Sinner trembles, Swiatek walks through Melbourne

“Keep doing Iga things,” describes the organization of the Australian Open. That is, the Polish woman continues to distribute donuts in Melbourne, imparting her 6-0 law: one to Sramkova, another to Raducanu and the latter to Eva Lys, who celebrates the game she won in the second set as an absolute victory, taking into account where she came from – replicated of the previous phase—and how Warsaw is spending these days. A whirlwind that, for the moment, does not stop spinning and sweeping: 6-0 and 6-1. The dynamics are overwhelming: 11 games have been conceded in the first four games of the tournament; four, four!, in the last three. And he explains that he is only doing what he has to do, with that coldness that is his own: “I’m still… 23 years old, is it 23? So there is still a lot to improve.”

Swiatek does not stop or dwell on what he has achieved so far, as if everything other than the final victory next Saturday was superfluous. Win or win, triumph or succeed to regain the lost throne. So she firmly grips the steering wheel and firmly presses the accelerator, already classified for the quarterfinals—Emma Navarro will be her opponent—and eager to leave behind the dark clouds of recent times, because there have been many. The drop in level and the loss of leadership of the circuit was joined by the stain: trimetazidine in his body; to sleep and combat jet lagshe argued. And after the dubious management of the punishment—one month, because there was no intention, according to the International Tennis Integrity Association (ITIA)—he welcomes the news.

Unlike the sinner caseyours will not be appealed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and, therefore, you can breathe easy. “WADA experts have confirmed that this scenario of melatonin contamination that the tennis player presented and that was accepted by the ITIA is admissible and there are no scientific grounds to take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS),” it was reported. this Monday, which means that Swiatek will be able to concentrate exclusively on playing from now on, which he does not do badly at all. With physical and hammer blows, gnawing at her rivals as if they were ears of corn, she advances and reinforces the message that she is there like a rock, stony-stony, ready to break the ceiling of the semifinals reached in 2022.

Rybakina, seventh favorite, falls and Madison Keys, Elina Svitolina, Navarro and she progress, surely freed. The ATP number one, Jannik Sinner, is not, the Italian pending the ruling that will determine in April whether the clostebol (anabolic steroid) found in two anti-doping controls carried out in March in Indian Wells reached his body voluntarily or not. Meanwhile, he, champion of the last edition and dominator with an iron fist since June, continues winning and conceding rounds towards the final episode. But if the other days he resolved without any major setback, beyond the set awarded in the second round to Schoolkate, this time he trembles. His right hand vibrates during the break, uncontrollably, the result of wear and stress accumulated against Holger Rune: 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 and 6-2 for him.

“I didn’t feel too good, but I don’t want to delve into it,” he says in the conference room, knowing that in the next round he will meet the enthusiasm of the local public, Alex de Miñaur, superior to Alex Michelsen and with donut (6-0, 7-6(5) and 6-3), like Swiatek. “It has been seen that it has cost me physically. I have played against a great rival, and at the same time I competed with myself. They are very hard conditions, we all suffer. And nothing happens to my left leg, I usually walk leaning on it; “It has simply been a question of health,” he explains on a day with a crisp and deceptive 33 degrees, a misty sky but a spicy sun that reddens, above all, white, Tyrolean skin like his, but not Lorenzo Sonego’s, dark-skinned and the scourge of the young people these days; first João Fonseca, now Learner Tien (6-3, 6-2, 3-6 and 6-1).

Melbourne mourns the unfortunate farewell of Gael Monfils, a 38-year-old veteran who navigates the claustrophobic world of tennis and who projects a very different discourse: first life, then tennis. After several days of beating, his body can’t take it and even though he managed to snatch a set from the bomber Ben Shelton, he can’t finish. History says that he and the German Tommy Haas are the most fragile players, or the least resistant, as you prefer; Between withdrawals and resignations, the two accounted for 33 absences.