Asked, by an Italian journalist, if she’d watched a replay of that match, Williams gave a touchy response: “Yeah, I watch it every day”.
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“What (is there) to say?”
“I think it’s always disappointing when stories come out like this just before a big event”. “You have to be proactive I think with things like this and go and speak to the players rather than them reading about it in the newspapers or listening to it on the TV or the radio”.
Another former champion, women’s fifth seed Maria Sharapova, takes on Japan’s Nao Hibino in the primetime match on Margaret Court Arena but local eyes might be more on Hisense Arena where Australian young gun Nick Kyrgios plays Pablo Carreno Busta. Djokovic, who had two wisdom teeth removed after the Madrid Masters earlier that month, said after the loss to Santoro that he was not fully fit because he was still taking medication.
Eugenie Bouchard of Canada takes a selfie for a fan after defeating Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. And he’s one of the players that people are talking about as a potential top player in the future.
On Wednesday, Federer extended his streak of reaching the third round at the Australian Open to 17 consecutive years.
Djokovic started his bid for a sixth Australian Open title with a 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 win over Chung Hyeon of South Korea on Monday, hours after the BBC and Buzzfeed News published reports alleging match-fixing had gone unchecked in tennis.
The last time Nadal and Verdasco met in Melbourne was in the 2009 semi-final, with Nadal beating Verdasco in a marathon match lasting more than five hours.
Wearing a canary yellow pleated skirt and matching midriff-baring shirt, displaying her pierced navel, Williams was composed but not her usual clinical self during the draining workout.
Federer struck 31 winners in the one-sided rout to preserve his ideal record of surviving the opening round at the year’s first grand slam.
While Sharapova comfortably progressed, other seeds fell by the wayside.
“It all started here”.
Seven-time Grand Slam champion Williams, who won the inaugural WTA Elite Trophy in 2015 as well as tournaments in Auckland and Wuhan, never got her game going.
“I would love to hear names”, Federer said.
The reigning Newcombe Medallist quickly overcame a third-set blip against Mannarino to win 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 3-6 6-3, setting up a second-round clash against either No. 2 seed Andy Murray or German Alexander Zverev.
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No. 13 Vinci beat Irina Falconi 6-2, 6-3 to advance in the opposite quarter of the same half of the draw.
