Third seed Serena Williams eased into the Australian Open fourth round yesterday, but defending champion Victoria Azarenka was made to work hard and play “ugly” to stay in the tournament.
Williams powered past Japan’s Ayumi Morita 6-1, 6-3 after a minor second-set wobble, but it was much tougher for the top seed against American Jamie Hampton.
The Belarusian came through the match on Rod Laver Arena 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 to set up a clash with unseeded Russian Elena Vesnina, who upset 16th-seeded Italian Roberta Vinci.
Photo: EPA
However, it was much harder than the scoreline suggested against a player who was wincing in pain from a back problem that needed treatment in the second set.
“I don’t think it was the best performance, honestly, today; but in another way I can say I can play better, so that’s a positive note from there,” Azarenka said.
“You know, these kind of matches sometimes bring better things for you in the future, because winning ugly always means that you overcame something, that you weren’t feeling great, you weren’t feeling all your shots,” she said. “So I take it as a positive at the end of the day.”
Hampton gave it her all in a match packed with quality rallies and tight games.
Neither player was serving well and Hampton left the court for treatment on a lower back problem, but despite being in obvious pain she returned to take the second set.
The American, who appeared close to tears at times from the discomfort, had the crowd onside, but Azarenka fought back to win.
It was much easier for Williams, who followed Azarenka onto center court.
There was no stopping her in the first set, with Williams firing down the fastest women’s serve of the tournament so far at 207kph.
However, Morita raced to 3-0 lead in the second serve before Williams reeled off six games in a row to clinch the match.
Williams now faces 14th-seeded Russian Maria Kirilenko, who beat Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 7-6 (7/4), 6-3.
In other matches, Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia beat Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain in three sets and will next play Caroline Wozniacki, who beat Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko in two sets.
American Sloane Stephens, 19, won the battle of the teens when she sent Britain’s Laura Robson, 18, packing 7-5, 6-3, while at the other end of the age scale Japan’s Kimiko Date-Krumm, 42, also lost.
The Japanese veteran was beaten 6-2, 7-6 (7/3) by Serb Bojana Jovanovski, 21, who was not even born when Date-Krumm made her Grand Slam debut in 1989.
In the men’s tournament Roger Federer was in no mood to let a trend develop after the first real upset of the week in Melbourne, slapping down local upstart Bernard Tomic to reach the fourth round.
Juan Martin del Potro stunned Federer to win the US Open in 2009, but the Argentine sixth seed was on the receiving end of the shock yesterday by inspired Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.
Tomic gave his best and came within two points of winning a thrilling second-set tiebreak, but Federer simply upped gears, pulled out a couple of extraordinary winners, and raced away to a 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-1 victory.
Del Potro battled back from two sets down to level his contest, but the mercurial Chardy grabbed a break in the decider and held his nerve to serve out for a 6-3, 6-3, 6-7(3/7), 3-6, 6-3 win.
Italian Andreas Seppi secured his place as the Frenchman’s next opponent by wrapping up a 6-7(2/7), 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Croatian 12th seed Marin Cilic.
Andy Murray berated himself for playing “nonsense” tennis at times, but eventually broke down his Lithuanian practice partner Ricardas Berankis 6-3, 6-4, 7-5.
Murray will next face France’s Gilles Simon who beat Gael Monfils 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 1-6, 8-6 in a thrilling contest last night.
Ninth seed Richard Gasquet was a set and a break down before he charged back to beat Croatian Ivan Dodig in four sets, while seventh-seeded compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga hammered Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia 6-2, 6-1 6-4.
In the first round of the mixed doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and India’s Rohan Bopanna beat Ashleigh Barty of Australia and Jack Sock of the US 6-3, 6-3.
Additional reporting by Staff writer
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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