Jago Times "English Edition" Best Online Newspaper
MELBOURNE: Serena Williams withdrew from an Australian Open tune-up tournament citing a right shoulder injury on Friday within hours of setting up a semi-final match against top-ranked Ash Barty.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion usually doesn’t play in a tournament in the week before a Grand Slam event, but made an exception before last year’s US Open and for this Australian Open because of all the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 39-year-old American was playing her first tournament since withdrawing from the French Open before her second-round match because of an Achilles tendon injury in October. She, like all players traveling to Australia for the tournament, had to quarantine for 14 days and had limited practice during that time.
With the year’s first major starting Monday, Serena may be better resting.
She had three wins at the Yarra Valley Classic — one of six tournaments at Melbourne Park this week — culminating with a 6-2, 4-6 (10-6) win in a match tiebreaker over Danielle Collins on Friday.
The withdrawal came after her post-match news conference when she made no reference to any issues so no full explanation was offered.
It means Barty gets a walkover into the final and will also get some rest on Saturday.
There were 70 matches on the order of play Friday, an expanded program a day after all matches in six tournaments were postponed so that 160 players and 507 people overall could isolate and undergo testing because a worker at a quarantine hotel returned a positive test. Tennis Australia said all tests were negative.
To speed things up a little at the back end of the tournament, 17 courts were being used and women’s matches were reduced to two regular sets with a 10-point match tiebreaker if required.
Serena and Barty both had to play the match tiebreaker. Barty beat Shelby Rogers 7-5, 2-6 (10-4).
In the other half draw, Garbine Muguruza dumped Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin out of the tournament 6-2, 6-2 in a re-match of last year’s Grand Slam final at Melbourne Park.
Muguruza will next play Marketa Vondrousova after the Czech took down Nadia Podoroska 4-6, 6-3 (10-4).
HALEP CRASHES
At the Gippsland Trophy, world number two Simona Halep suffered a surprise 6-2, 6-1 defeat to Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Ninth seed Alexandrova will next face Kaia Kanepi, who advanced after her quarter-final opponent Karolina Muchova withdrew from Friday’s match due to an abdominal injury.
World number three Naomi Osaka eased past Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania 7-5, 6-1 to set up a semi-final matchup against seventh seed Elise Mertens, who ousted third seed Elina Svitolina 6-3 5-7 (10-6) in the last quarter-final.
Two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka saved two match points to beat Yulia Putintseva 6-4, 1-6 (11-9) and move into the quarter-finals of the Grampians Trophy, an event staged for the players forced into hard lockdown during quarantine.
On either side of a delay on outside courts because of rain, former Wimbledon, US Open and Australian champion Angelique Kerber beat Ons Jabeur 6-4, 6-4 and but top seed Belinda Bencic fell 7-5, 6-2 to Sorana Cirstea.
GERMANY END SERBIA’S ATP CUP DEFENCE
Alexander Zverev shrugged off a tight loss to Novak Djokovic to end Serbia’s ATP Cup title defence with victory in the doubles as Germany advanced to the semi-finals of the team-based event.
Germany will meet Russia in the last four, with Spain to take on Italy.
Zverev, beaten 6-7 (3-7), 6-2, 7-5 in a high-quality match by world number one Djokovic earlier on Friday, stepped up to partner Jan-Lennard Struff to a rousing 7-6 (7-4), 5-7 (10-7) victory over Djokovic and Nikola Cacic on Rod Laver Arena.
Struff had beaten Dusan Lajovic 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to give Germany a 1-0 lead in Group ‘A’.
With Rafa Nadal still sidelined with a back problem, Pablo Carrena Busta guided a depleted Spain into the last four by claiming a 6-3, 6-4 win against Greece’s Michail Pervolarakis at John Cain Arena.
Though eliminated, Greece ended up winning the Group ‘B’ tie 2-1, with Stefanos Tsitsipas easing past Roberto Bautista Agut 7-5, 7-5.
WAWRINKA, DIMITROV OUT
Having to play rounds back-to-back took a toll on the top-seeded players at the Murray River Open, with top seed Stan Wawrinka, second seed Grigor Dimitrov and fourth-seeded Borna Coric out in the quarter-finals after wins over Australian players earlier in the day.
Wawrinka withdrew from his quarter-final match against Jeremy Chardy, citing fatigue, after his third-round win over Alex Bolt took almost 2½ hours. Dimitrov lost his to quarter-final match to Corentin Moutet 7-5, 6-2 after his earlier three-setter against Alexei Popyrin.
Daniel Evans completed two wins in a day to reach the semi-finals. He had a quarter-final win over Coric, who was coming off a win over Nick Kyrgios.
Third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime advanced to the semi-finals when Jiri Vesely retired after losing the first set 7-6 (7-3).
KHACHANOV BACK FROM THE BRINK
Second seed Karen Khachanov saved two match points before defeating unseeded Dutchman Botic Van de Zandschulp 6-7 (6-8), 7-5, 6-3 to reach the semi-finals of the Great Ocean Road Open.
The Russian booked a semi-final date with Italian teenager Jannik Sinner. Having beaten Slovenia’s Aljaz Bedene 7-6 (7-6), 6-2 earlier in the day, Sinner returned to sweep past Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic. Italian Stefano Travaglia faces Brazil’s Thiago Monteiro in the other semi-final on Saturday.