CYPRUS MAIL Friday, January 18, 2013
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Australian Open
Murray and Serena on the up as Melbourne swelters
Diva Raonic has appetite for slam success
Big guns cruise through with easy wins
By Ian Ransom
By Nick Mulvenney ANDY Murray and Serena Williams proved quality usually prevails even in sweltering heat as they continued the dominance of the tennis elite with comfortable second round victories at the Australian Open yesterday. Suncream, hats and icepacks were the order of the day at Melbourne Park as temperatures crept steadily towards the 40 degrees Celsius mark on the fourth day of play at the year’s first grand slam. Third seed Williams did her best to keep her time on court to a minimum as she swept aside Garbine Muguruza 6-2 6-0 before Murray, her counterpart in the men’s draw, kept his cool to despatch Joao Sousa 6-2 6-2 6-4 on Hisense Arena. Of the 17 matches played on the main showcourt Rod Laver Arena in the tournament so far, only two have not been won in straight sets and even a split lip from her own racket was not going to stop Williams continuing that trend. Victoria Azarenka may be defending champion and world number one but Williams is odds-on favourite to capture a 16th grand slam title and a sixth in Australia next week. The Belarussian proceeded easily enough with a 6-1 6-0 thrashing of Eleni Daniilidou of Greece but any hopes she
Too hot to handle: number three seed Andy Murray kept his cool to despatch Joao Sousa 6-2 6-2 6-4 on Hisense Arena in temperatures approaching 40 degrees Celsius had that Williams, against whom she has a 1-11 record, might be hampered by the ankle she injured on Tuesday were quickly dashed. The American dabbed her lip in pain after a forehand follow-through hit her in the mouth during the first set against the lowly-ranked Spaniard, but was barely troubled thereafter and set up a meeting with Japan’s Ayumi Morita with her 10th ace. “I didn’t feel anything today,” the 31-year-old said of the ankle injury. “Obviously when you go out to play you’re heavy on adrenaline and you’re really pumped up. “Usually I feel injuries after the match, but so far, so
good. I felt much better than I ever dreamed of expecting to feel. “I’m on the up and up. It can only get better from here.” The outer courts were again the place to go to see upsets with Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis hammering 25th seed Florian Mayer 6-2 6-3 6-1 on court six, while women’s 21st seed Varvara Lepchenko was a 6-4 6-2 victim of Elena Vesnina on court two. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga looked to be wilting in the sweltering heat of Margaret Court Arena when Go Soeda was 5-3 up and serving for the second set but the French seventh seed recovered to slap down the Japanese 6-3 7-6 6-3. Tsonga, losing finalist here
five years ago, was not happy with his performance but was not about to blame the heat. “You have to deal with it. That’s it,” he said. Berankis’s win means he will be Murray’s next opponent and the convincing nature of his win over Mayer indicated that he might prove trickier for the Scot than the game but limited Sousa. Murray unveiled his full repertoire of shots in the 101minute contest and every one was superior to that possessed by his Portuguese opponent. The 25-year-old stuttered a little as he looked to close out the match in the third set but fired down his 14th ace to bring up match point
before clinching the victory when a Sousa return went long. “It doesn’t matter how much training you do, it always difficult when the sun comes out here,” Murray said. “You need to get in control of the points and dictate them because otherwise you will get very tired very quickly in these conditions.” The victories for Williams and Azarenka continued the trend for lop-sided scores in matches involving the top four women, none of whom has dropped a set yet. “I think I honestly can only speak for myself, but it seems like everybody is in great form, and it’s going to be very interesting,” said Azarenka.
Tomic survives scare to be last Australian standing By Ian Ransom
Bernard Tomic, the bad boy of tennis Down Under, will now play Roger Federer in the third round
BERNARD Tomic blew seven match points in his second-round clash with Germany’s Daniel Brands but sealed a hard-fought 6-7 7-5 7-6 7-6 victory on the eighth to become the host nation’s last player standing at the Australian Open yesterday. On a scorching day at Melbourne Park, the bad boy of tennis Down Under had two chances to secure victory at Rod Laver Arena on 120thranked Brands’ serve at 6-5 in the fourth set. Brands saved them both, and another five in the decisive tiebreak, before Tomic closed it out 10-8 to set up a third round match with Roger Federer. “I definitely got my arse
kicked by Federer both previous times,” added 43rdranked Tomic, who was beaten by the Swiss maestro in the fourth round of last year’s tournament and later in the year at Cincinnati. “I feel so confident,” Tomic added. “It is the perfect time to play him. I’ve got a good attitude to win, and I think I can do it. “I have my tactics on what I have to do. We’ll see.” Tomic sealed victory shortly before his countryman James Duckworth succumbed in a marathon five-setter to Slovenian Blaz Kavcic. Duckworth’s loss left the much-vaunted Tomic the sole hope for local fans, who on Wednesday mourned ninth seed Sam Stosur’s second round exit from the
women’s draw. Federer meanwhile triumphed in a battle of old sparring partners, swatting aside Russian veteran Nikolay Davydenko 6-3 6-4 6-4 to cruise into the third round. Resplendent in a pair of pink and black two-toned Nike sneakers, Federer captured a break early in each set, while his 40th-ranked opponent never had a look at his serve and surrendered their 20th tour clash in just under two hours. The blue-collar Davydenko offered stiffer resistance than Swiss maestro’s firstround opponent Benoit Paire, but Federer stayed cool on a balmy evening at Rod Laver Arena and belted an ace to close out the match.
MILOS Raonic is as fastidious about his food as his attitude to training and hopes his ‘diva-like’ attention to detail might help him gate-crash the exclusive club guarded jealously by the ‘Big Four’ of men’s tennis. The towering 22-year-old continued his steady rise in 2012, winning two titles and finishing the season as the youngest player in the top 20, but believes greater success could be on the menu in 2013. Raonic’s appetite for the game is matched only, perhaps, by his love of a good filet mignon, and the Montenegro-born Canadian has been getting his fix at the swanky ‘Rockpool’ restaurant in Melbourne’s Crown Casino. Steak was the last thing on Raonic’s mind on a 40degree Celsius day at the Australian Open yesterday, however, and after beating Czech second-round opponent Lukas Rosol in the searing heat, ice-baths and sushi are the order of the day. “I’m a diva when it comes to food, I know what I want and I’m pretty diva-esque if I don’t get it,” Raonic, seeded 13th at Melbourne Park, told Reuters after setting up a third round match with 17th-seeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber. Practice is the same: “If stuff’s not going well and I’m not happy and I don’t believe I’m working on the right thing I’ll get pretty upset.” Raonic leaps on questions and answers directly in a mono-tone voice, but it’s hard to imagine the still baby-faced player losing his temper. After his match, he deals with three television interviews outdoors on a stifling afternoon, cracking jokes and ribbing his manager. It’s a very different Raonic to the hot-headed 20-yearold who made an exhilarating run to the fourth round at Melbourne Park in 2011 after needing to qualify for the main draw. Renowned for his bazooka serves and even explosive tantrums, the 6ft-5in Raonic made a big impression. He remembers the tournament as a blur of hardfought tennis matches and hasty media appearances as Canada’s new sensation. “It was fun, it was so much fun for my parents I could tell every time on the phone with them because I’m from this educated family that going pro, and not going to university, is not really a decision that comes over easily,” he said. “It sort of took a lot of weight off my shoulders because I know how much they care for me and my brother and sister and they were really proud.”