Quick Served: Australian Open Day 11
Musetti's misfortune, the women's semis and what's the big Whoop?
Andy ate a moist towelette at dinner last night, but that was nothing compared to Lorenzo Musetti’s day. The Italian injured his leg and retired from his quarterfinal on the brink of a dominant victory, leading Novak Djokovic two sets to none.
Andy and Producer Mike contextualize Djokovic’s chance of winning his 25th slam in light of his schedule—he hasn’t won a set since Saturday—and dig into the Day 11 results with a focus on why matchups matter. They also take the measure of today’s women’s semifinals and discuss the Whoop wearable-device hoopla.
📝 Programming note: “Amuse bouche” is the new “wet bulb.”
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Quarterfinal Recaps
None of the women’s semifinalists has dropped a set in Melbourne. It’s one of the most dominant final fours at a Slam in recent memory. And while youth was the story of Week 1, all of the semifinalists are over 25.
The top four men’s seeds are into the semifinals for the first time since the 2019 French Open, although it happened several times during the Big 4 era.
Jessica Pegula [6] def. Amanda Anisimova [4] 6-2, 7-6
Pegula couldn’t miss in the first set. Anisimova led 5–3 in the second set and had 11 break points throughout the match, but made too many errors to capitalize on her chances.
58% of Pegula’s points came from Anisimova’s errors (44 of 77)
Pegula had 11 break points and Anisimova had 4
Anisimova made 18 unforced errors off her backhand
Pegula won 68% of her second-serve points to Anisimova’s 39%
Pegula is now 4–0 versus Anisimova
🎤 Pegula
“The way I think about the game, I honestly think it’s different than a lot of people, and I think that’s my strength. Over the last couple of years, I’ve kind of leaned into what my strengths are, and that is stability and my mental toughness and my ability to stay calm on the court.”
🎤 Anisimova
“You kind of lose your mind after matches like this. I think that after a day like today, I’m going to completely lose all sense of rationality for, like, 48 hours, and that’s just what goes into working so hard for something and then you have, like, matches and days like this. It’s different than any other career, I would say. That’s what makes tennis very tough, but also, you know, we have a great life, and I’m grateful for what I do, but it’s definitely very hard to process and go through.”
Elena Rybakina [5] def. Iga Swiatek [2] 6-1, 6-2
JW’s predicted winner stayed alive despite serving only 49 percent on first serves. Iga Swiatek was aggressive, going for a lot but missing a lot, winning only six points on return. Rybakina said she struggled with the sun on her serve before adjusting in the second set.
Swiatek put less than half of her returns in play—11 of 29
Swiatek made 10 winners to 25 errors
Rybakina had 11 aces, plus 26 winners to 1 unforced error
Rybakina won 73% of her service points despite the low first-serve percentage
🎤 Rybakina
“The last couple of tournaments I played I gained some confidence throughout tough matches. Still, a lot of things to improve, to work on, but the most important [thing is] that I’m trying to stay aggressive whenever I get the chance to step in, maybe risk a little bit.”
🎤 Swiatek
“I know what I need to improve, and it’s kind of the same stuff that I had in my mind before the tournament as well. So there’s no, like, breakthrough lesson. I’m just going to keep doing my job, and hopefully the next tournament I’ll get some stuff settled in terms of what I wanted to do with my game.”
Jannik Sinner [2] def. Ben Shelton [8] 6-3, 6-2, 6-2
It’s a matchup problem for Shelton, who lost his second consecutive Aussie quarterfinal to Sinner. Shelton had a decent serving day (69% first serves) but Sinner held him to eight aces. Andy does a deep dive on Shelton’s strategy in today’s Quick Served.
Sinner did not face a break point and had 12 on Shelton’s serve, winning 3
Shelton made 20 unforced errors on his forehand side
Shelton was serving an average of 14 aces per match coming into the quarterfinal and was held to 8 last night
🎤 Sinner
“[Ben] is improving every time I play, because he’s serving better, changing a lot the serve, the backhand has improved, as we saw today. He’s trying to be very, very aggressive. You know, there are times where he change a bit more and then times where he change a bit less, but it’s also how you feel in that day. You know, you cannot just close your eyes and just go for it.”
🎤 Shelton
“Certainly not discouraged from a performance like this. I want to see myself get out in front and see what I can do from there in a match rather than falling behind just because I know how I feel when I get out in front at slams. I feel like I’m untouchable. I guarantee the other guys at the top feel the exact same.”
Novak Djokovic [4] def. Lorenzo Musetti [5] 4-6, 3-6, 1-3 ret.
It was déjà vu for Musetti—he also retired against Djokovic at the 2021 French Open after winning the first two sets. Djokovic has played just two-and-a-half sets in the last two matches after receiving a walkover from Jakub Mensik in the fourth round. He hasn’t won a set since Saturday.
Musetti had 11 break-point chances, Djokovic had 6
Djokovic was 38% on return points to Musetti’s 46%
Djokovic won his 103rd match at the Australian Open, passing Roger Federer for the most in Melbourne
🎤 Djokovic
“[I had] four winners in the first two games and no unforced errors. Then in the rest of the match I had another four winners and probably 40 errors. But that’s what Lorenzo does to you. He makes you play. When you think the point is finished, it’s not. He was the far better player. I was on my way home tonight.”
🎤 Musetti
“I honestly have no words to describe how I’m feeling right now and how tough is for me this injury in this moment.”
Doubles Drama
The women’s defending champions and No. 1 seeds are out. Anna Danilina/Aleksandra Krunic [7] bageled Katerina Siniakova/Taylor Townsend [1] in the third set to advance to the semifinals.
Defending mixed doubles champions Olivia Gadecki/John Peers scraped by 13–11 in the match tiebreak versus Taylor Townsend/Nikola Mektic [4].
Women’s doubles semi (today)
Elise Mertens/Zhang Shuai [4] vs. Ena Shibahara/Vera Zvonareva
Gabriela Dabrowski/Luisa Stefani [5] vs. Anna Danilina/Aleksandra Krunic [7]
Men’s doubles semis (today)
Marcel Granollers/Horacio Zeballos [3] vs. Christian Harrison/Neal Skupski [6]
Jason Kubler/Marc Polmans vs. Jan Zielinski/Luke Johnson
Mixed doubles final (Friday)
Olivia Gadecki/John Peers vs. Kristina Mladenovic/Manuel Guinard
Perfect Delivery
From the “every journalist needs an editor” file, Novak Djokovic played the role for a reporter who cast the Serb as a hunter, first of Nadal and Federer and now of Alcaraz and Sinner.
Djokovic: “I’m chasing Jannik and Carlos? In which sense?
Reporter: “In terms of winning Grand Slam titles just right now.”
Djokovic: “So I’m always the chaser and I’m never being chased?”
Reporter: “In the meantime, you won 24 Grand Slams.”
Djokovic: “Thanks. It’s worth saying that sometimes, right?”
Reporter: “Sorry, I should have—”
Djokovic: “Yeah, yeah. No worries, no worries. … I find it a little bit disrespectful that you kind of missed out on what happened in between, the times when I started ‘chasing,’ as you say, Rafa and Roger, and now that I’m chasing Carlos and Jannik, and there’s probably about a 15-year period in between where I was dominating the Grand Slams. So I think it’s important to put that in perspective.”
Djokovic went on to acknowledge that Alcaraz and Sinner are better than everyone right now, including him.
“But does that mean I walk out with a white flag? No.”
“Someone’s going to say he was salty. That’s not salty,” Andy said. “That’s the least salty he could have been.”
30–3
Jessica Pegula’s record against fellow Americans starting with the 2023 US Open
Pegula, the last American standing in the women’s draw, has dominated her compatriots for the last two-and-a-half years.
The Vanquished
Pegula’s 30 wins came against 15 different Americans, demonstrating the depth of American women’s tennis. Her three losses were to Coco Gauff and Madison Keys. Here are Pegula’s head-to-head records across those 33 matches.
Amanda Anisimova, 3–0
Hailey Baptiste, 1–0
Danielle Collins, 1–0
Coco Gauff, 3–2
Sofia Kenin, 2–0
McCartney Kessler, 2–0
Madison Keys, 2–1
Ashlyn Krueger, 5–0
Ann Li, 2–0
Claire Liu, 1–0
Emma Navarro, 3–0
Bernarda Pera, 2–0
Shelby Rogers, 1–0
Peyton Stearns, 1–0
Taylor Townsend, 1–0
Don’t Mess With Jess in Texas
Pegula is currently the highest-ranked player entered into the AXT Open in Austin, Texas, next month. Since the field is likely to be heavy on Americans, there’s a good chance she will (gulp) face more countrywomen soon.
🍿 Day 12 Matches
Aryna Sabalenka [1] vs. Elina Svitolina [12]
Elena Rybakina [5] vs. Jessica Pegula [6]
Marcel Granollers/Horacio Zeballos [3] vs. Christian Harrison/Neal Skupski [6]
Jason Kubler/Marc Polmans vs. Luke Johnson/Jan Zielinski
Elise Mertens/Zhang Shuai [4] vs. Ena Shibahara/Vera Zvonareva
Gabriela Dabrowski/Luisa Stefani [5] vs. Anna Danilina/Aleksandra Krunic [7]
🗨️ Join us in the Substack chat at the start of the day session!
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As an fyi, the Australian Open app does not have the correct head to head information. The wrong head to head info has been communicated for several days. As an example, Pegula and Rybakina head to head record is 3-3. The Australian open app says it’s 2-1. The head to head with Iga and Rybakina is now 6-6. That was communicated incorrectly on yesterday’s pod. The best app for all of this head to head information is TNNS. Really easy to review for all tournaments throughout the year. Just a heads up. Love the pod.