We’ve reached my least favorite part of the Australian Open, a.k.a. the part where fewer and fewer matches are scheduled for when I’m awake. The time zone gods giveth, then taketh away. But there’s been some really fun stuff — even though I missed Medvedev’s 3:30 a.m. finish, we watched Mirra Andreeva’s big comeback against Diane Parry, and Taylor Fritz upsetting Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Azarenka-Ostapenko… while I missed Danielle Collins nearly upsetting Iga Swiatek, I promise I did not miss her outfit.
And I have had plenty of opportunities to roll my eyes at Brad Gilbert and request that he climb into a hole. I’m happy that he’s apparently a good addition to Coco Gauff’s team, but he drives me NUTS. I do not think he’s a value-add and if I can watch a match on ESPN+ with their anonymous C-teamers instead of the main crew, I will. I hate Gilbert’s dumb nicknames for everyone (he is so proud of calling Sinner “Sin City”), and I REALLY hate how he’s contributed to a growing overall clubbiness in the American coverage — Brad is BG, Darren Cahill is Killer, Rennae Stubbs has to be Stubbsy, it’s all inside jokes and nicknames and promoting everyone else’s coaching… and then poor Pam Shriver comes off like she’s found herself at the Cool Table in the cafeteria and doesn’t know how to keep up with the banter. It’s a LOT. I will give them that Cahill and Gilbert are both shockingly honest when they talk about how they’re coaching their athletes, down to Gilbert admitting that he makes preferential scheduling requests for Coco, which I assumed was something happening off the record for all the top people but did not know they would openly admit. Otherwise, though, yikes.
