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By Giri Nathan
[vc_empty_space height="15px"]Well, that was fun, briefly. The tennis spigot has been off for months. This week it was turned all the way open. On the WTA side, there were three 500-level tournaments (Yarra Valley Classic, Gippsland Trophy, Grampians Trophy); on the ATP side, two 250s (Great Ocean Road Open, Murray River Open) and the second inaugural ATP Cup. That is a lot of tennis. As much tennis as you will ever see stuffed into a week. It was called the Melbourne Summer Series, and it had a noble goal: to get every player in the Australian Open main draw—a sizable chunk of whom would be emerging from a two-week hard lockdown, with no court time—at least one match with stakes, so that they wouldn’t be entering a major absolutely cold. On Tuesday there were upwards of 80 matches in Melbourne, across singles and doubles, across all these events. Too much for any one person to safely consume. And it brought with it all the usual joys: A 17-year-old Carlos Alcaraz won his first match against a top 15 player. World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty hit the courts for the first time in nearly a year. Gael Monfils and Matteo Berrettini did this. Aryna Sabalenka saw a 12-match win streak snapped by Kaia Kanepi. Nick Kyrgios...continued his crusade against anyone sitting in a tall chair. We were back in the flow of tennis.