Melbourne (Australia), Jan 14, 2019 (Reuters/NAN) U.S. number one John Isner was sent crashing out of the first round of the Australian Open on Monday by compatriot Reilly Opelka 7-6(4) 7-6(6) 6-7(4) 7-6(5) in a battle of two of the game’s tallest players.
Wimbledon semi-finalist Isner fell at the first hurdle at Melbourne Park for the second year in a row, having been beaten by unseeded Australian Matthew Ebden in a major shock in 2018.
The 21-year-old Opelka, an inch taller than the 6ft-10in Isner (2.08m), broke the ninth seed’s perfect 9-0 winning record against Americans at the Grand Slams.
The entertaining match featured 87 aces.
Isner, 33, was crestfallen to be booking an early flight out of Australia but said he would work through the disappointment.
“You keep working and put your head down and kind of disappear once I leave here and just work,” he told reporters.
“And, you know, trust that’s going to pay dividends for me in the future.”
Opelka will play 102nd ranked Italian journeyman Thomas Fabbiano for a place in the third round. (Reuters/NAN)
Kerber
Melbourne (Australia), Jan. 14, 2019 (Reuters/NAN) Angelique Kerber brandished her credentials as a title contender at the Australian Open with a straight-forward 6-2, 6-2 victory against Slovenia’s Polona Hercog on Monday.
The Wimbledon champion minimised her time under the hot sun, where temperatures surpassed 30 degrees celsius (86°F) during the day-time matches in Melbourne.
She thus secured the straight sets win in just over an hour.
Her opponent, a former top-50 player, was too erratic to trouble the three-times Grand Slam winner, committing almost three times as many unforced errors as Kerber.
She said her form improved during the match and her ball-striking was not side-tracked by the at-times inconsistent opponent.
“I played a lot of matches here already in Australia … I have my rhythm,” said Kerber, who played lead-up events in both Perth and Sydney.
Kerber was rarely challenged, and stepped up her relentless, grinding style on the handful of occasions she faced break points.
She moves into the next round without losing any service games.
She will play Brazilian qualifier Beatriz Haddad Maia in the second round in a battle between two left-handed counter-punchers who have not previously met. (Reuters/NAN)
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Seamless
Melbourne (Australia), Jan. 14, 2019 (Reuters/NAN) Former champion Rafa Nadal showed no signs of discomfort from his thigh strain as he sailed through to the second round of the Australian Open with a 6-4, 6-3, 7-5 win over local hope James Duckworth on Monday.
The second-seeded Spaniard had pulled out of the Brisbane warmup with a thigh strain to raise doubts about his campaign but he allayed those fears on Rod Laver Arena against an error-prone opponent.
“It’s normal that beginnings are tough, but every day helps and every day makes me feel better, makes me feel more confident,” Nadal told reporters.
“So that’s an important victory because (it) is the first victory since a while and at the same time… gives me the chance to be on court again. And that’s what I need.”
The first meeting between the 17-times Grand Slam champion, a winner at Melbourne Park in 2009, and Australian wildcard Duckworth always had the potential to be an uneven contest.
Duckworth is ranked 238 in the world but the 26-year-old, who reached a career-high ranking of 82 in April, 2015, did not help his cause by looking to attack Nadal from the start.
He therefore committed 40 unforced errors in the process, compared to just 11 from his opponent.
Nadal, who is bidding to become the first man in the Open Era, and only the third man ever, to win each of the four Grand Slams twice, ran his opponent down with his superior court coverage and ability to hit winners under pressure.
“I played against a super-aggressive player. Today he went on court with the determination to not play tennis the way I understand tennis,” Nadal told reporters.
“(It) is not a negative point. Not at all. Believe me. He went on court probably doing a thing that works well for him, and he gives himself some chances. And he played smart and he played well.”
Sporting a yellow sleeveless t-shirt and white shorts, Nadal hit his gear early by breaking Duckworth’s serve in the first game which was enough for him to take out the first set.
After an early trade of breaks in the second, Duckworth served his sixth double fault to go down a break and then lost the second set with his eighth.
Two brilliant winners in the sixth game, which brought about an animated celebration from the Spaniard, gave him a break and a 4-2 lead but Duckworth got the break back in the ninth game.
He then brought an end to the match with a brilliant backhand pass.
In his pre-match news conference Nadal said he has brought a remodelled serve to Melbourne aimed at generating more pace.
After losing two service games in the match, Nadal was pleased with it.
“My serve worked well. I don’t know my percentage, but was a lot of good positions after the first serve,” he said. “I felt solid with the second.” (Reuters/NAN)
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Melbourne (Australia), Jan. 14, 2019 (Reuters/NAN) Former champion Maria Sharapova gave hapless Harriet Dart a 6-0 6-0 shellacking to fly into the second round of the Australian Open on Monday.
In the opening match on Rod Laver Arena’s centre court, the 30th seed was all over the British qualifier from the first point, wrapping up the first set in 31 minutes in a barrage of power hitting.
Dart saved two match points to stall Sharapova’s win but sprayed a clumsy volley wide to fall on the third.
Sharapova will play Swede Rebecca Peterson for a place in the third round. (Reuters/NAN)
Australian Open
Melbourne (Australia), Jan. 13, 2019 (Reuters/NAN) An emotional Andy Murray kicks off his Australian Open campaign against Spaniard Roberto Agut in the night session at Melbourne Park on Monday.
It is what could well be the final match of the Scot’s glittering career.
Hip surgery a year ago has left the three-times Grand Slam champion in severe pain.
The 31-year-old said last week that the year’s first Grand Slam could be his last tournament.
Murray has never lost in three meetings with Agut and last beat the 22nd seed in the Shanghai Masters final in 2016.
It was however when the Scot was at his peak, having just won his second Wimbledon title and Olympic gold in Rio.
Both players’ fortunes have changed since they last faced each other over the net.
Agut is coming off an impressive run in Doha, where he beat Stan Wawrinka, Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych en route to winning the title.
Murray, in contrast, is ranked 230th in the world and was beaten in straight sets by Russia’s Daniil Medvedev at the Brisbane International warm-up.
The Scot said his troublesome hip had stacked the odds against him.
“I know most likely I’m going to lose in the first round,” added Murray, who has finished runner-up in Melbourne five times but never won the title.
“If it is my last match, I want to try and enjoy it.”
An hour after Murray walks on to the Melbourne Arena, defending women’s champion Caroline Wozniacki will take on unseeded Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck under the lights on the tournament’s main showcourt.
Wozniacki will be followed by men’s champion Roger Federer, whose quest for a third Australian Open title in a row begins with an eighth career meeting with Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin.
Federer, who has never lost to Istomin before, will be grateful the match is in the evening.
It allowed the Swiss veteran to avoid the worst of the heat on what promises to be a scorching day.
Temperatures are expected to soar to about 36-37 Celsius (96-99 Fahrenheit) in Melbourne on Monday, with high humidity set to make it the hottest day of the week.
Organisers have updated the tournament’s extreme heat policy, and Tennis Australia’s new “Heat Stress Scale” is likely to be pressed into action from the start.
First to feel the heat will be 2008 champion Maria Sharapova, who kicks things off on Rod Laver against unseeded Briton Harriet Dart.
Second seed Rafa Nadal will battle the worst of the conditions when he takes on Australian wild card and world number 238 James Duckworth in the second match on Rod Laver.
Nadal, who pulled out of the Brisbane International with a thigh strain, has shrugged off concerns his battle-scarred body may not be able to handle the strain.
There is going to be two weeks of top-level tennis, but doubts remain whether he will be able to stand the strain.
The Spaniard recently had ankle surgery and has twice lost to wild cards at a major before.
The first time was at the hands of James Blake in the 2005 U.S. Open and then to Nick Kyrgios at Wimbledon in 2014.
Australian teen Alex de Minaur, who won his first career title at the Sydney International on Saturday, is in action against Portugal’s Pedro Sousa on Margaret Court Arena.
World number 15 Ashleigh Barty faces Thailand’s Luksika Kumkhum on Margaret Court in the first match of the evening session.
Barty is carrying home hopes in the women’s draw and was a losing finalist in Sydney. (Reuters/NAN)
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Melbourne (Australia), Jan. 12, 2019 (Reuters/NAN) Former champion Rafa Nadal shrugged off concerns about his fitness ahead of the Australian Open on Saturday.
He also paid tribute to fellow ‘Big Four’ rival Andy Murray, a day after the emotional Briton revealed plans to retire.
The 2009 winner Nadal pulled out of the Brisbane International warmup with a thigh strain, raising fears about his campaign at Melbourne Park after his 2018 season ended early with ankle surgery.
However, the 32-year-old Spaniard declared himself ready to throw himself into a 14th campaign in Melbourne, starting with a first round match against Australian wildcard James Duckworth.
“If I am not feeling good, I will not be here,” the 17-time Grand Slam champion said at Melbourne Park on Saturday.
“I have good feelings in terms of the surgery that I have in the foot. I can say it’s almost done.
“Then, of course, after surgery, after months without competing, having troubles to practise, of course there are always issues when you come back.
“But nothing new for me. I had a couple of (times) of this. Just accept the challenges the body presents and the tennis presents.”
In an emotional media conference on Friday, a tearful Murray revealed the pain from his troublesome right hip was proving too much to bear.
He then said the Australian Open could be his last tournament as a professional.
Of the many banged-up players on tour, Nadal may be the most able to empathise with Murray, having spent long periods on the sidelines with serious knee problems.
“It will be a very important loss for us, for the world of tennis, for the tour, for the fans, even for the rival that he has been part of and a great competitor,” Nadal said of the three-times Grand Slam champion.
“But that’s life. Seems like he has not (had) a very long career because today players are playing that long.
“But he’s 31. 10 years ago, if he retired at 31, we will say he had a great and very long career. That’s the real thing. So all the best for him. We will miss him.”
Nadal was forced to retire hurt in the fifth set of last year’s quarter-final against eventual finalist Marin Cilic.
It was eight years after he pulled out midway through his last-eight clash against Murray with a knee injury.
Doubts about the second seed’s ability to withstand seven matches on hardcourts were reinforced when he retired in the U.S. Open semi-final against Juan Martin del Potro last year.
Despite that, Nadal is leaving no stone unturned in Melbourne and brings a remodelled serve aimed at generating more pace and, hopefully, shortening points.
“You need to make yourself feel alive, you know?” he said.
“There are always things to improve … I didn’t compete with this new serve, so let’s see how it works.
“I am confident it’s going to work well.” (Reuters/NAN)
Melbourne (Australia), Jan. 11, 2019 (Reuters/NAN) Andy Murray may retire after the Australian Open, with the severe pain from his troublesome right hip having become almost unbearable for him to play on, the former world number one said on Friday.
Overcome with emotion, the three-time Grand Slam champion wept at a media conference as he revealed that he had initially planned to quit after playing this year’s Wimbledon tournament.
He said he now felt Melbourne Park might end up his swansong.
“There’s a chance of that, for sure, because I’m not sure I’m able to play through the pain for another four or five months.
“The pain is too much, really, and I don’t want to continue playing that way.
The pain is not allowing me to enjoy competing or training or any of the stuff I love about tennis,” the 31-year-old Briton, now ranked 230th in the world, said.
Five-times a runner up at Melbourne Park, Murray had surgery on the joint a year ago, having played with pain for a number of years.
He came back last June but was forced to cut his 2018 season short.
Andy Murray of England speaks to the media during a press conference at the Australian Open in Melbourne, Australia, January 11, 2019. AAP Image/Daniel Pockett/via REUTERS
While still struggling during a pre-season camp in December, Murray said he had told his team that he felt he could not go on for much longer.
“Just playing with no idea when the pain was going to stop, and I felt like making that decision.
“I said to my team, ‘Look, I think I can kind of get through this until Wimbledon.’ That was where I’d like to stop — stop playing.
“But I’m also not certain I’m able to do that,” he said.
Twice Wimbledon winner Murray, Britain’s first men’s champion since Fred Perry in 1936, left the door to an eventual comeback slightly ajar, saying he was mulling another round of major hip surgery.
He said he had been in touch with American doubles champion Bob Bryan, who returned to the court at the recent Brisbane International after having the surgery.
The twice Olympic champion added, though, that the operation would be more aimed at improving quality of life than prolonging his career.
“I have an option to have another operation which is a little bit more kind of severe than what I’ve had before, which would allow me to have a better quality of life.
“That’s something I’m seriously considering right now.
“Bob Bryan had this operation post-Wimbledon last year and is obviously playing.
“But obviously there’s a difference between singles and doubles in terms of the physicality and movement and stuff. Certainly, no guarantees there,” he said.
Murray said basic things in everyday life, like putting on socks and shoes, were causing him severe pain and he had grown weary of talking about his hip in every conversation.
Murray has been drawn to play 22nd seeded Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut in the first round on Monday.
He visibly struggled in a 6-1 4-1 practice match defeat to top seed Novak Djokovic at Melbourne Park on Thursday.
“I’m going to play, I can still play to a level, not a level that I’m happy playing at,” he said. (Reuters/NAN)
Djokovic, Federer, Serena remain favourites to win opening Grand Slam
Favourites
By Kayode Adebiyi
Melbourne (Australia), Jan. 9, 2019 (Reuters/NAN) Novak Djokovic and Rogerer Federer loom over Melbourne Park for the year’s opening Grand Slam as favourites for the Australian Open as questions remain as to whether younger players could finally end their stranglehold.
The Serbian world number one and his Swiss opponent have won eight of the nine titles on Rod Laver Arena since 2010 and 11 of the last 13 on the bright blue courts in central Melbourne.
Both have six titles each, and are seeking to break a three-way tie for the most victories with Australia’s Roy Emerson.
While Federer has won the tournament for the last two years, Djokovic’s history in Australia means the world number one will be the man to beat.
The 31-year-old went into a bewildering slump in mid-2016 that only ended when he won Wimbledon last year.
He then went on to claim his third U.S. Open crown and move to 14 Grand Slam titles, three behind Rafa Nadal.
The Spanish world number two, however, is battling another leg injury that forced him out of the Brisbane International last week.
While he told local media on Tuesday that he did not feel any pain from his thigh strain, it is apparent that hard courts are putting undue stress on the 32-year-old’s body.
He retired in the quarter-finals against Marin Cilic last year in Melbourne and suffered yet another knee injury that forced him out of the U.S. Open semi-finals at Flushing Meadows.
Federer, however, continues to defy the odds at 37 and prepared for his title defence with some convincing performances in the Hopman Cup in Perth last week.
The 20-time Grand Slam winner’s victories over Greece’s world number 15 Stefanos Tsitsipas and world number four Alexander Zverev prompted the German to playfully quip that he was tired of Federer winning everything.
“I mean, you’re 30-whatever. Why? Just why?” Zverev asked jokingly of Federer at the Hopman Cup trophy presentation.
The 21-year-old Zverev appears the most likely of the younger generation of players hoping to end the world’s top three’s domination of Grand Slams.
He beat Federer and Djokovic at the ATP Tour Finals in London last November.
While others in ‘Generation Next’ like Austria’s Dominic Thiem and the 22-year-old Russians Karen Khachanov and Daniil Medvedev could cause upsets, it is debatable whether they can upstage the veterans.
Two of the older generation who have shown they do have that ability — Britain’s Andy Murray and Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka — could be dangerous floaters in the draw.
Murray, a five-time finalist at Melbourne Park, spent most of last year recuperating from hip surgery and looked rusty last week in Brisbane but declared himself pain free.
Wawrinka, the 2014 champion, is also coming back from knee surgery and a back injury in the second half of 2018.
However, he typically flies under the radar through Grand Slams and unlikely to have any pressure, which makes him more lethal.
The women’s draw looks more open even with Serena Williams, the most dominant force in the sport, back chasing a 24th grand slam singles title to tie Margaret Court’s all-time record.
The American was eight weeks pregnant when she won her 23rd title at Melbourne Park in 2017 and returned to action last year where she reached finals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
Williams, who played at the Hopman Cup in Perth, enters the year’s first grand slam ranked 16th but she still remains the favourite in Melbourne.
World number one Simona Halep, with a massive burden off her shoulders, will hope to go one better this year having lost the 2018 final to Caroline Wozniacki.
The Romanian broke her grand slam duck at the French Open in June last year and finished the season at number one for the second consecutive year.
Halep, who is without a coach since Australian Darren Cahill left for family reasons, will expect her back to hold up in competition after a herniated disk curtailed her 2018 season.
Wozniacki also had a question mark over her fitness after the 28-year-old Dane revealed her battle with rheumatoid arthritis last October but had since claimed that she had learnt to live with it.
A second Australian Open title will be a perfect birthday gift for world number two Angelique Kerber, who turns 31 in the first week of the tournament.
Kerber beat Wiliams in the Wimbledon final to become the first German woman to win the grass court title since Steffi Graf in 1996.
She had looked sharp at the Hopman Cup and maintained her 100 per cent singles record even though Germany lost to Federer’s Switzerland in the final.
Kerber had replaced coach Wim Fissette with 2003 Australian Open finalist Rainer Schuettler and a more aggressive approach could be the hallmark of the new partnership.
Also in the mix is the popular Osaka, who stunned Williams in New York.
The 21-year-old Japanese, however, had an inconsistent build up to the year’s first grand slam.
Osaka suffered a straight set loss to Lesia Tsurenko in the semi-final of the Brisbane International and withdrew from the Sydney International in frustration. (Reuters/NAN)
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Edited by Gregory Mmaduakolam/Salif Atojoko
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