Australian Open, men's first week

 ROME - The Australian Open tennis tournament advertises itself as “The Happy Slam.” It might be more accurate to dub it The Mixed Emotions Slam. The first major event of the year has historically been marked by early-round upsets, injuries and controversies on court and off.

 This year things started to slide sideways in the first round when American Alex Michelsen beat 11^th seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas. Although Tsitsipas has suffered mixed results in recent seasons, it was still a shock when he was beaten by a 20-year-old southern Californian.

 But then 9^thseeded Andre Rublev was defeated by an 18-year-old qualifier, Joao Fonseca, whose hard-hitting style prompted immediate comparisons to Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz.

 Pundits predicted Fonseca would quickly rise into the top ten and dominate the game for decades to come.

 Instead he lost to Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego, ranked a humble 55, in five sets. In another first round surprise, 10^th seeded Grigor Dimitrov withdrew with injuries, allowing Italy’s Francesco Passaro to advance into the second round.

 After winning a tournament in Auckland, Gael Monfils, age 39, came to Melbourne as a sentimental favorite. Not that he figured to advance beyond his first-round match against fellow Frenchman, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, a 21-year-old 6’8” tower of power.

 Monfils is no shrimp himself at 6’4” and gifted with endless stamina and athleticism. He took the first two sets, but then appeared to be wilting as Mpetshi Perricard won the next two in tiebreaks.

 Somehow Monfils summoned enough energy to eke out a win, 6-4 in the fifth set. Speaking of eking out five-set matches, Russian Daniil Medvedev survived an astonishingly difficult struggle with Kasidit Samrej, a wild card competitor from Thailand. 

 For Medvedev’s fans, this must have seemed a mere blip, a wake-up call that suggested he needed to stay alert even against unknown low-ranked players, like his second-round opponent, the curiously named American Learner Tien.

 A peppy lefthander with plenty of pop on his groundstrokes and amazing composure, Tien took down 5^th seeded Medvedev 7-6 in the fifth set. 

 Casper Ruud of Norway, long a fixture in the top ten and seeded 6^th, seems the soul of Scandinavian steadiness. A three-time Grand Slam finalist, he figured to have little trouble against Jakub Mensik, a 19-year-old Czech. 

 But again, the early-round upset bug remained pandemic in Melbourne. Mensik glided past Ruud in four sets, only to be outlasted by Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, ranked a modest 66, in five sets in the next round. 

 All these upsets paled by comparison to an extraordinary encounter in the third round. Gael Monfils had managed to advance and faced 4^th seeded American Taylor Fritz.

 When the American neatly tucked away the first set 6-3, it looked like age had caught up with Monfils. But where most players might try to shorten the points and conserve energy, Monfils doggedly turned the match into a test of endurance.

 Playing from deep in the court, he extended every point. Running Fritz from side to side, retrieving balls that appeared to be unplayable, Monfils won the next three sets 7-5/ 7-6/6-4, earning himself a confrontation against hard-hitting American Ben Shelter. 

 With so many top seeds falling like tall trees to a buzz saw, the men’s draw in Melbourne has opened up and more than ever looks like an easy path to the finals for a quartet of megastars -- Jannik Sinner, who is defending his title here, Carlos Alcaraz, eager to add the Australian to his collection of Grand Slam titles, Alexander Zverev, still eager to win his first Grand Slam title, and Novak Djokovic, determined to win a record-breaking 25^th Grand Slam. 

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