Rafael Nadal yesterday opened his Australian Open campaign in storming style, as the first Grand Slam of the year finally began after a chaotic buildup dominated by the visa saga engulfing world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
Defending women’s champion Naomi Osaka breezed into the second round, as did world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty, but teenager Coco Gauff was an early big name casualty. The American 17-year-old was dumped out in straight sets by China’s Wang Qiang, who is ranked outside the top 100.
The only Australian Open champion in the men’s draw after nine-time winner Djokovic’s sensational deportation, Nadal started his quest to become the first male to win 21 Grand Slams by sweeping aside the 66th-ranked Marcos Giron 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.
Photo: Reuters
There was relief from Nadal that they were at last playing tennis — he said he had grown “quite tired” of talking about his great Serbian rival, for whom he said he still has respect.
“The ideal situation in the world of sport is that the best players are on court, no?” said Nadal, who next plays Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann in the second round. “Honestly I wish him all the best. I think the situation has been a mess. He’s not the only one that did probably the things bad.”
Unvaccinated Serbian Djokovic landed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, early yesterday after his humiliating deportation from Australia, his dreams of a record-extending 10th Australian Open title over for this year.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Sunday said that Australian authorities were “harassing” Djokovic and called the court ruling that he be deported “a farce.”
“They think they humiliated Djokovic with this, the best player in the world, by the 10-day harassment, they humiliated themselves and Djokovic can return to his country with his head high up and look everyone in the eye,” he said.
The French Ministry of Sports yesterday said that Djokovic could be barred from playing in the French Open, as there would be no exemption from the country’s new vaccine pass law.
It was business as usual for Japan’s Osaka, who registered her 23rd win in her last 24 matches in the city of Melbourne, with a 6-3, 6-3 win against Colombia’s Camila Osorio.
Seeded 13 after a disrupted season last year, in which she said she had suffered “long bouts of depression,” Osaka raced to a 5-0 lead before cruising through in 68 minutes.
“I would say I feel more comfortable in my skin, if that makes sense,” said the 24-year-old, who won the title at Melbourne Park in 2019 and last year.
She is to play American Madison Brengle in the second round.
“I just want to have fun, first of all. I can’t expect myself to win every match, but I do expect myself to have fun and challenge myself,” she said.
Barty crushed qualifier Lesia Tsurenko in just 54 minutes on Rod Laver Arena, taking command early to race through the first set to love and wrap up the match 6-0, 6-1 in an ominous warning to her rivals.
“This is beautiful, it’s felt like an eternity since I’ve been here,” Barty said of playing in front of her home crowd.
Fourth seed Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic, the reigning French Open champion, had little problem in blowing away Germany’s Andrea Petkovic 6-2, 6-0 in 67 minutes.
American Madison Keys relied on her big serve on key points to beat 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin 7-6(2), 7-5 on John Cain Arena and reach the second round.
The highest-ranked player to lose in the first round so far was Britain’s 12th seed Cameron Norrie, easily beaten by American Sebastian Korda, the son of 1998 Australian Open champion Petr Korda, 6-3, 6-0, 6-4.
Tunisian ninth seed Ons Jabeur did not even make it onto court. She withdrew because of injury before her match against Spain’s Nuria Parrizas Diaz and was replaced by lucky loser Irina Bara of Romania.
Additional reporting by Reuters and AP
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed