Tennis News

MELBOURNE, Australia – What do Ana Ivanovic, Angelique Kerber, and Daria Gavrilova have in common? They all play with Yonex racquets, and all three were present for a special gathering hosted by popular sports brand to celebrate the career of former ATP No.1 Lleyton Hewitt ahead of the Australian Open.

Joined by fellow ATP players in Stan Wawrinka and Borna Coric, Ivanovic, Kerber and Gavrilova were on hand to speak about their goals for the upcoming season, and handicapped their chances at the first major tournament in Melbourne.

Check out some of the best images from the event:

All images courtesy of Yonex Tennis.

Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova remain on a collision course for a quarterfinal date at this year’s Australian Open. But they’ve still got some work to do before they get there. We preview their Day 5 tilts, as well as some other enticing Friday matchups, here.

Friday, Day 5
Third Round

[1] Serena Williams (USA #1) vs. Daria Kasatkina (RUS # 69)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Kasatkina was just two years old when Serena Williams won her first major.

Russia’s Daria Kasatkina is quickly making a name for herself as a future star on the WTA tour. Just two weeks ago she defeated Venus Williams in Auckland, and the 2014 French Open junior champion has now reached the third round at both Grand Slams she’s played in her career. But on Friday when she faces top-seeded Serena Williams, she’ll encounter the biggest challenge in women’s tennis. Williams, who has erased all doubts about the state of her health by breezing through her first two matches in Melbourne, is hungry to make more Grand Slam magic and very much aware of the potential of Kasatkina. “I don’t think it’s going to be easy,” Williams said of their impending battle. “Any time someone is beating Venus they are more than likely playing really good. So I definitely will be ready for that.”

Pick: Williams in two

[5] Maria Sharapova (RUS #5) vs. Lauren Davis (USA # 103)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Sharapova is going for her 600th career win. 

Like Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova also came to Melbourne with doubts about her health and match fitness swirling. But the five-time major champion has dropped seven games in two matches and looks to be in mid-season form ahead of her third-round showdown with hard-charging American Lauren Davis. Sharapova has never faced the Ohio native before, but at this stage of the tournament the fifth seed is more concerned about dictating with her power strokes than the opponent on the other side of the net. “I don’t think it matters [who I face],” she told reporters after her straight-sets victory over Aliaksandra Sasnovich on Wednesday. “I think my focus has to be on myself and on my game. Just improving and getting better.”

Pick: Sharapova in two

[4] Agnieszka Radwanska (POL #4) vs. Monica Puig (PUR # 52)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Red-hot Radwanska has won 24 of her last 28 matches.

After an impressive takedown of surging Canadian Eugenie Bouchard in the second round things don’t promise to get any easier for No.4-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska. Her next opponent, 22-year-old Puerto Rican Monica Puig, has won 10 of her last 11 matches and is into the third round of a major for the first time since 2013. After surviving a 31-ace onslaught from Kristyna Pliskova in the second round, Puig has stockpiled a pile of the belief that comes with saving five match points and gutting out an improbable win at a major. “I think it’s just about believing that you can come out of a moment like that, that at any moment you can get a second wind and come out of it,” Puig said after her marathon win on Wednesday.

Pick: Radwanska in two

[28] Kristina Mladenovic (FRA # 30) vs. Daria Gavrilova (AUS # 39)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Gavrilova has four Top 10 wins since last March.

They have never met at the tour-level but that does not mean that France’s Kristina Mladenovic and Australia’s Daria Gavrilova don’t have history. They met in the Roland Garros Girls’ Singles final in 2009, and it was Mladenovic who got the win. “We played juniors a lot,” Gavrilova explains. “I actually lost to her at the French Open, I don’t know, ages ago. I was 15. It was in the finals. We have known each other since we were about 12.” Nearly seven years on, both players appear to be on the cusp of big-time stardom. Mladenovic reached her first major quarterfinal at last year’s US Open, while Gavrilova, who exudes fire and infectious enthusiasm for the game, has risen from outside the Top 200 to No.39 in the world in just over a year’s time.

Pick: Gavrilova in three

Around the Grounds: Belinda Bencic will look to advance to the round of 16 in Melbourne for the first time, but she’ll have to get past one of the tournament’s inspirational figures in Kateryna Bondarenko to get there. Bondarenko, who left the tour in 2012 to give birth to a child and didn’t return until 2014, is looking like she never missed a beat… Quietly, No.10-seeded Carla Suárez Navarro is working her way through the draw. The 2009 Australian Open quarterfinalist will face 19-year-old Russian Elizaveta Kulichkova for a spot in the second week… A finalist at last year’s US Open, Italy’s Roberta Vinci is alive and well in Melbourne. She’ll bid to reach the round of 16 in Melbourne for the first time against Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany.

Long before the Olympic tennis event kicked off in Rio de Janeiro, Venus Williams toyed with the idea of sticking around for 2020, when the Olympics moved to Tokyo, Japan.

“We have to start looking at 2020,” she said at Wimbledon when asked about her successful doubles tenure with sister Serena. “That would be impressive. If you think this year’s impressive, hold on.

“That would be a blessing if we did play. I’m so grateful for each and every time we’ve had a chance to play and qualify. It’s been beyond our dreams. It means the world to us to play together.”

Venus and Serena have been the story of Olympic tennis since the two first paired up to win gold in women’s doubles back in 2000. Since then, the sisters have each amassed quite a haul, each taking gold in singles – Venus in 2000, Serena in 2012 – and earning three golds in women’s doubles in 2000, 2008, and 2012.

She narrowly missed out on a fifth gold medal in mixed doubles, winning silver alongside Rajeev Ram in Rio.

“Tokyo is about if I want to be there,” the five-time Wimbledon winner said in August. “If I want to continue to work as hard. It’s a lot of hard work. I have to want to do the work. So we’ll see.”

Her resolve appears to have solidified even more in the off-season, discussing the possibility of playing through 2020 on a soon-to-be broadcast program on the Hallmark Channel.

“I am targeting that to see if it’s possible to play there. While you’re out there playing, I love that challenge, I love the pressure, it’s all a privilege.

“If I can be out there, I will be.”

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.