Australian Open - Day 4

Another interesting day in tennis, although it could have been better. Again, because of the time differences I'm not able to watch many of the matches, but trying to do my best and catch the best ones, even if it's a replay.

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Tomas Machac vs Matteo Berrettini

This was the first match of the tournament, in which the professional level of the two players had a huge gap, making the match unbalanced.

The Czech Tomáš Macháč, currently No. 197 met the Italian Matteo Berrettini, world No. 10. When there's a big difference between the two players, there's always stress for the underdog. However, my appreciation to Tomáš Macháč, he did the best he could, he even won a set to 6 - 4, which could have encouraged him to fight harder. There's a 4 year age difference between the two, Tomáš Macháč is only 20, so there's plenty of time for him to learn and get better. He's a remarkable player, it's great to see him already qualified for a Grand Slam and hope to see him in the future.

Matteo Berrettini had a good game, obviously can't compare his opponent to a top level player, thus it was easy for him to win today, with all his experience accumulated over the years. He's qualified for the next round, so we'll be seeing him once again on the tennis court.

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Fabio Fognini vs Salvatore Caruso

This was a bittersweet game for me. It's never easy to see two compatriots playing against each other, who are, most likely, friends too. It's a situation most would avoid I suppose, but it's not possible.

If you look at the result, it looks like they could have had an agreement, one set for one, the next set for the other, sharing wins between them, but that's just the appearance. They fought, played high quality tennis, and the best won in the end.

Fabio Fognini has more experience, he's 33 years old and No. 17 at the moment, while Salvatore Caruso is only 28 and No. 78 and this is his highest rank. That tells you a lot as usually at this age a tennis player should have achieved a lot more, but for some reason he couldn't. I suspected Fognini would win as he's better placed and with more experience but you can never be sure. I've seen an interview with him, in which he said sometimes ho loses focus and don't care about the game, which is very bad. I've seen him in this state once and was not a nice thing to watch.

However, they made a show on the tennis court, fought bravely. Salvatore Caruso needed medical attention at come point as he suffered a leg injury, but it wasn't something very serious as he could finish the game. Did the injury helped to lose? I don't know, hard to say.

Unfortunately, when the game became most exiting, the broadcaster (Eurosport) switched to Alpine Ski, as the time dedicated to tennis was up and Alpine Skiing was just about to start. I can't even begin to express my frustration. The best part of the game was taken away from us, because a contract is a contract, must be respected and money is what decides here.

Lucky me, I was able to watch the replay of the tie break later and I'm glad I did as it was the most interesting and intense. At some point, someone from the public shouted OUT, which was not only annoying but unprofessional too. Fognini lost his temper, reported the incident to the umpire using bad language and got a warning. Then it happened again, someone shouted OUT again, Fognini used the same language, and this time he got a fine.

Then at some point he slipped, got angry again and started swearing. This was already bad, but wasn't enough for him. After winning the match, he had a verbal altercation with Caruso in Italian, which wasn't translated but I was able to understand it. He asked Caruso to apologize, Caruso was very surprised, asked Fognini what he was talking about to which Fognini started swearing again. This was highly unprofessional, if he had a problem with the other player, he should have taken it outside and not make a scene in front of the whole world.

He lost my respect with his behavior. I don't tolerate players who think they are God and everyone should obey as they are always right. Tantrums have no place on the tennis court, they need to grow up.

As about the public, yesterday I said I liked better without the public as was more quiet, and today the public showed us they can't appreciate what they have. Shouting during the match is highly unprofessional.

Michael Mmoh vs Rafael Nadal

This match was also a no brainer, most of us knew the outcome before the match. For me the only question was if Nadal's injury will be a factor in determining the winner. It's been known that he's been suffering from back pain and his game has also changed, he's moving and reacting differently, trying to protect his back. Up until now he was lucky as he has less experienced players to fight with and the two match he played ended after 3 sets, but this is about to change.

As time passes, he's going to play against better players and a 5 or 6 hour match can be painful and dangerous. I don't want that, I hope he can manage his injury and play at his highest level.

Yesterday's prediction, let's see how many winners I was able to predict.

Andrey Rublev vs Thiago Monteiro = Andrey Rublev - correct
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Thanasi Kokkinakis = Stefanos Tsitsipas - correct
Mackenzie McDonald vs Borna Coric = Borna Coric - missed
Tomas Machac vs Matteo Berrettini = Matteo Berrettini - correct
Fabio Fognini vs Salvatore Caruso = Fabio Fognini - correct
Roberto Carballés Baena vs Daniil Medvedev = Daniil Medvedev - correct
Michael Mmoh vs Rafael Nadal = Rafael Nadal - correct

6 out of 7. Not bad at all :)

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This is my prediction for tomorrow:

• Grigor Dimitrov vs Pablo Carreño Busta - Pablo Carreño Busta
• Adrian Mannarino vs Alexander Zverev - Alexander Zverev
• Aslan Karatsev vs Diego Schwartzman - Diego Schwartzman
• Márton Fucsovics vs Milos Raonic - Milos Raonic
• Dominic Thiem vs Nick Kyrgios - Dominic Thiem (I'm going to be very angry if he doesn't win)
• Novak Djokovic - Taylor Fritz - Novak Djokovic