Rafael Nadal survived a marathon third-round battle against Alexander Zverev on Saturday at the Australian Open in Melbourne, coming through with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2 win on Rod Laver Arena. "It's obviously an important result for me," said Nadal, who had lost his past three five-set contests in Grand Slam action. "So it's important for me to win a match like this, having been down two sets to one. I'm very happy." A single break of serve was all that was needed in each of the first two sets. Neither player faced a break point in the third set, ultimately forcing a critical tie-break. Nadal gave the crucial mini-break to Zverev with a forehand error at 5/5, and...
Eighth seed Dominic Thiem withstood a determined Benoit Paire on Saturday at the Australian Open, firing 46 winners to prevail 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in their third-round battle and reach the second week in Melbourne for the first time in his career. “He started to play better. Of course I expected it, because it’s normal that he doesn’t continue like [he did] in the first set,” said Thiem. “It was pretty uncomfortable for me, all his drop shots and he was coming up to the net a lot. He knew how to hurt me. It was pretty lucky for me to win these [last] two sets.” Next up for Thiem is No. 11 seed David Goffin, who wasted no time...
Dominic Inglot and Florin Mergea, the sixteenth seeds, defeated all-French duo Julien Benneteau and Jeremy Chardy 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(2) on Friday at the Australian Open. The British/Romanian duo await either top seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut or Polish duo Jerzy Janowicz and Marcin Matkowski in the third round. Fourth seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers did not face a break point as they eased into the third round with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Marcos Baghdatis and Gilles Muller. Their third round opponents will be either No. 14 seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah or Dusan Lajovic and Viktor Troicki. Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau, the No. 11 seeds, defeated recent Sydney champions Wesley Koolhof and Matwe Middelkoop...
Roger Federer, the four-time former champion, hit top form on Rod Laver Arena on Friday night as the Swiss superstar received a standing ovation from the capacity crowd in booking his spot in the Australian Open fourth round. In just his third tour-level match since mid-July 2016, the former World No. 1 blasted past No. 10 seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 in just 90 minutes. It was their seventh meeting at a major championship (Federer leads 5-2). “I didn't expect this as such, to be honest, especially not this kind of a scoreline," said Federer. "Especially not having to save any break points, just always rolling on the serve. That was a big surprise to...
Fourth seed and 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka was pushed to the limit for his place in the second week at the Australian Open in Melbourne. The Swiss star overcame a determined No. 29 seed Viktor Troicki on Friday before prevailing 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(5) in their third-round clash. ”It was not always the best tennis, but I'm happy to have won the match,” said Wawrinka. “That's all that counts. In general, I had good momentum [and] in the second, third and fourth set, I was playing better. But [it was] tough conditions, quite windy, not easy to really play well or have good rhythm. I'm really happy just to get through.” The normally steady Wawrinka lost the timing on his...