Ahead of his title defence, and a bid for a record-equaling sixth Australian title (Roy Emerson won six in the 1960s before the Open era started), the No. 1-ranked Djokovic only slightly tweaked his recipe for success.
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MELBOURNE, Australia – Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic opened their title defenses with straight-set wins at the Australian Open in back-to-back matches on Rod Laver Arena on Monday.
Djokovic, who plays French qualifier Quentin Halys next, could meet Roger Federer in the semi-finals and the Swiss also came through his opening round unscathed after an even more straightforward win over Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili.
Defending champion Serena Williams and last year’s beaten finalist Maria Sharapova started their Australian Open campaigns with comfortable victories, but seven seeds tumbled out on day one at Melbourne Park.
While Djokovic is the runaway men s favourite, Williams arrives under an injury cloud after she pulled out of this month s Hopman Cup exhibition tournament with an inflamed left knee.
The match lasted an hour and forty-five minutes, even though Giorgi briefly tied the second set before Williams put her away.
She then overwhelmed Giorgi in the final game to win the match with her ninth ace.
“I play very hard, and every player I play seems to play hard”, she said.
Russian fifth seed Sharapova needed just one hour and 13 minutes to see off Nao Hibino of Japan 6-1, 6-3, while Czech sixth seed Petra Kvitová won 6-3, 6-1 against Thailand’s Luksika Kumkhum, who beat her in the first round in 2014.
Tennis superstar Novak Djokovic says he was offered $200,000 to lose a match nearly 10 years ago.
After losing a lopsided final to Djokovic in Doha, 14-time Grand Slam victor Rafael Nadal described the Serbian player’s level as close to perfection.
Now ranked 47, 98 spots higher than this time last year, she upset current world number three Garbine Muguruza at the US Open last year en route to her first round of 16 at a major.
But the 34-year-old, clad all in canary yellow, showed no sign of injury as she came through a testing match on Rod Laver Arena against Giorgi, the tournament’s highest ranked non-seed.
“The Tennis Integrity Unit and the tennis authorities absolutely reject any suggestion that evidence of match-fixing has been suppressed for any reason or isn’t being thoroughly investigated”, Kermode told reporters.
No. 24 Sloane Stephens, a semifinalist in 2013, lost 6-3, 6-3 to Chinese qualifier Wang Qiang.
The extended break raised questions about Williams’ form and meant she hadn’t elaborated much publicly on the cell phone incident, which happened in November while she dined with a friend at a San Francisco restaurant. “People are talking about names, guessing who these players are”.
The seventh-seeded Nishikori, who reached the quarterfinals past year, beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 without facing a break point on Monday. Dominic Thiem, No. 26 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and No. 27 Grigor Dimitrov.
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Big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic is the first seeded casualty, the number 22 seed retiring from his first-round match against Argentine Federico Delbonis while trailing 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, 2-1.
