On a Friday filled with marathon matches, top seed Andy Murray avoided a similar fate by breezing into fourth round of the Australian Open in Melbourne with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 win over No. 29 seed Sam Querrey. "I thought I did pretty good today,” said Murray, who admitted his right ankle his right ankle felt better. “The start of the match was hard [as] Sam came out serving big. He was really going for his shots. The end of that first set was important. He had a break point at 3-4. When I saved that and broke the next game, the momentum was with me. I started to serve a bit better and put a lot more returns back...
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the No. 12 seed, passed a stern test from No. 23 seed Jack Sock on Friday with flying colours, moving into the fourth round of the Australian Open in Melbourne with a 7-6(4), 5-7, 7-6(8), 6-3 win. Neither player faced a break point in the opening set, but Tsonga jumped out to a 4/1 lead in the tie-break and grabbed the early advantage on his first set point chance. Both players traded service holds throughout the second set, but the Frenchman finally earned the first break of the match to lead 6-5. He comfortably held to love in the next game to take a commanding two-sets lead. Very little separated Sock and Tsonga in the third set, ultimately...
Ninth seed and 2009 champion Rafael Nadal dominated 2006 finalist Marcos Baghdatis in a superb performance of attacking tennis on Thursday night at the Australian Open. Nadal improved to 9-1 lifetime against Baghdatis with a 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 win on Rod Laver Arena over two hours and 12 minutes. He opened up a 5-1 lead in the first set and won the first four games in the second set, then finished with a cross-court forehand winner to improve to a 47-10 mark at Melbourne Park. "I haven't played during the night here yet,” Nadal said during an on-court interview with fellow former World No. 1 Jim Courier. “So the conditions are different. The ball is lower so I had to...
Top seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut successfully began their Australian Open title quest, advancing to the second round with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Adrian Mannarino and Adil Shamasdin in exactly one hour on Thursday. The all-French duo next face Jerzy Janowicz and Marcin Matkowski. Sam Querrey and Donald Young caused the biggest upset in the doubles draw thus far, ousting defending champions and second seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares in the first round. The Americans needed to capitalise on just their one break point chance in the 72-minute match for a 6-3, 7-6(5) win over the British/Brazilian team. Next up for Querrey and Young in the second round is the all-Russian duo of #NextGenATP star Karen Khachanov...
David Goffin, the 5’11” No. 11 seed, will take on big-serving 6’11” goliath and No. 20 seed Ivo Karlovic for the first time on Saturday in the Australian Open third round. Goffin cruised past 38-year-old qualifier Radek Stepanek 6-4, 6-0, 6-3, converting seven of his 13 break point opportunities. The 37-year-old Karlovic struck 19 aces (now 94 for the tournament) in a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win over Australian wild card Andrew Whittington to reach the third round for the third time (also 2008, 2012). Eighth seed Dominic Thiem was made to work for his 6-2, 6-1, 6-7(6), 6-4 second-round victory against Jordan Thompson, the Australian wild card, on Thursday at Melbourne Park. The Austrian could not convert his first match...