Media day before a Grand Slam is an important component of the tournament’s build-up. Players can share their views, preparation insights, and mindsets ahead of the most prestigious event in tennis. The Australian Open Media Day brought some great answers from some of the world’s best and we here at LWOT have compiled all of the day’s best moment’s for you.
The Best of Media Day
Carlos Alcaraz
Carlos Alcaraz had a wonderful press conference and his answers to two of the questions stood out.
Interviewer: If you could pick any skillset from any player past or present, which player and what skillset would it be?
Alcaraz: I would probably pick Agassi’s (Andre) return. I think it’s a good one.
Interviewer: What do you like best about the rivalry you are establishing with Jannik (Sinner) and do you go into matches against him with a different mindset than against other opponents?
Alcaraz: Yeah, a little bit. When I’m playing against him, I have a different mindset. When you’re facing the best player in the world, you have to do something different. Different preparation or different mindset or whatever. I know I have to be at my best against him. If I have a bad day against Jannik, it’s 99% that I am going to lose. When I see him winning titles and at the top of the ranking, it forces me to practice even harder every day and in practice I’m thinking the things I have to improve just to play against him.
Coco Gauff
Coco Gauff talked about her rival Iga Swiatek’s confidence and her views on Swiatek’s doping case.
Interviewer: You obviously have a very exciting rivalry with Iga (Swiatek) and lately you have been able to get some wins under your belt. Obviously taking nothing away from you, you have found some solutions but do you see a drop in confidence level after what she’s gone through after the doping case?
Gauff: I wouldn’t say she’s dropped her confidence. I mean. for me, I don’t know her personally well but just from the interactions that we’ve had I definitely don’t think anything she did was intentional. I don’t think she’s not confident in herself. She’s playing great tennis and, the match we played, I just happened to be a little better that day.
In a recent article from GQ, Djokovic claimed he was poisoned during his detention in Australia in 2022. He was asked about it in the press conference.
Interviewer: Do you have any evidence linking your high heavy metal blood levels to the food you were served in hotel detention three years ago?
Djokovic: Look, the GQ article came out online yesterday (January 9) and I think it’s a February issue so it’s coming out in print version. I did that interview many months ago so I would appreciate not talking more in detail about that as I would like to focus on tennis and why I’m here. If you want to see what I’ve said and get more information on that, you can always revert to the article.
Elena Rybakina
Rybakina was asked about the situation with her coach Stefano Vukov, who has been suspended by the WTA for an alleged breach of conduct.
Interviewer: Can you talk to us about the situation with Stefano (Vukov) and what role he’s going to be playing in your team, what you’d like him to be doing on your team and how much you’ve been told about what he’ll be able to do moving forward?
Rybakina: First of all with the whole situation, I don’t want to speak much about what’s going to be next but definitely as I said before, I don’t agree with a lot of things that WTA do in the sense of my relationship with Stefano. As I said before, I have never made any complaints or any of these things. I always said he never mistreated me so that’s one thing and since the situation is how it is now, I don’t want to speak about this more and I want to focus on my matches here.
Alexander Zverev
Zverev was indirectly asked about the handshake of Iga Swiatek and Danielle Collins at the United Cup and he also talked about his cold handshake with Arthur Fils in the 2024 Hamburg Final.
Interviewer: At the United Cup, there was a lot of talk about a handshake and we get these at the end of matches between players. Can I just ask what that’s like at the end of a tough match either that you’ve won or you’ve lost and you’ve got to go and shake the hand of someone who you know it might have been tense with? What’s that like as a player?
Zverev: I think to be honest on the ATP Tour, especially after tough matches and if everything was right in the matches, there’s always like a handshake, kind of a hug almost. Especially, if you get along well with the person, there’s never any things. I’ve had one or two moments myself where the handshake wasn’t great.
I think in Hamburg against Arthur (Fils), the handshake wasn’t great from my side. I didn’t like some of the things that happened in the match. Everybody thought it was the underarm serve but it wasn’t. It was more checking of the marks and really doubting me as a sportsman, like as fairness, so that was kind of a moment. But also in the end I realised that it was kind of more my mistake that the handshake happened like that.
I don’t know if you’re talking about Collins and Swiatek maybe? yeah? ask them. I don’t know what their issue is with each other, to be honest, but Danielle has done that before no? or not? I feel like there is a little bit of history there so maybe that’s part of the reason.
Jannik Sinner
Sinner was asked about Nick Kyrgios’ tweets and how he blocks the noise surrounding his doping case.
Interviewer: I’m sort of curious how you handle the noise and compartmentalize the bad stuff. You know even here you have Nick (Kyrgios) with his tweets and referencing it (doping case).
Sinner: I don’t have to answer this, to be honest. How do I block it? It’s not that you just put it in a part and you just say “I don’t think any more about this”. But in my mind, I know exactly what happened and that’s how I block it. I haven’t done anything wrong, that’s why I’m still here, that’s why I’m still playing. I don’t want to respond to what Nick said or what other player says. The most important part is to have my people around me who I can trust. People who exactly know what happened and that’s it.
Main photo credit: Danielle Parhizkaran-USA TODAY Sports
