He may be set to play Tomas Berdych in the Australian Open second round on Wednesday, but seven months ago, Ryan Harrison almost decided to call it a day on the ATP World Tour. The American hit a self-proclaimed rock bottom after losing in the first round of Wimbledon qualifying to countryman Bjorn Fratangelo and gave himself an ultimatum: Commit to turning it around. Or stop playing. Five years ago, a teenage Harrison had broken into the Top 50 and was being talked about as the United States’ next Grand Slam champion. But it didn’t quite happen for the Texas native. Not helped by injuries, his ranking fell back outside the Top 100 and the occasional good moments were weighed...
Milos Raonic wasted little energy on Tuesday during his Australian Open first-round contest, beating "Hot Shot Machine" Dustin Brown of Germany 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. ”It's obviously tough to have necessarily a solid performance all the way through, but I did what I needed to,” said Raonic. “I took care of my serve. I broke quite early in all the sets. I just dropped off a little bit where I faced a few sort of dangers on my service games in the beginning of the third, end of the second. I returned pretty solid when I had to. I stepped up, and I played well.” The third-seeded Raonic continued his attacking style, which has gained new emphasis under coach Richard Krajicek....
#NextGenATP star Alexander Zverev overcame a two-sets-to-one deficit on Tuesday against Robin Haase to gain his first career win at the Australian Open 6-2, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2. Zverev fell behind a break in the fourth set and shattered his racquet in frustration. But the 19-year-old German won 12 of the final 15 games to improve his five-set record to 3-2 with the two-hour and 54-minute victory. The right-hander had lost in the first round in Melbourne last year, his only prior appearance at Melbourne Park. Zverev, the 24th seed, will next meet fellow #NextGenATP player Frances Tiafoe, who earned his first Grand Slam win by beating Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 6-1, 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-2. The 18-year-old American had been...
Roger Federer received a huge standing ovation upon his entrance to Rod Laver Arena to play his first tour-level match since 8 July 2016. But what brings Federer to his feet? Musicals. “I'm always one of the first guys to give standing ovations because I think it's really important because these guys do amazing,” Federer said Monday night in Melbourne after his first-round win at the Australian Open. “The amount of memorising they have to do, I find that mind-blowing. I'm not very good at remembering stuff like that.” But Roger certainly proved he’s remembered his way around the tennis court. The four-time champion, who had been sidelined due to a knee injury, opened his campaign at the Australian Open...
Roger Federer made a welcome return to the highest level of professional tennis on Monday night at the Australian Open, in his first tour-level match since 8 July 2016. Federer, who had been sidelined due to a knee injury, opened his campaign over former junior rival and fellow 35-year-old Jurgen Melzer 7-5, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 in two hours and five minutes. “I thought my serve was on and off in the beginning, which surprised me a little bit, because in practise it's been going pretty well,” said Federer. “I was feeling nervous once the match actually started. I was actually fine all day, warming up, in the warm-up five minutes with Jurgen. I felt fine. Then I hit four frames...
