Johanna Konta 'overwhelmed' by Sydney title win
British number one Johanna Konta says she is “overwhelmed” by winning the Sydney International on Friday with an impressive 6-4 6-2 victory over Agnieszka Radwanska in Australia.
British number one Johanna Konta says she is “overwhelmed” by winning the Sydney International on Friday with an impressive 6-4 6-2 victory over Agnieszka Radwanska in Australia.
Rubin, Rublev among second-round qualifying winners on Thursday
#NextGenATP stars Noah Rubin and Andrey Rublev are one step away from the main draw of the Australian Open, with both players recording second-round qualifying victories in a rain-filled Day 3 of qualifying on Friday. Only 16 matches were completed.
Rubin once again came through in a deciding set to take out No. 32 seed Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. The American reached the second round last year in Melbourne through a reciprocal main draw wild card, but looks to qualify for a Grand Slam for the first time in his career. The 20-year-old will now compete for a spot in the main draw against No. 11 seed Evgeny Donsky of Russia, who scored a hard-fought 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-2 victory over Australian Matthew Ebden.
The 18-year-old Rublev recorded one of the biggest upsets of the day by defeating fourth seed Yuichi Sugita of Japan, 6-4, 7-6(2). The Russian squandered two match points trying to serve out the contest at 6-5, but regrouped to win the final five points of the tie-break. Next up for Rublev is a final-round qualifying match against No. 22 seed Peter Polansky of Canada, a 6-4 6-3 winner over Mirza Basic.
ATP World Tour veterans Jurgen Melzer and Julien Benneteau also progressed to the qualifying round. Austrian Melzer, who reached the 2011 fourth round (l. to Murray), knocked out No. 13 seed Taro Daniel 6-3, 6-2 and French No. 26-seed Benneteau overcame Guilherme Clezar 7-5, 6-0.
Other second-round qualifying winners on Friday include Russian Evgeny Donskoy, American Rajeev Ram, Czech Jan Satral and Italian Luca Vanni.
Briton Dan Evans reached his first ATP Tour final with a 6-2 3-6 6-3 win over Andrey Kuznetsov in the semi-finals of the Sydney International in Australia.
Evans, 26, started strongly against the 25-year-old Russian and won the opening set in 30 minutes before being pegged back.
The world number 67 broke serve early in the decider and held on to beat a player ranked 19 places above him.
He will now face Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller at 08:30 GMT on Saturday.
In the men’s doubles, Britain’s Jamie Murray and Brazilian partner Bruno Soares also secured a place in the final with a 6-3 7-6 (7-4) win over Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah.
They will play Dutch duo Wesley Koolhof and Matwe Middlekoop at 05:00 on Saturday.
Britain has already enjoyed success at the event with Johanna Konta winning the women’s final after impressively beating Agnieszka Radwanska.
British number one Johanna Konta has won the Sydney International with an impressive 6-4 6-2 victory over Agnieszka Radwanska in Australia.
World number 10 Konta broke her Polish opponent in the third game and hit 18 winners to five in the first set.
The 25-year-old dominated world number three Radwanska with some stunning returns and powerful hitting, and she convincingly won the second set.
Konta finished the match off with an ace to claim her second WTA tour title.
More to follow.
Murray-Wawrinka, Raonic-Djokovic are potential semi-final matches.
Andy Murray could have a tricky path to becoming the last man standing in Melbourne, while Novak Djokovic has an equally treacherous road in pursuit of a seventh Australian Open crown.
Top seed Murray opens up his quest for his first Australian Open title against Illya Marchenko, with the Brit winning their lone meeting at the 2011 edition of this tournament. Looking ahead, Murray could face No. 16 seed Lucas Pouille in the fourth round and either No. 5 seed Kei Nishikori or No. 17 seed Roger Federer in the quarter-finals.
Second seed Djokovic was given a very tricky first-round against veteran Fernando Verdasco. The Serbian leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 9-4, including a third-round victory in the 2015 edition of this tournament. However, he was forced to save five match points in prevailing over Verdasco earlier this month in the semi-finals in Doha. The Spaniard is also more than capable of upsetting big names in early rounds, as evidenced by his first-round win last year in Melbourne over Rafael Nadal.
Should Djokovic advance, he could play No. 15 seed and recent Brisbane champion Grigor Dimitrov in the fourth round, followed by eighth seed Dominic Thiem in the quarter-finals.
Federer was given a comparatively kind opener in his first sanctioned tournament since Wimbledon, with the Swiss maestro guaranteed to play a qualifier in his first two rounds. His path gets significantly harder afterwards, though, with potential matches against No. 10 seed Tomas Berdych in the third round, Nishikori in the fourth round and Murray in the quarter-finals.
Ninth seed Nadal starts out his campaign Down Under against Florian Mayer. A mouth-watering third-round clash against No. 24 seed and #NextGenATP star Alexander Zverev looms ahead, while an equally entertaining fourth-round clash against sixth seed Gael Monfils is also on the cards.
Third seed Milos Raonic will need to be on his game from the first ball when he plays the always-flashy Dustin Brown in his first match. No. 13 seed and recent Chennai champion Roberto Bautista Agut is a likely fourth-round matchup, followed by a potential quarter-final clash against Monfils.
Fourth seed Stan Wawrinka kicks off his search for a second Australian Open crown against Martin Klizan. The 2014 champion is on course to face No. 14 seed Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round and seventh seed Marin Cilic in the last eight.
Another notable first-round match includes the return of former World No. 2 Tommy Haas, who will square off against Benoit Paire. The German is competing in his first tournament since Vienna in October 2015.
Wildcard Thanasi Kokkinakis withdrew from the men’s singles draw due to injury. His spot will be filled by a lucky loser from the qualifying draw.
Britain’s world number one Andy Murray will play Ukraine’s Ilya Marchenko in the Australian Open first round.
Murray was drawn in the same quarter as Roger Federer – meaning the pair could face each other in the last eight.
Murray is chasing a fourth Grand Slam title of his career and his first in Melbourne, where he has reached the final five times.
Britain’s word number 10 Johanna Konta will face Kirsten Flipkens from Belgium.
Konta’s draw places her in the same quarter as Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova and American champion Serena Williams.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic will be aiming for a record seventh Australian Open title with a first round match against Fernando Verdasco.
If Murray can safely find a way through his first ever week as a top seed at a Grand Slam, then he may have the chance to avenge last year’s US Open quarter-final defeat to Kei Nishikori.
But Roger Federer may have something to say about that. Now seeded 17, after six months out through injury, the 17-time Grand Slam champion is in Nishikori’s section of the draw.
All the British men will face opening round opponents outside the world’s top 50, but the women have a tougher draw.
Kirsten Flipkens brings the experience of a Wimbledon semi-final into her match with Johanna Konta, while Heather Watson and Naomi Broady must both face seeded Australians.
Sam Stosur has a very poor record in front of her home fans, however, which should give Watson cause for optimism.
Spain’s Verdasco knocked his compatriot Rafa Nadal out in the opening round last year, but went on to lose to Djokovic in their recent clash at the Qatar Open.
Nadal, seeded ninth, will play German Florian Mayer before a possible quarter-final against Canadian Milos Raonic.
In the women’s draw, Williams is aiming for her 23rd grand professional slam title.
Her first match will be against Swiss Belinda Bencic.
Defending champion Angelique Kerber will play 61st-ranked Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko.
World number one Kerber is aiming for her third Grand Slam win following her maiden US Open title last year.
At the Sydney International on Thursday, Konta had a 6-2 6-2 win over Eugenie Bouchard.