As dawn broke on the Australian Open this year, the tournament was shrouded by mist and confusion, defined by injuries and doubts. Rafael Nadal arrived in Melbourne for the first time in his career without a single match under his belt, his knee the victim of a season too long and break too short. Novak Djokovic had stepped aside for six months yet still – still, he was forced to withdraw from his first two events of the year. Stan Wawrinka, still recovering from knee surgery, still unable to properly bend his knees, was still withdrawing from events within 4 days of the tournament. All the while, somewhere in Melbourne, Andy Murray simply cried (https://twitter.com/andy_murray/status/952 652 469 481 426 944).

But on Tuesday, for a small window, the skies cleared. Djokovic stepped onto Margaret Court Arena early in the afternoon with a smile plastered across his face and it never left. Despite his new abbreviated service motion that relieves stress on his troublesome elbow by, significantly, limiting the work of his right arm on his motion, Djokovic was decently pleased with his serve, which averaged 121mph, as he breezed past Donald Young 6-1 6-2 6-4. Despite the suboptimal performance from the American, Djokovic commanded the baseline and changed directions as if he hadn’t been away. Although he needs more friction against tougher opposition for a far more accurate litmus test, his performance immediately established him at a high level and promised even more.

After his victory, Djokovic finally addressed the rumors surrounding him that have brewed since Monday morning when the Daily Mail reported that, at the triannual ATP player meeting, Djokovic, the president of the ATP player council, excused all officials from the meeting and pitched to his fellow professionals and rivals the possibility of starting a new rumor. After his victory, Djokovic pragmatically addressed the issue, pointedly ribbing the skeptical reporting in the press.

“Well, I saw that some of you have written a story that has been a little bit exaggerated,” he said. “You've taken things out of the context. I saw that you've portrayed me as someone who is very greedy, asks for more money and wants to boycott. But I respect your, you know, freedom and decisions to do that.

But not much of what you have wrote is true. What happened is that we, players, just wanted to have us players talk about certain topics. I don't think there is anything unhealthy about that. We get together, a hundred players get together two or three times in a whole year. This is one of the places where we get together.

“We wanted to use this opportunity to speak about certain subjects and see how everyone, you know, reacts to that, and I guess see what opinions are. There was no decisions being made. There was no talks about boycott or anything like that. That's all I can say really. Nothing much else to add.”

While Djokovic didn’t appear drastically far from returning to a high level, Wawrinka was merely satisfied to be back. Just a few days before the tournament began, the three-time slam champion was struggling to bend his knees on serve and moving without fluidity as he was laid to waste by Nadal and other top players in practice sets throughout the week.

Against Ricardas Berankis, the Swiss sat down after the warm up to reveal a large, ragged scar across his knee. Sometimes Wawrinka intermittently winced with pain from his repaired knee and sometimes stopped running and let the balls fly past, he still had command of his famously violent groundstrokes and he eventually overpowered Berankis to capture his first win in 6 months. Wawrinka incessantly claims that he is not taking a risk by competing on his knee.

“I still have some pain. It depends the way I'm moving, how I push on it. In general, it's going the right direction. That's the best news. To see that the knee is keeping it, that I can play a match with the stress, back being tight, with hesitation. The knee that doesn't move even after three hours, so that's great.

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Match of the day

On Court 3, two former top ten players brawled in the street for two and a half hours as fans struggled to choose between two of the nicest people on the tour. Andrea Petkovic first held match point on three separate occasions on Petra Kvitova’s serve at 5-4 in the final set. Then the Czech served for the match twice. Then Petkovic finally recovered to win 6-3 4-6 10-8.

“There was one point where I thought to myself ‘OK, this is the challenge you want and now you have to really show everything you’ve worked on,’ she said.

“Everything I’ve worked on in the past year where it was tough and where I kept getting setbacks. It would have been really easy to go ‘Aah! everything's against me again.’ So I tried to take it as a challenge and say “this is everything you want” It’s challenging now. Destiny’s challenging you. Petra is challenging you, the umpire is challenging some calls. That’s how I tried to take it and I think it was the best mindset to get through.”

Petkovic’s victory couldn’t be more significant after a 2017 season ravaged by injuries, poor form, and tight losses. The former world number 9 started the tournament ranked 98th and determined to trust her decision to turn her way of training on its head. Known as one of the hardest, most voluminous workers on the tour, Petkovic addressed her injury issues in the off-season by cutting her daily on-court sessions to a mere two hours and furiously pursuing the ethos of quality over quantity. Her leap of faith never seemed more justified than when she arrived in the press room exhausted, sapped of energy, and vitality, but ultimately happy.

“I don't have this euphoria yet, so I hope I can sleep well and recover because it was a really tough match physically and I’m still in the tournament. she said. “I really want to continue to do well and I'm just going to try to stay like this and not get too euphoric about it. If it was a final I would be [yelling], running naked around Melbourne Park and jumping into things. But it's not so I'm just trying to keep the euphoria for later and stay focused on the next match.”

There is not always gratitude and joy to be found in defeat, but the feeling of returning to Australia after the sport was almost robbed from her 13 months ago was enough to move Kvitova to tears.

“It was a great match,” she said. “Played pretty long, as well. I feel it. And, yeah, in the end I'm happy I was able to play anyway. I felt support during the match. It's make me little bit cry when I left the court, when I heard those people supporting me anyway. So, it was great.”

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While Kvitova and Petkovic parsed and recovered from the emotions of their battle, Johanna Konta cut a far more relaxed figure after her simple 6-3 6-1 victory over her friend Madison Brengle. The British number one has been in impressive form off the court so far, looking far more at ease with the demands of being a successful British player and allowing specs of her personality to be seen.

Q. You have been somewhat of a late bloomer in tennis. Are you a late bloomer in other parts of your life?

JOHANNA KONTA: That's a loaded question (smiling). No, I'm laughing with you. Well, I mean, I didn't kiss a boy… Sorry (smiling). I guess so. Yeah, I mean, I didn't chase boys when I was young. Sorry. But, yeah, I guess I am a late bloomer in that sense. Yeah, I don't know how to answer this without going into details.

Q. Did you walk late? Some kids walk late.

JOHANNA KONTA: Oh, I don't know. I don't know that. I could tell you this, but this would be an awkward conversation for everyone else to hear. I was this stage when I got my period – no, I'm joking. (laughter.)

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The only meteorological certainty in life is that, even when the skies are flooded with blue, the clouds will eventually return. On Ashe, Simona Halep recovered from a 2-5 deficit to outlast young Australian hope Destanee Aiava 7-6(5) 6-1, but in the process Halep rolled her heavily taped ankle, an act that recalled both her ankle injury struggles going into the French Open last year and her twisted ankle in the semi-finals of Wimbledon against Eugenie Bouchard, her next opponent.

“I don't know now,” said Halep. “I felt a big pain on court, but I didn't have time to go to check it. I just had a shower, I had stretching, and I came here. I just want to wait for tomorrow to see how I wake up. From my experience, I feel that is nothing broken, but still the pain was big. I have to see with the doctors. “

Photos courtesy: Clive Brunskill, Mark Kolbe, Quinn Rooney, Cameron Spencer/Getty Images AsiaPac