Key events
At Wimbledon, Sinner looked like losing to Dimitrov, flummoxed by him at two sets down, then poor old Griggzy hurt his pec and had to quit; in the last round here, he was craping at 1-1 and a break down to Elliot Spizzirri, only for the officials to call a heat break which allowed him to recover. Which is to say that, like the best sportsfolk, he has a goldfish memory, able to accept and absorb fortune, ill or good, and move on remorselessly. He leads 6-1 3-1.
Sinner leads Darderi 6-1 1-1, though there was minor controversy earlier: yesterday, Carlos Alcaraz was ordered to take off a health tracker worn around his wrist, so today, the champ tried hiding it under his sweatband – to no avail. he too was told to get it off, but so far appears to be surviving. And as I type, Darderi misses a forehand to be broken, at 1-6 1-2 so leathers a ball into the crowd, receiving a code violation for his trouble, and also hammers his racket into the surface. That’ll learn it.
Preamble
G’day all and welcome to the Australian Open 2026 – day nine!
We’ve not, it’s fair to say, been over-furnished with close matches so far in this tournament and, with Jannik Sinner already all over Luciano Darderi, another looks likely to go by without giving us what we want.
But we can hope and, starting on Laver shortly we have Maddison Inglis, an Australia qualifier, taking on Iga Swiatek. The no 2 seed is, of course, a heavy favourite, but she’s looked less than impregnable hitherto, struggling against Yue Yuan and losing a set to Anna Kalinskaya.
Then, following them on to court, a contest with the potential to consume a significant chunk of our working days, as Ben Shelton takes on Casper Ruud. This slot was meant to be filled by Novak Djokovic v Jakub Mensik, but the Czech found he could no longer battle a stomach injury – a shame for him, as he may not get another chance to meet his hero in such circumstances, and a shame for us because as a ruckus it had serious potential; what can you do?
So, though Shelton v Ruud was an ideal bonus match, if both players are at it – and they have been so far, the former yet to drop a set and latter very clean in binning Mattia Bellucci, Jaume Munar and Marin Cilic – we’re in for a treat.
Let’s go!
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