The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Australian Open

  • Australian Open 2017: Serena, Nadal qualify for the next round

    Australian Open 2017: Serena, Nadal qualify for the next round

    Six-times champion Serena Williams and former winner Rafael Nadal both reached the Australian Open third round with straight sets victories on Thursday in Melbourne.

    The 35-year-old Williams, who is attempting to win an Open era record 23rd Grand Slam singles title, beat world number 61 Lucie Safarova 6-3 6-4.

    “I’m really happy to have got through that,” said the American second seed.

    Nadal, who won the tournament in 2009, eased through 6-3 6-1 6-3 against 2006 finalist Marcos Baghdatis.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Williams’ last Australian Open title came in 2015, while Nadal won for the only time in 2009.

    Williams beat 29-year-old Czech Safarova in the French Open final in 2015 and needed one hour and 25 minutes to see off the former top-10 player.

    “It’s never easy having to play in the second round against someone you have seen in a final,” she added.

    “I’ve played two former top-10 opponents, but it’s a great way to start the tournament.”

    Williams lost the Australian Open final last year to Angelique Kerber but went on to win at Wimbledon and equal Steffi Graf’s Open era record of 22 Grand Slam singles titles.

    She will continue her bid for the record against 23-year-old Nicole Gibbs, who beat fellow American Irina Falconi 6-4 6-1.

    NAN also reports that Nadal was a losing finalist at the Australian Open in 2012 and 2014.

    Poland’s world number three Agnieszka Radwanska suffered a surprise second-round exit to Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.

    The 27-year-old, who has reached two semi-finals in Melbourne in the past three tournaments, lost 6-3 6-2 to the 34-year-old world number 79.

    Fifth-seed Karolina Pliskova beat 18-year-old Russian qualifier Anna Blinkova 6-0 6-2 in 59 minutes, meaning the Czech has dropped just four games en route to the third round.

    “I don’t want to say my opponent wasn’t that good, but I was better,” said the 24-year-old, who faces Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko.

    NAN also reports that third seed Milos Raonic reached the third round of the Australian Open for the seventh time with a 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7-4) win over Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller.

    The 26-year-old Canadian hit 21 aces as he set up a meeting with France’s Gilles Simon, who reached the quarter-finals in Melbourne in 2009.

    “I started feeling a little bit of a cough, but I didn’t think much of it. Then, this morning I felt pretty bad waking up.

    “I came out with the sort of idea of put everything into the match, try to solve it, understand the importance of the mental side of things in that situation,” he said.

    World number 15 Grigor Dimitrov also moved into the next round with a 1-6 6-4 6-4 6-4 victory over Korea’s Chung Hye-on.

    He will face France’s Richard Gasquet after his 6-1 6-1 6-1 win over Argentine Carlos Berlocq.

    Former world number three David Ferrer beat American qualifier Ernesto Escobedo 2-6 6-4 6-4 6-2 to set up a tie with Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut.

    NAN reports that Australian Open 2017 which started on Monday is expected to end on Jan. 29.

  • Murray strolls into Australian Open second round

    Murray strolls into Australian Open second round

    … Defeats Ukraine’s Marchenko in straight sets

    British Andy Murray dug himself out of a number of holes before defeating Illya Marchenko 7-5 7-6(5) 6-2 to reach the second round of the Australian Open on Monday.

    Top seed Murray conceded a 5-2 lead in a first set in which he landed less than half of his first serves, and was down 4-2 after being broken early in the second at Rod Laver Arena.

    But the Briton rallied, yelling his way through the flat patches before finding his range in the third set as the shadows crept across the centre court.

    Three-times grand slam champion Murray will next play Russian qualifier Andrey Rublev, as he bids for a maiden title at Melbourne Park after five defeats in the final.

  • Sharapova handed 2-year ban for failed drugs test

    Sharapova handed 2-year ban for failed drugs test

    The International Tennis Federation (ITF) on Wednesday said five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova has been banned from tennis for two years after testing positive to a newly-banned substance.

    ITF said in a statement that it had imposed a period of ineligibility of two years, commencing however on January 26, the day of her test.

    Sharapova immediately said she would appeal the potentially career-ending sanction.

    “I intend to stand for what I believe is right and that is why I will fight to be back on the tennis court as soon as possible,’’ she wrote in a statement on her facebook site.

    The infraction occurred at the Australian Open, with the 29-year-old testing positive for meldonium, a heart medication which had been declared illegal a few weeks earlier by anti-doping chiefs.

    The ITF provisionally banned the Russian in March after she came out with an announcement of her positive January test.

    Meanwhile Sharapova said that she had been prescribed meldonium for a decade by her personal physician.

    Anti-doping officials have confessed that there is no scientific evidence yet as to how long it takes the newly illegal substance to leave the body.

    However the medicine was declared illegal from the start of January.

    The former highest-earning woman in all of sports reportedly produced very low levels of the substance.

    Sharapova said in March that she was unaware of email and other electronic communications from the ITF which warned that meldonium would become illegal from Jan. 1.

    “The ITF accepts that she did not know that Mildronate [meldonium’s trade name] contained a prohibited substance.

    “She however argues that in taking the medication she knowingly and manifestly disregarded the risk of contravening the anti-doping rules, and thus committed an intentional violation,’’ the ITF said in an explanatory statement.

    It added that the player had admitted to some fault but that she placed blame on the organisation for not taking reasonable steps to publicise the change to its doping rules.

  • Djokovic hits Australian Open final

    Djokovic hits Australian Open final

    Novak Djokovic advanced to his sixth Australian Open final with a 6-1 6-2 3-6 6-3 victory over Roger Federer.

    The world number one dominated the first two sets with some superb hitting, but had to hold off a spirited Federer fightback later on, the BBC reports.

    It is the third straight Grand Slam in which Djokovic has beaten the Swiss, prolonging Federer’s wait for an 18th major title.

    Djokovic will face Andy Murray or Canada’s Milos Raonic in the final.

    The Serb has beaten British number one Murray in the final on three previous occasions, including last year’s four-set victory.

    “I played unbelievably in the first two sets, but I needed to because Roger has been playing unbelievably and I knew he would be aggressive,” 10-time Grand Slam winner Djokovic said.

    Before the match, much attention had focused on the first set, with Federer never having beaten Djokovic in a best-of-five match having dropped the opener.

    But it was barely a contest as Djokovic twice broke the world number three in his opening three service games.

    Pummelling Federer with deep groundstrokes and using clever changes of pace to induce 12 unforced errors from his opponent, the Serb wrapped up the set inside 23 minutes.

    And he was no less dominant in the second, decisively breaking to love in the third game as he threatened to hand a rattled Federer one of his worst ever defeats.