She suggested a graffiti tour of Brooklyn, so off we went to Bushwick.
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The first Grand Slam of the season has been overshadowed from the start by media reports alleging that tennis authorities had failed to thoroughly investigate evidence of match-fixing. Another: A portrait of Frida Kahlo holding a paintbrush. She spoke so knowledgeably about cocoa beans that the shop’s saleswoman asked Azarenka if she was Peruvian. “And then she like broke me and I was like, yeah, okay”.
But at least with tennis, she’s in control.
“I have to play my best game to beat her, for sure”. Informed that they beat the Patriots 20-18, she raised her arms and shouted “Yes!” She walks and talks with confidence, but readily admits that by the fall of 2014, she was depressed. “Barbora really pushed me and I’m happy I could stay focused and composed”.
She has a unique opportunity to reach for the first time in her career the quarter-finals at the Australian Open, which remains the only tournament of the Grand Slam in which she hasn’t reached the last 8. “She didn’t make it easy”, an ecstatic Konta said of Zhang.
“Oh, well, I strained my ab muscles, so I can’t really like…it hurts pretty bad”. “I can learn more from my mistakes than from winning”.
“She’s such a tough opponent”.
Azarenka, who hit the ground running this year by winning the Brisbane International, her first trophy since Cincinnati in 2013, was unrelenting and won the next three games to take the set.
Konta, who was born in Sydney and became a British citizen in 2012, beat Denisa Allertova 6-2, 6-2 and will next play No. 21-seeded Ekaterina Makarova, a semifinalist here past year, who had a 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 9 Karolina Pliskova. This year was different. “She’s a great fighter and she’s an unbelievable person off the court as well”.
“I don’t think I’ve had any number close to 100”, he said.
Azarenka’s gift is her intensity.
Nigel Sears, the coach of Ana Ivanovic and father-in-law of Andy Murray, is expected to be released from a Melbourne hospital later Sunday, a day after he collapsed in Rod Laver Arena during Ivanovic’s third-round match.
In the opener Victoria Azarenka secured the double bagel against World No. 43 Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium 6-0, 6-0.
No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanksa rallied from 5-2 down in the third set to win 6-7 (6), 6-1, 7-5 against Anna-Lena Friedsam, who finished the last two games hobbling and in tears, and also conceded a point penalty on her last serve, after taking a medical timeout for what appeared to be cramps. But the Briton fended it off and finally took the lead on her sixth set point with a big serve.
He said it hurts sometimes landing on the hard courts as he chases balls other players would leave, adding “Maybe something snaps in my mind, and I just go for it… I can’t wait to see that!”
When she started her post-match interview on court, she hadn’t even finished her first answer before she stopped.
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Nishikori has had trouble with Tsonga’s power game in the past, losing most recently to the Frenchman in the quarterfinals of the French Open previous year.
