Raducanu will 'take positives' from Australian Open run

Emma Raducanu will "take positives" from her run to the third round of the Australian Open, while Jack Draper produced an "incredible effort" to come through three five-set matches in a row, says Gigi Salmon.

In her latest Sky Sports column, Gigi Salmon speaks exclusively from Melbourne where she discusses Emma Raducanu's run to the third round, Jack Draper's remarkable tournament, Daniil Medvedev's total fines, Danielle Collins' on court antics, and missing Daniela Hantuchova's practice sessions.

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Imagine having 12 hours and 35 minutes of tennis in your legs across three matches and 15 sets, managing an ongoing hip problem and knowing that next up was four-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz! That was the task facing British No 1 Jack Draper, a big ask that became mission impossible.

We're lucky enough when commentating on the matches on the Rod Laver Arena to be at court level behind the baseline.

Next time you're watching on tv look out for the darkened and luckily for us reinforced glass behind the baseline, the end where the players walk out and we are behind that! It's a fantastic viewpoint and you get to see the emotions of the players as they walk back towards the glass, and that included the anguish on the face of Jack Draper as it became clear to him that he wouldn't be able to carry on, finally calling it a day at the end of the second set.

Tendinitis in his hip that went into his back is what Jack has been managing, surprising himself with how well it held up given how much he has had to play and put his body through.

He did though admit in his post-match press conference that he had probably been dealing with 'a ticking time bomb.'

With all this going on it was an incredible effort from Jack to come through three tough five-set matches and having already said he wouldn't be a part of Great Britain's Davis Cup team for when they face Japan next month, he is looking to be fit and back on court for the ATP 500 tournament in Rotterdam - which you will be able to watch on Sky Sports Tennis at the start of February.

Positives for Raducanu

Speaking of scheduling, Emma Raducanu, who when the inevitable sting subsides from her 6-1 6-0 defeat to world No 2 Iga Swiatek in the third round, should take the positives from a career best run at Melbourne Park that was hampered in the build up by a back problem.

Next up is due to be the WTA 250 event in Singapore that starts at the end of this month - live on Sky Sports Tennis.

Monday of week two started with an apology issued by host broadcaster Channel 9 over comments made by the main presenter of their Australian Open coverage that Novak Djokovic found to be disrespectful, which included: 'Novak, he's overrated. Novak's a has-been. Novak, kick him out."

While waiting the apology Djokovic refused to do his on-court post match interview with Jim Courier, clarifying afterwards that it was nothing against Jim, whom he has a lot of respect for, and he did carry out his other post-match commitments.

In my opinion the comments did way overstep the mark, if it was an attempt at a joke as it was said to be, it wasn't a very good one. Hopefully with apologies now made we will be hearing more from Djokovic should he beat Carlos Alcaraz when they meet in the quarter-finals.

Biggest total of fines for Medvedev

In what was a lively first week, last year's finalist Daniil Medvedev lost to 19-year-old Learner Tien and in the process racked up fines totalling more than £60,000 across his two matches.

The fines were for throwing his racket for which he got a point penalty, not doing his post match press conference and breaking a net camera.

It's the biggest total of fines handed out in Grand Slam history and will be taken out of his prize money of £102,000.

What a start to the year for Medvedev whose second child, a daughter called Victoria, was born in January. He arrived in Melbourne just a few days before the tournament started and left for home a few days later!

Collins' 'big, fat pay cheque'

Someone else who's going out swinging at anyone in her way is Danielle Collins. We spoke to the American quite a bit last year on Sky Sports Tennis in what was due to be her final year on tour as she looked to the future with a desire to settle down and start a family.

With her fertility journey proving a tough one due to endometriosis, Collins decided to delay retirement and get back out on tour. Now she does have a history of being a feisty competitor, she'll talk back to the crowd, let out utterly guttural roars after winning points and isn't afraid to speak her mind, she will also tell anyone who will listen that she doesn't care what people think.

It went to another level in her second round match with Australian qualifier Destanee Aiava, understandably it was a partisan crowd, Collins would win through 6-2 in the third, spurred on by the crowd that was visibly against her.

After blowing kisses to them when the match was won, in her on court interview she said, 'You know I was thinking during the match, I was like 'hmm, if I'm out here I may as well just take that big, fat pay cheque, I just love a five-star vacation, so part of that cheque is going to go towards that, so thank you guys.'

She would double down on her comments in her post match press conference before going out in the next round to Madison Keys.

Collins has a strong character but having got to know her a little last year on tour, she is a good person who doesn't enjoy being in the spotlight and actually, hard to believe if you saw her on court antics, craves stepping back from it.

Coaching Hantuchova

Now thanks to Andrea Petkovic I now know what a 'hexenschuss', literally translated to 'shot by a witch', is, more commonly known as lumbago.

This came up when talking about Jacob Fearnley's straight sets defeat to Sascha Zverev, Jacob had to take a medical timeout for lower back pain and Andrea joked that she had put a 'hexenschuss' on him.

And when it comes to my dual role of commentating and coaching, I believe I have been nominated once again as Daniela Hantuchova's coach, who is playing in the two legends events, but so far I have missed all of Dani's practices which hasn't gone down well so I'm not sure I will make it to the end of the week with my coaching accreditation intact!

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