Players at 'high risk' as tennis chases sun
With high temperatures and very high UV levels at the Australian Open, BBC Sport looks at the effects of playing for hours outdoors.
With high temperatures and very high UV levels at the Australian Open, BBC Sport looks at the effects of playing for hours outdoors.
Novak Djokovic cruised to a convincing second-round victory Thursday at the Australian Open, where the record 10-time champion downed Francesco Maestrelli 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
Playing just his second match since winning his 101st tour-level title in Athens in November, the 38-year-old moved efficiently as ever and struck the ball cleanly throughout the afternoon, a positive sign for the Serbian’s form in the early stages of the tournament.
Djokovic, who claimed his 100th match win at the Australian Open in the opening round, needed seven set points to clinch the 47-minute opener. Rarely relinquishing control in baseline rallies, Djokovic will be pleased with his dominant serving display, having won 86 per cent (43/50) of his first-serve points.
When faced with two break points in his opening service game of the second set, Djokovic drew forehand return errors from the 23-year-old qualifier, who before the match called his clash against the 24-time major titlist “one of the most exciting things of my life”.
Djokovic is now one win shy of 400 victories at Slam level. Should he defeat his next opponent, Botic van de Zandschulp or Shang Juncheng, Djokovic will become the first player to record 400 major match wins. Van de Zandschulp stunned Djokovic last year at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells, tying their Lexus ATP Head2Head series at 1-1. Djokovic has never faced Shang.
Making his 21st appearance at Melbourne Park, Djokovic is seeded to meet Italian Lorenzo Musetti in the quarter-finals and two-time defending champion Jannik Sinner in the last four.
Musetti flew past countryman Lorenzo Sonego 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 to match his career-best result at the season’s first major. The fifth seed created 23 break chances, converting six, according to Infosys Stats. Musetti, 23, will next meet 31st seed Stefanos Tsitsipas or Czech Tomas Machac.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]One moment can change everything.
That was the case for Ethan Quinn last January at the ATP Challenger event in Cleveland. Despite starting the year by making a final as a qualifier in Canberra, the American failed to qualify for the Australian Open and then lost in the first round in Cleveland.
“I lost in Cleveland and I wasn’t even in Dallas yet. So I could have definitely checked out a little bit. I could have been like, ‘Oh, woe is me’,” Quinn told ATPTour.com. “I could have been sticking around there in Cleveland and not doing the right things. And then I would have gotten to Dallas maybe and not been prepared to play Dallas and then lost.”
To the American, that would have been two weeks wasted. But instead he reflected on his loss and realised he had played “a pretty good match” and simply was not the better player on the day against Colton Smith.
“Then I had people around me the next day. I was on top of it with my gym workouts, I was on court for a few hours that day with Brian, working on the things that maybe I could have improved on,” Quinn said. “I was able to make the most of it by getting into Dallas qualies and then qualifying in and winning my first-round match and from there, just kind of exploding.”
Entering last year’s ATP 500 event in Dallas, Quinn was the No. 199 player in the PIF ATP Rankings. By June he was in the Top 100 for the first time.
It was not that he had hit rock bottom or anything of the sort. Quinn simply had two roads to go down in Cleveland and chose the path of discipline and hard work, which led to a breakthrough.
“It was just, after a loss like that, being able to find a way to still make sure I got better that week and then get to the next week improved,” Quinn said. “Rather than losing and then finding an excuse or a reason to be complacent. I think having that trust in my team and them holding me accountable to continue to get better, that was the difference from that moment on for the rest of the year.”
Quinn’s coach, Brian Garber, used the loss as an opportunity. The former college tennis star at the University of Georgia was then able to qualify in Dallas and win a round in the main draw.
“I think managing success is harder than managing failure. He had an awesome start in Canberra, but after that Cleveland loss, I told him we weren’t going to change a single thing we were doing,” Garber said. “We changed our mentality to get away from [focusing on the] results. Our goal I text him every night before matches is, ‘Become closer to the version of EQ you want to be tomorrow’.
“That’s not a results-based goal. And we hammered that down so much last year and it started there.”
[NO 1 CLUB]While Quinn rose quickly, that did not mean he was always ecstatic about his results. Starting at Mallorca in June, he lost in the second round of five consecutive tournaments.
“I was really frustrated that I continued to lose, qualifying to an event and winning the first round and losing in the second round or losing to the same players multiple times throughout the year,” Quinn said. “I really had I’m not going to say a meltdown, but I was really frustrated that I felt like I was very stuck in the same spot, that I was continuing to lose in the same place.”
“He was getting mental about not getting past second rounds and one of the reasons was part of his growth,” Garber said. “At the summer Masters he was winning really good matches first round and playing really good players next. I told him his next progression was being more clinical in early rounds, not giving away sets and wearing himself down. [It was about] competing truly point to point, so that when he got to the second round he had energy.
“I also reminded him his path through Challengers and Futures was the same. It started with winning a round or two, falling. Next step he started winning those or finals. Nothing is changing now, it’s just happening at a higher level.”
That showed itself in the first round of the Australian Open against 23rd seed Tallon Griekspoor. The Dutchman won their first two Lexus ATP Head2Head meetings last year, but Quinn returned the favour with a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 triumph in Melbourne to earn a second-round showdown with Hubert Hurkacz.
“To now be in this situation today, where it’s against a tough player, against a player that’s kind of had my number in the past,” Quinn said. “To be able to get through that match is really refreshing.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]British number two Cameron Norrie pulls through a rain-delayed match to move past United States’ Emilio Nava in the Australian Open second round.
Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic will continue their Australian Open campaigns Thursday on Rod Laver Arena.
The two-time defending champion Sinner will face Australian wild card James Duckworth in the next stage of his three-peat attempt at the hard-court major. The Italian, who has not lost in Melbourne since 2023, will open the evening session not before 7 p.m. AEDT / 3 a.m. EST. Sinner leads Duckworth 2-1 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series, but they have not met since 2021.
View Thursday’s schedule here.
Earlier in the day on Rod Laver Arena, record 10-time titlist Djokovic will meet Italian qualifier Francesco Maestrelli in the second round, with the match not before 1:30 p.m. AEDT / 10:30 p.m. EST Wednesday. Djokovic was close to his best in his first-round win against Pedro Martinez, advancing 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 in his first match since he won his 101st tour-level title in Athens in November. Djokovic and Maestrelli will follow the women’s singles clash between Jessica Pegula and McCartney Kessler.
The fifth seed Lorenzo Musetti and 12th seed Casper Ruud are both in action on Margaret Court Arena, while American Top 10 stars Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz play on John Cain Arena. Stan Wawrinka is playing at the Australian Open for the final time. The 2014 champion takes on French qualifier Arthur Gea, third on Kia Arena.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]After Emma Raducanu suffered a humbling Australian Open second-round exit, BBC Sport analyses where the Briton goes next.
British number one Emma Raducanu says she is leaving the Australian Open with her “head held high” after losing 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 to Austria’s Anastasia Potapova in the second round.
Last July, Carlos Alcaraz fell in the Wimbledon final to Jannik Sinner. It was a difficult defeat for the Spaniard, who despite his disappointment showed perspective.
“In the last year I’ve been through different situations that I learned from,” Alcaraz said. “Right now I’m in a position that I’ve spoken a few times already that, okay, I just accept everything that is coming to me in the way it comes. Like, okay, I just lost a final in a Grand Slam, but I’m just really proud about being in a final.”
His discussion of acceptance caught the attention of Andres Pedroso, the head coach at the University of Virginia. Pedroso sent the video to his team, which included Rafael Jodar, the #NextGenATP Spanish star.
“We believe the best players in the world accept who they are, accept their game styles, they accept their strengths and their weaknesses — especially their weaknesses — and they accept all the circumstances that happen in a match,” Pedroso said. “When you do a really good job of accepting what happens and who you are, you’re going to do the best job of being totally present for the next point.”
Acceptance remains a key pillar of the Virginia programme, and has stuck with Jodar. After qualifying for a major main draw for the first time at the Australian Open, the teen let slip a two-set advantage against fellow 19-year-old Rei Sakamoto in the first round. That did not deter Jodar from finishing the job against his Japanese opponent.
“I just try to give my best, try to give the best level I have that day and as Coach Pedroso would say, I just try to accept all things that come,” Jodar told ATPTour.com after the match. “There are things that you cannot control, but if you have the best mental toughness that day, you can give yourself a chance to win that day.”
Jodar recently turned pro after just one year at UVA, but assistant coach Brian Rasmussen is with him in Australia and he has remained in close contact with Pedroso. Both coaches raved about the 2025 Next Gen ATP Finals competitor’s class on and, importantly, off the court.
<img alt=”Rafael Jodar, Rafael Nadal and Martin Landaluce” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2026/01/21/12/16/jodar-nadal-landaluce-2025.jpg” />
Jodar, Rafael Nadal and Martin Landaluce at the 2025 Next Gen ATP Finals. Photo: Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour
“He’s the most mature 19-year-old you’re going to meet out there. He really knows what he wants and that’s the way he was raised,” Pedroso said. “Just a very simple life, working hard, treating people right, doing the right thing and just an all-around good human being, but totally focused on what he wants to do and his dream is to become a world-class pro.”
The Spaniard came to Virginia as one of the most highly touted recruits in recent memory to the extent that it was unclear if he would simply turn pro. Fresh off the US Open boys’ singles title, Jodar was in a new world in college.
“His transition to the United States was really tough. He’s an only child, he’s lived his whole life in Spain and when he showed up to Virginia, I’m not going to lie, his first couple weeks were tough because it’s just a different environment,” Pedroso recalled. “It’s a different language, you’re studying in English. College tennis is a completely different sport from junior tennis and pro tennis. He was able to assimilate relatively quickly and from the beginning, his first match was a little bit of a shock to him.”
That match came against Connor Thomson of the University of South Carolina, an experienced player who had qualified for the ATP Next Gen Accelerator. With fans screaming in the stands, Jodar was clearly no longer playing junior tennis.
“College tennis is a completely different sport with all the yelling and screaming and it’s just a very hectic environment and Rafa was just a fish out of water,” Pedroso said. “He looked at me a couple times during the match and said, ‘Coach, where am I? This is a different sport’. The best part about him is he ended up losing the match, but we ended up winning and he was so genuinely happy for the team.”
[NO 1 CLUB]It took almost no time for Jodar to acclimatise. Despite suffering from cramp and struggling with an ankle, he would beat the No. 1 player in the country on the No. 1 team and became one of the best players in college tennis. But what has stood out to those around him is not the tennis player — Jodar’s performance speaks for itself — but how he carries himself.
“Rafa’s father told me that every time he had a big tournament win, when he came back to Madrid, the first thing he had his son do was hit with one of the really young kids at the club,” Pedroso said. “Rafa would go out there, hit balls with him, have fun with the kid or just feed him balls. That’s just a small example of how well he was raised and the type of people the Jodar family are.”
Jodar has wasted no time leaving his mark in 2026. He has won 10 of his first 11 matches, reaching an ATP Challenger final in Canberra and now is in the second round in Melbourne off the back of his thrilling five-set win against Sakamoto. His mental resilience has shone.
“If we just stay in there and do the right things mentally each and every point, their level is eventually come back down and ours is eventually going to raise,” Rasmussen said. “I think what makes Rafa so special is he knows he can do that over the course of four, five hours because he’s proven that to himself time and time again, whether it was back in Madrid with his dad or in his 12 months at UVA.
“He has challenged himself to really check every box and takes care of the small details in his life whether it’s academically, socially or on the tennis court. And I believe when you compound that many little details over the course of 24 hours each and every day, day after day, you’re going to have a lot of confidence that you know you can hang in there.”
A year ago, the teen was barely inside the world’s Top 900, and now he is No. 134 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings. No matter what happens when Jodar plays 16th seed Jakub Mensik Thursday for a place in the third round, it is safe to say the Spaniard will accept the result, learn from it and continue his rapid ascent.
“I just want to enjoy every time that I’m playing tennis,” Jodar said. “That’s the first goal when I step on a court. It hasn’t changed at all. I just have to keep going and start the season the best way possible.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Raducanu exits early in Melbourne as questions return about form, fitness and next steps