Serena Williams of the U.S. holds her knee during a practice session on Rod laver Arena ahead of the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016.
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Martina Hingis won the first of her three consecutive Australian Open titles in 1997. Djokovic, the world No. 1, has been drawn in the same half as Roger Federer, Kei Nishikori, Tomas Berdych and Nick Kyrgios.
Rafael Nadal, left, enters the 2016 season resigned to the fact that Novak Djokovic is still better than him. The rest of the year, every week he played he either won or got to the finals – which to me is laughable.
The preparations of the reigning champions couldn’t be more contrasting in the week leading up to the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. And over five sets you have to create so many opportunities to succeed that Novak’s defensive skills and wherewithal kind of take precedence, and that’s really what happened in the three-out-of-five set matches in my opinion.
Williams won the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon a year ago but her chance of a first calendar Grand Slam evaporated with a surprise defeat by Roberta Vinci in NY.
It was only when told they had to hand back the trophies that Djokovic replied, half-jokingly, “What do you mean they’re not ours?”
“You can’t replicate what you do out on the court when you’re playing a match in front of thousands of people, there’s nothing like it, you can never compare it”, she said.
Williams and Sharapova have been practicing at Melbourne Park, showing few signs of injury. “I didn’t have the match play that I’ve wanted to have but, after playing for so many years on Tour, I should be able to, you know, focus on that”.
“Tennis officiating is my first love and passion and to officiate in the game at the highest level is a true honour for me”, said Phiri.
“Everything’s actually really well”, said the victor of 21 Grand Slam singles titles. “Then I checked with him if that was really the case, maybe at Wimbledon at some point”. If she successfully defends her title, she will draw alongside Steffi Graf with 22 slam titles to lead the field in the Open era. “For me, my child is more important to me, and my wife is more important to me than a tennis match”. I think it’s a great way to show, first of all, that I’m always going to be known as a tennis player, but there is much more for me to offer than just that.
The 29-year-old struggled to regain his form after an injury-riddled 2014-15 season and posted inconsistent results, failing to advance past the quarterfinals in any of the Grand Slams. She defeated the likes of Ana Ivanovic, Garbine Muguruza, Caroline Wozniacki, Aga Radwanska, Simona Halep, and Serena Williams all in 2015. She battled the flu a year ago at the French Open and was hardly at her best, but she still managed to win the title.
After getting pelted 6-2, 6-1, in the finals of the Qatar Open, Nadal could be forgiven for such an assessment, but he also dropped in another comment that landed like a bombshell.
“I still think the same guys are playing very well”. Of course, I’ve got to keep it up.
“At this stage there are only two options: be frustrated and stop fighting or acknowledging that he is better than you and wait”, Nadal said, according to tennisworldusa.org.
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The 28-year-old with the heavy ground strokes, who won in Melbourne in 2008 and has been runner-up three times, will face Japan’s unseeded Nao Hibino in the opening round.
