Australian Tennis Magazine - August/September 2024 by Tennis Australia

KREJCIKOVA

STRENGTH

ALCARAZ NEXT

20 TEARS TO TRIUMPH

There was high emotion as Czech Barbora Krejcikova became the eighth diﬀ erent woman crowned at Wimbledon in the past eight years.

FEATURES

26 MAJOR MOTIVATION

Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson came within one point of winning the men’s doubles title during an extraordinary run at SW19.

28 OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

Fast-rising Australian teen Emerson Jones is celebrating new milestones both on and oﬀ the court.

14 NEXT LEVEL

The changing of the guard in men’s tennis seemed complete as Carlos Alcaraz soundly defeated Novak Djokovic to seize Wimbledon glory for a second straight year.

MANAGING EDITOR

Vivienne Christie

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

Leigh Rogers Dan Imhoﬀ

DESIGN

Andrea Williamson

FOUNDING EDITOR

Alan Trengove

Australian Tennis Magazine is published by TENNIS AUSTRALIA LTD, Private Bag 6060, Richmond, Vic 3121. Email: editor@tennismag.com.au

Distributed by Ovato

Printed in Australia by Ive

The views expressed in Australian Tennis Magazine are not necessarily those held by Tennis Australia. While the utmost care is taken in compiling the information contained in this publication, Tennis Australia is not responsible for any loss or injury occurring as a result of any omissions in either the editorial or advertising appearing herein.

The

46 LEADING WITH SPIRIT

CHAMPIONS of grace

If Carlos Alcaraz took his first major step towards a changing of the guard with victory over Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon men’s final a year ago, he sealed his status as a Grand Slam superstar when he replicated that feat in 2024.

While a rst triumph for the emerging Spaniard required four hours and 42 minutes of suspenselled tennis, Alcaraz was in full command throughout a straight-sets win over the seven-time champion this time around.

But having dominated the most decorated men’s Grand Slam champion in history, a gracious Alcaraz still spoke of him with full respect. “I beat him today, but for me Novak is still being like a Superman,” he smiled.

It’s one of many ways that Alcaraz – who boasts one of the most successful coach-player partnerships with former world No.1 Juan Carlos Ferrero in his corner – shows how he absorbed winning qualities from earlier greats of the sport.

“It’s unbelievable to have you there, I’m still learning from you,” said the 21-year-old as he acknowledged his support team in the trophy ceremony. Alcaraz is similarly respectful as he speaks of the blueprint that long-time idol Rafael Nadal provided in his young career.

For newly crowned women’s champion Barbora Krejcikova, the respect for both a former champion and a long-time mentor had an unmistakably poignant turn.

The Czech’s victory came 26 years after the late Jana Novotna, who passed away following a cancer battle in 2017, lifted the All England Club silverware in 1998.

A heartfelt Krejcikova spoke often of Novotna’s impact on her life and tennis career throughout her winning campaign. “Jana was the one that told me that I had the potential and that I should definitely turn pro and try to make it,” she commented on court after the final, drawing rapturous applause from the crowd.

As they spoke with such reverence for players they’d emulated, the 2024 champions also showed their gratitude for what they’d achieved.

“In an interview when I was 11 or 12 years old I said my dream was to win Wimbledon, so I am repaying my dream,” Alcaraz revealed during the trophy ceremony. “It is a great feeling to play in this beautiful court and to lift this amazing trophy.”

And as he declared that he “wants to keep going”, Alcaraz again turned his attention to the greats. “It’s great to share the court with a legend like Novak,” he noted at the Champions’ Dinner several hours later.

In years to come, emerging stars will no doubt express the same sentiments for Alcaraz and Krejcikova. As they showed in a feel-good conclusion to Wimbledon, they are not only champions of Grand Slams, but also champions of grace.

Vivienne Christie editor@tennismag.com.au

“When I was 11 or 12 years old I said my dream was to win Wimbledon.”

CARLOS ALACARAZ

LEVEL Next CARLOS ALCARAZ

The changing of the guard in men’s tennis seemed complete as Carlos Alcaraz produced his most commanding form yet to defeat Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon singles ﬁnal for a second straight year. VIVIENNE

CHRISTIE reports

Always like never before” is the campaign line that accompanied touch points this year at Wimbledon, acknowledging both the many traditions and glorious possibilities that exist at the grass-court Grand Slam.

And how that resonated as the 137th edition of The Championships reached a familiar end. Having steadily improving in each of their respective matches throughout the fortnight, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic had struck the form that took them to the men’s final in 2023.

But where Alcaraz had required a suspense-filled four hours and 42 minutes to dethrone the seven-time champion last year, their 2024 encounter was a far different affair.

For some observers, it cemented the changing of the guard. Others suggested a passing of the baton. It could have also been described as the apprentice becoming master, with Alcaraz dominating the typically ruthless Djokovic as he completed a 6-2 6-2 7-6(4)

win in just under two-and-a-half hours. In defending his title, the world No.3 added to his US Open 2022 title and recent breakthrough at Roland Garros.

“I think it is good for tennis to have new faces winning the big things and ghting for the big tournaments,” said the Spaniard, who at age 21 was noticeably younger than when Djokovic [who was 24], Rafael Nadal [22] and Roger Federer [23] had tallied four major titles.

“I’m really proud about myself, all the things that I’m doing great. I’m really proud about my people [in] my team.”

Having taken only 69 matches to achieve that major milestone –winning 59 matches and losing 10 across 14 Grand Slam appearances – Alcaraz could arguably be proudest of the maturity that accompanied his rapid rise.

The No.3 seed navigated several twists in a fourth maindraw campaign at Wimbledon, requiring ve sets to see o 29th seed Frances Tiafoe in the third round and dropping sets against Ugo Humbert, Tommy Paul and Daniil Medvedev in his next three matches.

“I think I got better in every match that I was playing,” he noted a er victory over Djokovic, where the 15 years and 348 days that separated the combatants represented the third-largest age gap in a men’s major nal in the Open era.

Alcaraz established his authority from the outset in a 14-minute opening game, in which he eventually broke and immediately consolidated to take a 2-0 lead. The rst two sets followed a near-replicate pattern as Alcaraz converted break points twice in both sets.

Djokovic challenged brie y when Alcaraz surrendered three match points as he served for victory

PERFECT START: With victory over Novak Djokovic to defend his 2023 Wimbledon title, Carlos Alcaraz had won all four Grand Slam ﬁnals of his career.

From tears to TRIUMPH

Czech Barbora Krejcikova delivered a major surprise as she became the eighth diﬀerent women’s singles champion crowned at Wimbledon in the past eight years.

LEIGH ROGERS

reports

In an era of unprecedented unpredictability at the world’s most historic Grand Slam, Barbora Krejcikova delivered a major surprise at Wimbledon 2024.

Despite being a former world No.2 and the Roland Garros 2021 champion, the 28-year-old was overlooked as a title contender in pre-tournament discussions.

Winless throughout a disappointing clay-court season, Krejcikova’s ranking had tumbled outside the world’s top 30. Plus, she had only recorded three match wins since reaching the Australian Open quarter nals in January, with her poor season record impacted by a two-month injury lay-o .

The No.31 seed then barely scraped through her opening round, needing more than three hours to fend o Veronika Kudermetova, a fellow out-ofform, former top-10 player.

Yet a er a fortnight lled with upsets, an elated Krejcikova was the last woman le standing.

“I have no idea,” Krejcikova responded when asked how she managed to win the tournament. “I was just going match by match. I was just feeling better and getting better … I don’t know how that happened. But, yes, I’m a winner.”

Krejcikova secured her second major singles title with a hardfought 6-2 2-6 6-4 victory against Italian Jasmine Paolini, in a nal she described as “very di cult”.

“I think I have played the best tennis of my career,” a proud, yet shocked, Krecjikova declared.

“I really had to dig deep, also mentally. I’m extremely proud that I was able to do that, to hold everything together, and to win.”

The world No.32 proved a deserving champion too, playing with incredible poise to outsmart several in-form opponents.

In becoming the second lowest-ranked woman to triumph in Wimbledon’s grand history, only behind last year’s champion and compatriot Marketa Vondrousova, Krejcikova was lost for words.

“I think nobody’s going to believe that I won Wimbledon,” said Krejcikova, who returned

to the world’s top 10 following her triumph. “I still cannot believe it. It’s unbelievable.”

By adding her name to the sport’s most prestigious honour roll, Krejcikova also joined her late mentor, Jana Novotna.

“It was just very, very emotional. Very emotional moment to see me on a board right next to her,” Krejcikova said of the Wimbledon 1998 champion, who lost her cancer battle in 2017.

“I think she would be proud. I think she would be really excited that I’m on a same board as she is because Wimbledon was super special for her.”

NEW HEIGHTS

Paolini also joined esteemed company with her unlikely run, becoming just the third woman to reach back-to-back nals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the past 20 years. Serena Williams and Justine Henin are the only other two women to achieve this feat.

“It’s unbelievable, honestly. I just did two nals in two Grand Slams,” beamed the 28-year-old, who had never previously won a main-draw match at the All England Club. “Two Grand Slam nals in a row is crazy to believe, I think, no?”

Paolini was perhaps lucky to survive a erce fourth-round battle against American Madison Keys. The big-hitting Keys was leading 5-2 in the deciding set when she su ered a hamstring injury, forcing her to retire a few games later in tears.

The 12th-seeded Keys described it as “probably one of my toughest moments ever on court”.

Yet a gracious Paolini proved she was a worthy finalist, winning many new fans with her inspired play, tenacious spirit, and bubbly disposition.

“To play important matches, it’s so special,” she said. “I’m so grateful that also the crowd was cheering for me. It’s a great feeling I think for a tennis player.”

A er becoming the rst Italian woman in the Open era to reach a Wimbledon nal, Paolini soared to a career-high world No.5.

But she quickly shut down any comparisons to her nation’s

“I think nobody’s going to believe that I won Wimbledon … I still cannot believe it. It’s unbelievable.”

BARBORA KREJCIKOVA

A MEMORABLE MARK Andy Murray

Andy Murray’s powerful tennis legacy was clear as he completed a ﬁnal, and emotional, Grand Slam campaign at Wimbledon 2024.

DAN IMHOFF reports

Ashy teenager of few words at the time, it would be remiss to deem Andy Murray’s move to Spain to maximise his prospects as a cinch. On top of a language barrier, there were many days when the Scot had to be fetched from his room just to get him to train.

Determined to ride out the challenges, the move was a career-de ning masterstroke that ultimately set him on the path to Grand Slam glory.

Only six months earlier, Murray had competed in the European under-16 team championship in Andorra at age 14 and while he won his singles, Great Britain fell in the nal to Spain.

A Barcelona-based talent one year older was particularly dominant, so Murray picked the le -hander’s brain a er which he promptly phoned his mother, Judy Murray.

“Rafa Nadal was playing. He started telling me that he practised with people like Carlos Moya, one of the Spaniards on the tour ranked in the world top 10,” Murray said in his autobiography, Hitting Back

determination to go and live in another country.”

Murray and his family knew he had to move away from Dunblane if he was to realise his potential. The intensity of training and the access to top players – not to mention the chance to practise in consistently sunny conditions – drew him to Emilio Sanchez’s and Sergio Casal’s academy in Barcelona where he spent the next twoand-a-half years.

It was a move which helped instill the required work ethic to make it at

Last month, the now 37-yearold put in every bit of the required work to maximise his chances of taking the court for one final major. Fittingly, it was his home Slam at Wimbledon, where he raised the racquet one last time to a standing Centre Court crowd following an opening doubles defeat to Australians John Peers and Rinky Hijikata alongside older brother Jamie Murray.

It capped a remarkable Grand Slam career that began as an 18-year-old at the All England Club in 2005, when he reached the third round before he fell to former finalist David Nalbandian despite having taken the first two sets.

It ended at the same event 19 years later ahead of the three-time major winner and dual Olympic gold medallist’s final tour appearance at the Paris Olympics.

A success-starved Britain leant heavily on Murray from the moment he gave them a icker of hope and Wimbledon was where he reached a major fourth round rst following victory over former world No.1 Andy Roddick in 2006.

“I went home and said to Mum, ‘Rafa Nadal is practising with Moya and I’m having to practise with a few county-level players, my brother and my mum. That’s when it began, my

players, my brother and my mum. That’s when it began, my

Two-and-a-half years later as the world No.6, he landed his only completed-match victory from nine attempts over Rafael Nadal at a major to reach his rst Grand Slam nal at the US Open.

FEATURE

ROGER FEDERER

“Clearly when you win everything, it’s fun. That doesn’t necessarily mean you love the game more.”

For tennis viewing pleasure, Roger Federer is the undisputed GOAT. The beauty and ﬂuidity of his game, not to mention record-busting success, saw him become a bucket-list item, packing stadiums the world over and attracting superstars of sport, the arts and business, like moths to a ﬂame. Tennis boomed in popularity and prestige during Federer’s magical journey to all-time greatness. The Swiss master was also a PR genius. He presided over a more collegial lockeroom, elevated mediaplayer relations with his availability and trilingual press conferences and his post-victory tears – which he took to selfmocking – made it acceptable for male champions to cry, in victory or defeat.

Close with his archrival rival, Rafael Nadal, Federer chose to end his storied career in a doubles match alongside rather than against his nemesis. His co-creation of the Laver Cup in 2017 formally united the tennis generations, honouring pioneering pros of Rod Laver’s vintage, recruiting superstars Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe as captains and gathering today’s stars in a Europe v The World format that turns rivals into teammates. At age 22, Federer established a foundation in his mother’s native South Africa, which has since expanded to building schools in other southern African nations. His dream is for the foundation to become as well-known as his tennis.

Mavericks, heroes, exemplars, feminists, activists, moral leaders: tennis has been blessed with uplifting champions who carried the spirit of the game beyond centre court and changed tennis for the better.

By SUZI PETKOVSKI

SPIRIT Leading with

ANDRE AGASSI

“I thought that getting to No.1 was going to be the moment I made sense of my life. But it left me a little empty.”

No other champion underwent such a complete personal and professional makeover as the Las Vegas showman.

Derided as ‘a haircut and a forehand’ by then-No.1 Ivan Lendl, a wastrel who choked in three major finals and snubbed Wimbledon over the dress code, Agassi morphed into elder statesman in the latter half of his dramatic career.

The first man to win all four majors since Rod Laver, he surged back from No.147 to No.1, made history as the oldest man atop the ATP rankings, won the heart of wife Steffi Graf, penned the best tennis memoir and was feted as the game’s leading philanthropist. Driven by a demanding father, young Andre wasn’t always laser-focused on his tennis potential, but became deeply interested in human potential. Agassi founded his first charter school for underprivileged children in his hometown while at the peak of his career, and said his biggest regret was not starting his philanthropic work earlier. The focus on others enabled him to play out his relaxed, successful final years with his offcourt legacy secured.

BILLIE JEAN KING

“Today’s players are living the dream we had for the future of tennis.”

Fifty years on from her victory in the charged Battle of the Sexes, Billie Jean King hardly goes a day without being reminded of its impact. Her legacy in shifting the culture around gender equity and equal pay has only increased with the decades. WTA players quote her – “Pressure is a privilege” – and are schooled in King’s contribution and those of her fellow pioneering pros in establishing the rebel women’s tour in 1970 and the WTA in 1973, which united women players rather than dividing them across competing tours. The HQ of American tennis, the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, was named in her honour in 2006 and the former Fed Cup teams event was renamed for her in 2020. At age 12, King vowed that she would become No.1 in the world in order to effect change, making tennis more open to minorities as well as women. In her 50s, she extended the fight for equality to the LGBTQ+ community. King paid a high personal and professional price for being a change agent – not least a likely Grand Slam in 1972. ‘But my off-court work was what mattered more longterm.’ King’s three compelling volumes of autobiography double as the history of professional women’s tennis.

PHILIPPE CHATRIER

“Every morning when I get up, I see something I don’t like in the game.”

Court Philippe Chatrier is named for the visionary former president of the French Tennis Federation (1973-93) and International Tennis Federation (1977-91). At a time when sports administrators were not known for innovation, Chatrier transformed the French Open into arguably the most enjoyable of the majors, by enhancing its ambience. The cultural offerings were not a mere side-serve but a signpost to future growth. Chatrier doubled the footprint of RolandGarros and was vice-president when the French was the first of the majors to go open in 1968. A moderniser as ITF president, he stressed common purpose among the tennis tribes –which he likened to ‘getting elephants all in a row’ – and led the return of tennis to the Olympics. Urbane and fluent in English, Chatrier was French junior champion and played in the amateur era until 1960. A journalist in his post-playing career, he founded the influential Tennis de France magazine and served as France’s Davis Cup captain in the late 1960s. The ITF in 1996 instituted the Philippe Chatrier Award, its highest honour, for outstanding contributions to the game.

YOURGAME GAME

56 PRESSURE PLAYS

Stars including Carlos Alcaraz, Iga Swiatek and Novak Djokovic set the standard on pressure plays.

59 POINTS OF DIFFERENCE

Whether it's break point, set point or match point, certain parts of a match need a steelier approach.

60 POWER IN PERSEVERANCE

Top-performing pros served up many valuable lessons at Wimbledon this year.

62 TASTE FOR SUCCESS

Australia’s top-ranked woman Daria Saville shares an insight into her nutrition habits.

63 TRAIN WITH MATT EBDEN

Grand Slam champion Matt Ebden explains why explosive power is important in doubles.

Boost your on-court performance

SURFACE STAR: As the Queen's champion and a Wimbledon quarterﬁnalist, Tommy Paul enjoyed a ninematch win streak on grass.