The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Sania one win short of mixed doubles title
RAFA NADAL had to be at his battling best to outlast Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(5), 67(4), 6-4 at the Australian Open on Friday and set up a mouth-watering ninth grand slam final meeting with his great rival Roger Federer. The 30-year-old Spaniard looked every inch a 14-times grand slam champion as he slugged it out with his 25-year-old opponent over nearly five hours on Rod Laver Arena to reach his first major final since the 2014 French Open and 21st overall.
“Grigor was playing unbelievable, it was a great match,” Nadal said.
Dimitrov, riding high on a 10-match winning streak and seeking his first grand slam final, did his best to keep the twentysomething standard flying into the weekend, firing 79 winners. There were no signs of the mental frailties that have prevented Dimitrov from fulfilling the potential promised by his nickname “Babyfed” as he went blow-forblow with the powerful left-hander.
Nadal had conceded only six breaks in reaching the final four but was forced to save two break points in the opening game. The 2009 champion soon hit his stride, though, and a booming pass that the world number 15 was unable to get back gave Nadal a break for 3-1 and he wrapped up the opening set in 35 minutes.
The Bulgarian refused to buckle, though, and pounced to break to love for a 3-1 lead in the second set.
From there, the set descended into chaos with both players broken twice and Nadal forced to save four set points before Dimitrov evened up the contest on the fifth. The break points continued to come thick and fast in the third set, Nadal converting his third and Dimitrov his fourth to keep the set on serve.
After a short break while a spectator received medical attention in the stands, Nadal held for 6-6 and the set went into a tiebreaker. Nadal sealed the deal with a blistering forehand which Dimitrov parried into the net.
With the break points having dried up completely in the fourth set, a tiebreaker looked inevitable and Dimitrov quickly took control of it before serving up a 195 kph bomb to send the contest into a decider.
There were chances for both men in the fifth but, with midnight long past, Nadal came to the net to punch a backhand into the back court, break for 5-4 and earn the right to serve for the match. Still Dimitrov would not lie down, though, and Nadal needed three match points to win his 12th straight grand slam semi-final and reach his fourth Australian Open final.
Rising from the ashes
Back in October, Roger Federer joined his rival, Rafael Nadal, to inaugurate the new tennis academy on the Spaniard's home island of Mallorca. Both of them were injured _ Federer was recovering from knee surgery, Nadal had an ailing wrist. And neither knew when they'd return to top form and perhaps contend for Grand Slam titles again.
It turns out the wait wasn't long. Federer beat Stan Wawrinka on Thursday to reach his first Australian Open final since 2010, and Nadal beat Grigor Dimitrov on Friday.
“I was on one leg. He had the wrist injury. And we were playing some mini-tennis with some juniors and we're like, This is the best we can do right now,'' the 35-year-old Federer said of their time together in Mallorca. “We would have never thought that we were going to be here, potentially playing in a final.''
Few people would have given either player much of a chance to get this far.
Federer's 2016 season was marred by an injury he sustained following the Australian Open when he twisted his knee while drawing a bath for one of his four children. He returned swiftly after surgery, but fell on the knee during his semifinal loss at Wimbledon and was sidelined the rest of the year.
Coming into this year's Australian Open with a low seeding of 17th, Federer didn't expect he'd win more than a few rounds. Particularly when he saw a draw that included potential match-ups with top-10 players Tomas Berdych, Kei Nishikori, Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka.
But the 17-time major winner swept past Berdych and Nishikori, and Murray was upset by Mischa Zverev. Then, with the crowd urging him on against Wawrinka, Federer fended off two break points in the pivotal fifth set to beat his countryman 7-5, 6-3, 1-6, 4-6, 6-3 and reach the 29th major final of his career. Suddenly, the aging veteran hobbling around “on one leg'' has a chance to capture Grand Slam title No. 18.
And he's winning energy-sapping, lengthy matches, too. With his five-set wins over Nishikori and Wawrinka, it's the first time since the 2009 French Open that Federer has won two five-setters in the same tournament. “I'll leave it all out here in Australia and if I can't walk for another five months, that's OK,'' he said. Federer looks back on his sixmonth injury layoff now as a positive step to returning fully healthy and ready to compete with the top players again. REUTERS SANIA MIRZA put herself in contention for a seventh Grand Slam title as she breezed into the Australian Open mixed doubles final with Ivan Dodig, beating local favourites Samantha Stosur and Sam Groth.
The second-seeded Indo-croatian pair won 6-4 2-6 10-5 in the semifinals, that lasted one hour and 18 minutes.
Sania has won three mixed doubles titles, the last being the 2014 US Open with Brazilian Bruno Soares.
With Dodig, she had an opportunity to win last year when she reached the French Open final but lost to compatriot Leander Paes and her then doubles partner Martina Hingis in the summit clash. The opening set featured a lot of breaks and the only one to not concede a break of serve was Sania.
However, in the second set, the Indian lost her serve twice – fourth and ninth games – and it all boiled down to the Match Tie-breaker. It was 3-3 in the Tie-break but the second seeds pulled away after that, taking five points in a row. The Australians, especially Groth was struggling with his first serve and they paid a huge price for that.
Groth lost both the points on his serve on the eighth and ninth points while Dodig curtailed unforced errors in nick of time. Sania sent a lob out on the first match point but converted second when Dodig hit an unreturnable volley to the left of Stosur.
Sania and Dodig next face the winners of the other semifinal between Elina Svitolina and Chris Guccione and the combo of Abigail Spears and Juan Sebastian Cabal. Sania is the lone Indian surviving in the first Grand Slam of the season with Rohan Bopanna, Leander Paes, Purav Raja, Divij Sharan and juniors Zeel Desai and Siddhant Banthia all making early exits.
Living the American Dream
American Bethanie Mattek-sands and Czech Lucie Safarova enhanced their reputation as the dominant duo in women's doubles by winning the Australian Open title for the second time.
The second-seeded pair had to scramble from behind to eventually overwhelm Czech Andrea Hlavackova and China's Peng Shuai 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-3 in a tense final.
It extended the pair's unbeaten record to 12 matches at Melbourne Park - they won the 2015 doubles title in their debut as a team, but didn't play together last year because illness forced Safarova to miss the championships.
It was their fourth Grand Slam success after also winning the 2015 French Open and last year's US Open. Not only did Mattek-sands strengthen her grip on the No.1 ranking and Safarova rose to a careerhigh No.2, the pair shared 660,000 Australian dollars ($500,000) in prizemoney.
The victors did a rehearsed dance routine on Rod Laver Arena after being presented with their trophies and held aloft the perpetual cup.
“We were celebrating like 5-year-old kids out there. When we got the trophy and saw our names on it and to know they will be on it again is special,'' Mattek-sands said. “She's my rock out there. We play aggressive and have fun. We really balance each other out.''
It was the first meeting of the teams in which all four players have won at least two Grand Slam doubles titles.
Hlavackova and Peng, who had not dropped a set on the way to the final, took an early service break and seemed in command of the opening set. But Mattek-sands, 31, and Safarova, 29, were able to retrieve the situation and the set headed inevitably to a tiebreaker. Hlavackova, 30, and Peng, 31, surged to the lead and held on to close it out 7-3.