So far, so good for Sharapova
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA • Maria Sharapova has advanced to the third round of the Australian Open, beating Anastasija Sevastova 6-1, 7- 6 ( 4) as the temperatures began to rise at Melbourne Park.
With a forecast high of 39C Sharapova appeared to be in a hurry to get off the Rod Laver Arena court, winning the first set in 23 minutes. In the second set, Sharapova was broken while serving for the match, sending it to the tiebreaker which she dominated.
Sharapova lost to Sevastova at the U. S. Open last September in her return to Grand Slam tennis.
Meanwhile, former Australian Open semifinalist Johanna Konta was knocked out of the tournament in the second round by American Bernarda Pera 6-4, 7-5.
Pera, ranked No. 123, lost in the final round of qualifying and didn’t get into the main draw until Monday, when Russia’s Margarita Gasparyan withdrew with an injury. The 23- year- old Pera is making her Grand Slam debut.
Later on, top- seeded Simona Halep of Romania was scheduled to play Canadian Eugenie Bouchard, who has fallen on hard times recently, with her ranking dropping to 112. The two haven’t played since 2014, when Bouchard’s only victory in three matches against Halep that year came in the semifinals at Wimbledon.
Bouchard was playing the best tennis of her career that year, reaching semifinals at the Australian Open and French Open, and losing the Wimbledon final to Petra Kvitova.
On Wednesday, Denis Shapovalov, the 18- year- old Canadian, led 5-2 in the fifth set before losing his secondround match 3- 6, 6- 3, 1- 6, 7- 6 ( 4), 7- 5 to 32- year- old Frenchman Jo- Wilfried Tsonga.
Tsonga casually hit a between- the- legs shot that kept him in a winning point, lunged with one of his patented stretch forehands for a winner, and generally provided the Margaret Court Arena crowd with 3 hours, 37 minutes of premium entertainment.
“There’s always nerves in a tennis match,” Shapovalov said. “I wasn’t t hinking about it much. Just didn’t play a good game on my serve. Then he picked up his level. I’m just going to learn from it and keep going.”