Disillusioned by her struggles on the tour, the Australian Open could have been Zhang Shuai’s last grand slam appearance but the Chinese qualifier found a reason not to quit on Tuesday when she sent second seed Simona Halep packing. The win advanced the 32-year-old Verdasco to a second-round match against Dudi Sela of Israel.
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Williams won three majors – the Australian and French Opens and Wimbledon – past year which took her to within one of Graf’s long-time record of 22. “Because there was everything, my first qualifying matches, grand slam first main draw match, first match on a big court against a good player, against Kristina Mladenovic, so I got a lot of experience there, and it helped me a lot in the next tournaments after”, explained Kasatkina.
Bouchard, coming off a long layoff late previous year after sustaining a concussion when she slipped and fell in a dressing room at the U.S. Open, reached the final in a warm-up tournament at Hobart last week but ran out of steam against Radwanska.
Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova both shook off recent injury problems to sail into the Australian Open third round with straight-set victories.
Federer will next play Grigor Dimitrov, who has a style that has been compared with Federer’s, after the No. 27-seeded player beat Marco Trungelliti 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.
Williams skipped her post-match news conference, incurring a $5,000 fine.
After his second-round win, he was asked about an Italian newspaper report casting doubt over his performance in a match against Fabrice Santoro in Paris in 2007.
Reporter: “If you don’t throw me an arrow with your eyes, another question on Vinci, which is – this is the last one, I promise: Verdasco last night said that he had seen his match 10 times, the one he played seven years ago against Nadal”.
“There was a really good atmosphere out there”, Konta said.
Murray revealed he has had his own doubts about the integrity of the sport: “I’ve heard about certain matches where something might have been going on”, he said. I have been playing and practising great and working so much.
World No 92 Bondarenko broke through for her first win over the Russian with a 6-1 7-5 victory and will face promising Swiss teen Belinda Bencic. After her extended break from tennis following her shocking upset loss at the U.S. Open, the 21-time Grand Slam champion has started right where she left off past year, in dominant form.
It’s bound to come out, Roddick said in another tweet: “In the age of leaks and social media, I don’t think secrets exist”.
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“You can pick any match that you like that the top player lost, and just create a story out of it”, Djokovic said.
