What's New, What's Not, What's Next? (Jan. 27)

The first Grand Slam of the year is behind us, and Jannik Sinner and Madison Keys (!) were the last singles players standing in Melbourne Park this weekend. Here's a quick roundup of the tournament, plus a look ahead to the week to come.

What's new?

Madison Keys is a Grand Slam champion

Madison Keys entered the Australian Open off the back of a title-winning week in Adelaide. You could be forgiven for thinking that at some point in the last fortnight in Melbourne, she would run out of steam. It would have been understandable if she'd lost out against Danielle Colins. Or Elena Rybakina. Or Elina Svitolina. Or Iga Świątek. Or Aryna Sabalenka.

But she didn't, and now Madison Keys is a Grand Slam champion, 16 years after turning pro and over 7 years since her first and only other major final. Perhaps even more impressive was that Keys won in tight 3 set battles all the way from the round of 16, including against 3 Grand Slam champions. Her level was up and down in these matches, but she found it every time she needed it and kept imposing her massive game on her opponents. For a player who has talked openly about the mental struggles and pressures she's felt weighed down by in her career, this was an extraordinary feat of resilience and fortitude.

Disruption at the top of the women's draw

Keys' run was also fascinating from another perspective. After the first week of the tournament, I was a little alarmed at how easily Sabalenka and Świątek were able to swat aside two of the game's most talented younger players in Mirra Andreeva and Emma Raducanu. The gap between the very best players in the WTA field and the rest of the pack seemed vast, and I worried that the women's game - which is so captivating in part because it's so open - was starting to resemble the shape of the current competitive curve in the men's game. As Djokovic, Sinner and Alcaraz seem to be at the point where they only really lose against each other when fit, it seemed unlikely that anyone other than Gauff, Sabalenka or Świątek would have the level to knock any of them out.

Hameltion, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In the end, my fears were unfounded. None of the top 3 women lost to any of the others, and Paula Badosa (who eliminated Gauff in the quarter-finals) and Madison Keys showed that there is still a way past the top players. Now Madison Keys joins a wonderfully long list of active women Grand Slam champions. Will anyone else join that list in 2025?

What's not?

Jannik Sinner is unbeatable on a hard court

Sinner's run to the title in Melbourne was similar to his run in New York last year, in that it was actually kind of unremarkable. Sinner's game is so rock solid and his movement and ball striking so consistently elite that there's not much jeopardy in watching him play at the moment.

This was highlighted during the tournament by the way that the conversation shifted from whose game could trouble the world number one to whether Sinner was going to hold up physically if someone were able to push him into a fifth hour. They weren't.

Sinner is now 3-0 in Grand Slam finals, and hasn't lost at a major on a hard court since the 2023 US Open. However, he is yet to play either Alcaraz or Djokovic in one of these finals, and he hasn't made it to a major final on clay or grass. These milestones (along with the outcome of his upcoming WADA appeal hearing) should provide enough intrigue to keep his imperious reign as world number one interesting in 2025.

What else you might have missed

Finally, there were a few other stories in Melbourne that will be interesting to keep an eye on in the coming weeks. Novak Djokovic showed in his incredible quarter-final victory over Carlos Alcaraz that the Olympics final wasn't a one-off, and he can still outplay Alcaraz. Unfortunately, Djokovic tore his hamstring in the process, and will be on the sidelines for a while. However, if he's fit and well by the time the French Open rolls around, the prospect of a rematch with Alcaraz will be tantalising.

Following the breakout start to the season for Nishesh Basavareddy, we saw several other Next Gen stars put themselves on the tennis radar at the AO. Alex Michelsen and Learner Tien both impressed on runs to the fourth round wherein they each beat former finalists (Michelsen beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first round, while Tien eliminated Daniil Medvedev in 5 sets in round two), and João Fonseca had a statement performance and win against Andrey Rublev in his major main draw debut. It seems only a matter of time before this crop of players starts winning titles, and it will be exciting to see who rises furthest the fastest over the course of the year.

Hameltion, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Naomi Osaka looked good again on her way to the third round in Melbourne, getting payback wins against Caroline Garcia and Karolina Muchova. However, for the second time in a week, she had to retire from her third round match against Belinda Bencic due to an abdominal strain. It's unclear how much this will continue to hamper Osaka's promising start to the year, but her linking the problem to a match she retired from in October last year suggests it may not be a quick fix. Hopefully Osaka recovers without losing too much momentum, because her play in the first few weeks of the season has finally started to show signs of getting back to a level that few other players can match.

What's next?

Tennis never stops, so of course there are already three more tournaments underway this week.

There are WTA events in Linz (WTA500) and Singapore (WTA250), and an ATP250 in Montpellier. The Linz draw is headlined by Karolina Muchova, Elina Svitolina and Maria Sakkari, while Singapore features Anna Kalinskaya, Elise Mertens and Emma Raducanu. The indoor event in Montpellier has a strong field that includes Andrey Rublev, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Alexander Bublik, who has won the event in two of the last three years.

Note: This post originally incorrectly referred to the WTA event in Linz as a 250-level tournament, though it is now a 500-level event. The post was edited to correct this.