Roger Federer has weighed in on the ongoing pay row between the players and administrators, saying tournament organisers could “pay more”.
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It was his earliest Grand Slam exit in seven years as he fights back from a wrist injury.
“You have to understand what the player goes through”. Some have suggested the figure is as little as seven or eight per cent, but that has not been confirmed.
So third round of the Australian Open.
The heat took its toll on a host of players, including Wimbledon champion Muguruza, who suffered with heat-blistered feet.
The man who said he was “dying on court” still wasn’t willing to take the easy way out and cry foul about being forced to play in the severe heat. He needed a third-set tiebreak to win in the pair’s only meeting past year at Indian Wells.
Six-time champion Novak Djokovic survived a brutal fitness examination to overcome Gael Monfils in intense heat and stagger into the third round at the Australian Open on Thursday. That would give the players a much stronger voice to challenge the Slams and the joint ATP/WTA events.
The 13th-seeded Querrey was one of 10 American players – men and women – to reach the second round from the 32 who started the main draws, the lowest number of Americans through to the second round in Melbourne since 2011.
Djokovic was rumoured to have requested to play his match in the middle of the afternoon, despite the predicted heatwave. I did my job in two sets against someone thats been troubling in the past for me, she said afterwards. “But I also think that there should be some kind of rational conversation about rules that are maybe imposed or certain things that are concerning players’ well-being”. That’s what happens when we play each other.
Federer, the defending champion, finished off a 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (4) win over Jan-Lennard Struff a half-hour before midnight, when the temperature was still around 29 degrees C (84 degrees F), and said playing at the height of the heat wouldn’t have bothered him.
Djokovic, 30, agreed the conditions were “brutal“, adding: “I think there is a limit, and that is a level of I guess tolerance between being fit and being, I think, in danger in terms of health”.
Like Rafael Nadal the previous day, Novak Djokovic did not show any lingering effects of his elbow injury as he beat Donald Young, 6-1 6-2 6-4 in the first round of the Australian Open. “He has set the standard”.
“I’m just glad that I managed to come out on top”. I want to be playing someone that’s on a hot streak and playing well.
“Sure, I’m happy I played at night time. That’s all really. I really focus on this”. Also you can see the crowds, nobody was there watching under the sun.
Gilles Simon of France declined to make any public comment today and instead referred questioners to past comments he has made.
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“Yes, they could definitely pay more, yes”, Federer said. “It’s not about how hard you work. I’m amazed it’s not talked about more …” You have to be paid on that basis.
