Feeling lethargic and jetlagged, Serena Williams decided that a coffee might perk her up after losing her first set 6-0 at the Hopman Cup — it did the trick.
The American recovered to beat Flavia Pennetta 0-6, 6-3, 6-0 on a scorching day in Perth in a triumph that fellow American John Isner followed up with a 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (4) win over Fabio Fognini to give the US a 2-0 lead over Italy in their Group A match at the mixed team tournament. The US won the doubles to complete a 3-0 win yesterday.
Williams joked that her triumph was down to the “miracle coffee.”
Photo: Reuters
“I was just feeling it, so I just had to get some coffee into me,” she said. “I just asked them to get me a shot of espresso. I asked them if it was legal, because I’ve never done it before. I needed to wake up.”
The top-ranked player said the round-robin nature of the Cup took some pressure off her ahead of the Australian Open later this month.
The roof was closed to cool the venue in Perth, where temperatures topped 44?C on Monday, the city’s hottest day since 1991.
Photo: AFP
Isner was thankful for the relief, saying: “You could fry an egg on that court if the roof was open.”
Also yesterday, Andy Murray continued his strong buildup in his quest for a maiden Australian Open title with a comfortable victory over Frenchman Benoit Paire.
Fresh from his first title of the year in Abu Dhabi, the Scot, who is representing Britain in Perth alongside Heather Watson, defeated Paire 6-2, 7-5 in the evening match.
Photo: Reuters
It was raining on the other side of the country in Brisbane, where US teenager Madison Keys had a 7-5, 6-2 first-round win over fourth seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, breaking the 2014 Australian Open finalist’s serve three times in a second set that was interrupted by rain at the semi-enclosed arena.
Third-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany beat Caroline Garcia of France 6-4, 6-3, while Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia beat the US’ Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4, 6-2.
In the last match, Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic beat Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.
Photo: AFP
On the men’s side at the Brisbane International, Australians ousted two seeded French players, with James Duckworth beating No. 6 Gilles Simon 6-2, 6-2 and Thanasi Kokkinakis beating No. 8 Julien Benneteau 6-4, 6-3.
Plotting a path to the Australian Open has never been trickier, as even the best players are baffled about the best way to prepare for their annual trek Down Under.
In a sport where players analyze every tiny detail in the hope of finding an edge and rigidly stick to tried and tested routes to the other three Grand Slams, the world’s best cannot agree on the right road to winning the Australian Open.
Even past champions are not sure which way to go, spreading themselves as far apart as the Middle East to the Indian subcontinent, China, Australia and New Zealand.
Novak Djokovic has won four of the last seven Australian Opens, but even the Serbian cannot decide on the best place to play.
For three of his wins, the Serb warmed up at the Hopman Cup and for the other he did not play at all. This year he is playing the Qatar Open, along with Rafael Nadal, who were both set to play their first matches yesterday.
For Spaniard Nadal, playing in Doha could be a good omen as he used that as his warm-up event before he won his only Australian Open title in 2009.
Roger Federer also played at the Qatar Open before winning the Australian Open in 2006 and 2010. However, in 2007, the Swiss won the Grand Slam without playing any warmup and when he won at Doha in 2005 and 2011, he did not win in Australia. This year, Federer is playing in Brisbane.
Stanislas Wawrinka, last year’s surprise men’s champion, warned up by winning the Chennai Open, and the Swiss is back defending his title in India this week.
In another warmup in China, former world No. 2 Vera Zvonareva, who has plummeted to 250 in the rankings, took her first steps in a comeback attempt by ousting home favorite and third seed Peng Shuai at the Shenzhen Open yesterday.
The 30-year-old was a finalist at both Wimbledon and the US Open in 2010, but has since been dogged by injury and illness.
Peng took the first set in their first-round match, but the Russian ground out the last two to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in two hours and 24 minutes.
Top seed and world No. 3 Simona Halep survived a scare against Annika Beck of Germany.
The world No. 55 broke Halep to take a 3-2 lead in the deciding set, but the Romanian took the next four games to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Czech second seed and world No. 4 Petra Kvitova took an hour to sweep aside home wildcard Duan Yingying 6-3, 6-1.
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