Talking points, draw, Lleyton Hewitt statue, issues, Daniil Medvedev secret, latest news, analysis

In an age where older athletes are tossed aside similar to a child discarding its favourite old toy in favour of a new, shiny one, Indian doubles sensation Rohan Bopanna continues to defy belief.

Bopanna, at the ripe age of 43, will sit atop the ATP men’s doubles ranking for the first time in his career at the conclusion of the Australia Open after he and Aussie gun Matt Ebden combined to beat No. 6 seeds Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) in the quarterfinals.

It is a remarkable achievement for Bopanna and a testament to his incredible persistence and longevity in the sport, having first competed in a grand slam doubles tournament at Wimbledon in 2008.

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Bopanna hadn’t even had a chance to check his phone after the game to respond to congratulatory messages, one of which might’ve even come from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

After all, Modi had previously congratulated Bopanna for winning the gold medal in mixed doubles alongside Rutuja Bhosale at the 2022 Asian Games.

It’s not entirely out of the question to say this achievement wouldn’t have happened without Ebden.

Since the two united to become a doubles pairing at Wimbledon last year, they have made the semi finals at three consecutive grand slams, winning 13 of 15 matches.

Nor would it have happened without his trusty Belgian physio, Rebecca Van Orshaegen.

Bopanna, by his own admission, has no cartilage left in his knees.

“It’s (knees) completely worn out,” Bopanna told media at his post-match press conference.

So when he was speaking to Van Orshaegen last year, he gave her a very specific set of limitations of what he could and couldn’t do when it came to training.

“I need to strengthen my quads, strengthen my hamstrings and glutes specifically because then I won’t have any pain playing these matches,” Bopanna said.

Bopanna also credited his discover of Iyengar yoga when Covid first broke out as another key factor in prolonging his time on the tour.

“I tried a lot of different methods for my knees,” Bopanna said.

“Unfortunately it was not working.

“And I think yoga in a way not only strengthened my legs, my body, but also, I think made me calmer on the tennis court.

“You know, it kind of really helped me focus a lot better. I don’t feel rushed on the tennis court. You know, I think clearly there.”

Who knows how long Bopanna’s Indian summer will last.

But as long as he and Ebden are competing together, the 43-year-old will continue to defy those who feel a need to obsessively look towards the future generations for the next superstar.

ANOTHER LLEYT FINISH

Another delayed start to a night session at Melbourne Park? “C’mon.”

This time, though, there was good reason for the slightly paused start to the quarterfinals as former world No.1 Lleyton Hewitt was inducted into the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame.

The former Wimbledon and US Open champion became the 47th player to earn elevation into the company of Australia’s most distinguished tennis players after a fine career.

Having entered into bronzed immortality, the bust of Hewitt will now join some of the players he revered while representing Australia with distinction in Davis Cup and on the world stage.

The Davis Cup captain was joined by his wife Bec and two of his children Cruz and Ava, along with his parents Glynn and Cherilyn. Australian No.1 Alex de Minaur also attended.

Rod Laver, Margaret Court, Ken Rosewall, Frank Sedgman and John Fitzgerald were among those watching on as Hewitt posed ahead of Wednesday night’s quarterfinals.

Hewitt, who debuted in the Australian Open as a 15-year-old in 1997 and reached the final in 2005, said it was an “unbelievable honour for me to think back where my journey started”.

“As a 15-year-old, coming here and qualifying for the Australian Open for the first time, I always dreamt to just be able to play once here,” Hewitt said.

“To end up playing 20 years in a row and now get this incredible honour and be alongside all the greats that I looked up to in Australian tennis over so many years, a lot of those guys were like big brothers or even father figures to me out there.”

SLAM BOLTERS’ SHOT AT HISTORY

Defending Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka and reigning US Open champion Coco Gauff headline the night session on Rod Laver Arena on Thursday night.

While there is widespread belief this is the effective final of the women’s singles, that does a significant disservice to the talented Qinwen Zheng and Dayana Yastremska.

Almost two years ago Zheng announced herself a star of the future when leaving

Simona Halep, a former Roland Garros champion, gasping and on the verge of panic.

In a second-round match played on the beautiful garden court in Paris, the dual-grand slam champion was struggling to breath as the winners continued to whistle past her.

Playing in just her second grand slam tournament, the 19-year-old Zheng played with the audacity of a champion in waiting, striking the ball with substantial topspin and power.

Halep, who is currently suspended on a doping violation, later blamed a panic attack for her struggles. But anyone sitting courtside left knowing they had seen a star in the making.

A couple of years on from that victory in May, 2022, Zheng reached a grand slam semi-final for the first time by defeating Anna Kalinskaya 6-7 (4) 6-3 6-1 on Wednesday.

Zheng, who will enter the top 10 for the first time regardless of how she fares against Dayana Yastremska on Thursday night, is an ascending star from an awakening giant.

The 21-year-old is the youngest Chinese player in the Open era to reach the last four of a major, surpassing the deeds of Zheng Jie at Wimbledon in 2008.

Opta Ace statisticians said Zheng is the fourth Asian in the Open era to reach a grand slam semi-final before the age of 22, joining Kazuko Sawamatsu, Hyeon Chung and Naomi Osaka.

A decade after her famous compatriot Li Na claimed the Australian Open, Zheng is now one victory away from playing for the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Trophy on Saturday night.

It has been a remarkable rise for the right-hander from the Hubei province of China who now has a training base in Spain.

After renowned coach Wim Fisette opted to return to coach Osaka in her comeback to the tour just after the midway point of last year, Zheng was stunned and upset by the decision.

But she has rebounded in formidable fashion. After reaching the quarterfinals of the US Open, she claimed a gold medal at the Asian Games, an important achievement in China.

Yastremska, too, is enjoying a breakthrough moment in Melbourne, having come from qualifying to reach the last four of the Australian Open.

The 23-year-old had a horrendous experience in Australia a few years ago when she arrived in the country while serving a provisional doping suspension, which she failed to overturn initially.

She was then forced to serve two weeks of strict quarantine after arriving in Melbourne on a charter flight featuring Covid-positive passengers, which added to her turmoil.

The hard-hitting right-hander, who was ultimately successful in having her appeal against the ban upheld, is among the Ukrainians reeling from the Russian invasion of their country.

But it has not affected her performance in Melbourne, with the qualifier only two wins away from matching the unbelievable deed of Emma Raducanu at the US Open in 2021.

She is only the fourth player in the last 40 years to reach this stage by defeating only Top 50 ranked rivals, matching the deeds of Gabriela Sabatini, Martina Hingis and Dominika Cibulkova.

MEDVEDEV MASTERCLASS DELIGHTS

In the moments after Daniil Medvedev prevailed in a marathon on Rod Laver Arena, he delivered another masterclass in tennis tactics to fans watching around the world.

After defeating Nino Borges a couple of days ago, the 2021 US Open champion provided an insight into his preferred position to return serve during an interview with Jim Courier.

It was illuminating, for among the quirks that have taken the Russian to the top is his predilection for returning serve near the sponsorship billboards on courts around the world.

“You call me a master of a return but I don’t think so, because my return from close (in the) court is, I don’t think, that good,” he told Courier after his triumph over Borges.

“What it makes me do is, when I am (standing way back), I can kind of hit a normal topspin shot because when the ball comes to me it is in a good position.

“In that one moment, I understood that is where my return is the best and I started playing better.”

Medvedev explained that it allowed him to have some space and it also made it less likely he was going to hit the return long given the distance he stands behind the baseline.

It was the type of insight Fox Cricket viewers have long been treated through from the likes of Brian Lara, Shane Warne, Mark Waugh and Mike Hussey. It would be valuable to tennis.

But Medvedev is as wily as he is a master of tennis hardcourts around the world.

Fast forward to Wednesday’s quarterfinal against Hubert Hurkacz, who had won their two most recent outings, and the No.3 seed was standing far closer to the baseline to return.

He revealed after his 7-6 (4) 2-6 6-3 5-7 6-4 triumph over the No.9 seed in a tick of the clock shy of four hours that he had kept something up his sleeve heading into the quarterfinal.

“It was funny because after in the press conference, they were also asking me about the return,” he told John McEnroe on the Rod Laver Arena.

“They were like, ‘when do you decide to go forward? Are you going to decide?’

“In my mind I knew that against Hubi, who has an amazing serve and volley (and is) probably the only one where even if I stay really far back, the ball continues (to rise), it doesn’t really work to stay there.

“Talking to Jim, talking in the press conference, I was like, ‘I know I’m not going to stay close (to the baseline). But I’m not going to tell you guys right now.’”