The show fight is bullshit: At the lightning tournament “Tie Break Tens” some stars are competing, whose current state of affairs is a mystery.
For Dominic Thiem, the Wednesday Australian time could be a tough one: for example, his appearance at the invitation tournament in Melbourne, the Kooyong Classics. Thiem’s illness from his semi-final appearance at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament in Doha should have healed by then.
At the former venue of the Australian Open, the match will start early on, which is advantageous because Thiem has another playful date at 19:30 local time: the next edition of the Tie Break Tens, the tournament that the Austrian number one in 2016 has already won in Vienna.
The line-up of the event in the Vienna Stadthalle at that time was good with players such as Andy Murray and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga; the one in Melbourne will be even better. And, with all due respect, more interesting. Finally, three players will be competing, and the current state of their bodies will be questioned: Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and the first-round opponent of Dominic Thiem, Stan Wawrinka.
Nadal, last year’s Australian Open finalist, has been training in Melbourne Park for a few days now, the often malade knee has apparently not yet spoken out prohibitively. Like Thiem and Djokovic, Nadal will test his form in Kooyong, and the Spanish world number one in the tie break tens will be confronted with a player to whom he was defeated in a five-set match in 2016 at the US open: Lucas Pouille.
Novak Djokovic, on the other hand, has as his first task a local favourite: the eternal Lleyton Hewitt. Djokovic came to Melbourne from Doha in 2017 as tournament winner, but lost early against Denis Istomin. And have to end the season after his resignation in Wimbledon against Tomas Berdych.
The biggest problem of the Serbian is still his elbow. However, the former industry leader had to refrain from competing at the show fight tournament in Abu Dhabi and then in Doha.
However, the biggest question marks are probably to be found behind Stan Wawrinka: In 2017, the Swiss had only just barely failed in the semi-final of the Australian Open to fellow countryman Roger Federer and had reached Roland Garros’ final in the spring. And also had to end his season after the tournament in Wimbledon. The start at the Tie Break Tens will be the only test run for Wawrinka ahead of the major, where he celebrated his big breakthrough in 2014.
Nick Kyrgios is the Australian, who has just won the ATP tournament in Brisbane, will complete the Tie Break Tens’ eight-strong field with Tomas Berdych.