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MELBOURNE, Australia – Melbourne Park? We have to talk about the mullet infestation.

It is SO ubiquitous, some of the visiting players have, sadly, drunk the Mullet Koolaid.

The mullet is nothing new. But even though it technically went out of fashion decades ago, it’s consistently in fashion here.

All over Melbourne Park, it represents.

Here is just a tiny fraction of the Melbourne Mullet mob.

Cobolli, Mensik, and the immortal Dane Sweeny

CASE IN POINT, the Italian player Flavio Cobolli, considered a dreamboat (in the old vernacular) by many.

It takes work to ruin this face.

But Cobolli isn’t alone. His fellow up-and-comer Jakub Mensik ALMOST went full mullet. Close enough.

Honorable Mention to Purcell

We would be remiss to put up a post about mullets without giving a shoutout to Max Purcell, who has made the Australian Open doubles final twice but who ended up provisionally suspended just before the Australian summer.

Purcell self-reported a vitamin infusion that was slightly over the 100 ml allowed. And he’s missing the biggest month of his season.

But the mullet is an original (even if he was outdone at Wimbledon in 2022 by a court attendant. But Purcell and Ebden ended up taking the title).

The classic: Dane Sweeny

Sweeny, a 24-year-old Aussie listed at 5-foot-7 and 138 pounds, packs the best pound-for-pound mullet punch in tennis.

He briefly dipped into the top 200 a year ago, but is back down at No. 322 and is one of those players who habitually gets a wild card into the AO qualifying.

From 2022 through to 2025, the mullet was incarnated differently. But still faithful to the genre.

American Classic

And a shutout to J.J. Wolf, who pulled out this beauty at the US Open in 2021.

Business in the front, party in the back. Or the “Kentucky Waterfall”. Or even the “Tennessee Top Hat”. Whatever your preference.

Coach goes full out

Another shoutout goes to the coach of Jenson Brooksby, Rhyne Williams, who went full mullet/stache as the 24-year-old American returned to action after wrist surgery and a “whereabouts” doping suspension.