By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer
MELBOURNE, Australia — Oh-so-close to completing a straight-set upset of No. 2 seed Casper Ruud at the Australian Open, Jenson Brooksby frittered away three match points, sat down at a changeover and began yelling at himself.
“How?! How?! God!!”
His face was flush, his emotions unhidden, his game unraveling. Soon enough, that set slipped away, as Ruud’s confidence seemed to surge and Brooksby’s collapse momentarily continued. And then, in a blink, Brooksby was back in charge, taking command immediately in the fourth set along the way to a 6-3, 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-2 victory over Ruud and a spot in a surprisingly American-filled third round at Melbourne Park.
“I was getting a little more frustrated out there that I didn’t close it out, and my mentality was changing a little bit,” said the 39th-ranked Brooksby, who sipped from little jars of pickle juice in the fourth set at Rod Laver Arena. “Those are the situations you have to handle sometimes in matches, and you’re going to face. I think the biggest question is: How do you respond? I just told myself to reset.”
So leave it to a pair of 20-something Californians to rid the men’s bracket of its two highest-seeded players: Brooksby, 22, delivered his unexpected triumph on Thursday (Wednesday night PT) at the same stage and in the same stadium that Mackenzie McDonald, 27, defeated top seed and defending champion Rafael Nadal a day earlier. That makes this the first Grand Slam tournament since the 2002 Australian Open that the Nos. 1-2 seeds lost before the end of the second round.
Nadal owns a men’s record 22 Grand Slam titles. Ruud was the runner-up at the French Open to Nadal last June and at the U.S. Open to Carlos Alcaraz last September.
Their exits are a big deal and make nine-time champion Novak Djokovic – who was to face Enzo Couacaud later Thursday night – even more of a title favorite in his return to Australia after being deported a year ago because he was not vaccinated against COVID-19.
Also a big deal: The progress of U.S. men through the year’s first major championship. None has won a Grand Slam title since Andy Roddick at the 2003 U.S. Open.
By reaching the third round, Brooksby joined countrymen Michael Mmoh, Ben Shelton, Tommy Paul and J.J. Wolf, who also won Thursday, along with McDonald, No. 16 Frances Tiafoe and No. 29 Sebastian Korda, who all won Wednesday. The highest-seeded American man, though, could not make it that far: No. 8 Taylor Fritz bowed out with a 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-2 loss to 113th-ranked Australian wild-card entry Alexei Popyrin.
Mmoh, who lost in qualifying but got into the main draw when another player withdrew, made it this far at a major tournament for the first time by defeating No. 12 Alexander Zverev, 6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.
“Life is crazy. Right when you think everything is looking dim, everything is looking dark, there’s light at the end of the tunnel,” the 107th-ranked Mmoh said. “My week is proof of that.”
Shelton, the NCAA champion from the University of Florida participating in just his second Slam, beat qualifier Nicolas Jarry of Chile, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3), 7-5; Paul came back to edge No. 30 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain, 6-2, 2-6, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-4; and Wolf breezed past No. 23 Diego Schwartzman of Argentina, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.
Brooksby now plays Paul; Mmoh takes on Wolf.
“A lot of Americans doing really well right now, and we’re all pushing each other,” Brooksby said. “Just looking forward to the next one.”
There was also a big win for an American woman Thursday: 21-year-old qualifier Katie Volynets defeated ninth-seeded Veronika Kudermetova of Russia, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.
Elsewhere, No. 4 Caroline Garcia beat 2021 U.S. Open finalist Leylah Fernandez, 7-6 (5), 7-5, No. 5 Aryna Sabalenka improved her 2023 record to 6-0 by topping Shelby Rogers, 6-3, 6-1, after trailing 3-1 early, and No. 19 Ekaterina Alexandrova defeated Taylor Townsend, 1-6, 6-2, 6-3.
“I literally have the chills, because the fans here are just incredible,” said Volynets, who reached the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. “I’ve never played in a stadium this packed and with that many people keeping the energy up for me. It was awesome.”
Brooksby was supposed to enter the Australian Open a year ago but came down with COVID-19 the day before he was supposed to fly overseas.
“Hopefully this is the first of many many good years here to come,” Brooksby said.
His unusual playing style, including his two-handed backhand volleys, and ability to track down opponent’s shots, were trouble for Ruud, who took a medical timeout after the second set because of a bothersome abdominal muscle.
“He was annoyingly good today,” said Ruud, a 24-year-old Norwegian coached by his father, a former pro player.
The biggest problem for Brooksby was closing this one out. He held a trio of match points while trying to serve for the victory at 5-3 in the third set but could not cash any of them in.
Ruud raced through the end of that set, but Brooksby righted himself in the fourth, jumping out to a 3-0 lead. Brooksby finished things off 75 minutes after his first chance.
When the match ended, Brooksby said, “The first thing that popped to my mind was I was just proud of my mental resolve just to stay focused out there.”
NADAL COULD MISS 6-8 WEEKS
Nadal injured his left hip flexor during his second-round loss and could need about six to eight weeks to fully recover, his manager said.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion had an MRI exam at a hospital in Melbourne under his doctor’s supervision on Thursday, a day after being injured during a straight-set exit against McDonald. The 36-year-old Nadal, who was the defending champion and top seed, now will head home to Spain to rest.
The diagnosis means he will almost certainly miss the ATP 500 tournaments in Dubai and Acapulco. He will be in a race to be fit for Indian Wells – which he has won three times – and Miami in early March.
Nadal pulled up lame reaching for a ball late in the second set of his loss to McDonald. Nadal sought treatment off the court before the third set but was unable to regain ascendency in the match, losing, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5.
Nadal sustained a similar injury at the 2018 Australian Open, when he lost to Marin Cilic in the quarterfinals. In his news conference following the loss to McDonald, Nadal said he would do everything in his power to come back fit, but acknowledged his recent run with injury was “frustrating.”
What no tests can reveal, what no doctor can determine, is perhaps the most vital question of all: How much more of this sort of thing is he willing to put up with?
“I went through this process too many times in my career and I am ready to keep doing (it), I think,” Nadal said Wednesday after his earliest exit from a major tournament in seven years, “but that’s not easy, without a doubt.”
It is only natural that folks will wonder what this all means for his future, especially with the retirements of Roger Federer and Serena Williams still top of mind.
Nadal turns 37 in 4½ months. The wear and tear produced by his punishing brand of play-each-point-as-if-it-might-be-the-last is undeniable. So, perhaps, is the psychological toll of the work it takes to be able to compete at the level to which he has grown accustomed.
“Sometimes it’s frustrating. Sometimes it’s difficult to accept,” a downcast Nadal said. “Sometimes you feel super tired about all this stuff, in terms of injuries.”
Over the past 12 months alone, he has been troubled by damaged rib cartilage … and by chronic pain in his left foot that was dulled via nerve-numbing injections during his title run at the French Open … and by a torn abdominal muscle that forced him to pull out of Wimbledon.
“It’s a tough moment. It’s a tough day,” he said. “I can’t say that I am not destroyed mentally at this moment, because I would be lying.”
Nadal explained that his left hip was so bad Wednesday, he couldn’t hit a backhand or run much at all. He considered quitting but played on because he was the reigning champion.
He has lost seven of his last nine matches, dating to a fourth-round loss to Frances Tiafoe at the U.S. Open in September.
With so much unknown right now, Nadal offered a bit of insight when he was asked what motivates him to do what’s required to keep returning from injury.
“It’s a very simple thing: I like what I do. I like playing tennis. I know it’s not forever. … I like to fight for the things that I have been fighting for almost half of my life or even more,” Nadal said. “When you do things that you like to do, at the end of the day, it’s not a sacrifice. You are doing the things that you want to do.”
MATCH FLAGGED
The second-round match between Andrey Rublev and Emil Ruusuvouri was interrupted on Thursday when two men hung a Ukraine flag over the edge of the front row seats in the Kia Arena.
Rublev, a Russian, said his only problem was with what the two men were saying.
“It was not about the flag,” he said. “I said straight away to the referee, it’s not about the flag, they can put any flag they want, I understand completely the situation. It was more that they started to tell me bad words and bad things. I said to the referee: ‘It’s not about the flag, but please can you tell them at least to not say bad words when I’m on the changeover.’”
Australian Open organizers banned Russian and Belarusian flags from this year’s event because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Rublev, the fifth-seeded player, has been one of the few Russian players to speak out openly against the war.
For the record, Rublev beat Ruusuvuouri, 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-3.
ONE BALL TOO MANY
There was controversy on Court 3 in the second-round match between Jeremy Chardy of France and the Briton, Dan Evans.
With Chardy serving at 3-3, a break point down, a ball from Chardy’s pocket fell to the court during the point, which the Frenchman went on to lose.
Ordinarily, the point would have been replayed but the umpire, Miriam Bley, only saw the stray ball late and awarded the point, and therefore the game, to Evans.
Chardy argued his case for 10 minutes but it was to no avail and Evans went on to win the match in straight sets.
“I was angry because she should stop straight away, and she says she didn’t even see the ball,” Chardy said. “I don’t know what she’s doing because she doesn’t call in or out. She just called the score, and if she doesn’t watch the point.”
