MIKE DICKSON: Andy Murray rolled back the years and the Netflix curse came true

It can certainly be said that this year’s Australian Open lived up to the hype and kicked off the tennis calendar year in a tremendous way.

From Aryna Sabalenka’s first Grand Slam title to Novak Djokovic’s record 22nd, there were memorable moments throughout the events in Melbourne.

And here Sportsmail’s Mike Dickson looks back on the best and worst of the last month of action in Australia.

AGED WARRIOR

Andy Murray lit up the first week with his heroism, beating Matteo Berrettini and then coming back to beat Thanasi Kokkinakis for the better part of six hours, all while playing with a lump of metal on his hip.

The way he moved and played, will raise hope that he still has it for some kind of Indian summer.

It’s hard to imagine, at Wimbledon in particular, that too many players will want him anywhere near them in the draw.

NIGHT GAMES

Schedulers still don’t understand that matches last longer than before (tennis is the only business that doesn’t realize that the modern attention span is shrinking, not increasing).

As a result, we saw, once again, unrealistic programming and views as crowds of spectators leaving before the end of the women’s semi-final and two Australians in the men’s doubles final playing to a half-empty stadium.

That’s before concerns about fairness for players, with early-hour winners at a disadvantage with their disrupted sleep patterns.

ABSENT FRIENDS

Withdrawals by Carlos Alcaraz and Nick Kyrgios didn’t help, and neither did the early exit of Rafael Nadal, whose body seems to be finally breaking down under the strain.

This was not a tournament packed with great matches in either singles.

For sheer drama, Murray provided two of the best contests, while the women’s final was an excellent matchup between two heavy hitters.

THE COURSE

None of the players featured in the current Break Point documentary will be satisfied with their tournament, and Curse Of Netflix was born.

They all either lost sooner than they expected or didn’t make it to the starting line due to injury.

Coincidence? Almost sure. It’s hard that the slightly bland first five episodes could have offended anyone.

CROWDS

Tennis Australia hosts a remarkable event.

The children’s area when walking from the city, for example, would put many amusement parks to shame.

The post-pandemic crowds turned out in droves, with a notable attendance of nearly 95,000 on half Saturday.

VERY BRITISH PROBLEMS

A strong tournament for players from Russia and Belarus will hardly have allayed the Wimbledon crowd’s anxiety about what lies ahead.

In the British game, they are currently cognizant of backtracking on their stance of banning players from those two states, for fear of losing ranking points and tournament penalties.

Aryna Sabalenka could easily win Wimbledon, and nauseating images of Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko toasting his success in Australia will not have calmed fears at the All England Club.

THE BRITISH

Murray aside, nothing special. In general, they won the games they were supposed to win, they lost the games they were destined to lose.

Cam Norrie fell a bit short, as did the doubles players. Jack Draper again showed his potential by challenging Nadal, Emma Raducanu held her own respectably against Coco Gauff.

A QUIET REVOLUTION

The current test of allowing coaches to give instructions to players from the stands (no prolonged conversations allowed) looks set to become established policy.

The evidence currently suggests it doesn’t make much of a difference either way: it only occasionally improves entertainment value, probably doesn’t affect the outcome of matches much.

But it does mean that tennis loses a single point of difference to other sports.