Djokovic had a 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 win over Chung Hyeon of South Korea.
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Williams is following an historic 2015 which saw her win the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon before being upset by Roberta Vinci in the U.S. Open’s semifinals.
Any thoughts that Johanna Konta was struggling to recapture her excellent form of last season were dashed in stunning fashion as the Eastbourne player recorded a straight sets victory against Venus Williams at the Australian Open last night.
Williams fired two aces and a service victor to finish it off.
“I haven’t played in a long time, but I have been playing for 30 years, so it’s kind of – I try to focus on that”, she said. “I think I was able to stay in it and stay calm today and I think that’s what matters most”.
In the second, Konta accelerated to a 5-0 lead and served and for the match but Williams broke and won the next to make it 5-2.
Kvitova, who withdrew from a warm-up tournament in China because of a stomach virus, said her preparation was disrupted ahead of the rematch with Kumkhum.
Williams, now 35, looked jaded and far from her assertive best, but this was no one-off for Konta, who adds the seven-time major champion to a growing list of top-20 scalps that now includes Simona Halep, Garbine Muguruza, Elena Makarova and Andea Petkovic. I didn’t sleep well actually.
“And while the BBC and BuzzFeed reports mainly refer to events from about 10 years ago, we will investigate any new information, and we always do”.
No. 24 Sloane Stephens, who beat Serena Williams in the 2013 Australian Open quarterfinals, lost 6-3, 6-3 to Chinese qualifier Wang Qiang, while No. 26 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and No. 27 Anna Karolina Schmiedlova also went out in the first round. This was his first match against Djokovic, his childhood idol, and also his first appearance at the Australian Open. “You know, because I don’t believe the players are allowed to be sponsored by betting companies, but the tournaments are”.
“Whether you want to have betting companies involved in the big tournaments in our sport or not, it’s hard to say what’s right and what’s wrong”, he said.
The world No 1, who had spent four months away from the game and barely swung a racquet since the US Open last September, faced the highest-ranked unseeded player at a sweltering Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. Dominic Thiem, No. 26 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and No. 27 Grigor Dimitrov.
Konta, who was born in Sydney and represented Australia until 2012, returned to the same court where she practised as a youngster to beat Williams 6-4 6-2.
Federer, playing his 65th consecutive major, advanced 6-3, 7-5, 6-1 over Alexandr Dolgopolov.
It solidifies her position as Britain’s number one and, although coming against an out-of-sorts Williams, the win was built on a mixture of devastating groundstrokes and impressive defence.
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None of the players were named, although reports said all had been in the top 50.
