Williams’ next opponent will be an 18-year-old – she’ll face the victor of the match between Russia’s Daria Kasatkina and Croatia’s Ana Konjuh, who were both born the year before Williams’ first Australian Open.
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It leaves Groth, the 28-year-old who boasts the fastest serve on the planet, bidding to become the first Australian to beat Murray in a tour match since August 2005, when the Scot, still sporting his frazzled, curly hair and a spindly frame, lost to world number 284 Paul Baccanello in Vancouver.
“I played really well today… against a great player”, Zhang said.
Match-fixing speculation also continued to reverberate on day two as more players revealed approaches after a BBC and BuzzFeed report said corruption was widespread in the sport.
Speaking after he eased into the second round at Melbourne Park, Murray said Novak Djokovic’s revelation that he had been offered $200,000 to throw a match in the early years of his career highlighted the temptation facing young players.
“Obviously, you know, some of the stuff that I read yesterday I wasn’t aware of”, added Murray.
Andy Murray was pleased to come through his first-round clash with Alexander Zverev at the Australian Open in dominant fashion.
“As a player you just want to be made aware of everything that’s going on”.
“I know Johnson plays well”, Bedene told the Daily Mail.
The win sets up the British world number two, a four-time Australian Open runner-up, with a second-round meeting against big-serving Australian Sam Groth.
The ATP, which organizes the men’s pro tennis tour, has suspended several lower-ranked players for throwing matches over the years, but never a major star. Zverev, who loves pace, saw Murray bunt back all his serves and continuously hit deep to trouble the German.
“Selfishly, I would like to know the names and the matches so that I could watch the matches myself and see and make up my own mind by watching”.
With a strong local following behind him, Australian Groth has already promised to take the match to Murray following his four-set win against Adrian Mannarino on Tuesday. She had just one ace compared to five for the Briton. He’s a big guy.
The claims were put to Djokovic following his 6-1 6-2 7-6 (7/3) win against Frenchman Quentin Halys in the Australian Open second round, and the 10-time grand slam champion denied committing any offence.
The 14-times grand slam champion was beaten 7-6, 4-6, 3-6, 7-6, 6-2 by his fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, a reverse of their 2009 epic semi-final here and a real setback to Nadal, just when he looked to be rediscovering some of his best form. “I’m going to serve big and try to get forward and play aggressively, everything I do normally”.
“The closest I have ever come to is people sort of cussing off at me for losing matches when they lose money”, the Canadian said.
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“And, yeah, I think across all sports – again, I don’t think that that’s done particularly well”.
