Three-time winner Roger Federer got off to a slow start in his bid for a record-equalling 14th Grand Slam title yesterday as defending champion Novak Djokovic stormed into the Australian Open’s second round.
Federer took two hours and 20 minutes to overcome 35th-ranked Italian Andreas Seppi 6-1, 7-6 (7/4), 7-5, while Serbia’s Djokovic had a much easier task against qualifier Andrea Stoppini.
Andy Roddick also opened strongly against Sweden’s Bjorn Rehnquist, while Spanish 11th seed David Ferrer was made to struggle against German journeyman Denis Gremelmayr.
PHOTO: AP
There was joy for home fans as Australian teen Bernard Tomic became the event’s youngest male winner aged 16 years and 90 days.
Federer looked back to his best in the first set against Seppi but was taken to a tie-break in an error-strewn second and needed three match points to put the Italian away.
The Swiss second seed can match Pete Sampras’ Grand Slam record of 14 titles at the Open and is also trying to win back the No. 1 ranking from Spain’s Rafael Nadal.
Earlier, in blazing sun at Melbourne Park, Djokovic dispatched Stoppini (ITA) 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 after seeing off a late revival from the Italian.
Marat Safin, champion in 2005, destroyed Ivan Navarro of Spain 6-3, 6-3, 6-4, afterwards refusing to talk about his retirement plans.
“I don’t want to speak about this because already I’ve been asked this question so many times that I’m just a little bit tired to answer it over and over,” he said. “Let’s leave it.”
However, 11th seed David Ferrer struggled through in five sets against Germany journeyman Denis Gremelmayr, blaming an inexplicable loss of confidence.
“I’m very irregular. Sometimes I’m playing very well, sometimes I’m playing very badly so it’s confidence for me over the last two months,” he said.
Former No. 1 Roddick scored an early win against Swedish qualifier Bjorn Rehnquist, boosting his hopes of returning to the sport’s peak.
“My results last year, especially in Slams, don’t warrant me being talked about,” he said. “The thing about sports is no one really remembers yesterday, and that’s fair. You have to go out and prove yourself on a daily basis. I have no problem with that.”
Australian attention focused on the sunglasses-wearing Tomic, who rode strong home support to beat Italian Potito Starace 7-6 (7/5), 1-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (8/6).
Tomic has the advantage of a second-round match against Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller, who was on court for nearly four-and-a-half hours in his five-set win against Spanish 27th seed Feliciano Lopez.
Argentinian hotshot Juan Martin Del Potro also made it through along with 2006 finalist Marcos Baghdatis, rising Croatian star Marin Cilic and 10th seed David Nalbandian.
Rafael Nadal and the in-form Andy Murray play their first matches in the other half of the draw today.
In women’s play, Top seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia underscored her Australian Open credentials with an easy first round win yesterday, but fifth-seeded compatriot Ana Ivanovic struggled for form.
Searing conditions during the first day’s play at Melbourne Park failed to force any upsets on the women’s side of the draw, as Russians Dinara Safina (seeded three) and Vera Zvonareva (seven) also advanced comfortably.
Jankovic’s main problem in disposing of Austria’s Yvonne Meusburger 6-1, 6-3 was the heat from the court’s rubberized surface scalding her feet, forcing her to rest her soles on ice during changeovers.
While Jankovic danced around like a cat on a hot tin roof, Ivanovic stumbled, searching for the form that took her to last year’s Australian Open final and a breakthrough win at the French Open.
She eventually downed Germany’s Julia Goerges 7-5, 6-3, but failed to dominate a player ranked 102 places below her.
Dinara Safina, another player whose big-match temperament was once questioned, showed no sign of nerves in snuffing out a determined challenge from fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 6-3, 6-4.
Russian seventh seed Vera Zvonareva overcame early jitters to beat Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 7-6 (7/2), 6-0, taking control of the match in the second set after being pushed all the way in the first.
Another member of the Russian brigade, 10th seed Nadia Petrova, advanced after beating Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova 6-3, 7-6 (7/3).
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but