MELBOURNE – It has been a horrible Australian Open for many players that performed incredibly well at this tournament last year, beginning with a few champions that elected not to make the trip down under. Serena Williams is obviously at the top of this list for the very best of reasons.
Other top performers had a very short stay in Melbourne this year. Last year’s finalist Venus Williams lost on the first day of the competition. CoCo Vandeweghe – who reached the semifinals 12 months ago – also experienced an unexpected first round defeat. Last year’s surprising semifinalist Lucic Baroni was eliminated in the second round and the same misfortune happened to No. 3-seed Garbine Muguruza, who reached the quarters in Melbourne a year ago and eventually went on to capture the Wimbledon title. Two other former quarterfinalists Johanna Konta and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova were upset in the second round as well. Karolina Pliskova is the only player left in the tournament among the eight that last year reached the quarterfinals.
To the delight of the local crowd, No. 18-seed Ashleigh Barty advanced to the third round after an enthralling three-set battle with the in-form Camila Giorgi of Italy. Last week in Sydney, Giorgi had some incredible wins against top players such as Stephens, Kvitova and Radwanska on her way to the semifinals. Last night she captured the first set with the score of 7-5, but at 3-3 she started suffering from an adductor injury that prevented her from competing at her best for the rest of the match. Barty eventually prevailed 5-7, 6-4, 6-1, showing great variety and a very complete game.
The feature third round match in the women’s tournament will be the clash between two former No. 1s and Australian Open champions: Angelique Kerber will face Maria Sharapova. In my opinion, the German is the slight favorite, even if Maria will certainly not undervalue her own chances: “Kerber knows that she can’t underestimate the challenge that I present, even if I am currently ranked No. 50 in the world,” Sharapova said to the press.
Stan Wawrinka, a semifinalist in the men’s tournament a year ago, lost to Tennys Sandgren of the United States. Milos Raonic, Mischa Zverev and David Goffin – who all reached the quarterfinals last year – were eliminated in first and second rounds. This week’s surprising results show that a year can make a substantial difference in tennis.
Despite the second-round loss to Sandgren, Wawrinka seemed to be in good spirit and quite happy with the fact that he was able to play two matches in his first tournament back after knee surgery. “I am optimistic for the rest of the season,” the Swiss said in his post-match press conference.
In yesterday’s evening session, Roger Federer quickly disposed of Jan-Lennar Struff and is one of the few players that has been showing the ability to back up his stellar performance from twelve months ago. Novak Djokovic – who is competing in his first tournament after a 6-month hiatus – survived the challenge presented by his second-round opponent, Gael Monfils of France. After a horrible first set characterized by too many double faults and unforced errors, Djokovic raised his level while Monfils’ game was visibly weakened by the scorching conditions. The match was played in the afternoon heat with temperatures reaching 100°F. Djokovic closed out the match with a convincing four-set victory. His winning streak against the Frenchman remains immaculate in a series that Novak now leads 15-0.
The Serb should have a relatively easy third round match against Ramos Vinolas of Spain, but things could get more complicated in the round of 16 where Djokovic is expected to play the No. 4-seed Sascha Zverev.
(Article translation provided by T&L Global – Translation & Language Solutions – www.t-lglobal.com )
