being friends.

"I think it's one of those things that I actually really love about tennis, because it's taught a lot of us how to manage our friendships and relationships and be able to genuinely love each other, and be close and all of that, but also still be really competitive."

• Eliot Spizzirri has so much to be proud of. He was incredible against Sinner. He was all class. (Tennis.com)
• Victoria Mboko has signed with Rolex to be a Global Brand Ambassador. Big one. (Tennis.com)
• Madison Keys is truly The People's Champion. (Tennis.com)
• Is Sinner-Alcaraz in danger of making majors boring? (BBC)

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic dominated the men's game for the best part of two decades. Three is not always more compelling than two, and many French Open and Wimbledon draws felt highly predictable when Nadal and Federer were in their prime.

But there was also the threat of Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka, who won three Grand Slam titles each, with Murray in particular racking up a significant number of wins against the 'Big Three'.

Recent evidence shows that Alcaraz and Sinner's chief rivals enjoy little success against them anywhere.

Novak Djokovic had a famous win over Alcaraz at last year's Australian Open, but both world number three Alexander Zverev and fifth-ranked Lorenzo Musetti lost all five matches they played against the pair in 2025.

World number six Alex de Minaur, meanwhile, lost seven of seven, and has never beaten either man in 18 meetings.

• Naomi Osaka says the left abdominal injury that forced her out of Melbourne is something she's had before. (The Guardian)

The two-time Australian Open champion said in written comments shared with press that it was an injury she had experienced “a couple of times” previously. “I thought I could push through it. I played my last match with some pain, and I thought maybe if I gave myself a break before my match today, I would be able to handle it, but I warmed up, and it got a lot worse,” he said, adding she still needed to see doctors.

“I definitely have to do more tests and coming back from pregnancy, my body changed quite a lot. So this is something I have to be really cautious of.”

• Ben Rothenberg sat down with Learner Tien and Michael Chang for a lengthy chat. (Bounces via Substack))
• Simon Briggs is bullish on Serena Williams returning to the WTA Tour this year. (The Telegraph)
• Jonathan Jurejko takes a hard look at The State of British Tennis. (BBC)

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• Yes, it's true: There was just one teenager in the WTA Top 100 this time last year. (The Athletic)
• Carole Bouchard the person who put Vicky Mboko on my radar and she remains the Mboko Whisperer. She goes long on the Canadian teen, who you have to think will crack the Top 10 this year. (Tennis Sweet Spot via Substack)
• CNN caught up with the 1-Point legend, Jordan Smith. He should give Terence Atmane a call:

“I think a million where I’m living in Castle Hill would probably get you like a two-bedroom apartment, really. No water views or anything like that, so it just gives me a few more options with the area I want to go with. There’s maybe a house now instead of an apartment.”

And then there’s Pokémon.

“I enjoy Pokémon cards. I want to potentially maybe buy a couple of those. It’s just nostalgia, because I think growing up, it became pretty popular. When I was a kid, with my brothers as well, we’ve just always played a lot of games and obviously Pokémon-collecting is pretty popular now. So just the nostalgia really, collecting things, that’s cool!”

• If you are an enjoyer of eBooks and would prefer to buy them rather than check them out from the library – PLEASE GO GET YOUR LIBRARY CARD IF YOU DON'T ALREADY HAVE ONE – you should definitely sign up for the free newsletter from BookBub, who scour the internet for $2 book deals. I've been very impressed. Someone on Bluesky also pointed to eReaderIQ as another great option.
• I love BREATHLESS and I loved NOUVELLE VAGUE (streaming on Netflix). If you want a cozy thing to do this weekend, watch them back-t0-back. Do NOT watch NOUVELLE VAGUE if you haven't seen BREATHLESS, it won't make much sense. Love you, Linklater!
• Midnight Snack Review: HBAF Black Sesame Almonds. I love almonds, black sesame is top-tier, and Koreans do not miss. 9/10, find a H Mart near you and snag a bag.
• Bop of the Day: Yes, EMF had other songs.