Australian Open

[jimlosaltos]

It looks like Fonseca could very well in up in a quarterfinal showdown with Fritz. Medvedev, Musetti, and Sheldon are floating around in that quarter also though.

Fonseca - Medy is intriguing. Does Medy return from the cheap seats? Drop shots galore?

[stroke]

It looks like Fonseca could very well in up in a quarterfinal showdown with Fritz. Medvedev, Musetti, and Sheldon are floating around in that quarter also though.

[jimlosaltos]

Yeah I guess this is obvious, but I guess if you have a big forehand, you are going to have a huge serve, as they seem to be related. But what I noticed is he plays well in big points. On atptour.com, you can go to challenger TV and watch free tennis matches, and the matches are saved (so you can skip 10 seconds ahead to get to the point). I watched the recent challenger with him playing Ethan Quinn. He just overpowered Ethan Quinn, which is crazy because Ethan Quinn hits really, really hard. But there was one game I think he was down 0 - 40 on his serve and he came back and won that game.

I think that combination of forehand and serve, plus playing well in big points you are going to win a lot. The only thing I saw in the challenger is he would sometime go for too much and miss by a lot on some shots. But if it goes to his forehand, it is almost a guaranteed winner.

As for playing the big points well, Andrea Petkovic had an interesting observation: roughly, "Fonseca UPS his velocity on the big points - like Sinner. He was hitting about 11 mph faster in the tiebreak." Turns out she was right 145 kph or about 90 MPH Ave in the first time.

can't upload the the image but 145 kph vs 134 kph before.

[stroke]

https://open.substack.com/pub/hughclarke/p/australian-open-update-round-1?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1t7zzc

[neilchok]

Yeah I guess this is obvious, but I guess if you have a big forehand, you are going to have a huge serve, as they seem to be related. But what I noticed is he plays well in big points. On atptour.com, you can go to challenger TV and watch free tennis matches, and the matches are saved (so you can skip 10 seconds ahead to get to the point). I watched the recent challenger with him playing Ethan Quinn. He just overpowered Ethan Quinn, which is crazy because Ethan Quinn hits really, really hard. But there was one game I think he was down 0 - 40 on his serve and he came back and won that game.

I think that combination of forehand and serve, plus playing well in big points you are going to win a lot. The only thing I saw in the challenger is he would sometime go for too much and miss by a lot on some shots. But if it goes to his forehand, it is almost a guaranteed winner.

[stroke]

You keep mentioned him for Roland Garros and I'm starting to believe !

Supposedly that his best surface. If this is what he's like on his non-best surface I want see him on clay !

And Monte Carlo, Rome, and Madrid. I expect his ranking will really shoot up during this clay court season.

[jimlosaltos]

Great news for La Monf, not so good for Gio, the French veteran won in 5 sets.

Sadly, Gio played like a "Serve Bot", got 19 aces BUT didn't have a single break point against 38 year old, part time ATP Monfils. I hope that is a temporary regression for Gio.

[jimlosaltos]

Thai player that took Daniil Medvedev to 5 sets was playing in his first ATP Main Draw match ever. Was up 2-1 , i.e. would have on best of 3.

Special bye because AO positions itself as the "Asian Slam".

Medy: “I watched his matches and didn’t see this level, so I was surprised,” acknowledged Medvedev in his on-court interview. “If he plays like this every match, life can be good… I wish he can play like this every match. [Not] if I’m facing him. You need to be consistent to make it in tennis, and I wish this for him.”


Wiiki bio link here

Kasidit Samrej (Thai: กษิดิศ สำเร็จ; born 26 January 2001) is a Thai tennis player. He has a career high ATP singles ranking of world No. 413 achieved on 25 November 2024. He also has a career high ATP doubles ranking of No. 822 achieved on 12 June 2023.^[1] He is currently the No. 1 Thai player.^[2]

Samrej represents Thailand at the Davis Cup, where he has a W/L record of 10–8.^[3][4]

Samrej won the Asia-Pacific Wildcard Playoff for the 2025 Australian Open,^[5] making him the first Thai man to compete in the singles event in a Grand Slam tournament since Danai Udomchoke at the 2012 Australian Open.^[6][7] He lost in the first round to fifth seed Daniil Medvedev in five sets.^[8][9]

[jimlosaltos]

Rublev played a very good match. 33 winners, 25 errors over 3 sets is good stuff. Fonseca looks like at the very least the number 3 favorite at RG.

You keep mentioned him for Roland Garros and I'm starting to believe !

Supposedly that his best surface. If this is what he's like on his non-best surface I want see him on clay !

[jimlosaltos]

Yes he hit that inside-out backhand beautifully a number of times. de Minaur also played some excellent inside-out backhands against his opponent today. It's a shot we are seeing more of these days from a number of players and I am not sure why.

I'd guess it's a delayed reaction to all the players with huge forehands running around more and more of them? Can't prove it numerically, but observationally -- soon lots of players will be like Domi Thiem of old hitting forehands from outside their backhand alley! ( Literally true in his case)

[stotty]

Dare I type this on this forum?, his inside-out backhand is Martina Hingis-esque

filedata/fetch?id=106345&d=1736880934&type=thumb

Yes he hit that inside-out backhand beautifully a number of times. de Minaur also played some excellent inside-out backhands against his opponent today. It's a shot we are seeing more of these days from a number of players and I am not sure why.

[stroke]

Rublev played a very good match. 33 winners, 25 errors over 3 sets is good stuff. Fonseca looks like at the very least the number 3 favorite at RG.

[jimlosaltos]

Sheer velocity, at only 18 years old and NOT a giant, Joao Fonseca serve at 140 MPH in his first round match and one of his forehands is the fastest of the event so far at 112 MPH. That's some company he's keeping on the forehand side.

filedata/fetch?id=106343&d=1736880830&type=thumb

Winners, winners all the time from everywhere. "Defense is dead" -- Zverev

filedata/fetch?id=106344&d=1736880868&type=thumb

Rublev was arguably outplaying Joao in the fist set, then the youngster took over with 7 fabulous shots in the tiebreak.
Dare I type this on this forum?, his inside-out backhand is Martina Hingis-esque

filedata/fetch?id=106345&d=1736880934&type=thumb

[jimlosaltos]

Great win for Fonseca. It was on the cards, as stroke predicted. In a game these days where everyone possesses a great forehand, Fonseca's is just that bit better than most. You simply cannot afford to leave anything sitting around or it's as good as toast. The thing is his backhand isn't too shoddy either - in fact it is beautifully produced. It will be interesting to see how far he goes in the tournament. He seems a decent bloke...not too much drama.

Even though we saw it coming it's still stunning this fast, this soon.

[stroke]

https://www.eurosport.com/tennis/australian-open-men/2025/who-is-joao-fonseca-brazilian-teen-andrey-rublev_sto20071081/story.shtml