Day one was unspectacular, but somewhat soothing. Afterwards, Catherine, David and Matt convened to figure out why it felt flat. How much of it was due to lingering fallout from all of the Novak Djokovic drama? And how much of it was the simple lack of compelling matches? Even so, there were plenty of interesting stories to discuss, including Coco Gauff’s shock defeat to Qiang Wang, mixed fortunes for recent champions Madison Keys, Aslan Karatsev and Thanasi Kokkinakis, winning returns for Rafael Nadal and Naomi Osaka, a physical transformation from Carlos Alcaraz, a fourth straight defeat for Cameron Norrie, ruthless efficiency from Ash Barty, and narrow wins for Amanda Anisimova and Matteo Berrettini.FRIENDS OF THE TENNIS PODCAST There are three new podcasts about the Australian Open waiting for all Friends of The Tennis Podcast - The Li Na story, the extraordinary Thomas Johansson year, and My First Australian Open. Friends receive exclusive access to bonus podcasts throughout the year and help to keep the weekly podcast and the Grand Slam Dailies free-to-all. Become a Friend - https://bit.ly/FriendOfTheTennisPodcast See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.