The man himself was cautious about his fitness on the eve of the tournament and wore a compression sleeve but there were no signs of rust as he eased to a 6-1 6-2 6-4 victory over American Young.
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In his famous Anchorman persona of newsreader Ron Burgundy, Ferrell asked the 36-year-old if he felt like a young gazelle on court.
‘The first match after six months, you never know how you’re going to start off from the blocks.
“I’ve got shivers. It means a lot to me”, Sharapova said. “The third was, you know, up and down a little bit, but in general was a great performance”. Djokovic dropped his serve just once while putting away Donald in quick time.
Along with the addition of Andre Agassi to his coaching team, Djokovic also introduced a new service action to allow for his elbow injury.
Sharapova was relentless in attacking Sevastova’s second serve. “So I am happy to be here, happy that I’m on court again”, he said.
Maria Sharapova laid down her Australian Open title credentials on a scorching hot Melbourne day on Thursday, with Caroline Garcia and fellow veteran Agnieszka Radwanksa joining her in the third round.
“All in all, I’m quite pleased”.
“I’m feeling good, it’s good to win today, of course, on my birthday”. I didn’t see much of Novak (on Tuesday) but the result shows he was breezing. I think it will be a good match. The Frenchman, who won a title in Doha the first week of the season, may be the most unsafe second-round opponent that a seed could face at this point in the tournament.
Djokovic wasn’t the only former champion making a comeback.
This is going to be an interesting match, as Djokovic still doesn’t have a lot of play under his belt, and Monfils has been a different Monfils over the last couple of years.
However, Wawrinka is made of stern stuff and he battled back for a 6-3 6-4 2-6 7-6 victory. Berankis actually led with a break in the fourth but couldn’t hold it.
However, despite the exciting game many tennis fans were had their eyes on the scoreboard rather than the court. It’s great to win, for sure.
“She´s had success here”, she said of Kerber, the 2016 title victor.
“I think I’m just very well aware that I think in this world everyone has an opinion and that no matter what you do, or no matter how you play tennis, or what you say, or how you go about your life, not everyone will like the way that you do it”, she said.
Defending champion Federer beat Aljaz Bedene 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 in a night match, his first on Rod Laver Arena since clinching a career-reviving title here a year ago.
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Facing Aljaz Bedene for the first time, Federer – who was interviewed on court by Hollywood A-lister Will Ferrell – proved too strong for the world number 51 as he set up a meeting with Jan-Lennard Struff.
