Serena pulls out of Australian Open
Serena Williams reluctantly pulled out of this year’s Australian Open on Friday, the American saying that while she was close to regaining full fitness after giving birth to her first child in September, she was not fully ready to defend her title. The 36-year-old was eight weeks pregnant last year when she triumphed for a seventh time at Melbourne Park to claim an Open-era record 23rd Grand Slam title and then took the rest of the year off before giving birth to a daughter. She has played just once in public since, losing to French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in Abu Dhabi last week, but was still hopeful of making a remarkable return at the Australian Open until she admitted defeat a week ahead of the event.
“My coach and team always said ‘only go to tournaments when you are prepared to go all the way’. I can compete - but I don’t want to just compete, I want to do far better than that and to do so, I will need a little more time,” Williams said in a statement.
KYRGIOS IN SEMIS
Nick Kyrgios dropped his serve twice in the first set but rebounded to reach the Brisbane International semi-finals with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over former finalist Alexandr Dologolov. Teenage wild-card entry Alex De Minaur followed up his upset victory over Milos Raonic with a routine 6-4, 6-0 win over Michael Mmoh to reach his first tour-level semifinal. He’ll play Ryan Harrison, who led 7-6 (6), 4-2 when Denis Istomin retired from their quarterfinal match with a hip strain.
Belarusian qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich reached her first tour-level final with a 7-6 (3), 6-4 semi-final win over seventhseeded Anastasija Sevastova. Sasnovich, who has a careerhigh ranking of No. 85, will meet either defending champion Karolina Pliskova or No. 3-seeded seed Elina Svitolina in the championship match.
BELLUCCI BANNED
Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci was given a five-month, back-dated doping suspension but was considered not guilty of any “significant fault or negligence,” the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme said on Thursday. The 30-year-old Brazilian, who said the positive test was the result of a contaminated vitamin supplement, refused to accept a voluntary provisional suspension and so was free to compete pending resolution of his case.
SHARAPOVA LOSES
Sharapova was dumped out in the semi-finals of the Shenzhen Open, losing in three sets to holder Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic. Siniakova won 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 and will face world number one Simona Halep in the final. Halep cruised into the decider in southern China with a comfortable 6-1, 6-4 victory over fellow Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu.