Aussie Bites: The Mother is on an assignment

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Nuts and Bolts

The Upshot: We have semifinalists! The top-half's are set and leave it to a mom – but she's a cool mom – to spoil the party.

• [1] Carlos Alcaraz vs. [3] Alexander Zverev (6-6)
• [1] Aryna Sabalenka vs. [12] Elina Svitolina (5-1)

How It Happened:

• The last (and only) time Elina Svitolina beat Coco Gauff was at Melbourne Park in 2021. Coco was just 16, Elina was the No.5 seed and not yet a mom, and she pocketed their second-rounder in straight sets. Coco had bested her ever since, but the Auckland champion snapped her two-match skid to Gauff with an pitch-perfect performance to remain undefeated on the season and make her first Australian Open semifinal. Coco was at a complete loss in her 59-minute 6-1, 6-2 loss, while Elina put together yet another perfect blend of aggression and physicality to set up a semifinal clash of the two undefeated women of 2026.
• Aryna Sabalenka also lost just three games to a young American to make the semifinals, but 18-year-old Iva Jovic made that match seem far closer than the scoreline of 6-3, 6-0.

• Alex de Minaur threw everything at Carlos Alcaraz, but the bare-armed man did what he does. He won 7-5, 6-2, 6-1.
• Zverev served 24 aces to hold off another outstanding performance from Learner Tien, winning 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-1, 7-6(3) to return to the semifinals. Learner had a set point in the fourth set but was serve-botted, and that was pretty much that.

Up next:

Highlights and Reads

• I don't like them and I've never liked them: These cameras shouldn't be there. This isn't a player lounge or gym or warmup area. It's an underground walkway that more often than not also has employees and volunteers who are just trying to do their job. You don't need these cameras and the players, most notably Sloane Stephens, have complained about them from the start. Let the players have this. (The Athletic)

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• Temperatures hit 40C/114F at Melbourne Park on Tuesday, and while the singles quarterfinals were all played on Rod Laver Arena, where a roof is available. And I did not know that the heat might impact the wheelchair players in a very different and significant way. (BBC)

Although all players are affected by the temperature extremes, Lapthorne has highlighted the additional physical challenges facing wheelchair competitors.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, the 35-year-old defending quad wheelchair men's doubles champion said: "There are players within our category that can't sweat if they've got a spinal cord injury.

"They don't have the ability to cool down, so it can be quite dangerous if they're in really extreme heat.

"I've had [cramp] in my forearms before because we're pushing a wheelchair as well as hitting the ball and once that gets hold you, it can be very difficult to stop."

• The heat could cost Tennis Australian $1M in lost revenue. (The Guardian)

• Linda Pearce – a legend! – reports that the Craig Tiley to USTA move is imminent. (The First Serve AU)

The fact that the Australian Open is the only one of the four Grand Slams where the Tournament Director is also the national association's CEO surely means that when the all-powerful Craig Tiley announces as early as next week that he is joining the USTA, Tennis Australia will be left with two key roles to fill.

Few administrators are as closely identified with an event as Tiley, who has run the AO since 2006, and led the governing body as well since succeeding Steve Wood in 2013 - and that is by design, not by chance.

And the fact that Tiley has refused to kill speculation around his imminent exit, with comments including "everything has an end", has made this a major talking point and compelling subplot to the main event at Melbourne Park.

• Another good one from Fierce Pierce: Since when did "The Career Slam" become a thing? (The First Serve AU)

There's the Grand Slam (aka the pinnacle). A club with just Don Budge (1938), Maureen Connolly (1953), Rod Laver (1962, 1969) and Steffi Graf (1988) as members.

There's the Golden Slam (which adds the Olympic title in the same calendar year). Still Graf's exclusive domain. Then there's the career Grand Slam (all four majors, at least once), achieved by 18 singles greats, but just 10 in the Open era, and most recently Novak Djokovic in 2016.

Add the surface Slam (clay, grass, hard). Our Ash Barty has one of those. And the non-calendar variety that, for a time, was dubbed the 'Serena Slam', when Williams twice held all four majors simultaneously, as Djokovic, among active players, has also done.

Which prompts the question: Can so many Slam types ever be too many?

"I would say so, yeah," the legendary Ken Rosewall told The First Serve with a chuckle, having arrived in town on Tuesday to catch up with his old pal Laver and friends. "I've never heard of half of those ones that you've mentioned!"

• Exit Interview: Learner's learnings. (ATP)
• Unicorn spotted: Learner Tien celebrated a point:

• Thorough and important reporting from The Athletic: The WTA is set to investigate misconduct allegations, against Peyton Stearns' current coach, Rafael Font de Mora.

Shriver’s complaint relates to Font de Mora’s relationship with a player he coached in the 1990s and early 2000s in Arizona starting when she was 13.

The player, Meghann Shaughnessy, separated herself from her family to move into Font de Mora’s house, along with other tennis players, when she was 14 and he was 25. When she was 19, they became engaged. Shriver’s career ended just as Shaughnessy’s was beginning. Shriver’s coach, Don Candy, who died in 2020, was 50 and Shriver was 17 when their relationship moved beyond coaching. Shriver has said she now understands that the relationship, which lasted five years, was sexually and emotionally abusive.

She observed Font de Mora and Shaughnessy’s relationship in her capacity as a television broadcaster after she retired.

• Stat Roundup:

• Taylor Townsend is using her heartbreaking loss to Barbora Krejcikova at the US Open as fuel to get back where she belongs in singles. (US Open)
• Here's Ben Rothenberg's deep dive into the Australian Open's Heat Rule. (Bounces)
• What are tennis players looking for when they're looking to their box? (The Athletic)

• Well damn: The Italian Tennis Federation recorded the highest revenue of all the Italian federations, surpassing the Italian Football Federation. (Il Sole 24 Ora)
• Congrats to new mom Garbine Muguruza:

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• "Sinner and Alcaraz are rewriting the book of Kobe Bryant and Tom Brady." Tennis strategist Craig O'Shaunessy says the field isn't doing the work to analyze The Big Two. (AAP)
• Congrats to The Body Serve for hitting their GoFundMe! They dropped a banger:

• I definitely feel this:

• BUT, I've also seen a lot of wet-squib Slams be saved by one single epic match on Championship Weekend. No one ever remembers how the sausage was made. They just remember if the sausage was delicious or not. So let's see what happens.
• Today in "I feel seen":

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• Bop of the Day: A timeless banger.

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