Six-times Melbourne Park champion Serena, who is also playing her 16th Australian Open, said having family around on the tour was a real bonus.
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Jo Konta has revealed that driving herself to tears in a brutal pre-season was behind the biggest win of her career over Venus Williams, writes Neil McLeman in Melbourne.
She’s definitely a tricky opponent and I think it was a good matchup for me to play someone like that, who can hit any shot at any time, I mean, anywhere on the court.
Earlier in the day, with persistent rainfall and the roof on Rod Laver Arena closed for the first time this tournament, the world No. 5 took care of Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2, 6-1.
Halys was overawed to start with, losing the first seven points to be down a 1-0 and facing triple break point before he managed to hold serve in a game lasting 10 minutes.
” I’m still going and it’s really an honor”.
Australian Nick Kyrgios has also been fined $3,000 (£2,100) after he was heard to utter an obscenity in his first-round win over Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta on Monday.
Japanese seventh seed Kei Nishikori beat his close friend Austin Krajicek 6-3 7-6 (7/5) 6-3 as he pressed his bid for a first Grand Slam title.
Konta’s copybook was blotted as Williams put up some resistance to break when her opponent was serving for the match, but as with the first set Konta came good at the second attempt.
When Venus Williams slowly walked off court following her loss to Britain’s Johanna Konta on Tuesday, Australian fans may have wondered whether she’d be back for her 17th Australian Open next year.
Defending champion Serena Williams and fifth seed Maria Sharapova have progressed into the third round of the Australian Open without dropping a set. Last year, she had a successful partnership with former No. 1 Lindsay Davenport, reaching the second week at three of the four Grand Slam tournaments.
Williams was consistently firing down serves 30 kph (18.6 mph) faster than Hsieh and it was taking its toll, with weak returns opening up the court for the top seed who made the most of her opportunities and sealed the match with an ace.
After his first-round win, on the day when the BBC and BuzzFeed News published reports alleging match-fixing had gone unchecked in tennis, the No. 1-ranked Djokovic recalled when a member of his support team was approached with an offer to throw a match in Russian Federation in 2007. I obviously will ask Venus what she thought of the match, and I’m sure Patrick will know everything about her match and stuff.
Murray downed Germany’s Alexander Zverev 6-1, 6-2, 6-3.
In men’s singles, third-seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland dumped Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 6-3, 7-5, 6-1. “Suddenly I missed tennis so much so I decide to come back and compete again”.
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Next up for Sharapova is American Lauren Davis, who beat Magdalena Rybarikova.
