Tennis

Top 5 post Australian Open questions

The dust has now settled following the first slam of the year, and several post-Australian Open questions have arisen. As expected, it was a highly entertaining tournament with plenty of twists and turns. And naturally, some events have raised more eyebrows than others.

This created the fuel to address the five most prominent post-Australian Open questions. After all, we had a first-time slam winner on the men’s side in the form of Jannik Sinner. As for the women’s side, while Sabalenka defended her title, we had a qualifier reach the semi-finals and a first-time finalist in the form of Qinwen Zheng. 

Post-Australian Open Questions

I stress these points because, clearly, times are changing in both the men’s and women’s games. There’s now growing talk of a Next Gen takeover on the men’s side, and the women’s side looks to be going through a shake-up too.

So, if you’re wondering what these significant post-Australian Open questions are, let me lay them out and answer them for you right now.

Post Australian Open questions – the 5 most important topics addressed

At the time of writing, it’s been just over a week since the 2024 Australian Open reached its conclusion. This has allowed enough time for many tennis fans to conduct a full debrief of the tournament. And following a complete debrief, some obvious post Australian Open questions have appeared. 

That said, let me outline the 5 questions that I’ll be addressing today before we continue:

  • Has Djokovic’s dominance come to an end?
  • Will Jannik Sinner be the next big thing in tennis?
  • Does the 15-day Grand Slam format work well?
  • Do standardized scheduling rules need to be implemented for all slams?
  • Should the men keep the five-set format for Grand Slam tournaments?

With these outlined, let me now dive into a comprehensive answer to each of these prominent post-Australian Open questions.

Has Djokovic’s dominance come to an end?

From an individual player angle, this is definitely the biggest question of them all. Many are starting to ask: can Djokovic win another Grand Slam? After all, his unbelievable streak in Melbourne came to a somewhat bizarre end at the hands of Jannik Sinner. 

With an almost mind-blowing number of unforced errors and a particularly subdued performance overall, Djokovic seemed totally out of sorts on Rod Laver Arena in the semi-finals. But while his streak has come to an end, I don’t quite believe that his dominance in men’s tennis has ended. 

After all, the man is human, despite how things seem at times! So it’s normal to have a blip every now and then. And for me, he will be back doing ‘Djokovic things’ before too long.

Will Jannik Sinner be the next big thing in tennis?

It’s funny – everybody has been talking about the incredible talents of Carlos Alcaraz for a couple of years now. Of course, he won a Grand Slam earlier than anticipated, and he became the youngest world number one of all time too. But while so many people were talking about Alcaraz, a young Italian was almost skating under the radar.

That man is Jannik Sinner – the winner of the 2024 Australian Open. At 22 years old, I believe he could be just as good, if not better than Carlos Alcaraz. His game is huge, his mental strength is undeniable, and he has a winning record against Alcaraz (4-3 in his favour). 

So, of all the post-Australian Open questions that could be asked, I feel this one is arguably the most important for the future of men’s tennis.

Does the 15-day Grand Slam format work well?

The third of my post-Australian Open questions relates to the actual format of the tournament itself. As you might recall, this was the first time that the Australian Open started on a Sunday, making it a 15-day event for the first time. 

2024 Post-Australian Open Questions

Subsequently, the schedule experienced less pressure than in previous years, and a record-breaking number of fans were able to attend the tournament – more than 1 million! Therefore, in my opinion, this change to a 15-day schedule worked perfectly, and I believe more slams should adopt this moving forward.

Do standardized scheduling rules need to be implemented for all slams?

In connection to the scheduling of the Australian Open, this question has been raised numerous times too. Fresh ATP and WTA rules dictate that no match should begin after 11 PM, yet the boundaries were pushed several times at the 2024 Australian Open. And again, many matches finished in the early hours of the morning.

One of the more extreme examples was Medvedev finishing at 03:40 AM against Ruusuvuori. Such a late finish is obviously detrimental for the players, and one has to question whether this ruins things for the fans too. 

For me, this has to change, and some form of standardized rules must be introduced across all four Grand Slam events.

Should the men keep the five-set format for Grand Slam tournaments?

The last of my post-Australian Open questions is one that has been looked at in the past. Talks have been held by the ATP Tour proposing changes to the five-set format in Grand Slam competitions, but nothing has been changed so far. That said, I am a firm believer that the five-set format needs to stay.

This format leads to incredible matches and plenty of entertainment for the fans, and let’s be honest – you cannot beat the excitement of watching a player overcome a 2-0 deficit!


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