Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova caused the only upset on the first day of the season-opening Brisbane International when she swept aside fifth-seeded Swiss Timea Bacsinszky 6-2, 6-1 yesterday.
The powerful Russian took a little more than an hour to defeat Bacsinszky and set up a clash against Frenchwoman Alize Cornet.
Cornet booked her place in the second round when she beat fellow countrywoman Kristina Mladenovic 6-3, 6-4.
Photo: AFP
Former Australian Open runner-up Dominika Cibulkova survived a scare from Belgian Yanina Wickmayer to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the tournament’s first match at the Pat Rafter Arena.
The Slovakian was down 4-3 in the third set before storming home to see off Wickmayer in two hours, 11 minutes.
“Today I was really, really strong, especially mentally,” she said. “For the first match, it was tough because [in] these first tournaments of the season … you never know what to expect.”
“The only thing I knew I could do better in the first set and second set was my serve,” she added.
Former Brisbane finalist Andrea Petkovic of Germany was untroubled in her 6-1, 6-2 win over Brazilian Teliana Pereira.
Petkovic is to take on either third seed Maria Sharapova or Ekaterina Makarova in the second round.
In the only other main draw match Varvara Lepchenko of the US beat Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 6-2, 6-1 and is now to face second-seeded Garbine Muguruza of Spain.
Two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka begins her campaign today when she plays Russian qualifier Elena Vesnina, while the men’s draw gets underway when fifth-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon clashes with Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
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